8790 Artifacting - Page 16

plate under keyboard

A cleaners tip...the plate under the keyboard has a bunch of paremiters screws that need to be removed. There is also a secret screwin the middle of the plate that is hidden with a date sticker...remove sticker to get to screw..Hope this helps

since I can not spell the P word...I mean the screws around the outside of the plate, and a screw under a sticker in the middle of the plate

Artifcating in Guild Wars, just started in HL2...

...but I don't have to worry about that now, as my 8790 just gacked.

I opened it to clean it out with compressed air, and when I tried to start it up, it won't get to POST. The num/cap/scroll lock LEDs flash (not HHD LED), CD-ROM powers on, and I can hear the HDD spin up, but nothing beyond that.

I'll have to get a fix quote, cause by now, I'm just wanting to forget about this lappy. No surround sound support, heat issues, graphics issues, ethernet port died in one month, now its just dead.

Anyway, now that laptops have PCI Express cards that can be upgraded, what's the point in sticking with a company that sells a $4000 laptop that can't work properly for even two years...

or go the way outhers are going and get a socket 478 shuttle

Your "flahsing lights" indicate a sever heat problem. Cleaning it out might help - but, if you are not comfortable doing this - send it in for cleaning. Also, there may be other issues on the machine.

No, not really kidding. I'll do things like that, since I have spare computers. The artifacting was so severe (instant digital tartan), I couldn't operate the computer without disabling the graphics card, and at that point, the computer ceases to be very useful to me and becomes a candidate for the electronic torture chamber. But it turns out it I didn't get to whip out the punch/awl since removing the plate etc. didn't make much difference. Neither did cleaning and heat tape etc etc etc. As most of you could probably have predicted. What did make a difference was reformatting the hard drive, reinstalling the OS without display drivers and then installing the latest drivers *only* (no ati apps). Then setting the computer to "best performance" using system properties/performance. There is still some minor artifacting here and there, but not the complete screenwide digital blizzard that was occuring.

I'm not sure what causes the problem, but I do know that heat does play a part. The relationship is observable here anyway. I've often wondered if the bios update combined with the ati updates had something to do with it (since that seems to be when my problems started occuring) or whether the component just don't age well/resist heat stress well. Maybe some combination of all factors.

Sorry for the late reply, had to work on other stuff. Off to try ATI tools to see if that makes any difference.

Skimps

Read around some of the artifacting threads, skimps. A few of the forum guys've come up w/ what seems to be a fair enough solution for this.

skimps, you could have had residue for various video drivers on you installation. When this happens all sorts of stuff goes wrong. The video card is conflicting and invalid instructions and when it reacts to them go hay-wire.

Don't know for sure - but it is a possability.

G, there are no 'flashing' lights, just the standard LED blink. I'd love someone to restart their 8790 and tell me if they see all four blink, or just those three.

I did clean it out due to artificating. When I finished, I couldn't boot. And I was grounded.

The only non-standard thing I did was remove the heat sink screws, and give a very slight tug on the heatsink. I couldn't tell if there was thermal tape or glue. Once I felt resistance, I stopped immediately and retightened the 4 screws. I did not tug. I also removed the 256 and 1024 memory sticks, to blow around and reseat them. This is all standard stuff.

As far as I can tell, the CPU, memory, or mobo failed. I assume it wasn't the mobo, since I can hear the CD-Rom and FDD spin up. And, at least in the old days, you could still get to POST without installed RAM, so I guess it is my CPU that died. I'd love to get some hints on how to determine that before I order replacement parts.

Right now, there are only the current ati drivers, drive was just formatted. Multiple drivers could have been a factor before swipe, but not now. As I said, some minor artifacting.

I should state that major artifacting will still occur when running full throttle.

I suspect that you started somethin that you should have (and should) finish. You unseated the heatsink and that would (normally) require you to either replace the headt transfer "tape" or use AS5 so that there is doog heat transfer between the CPU and heat sink. Without this the PCU will overheat in a "flas" and shut down. I suspect that the CPU did not die - just turned off before it fired.

