I have received my 8890 - And it's going back :( - Page 2

Of course a P4 3.4 GHz CPU produces enough heat to get the fans on in regular intervals for a notebook. And yes, this will also happen when Windows is in idle mode after some time the CPU/GPU duo heats on and thus they got their working temperature. Imagine how much sound an equally equiped desktop computer produces and than look back at the size of the 8890.

I too own a 8890 with a P4-C 3.4 GHz (but one with an UXGA display) and I've also reviewed a 5680 and 8790 with an assembled P4-C 3.4 GHz CPU in contrast to the 8890. The 8890 is the quietest of that trio. - However, as I said before these are huge full blown desktop replacement notebooks and not flat and small little Centrino CPU based notebooks.

These machines use *desktop* P4 CPUs, not P4-Ms or Pentium-Ms. Desktop CPUs are not throttleable, and do not support SpeedStep. BUT - they are much cheaper than mobile versions, which is why Sager laptops are relatively cheap.

sorry man, i guess i do kinda come across in a rather rude passion, you must be under some serious stress about whether to keep ur machine, that i don't need to add to it. my mistakes were that i was confusing banding with the blotchiness that i heard about in the past. Noise and heat are entirely subjective in the case of the 8890, i tone it out once it goes on, and really can't hear it in a classroom with an instructor is teacher, albiet the people in front of me always give me dirty looks ...

Did you mean to say Pentium II, you did in a few posts, just curious thats all. That throttle program i wouldn't count on. I tried it (when the link worked), and basically you can set your computer to work at 10 % intervals and i tried 50 % and everything took twice as long to work, so it wasn't all that great... besides there is an option in the bios to downclock or something, but i think you allready found it.

No harsh feelings Mag, just believe in the 8890!

Hey Magic, I couldn't agree with you more about the noise. I was ready to return my 8890 last fall. I could hear it 2 rooms away. Well, you can see from THIS thread that I and others found a fix.

I reduced the noise level by 12dB. My 3GHz proc "only" needs the fan to run 40% of the time during windows idle. Now, quieter would be better, but this is quite tolerable for me now. Good luck with you descision.

I still have two old PII/PIII based IBM Thinkpads (TP770E/Z) where you don't hear nothing when these notebooks operate. Also those TP laptops of course didn't had the GPUs of nowadays build in. So there is a huge conceptionel difference between old PII and nowadays P4 CPUs in terms of power, clocking rate, heating on and the like. - In other words, it's somehow like comparing apples and oranges and thus you can't really compare those systems in an equally manner.


Yes, it's similar on my system and it might be an option to smaller the early kicking in sound levels somehow. However, maybe a too huge early heat inside the chassis is not sufficient for some of the other buildin hardware components, so that these have to be keeped better at a max. of 54°C than much higher values (just a speculation...).

Whoa! I leave the forums for 12 hours and look what happens.
There is some serious negative energy in this thread.
Lots of smilies, bananas and bouncys needed to reset the vibes first


I think that will do for now.

Magic Robin as a fellow 8890 owner let me comiserate with you on not getting a perfect system. I can appreciate your patience in waiting for a SXGA screen - it shows someone who is committed to getting the best for their money.

Lets start with some observations.
The SXGA LCD - you may or may not be aware that this was discussed ad nauseum in the forum when some people received 8890's that showed the banding you talk about. After much testing and discussion it appears that there are two versions of the SXGA being installed by Clevo. Unfortunately it appears you got the alternate version . The "good" SXGA LCD displays none of the banding you can see and has a superb viewing angle etc etc. which you have no doubt read in my posts (/edit: brain lost sync with my fingers on that last sentence - fixed now ).

8890 fan noise - yes there is a problem there and Clevo should do something about it. It is caused by resonance between the mobo and a small internal fan located below the "f" key which blows air onto the memory sticks. There is a fix for this which I applied and I can tell you my 8890 (which once sounded like the vacuum cleaner) now is quieter than my old Toshiba laptop. I notice the Toshiba more than the 8890. Once you remove the resonance the laptop is no more noisy than an other standard laptop.

