Pro-Star D470K (Same as Sager 4750) Laptop Issues - Page 2

BT and Air,

Thanks for the replies. BT, I agree with you that my problem likely isn't the Hard Drive at this point. I didn't think it was in the beginning but trying to actually speak with a live person at Pro-Star was like pulling teeth... Once I was able to talk to a live person either the language barrier or a preconceived notion in the minds of all of the technicians that they know more than their customers kept me from getting my point across that I could replicate the problem with a different hard drive.

Air, I agree that I should try and get a new laptop and really think that Pro-Star should at this point send a new one. I'll try your suggestion about having them cross ship a new one if I have the same problem with mine when it comes back. My patience only extends so far and if they're silly enough to think that the hard drive has gone bad again and ship it back after swapping in a 2nd new hard drive I will go ballistic on them.

At the moment I have time to spare and can afford to be without the laptop but I've preregistered for a LAN party which is at the end of the month and intend to have a working 4750 by no later than the 22nd.

I'll update the saga of the laptop as I get new information.

Chris

*update* Pro-Star has replaced the motherboard in the laptop and is shipping the laptop back to me. I'll post again when I have the laptop in hand and can test their repair work

I'm writing what I hope will be my final update. I received my D470K from Pro-Star this evening and read the slip included with the laptop - the motherboard had been replaced this trip.

Thinking all would be well I booted the laptop up with the default Pro-Star build still on the hard drive and was greeted with a windows desktop. Shortly upon desktop build the machine locked up, requiring a power button hold to shut down. Several reboot cycles resulted in the machine blue screening once, loading the desktop several times and shutting down within seconds of the desktop build and locking up upon login.

I got frustrated with the Build and spent the next 2.5 hours restoring an image that I'd saved before originally sending the laptop into Pro-Star for repair. The image copied properly via Acronis's True Image management console (if you don't have this piece of software or are still using Ghost I highly recommend switching - I use Ghost at work and Acronis's software is, IMHO, much easier to configure (universal boot disk, easy image creation, I could go on and on...). I rebooted and upon desktop load I frantically tried to load Mobile Meter. The laptop repeated it's earlier shutdown shortly after boot behavior but not before I had a chance to look at Mobile Meter and notice that the CPU was running at 76 degrees C. MUCH too hot!

Throwing caution to the wind and certainly voiding my warrantee if Pro-Star techs read this forum and figure out who I am I popped the cover over the Heatsink/CPU area off and noticed that the heat sink was sitting slightly off center and flush. Another few gentle twists with a phillips head screwdriver ever so carefully to avoid crushing the core and deathly afraid that Pro-Star had already chipped a corner of it I lifted the very hot heatsink and heatsink pipe off of the CPU. Upon inspection I realized that in addition to the heatsink NOT being properly seated Pro-Star had neglected to replace the thermal pad Clevo had originally used. Shaking my head I scoured the house looking for the tube of arctic silver I am sure is here somewhere...

I came up empty but found a tube of heatsink paste I bought waaaay back in the mid 90's when I first started building PC's for fun and profit. I've always suspected that the contents of this tube are nothing more than zinc oxide but knowing that properly applied it would be better than the crust and thin piece of metal left from the thermal pad I carefully scraped all the residue from the heatsink/heatpipe and applied a thin layer of paste to the CPU.

I reseated the heatsink and retightened the screws in a diagnonal pattern. For those interested in getting rid of the thermal pad and applying heatsink compound I would recommend noting which screws go where in the heatsink: I believe two of the screws have different size threads than the others. I put the CPU cover back on and crossed my fingers that I hadn't made the problem worse...

By this time the CPU had cooled off. Windows loaded properly and I fired up Mobile Meter which read 46 degrees C. I breathed a small sigh of relief while I did a few basic thing: checked email, opened firefox, updating drivers, accessed a network share and several other tasks all while watching Mobile Meter. The temp reading did not rise above 50 degrees C.

Hoping I'd solved the problem I fired up 3DMark 2003. Keeping a watchful eye between benchmarks I was able to determine that the peak temperature hit around 73 degrees C and observed that once the benchmark was finished the temperature returned to 50 degrees C within a reasonable period of time.

I did want to pass this along for reference purposes so that others who may have similar issues as mine with this or any other laptop and have a motherboard replaced are aware that the technician may not reseat the heatsink properly and may not replace the thermal pad or apply heatsink paste.

My thanks to those on the board who made me aware of Mobile Meter and to the programmer for what I consider to be an indispensable diagnostic tool. Had it not been for Mobile Meter it may have taken me additional time to determine the cause of my shutdowns/lockups which would have caused additional thermal stress to the CPU and other components in the laptop.

Finally my thanks to all who have posted on this topic - your advice was well thought out and appreciated.

Chris

Fan firmware and BIOS are up to date. I've switched to the portable/laptop profile as I am not in the camp of folks who demands that the Proc run at full clock speed 24/7. Reliabilty is more important to me.

Auger, fan firmware is listed during the POST. Press the pause break button as soon as you see the POST screen on your monitor to make it a bit easier to catch. You can press any other key to resume the boot process.

And yes, if i have further problems within a reasonable time period I'll pursue a refund or new laptop from Pro-Star.

Chris

I'm using the catalyst... the drivers that came with the laptop are ancient. Download mobility modder from www.driverheaven.net and the new catalysts. Mod the catalysts and install.