*** Official Clevo W230SS/Sager NP7338 Owner's Lounge ***

Yeah but I really doubt intel really always obeys that 57W tdp in the 4770mq (same with nividia), besides, the point is the same, the processor is not soldered whereas the GPU it is, that's precisely what causes the solder joints to break in the GPU (even more when you overclock, the overclock in a CPU doesn't causes as much heat as an overclock in a GPU) undervolting has more benefits also on the GPU, they simply heat more as they are highly parallel devices (all its resources used at once)

 

how can i undervolt my 860m? In Nvidia Inspector the slider shows max. -25mV but resets to zero after i hit Apply. Using WQHD Prema Bios v1.1 ....

 

I did a summarisation of what could be done with this laptop to increase performance and undervolting http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...38-owners-lounge.748242/page-136#post-9871290 , the guide I used to modify the vbios is this http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/overclocking-nvidia-gtx-860m-850m-840m-765m-etc.767280/ (rather than increasing voltages, as that guide is for overclock, I decreased voltages) I used bios undervolt whilst keeping boost clocks.

 

hey guys a question: i might be blind, but i can't find anywhere lan drivers for win7, i checked on both clevo and metabox websites but there are just the 8.1 ones, which don't work on win7, and win updater can't find anything itself. Can you link me please a source? thanks in advance

 

Have you tried to install the Win8 ones you found? Usually if there isn't one specifically for Win 7 that means the Win8 ones work just fine.

 

yes i did, as said they don't work on win7 unfortunately

does anyone know the ethernet vendor? i'd try to look in the official website but i don't know how to find out which "brand" is it.

 

The Sager ones should work for you and they have Windows 7 posted http://www.sagernotebook.com/drivers.php?cat=595

 

it gives me 404 error page not found when i click on the download button :/ of course i can download all the other drivers! grrrr

 

Of course it would do that on the one you need
Try the ones from the NP7330 http://www.sagernotebook.com/drivers.php?cat=578

 

just got my w230ss from xoticpc. Everything is great except for the low and constant chirping noise from the blower. Chirping noise changes if the angle to table surface changes, so it might be a dried bearing? Well, I wrote xoticpc an email already and hoping that I won't have to send the machine back, but given how much a blower costs, I probably need to send it back.

 

I've bought my W230SS in mySN.de last week. It is in production, can't wait to get it to my place! It will be replacing a four years old Lenovo Z460 with an i3-340. So I think it will be a huge upgrade.

I wanted to wait for their new 13 inch notebook, and hoping that it would have the 965m available, but seems like if it comes out in the near future, it will be more expensive.. An think I got a pretty good deal, 978 euros for the i7-4710, 8GB ram, a 120 GB mSata and a 240 GB SSD. And I can get the taxes back, so it will be around 870 euros for this notebook.

So far the service provided by mySN has been great, I always get a fast response in their chat, this is something I value.

I will be in Germany just for one more month and then I will go back to Brazil, so I need to test everything in the notebook before leaving, to make sure that it works perfectly, because later it will be harder to use the warranty if needed. I was making a "what to do list" after reading the entire topic; I've never runned any benchmarks or stuff like that in any PC I had, so everything will be new to me:

-stress test the GPU and CPU,
-test both mSata and SSD
-memtest
-check all the temps

I think that pretty much covers everything, right? The other stuff such as the headphone jack, webcam and things like that will be tested during the use.



And also, I've never flashed a BIOS before, but I really want to do it for the first time, the advantages of the Prema BIOS are awesome.
I think I should undervolt the CPU and underclock it, for lower temps and therefore, more longetivity (at least in theory). And I would also like to overclock the GPU a little bit when playing more demanding games.
-About that, overclocking when needed for games, and underclocking it after several times can cause any harm?

I saw that there is a tutorial, and I will follow it of course, but are there any details that a rookie should pay extra attention?
After that, I assume that underclocking/undervolting won't be too difficult, I hope I'm not wrong.

Thanks!

 

Yes, most likely cause (or the thin metallic cover plate is too close to the fan). Have disassembled several Clevo system's fans and none had any grease inside the bearings.