Fan cycling - I have the 8890-V with 3.2GHz chip and have just gone thru a hot summer here in Sydney. Yes yours will generate a bit more heat than mine but the fans are trying to get rid of a lot of heat dude. Mine cycle as I would expect given the work the laptop is put through. Using a higher setpoint or larger hysteresis just forces up the heat stress on the CPU/GPU and other components.

Underclocking the CPU - depends on your point of view. You obviously like the option, I don't see the point. As you point out the 8890 is fast. Why artificially nobble it for a few extra minutes of battery. For you a valid point. Maybe a few more questions on the forum might have cleared this up for you.

Other issues like missing BT and WiFi - that sux. They are easy to install but as you said after waiting so long they should have taken more care to check the packing slip.

kb - minor issue. Mine flexed until I flexed it back . Solid ever since. The fix from Sager is a simple high temperature double sided tape that stops the keyboard hitting the metal heat spreader. You can also fix it by placing double folded aluminium foil along the top edge. Works like a charm.

TV tuner - mine works like a dream (when I can get a decent signal ). You might have to fine tune it to the signal in your area. TV is like that.

I know there are a lot of 8890 owners here that are disappointed your purchase did not live up to your expectations. An 8890 is not for everyone as my sig says. They are big. They do weigh more than other laptops, but they are big and weigh more for a reason. The SXGA screen is an issue that obviously is causing serious concern. If Sager can replace it with the "correct" Sharp LCD then you could be in business.

If, as it seems, the 8890 is not for you, you might try the Fujitsu N5010. Whilst not quite as fast as the 8890 it does come with a 16" SXGA that I am told is rather good. Maybe even better than the good SXGA's in the 8890s.

Good luck finding the right laptop for your needs.

Man that sucks. My condolances. Glad I didnt have that problem or I would have thrown a fit, after waiting and all. Wasnt easy, when I ordered mine I was away on work and didnt have one and was using the hotel lobby pc.

that has got to be the worst banding I have *ever* seen
No way is the SXGA screen supposed to look like that. That is not a driver issue.
It is a faulty system. Period. How on earth did Sager ever let that out the door I will never know. I hope you get it fixed dude.

Yea, if there is an inspection person assigned to that one, check his/her eyesight.

One desperate solution you might try if Sager and/or PC Torque would be up for it is to order a Sharp LCD from one of the LCD suppliers. The SXGA screens are available just not in manufacturing quantities.

The part number for the Sharp SXGA LCD is LQ160E1LW02.
Try http://www.lcds4less.com/sharp-lcds.shtml

Now I can understand you use of the underclocking. Makes sense. We are so tied up on squeezing the maximum number of CPU cycles from our laptops we sometimes forget to take time out to smell the roses.

Magic, that's too bad. That looks like it'd be a truly beautiful screen if that banding weren't there I hope between Adam & Sager, you'll be taken care of.

(for the next screen!)

Have to concur here. CBG would undoubtedly express it as, "Worst banding. Ever." Truly ashame.

Only because it applies, I will relate my own 8890 screen experiences. The first 16" UXGA display I received seemed flawless. Not one morbid pixel. However, there was a very peculiar issue when any display driver (Driver CD supplied, Sager download, ATI Catalyst, Omega, etc) other than the standard Windows display driver was used. The problem : a faint, high pitched electronic discharge whine occurred any and every time the display was being changed in any manner (ie, a window was maximized or minimized, activating the Start menu, during the DirectX diagnostic, etc). I could liken it to a fainter and higher pitched degaussing sound. Bizarre. I thought for certain it was driver related in some manner, but try as I might, I could not find a workaround (even with all the permutations of display drivers at alternate resolutions AND color depths). No performance degredation other than this strange (and yes, annoying) sound. Spoke with PC Torque technical support, and they concurred it was not normal operation, (spoke with Mike, and he thought it could be indicative of a larger problem, possibly power related or the motherboard). Unfortunately, it required being returned.

