Hi.

I havn't posted here in a very long time because my Sager 8790 has, until recently worked exceptionally well.

About 3 months ago, I noticed the screen was flickering. It would basically change brightness levels ranging from Ultra high to very dim. (Imagine an old black and white movie on a crappy projector.)

When I ordered my laptop, I bought the additional 3 year warranty. When my Laptop started flickering, oddly enough about 4 months after my 1 year warranty, I called the extended warranty co. And they called the repair co. (notice, the warranty co. is NOT the rapair co.)

In only 1 day I recieved my box and packaging instructions. I sent it far.. far.. away... to Illinoise.

I was given a website that I could follow the progress of my laptop repair. I was suprised when in less than a day it was fixed and sent back out.

About a week later I got my laptop back. Happy as a clam, I turned it on...


"No Hard drive detected or no Operating system installed."

It was a long night with Tech support. The BIOS didn't even see my hard drive. But when I opened the back, there is was. Better stilll, the screen now flickered worse than ever. After the Tech support guy didn't help, I removed the hard drive and installed the drive from an external USB microdrive I built out of a laptop HD. My Laptop detected that right away.

Hoping against hope that it was just a bad connection, I tried reseating my laptop HD back into place and guess what I found...

The hard drive had been installed upside down, and the IDE wire was only plugged in to half the pins.

This was the expert repairs that I sent my laptop to? Now that the hard drive was put back properly, it booted up right away, only the flickering was still an issue.

So what did I have to do? Send it to Micromedics Again!!

2 days later, a box arrived with packaging materials, and off it went for round 2.

A week later, I get the box back. Open it up and as the OS is booting up to my windows wallpaper, I start hearing an odd crackling sound comming from the lower right speaker. In the time it took me to open Windows Media player to test the speakers, and audible crackle and the smell of smoke was what I was greeted with. The Laptop was silent.

I called micromedics to explain what had just happened and was told that since I sent it in for a screen problem and this is a speaker problem, I would have to call my warranty co. and have them issue a new repair request. I tried to explain that: No-No-No, this incident happened less than 10 minutes after the UPS guy had dropped my newly repaired laptop, but I had to call the warranty co anyway.

So I did. And so I waited... and waited... after Christmas, I started wondering where my box was. I called my warranty co. A gentlemen looked up my info, took down my story again, and said I had to call micromedics with a particular code number. I had never done this before, but said, ok.. I did.

Micromedics tells me that they never got any information about another repair call for me, and they would send a box out to me. I implored the gentlemen on the line with me that this is now the third time I have been given shoddy reapair work and that for the love of God please!!!! Please!!! fix it right! He says, he'll put in a special note that this is the third trip back. (I started wondering, what If I had done that thr first time, would it have been fixed faster?)

The next day I got my box, and now a seasoned pro, packaged my laptop for round 3.

Befrore I called UPS for the pickup, I nelt down at the dining room table over my package, and prayed to Holy God that he would send this box to someone at Micromedics who knows just what the heck needs to be done. Someone who rather than trying to make a quota and push broken laptops off his desk, would see... hear... and know how this laptop can be fixed.

A few days ago, my laptop came back to me. This time, they didn't solder new parts to an already broken motherboard. They replaced the whole thing. Pretty much what should have been done at the get-go. I had to redo the OS, but it is finally working again. I'm slowly putting all my programs back on and am confident that my ordeal is over. For Now.

This is just a word of warning to anyone interested in dropping nearly 3K on a comptuer. BUY A WARRANTY. Even if the warranty co. sucks. Eventually you'll get what's comming to you.

Oh, and pray to God.

thanks

Which warranty did you have, btw? Phillips, Warrantech or someone else?

What a nightmare. I can only sit in amazement when I see people with situations like this.

You seem so calm... I'm about ready to fly out of my skin right now in regards to my situation

It's Warrantech.

But Warrantech employs a company called micromedics to actually fix the machine.

About my demeanor...