You can easily remedy that yourself, however; add drop of lubricant in the bushing. That will not work for all fans, mind, since some use sealed-ball-bearings (these oughtn't be taken apart), but the W230SS is a sleeve-type. It's either DIY, or you send it back, wait three weeks and you'll receive an identical fan which will show the same ' chirping noise' in a year or so ...

 

I think I may have "fixed" the headphones not working in after standby without needing to have hotkey or control centre always installed. However it needs more testing as I need to isolate and hopefully erase some bugs.

However at the moment the laptop cannot automatically boot. It just says "insert boot media and press a key".

If i go into the bios there are no boot overide options and boot option 1 and 2 are both disabled. I have a choice of 2 "Windows Boot Manager" and selecting either of which will then show boot overide options. But it will never save my boot options. The only way to get into windows 8.1 is to open bios, select windows boot manager as a boot option then use boot overide to launch windows.

I'm thinking I might have to reflash the bios in an attempt to fix it.

 

The only reason because there are some cases of the 860m disoldering itself is because of extreme usage, i.e. I've heard how some people overclock +200 mhz (and then to reach stability they also up the voltage), Surely there will be some fps more at the cost of more heat but the 860m is already very good by itself, if more power is needed, better consider a desktop. I undervolted because I want to be my laptop cooler, at stock voltages and stock frequencies should be no problem. also, if enough undervolt is performed, might as well lose that much undervolt for a bit more hz.

 

that worked! thanks mate!

 

Is there really cases that 860m has been desoldered itself? I've been using heavy overclock but with default or some undervoltage, temps max 83'c.

Scared that and now +120/+120 and 31mv undervoltage.

My problem is processor which peaks 90'c under gaming and that is with downclock and undervoltage

 

I have heard of chips baking cracks into weak solder over time (a few generations ago there was an issue), but no chips actually falling off lol.

 

almost pulled the trigger on the W230SS but read that the W230SD might be released some time in Feb or March so I will hold it off. Anyone has any other news on this?

 

Get the P650SA/SE/SG series. It's bigger, lighter, faster and in general, a lot better than the W230SS. Even though I own a W230SS, I'd love to get one of those beasts.

 

really odd question (grabbed the manual but no answer there)

what is the interface for the screen??
the reason I ask is that if its eDP then it might be possible to get gsync working on the laptop link

 

It is indeed eDP. Are you going to test those modded drivers for us ?

Original page and site ( gamenab) is down, but the Wayback Machine has a capture (lovely donation cause, eh):
Truth about the G-sync Marketing Module (NVIDIA using VESA Adaptive Sync Technology – Freesync)

 

P650SA is bigger and heavier, not lighter. Build quality is also worse from what I have read on the forums and youtube reviews. If I were qinxian, I wouldn't buy w230ss at this point, would probably wait for an updated version. But if updated version comes something weaker than gtx970 (960 or 965), then it wont be a big performance difference compared to gtx860. But still an improvement though.

 

I'm not too sure about the SA, but as far as the SE/SG are concerned, they do have superior build quality as compared to the W230SS. I've seen and used them personally.

The 960M is a rebranded (read: overclocked) 860M - if Clevo doesn't change the cooling system, it's bound to run hotter. Same case for 965M/970M.

 

thanks guys for the feedback but i probably just changed my mind with the recent announcement of the new 1080p blade... (not sure whether this mention is allowed. sorry if it isn't)

 

Users can post what they like so long as it's not trolling really. We shall see the reviews but it will be a lot more expensive.

 

I think the gtx 960m is not a overclocked 860m because actual news say that the performance will increase arround 20%. So i think it will based on the new GM206 like the desktop gtx 960.

 

Are you serious?

I'm really, really sorry but you're giving up customisability, up to twenty time the storage (2x 512 SSD, 2x 2TB HDD) and a ton lot more power for a thin case and the Razer brand?

Back in July, I actually made the opposite decision as you - I had ordered the Razer Blade, heard about Clevo and immediately cancelled my order. Never regretted it. I'm actually extremely surprised you said this. In Singapore, the 256 GB Blade (1080p, of course) costs S$3000. For S$3000, you can get a maxed-out P650SE/SG or even the desktop replacement P7XXZM, and still have spare change for a nice paint job (costs about S$250). By maxed-out I mean four times the resolution of the Blade's 1080p screen, RAID storage, up to 5 TB space, a 4GB GTX 980M or possibly a 4790K desktop CPU (for the ZM, of course). Or you can get a REALLY maxed-out desktop, and still have spare change for extra storage or five recent AAA games.

