8790 Artifacting - Page 14

Actually my artificing happened in January/February of 2005, not July.

G-Omaha, the list shows when the first time each person posted about their problem. With yours, I found it difficult to pinpoint because you are such an avid poster and tend to lurk around just to provide assistance sometimes. If yours is now fixed, that's great. However, if we are going to argue semantics, I didn't count the times that numerous posters RMA'd their notebooks, received them back, and then had the problem re-occur. I have the full data in Excel along with RMA dates, result of RMA, notebook specs, purchase dates, purchase-to-failure time period, cleaning regimen, etc. Unfortunately, message boards cannot easily accept tables, so all of that info was not included. This list represents only a basis on which to try and pin down just how many problems there have been and any resolutions therof.

It was suggested by another member that a list be made, so I made a rough draft of one.

On a personal note, I have never overclocked my Sager or its video card. My artifacting started last summer after I had owned it for about 9 months. I regularly clean vents and under keyboard (at least monthly). I rarely played games as my main use is Photoshop, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, & Email. I don't feel like me, the customer of a high-tech piece of equipment such as a Sager 8790 should ever have to remove ANY screws, downclock the video card using a third party app, or dismantle my notebook and re-apply AS5. I will admit that I screwed myself by stumbling on this thread because the solutions offered fixed my artifacting issues, Temporarily. They re-occurred at times, but changing ATItool settings usually fixed them once again. So, instead of RMA'ing my 8790, I kept it. Right at my one-year warranty expiration, I had some family problems that put my notebook on the back burner for a few weeks. Now, with my warranty long gone, I am left with running my 8790 with NO ATI drivers installed, defaulting to the Windows VGAsave drivers.

I have had two Sagers. An 8880-C which is still going strong that I sold to a friend, and my paperweight 8790 which hurts my eyes now when I scroll the page. So, IMHO, I am rightfully so a little pissed off. </RANT>

I appologize for my subjective evaluatory methods in which minimalization was not contemplated. On prognostication of the new value of 67, through extrapolation it shall capitulate a value of 492.5.

hey guys, havent posted here in a while (been busy with school and stuff) but ive gotten the artifacting problem AGAIN even AFTER A RMA last summer.

funny though, ive actually found a way to stave off the artifacting for about another half hour or so.
basically, i have my keyboard removed, and ive placed an OEM p4 heatsink right over the heatpipe, towards the left between the north/south bridge and GPU indent, with a 6inch deskfan blowing over the whole top of the laptop.
this, with a notebook cooler (2 fan) underneath.

dosent fix the problem, just allows me to kill another 30 minutes before i freak out again.

makes me angry for an asus.

but really appreciate what you guys are doing here, and if you guys need any help/evidence with this, i'll be glad to assist (whatever i, as a college student, can do).

oh, and mnikkel, good job on the sig, my screenshots will forever live in infamy

matt

edit: oh and ive resorted to using an external keyboard for this solution (G15), so its not that bad.

Thanks MATTSZETO. Since it appears your are trying every last thing you can, take a look at one of my recent posts about uninstalling ALL ATI drivers. Be sure to use Driver Cleaner or similar app to clean and remnants of the ATI drivers from your system so they won't auto-install again on startup. This will default to the Windows VGAsave driver. It's been working like a charm for about a week now for me, so maybe it will work for you too.

Also, if anyone else has tried this, please post your results. Or, if your always messing around with it anyway, give it a try in between trying to reinstall new ATI drivers.

I am able to use mine at 1024 X 768 and while the screen is obviously not perfect, I have absolutely NO ARTIFACTS!!

So, if you are out of warranty like me, and are afraid that screwing around with settings will eventually render your 8790 totally fried, give it a try.

you can add me to that list of owners with problems, mine started about 10 months out but I was in Iraq at the time it started, I tried to RMA it, went through 4 cycles of trying to get one and then went past warranty and still don't have an RMA, and I just don't have the time to keep trying. I have the D870P 1gig ram, Raid 0 80gig HD. I sent a note to Clevo, about the problems with this model, and a complaint to IBUYPOWER the shop that sold it to me, but neither were/are responsive in any meaningfull way.

