*** Official Sager NP8170/Clevo P170HM Owners Lounge ***

Not sure but what is the difference between the linked download and the one on AMD's website that will resolve the issue that you discussed in your previous post?

 

Pleading ignorance here, but isn't the MegaTrends a reference to the BIOS Version and why both sets of numbers?

 

As I mentioned previously, the AMD website link points to a small program that checks your hardware and determines if it is on the "approved list." If it is, then this small program downloads the actual driver and installation files and runs them.

The link I have provided gets you the actual driver and installation files. It bypasses the hardware checking program. This should install on your computer.

Have you tried downloading and running the file from the link I posted? It should install Cataylst 11.6.

Ira

 

The AMI Version number is the version of Aptio that the BIOS is based on. The Clevo version number is THEIR internal version of the customized bios. Its odd I know.

 

What's the best way to update ati drivers ?
Just start installer or do you have to delete old drivers first ?

 

If you already have an 11.x driver, just install the new driver over top of it.

 

I have 8.850.6.0 from 5/24/2011

Can't rememeber which 11.x it is and I wanan try different driver cuz I'm getting lines playing, it's like graphic line, almost invisible.

 

That's 11.5, but I'm not sure if it's the hotfix version. I uploaded the driver here.

Uninstall your current driver, reboot, then install this one.

 

Not sure what you guys are talking about with the hardware check. I downloaded them just fine from the link on amd's site with my nvidia equipped desktop...

 

what are your idling temps? Using CPUID monitor, I never seem to hit a GPU temp that high. Even my CPU doesn't seem to go above ~80 when I play the witcher 2 (settings basically on max)

 

you could barely hear your fans?

My fans don't get as loud as they do when I FN + 1, but I can definitely hear my fans running when I get to around 60+ degrees

 

Whew, I would not have been able to field that one! (the BIOS numbers, that is-there are two numbers reported)

So, I have loaded CS5.5, FireFOX, Open Office , reader X, Skype,etc.... Now, finally I should be able to start really getting into this thing.

I ran it about 14 hours yesterday

 

Bios for mine is as follows.

Bios - 1.01.07aLS1
KPC/ - 1.00.05SA1

BTW whoever designed the num pad on this laptop needs to die. now.

 

What's with del button ? It's in such a strange position

Anyone has driver for 6300 wi-fi ? The one on Sager website is 400mb.

 

Intel website have it?
You could just dl it, extract it and get the driver from that file, rather then install the whole suite I would think.

 

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...0123&keyword="Intel+Proset+Wireless"&lang=eng

 

could someone give me a link to the best bios for my machine? (hopefully one with more options)

 

You would have to email Sager with your serial number to request an updated BIOS if one is available. There are no links available.

Laptop BIOS are well known to have limited options. An updated BIOS is unlikely to give you any more options than you already have.

 

yeah, my old acer had more options than this one though.... but anyway, thanks for the info. I just want a fan speed to heat ratio control in the bios even though I know that will never happen, but it would be nice!

 

Yea it is pretty crazy how many options there are NOT in the bios. My old gateway fx laptop has more options then this lol. Not that it is that big a deal.

 

Thank you both for links, just what i needed, repped

 

Here are interesting facts:

Room temp - 82F/28C
Laptop idles - 100F/38C

Running a game alone and no 2nd display - 144F/62C
Running 2nd display and no game - 140F/59C
Running both 2nd display AND game - 142F/61C

These are off the GPU, I thought there would be a considerable jump in temp but the game and 2nd display are lower than the game alone. I let these run for about 20 minutes to stabilize the temps.

Does anyone see a problem with the laptop running at 144F/62C all day?

Sure wish I had a taskbar on the 2nd monitor, any suggestions?
Found UltrMon, really works great!

 

I dont know much about nvidia cards.
But i know that amd cards are normal to run under high temps.
My last 4870 idled at 50C and easily got 80C while gaming.
*All PC cards*

 

Those temp are awesome.
Nothing to worry about there.