Granted - the Clevo laptops are heavier - but I feel price per cubic cm is more important than performance per cubic cm.

Please don't get offended - I'm only trying to save you some money here, as one of my own friends did last year. The Blade isn't and will never be worth it - for all of Razer's (and Min-Liang Tan's) talk of most power per cubic cm, it's also the most money per cubic cm.

Before you conclude that I'm a Razer-hating, Clevo-loving fanboy, I really like Razer and their sense of design and ergonomics., Their keyboards and mice are competitively priced and have impeccable quality, but the Blade is the MacBook Pro of the Windows PC world - overpriced with not enough power.

However, the final decision is yours. If you still choose to go for the Blade, for whatever reason, then please do - I won't hold it against you.

 

I honestly haven't found a laptop that does even remotely compare to the W230SS, all of the others are far costly, in the name of removing thickness (also a lot less performance). I have a desktop with a 4790K, that thing does all the performance I ever need (mostly developing purposes) but with the laptop I don't feel "cheated" because I used an small form factor.

 

1 year since release and W230SS still rocks and still is a great choice for a portable gaming laptop. But I hope Clevo soon release something even better. =)

 

Bought my w230ss last summer and still loving it. Lots of performance on that size. Before this i had lenovo y510p for a while, it's crap. Throttles all the time, optimus doesnt work because sli, touchpad is awful, repasteing sucks because you have reap it into pieces to get motherboard out.

 

no offense taken there SRS. really appreciate the comments on the blade vs clevo comparison. i'm looking for a laptop that is below 15.6" for travel. For clevo, the only machine i'm looking at is the 13 incher or the 14s if they ever choose to release them. i have yet to place my order on the blade and knowing the delays on the delivery of the blade, they will probably only arrive in March. currently still waiting for a refresh of the w230ss (hopefully with a 965m at least). we shall see..

 

Where did you see the 20% figure?

 

Gtx 960m news for 2 days:

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-950M-und-GTX-960M-naechsten-Monat.135558.0.html

 

I would if bought a clevo w230sd. But I don't like the touch pad. After use the coating fades and then the mouse becomes less responsive. And I do t do external devices besides a pad. If they improve the touchpad material I'd consider and that's experience from my w230st


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

For some reason all traces of bluetooth have disappeared in windows 8.1. There are no options in control panel and no programs available, installing the 7260 driver seems to do nothing and bluetooth is turned on in prema's bios.

Anyone have an ideas?

I have also fixed the no headphone sound bug without needing to install a windows 7 version of the hotkey AP.

Download and extract the following zip file. Put the files somewhere out of the way.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/o56jq1

Open event viewer. Go to windows logs > system. Put your laptop to sleep and wake it up. The top even should be "Power-troubleshooter" with an Event ID of 1.

Right click it and "Attach task to this event".

In the window name it and describe it whatever you want to remember it by. Click next three times.

Select InitHeadPhone.exe as the Program/script without any arguments or start in options.

You then need to go to "Task Scheduler" and find "Event Viewer Tasks". You'll find the event you just created. Open its properties.

Under general make sure it "Run whether user is logged on or not" is ticked. I also ticked "Run with highest priviledges" and configure for windows 8.1.

Under Conditions, untick "start the task only if the computer is on AC power"

I left everything else on default.

I hope this helps everyone else who thinks that Hotkey AP/Command centre is balls.

 

The middle of my USB 3.0 ports was always a bit flaky, some stuff worked, some didn't. I had a USB 3.0 drive plugged in there fine though. However I just came home to find my USB 2.0 Port on the other side is not working at all

I have a backlit USB keyboard, and when I boot to the Prema BIOS, it only lights up on two of the USB 3.0 ports (not the middle one) and now not the USB 2.0 one (where it has been connected for six months).

Any idea how I can resolve this? Or is it a motherboard issue and I need to send it to the manufacturer for a warranty claim?