Try completely removing the heat sync - continue the "full" cleaning and reinstall the heat sink after removing all that "thermal gunk" from the initial install and using AS5. I think you might find that you will be in "good shape" and the machine should "start up" in good order.

On the M11 (Graphics Card) for the 8790, the default CPU speed is too low and the default memory speeds are too high. Also the CPU to Memory speed setting were not in any way, fashion, or form favorable to a GPU functioning under stress.

Recommend that you uninstall the video drivers, install the latest (6.01) from ATI, get ATITool and adjust it so that it works best for your conditions. I know it's a pain; however, I don't know of any way around it. Also, what works "best" for my machine - may or may not work well for yours - Experiment (just don't run the machine too long if/when it starts artifacting). Also, the ATITools, are not very intuitive and sometime (a lot of time) what you think you might be testing is not what the softwre has instructed the GPU to test.

What?!

Heatsink to tape to CPU, never did any of these get torn apart. As I said, it was a tug to check for tape (I couldn't see if there was tape there), and as soon as I felt resistance (immediately) I stopped applying any force.

Even a poorly seated chipset/cpu/card will allow for a boot, although you'll get a ton of errors.

Again: Can anyone tell me of a test to run to determine the culprit? I certainly can't afford to start swapping parts willynilly.

Skimps, along with G's info, I would suggest using DriverCleaner in order to clean out any stray parts. Haven't used it yet, personally, but from around the forums it seems like a well-regarded program for making sure you have a good install for your drivers.

http://www.drivercleaner.net/

Hey, Mark, Just a suggestion, check your keyboard connection. If you disconnected it when when cleaning or it got loosened somehow.....My ol' 8880 was very finicky about the keyboard. It had to be connected just right or the bios would hang.

Thanks for the suggestion, looks like a handy program. I'll re-do it all again soon and see if I get better results, excluding the reformat. My cable modem suddenly croaked yesterday, so I didn't get to work on the laptop as planned AND I'm out of thermal tape and the parts store here is out of thermal tape. But they did have my keys I lost there a few weeks ago : ) Ati tools seems fine; I'll play with it some more to make sure. I have read the threads regarding the 8790 issues/artifacting, but thought people wanted doc so as to put pressure on. So, I'll stop posting if people feel it's too redundant.

The 8790 is still under warranty; it was transferrable and the orginal owner transferred it. I just like working on/building computers myself.

I thank you all for your posts to this forum. Although I don't post much, I have been benefitting from the discussions and expertise for a few years now.

Thanks,
Skimps
Laptops: Sager 8880,8887,8790,Sony whateveritis
Dekstops: have built 10 or so, none in the last year.

Thanks for the idea. The keyboard is attached solidly. I'm still wondering if normally the four LEDS light up at boot.

G, sorry - was very angry when I wrote that response. It was bitchy. I'm just pissed that buying a a $4000 laptop results in crap support from Sager. I know that they are a small company, but the don't even have an autoresponse to let me know they got the message I sent through their support page. When I read your reply, I got POd that even here on notebookforums, you missed what I said. I got surly. Sorry again.

I just restarted in order to check how the light sequence works on my unit. Upon hitting the power button, all 4 lights flash one at the same time once. After that, the only light that comes on is the furthest left (HD light). Now that it's up and running, the HD light flickers and the 2nd light is on constantly (guessing that's the wireless running- never paid much attn to it).

Well, looks like the thread, like our 8790s, has died. Update on mine: still running strong with absolutely no video drivers installed (going on 2 months now). It runs on a default set of drivers called VGASAVE which are built into Windows, I guess. I can't play any games, but why let all that horsepower go to waste. It just makes me do more "real" work now.

You know, I said I would never buy Sager again, but....
Has anyone seen the new 19" SLI notebook

Never is such a strong word.
I think I'm going to give the new Sager some serious thought.

I better go get the KY and lube up before I bend over this time, because last time (8790), I must have took it dry...cuz that hurt.