Prostar Computer

Inherently: no. Very few system BIOS setup utilities include an option to disable switchable graphics.

Dell cards don't have a great history of working in Clevo machines, so I'm glad you managed to get it to work! Perhaps it's better that you went for it rather than wait on an answer, as most are of the school of thought that you should stick with Clevo cards for Clevo laptops, period. Again, nicely done, and thanks for the follow up.

Good to hear you got it fixed! Perhaps there was an electrical issue with the last card. In any case, congrats!

So we're talking 80 C during web browsing? If so, that's high. 80 C is "safe," but excessive for Firefox (even with hardware acceleration). Check for: Clogged vents and fans, and remove your current driver and reinstall the most current.

The 6xxM series and the 7xxM series use an identical interface (MXM 3.0b). What you'll need to watch out for is the vBIOS (if the firmware is not compatible, the card will not work, even if it physically fits).

Are you seeing this strictly on the adapter or on battery as well?

The quickest way is to access the boot selection menu (instead of the BIOS setup). Tap or hold the Esc key until the prompt comes up; you can select which drive from there. By doing this, you don't need to rearrange the boot order in BIOS, you simply pick the drive to boot from.

Yes, the 460M(?) controls the picture. It sounds like your screen went down. You can check the cable first, but the cable very seldom goes bad.

Do you have this problem with other networks/routers?

According to rough benchmarks with a 3610qm + 660M, you should see about 15 FPS on Ultra settings and about 30+ on High settings. A 670M will yield higher FPS.

Sometimes the inability to install the driver lends to the possibility of it being on its last leg, about to kick the bucket (if it hasn't died already). Try a clean removal of the drivers (I tried posting a link to a guide but it wouldn't take).

Idle or under load, you should have concern chiefly for when your readings are in the mid to high 90s. There is a certain conventional idle range that should be taken into account, yes, but if you can stress the components and stay within said range and/or not experience thermal overload (throttling, shutdowns, etc.), then your system is stable.

We've had very few complaints with the 8970M. AMD puts together a very good value chip, and the drivers have improved over the years quite a bit. It's still a matter of time before we have real results on reliability/longevity though.

What version is your BIOS and your EC Firmware?

Haha, I read this guy’s website he set up. I feel for him, I get that he’s frustrated and there were some things that were a little nonsensical he had to deal with, but what I immediately noticed (not to judge him too harshly) is the stuff that upset him right when he got the computer makes sense for him to be disappointed perhaps, but I kind of scratched my head on exactly how it was egregious because some of it he could have known beforehand. It sucks because it sounds like eventually he had a failure, and I feel for him, but sometimes that does happen. The part that makes me unsure is the things he complains about right out of the box that I was like “hmm…” such as: that 1920-1080 “looks great but you browse… websites and they look miniscule” on the screen. I mean… I guess so? So he changed the resolution to something lower but then complained it rearranged what he was looking at lol. Maybe I don’t understand part of his issue there, so not to mock him or anything. He was upset the keyboard wasn’t backlit. You can see that in the spec sheet. Would it be nice for an expensive laptop to have that? Yes. But you can see that it doesn’t/find out easily. “‘Wireless N’ adapter only works on the good old 2.4Ghz frequency.” Again, spec sheet. Not a dual-band card. The particular external drive he was using wasn’t eSATA compatible. That sounds like a compatibility issue, not a failing of the laptop. It sucks, but not every peripheral or accessory you buy always works. He said he has to go back to using USB 2.0 because of this but the laptop still has a couple USB 3.0 ports (?) “The computer is full of bloatware.” I HATE bloatware, I feel you. It’s the scourge of the Earth. But everyone has it. Virtually nobody is going to give you a factory-clean install. He kind of heaps on a lot of silly things too that, unfortunately, minimize the big issues of his case (which seem genuine!). He claims the computer failed within 6 months: that’s really unfortunate and nothing to sneeze at. But he’s also got this personal website complaining that the representatives spelled words wrong like “charactors.” Lol it’s a Taiwanese company, so yeah their Taiwanese reps might spell an English word wrong. Kind of unrelated. When you find someone angry enough to put up a personal website and ask for anti-MSI donations… who is really crazier here haha? So allll that to say- I don’t mind MSI too much. They’re really competitively priced even with nice hardware usually, which someone in this thread accurately cited as their greatest virtue. While I’m sure there are some genuine horror stories out there, MSI has been good with their average service in my experience. There are worse. Oh boy are there worse. Dell used to be known for their awesome support but they’re huge now and sometimes their support is VERY weak. Try Microsoft customer support. There is a hell lol.