*Updated!!*New Official Sager NP9880 NP9860 Fan firmware & BIOS - Page 2

Thanks!

For some reason, the fans are running normally now and I'm feeling a lot better. Thanks for the input

it is so much quieter!! and the fans seem to throttle as well. it is half as loud as before.

ok this will fix the stuck fan syndrome! if you notice, once the fans start, they start at full speed, meaning that full voltage is supplied to them so it can prevent the stuck fan syndrome from happening. then a second after they start, they throttle back. the end result is a fix for the stuck fan problem! and much quiter operation!

does this work for AW 7700's? and is this a bios update or what?

probably. but just remember that you got the bios from sager....not alienware.

i belive it should work for the 7700 because it is a clevo clone. the firmware upgrade says clevo when you launch it from dos so it should work.

wait so it is a bios update? im still confused on that point sorry

7700 and 9880 are same machine(clevo).

provided that th aw is not modded with a propietary aw bios structure, it should be capable of accepting the fan bios.

I don't think you AW owners should update this until you confirmed it with AW, i mean even if it works do you want to void your warranty if you have any problems that isn't related to the firmware update. but from what i seem AW sure will hold you up to it and void your warranty if you use anything not from AW.

plus in the pass Clevo standard update seem to always just follow a number system, while the sagers always end up with a S in the numbering system. does it stand dor Sager or Special who knows so for sure AW would know you have a different version then theirs.

Hey what you get is what you paid for, you better check with AW before messing with it.

i'm just happy i when with Sager and not AW as it took me a while to pick between the two. but overall Sager seem to be more End-User friendly then any of these other so call better brand.

ouch...the truth does hurt.
tenchi is right, I would definetly check

Maybe start over with new floppy:

1. Insert USB floppy, put in good floppy, right click on A: in MyComputer and select "Format", select "MS DOS Boot Disk" and format away. When done copy the two (unzipped) files from Luke onto that floppy.
1. Reboot, go into BIOS (press F2 to get into BIOS)
2. Ensure the USB floppy is first in line of boot order
3. Save and exit
4. It should boot into MS-DOS from Floppy.
5. Follow Lukes directions.

Good luck.

Now if they can only make George Liqour, American happy with a Bluetooh update....

I'm impressed with Clevo/Sager fixing this, makes me look towards them even more for my next system.

Some notes from a DTR novice for anyone interested...

9860 was already up to it's (my) normal op temp: 48° (using mobmeter)

After restart, fan(s) full throttle for appx. 30 sec. Temp fell from 51° to 43°. Then the fan(s) shut off. Blissfull silence for 85 sec. until temp reaches 58°. Then fan(s) ramp up full blast for appx. 1 sec. and drop the temp to 54°.

Fan(s) slow down.
Now fan(s) are steady...sounds like it normally does (did)

Temp falls to 49° and fan(s) ramp down a bit still.

Hmmmm....quieter than usual !
Idle temp maintaining at 49° after 15 minutes, with a slower fan speed. This is good. Let's check fn-F2 now. . . .current temp 48° idling. . . .

OK. Full throttle took the temp from 48° to 44° in 60 sec.
Another 60 sec. down to 43°. That's it for my 9860. That's as cool as it gets. (5 minutes idle w/ full blast fan showed no change.)

fn-F2 again shut the fans completely off. Silence! 90 sec. of silence until 59°. A 1 sec. blast of full-on fan, then back to the slower speed. Appx. 3 minutes and the temp is back at 49°. Fan is slightly slower than its usual speed.

One thing I noticed is when my fan(s) slowed down; I can hear a slight clattering...it's not a defect, really. It's the sounds of lesser grade fans and the lack of true balance in their manufacturing. I'm convinced that all the fans in the 9860 could be replaced with higher grade components (note higher $$) and these beasts would be much quieter. But I'm not complaining. I'm too new to the Sager family to make any judgements, other than I love me 9860!

Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to share my experience with the new fan flash!

Can I use a flash drive instead of the floppy to do it (I don't think I have any blank floppies around anymore). If not, I'll get some tomorrow.

Personally, I was content with the always on fan fix that sager had issued to fix the original fan chirp problem. It wasn't too noisy (roughly equal to a desktop, which this machine basically is), and it kept my cpu at a stable temp. When I first started testing this new firmware, I got excited. It seemed the normal mode was the original fan bios but with the chirping problem fixed, so I figured the alternative would be the always-on mode they had originally issued, so everyone would be happy whether they want silence or lower temps.

However, the new always-on mode is different though. It is much louder than before, and pretty much only good for gaming. I prefer the fans always on instead of going up and down from 60-45-60-45, so I think personally I'm gonna revert back to the only always-on firmware which is still thankfully on the forum. (http://www.notebookforums.com/showpo...6&postcount=18).

Here is a set of temp readings for those that are curious (Temps in C, tested in a 20C room, CPU loaded with a DVD2AVI conversion, 2 instances of folding@home, a rar compression of 1gig of cs demos and bmps, and an xvid movie playing in wmp):
(I have a 9860 with the 560 CPU and a lone 7200 HD)
(While I was testing, I also decided to test the temp difference if the comp is flat on the desk or propped up ~1.5 inches for increased airflow)

Old always on firmware:

Idle: 39 cpu 36 hd
Load: 56 cpu 41 hd

Propped Up:

Idle 38 cpu 32 hd
Load 55 cpu 39 hd

New firmware:

Low Mode, Propped up:

Idle: Fans on at 60, off at 45, takes about 1:30 to heat up to 60 or cool down to 45, 37 hd
Load: Fan slightly throttles up at 61 but quickly gets it down to 60, barely noticable change, 40 hd

High Mode, Propped up:

Idle: 38 cpu, 32 hd (i guess these are as low as it goes)
Load: 55 cpu 39 hd

So in closing, if you liked the old always-on firmware, stay away from this update. If that always-on firmware produced unbearable noise for you and you just wanted the fan chirp fixed, then this firmware is totally for you.

I have the first version 9860 with the original fan bios. It has never caused any problems for me. It did chirp rarely for a while but now no more. The speed control seems to work fine with temps hovering from in the 50's and 60's but never over 66.

Is there any reason why i should update the fan bios? Does it lower the average temp enough to actually lenghten the electrical components lifespan?

One question, does this thing also control the GPU fan? the nvidia fan doesn't cut on until 60°C and even at 75-80°C it only runs at 40%. I want to be able to bump that to 100% at will also. Right now I use Gethermal to set all to 100% prior to gaming. If it doesn't control ALL of the fans then I can't see a point to this flash, I mean, gethermal is less permanent and doesn't require flashing but accomplishes the same thing, however with a little more than a function key combo though.

it does not control the gpu fan speed. it should not need to contorl it if the gpu is installed properly.

it can lower the temps low to enough to prolong the electrical components lifespans, but at the cost of noise since the always on setting is twice as loud as the before always on setting.

there is no reason why you should not upgrade to this firmware. you should not need to even be running the always on setting as the normal throttleing setting does the job just fine. the new firmware makes the laptop half as queit as before and fixes the stuck fan syndrome. let me post this again;

ok this will fix the stuck fan syndrome! if you notice, once the fans start, they start at full speed, meaning that full voltage is supplied to them so it can prevent the stuck fan syndrome from happening. then a second after they start, they throttle back. the end result is a fix for the stuck fan problem! and much quiter operation!

edit; let me add this, when the fans initially start up, they start up at full speed and hold at full speed for 2 seconds or shorter, not 30 seconds or some prolonged period of time. the reason is so that full voltage can be supplied to them at startup to prevent any of them getting stuck. in other words, the fans will throttle down 2 seconds after they initally start up and be very very very quiet.