Question for you all.
When you wake up the laptop from hibernation, does your fan speed kick up to 100% and stay there? Mine is doing it most of the time after wake up. Have to restart and hit fn-1 at bios screen usually to get it to quit.

 

When ever I wake my laptop from hibernation the fan does not speed up and it is exactly the same as it is at idle. However, I do have a different GPU although I haven't heard anyone else describe this behavior.

 

Hmm interesting thanks.
Figures it would just happen to me.

When you hit the FN+1 key to speed up the fans...if you hit it again, does it turn them back down?
On mine it does not.

 

When I hit FN+1 and then hit it again, my fans go back to normal speed again. You should try a different GPU driver and check what Bios version you are using. Be careful with the Bios though.

 

I'll have to look. I posted it a few pages back (version) but cant find it. Using the last hotfix gpu drivers.

edit update

Trying these drivers. Installed fine. Havent gamed yet.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/586402-amd-11-6-drivers-now-official.html

 

FN+1 not functioning correctly would be a hardware issue, unrelated to the GPU or its driver.

 

That should be a BIOS issue, right? God, I hope not

Mr. Mysterious

 

Surely there is a better solution?​

​

On lesser computers, I have always been able to easily determine if my BIOS was up to date, and links to update, if it was not.

Resellers consider stepping up on this issue please! Make it easy for we end users to keep these BEASTS well nourished.

My fans DO NOT have any issues, ie. they appear to be working as expected. Is this going to turn out to be related to the GPU card installed? OR a BIOS revision, or what??
We could help narrow down things in this regard by a quick poll of users who do & do not have a fan throttling issue, maybe starting with GPUs.

My rig: GTX 560M - no issue with fans

 

Yea when i hit the combo it turns the fans to max. Hit it again and they studder and stay at max. Expecially a pain because it does it coming out of hibernation and they stay at max.
I can also hear them running all the time, albeit not loudly but audible. Its not a surface issue either. They sit cleanly on a hard surface.

 

wow.... never had that problem. Are you running the newest driver for ur radeon?

When I hit the combo it always turns the fans on and off as expected.


maybe its the bios? have you updated or is it stock?

 

Using these gpu drivers. Hotfixed ones before this
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/586402-amd-11-6-drivers-now-official.html

Using Bios 1.01.07aLS1
KBC/EC 1.00.05SA1

Radeon Bios BR39419.012
2/14/11 Radeon bios build date.

Anyone know the newness of these?

EDIT UPDATE:
Now working with these new video drivers. Very odd. Could that of been the problem?
I have doubts as to how a video driver could control that functionality?

 

I suggested you try out different GPU drivers simply because on previous sager laptops, I had more GPU fan noise with certain drivers because they didn't downclock properly, whereas with others this didn't occur.

In your case I wonder if it is just a coincidence though. I would be so curious to roll back to the previous drivers to test but you risk ending up stuck with the issue if updating again didn't fix it.

 

Yea I dont really want to roll back again now that it working lol. I always try to keep the latest gfx drivers.
On a side note I just played crysis 2 on here on extreme and it ran pretty much flawlessly...at least till next week with the dx11 patch coming out for it lol.
No framrates to offer but I play a ton of games on my 580 sli desktop machine.
Really amazed so far with this thing except for the keyboard....terrible in my opinion.

 

There is a reason Sager does it this way. Most users do not know how to flash their BIOS, and if not done properly it could brick your computer.

And, what is wrong with popping off a quick email requesting the BIOS update? That sounds like a perfectly reasonable, fast and easy solution to me

 

Hi, since you purchased from us, you don't want to use a Sager Branded BIOS. Here is a thread where you can download the latest BIOS for your notebook: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html

 

Since I have been using my 24" IPS monitor a lot lately, going back to my stock screen on the NP8170, it just sucks, period. Sorry, it is horrible. Now I'm a bit miffed that they don't offer a better stock screen. I mean they picked bottom of the barrel.

I know my machine is up for sale, but I will probably end up keeping it because will take too much of a loss. I love the machine otherwise, just not using it as much as intended. Anyhow, the screen, yech, blech, horrible.

