New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

8886 - CPU overheat caused the case to MELT ( Pics Inside)

post #1 of 40
2/17/03 at 8:36am
Thread Starter 
This is my sad story.

I got my Sager 8886v on Jan 10 2002. It was working without any problems till last Saturday (15th Feb), when the disaster struck. I finished burning few CDs and then I switched it to suspend mode by pressing Fn key and ESC (with sleep symbol). I left my room and came back after one n' half hour. The screen was off, so I punched few keys and moved the mouse, but it didn't wake up from suspend mode. Then I smelt something burning, I placed my hand next to the CPU vent on the right side of the lappy and it was hot. I then tried touching the cpu cover from below. It was so hot that i could not touch it. I lifted my lappy and saw that the CPU cover had melted. I quickly turned off the cpu, by pressing the power button for 5 sec and pulled out the AC cord.

After this I tried turning on my machine. It would start for a second the screen would flash bright white and then it would turn off. By this time I had totally freaked out . I opened the CPU cover with a screwdriver. Heat sink was still hot, and I noticed that its fins had discolored due to the extreme heat. I plugged the AC Cord back in and tried turning it on, but to no avail.

I tried it again after 15 minutes. I think the CPU had cooled by this time, and to my relief it was able to boot. Since then, It has been working fine. The CPU fans are working, but they turn off after sometime and then start again. I would like to know if there is a way ( or a hack ) to keep the fans always running. After this incident I don't want to take another chance.

I would like to mention that, I keep my lappy on a plain surface so that the cpu fans are not covered and can freely suck air from below. I have keep it this way since the day it arrived. I have no idea what cause the cpu to overheat. My guess is that while in the suspend mode the fans stopped working.


I took these pics after the incident.







Notice how the color of heat sink fins has changed







Everything in my lappy seems to be fine now except the deformed CPU cover. I've not yet removed the heatsink and looked at the CPU ( I'm not sure whether it will void the warranty). Adam, I would like to get a replacement for the cover. Will it be covered in the warranty or do I have to pay for it ?


I don't know whether to call it my unlucky day or my lucky day. The damage could have been be worse. My advise to other sagerites is to power down their laptops when it is not required or when they are not sitting in front of it. The risk is not worth it.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 40
2/17/03 at 8:50am
Thread Starter 
I'm having some problem in posting the pics. Can someone help me
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 40
2/17/03 at 8:52am
The pictures aren't showing up.

What OS were you running?
Did you have the chipset drivers installed?
Did you have standby mode enabled?

Sager will take care of it. Give them a call and see what they have to say and want to do.

I've been running the Sager systems here I've had in and out for 24/7 ever since we started bringing demo models in last summer, so don't anyone freak out and think something like this will likely happen.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 40
2/17/03 at 8:57am
Thread Starter 
I've multiboot on my machine. This occured while I was using win2k. Yes I have Intel drivers installed. And I also had standby mode enabled from control panel -> power settings. I've used standby mode a lots of times before this thing occured.

I'll mail you the pics can you please post them ?
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 40
2/17/03 at 9:14am
OK fixed the pics. I assure you there must be something wrong with the machine to do this because they don't get NEAR this hot.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 40
2/17/03 at 12:22pm
As a system builder, I can tell you, Thank goodness these are Intel CPU's and not Athlon's as you would be replacing a lot more than just the CPU cover. Don't get me wrong, I like the Athlon line, but there is just no protection built into the CPU for overheating. Basically, you would have been looking at buying a new CPU, motherboard -- hell, probably even more as it would have just gotten hotter and hotter until the power supply burned up.

I don't think you lucked out, the P4 is designed to minimize damage for circumstances like this. But I feel relieved for you!
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 40
2/17/03 at 3:58pm
yah I would send that in. heh
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 40
2/17/03 at 7:35pm
Agree with Allbab. Something like that happends to me 2 weeks ago. I was in my work and after launch I tried to wakeup my 8886 from standby but it fails. I noticed the burn smell and quickly turn off the pc by pressing the power for 5secs. Try to turn on again and shut down itself during the POST. I removed the 8886 from the desk and a napkin was sucked by the fans. I was almost crying. I remove the napkin and wait 30minutes. The 8886 work fine after that, I remenber a review of heating between pentium and atlon I saw before and I said "Thank god for that feature of pentium"
Im looking for that review to post here, a movie is included.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 40
2/17/03 at 9:34pm
Thread Starter 
If you want to see the Athlon-smoke clouds or the clock throttling of Pentium 4, you must see this video
http://www12.tomshardware.com/images...PU_Cooling.zip (10 MB download - Its worth it)

it is in divx format. If you don't have the divx codecs installed, you may download it from
http://www.divx.com/divx/index.php

After watching the video you may also like to read this articles
http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/20010917/index.html

and AMD's response
http://www17.tomshardware.com/column...029/index.html


Thank God, Sager doesn't uses AMD.