I am still waiting to see how the first post on page 18 goes if Vladtepes has any luck with it at all.

I can still use it for basic items but no games

forgot to add the problems started late Oct 05/ early Nov 05

Please add my name to the list of people with artefacting problems on the 8790. Mine started atleast 4 months ago, but kept running with it, as I was busy with college. (so that extrapolates the numbers to over 500 then) Now that college has just started again today, I hope I can get this resolved before the work gets piled on, usually by the 3rd week of school. Now my laptop is about 1.5 years old. I did buy extended 3 year warranty.
When my laptop has been left running for atleast an hour and then if it goes off into screensaver, after it returns from screensaver mode, the whole screen is filled with criss crossing lines. Everywhere the mouse pointer is moved becomes dark. The machine has to be restarted for the screen to return to normal. Even then, some of the IE or Word windows show horizontal line segments on it.
I have contacted Sager, who told me to contact PCTorque, who says Warrantech should have sent a warranty card, which I have not received. So I am still awaiting PCT's reply.

Maybe things have changed since I bought my unit, but PCT sent the Warrantech cards to me (my situation might be a little different, too, seeing as I'm in Japan).

Thanks for the responses. I've added everyone who posted details to my database.

Looking back, I realize that I mentioned artifacting in my very first post and posted pictures of limited artifacting 2 days later. Ah, if I'd've only known then what I know now...

Thanks, mnikkel, for taking the time to compile all the information that you have.

i had artifacting too; and i've gotten a new motherboard.

just a matter of time till it happens again.

I would be sooooo That's just a bunch of BS for such an expensive piece of equipment!!

I'm one of the non-posting sufferers...er...I mean I was. But now I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore! That is, not without a fight.

Unfortunately, I too have now joined the ever growing list of dissatisfied customers of the flawed 8790. Purchased July '04, started having problems about 1 month ago. Might have been sooner, but this is not my primary computer.

Joined the 8790 Sucks club. Artifacting like its going out of style, unless I slow card down to a crawl. In the market for a new laptop atm, but being very thorough an will research alot harder than when I bought this one. Needless to say Sager has gone from top of my list of maybe's to the very bottom.

Is there anything we can do collectively? Those of us out of warranty?

I have started collecting information from the individuals on this board and have created a database containing the following:
Notebook Forums Username
Sager Purchase Date
First Occurence of Artifacting
Methods use to Correct Artifacting
Warranty Status
RMAs & Resolution of Problem
System Specs

Once the database is a little more complete, I will post a link to my server which contains the file. As for Nerdgurl's suggestion:
I would say the best thing to do is to post your individual items listed above and I will add them to the database. I am open to suggestions as to whether this should be a separate thread, but based on the popularity of this thread and the fact that almost all solutions presented in this thread have subsequently only delayed the inevitable, I would say turning this thread into a thread for collection of data would be OK.

As far as "collective action", I am currently researching Lemon Laws and related Defect Laws as to the next course of action. I feel like I'm going to law school... I, personally, am not going to accept the fact that my $2,700 purchase was for a computer that would only last me 9 months. That's just obsurd. I don't want my money back. I don't want a new motherboard that will just do the same thing. I want a credit for a newer model without this defect. For those who wish to take it further than that, more power to you. I will post the database soon and you are more than welcome to use it in your own efforts. Thanks for all your help.

I've been negotiating with PCTorque in regards to getting my machine replaced. Last year, I was willing to throw in a little money for a new machine in exchange, but as new problems came up (or weren't fixed), my patience has gone from very thin to none. PCTorque has now ignored my last email for 11 days. No response whatsoever. I decided that I was finished trying to get PCT or answer my emails and emailed Allen Zhang at Sager 4 days ago. As of this moment, no reply. It's Tuesday in the States, so I would hope that something should be forthcoming soon. If nothing hits my Inbox fairly soon, I'll soon know why Sager has an F with the California Better Business Bureau.

At this point, the last line in mnikkel's signature fits me to a T: ...if it's Customer Service you want, you must be a Fool. They fooled me all right.


Edit: mnikkel, one more thing you might want to add to the database is where the machine was purchased. Mine was a PCT purchase. Others might have bought from other resellers or Sager directly.