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8890 Caps/Num Lock LED Blinking Help

post #1 of 14
10/22/04 at 11:37am
Thread Starter 
My Caps and Num Lock LED have been blinking green. Anyone know what this means?

Thanks,
Ronnie
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post #2 of 14
10/22/04 at 3:00pm
On the 8790 - it meant that there was a VERY serious HEAT problem.
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post #3 of 14
11/8/04 at 10:04am
What G-Omaha said.
I had exactly this happen to me about 1 month ago. I left my 8890 in a friends back room with the blinds open. Suffice it to say the room got hot and with the sun streaming in onto the laptop, it got a bit too hot. Luckily the system did the smart thing and shut itself down but left the blinking lights you describe.

The system will be ok after a power cycle, although I am going to go thru my heatsink and clean it out then apply some brand new Arctic Silver 5 as a present. Just keep it out of direct sunlight in a hot back room...
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post #4 of 14
11/24/04 at 1:04am
I have this same problem plus a fan is not working. I just replaced the fan unit (it comes with two fans in an aluminum housing.) Still doing the same thing and the same fan is not working. Got a bad feeling that it is a $600 MoBo. Sager won't send me one either. Very protective of the MoBo's. I have to send it off to them with a $80 installation fee and $40 for shipping too. They say it may not be the mobo, but it is quite likely. Anyhow it will be gone for 10 days. I got an RMA number with an open time to use it, since I am out of warantee. I can mail it in any old time and the RMA will be good. I am not having any problems other than the blinky lights. As long as I don't play any intense 3D games it stays plenty cool. So I may hold off til after Christmas to mail it in.
So in my case the blinky lights are telling me that one of the fans is inop, not that it is overheated.
P.S. I had to take the whole computer apart to swap out the fan unit. Meticulous screw organization insured that it all went back together happily. The service manual is a godsend for this operation too.
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post #5 of 14
11/24/04 at 5:19am
Sorry to hear this hkancyr. Good luck with the RMA.
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post #6 of 14
11/24/04 at 5:22am
As an aside to this I finally got around to cleaning out my heatsink (which of course involved doing the Arctic Silver thing as well). Now my laptop is back to brand new after removing the huge fur ball (curtain?) I found in there. Temps cycle between 45 and 55 degC. I have come to the conclusion you need to clean these beasts at least every 6 months for a relatively clean environment and maybe more frequently if you have a lot of dust/dirt etc around.
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post #7 of 14
11/24/04 at 11:00am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the help, it turned out that my vents and heat sink were severely clogged with dust bunnies (I was wondering why there wasn't any air flow coming from the vents). I cleaned it out and actually added some artic silver V to it and it's running like a dream again with no blinking lights.

Ronnie
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post #8 of 14
11/24/04 at 5:18pm
I have never had any dust problems, due the way I use the computer, I guess. I have it on a Targus stand and it is always on a table in what must be a relatively dust free environment. After 2 years of use the fans that I removed were only slightly dusty themselves and the heatsink is visually dust free. Ironic that something inside gave it up after I gave it such a nice life.
I really appreciate this thing all the more after having taken it apart. It has half the screws of my old Dell and I much easier to work on. Technology marches on....
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post #9 of 14
11/24/04 at 5:22pm
OK how about 14 months instead of 2 years. I'm lost in time
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post #10 of 14
2/21/05 at 7:38pm
Evidently this blinky light problem is way more complex than I could imagine. I sent my 8890 back to sager 1/5/05 and it's still there. They replaced the MoBo and then they ran into the same problem again. The last I heard was a week and a half ago. Geez I hope everything works OK when I get it back.
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post #11 of 14
3/11/05 at 9:30pm
Got it back March 4th and it works like a dream. It only cost $80 + $40 shipping.

2 months for this fix might be too long for someone who needs their 8890 for school or work.

I just use it to play games and edit photos at work, so no problem here.
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post #12 of 14
3/11/05 at 11:16pm
Good to hear man. What's that first $80 charge for? You said $80 plus $40 shipping - but I can't imagine repairs costing as little as that. Or if you're still under warranty, I can't imagine them costing anything at all...
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post #13 of 14
3/12/05 at 12:53am
I'm out of warranty. I think they put a new mobo in. I don't know why it was $80. That was one reason I wasn't too upset about how long it took. They originally quoted $600 so when they said $80 and that they put 2 motherboards in it I was treading softly thinking that they were going to come back with a monster bill. Needless to say I am happy about the bill. I was so happy about it that I paid for faster shipping, which come to think about it, I didn't get.

I'm just happy to have it back and working. I felt sure that it would be returned worse for wear, I was wrong.
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post #14 of 14
3/12/05 at 8:10am
Wow, that's an awesome bill seeing as they replaced the MOBO. Glad you're back up and running!
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