I have received my 8890 - And it's going back :( - Page 3

Just a quick note... I see people on this forum talking about not wanting the 1600x1200 resolution because it strains their eyes. When I first installed winblows xp on my new 8890 the text was TINY. I quickly realized that I needed bigger text, and changed my dpi rating and font size. Now my screen is perfectly readable from my normal 2 foot viewing distance. You can do a similar thing in linux with the dpi setting. The only time I notice the TINY pixels is when I'm running DarkAgeOfCamelot in window mode because the chat text is a really small bitmap font, but full screen it's no problem. Also, 1600x1200 is a perfect res... Games that like hi-res can deal with it, and games that can't happily run at the perfectly divisible 800x600 res.

With any contemporary OS supporting DPI adjustments, why wouldn't you get as many pixels as you can? More pixels==sharper fonts. That's the joy of vector (Truetype, etc) fonts, after all.
Just my $0.02

Magic you seem to have been caught in the "end of production" curse. When manufacturing is cutting from one product or design to another it cobbles together special orders with what is left over. To have to wait four months is way, way too much. It signals that the screen and/or other parts and pieces were not available. Who knows what parts you have and where they have been? Not only were you denied "routine and reasonable" use and enjoyment of your purchase but it arrived defective. To top it all off this delay caused you to purchase a system that had been superceded. Of course, had it been perfect your desire to wait would be your call but since it arrived so late "and" defective there are issues in your favor that a call to your local barrister will confirm. Check to see if you can get full credit against a new current system or a refund.

Notebooks are tradeoffs. I want a full desktop with top performance in a small mobile package. Well, Sager produces pure lightning. That produces heat and those pesky fans that you have to mod to tone down the hum. Then again you have mobility but for the juice, you have to put up with the weight. The power supply doesn't have enough depth to prevent the audio hiss but it has four speakers and a woofer. For the moment it is the best for performance and mobility. Face it. It is fringe technology. A bit roughshod but ample enough if power and some mobility are the main requirements.

Don't but a Prescott. Every article I've read has them being slower and hotter. Even hotter than a 3.4 EE.

Lastly, thanks for the topic. I'm always interested in what people experience no matter if it is deemed negative or positive to the brand. I'm sure Sager reads this because it is great feedback for product improvement and I'd bet dollars to donuts that Aussies and others comments have gifted them with $$$$$$$ of free workarounds, fixes and engineering.

I like the Sager package but I'm still holding out for a better audio chip. It is available and was available five years ago. My desk as a hole drilled the top from whence ductwork pumps nice cool air. This box gets moved only in case of a lockdown or security breach which is easy since you only have to snatch a few cables off. Now in the future (and I am looking and researching that) Sager is going to release something with all the new goodies such as ddr-2, integrated audio etc.etc.etc. If it is only a couple of months or so I can wait but if it is going to be ploughed a year into the future I'll plunge for an interim system.

i'd rather have a 16" SXGA than any other screen as well. >_<

the 17" WXGA has a weird stretching effect that will take getting used to, and the 15/16" UXGA is just verrry small. can't play new games at it, but playing them at 800x600 isn't really ideal either. *shrug*.

noise is something i lived with for more than a year. My desktop had a thermaltake volcano 7+ or something in it. Half-way through its life, i broke the switch that controls the speed. So it alwasy ran on the highest setting. It was loud. I eventually trained myself to sleep with it because i had constant file-sharing running. ... i hope i can learn to live with the noise of the 8790/8890 in the same way - i mean, if i could sleep with my damn PC running, hopefully i can use my laptop with the noise ... i wont leave it on for filesharing.... (i don't think)...

thanks for sharing your experiences with the 16" SXGA. i guess the tried and true way of going is the way to go.... *shrug*..

good luck with the next laptop.

fiddlesticks is right man.

Paint paint paint!

Those are the pics I wanna see


As for the screen, that's F@#*d!!!

Boo to Sager for a very bad call.

Well hmm, dang. I really wouldn't feel bad if you stung PCTorque with a return on something as POS as that... I mean cmon. Any technician looking at that going out would have to ask "MY GOD! That screen looks atrocious! How can we ship it out?" And if they ship it than they accept responsibility if it comes back. They had their chance to win over a customer and blew it big time Maybe once it hits the pocket book companies will start shaping up. My friend is on his 4th dell laptop screen and 2nd desktop LCD... and still getting new ones because they are wretched. Even my 5680 screen has weird bruises appearing on it now out of thin air!

Sorry about the noise as well... My 5680 is rather inaudible when the fans are on low. Even when the fans are on high its not as loud as my friends' P4-m Dells. Still my fans do come on at idle like yours and always ramp up to high before going down to their normal speed. I can see how this could become very annoying if you are sensitive to sound. I'd say your unit is just a VERY noisy one, and not the typical Sager laptop. The 3.4 is also going to be significantly hotter... Throttling the CPU does effectively nothing for battery life (while idling) or power consumption (since voltage is unchanged). So if I was you I'd probably have gone with something more mundane ie. 3Ghz.

Again, sorry to hear you had so many problems :/ I love my 5680 and take heart in the other people here enjoying their models. Its upsetting to hear about your bad experience as we've all been there at one time or another and want PCTorque to aspire to something higher. I guess even the best trip and fall in a pile of crap sometimes . Good luck with whatever you end up doing!

That's pretty much the computer that I'd decided on getting awhile back- the aegean blue 8890, except w/ a 16.1" screen. However, the size and possible screen washout held me back. Seeing your pics makes me want to order one. I almost went w/ Hypersonic because of the paint job (on the 8790)

I still can't believe that Sager says there's no problem. That really makes me worried about the next 3 yrs of my Sager ownership. If I have a problem, are they going to address it or just say that it's "normal?"

