G-Omaha's **8790 Review** Now Open To Questions and Comments - Page 5

Actually you were RIGHT, only Sager does not yet offer it. I wonder if it could be a special order item for those that don't want the 7-in-1 reader and must have the TV Tuner and Subwoofer configured at the same time. This confused me also, because I had originally expected to have both the sub and tuner installed at the same time.

Speakers - without the subwoofer (backordered)

I have been playing MP3's on this thing for the past few hours and have to say that in comparison to the speakers on my 3363V, these are GREAT!!! They are sharp and have decent volume. They are a little bit "tinny" and lack the warmth and depth that HiFi speakers have, but all in all, are very good. They certainly aren't "Crappy".

The right hand indicator/light is the rightmost one that is located on the bottom center of the LCD "frame". You should not have the "conflict problem" if you don't have the blue tooth. Apparently you can not use WiFi and blue tooth at the same time as they conflict - real disappointing.

Used to work with a Merchant Marine and he kept saying that rather than train me. Either works.

Another WiFi Update - Just can't seem to let this go

I reposiitoned the router and the antenna a few times and now am getting better results. The same 7.13 download was redone a couple of times. The last test was: Started at 15:43 completed at 16:29. Much better; however, the signal still varies a lot and the transmission often goes to zero from time to time. Right now the signal between the laptop and the router has to go through the refridgerator, three walls, and an old Reel to Reel tape deck, as well as the computer furniture that I have my desktop on. My thoughts are that I am getting 2.4Mhz interference from the neighbors phones, microwaves, etc. The speed is good enough and I guess I'll just need to accept it.

Let's see, what do I have left to look at?

1). Firewire transfer.
2). USB Transfer.
3). TV Tuner again.
4). HDTV interconnection
5). Subwoofer (after it comes - backordered).
6). Serial Port.
7). Parallel Port.
8). Modem.
9). Wired network.
10). Turn off that "****" touchpad.
11). Sound/SPDIF/RF ports
12). Programming the "blue keys".
13). S-Video Output
14). S-Video and Sound Input to the Tuner.
15). 7-in-1-reader. (This one will be hard as I don't have one of everything)
16). Exploretory Surgery (diagnostics only) - (Anatomy class??)
17). Validate all of the drivers.
18). Overclock the video card.
19). Further investigate the BSD's that I have so far received.
20). Floppy disconnect problem and associated BSD.
21). Have a BIG beer and research effects..... Maybe that should be an intermediate step between each of the published actions?

Geez, it looks like I haven't looked at the machine.

Forgot #22. Have son download and play a variety of games and see if the O/C matters.

Disable Tapping on the Touch Pad

Go into Control Panel ==> Mouse ==> Tapping ==> Select Tap off when typing and reset the Short - Long slider to the length of time desired.

It appears to cure the "lazy thumb syndrome".

Fan - Fans - More Fans

I have been monitoring the fans for a few days now. Here is the "Botom Line", as far as my machine goes.

The is a very quit fan that stays on all the time.

At approximately 49C, a second louder fan kicks in. This fan will run until the temperature is at 40/41C for about a minute. This cycle continues, unless the temperatures don't go that low for that period.

Now I have watched the temperatures rise past 60C without the third fan (or 2nd fan going into high gear) if the temperature rise is gradual and not sustained. Waivering between 50C and 60C. However, when I start running something intensive, the fan doesn't kick into high gear until the temp has risen to 66C. The temp start falling; however, the fans does not switch downward until the temperature is 40C at which time the fan turns off. The very quit fan remains on. When the temperature rises to 49C, there will be a burst from the fan as it turns on at High speed and then runs at the lower setting.

I ran various different scenarios where the CPU/GPU/System usage was gradually increased rather than "BANG" straight to Maxing out the system and found something that explains what appeared to to very high temperatures for the fans kicking into high speed.

Remember that 2nd fan that kicks in at 49C? Well it is a multispeed fan that actually kicks in and "winds up" just a bit for every 2C starting at 58C. So there are different fan noise levels at <49C, <58C, 58C, 60C, 62C, 64C,and then at 66C, it kicks to "full force" and will stay that way until the machine is cooled to 40C or is rebooted (at which time it will go to the appropiate phase).I guess this is why the fan noise never really bothers me - the temp is most ofter less than the 66C and usually under 58C.

Looks like someone took great pains to make this machine as quite as posssible and still keep the machine reasonably cool - My hat's off to the engineers on this one.

Update to Fans

I am now using a "Cookie Sheet" rather than the Kitchen Table. The temperatures appear to be a bit cooler because of this. The "Cookie Sheet" does not absorb heat; whereas, the Kitchen Table did.

When the fans kick in fully the Num-Lock and Caps-Lock lights start blinking. I went throught a number of scenarios where the laptop would be powered down while the machine was at various temperatures to see what would happen. I did this when the two lamps were blicking and the machine powered down; however, the fans were still blowing at full speed. So far I have only waited 13 minutes (max) and the fans were still blowing. I wonder what's up with that (when I rebooted, the temperature was 50C after the boot completed and mobmeter was started) - maybe it needs to go down to 40C before the fans shut off. I will be trying another similiar test and will leave the unit "blowing" while I participate in a conference call (this should be an hour or more) to determine if it shuts down on it's own eventually. I did unplug the AC and the fan stopped imediately. I have not tried this scenarios from a battery powered scenario.

The little fan (quite one) I was talking about is the CPU fan. It looks as if it is always on. Can't tell for sure as it is about 76F in this room at the present time. It's 72F in Omaha right now (maybe spring is here).

I'm hoping that the 66C is not "Near Critical Mass" as that may indicate a problem with the unit. Maybe not, because when the fans kick in "Full Speed", the temperature is reduced to a very stable 61C - and that is with 6 Burn It tests running at the same time. Everything appears to be maxed out with the possible exception of the GPU. I'll need to download something like Far Cry and add it to the mix; however, have not yet looked for it.

Maybe off-topic bit, but did observe, that dispite the gross loading of the tests, the battery remained charged. I'll do this again and have the DVD play a movie and maybe also accomplish a 2/4GB download and turn the speakers all of the way up (That ought to use a bit of power, you think?).