new 4780, Won't boot, heat issue?

Hey, I've searched and found a lot of topics referring to heat questions on the 4780... Last night I ran into a strange problem... I left it turned on sittin on my desk, had it copying some files off my network from my desktop, and then it was just sitting idle. I was gone for about 4 hours or so, and when i came back it was just sitting at the desktop, screensaver running, when i opened the lid, which had been closed since i had left. I first noticed it was really hot, but didn't worry too much as everything i've read says these things run really hot. But, then when i went to use it, Windows locked up, and i had to just shut it off with the power switch. I then turned it back on, and it wouldn't boot. It would post, start to load windows, and then restart. No matter what i did, it would keep doing this same thing, automatically restarting indefinately until i finally turned it off. I figured it was a windows problem by some fluke, and had planned on reformatting and installing windows today, but as i just turned it on, it booted normally and seems fine. Any ideas? I'm now a little concerned as to stability, and to wonder if it was windows and needs a reinstall, or a hardware problem, possibly related to heat?

Anyway, sorry for the novel, just concerned... if it was just software I'd redo windows and feel comfortable and roll on, but if it's hardware, possible heat related, then it will happen again and I fear losing data/progress the longer i keep using it. Because it seems to be better after sititng over night, I tend to think it's a hardware issue. Can a Sager 4780 be left running indefinataly without fear of over heating? Can i leave it running over night? And, final question, why was it so hot after sitting idle for a few hours? Just a few concerns about my new laptop.... thanks

well, thought i had got lucky, but now not so sure.... it has been running great for most of the day, since i turned it on about 1:00 earlier today... well, it's about 10:00, and I had been using it on and off today, leaving the lid open, and it has never seemed to have gotten overly hot... but, just about 5 minutes ago (I'm writin' this from my desktop) it just gave me a blue screen saying windows had dtected a problem and was shutting down, and locked up, so i had to turn it off again with the power button... not sure what happened, it had worked great all day, and I was just surfing the web when the error happened, nothing graphic intensive or anything.... But, it is doing the exact same thing, when i try to turn it on, it just boots about half way and then restarts. Any ideas???? I'm guessin it's a hardware thing, not sure what else it could be? This sucks, I really like the laptop, but there's no point in keeping something that will only run for a little more than a few hours at a time... any body have any suggestions or ideas?

not sure really what to think, gonna get a call into Sager and see if they have any ideas... I guess it could still be a software/windows thing, but not sure. It will work perfect, will run fine for hours, and then just freeze or blue screen and then have problems booting into windows. This morning, it fired right up, is workin perfect, and seems fine... I updated some drivers yesterday for video and audio after the first time it happened the night before and before it happened last night, so thinkin it isn't that because it did it before and after. Only other thing I've got hooked up is a D-Link DWL-G650 wireless network card. Guess I'll see how it does today, only other thought i really have is to reformat and reinstall windows and see if that seems to prevent it, maybe it's a bad windows install?? Dunno.... do really like the laptop though, for what it's worth

ok, any body know what this means?

Well, it did it again... I was playin IL2 Forgotten Battles online for atleast an hour, it had been runnin perfect all day. The game worked great, graphics looked good, nothing showing anything odd at all. I even got it runnin in 1440x900 widescreen It didn't even seem overly hot to the touch, but warm of course. But then when i excited the game, it went back to windows desktop normally, and i went to close the ubisoft game loader program, and first the keyboard stopped working, then the mouse froze, and then i got this message... I then held the power switch to turn it off, and when i turned it back on, it tried to boot, and i got the second image...






Now i suspect that it will boot up if i try in a bit, so seems to me like hardware, but could the D-Link network card have anything to do with it? Or maybe even windows issues, or just a bad MB/RAM/CPU issue? dunno... just wanted to throw that out there, kinda frustratin thinkin bout finally gettin the thing, settin it up like i want, and then lookin like i gotta send it back....

OK, now i'm probably getting annoying, but just started it back up, and it booted and seems fine again... in fact, I'm typin and surfin with it right now...

Well, I took out one stick, and was runnin on 512 for a little while, ran 3dmark loopin a few times, and have run Memtest86 a few times.... all of that went perfect, so i popped the other stick back in and am currently loopin' Memtest86 at the moment... so far it has tested fine that way too. Guess next I'll try the other stick by itself, and then maybe just run with one stick for a while and see what happens, and if everything seems fine alternate again... I've got a convention this weekend, so can't really go without a laptop this weekend, and since it seems to run fine most of the time guess i'll wait to send it off till next week.... am still waiting to hear back from Sager though... requested a call back and also sent a pretty detailed email this morning, but so far haven't heard a thing.... Started to get a little worried to be honest, wondering if i might should just send it back and start looking at a different laptop? is the 4780 just really problem prone or am I just pickin up on it because mine seems to be? I'll be honest, I love the thing when it's workin, which is most of the time, but we all know that ain't enough. Maybe the 8790 would be a better more reliable choice with the intel board? Dunno, but thanks for the help and any ideas you might have...

Hmm, that's interesting, I hadn't even thought about the hard drive? A couple of times mine has gotten stuck at the post after the lockup in windows, and others it gives me the no operating system, and others will just keep rebooting itself continually until i turn it off.... Honestly, I didn't even think to see if it was detecting the HD or not when it was doing it, but i definately will next time.

As of right now I'm running on one stick of ram, seeing if i can run across anything wierd, but so far it seems to be just a random thing. I wonder if it's a problem with the MB's, and just shows up like ram or HD problems? If ya don't mind, keep me posted on how yours is doing, and I'll do the same. I just missed the call from Sager tech support, but in his message he recommended tryin out one stick of ram at a time to atleast rule that out, and also reinstalling windows... Good luck man

Harddrive

Well, seems to be the harddrive... Bought a cheap 40GB locally so swap in and test it out, and so far it's ran great since. So waiting to get a new 60GB 7200RPM to replace the 40 4200 I picked up. Thanks for the help, I'l update if i have anymore problems or if that wasn't it. Overall, was pleased with Sager tech support, and assumin the new drive gets here and works, should be good to go.