John Keel

As a musician i currently dont have much time to listen anything else but the work i'm doing.

For Pregressive Metal fans check out my band: SULLEN

As I said Clevo only renamed the cards in BIOS. They are one and the same. If they share a hardware ID that driver would also show 8970M for a M290x...

If not you can update the vBIOS, but I can't promise that it'll work...your choice...PM me if you want to crossflash...

Anyone here with a P370SM-A who wants to help test something?

I can confirm, there´s no hardware id change for the graphic card. It´s just a rename in the BIOS.

Still what make it show up like M290X is the driver.

If you get the driver from the ATI website any card will show up like 8970, if you get the driver from CLEVO (wich seems to be only modded?) you will get M290X... no diference, no performance change... just a RENAME of the hardware...

Prema can´t help you with a P370SM-A atm, but i can help with a P570WM if you need

The 15" with the biggest amount of HDD slots ( 4x or 5x 1TB SSD RAID0 ) doesn´t even matter if it´s mSATA or 2.5"

32GB RAM!

High Color Gamut or any really good IPS screen.

Thunderbolt + Ti Firewire 800

Would be great if it could disable devices in BIOS, stuff like onboard crap (audio, fingerprint, dedicated gfx card, etc)

That would be heaven. Honestly i don´t care for anything else. I think that there´s nothing like that out there.

Clevo P150SM can handle 4x SSD, does have TI firewire400, and there´s HCG screen for it, 32GB RAM is easy.

On the downside, no thunderbolt, no option to disable stuff in bios

Sorry for the delay, i usually only do this type of work in the weekend.

Well not even the .007 work... same problem, if i enable SECURE BOOT pufff no image.

Going to try the one svl7 posted.

EDIT: Nope... the one SVL7 posted also doesn´t work, i think the P370SM, P375SM BIOS is the culprit, although the NVIDIA cards all work fine.

I quit! lol

Reason being the BIOS forcing to load UEFI (GOP) part of vBIOS, so if that is non-existent as in the old v.001 then it won't boot.

v001 is NOT the recommended vBIOS for these models, just use one of the newer ones v3, v5, or v7+

On a side note, my Mod will have an option to disable that, which is also mandatory for everyone who wants to use any modded vBIOS.

Ok, but where can i get the v3, v5 or even v7+, i do work for a Clevo Reseller, but i don´t get any kind of update like that, nor i can find it in the CLEVO channel. Da hell is CLEVO doing? Or am i missing something?

Everyone who is kindly putting P375SM Bios updates available online for the end users should also add that update or at least a warning, we resellers, are going to have some serious problems with this... I know Bios updates that go wrong are not covered by warranty but i don´t really like to apply those kinds of policies.

I only have one older version that would be compatible, if you want to try that.

Sure i can try out. I´m out of ideas anyway.

I´ll have to continue testing tomorrow... im done for today.

Ok so, the P375SM card does have a label saying: BR44616.001

But the VBIOS was updated to BR44618.001.ROM before shipped to us.

And i can confirm, no SECURE BOOT with BR44618.001.ROM

Anyone knows of a more recent version?

- - - Updated - - -

Hmm, the BR44618.001 I have here contains everything that's required for secure boot... well unless it isn't signed.

BR44450.007 would be another version that should work.

Well i reflashed with P370SM BR44618.001, it´s the same, no image, from the moment i turn on the PC, this machine has no HDD at the moment, i didn´t even started installing the OS. Tried activating the Secure boot with standard keys and with custom keys... no image, i can only make this units work if i turn off secure boot or if i place an NVIDIA card.

Woot... well i uploaded the EXACT file that i downloaded from the P375SM card, that mean it was already updated to BR44618.001, and that means BR44618.001 won´t work also... just gime some secs to test it and compare files.

Yes, most likely. I don't think I have that version, can you send me a copy? Then I can easily tell you whether it's caused by the vbios, and possibly provide an alternative version.

Here you go:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/158457984/BACKUP.ROM

Going to test with BR44618.001.ROM

I will be right back with the results!

Give me a sec and ill upload it.

I do have BR44618.001.ROM for P370SM, which probably solves this issue, i was going to test it now.