 

You should try another device than the keyboard, like a usb stick. It sounds a bit like the power was cut off of those usb ports for some weird reason (if this is the case it will likely require replacement)

 

Touchpad coating doesn't fade anymore. They have coated it with some protective material in W230ss. Too bad they haven't coated the palmrest, because it still fades very quickly, just like in w230sT. (I have palmrest in my w230ss covered with carbon fiber for protection. Looks sleek and feels better than bare plastic.)

 

that sounds cool what you did. it really only looks like hardware was updayed. im very surprised the mouse pad was updated. i did like the laptop. it was my 1st clevo. i wasnt use to the build. tho ught it was built good. it just seemed like the internals was easily exposed if i say "split something" over it with children. and also the clickbuttons wasnt perfect, they got slack. could be improved with a less clicky feedback. only if the that was improved and it was slimmer and quieter under load id say dream machine.

 

I've just installed Arma III on this PC. I've got the 4700MQ processor. It is struggling a lot. Sooo much lag. Any other W230SS user's playing this game? Any suggestions on settings to change to get it smoothly?

 

I <3 my 230SS

2x250gb Evo's in raid 0, 16gb of RAM, plus a 1TB 7200rpm drive to hold a crap ton of ISO's and random crap (I am a sysadmin for an IT consulting firm, I always need software and half of my clients are stuck on T1's because its the only option).
The keyboard is great after you get used to it, and this is coming from a Thinkpad fanboy. My left touchpad button is work down to black plastic though, I am going to see if my reseller might be able to send me another one (and I will either wrap it in some sort of screen protector, or maybe try plastidip sign it).
At some point I am going to tear it down to paint the palm rest areas, or wrap it in 3M di noc faux carbon fiber. Surprisingly the rubber on the back of the LCD is in great shape, and the rest of the body is as well (some scratches on the underside).

I use this laptop all day every day, constantly in and out of my bag, plugged into strange networks, and its a virtual machine BEAST. I can run a virtualized domain with a Server 2012 r2 box, 2 Windows endpoints, and a linux monitoring server, and still have stuff open on my host OS side. Never skips a beat, locks up on me, or pitches a fit unless Google Drive freaks out and starts maxing out one core randomly. Still get over 4 hours of battery, and I have a lot of cycles on it at this point

 

I do need a suggestion for a rock solid Wireless AC card though. I hear the Intel one has alot of problems.

What about this Azurewave Broadcom based AC card (AW-CE123H)?
http://www.amazon.com/Azurewave-AW-...3299116&sr=8-5&keywords=wireless+AC+mini+pcie

Seems to be the same as this Dell branded Killer Wireless AC card (the Killer 1420);
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Dell-5G...Components_InterfaceCards&hash=item3cf0a6a0fd

Wonder if I can use the Killer drivers and utility...

 

I have the 7260AC card and so far no problems... however a broadcom would be a better choice in my opinion if looking also to built a hackintosh

 

@SRSR333 I have decided against the razer blade and am actually thinking of getting the Aftershock S15 (P650SE) with the CNY discounts. Not planning to max out the specs and keeping it to one SSD to reduce the weight as much as possible. The great thing is I can add additional ones in the future. Thanks for the suggestions

 

Aftershock? Excellent, another Singaporean here. Go ahead with your purchase - you will never, ever regret it, I assure you.

 

Don't worry about adding another SSD, you wont be able to tell the weight difference.

 

Can anyone help me with flashing my bios back to the stock one from prema's. Bluetooth still isn't working and the bios is the last thing to check before hardware error.

I tried following the tutorial on prema's site but if I turn off UEFI mode I get a black screen. If I plug an external monitor in I can access the bios but attempting to boot any DOS drive results in a black screen too.

I know I am in DOS but really really really do not want to have to flash a bios blind.

 

OK, I seem to have overcome all the issues.

Managed to ghetto flash the stock bios by using the recovery mode detailed here and then I did a "proper" flash of the stock bios using the instructions here.

Turned on UEFI and booted straight into windows where bluetooth immediately appeared!

Has anyone else had issues with Prema Bios causing black screens and bluetooth not working? (using Intel 7260 AC wifi card)

 

I'm considering selling this, and getting the P650SE. I just can't get used to such a small screen, and no numpad is annoying.

Anything I should be considering?

 

I had a prema bios for a while, but was able to flash the stock Sager bios right over the prema one without issue.