I need some 8790 tips

Deutch420,

When you eceive your unit you will have much to do.

1). Slowly unpack the unit and take inventory.
2). Power it on.
Edit: Install Virus and spyware protection software.
3). Set up WiFi and Internet connection.
If you have problem with the WiFi - check out the "where do the wires go" thread and accomplish adjustements and see if that helps.
4). Download latest MS Operating system updates.
5). Load you "custom" software.
6). Download any additional MS Operating system updates.
7). Have a refreshment and take a break.
8). Enjoy the machine as it is all set to go.

Now after a day, you should really start to test each and every option that you purchased to insure that it works. Pretty much, it will be "good to go" right out of the box; except, you will need to discharge and recharge the battery at least once.

Good luck with your new machine.

Why should one discharge and recharge the battery at least once?

Also I'd check for dead pixels soon after you get it. I would also check to see that all the ports and components (keyboard buttons, speakers, etc...) are working.

If it works and you get signal strengths greater than 25dbs in most cases - just leave it alone. I get between 27 and 35dbs.

Use MS Update, it should already be installed on the machine and be viewable in the START menu.

Smart Li-Ons need to be discharged and recharged about once a month or they turn "dumb". THis is a "religios" discussion and many believe that this is just "not so". From personal experience, I know that if you don't discharge and recharge a batter for a year, when you need the battery it will go from 90+ percent to zip in just one or two minutes. When you recharge it, that "capacity/duration" persists.

The screen check was relagated to the "test" phase (see quote above). Sometimes, it takes a day or so for errant pixels to appear. That was the case for my first 8790. Why be elated, just to be disappointed in a day or two?

G-Omaha gave you the easy stuff , here's the stuff that I had problems with and the ways that I got around them.

Before anything else, get XP SP2. It will help protect you and help iron out many potential driver issues in the future.

My first problem, newer games were occasionally hanging or rebooting the PC:

Uninstall the stock Sager video drivers and get the latest Omega Catalyst drivers for the 9700 Mobility. You must uninstall using the uninstall utility and reboot at least once, perhaps twice to fully unload the ATI drivers and helper program. Read up on it in the forums if you have Q's. Some folks say use the old drivers like the 4.4s, some say get new ATIs, I read all the threads and then got the latest Omeagas, 4.7. They seem to be the most stable and feature rich. 4.8s will be out soon, and I'll get them as soon as they are available.

I won't even suggest that you overclock the vid card, yet, but eventually you will realize that the 9700 can be safely OCed to around 500/300 using the Omega drivers with the built-in OC utility. Which gives a 20% bump in FPS performance using AC power. (Never OC using battery power!)

Also I always use the F-10 feature to put the fan on high during all gaming. Guaranteed to improve stability and increase lifespan of the whole computer.

Built-in microphone wasn't working:

Then get new sound card drivers directly from Realtek, the latest AC'97 Drivers. My built-in microphone wasn't working out of the box, and it took this driver update to get it working. Now the mic works very well with little interference from the built-in stuff, (as well as "fixing a bunch of other bugs" that I never heard myself.)

After configuring the WiFi properly,the PC got bumped off the WiFi LAN upon reboot, required going into the Windows setup every single time to connect manually:

Uninstall the WiFi manager program that came preloaded from Sager, it kept conflicting with the Windows WiFi utility. I could probably reinstall the utility now, so that it loads long after the Windows WiFi drivers, maybe it would work. Perhaps this software is the way top get the "Turbo-WiFi" going, I'm not sure. Heck, 56kbps (or whatever) is fast enbough for me without Turbo mode on. That's more than my broad-band throughput is anyway.

Built-in Bluetooth couldn't connect to Logitech MX900 mouse without requiring a PIN:

Uninstall the Billionton Bluetooth driver that came preloaded and install the new Microsoft ones. Now the Bluetooth can see and use my MX900 mouse just fine.

Speakers built into the front of the case would not work:

The two speakers next to the keyboard obviously worked, but the two in front didn't. I could even see that the speakers were installed through the front grilles, but I couldn't get them to turn on and work.

Apparantly, this was because I had selected either 4-channel or the 6-channel selection in the speaker utility setup in the tool tray. In either of these configurations, the built-in front speakers are apparantly disabled and when you do the "buzzing bee" surround sound test it is clear that you miss the rear channel sounds.

But if you select the 2-speaker setup, then all 4 built-in speakers start working in surround mode. Do the buzzing bee again and the newly turned on speakers in the front of the case act as the rear channel while the speakers on the top of the laptop act as the front channel. Then they really give good surround sound effects, but it must be on the 2-speaker setup. Go figure. I wonder if another newer or better speaker utility might make this work better.

External rear speakers wouldn't work:

Then to complicate things, if you then plug in external speakers in 4 channel mode, you must select the 6-channel mode (not the 4 channel because it doesn't seem to work) in the sound setup, and use the front audio jacks out to plug into the external amp. Funny thing though, the jack layouts on the front of the 8790 seem a bit backwards. Mine are (going from left to right); rear channel, center/sub channel and then front channel, with no color coding. But when I open the sound utility, the pictures of the jacks are aranged (from top to bottom) as follows; front channel, rear channel, and center/sub. So they don't match up with the jacks out, and it was very confusing at first, but once I figured out which one was which, it all made sense.

Finally, when it is all loaded just right with drivers but no applications, defrag the HDD, make a Windows restore point, and make a restore CD so if anything blows up later, you can get right back where you were with a minimum of effort and downtime.

Its in the BIOS. You need to depress and hold the Function (Fn) key and F10 at the same time to turn this on and off.

Interesting. Just wondering, how do you discharge a battery.

Also that's a very useful post SpiderMAX. Thanks
I'm gonna try to get a plan to check everything in anticipation of my 3790.

Set the power management options to simply do "nothing". Then run the machine until it shuts off.

DO NOT TRY TO RESTART IT AFTER THIS -- UNTIL you have reapplied A/C power. I recommend that you you give the machine a "head start" and let is start to charge for a few minutes before using it again.

Also DO NOT PLAY GAMES OR RUN CPU/GPU EXTENSIVE APPLICATIONS while on battery. The is true for 8 Cell Batteries and the 8790 Units (Not sure if it is also true for any other units).

w/Sub...

Anywho make sure you check your screen for bubbles and/or dead pixels!!!
I had a bubble, It looked like it was in-between the glossy screen coating and the screen it. They told me it was a scratch but i highly doubt that from the way it looked....
Check all your devices, Modem, WiFi, HDD, all your ports usb,firewire, etc.
and check your Ethernet, theres been problems with the onboard ethernet and I got one of those crap for crap onboard ethernet ports that didn't work.

Right now my lappy is on its second trip back to SAGER in CA....
Make sure everything works and works good so you don't have to keep sending it back to the shop like me.....

what FDD do you guys use

what FDD drive do you have ..I can't get the SONY to work with my D8790P.. tech support said it has to be a NEC FDD
Thanks

takes 10 working days if not rushed... sorry...

There was a price drop? Of how much?