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Screen is black on startup

post #1 of 11
12/6/06 at 1:09am
Thread Starter 
Hey guys,
I have had my 9880 since August 2005 and it has been performing fairly well. I had to send it in to get fixed becaues the processor kept downthrottling but they said there was nothing wrong with it. It took about a month from the time i sent it to sager to the time i got it back. Their service was terrible as they would not return emails or phone calls, as well as that 1 month turnaround. Anyways, i digress.
In the last month or so, it has been doing this really weird thing when i restart it or turn it on. It was less frequent before, but now it seems to be permanent. When i turn it on, the screen stays black, there is no illumination or images on the screen, it is as if the notebook is turned off. In addition, the dvd drive makes noises for an excessive amount of time, as if it is trying to read a disc that is in there, even when it is empty. When it was working, i went into the BIOS and turned on the POST beep thing. I have found that when it shows these symptoms, it does not beep. Now it is doing this every time i start up. Anyone know what could be wrong with it?
Thanks
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post #2 of 11
12/7/06 at 5:20pm
Hi Nick

theres alot of posts about these symptons including some from my experience, these laptops seem to be plagued by allsorts of serious problems
I had exactly the same problem you have now and im afraid to say that your laptop is knackerd thats the technical term. It will be a motherboard replacement. Ive had 3 new motherboards new ram new graphics card and 2 new fans so far on my 9860. I know this dosent help much sorry
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post #3 of 11
12/11/06 at 11:06pm
Thread Starter 
****ing sager. they make piece of shit laptops. I wish I had read more reviews, though the ones i did read were good. Maybe they just got shitty since the 9860/80's. Terrible products, terrible service, terrible company. I would never recommend it to anyone. Does any one know where I can get a motherboard for a 9880 other than sager themselves?
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post #4 of 11
12/12/06 at 1:16am
rjtech.com, and Google would probably turn up a few more. Unfortunately though, I don't think you'll find it any cheaper than from Sager. Although it sounds like a mobo problem, you may want to try re-seating the vid card and memory first, oddly enough some others have had it help.
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post #5 of 11
1/21/07 at 6:51pm
I am having the EXACT same symptoms now. I don't know what to do as my warrenty just ran out and as a student I dont even have 500 bucks to my name.
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post #6 of 11
1/26/07 at 5:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by driscal
I am having the EXACT same symptoms now. I don't know what to do as my warrenty just ran out and as a student I dont even have 500 bucks to my name.

spend some on a lawyer - in dealing with sager's 98x0, that's the way to maximize your return on investment: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/finan.../D8MJTVH80.htm
Quote:
Dell settled a similar lawsuit in the U.S. over one of the models, and litigation involving the other four is ongoing.
...
Plaintiffs claim the computers are susceptible to overheating and motherboard failure. The problems often occur just after the expiration of a one-year warranty, the plaintiffs said.
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post #7 of 11
4/22/07 at 10:27pm
Damn! Mine just did this same thing last night. All the power lights come on, but screen stays black. I just got this POS back 3 weeks ago with a new hard drive and had a new power circuit on tyhe motherboard 10 months before that. And all of this after the warranty ended. The guy at the shop I took it to said he never wants to see it again.
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post #8 of 11
4/24/07 at 2:55pm
If your being plagued by a black screen, then you need to check a few things. My 9880 died on Saturday because the voltage regulator fried. Clevo needs get their circuits right.

Check these:

Video card: Make sure it's clean, seated properly

LCD cable to mobo: Make sure it is properly connected onto the mobo, and check the wire connections

Try the FN+F8 key to switch your video to an external monitor to check to see if it's your video card or not.

Goodluck to all. It's not all Sagers fault, just their customer service part. Clevo makes the mobo. They need some better electrical engineers or something.
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post #9 of 11
8/15/07 at 6:23am
Damnnnn !! i also have the black screen problem. I replaced the power adapter after it died last month i guess and now the screen isnt working ! only on external screen ! wtf ?? wt is the answer to this problem ?
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post #10 of 11
12/25/07 at 10:22pm
add mine to the list. I just spent almost $500 to get the videocard fixed too. Got it back 2 weeks ago, and the second time I went oboot it up, I got this problem. After a few tries, it started up. Since then, it has been getting worse and worse, everytime I go to start it up. When trying to figure out what was going on, I went to make sure the videocard was seated properly so I unscrewed it and tugged on it to get it out. Well, the thing fell apart in my hands. Whoever fixed the videocard was a hamfisted gorilla. Bent all the tabs that are supposed to keep the two halves of the videocard together, the cooler and gpu. Then I see that thermal compound was apparently applied with a trowel, and it was the cheap liquidy stuff, not AS. It was everywhere, all over the pins that surround the gpu. Scratches all over the bottom of the GPU, like it was thrown it box with a bunch of other parts and shaken around, and weird looking brownish resin on the circuitboard, too.

I don't know what the hell to do now. I'm going to contact tech support again and see what they say, but considering how good a job they did the last time, I just don't know. This should be something they should fix for free, considering I JUST got it back 2 weeks ago. I was leary of spending the money to get it fixed in the first place, since for $500 I would be halfway to a nice new desktop. If I send it in again, it will be my 4th RMA.

Sager will not be getting my business again, I think.
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post #11 of 11
12/27/07 at 3:39pm
That brownish resin stuff on the circuit board is the epoxy coating from an overheated circuit board. It also means that the board is likely damaged. That video card gets super hot if the fan is not running 100% of the time. What is even worse is that I have to disassemble the computer once every 2 or 3 months and completely clean out all of the dust. The first couple of times I did not change the thermal compounds, but now I remove it and apply new stuff. Apparently someone at Sager was sloppy when they applied it to your video card. Maybe they were thinking of their soldering skills and live by the motto, "The bigger the glob - the better the job." Unfortunately, for thermal compound and soldering that is not a good motto. Perhaps it is better to go with, "A little dab'll do ya." With the thermal compound just spread it out as evenly as possible.
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