This sucks, just got my 9880 and...

Different problem but is you ask me Sager's quality sucks as of late. I regret my purchase and am still waiting for my new one to show up

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=99248

It does seem that wgr73 and I have the same problem. At first I thought the actual PC was to blame, but I think it may have been a problem with the AC adapter shorting out and frying the laptop. But the gray smoke and everything is exactly what happened to me.

Anyway, I got an RMA number from Sager, and I returned it via UPS (got there today) for a credit or refund, whatever they do. Then I'll most likely get the same one again with the zero dead pixel policy, but I haven't decided yet. wgr, let me know how your experience goes. So far I haven't had any issues communicating with Sager. I hope they can tell me what went wrong, just for curiousity's sake.

I know how you feel that pissed me off more than anything and to top it off my replacement that came by ground died within the hour. So I had to pay for shipping back to Sager since i just want a refund.

I am right on the edge of the 30 umbrella and they better not give me s**t since its their fault its at the end of 30 days with there cheap ground shipping. In total I had both laptops total under 1 week and the rest of the 30 days has been shipping back and forth

Thanks my laptop just arrived at Sager this morning so I hope to have my money back by next Friday the latest.

I too have had a similar problem. My 9880 arrived with a partialy dead power supply. It will run off AC but wont charge the battery. They are shipping me a new one... but what a let down...

wgr, are you running your fans full blast all the time? With my first 9880, I found it would shut off on me playing HL2 when my fans were just in standard mode. Once I started running my fans full blast all the time, it never shut down again, until the very end that is, when it shut down with a puff of smoke.

So, is yours dead again? If so, I'd return it for a refund and look elsewhere. That's what I plan on doing if I have problems with my second 9880 when I get it. And the fact that your Sager came back to you scratched makes me glad I just got a refund and ordered a new one.

It's hard to tell if Sager's quality is going down and their laptops...suck, or the fact that they make thousands of them and, we hardly ever hear from the happy people that have no problems.

Pissed people, like I was, are motivated people and, they tend to speak up.

My 9880 died after 3 weeks. Mobo was shot. Had to rma it back and wait 2 weeks to get it back. It's been working fine since but, I keep wondering if/when this thing is going to die again.

I get the feeling that we're the minority here. We just don't hardly ever hear from the silent, happy, majority.

...just my 2 cents worth.

I get the feeling that we're just unlucky and have had some bad electronics.

Just one voice from out in the crowd here. Rarely post, but I love my 9880. I have had only a driver issue or two in the beginning and they were easily ironed out.

My 9880 performs well, doesn't overheat and hasn't crashed or had any issues at all. I play Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, Dungeon Siege 2 for the most part lately and they all run very well. (I have the ATI X800). I run my games in 1920x1200 that support it and in most games have the options set to maximum.

My framerates are consistent and my temps are stable.

I work doing tech support for a large cable and internet provider and am allowed to bring my laptop to work. It works fine on the wireless there as well as at home. I use it to troubleshoot modem issues for some people and the modem has been just fine as well.

I have tested all of my usb ports, firewire ports, media card readers, paralell port, DVI out, TV Tuner and pretty much every aspect of the laptop.

I honestly couldn't be happier with this laptop.

EDIT: I pre-ordered this laptop 2 weeks before the 9880 came out, was looking at the 9860 and saw this was coming so did that. Just for reference as to how long I've had it. I don't quite remember and don't want to go pull the paperwork out, but it arrived on June 6th or 7th.
-
Mesabo

Just for reference, here are my specs:
17" WUXGA ATI Mobility Radeon X800 w/256MB DDR3,
3.2GHz (540) Pentium 4 w/1MB L2, 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 2-DIMM, 80GB
5400rpm SATA Hard Drive, External USB 3.5" Floppy Drive, Combo 8X
DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Drive, AC Adapter, Carrying Case, Built-In 802.11g Wireless Module, Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader, TV-Tuner

Whats up all? Just chiming in here. I have the 9880 and have had it since Feb. My problems to date. Two video cards have fried and one problem with Win XP which is no fault of Sager. I am currently deployed in Afghanistan with the 82nd ABN DIVISION and have the system with me. I love this system and i agree that we are probally just the chosen few that got unlucky. Sager has sent me a video card and also a new hard drive as well so their customer support in my eyes has been awsome. One thing i noticed as a flaw the fan for the left side of the computer points at an angle down on the surface that it sits on and i believe this is what may have caused my video card to fry or overheat. I have since elevated my system when using it and it runs much cooler now. I am overall pleased and the customer support has been great even over here in the desert.

I saw a post about the fan, how do you adjust the speed of the fan?