Official Sager NP5165 / Clevo W150HR Owner's Lounge

Thanks MALIBAL #2 for the input. I did go ahead and order it w/ the i7 and 8GB of RAM, because I do like the high end games like SC2 and etc. Normally I'm a consol gamer, but if I took that with me to school I'd never get anything productive done. Looking forward to opening that box in the nex few days. Thanks everyone for the info this thread really helped me make up my mind.

 

So I tried to set the maximum processor state to 88% as previously described, but my temps still reach pretty high. has anyone tried using RMClock and undervolting the beast?

 

Nonononono, not at all. Only a charger that can output 120W of power. For comparison, new Macbook Pro chargers (i7, integrated+dedicated graphics) can only output 85w.

 

Does anyone know how to disable the annoying popup window that well,pops up, every time the physical dGPU enable button is pressed? Each time you press the button, the window shows up, so at the end of the day you get a bunch of these spam windows that wont go away unless you click them away.

In case anyone's confused by what I'm talking about, please see attached image for example. Thanks.

 

i would also like to kmow this, although i dont mind it that much

 

I just visit RMClock's homepage and the latest version was released in 2008. Will it support i7 Sandy Bridge CPU?
Anyway it would be nice if there is a way to undervolt the i7 2630qm while keeping the same performance when full load.

 

Do we have to use the video drivers from Sagers website for compatibility reasons? or has anyone tried the latest ones from Nvidias site? Any issues?

 

I've been running the drivers off nvidia's website since i first installed the sager ones off disc and then could get online. i've had no problems yet. in fact the latest release drivers came out the day after i installed the nvidia drivers. so i've been on 2 driver version so far with no issues.

 

Well ... proud owner of a two week old NP5165 here ... sad to say it has been plagued with issues. I love the power this this has for the price, but not to happy as an overall package.

I have the matte screen and it too is plagued with the red ghosting issue. The speakers are appalling. I knew they weren't good from the reviews, but I wasn't expecting them to be this bad.

And ... it won't boot with my SSD in the main drive slot. I have to use the hard drive caddy as my main drive, which is a pain, as the caddy likes to come loose when i'm carrying the laptop in my bag on the way home from work. If I don't remember to check the caddy and push it in ... It won't start. ARGH! Minor quality issue, but something that shouldn't exist.

Oh ... and that damn popup when switching GPU's ... ugh...

 

Cool, also updated without any issues, but dang still can't play this "From Dust" game on the Nvidia gpu. Works on the intel gpu but it's kinda choppy. Guess ubisoft is to blame though.

 

Anyone figure out how to stop the pop-up when switching gpus?

 

I got my 5165 on Auguest 5. So far it is an OK laptop. Like someone else said, the speakers are TERRIBLE. Subpar for even laptop status.
I had a problem last week of not getting any digital output, so it turns out this model needs COAXIAL digital, not optical (toslink). I bought a rca coax and a rca to 3.5mm MONO converter and it works great.

Im still troubled about why my body temps are at 60C even on idle.. i custom installed some IC7 last week too.

 

still no idea how to turn off the gpu switch feedback msg. Also, I agree about the speakers - they are far worse than even the speakers on my 5 year old blackberry...

 

Alright I just got my laptop and I'm enjoying it. I know these questions have been answered somewhere in this thread, but after 5 minutes of looking for them I must not be using the right words.

Which Nvidia driver should I be installing? How do I know when the 555m is active?

I ran the Windows Experience Index and got 7.4, 7.8, 6.3, 6.3, 5.9. Top to bottom. I thought the 555m is supposed to be around 6.8-7.0?

My main concern is figuring out how to have the 555m properly setup for gaming. Thanks.

 

a little more feedback on the annoying pop up window issue every time the gpu switch key is pressed. Just based on mucking around windows7 power profiles, it APPEARS (i dont know for sure) that the gpu switch key is just a short cut from switching between the "Balanced" and "UMA" power plans.

In fact, by editing those power plan profiles' graphics performance settings, you can define/create your own behaviour for the manual gpu switch - for example, you can make it so that green/UMA mode = gpu ON (rather than off as is the default), and orange/Balanced mode = gpu OFF. That's just a uninteresting example, which leads to my next point.

Given the gpu switch button is not "magic" and just really changes power profiles, one thing you can do is just switch the power profiles using the windows GUI rather than the physical button on the laptop. I know it's not as elegant, but it at least gets rid off the annoying pop up window. This leads to a further speculation:

that damn pop up window must be tied to the hotkey driver for the physical button on the laptop. If its embedded somewhere in a binary then I guess we're SoL'ed until someone hex hacks the drivers or Sager removes it. If its just buried in some inf files or registry setting (I havnt found any), then we can potentially change the behaviour ourselves, or at least, fix the somewhat broken english in the pop-up...

 

That is awesome and means I'm just going to ignore the button and create my own profiles.

 

well, I found having a physical button to be somewhat convenient, so still hope someone can help with the original question about removing the pop-up rather than my solution of just "not using it". But yes, seeing that its just changing power profiles frees things up quite a bit - I personally have the button as a day mode (very bright, high power) / night mode (dim, low power) switch, rather than just a gpu on/off switch.

 

In the advanced power plan options is there anything mentioned about the dedicated gpu's performance? I only see Intel's.

 

The Intel settings are for Optimus as a whole I believe. It mentions integrated vs. dedicated.

 

hey ericc191,
i got 6.3 even when i ran wei with optimus enabled.
the issue was quickly solved and it uped to 6.8~6.9 when i installed the nvidia drivers. go to the sager homepage. the file is like ~250+mb.
here are my bench results:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/606684-just-got-my-np5165.html

 

Well, I really hope Clevo releases a new fan table to be flashed because my W150HR gets really hot during gaming session, even with a notebook cooler....