Bad, bad, BAD on Sager's part
As happy as I am with the service I've received so far from PCT, if I'd've read this before ordering, I might not've ever ordered a Sager. This is one of them things that makes or breaks a deal for me. At this point, I can only hope that someone else @ Sager addresses the issue and that particular Sager rep is reprimanded for bad customer service in not dealing with a known issue. (Well, I can hope, can't I? )

Hmm, I don't know why my CPU doesn't run cooler when throttled then... I have it currently running at 500Mhz idle (verified using Sandra's CPU bench program) and the temperatures are identical to when its running full speed at 3Ghz. The only time I can see it making things run cooler or using less battery is under load - because its MAX heat output and performance are limited...but the mins never change.

Well, I would suggest you make some pics of the bad banding effect on your screen and then send them to Laura and/or Adam, so they can forward these to the ...so called... representive Sager technician. - Let's see if he then still admits that the panel is pretty normal and well inside it's tolerances...

I believe the guy doesn't relly know how the banding on your panel looks like and thus gave and standard blah blah answer...

I don't think YOU'RE the one who should be apologizing. I can't get over it, either and it's not even my machine.

For something that readily apparent, Sager's response is simply in the realm of unbelievability. I wouldn't expect any manufacturer to answer like that, much less Sager.

MagicRobin,

You have a very valid bitch w/Sager and your reseller. Sager claiming those lines on your screen are normal is ridiculous. You should get a new working screen or a full refund including shipping. I hope we are not seeing a downturn in Sager support. It's already riddled with engrish.

Do you think your paint job is affecting this matter?

Robin, I have an 8890 that has the exact same screen effect. The problem seems to be that the screens are 18bit and do not have the dithering circuitry enabled. There have been many threads about this, as I am sure you are aware. Sager insists that this screen is 24bit, but as you can see, it isn't. I know because I emailed them about it too. Most 18bit screens use a special technique called "Frame modulation" to make the banding far less noticable. These Sager SXGA LCDs do not seem to enable this circuitry or it is defective in some way. I would assume that the video BIOS has to be able to support it as well, but I haven't been able to get any more information regarding that.

That said, I decided to keep my 8890 even with this display issue because the screen is so dang razor sharp and clear for my programming work. The banding doesn't really bother me in games and I do not do any video or photoshop type of work on the system. Also, the downside of frame modulation is that it isn't free in terms of performance. The response rate will suffer from what I have been able to gather. The beauty of this screen is that ghosting is non-existant.

Anyway.. hope that info helps, FWIW.

Robin, totally agreed on all points. I would send it back too if I were in your shoes. The SXGA is truly not a 24bit screen, no matter what Sager might be saying. There should be a note next to that choice informing people of the trade off. Not so sure about Aussie's screen, he may just be to old to see it right! He seems to be the only person *without* the issue... hmmm... (jk, Aussie )

Have read through the entire thread, and afraid perhaps something mentioned early on has not been thoroughly addressed. Even though this machine was ordered in November, it shipped at some point in February. Or, at least from the facts presented, it would have appeared to have.

If such is the case, and you are still within the first thirty days, would it matter what complaint one had for returning the machine? From personal experience (as mentioned in an earlier reply), my first UXGA display had a small flaw (see earlier post. note : was not a pixel issue). Sager offered to fix the problem. They also offered a complete return as the cost from PC Torque had dropped in the days since my machine had shipped, and it would actually be more inexpensive and much faster to simply purchase another machine, and get a full refund on the prior one. The only loss would be the shipping (approximately $30 shipping east coast to west coast, with insurance for $2,700), and even this is not an unreasonable cost to absorb.

Summarization : if still within the first thirty days since the shipping date, whether Sager acknowledges the issue or not is irrelevant. Does the fact that the machine was painted somehow void this return period? If so, that should have of course been considered prior to purchase. If you are not within the first thirty days since the shipping date, one would have to question why you waited to this point to set these events into motion.

Also, it should be noted that the first post in this thread was made on March 18th. It is now the end of business on the 22nd. That is approximately a total of two to three business days. The issues first recorded in the original post were made aware to Sager/PC Torque on the 18th, or sooner? It appears that Sager has made an effort to accomodate at least a few of the problems mentioned (if not the screen, certainly the TV Tuner and Bluetooth issues that were addressed). Perhaps returning the machine, and allowing a technical representative to see the display issues first hand - in addition to the other problems - would expedite a solution you find favorable. Working out such a resolution shouldn't be all that difficult, but will require actually returning the machine. Do not believe you will find much success until that occurs, regardless of how overwhelming the evidence is (and I think your display issue is a valid one). Once there, they should offer to replace the screen with a comparable model if the original type is unavailable (and it sounds as though it is). It has been mentioned several times - in addition to you being aware of the facts prior to purchase - that the SXGA screens are rare. An earlier post by another member made mention of "end of production cycle" products. The risks, and subsequent effects taking such risks, are inherent to the purchase choice you made. I do not believe Sager can be held accountable for lack of supply of a certain component; the only accountability should be their liability on an end user receiving a defective component, and making certain they are accomodated as fully as possible. Tha, in this case, may not mean you receiving a replacement SXGA display.

Keeping a reasonable head about oneself and being patient (which can indeed be difficult) typically bears a positive outcome. Am certain PC Torque will undoubtedly continue to strive to make this situation right for you.

Good luck.