The problems is all the clients who don´t have that version installed, and will probably update their BIOS and pufff, no image, i smell a lot of RMAs. There should be a VBIOS update / Warning in the CLEVO Bios latest FW update package, and there isn´t any.

Which Vbios version (8970m) are you using?

Stock ones supplied by CLEVO:

BR44616.001

I´m mostly sure its a VBIOS problem, since it only happen with AMD and its clearly a gfx card problem.

Here´s something weird that is happening in all P375SM with dual 8970M.

After installing the new BIOS/EC/EC2 for Windows 8.1 compatibility (the NEW FW 1.03.01) i´ve noticed that if you enable Secure Boot the display won´t turn on anymore.

I can clearly see that the laptop is booting but i get no image.

While enable and disabling UEFI won´t cause this, enabling secure boot will.

I tried 3 different laptops, got the same result.

There´s no way i can restore this with the usual procedures, remove battery, clear cmos, remove memory, bios recovery.

The only solution is installing a NVIDIA card (765/770/780) go to bios disable secure boot and then install 8970M again.

I´m currently trying to find out if this is a problem with my BIOS files or something else. I think i seen some other user complaining about this and he actually sent is unit back to warranty.

I´ll keep testing and ill let you all know what i found out.

So if you got P375SM with dual 8970M don´t update to new FW just yet if you have AMD.

The reason for my problem with the LEd always is simple.... you just need to reinstall the AMD driver, puff problem solve.

There´s actually no difference between CLEVO 8970M cards...

I feel stupid

Hey John

Yeah Clevo made a a strange choice, but there is a much easier way for regular Clevo updates:

- Flash EC with AC Adapter connected

- After automatic shutdown unplug the AC Adapter for like 30 seconds

- Plug it back in and flash the BIOS

(This forces the EC into an other power state and thus refreshes the temperature reading)

(As you said my Mods flash both in one go with the EC after the BIOS, so all that is required on my versions is to unplug the AC Adapter after the flashes are complete)

There is also a recovery for all these models,so unless it shuts-down during the boot sector flash it can not brick by flashing stock BIOS/EC

Hummm weird with at least one W230ST i still got the warning after unplug the AC, i even removed the battery, and it still was going on... better play it safe and if using the clevo package just wait some time before updating the bios to be sure there´s no stuck value and it won´t start the warning beep.

We´re getting units from clients and if this keeps going a lot of resellers are going to have a hardtime.

About the recovery tool i wasn´t able to use it with the P370SM and im sure the unit shutdown after boot flash section, it was the only one i had to return to clevo, btw the info i got is that correct file name for recovery is P370SM.ROM right?

The Nvidia card in the W230ST somehow got a different ID then all the other CLEVO units (like W350STQ and W370ST), for some time you could not install drivers from the NVIDIA site, it wouldn´t find compatible hardware, the only solution was to mod the driver.

But more recent Nvidia added the ID to their drivers, i think only the latest final and the current beta. For all my testing i found that this latest combination works like a charm, been rock solid for sometime now:

Intel HD 15.31.17.64.3257

NVIDIA 327.23

Bios 05 and EC 05 or Bios 06 and EC 05

please check your versions, hope this solves your problems. Also if your updating the bios be sure you´re using Hotkey 8.0124 or latest (not related but also trouble maker lol)

**Warning for anyone updating BIOS / EC using stock update packages ***

(This warning is not valid for PREMA MOD update packages)

Some units like the W230ST, P370SM / P375SM / P570WM, and only in some cases will activate a security warning ("beep") after you update the EC. This is due to a "stuck" sensor value. In some cases it will go away after some hours, with luck it won´t shutdown the unit, but IN SOME CASES it will shutdown the unit after some minutes.

So... if you jump straight to Bios update after updating the EC you might get your unit shut down during the update process and get a brick.

So please, after updating the EC turn on the unit, and before updating BIOS wait like 1 - 2 minutes to be sure it wont "beep". If it does beep the easy way is to remove the small battery cell, open the bottom cover (W230ST) and remove the small battery cell, it will reset it, for the other models the battery cell is under the keyboard. IF you don´t want to have the trouble to remove the small battery you can just wait 4-6 hours untill it resets ^(weird i know).

I think this warning is fair enogh since already had 3 units bricked coming in, and myself bricked two P370SM.

