Well, as with the many others before me, my 8790 has decided to go downhill over the past month. Let me give you a quick recap:
1st problem: something in the machine ‘clicks’ when its idle for a long time. Whenever I start working with the machine again, it stops clicking, but once I leave it alone, it starts right back up (very weird, I think it’s the HD). This has been occurring since day one.
2nd problem: Something in the machine makes a TON of noise whenever I am using the network card. It’s a high pitched scratching sound coming from somewhere near the network port.
3rd problem: For the past 3 months, 90% of the time that I have the 8790 on with the fans powered to ‘high’, the caps lock and num lock keys start to blink in unison. I read somewhere on these forums that this was a sign of ‘overheating’ and I’ve completely cleaned out the machine multiple times with no luck of fixing the issue. The funny thing is, it happens less when I just leave the fans on normal and let them do their thing.
4th problem (and most severe): My 9700’s junk. Whenever I load ANY 3D application, within 3-4 minutes I get artifacts that will go on for about a minute or two, then stop for a minute, then start again. These get progressively worse every time until I can’t even tell what’s supposed to be on the screen anymore. This finally results in the screen completely screwing up and looking like this:
(battlefield 1942 after 7 minutes using the newest ATI drivers)
(picture taken from camera... didn't realize i could take a screenshot and actually capture what was going on)
(again camera)
(another camera shot)
Then i realized i could use printscreen to take images:
My machine didn’t do this when I first got it, and never have I ‘overclocked’ the video, as I was content with its performance out of the box.
To make sure it wasn’t just BF1942, I quit the game and was greeted with my desktop looking like this:
So i tried to shutdown:
Finally i just turned it off.
Then on the reboot, everything was fine, I opened quake 3 arena immediately, started up a game, and as you can see from the following picture, 2:33 into the game, the 9700 yet again impressed me with its own take on how q3 should be played….
(AWESOME!)
These issues have made me file for an RMA, but unless they’re going to give me an entirely new machine… I will be highly disappointed. As I said before, this machine did NOT do this until very recently, and it has gotten progressively worse over the months. After saving for an entire year (I’m a college student, on campus jobs don’t pay well) and putting every dime I made into this machine, for it to do this is highly disappointing. I feel as if I’ve been taken advantage of with my purchase along with everyone else who has faced these problems. I hope the RMA fixes these issues (say they replace the entire motherboard) but in 8 months, am I going to run into the SAME exact problem?
I don’t blame pctorque for the problems that we’ve all been having, but at the same time I don’t understand how they can sit back and not do anything while their loyal customer are pulling our hair out dealing with these machines. Laptops aren’t supposed to have a life expectancy of 8 months. Why has nothing been said about this, we cant be the only ones with the problems. There must be others who just RMA and don’t voice their concerns…
Am I the only one who feels this way?
P.S. I ordered my 8790 at the end of March, and received one of the first 8790’s (didn’t have the bios with the fan control).
1st problem: something in the machine ‘clicks’ when its idle for a long time. Whenever I start working with the machine again, it stops clicking, but once I leave it alone, it starts right back up (very weird, I think it’s the HD). This has been occurring since day one.
2nd problem: Something in the machine makes a TON of noise whenever I am using the network card. It’s a high pitched scratching sound coming from somewhere near the network port.
3rd problem: For the past 3 months, 90% of the time that I have the 8790 on with the fans powered to ‘high’, the caps lock and num lock keys start to blink in unison. I read somewhere on these forums that this was a sign of ‘overheating’ and I’ve completely cleaned out the machine multiple times with no luck of fixing the issue. The funny thing is, it happens less when I just leave the fans on normal and let them do their thing.
4th problem (and most severe): My 9700’s junk. Whenever I load ANY 3D application, within 3-4 minutes I get artifacts that will go on for about a minute or two, then stop for a minute, then start again. These get progressively worse every time until I can’t even tell what’s supposed to be on the screen anymore. This finally results in the screen completely screwing up and looking like this:
(battlefield 1942 after 7 minutes using the newest ATI drivers)
(picture taken from camera... didn't realize i could take a screenshot and actually capture what was going on)
(again camera)
(another camera shot)
Then i realized i could use printscreen to take images:
My machine didn’t do this when I first got it, and never have I ‘overclocked’ the video, as I was content with its performance out of the box.
To make sure it wasn’t just BF1942, I quit the game and was greeted with my desktop looking like this:
So i tried to shutdown:
Finally i just turned it off.
Then on the reboot, everything was fine, I opened quake 3 arena immediately, started up a game, and as you can see from the following picture, 2:33 into the game, the 9700 yet again impressed me with its own take on how q3 should be played….
(AWESOME!)
These issues have made me file for an RMA, but unless they’re going to give me an entirely new machine… I will be highly disappointed. As I said before, this machine did NOT do this until very recently, and it has gotten progressively worse over the months. After saving for an entire year (I’m a college student, on campus jobs don’t pay well) and putting every dime I made into this machine, for it to do this is highly disappointing. I feel as if I’ve been taken advantage of with my purchase along with everyone else who has faced these problems. I hope the RMA fixes these issues (say they replace the entire motherboard) but in 8 months, am I going to run into the SAME exact problem?
I don’t blame pctorque for the problems that we’ve all been having, but at the same time I don’t understand how they can sit back and not do anything while their loyal customer are pulling our hair out dealing with these machines. Laptops aren’t supposed to have a life expectancy of 8 months. Why has nothing been said about this, we cant be the only ones with the problems. There must be others who just RMA and don’t voice their concerns…
Am I the only one who feels this way?
P.S. I ordered my 8790 at the end of March, and received one of the first 8790’s (didn’t have the bios with the fan control).