Have people found a way to solve this problem ? My model dosent seem to support the force full speed fan hotkey...

 

has anyone else had issues where the optical drive tray does not open when the button is pressed? I have to manually press the eject button using a paper clip and then it opens. strangely sometimes the button works without an issue (i have the blu-ray player)

 

My CPU reached 98 celcius degree while playing crysis 2 today. This seems like a major problem. At the same time, the sensor on my graphic card reported a tolerable 75 degrees.



While gaming, my fan dosent spin to it's fastest speed until it reaches near 95 degrees...

Anyone experiencing the same thing ? Are my temps really that high or is it a sensor problem (like my SSD that is constantly at 128C if I open HWmonitor)

 

SSD's are not supposed to have temperature readings on HWMonitor...

Mr. Mysterious

 

3 questions
Is this laptop outdated yet?
And is this better than alienware m14x same configurations
Is the labor day deal worth it?

Thxs

 

No.

Depends what your needs are

Most would say yes.

Mr. Mysterious

 

I'm using it for video games and high school hw

 

Since both have the GT555M, they should perform roughly the same.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Here is a really good review where they also test the 95% Color Gamut Screen:
AnandTech - MYTHLOGIC Pollux 1400: Clevo's W150HR Tested

 

Fn+1 turns the fan to max speed which should help. It seems like the built in fan profile isn't aggressive enough to keep the laptop cool during heavy usage.

 

First off, thanks for the heads up about the nvidia drivers. I just installed the ones from nvidia's site.

Second off, my 95% matte screen is purely beautiful with no ghosting what so ever. Good thing that was just a small batch of bad displays, hopefully.

Lastly, my temps reached 95c on my CPU and around 70c on my GPU> I did not know about the Fn+1 key but will try it. I'm not too worried, though. If this thing overheats and gets fried, I see no reason why Sager wouldn't fix it or replace it even if you didn't get the extended warranty.

 

i like to buy & assemble a WWAN Card in my clevo, hopefully you could help me.. . The card should support HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS

which card could you suggest?
-> Huawei EM 775, Ericsson F3307, Sierra MC8790,...

Can´t find the antenna ?????, any helps how to assemble ?

Thanks

 

So...any word on possible keyboard protectors for this model?

 

I haven't seen any yet. In the past, I saw some specialty vendors that did that sort of thing, but I haven't seen one specifically marketed for this model.

 

So a BIOS update was posted a while back, did anyone ever get around to trying it?

I'm probably going to get this model from PCS with a 2630 CPU and I wouldn't mind having the hardware AES extensions enabled, but from what I can tell, Clevo have it disabled in the BIOS =\

 

Is it possible to upgrade from BIOS v1.01.02 to v1.01.05 directly ?

 

Ok so I tried to render some stuff in Rhino 3d today and all i can say is..WOW

mobo and cpu temps jumped from 60C to 86C in seconds!!! Even with IC7 instaled..
also the computer idle at 60C! How do i fix this?

EDIT: during the render they peaked at 100C...

 

I'm very proud to say I bought this laptop yesterday(ordered). Anything I have to do once I get it
I ordered it to come with windows

 

There's a thread in the main sage forum titled: "what to do after unboxing"

Mr. Mysterious

 

Hey guys, I've been lurking around these forum for a while now and I ended up buying a Clevo W150HR-based notebook. My setup can be seen below.

I've had my W150HR for a couple of days now and I haven't been disappointed with it yet! I have not experienced any red ghosting issues with my screen, guess it was just a bad batch of screens..


Cheers!

 

Can you do me a favour and run CPU-Z? I'd like to know if the CPU you have has hardware AES enabled (it supports it, but Clevo may have disabled it in the BIOS).

 

Do you mean virtualisation? I had to update my BIOS to v4.6.4 (5/31/2011) to put the VT on, it's hardware enabled from then.

 

No, I actually do mean Hardware AES -
AES instruction set - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here's an example of what I mean -


I don't know where this came from so it's not this laptop, but if you look you can see AES listed.


I'm looking to get the 2630 and I wouldn't mind encrypting in hardware, but it's more of a curiosity thing. Still, thanks for the input! Glad to know Virtualisation is enabled, even if it does take a BIOS update.

EDIT: Actually, where did you get the BIOS update from? I can't seem to find any.

 

I don't think it's enabled. Maybe in a future update?



I got the BIOS update from my vendor's website. Don't mind the _104, it's the update i used.
EDIT: link not available anymore

 

Hmm, that's a bit of a bugger. I wonder why OEMs bother disabling stuff? It doesn't make sense. Oh well, It's not a deal breaker for me. Thanks for the reply, much appreciated!

 

Thankfully AES support doesn't break anything (like if you were missing VT-x). You only lose out on the speed increase it offers in select applications that can take advantage of the instruction set. Wikipedia has a decent article on it:

AES instruction set - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've run Bitlocker full disk encryption on two machines- one with and one without AES- and found that the speed of encryption was more heavily weighted on the processor clock speed and disk type (SSD or HDD) than any benefit I got from AES.

 

Is anyone having problems with SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) not being detected by the BIOS from cold boot?

 

The old Sandforce controller in this SSD (had a Corsair F120 that used that controller) has some problem being detected. It's a sad fact.

I sold my old ssd and bought a new one. Some users on the forums said that they sent their drives on RMA and got fully functionnal ones.

 

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend the thread below for good reading:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/601231-compatability-ocz-vertex-3-ssd-sager-np8150.html

There seems to be a Sandforce compatibility with the newer Clevo chipsets. it's not just related to the P150HM though as both models share the HM65.

 

Thanks for the informative info! I'll get that Vertex 2 replaced with Crucial M4.