Can I say anything worse about it? Seriously. If I used it more I'd probably drop $150 for a decent screen, but not worth it for the little use it gets now.

 

@ HTWingNut

If you will barely use it, then I question whether it would be better to take a loss. I use my laptop almost every single day unless I am too busy with work or something but if it was just sitting around unused most of the time, and I knew that situation would never change then I would sell it and take a loss. Of course, that's just my opinion...

 

Well the problem is that I still need a decent laptop. So if I sold the NP8170, I'd buy something like an NP8130. So as it stands I'll net about $1900 if it sells for what I'm asking less $1200 for the NP8130 is $700. If I drop much lower then the money I pocket starts to reduce quickly, and then not sure if it's worth it. Not to mention the fact that I'm already losing $200-300 from my initial purchase cost. It's not that I don't need the laptop, it's that it went from being my primary machine to secondary, so instead of getting nearly 100% of use it's getting 20% now, although I still want/need gaming performance.

Although I feel that if I kept the NP8170 I'd almost have to dump $150-$200 for a new screen.

 

I know its personal opinion but I am amazed that you find the screen so bad. I do not see it lol.
I mean, I used an apple 30" HD display for years, and now use the new Dell U3011 30" ips panel and the laptop screen still looks awesome to me when I go back to it lol.

 

The screen is washed out and over-saturated. It was even calibrated by mythlogic. The viewing angles are abysmal. You literally have to look at it perfectly perpendicular to the screen or it starts to wash out or gray out vertically. Side to side isn't bad.

 

I would take the loss for getting the really good screen, its the lowest loss and then have a screaming portable desktop for life

 

Is it that noticeable if you only use that screen?
What is everybody using for a backpack? I've been looking around before I order, but am curious to see what others are using.

 

I'm now seriously considering this option. I'm just afraid that I'll want something new in a year to year and a half. But sounds like Ivy Bridge will be compatible with the Sandy Bridge socket, and MXM IIIb should have a considerably faster GPU for it. Only thing is if I break it.

 

I am sure as with how popular this laptop seems to be, there should be take apart schematics for it somewhere. If you find those, shouldn't be too hard to swap out the screen.

 

I'm looking to buy a powerful notebook for college that will both act as a desktop replacement as my gaming desktop won't be able to be transported to wherever I go to school.

I am currently looking at the Sager NP8170 to fuffil this position with the following specs:

2720QM
485M
8gb 1200mhz
90gb ssd
500gb hdd

Here are my questions/concerns:
- I am going to majoring in areospace engeneering and therefore would like to be able to run some simple 3-d Design programs. Willl a 485M be able to handle it?
- Is there any hardware upgrades coming from producers such as Intel, Nvidia, and ATI that would give better preformance (any new gpus/cpus/chipsets) and are coming out withing a years time or so.
-How is this notebook compared to a msi GT780R?
-Would it be better to get a better screen and downgrade to an Ati 6970?
-Is now the proper time to be buying a laptop as i am unsure of possible new chip-sets ect that would make my notebook outdated as soon as i bought it (i don't want to buy something that will be outdated in 1 month-I know such is the way of computers but i want to make sure i have the best quality stuff to last me 3-5 years)

 

There are 2 new products coming from Intel within a year yes. One is Socket 2011 which will be an X58 replacement (finally).
I am not sure how fast it will be implemented into notebooks though.
I am also sure by that time there will be new gpu's. Not sure if the 8170 will be upgradable to them or not. Do not think that question has been answered here yet.
Anand just did a review of an Alienware notebook as well that was stated to be a good alternative to this one:
AnandTech - Alienware's M17x R3: An Antidote to Clevo

I personally love this machine...all but the keyboard. I find my words needing corrected all the time due to its keys.

 

I don't want something like the sager 7280 though as i do want some portability and i feel like running a desktop processor in a notebook frame is begging for very hot temps and very little battery life. Can someone confirm the rumor of a new 500 series mobile gpu from nvidia? I also keep hearing that the screen is bad in this thread but many reviews suggest that it is pretty good. Can anyone confirm or deny the reviewers claims?