I still want to know if there is any way we can keep CPU fan continiously running. Has anyone tried it out ?
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 40
2/17/03 at 10:07pm
Yes, that is the review I was talking about.
Really worthy.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 40
2/18/03 at 10:41am
Phew... Jeez... Well, I can understand how a napkin getting sucked in by the fans caused an overheat (lol, duh)... But I'm surprised that anunay's overheated simply from being in standby... I literally had no problems with overheating while doing all sorts of stuff. I don't use standby on any computer though, so I dunno what that might have caused. I was under the impression that standby was almost completely powerless (just a few tiny things running... with no fan ever). Perhaps the lack of fannage in standby might have contributed to this? I don't use standby just because I don't trust it on any computer (desktop or laptop). Too many problems associated with it. Best of luck to you!
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 40
2/19/03 at 8:50pm

what

what a nightmare!!
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 40
2/20/03 at 8:11am
Lol, how big are the fans or how small is this napkin to get sucked in?

AMD is simply cheaper, but I'd rather be poor and safe than be sorry.

I'm surprised that it still works, usually when I have clumsy/unlucky things like this happen to me i screw everything up.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 40
2/21/03 at 1:51am
Lol, the napkin was a regular one from a fast food, it blocks the vents of the fans so the fresh air cant in.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 40
2/21/03 at 3:10am
Quote:
I don't use standby on any computer though, so I dunno what that might have caused. I was under the impression that standby was almost completely powerless (just a few tiny things running... with no fan ever). Perhaps the lack of fannage in standby might have contributed to this? I don't use standby just because I don't trust it on any computer (desktop or laptop). Too many problems associated with it.

What you mean Beebs? What "problems" ?
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 40
3/1/03 at 2:18am

Mine melted too. WTF.

Well, looks like a repeat problem. I purchased an 8887 on 10 Feb and was completely satified until it melted to my desk. I left it on, plugged in, and came back an hour later to a locked up computer that had melted almost identically to the pictures posted in this thread. What to do now? Was this ever taken care of by Sager? Did they send you a completely new system? Was the problem identified? Help!!
Reply
Reply
post #17 of 40
3/1/03 at 2:27am

Re: Mine melted too. WTF.

Quote:
Originally posted by Klink
Well, looks like a repeat problem. I purchased an 8887 on 10 Feb and was completely satified until it melted to my desk. I left it on, plugged in, and came back an hour later to a locked up computer that had melted almost identically to the pictures posted in this thread. What to do now? Was this ever taken care of by Sager? Did they send you a completely new system? Was the problem identified? Help!!
Out of curiosity, was the space under the laptop clear? I mean, the rubber stand-off feet were all on the same parallel surface?

I'm wondering if it was a case of blocking the INTAKE fans... I, too own an 8887 and it gets warm, but not HOT even after hours of use....

-myrkat
Reply
Reply
post #18 of 40
3/1/03 at 2:32am
yeah, the rubber feet are on and the clearance was there. not sure what is going on here. i was able to get it booted back up and am now backing up data waiting for it to overheat again. the fans seem to be working.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 40
3/1/03 at 6:16am
i wouldn't even TRY to use it anymore, i would have just backed up my files, called sager and had them worry about it....

...but i have had my sager for about five months, on just about 24-7, and the only heat related issue was with the external powersupply being bad, but sager replaced it.. The lappy itself has had zero hardaware related issues.

-scott
Reply
Reply
post #20 of 40
3/3/03 at 3:18am
Out of the relatively small group of people here, 3 have now had meltdowns: anunay, NundyDC and Klink. One was a napkin sucked in, but the other two did it on their own. SAGER -- are you listening? Seems like better overtemp protection is needed.

-- Daryl
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home