Live from Japan: The FT 8790 Review - Page 11  

It's been on the List of Things To Do, but given the way Life's been, just hasn't gotten done. I'm home sick today, though, so it's lookin' to be a Nuke day.

I'm fairly sure it's not drivers, BUT... I was thinking earlier that it *might* be possible since I don't have artifacting on the boot screen or the XP splash screen. At that point, the drivers are loaded, I do believe, so there is the possibility that I could get squared away.

If that doesn't work, well... then I start jumpin' up and down and screaming all over and pulling what's left o' my hair out.

And everyone thought I was probably dead... Been away from the forums for quite awhile. My how times flies. Amazing how having a life detracts from one's online life

Power problems
Here is my C&P'd msg to Sager:
Background: I have 2 power adapters. One at work and one at home. Both sit in semi-permanent locations (ie- are not ever moved from their spots). I simply unplug my 8790, take it to work (or vice versa), plug it in and go.
Yesterday morning, I awoke to my 8790 beeping at me (hibernation/battery low warning). I checked the connection and although the power cord was connected (nothing had changed- the computer had been plugged in since I got home the day before), it was not charging. That particular power supply had been making an odd tinny sound (fan bearing going out, perhaps?) for a few months and that sound has
ceased. So I assumed that the power supply had failed. Since I had another adapter at work, I wasn't too worried about it.
Upon arriving at work, I plugged into the work adapter and got booted up. Everything seemed to be fine. I left the room for about an hour or so. Upon coming back, the 8790 was exhibiting the same behavior as at home. When I wiggled the connector, the AC and Charging LEDs would come on. I'd also blown compressed air through the home adapter and tried it again- it didn't seem any worse or better than the work adapter. I removed the battery and tried to power up w/ only AC, but that failed.
So far, I can get the battery to start to charge by wiggling the connector. However, over time, the connection fails and charging stops. I'm assuming the problem is inside the power jack on the 8790's backside. Unless it's just the battery not wanting to hold a charge, thus making it *look* like a bad connection.
I would like to hear your thoughts on how to fix this.


I also made a note for them that the artifacting hadn't gone away. However, since I use the computer primarily for work and rarely for gaming, my main aim at the time is keeping it stable and running. Getting everything reworked for use here at my job here requires a lot of excess time, energy and having an outside tech come in to get everything squared away (so it's not just a minor fuss w/ reloading software). Major PITA all around, so I don't fuss with it much as long as I can get it to perform at work. Artifacting only happens in gaming at the present. Before the motherboard was replaced by Clevo, it happened on the desktop, too. If I can keep it contained to an occasional gaming session, then I'm satisfied for the time being. I'm not happy that I've got a unit that doesn't work right, but until I feel like taking time out from work to deal with this and shelling out big bucks for shipping it to/from the States, that's where I sit.

Feel like I've said all that before, but just wanted to update just in case anyone was wondering if anything's changed much since I was last around (and no, Boogieman, you don't count )

Well, so far my correspondence with Sager Support has been less than... optimistic. The tech I'm speaking to believes that the DC port-in is the problem. I can't say that I disagree. However, since I'd sent in my unit to Clevo for repair on the artifacting issue (and I'd mentioned that the artifacting wasn't 100% fixed- just good enough to be usable for work), the tech states that I need to contact Clevo. I asked how that was related to the DC port-in problem, but have received no answer to that particular question. I'm ready to bang my head here. Nice machine, but has hardly worked at 100% capacity since I got it. Don't think I even got 6 months out of it before it started misbehaving. I've eked a year and a half out of it now, but only by not playing any system stressing games on it. Support before seemed quick and helpful. This time, somewhat quick and not very helpful.

/grumpy

Yeah, not sure how that all works out... only did it because I wanted to save $$$ in the shipping process, so might've shot myself in the foot in having done so. As for shipping it back, I figured that's what needs to be done. If the DC port-in is shot, then I would assume that's built-in to the motherboard. That'd be the 2nd motherboard replacement for this machine. My very first notebook, a Fujitsu, was also on its way to a 2nd motherboard replacement before it was stolen by a FutureShop employee with sticky fingers. Heck if I don't have all the luck...

I do have the extended warranty through Warrantech. If I remember right from the first time, their stance is: Contact whoever it takes, fix it, pay for it and send us a receipt. PITA.

*frustrated*

I should've wiped it and reinstalled immediately after getting it back from Clevo/Taiwan. But like I'd explained off the boards to you, it's an immense PITA, so I figured I'd see if I could go w/o. At this point, I'm down and out no matter what, so it wouldn't make sense not to do the full meal deal.

Thing is, I really have no faith in this machine performing as I expect it to. So I'm considering selling it once it's repaired by Sager and getting something new. New 5720 looks good, but I'm not sure if I want to go through all this hassle again if it's got as many issues as the 8790 did for me.

Backup problem

Got the green light from Sager the other day to RMA my machine. Still have it. What's the problem you say? Well, heck if I can get my HD backed up. I had most everything backed up, but not everything. I want everything saved just in case Sager has to wipe it.

I have an external case that I just bought recently to replace a previous one that seems to've wonked out on me. Put my 80gig 5400 drive in there and seems to work just fine. Pulled the 60gig 7200 out of the Sager, stuck it in there and I get a "disk structure is corrupted and unreadable." WTH? Tried it on my Sony FX-120 and it was similar in not reading it, just w/o the nasty error msg. Tried a work computer and it acted like I'd connected up a disk drive and I hadn't put in a CD.

I'd really like to get this thing on the move and have been banging my head on this for awhile now. Any clues?

Thank you. Will see what I can do w/ that. Think I had some data recovery software that I'd gotten somewhere else... but think it's on the 8790's drive

Just tried again and realize that XP's treating it as a DVD-RAM drive. 何だこれ？？


Edit: Tried the trial version of their recovery software. No go. Said the drive was unformatted or incompatible. THAT's news to me... Do I have gremlins in my 8790?

Like G asked in my thread in the 8790 Support section, the 60gig that I'm trying to access is the main boot disk from my 8790 (for anyone else that might've been wondering).

Travelstar 60gb backup update
Bought another USB external case last night after work. Didn't make a spot of difference. Tried running Scandisk on the drive, but still get a Drive is Unformatted or Corrupted error. Very disheartening. More disheartening that the recovery software posted above by Col. Wild basically hit the same wall. I was thinking of trying out Advanced Data Recovery's software. Will post the results if I give it a whirl.

Having spoken with Sager about this, the possibility of the HD having gone bad was raised. This seems odd that it'd hit at the same time as the DC power-in port. I wonder if there's any way that the two could be connected? DC power-in port goes wonky and causes some sort of power surge? I have no clue. Drive never showed any signs (to my knowledge) of problems previously.