Rather than a repair, I opted for a full return and repurchase, as the price had dropped significantly (ergo, enough that even with eating the cost of three shipments, there was over a $150 difference), and I thought the Warrantech + Shipment Cost warranties were better suited for my purposes. Also, I was well within the first thirty days.

Devices employing this level of technology are bound to have problems. Just the sheer magnitude of the combinatorial events are staggering. Imagine purchasing from an automobile market where a part never failed within the first year, or you were guaranteed to receive a make and model without defect. Now compare the automobile purchase to a purchase roughly 1/10th to 1/15th the price, and roughly 1/3rd the product life.

The above guarantees of perfection are, unfortunately for the consumer, unheard of. That does not, however, mean the consumer is unprotected or forced to be content with "less than acceptable". There are guarantees and warranties in place just for this reason - 30 Day Money Back Guarantees, 30 Day 48-Hour Repair Guarantees, One Year 72-Hour Repair Guarantees, etc. Even a "Less than perfect" Display Guarantee.

It should also be noted that knowingly purchasing a product that makes use of a discontinued or rare technology can often be problematic. The 16" SXGA screen technology seems to be less popular at the moment, among manufacturers. Much like 16" UXGA technology. Opting into this feature or any similar feature means accepting the risk involved. Even with stringent quality testing, malefic as the possibility may seem, failures are going to occur.

We would all rather have perfect, flawless machines that perform optimally; but the exact mathematical likelihood of such is - as perhaps those in aussie's part of the world might contend - "not bloody likely".

Regardless, good luck with whichever machine you choose to replace your unfortunate situation with.

@MagicRobin

I think your 8890 seems to have some real problems, especially it's screen and maybe also it's internal cooling, e.g it's fans. - Since you said it's a painted one, I can imagine that they maybe didn't reassembled it that well after it has been painted (of course this is just a guess into the blue...). Or they did a poor final quality control testing for your machine...

Related to the SXGA screen, Aussie is the expert here since he has himself a 8890 model with that screen resolution. And if he says that yours has probably a problem you can believe him.

Related to the fan noise, my Clevo D800P isn't loud when it's fans start on and it also doesn't suffer from any resonances or the like. My D800P keyboard is great too, damned sturdy and solid, it doesn't flex, bend or something like that. - It's just that I'am personally usually more used to the IBM Thinkpad keyboard layouts and thus I have to train myself more for a comfortable use of the Clevo keyboard layout.

I've baught my Clevo in town near where I live (30 minutes away with a car from me) and the Clevo Dealer is a buddy of me. So his assembling crew was treating my machine with absolute first priority care and made sure that everything is perfect. - The day I went in to take up my D800P I've tested the machine ~3 hours at the residence of my dealer. I've checked the ZERO Dead Pixel UXGA display (yes my european dealer has a zero dead/stuck pixel policy...), installed the initial WinXP Pro, got a mini-USB WiFi card as a gift, which I've assembled and tested immediately at my dealers place and so on...

That was also the place where I've tested my D800P in comparison to the new D870P and the D510P (all with the same build in CPUs) and thus I can tell you for sure it is still the best and quietest of all of them.

As a verdict I for my part can only recommend to buy from a domestic dealer near your place, since then you are on the more secure side and in case of any possible trouble, you can be lightning fast knocking on your resellers door (no stress with oversee shipings and the like...).

I think the SXGA is rare because it's a 5:4 screen rather than 4:3.

You mentioned that you wish Intel would make a quieter, cooler CPU. But they do! And at a price. I hope you wasn't wishing for a CPU with the same power as the P4C, only running cooler. That's would be fantastic, but too good to be true. Instead, we have the Pentium-M. This is the cool processor that people want, and the slight drop in performance is inevitable.