EDIT: Just gave a look into the package from Prema, which for my above warning only matters for W230ST, and the way PREMA does the BIOS update it seems you would never have the problem i reported, since it updates bios and ec at the same time.

So please keep in mind that this warning is valid only for stock bios update packages not for PREMA work.

Just a follow up. Installed latest Rapid Storage and Trim is working, and everything seems fine with my RAID volume.

Doing some final tests but it looks like i found the problem. I have 2x SSD RAID + 1x 750GB HDD, it looks like this problem happens when windows turns off my 750GB HDD, it´s a windows power management feature.

I just disabled the HDD turn Off in the power settings, let´s wait and see if that´s it.

Just tested out and TRIM is not working.

If i recall Trim in Raid0 SSD is now supported right?

I feel there´s something really wrong with the RAID Rom update.

Ok here´s something that i been testing and would like to know if anyone else got this problem.

In a P150SM or P151SM1 if you leave your laptop ON for several hours (let it idle) do you get a high CPU usage from Windows 8 process "System" (Kernel)?

I´ve been tracking this issue and cant find a explanation for this. Noticed it after leaving my Laptop on all night, next day when i got to it the system was unstable, can´t connect USB or Unplug them, Windows hangs on restart, can´t disable hardware in system properties, etc...

So far i tried everything, some clean Windows 8 installs, with and without drivers, with different SSD drives, etc.

Tested it with following Bios:

BIOS 01.00.09

BIOS 01.00.07

BIOS 01.00.06

All cause the same...

An important detail is that i´m using RAID SSD and the first BIOS that was installed was the latest 09 which updates the RAID ROM to 12,7PV.

So... any ideas would be appreciated.

i need some beta testers with SM units, if anyone's up to it let me know

cof cof... i heard that somehow it´s working with SM units

great work bro!

... back to testing!

Just tested the 8970M with that Enduro Vbios and it´s the same... everything works fine, but the led in the chassis is always ON....

I still don´t know if this is a hardware problem or if the card that i pulled from a P370SM is different hardware or if it´s another thing... i will try with another card next week.

So... Aikei do you think that 8970M bios would work on 7970m since its basically the same HW?

It´s not the same hardware, at least if you place both side by side there are some differences. I would NOT recommend doing this unless you can burn a new rom if things go wrong.

Ohhhhh, weird, i got nothing in my e-mail.

Did you sent to my e-mail or to my work e-mail? Because im not at work.

But well that explains it. I was finding it way too weird...

One thing is for sure, when i get back to work, im going to build a Online Directory Listing with all CLEVO Vbios, i will keep an eye in all new chassis that come in and ill download all vbios and make them available in a simple and understandable way for everyone around here.

Heck if you want i can even serve original CLEVO stock BIOS and keep it updated, im setting up a modest server i can share some bandwidth.You guys around here need some web space? PM me.

Prema can you confirm if you can flash a P150SM / P170SM 8970M (with its correct vbios) in DOS? Or in my case it´s only working because it´s loaded with a P370SM vbios.

LightningPL thank you...

Although there´s something really strange going on.

-That bios is Exactly the same that P370SM units got..

-still if you take a P370SM 8970M card and put it in a P150SM / P170SM the light that indicates that the 8970 is being used is ALWAYS ON even tough it´s actually switching

-i force flashed that bios, you can flash it using atiwinflash or even in DOS with atiflash (this was not possible with previous generation).

-i now need to get a P150SM / P170SM 8970M card to check so i can conclude that:

a) the new generation cards can be flashed from DOS... cool

there´s a hardware diference between the 8970M that comes with a P370SM unit and the one that comes with a P150SM / P170SM

c) the P370SM 8970m can´t handle the light indicator that tell´s you if the 8970 is active or not...

Hi, im on vacations and far away work and i can´t get my hands on a 8970M enduro_able machine ( like P150SM or P170SM).

Can someone with such a unit supply a stock vbios.

Just use ati_winflash_2.3.0, run a 3D app to activate the card, open ati_winflash and save the vbios.

Since im on vacations i have time on hands to supply moddified P370SM / P170SM / P150SM modified vbios... just sucks that at the moment im stuck with only a P370SM