I've been so pre-occupied with 2 deadlines on 2 animation projects due at nearly the same time, that I would go home.. look at the newly returned laptop... list the problems... make the call... and send it back.

Maybe it's for the best that my work schedule nearly killed me the last 2 months. Otherwise I might be fired up about it.

It's best to be as patient as possible. Especially with situations that are beyond your control.

I asked Warrantech to send it elsewhere, and they said they can't.

I wrote a note stating that it was the second time that I had to send it in, and please make sure it works. They didnt'.

Like I said, it was the prayer over the laptop box.

Fried...

Sorry to hear about your 8790.... I think mine's the last of the dying breed.

I called Warrentech last fall when my computer started to artifact badly. I was told to send my computer off to Ill. also, in their supplied box. Having read the warrenity card that was sent with my computer, I noticed that it states on the back of the booklet...Q. How do I obtain Service?..Answer,..Service is just a quick toll-free call away. Our experenced representatives will notify you of the nearest service center. You'll have access to more than 12,000 factory authorized service centers nationwide. Its that easy!.....I pointed this out to the Rep and he agreed that I could find a local repair shop to fix my computer..but the repair bill would have to be approved my them before the repair would be paid for. I am assuming that I would have to pay the repair shop myself and submit the bill to warrentech for reimbursment. Well , I did not do anything, but under clocked my machine and crossed my fingers. Luke from PC torque was an ass when I mentionened the 12000 repair shops and sager should replace these toasters. I guess I am lucky that I have 18 months left on Warrenty, if I need a repair in future... say a prayer for me. So if anyone calls warrentech, you can try to get them to pay for a repair by a closer more competent shop. on second thought..other repair shops would probably have a hard time finding parts from sager, They are not for sale on the open market. Micromedics might be are only source.. Thanks for letting me vent..I am not as cool under the colar as you are

The hardships and runarounds were rough. But it's been a few days now and my Sager seems to be back to its old frisky self again. I need to install a game to push it, all I've done so far is install the basics and burn a dvd.

With luck, I'll realize that my laptop is as fresh as the day I got it.

I noticed on another post that the price to replace the motherboard is 500 bucks. So if you payed for a warranty, and if memory serves, it was about 300 bucks, then Warrantech is doing a typical corporate move and trying to fix it the cheapest way possible. Then only after it's obvious that this just won't fly, they have to suck it up and put in the new motherboard.

Oh, and I never mentioned this, but my 60 Gig hard drive died about 4 months before this all started, and I swapped it out for a Seagate 80 Gig. Then called Toshiba and got an RMA. I turned the replaced HD into an external USB2 micro drive. It rocks.

I bought a extra 2.5 harddrive and an enclousure. I have made a bootable clone and keep it updated so if my harddrive fails or I have to go thru what you went thru with your repair , I will be up and running in minutes. I am a pro now in swapping out the harddrive. Hope I never need it. starting out with a new drive and going thru the agony of installing things back to the way you had it, can take days. it can also take days off your life...unless your calm like you.

Hopefully fresher then the day I got mine My poor baby started artificing within a week of receiving it.

Well,

I've loaded more programs in. And no screen flickering, my speakers still work, etc.

I think my Laptop is truely good to go.

I've gone through several catastophies with comptuers frying. And only the first one was what taught me to back everything important onto disks. So I'm a seasoned vet when it comes to rebuilds, upgrades, etc. I gave my laptop a new name, because its' not the computer it once was. I dubbed him Philip Fry. Because with all his good intensions, he eventually had to skrew up.

I have also had problems with Warrantech and their eastern repair shop. My problem was of course artifacting. After the terrible service from Warrantech I got my box and sent in the 8790. Over a month after I sent in the computer I got it back with the artifacting stopped, and a different bios, and different RAID drivers, and the screws holding the hard drives we missing, and the fire wire does not work and the DVD/cd burner only works part of the time. I installed new screws that hold the hard drives, and I am now scared to send it back to have the fire wire port repaired and fix the DVD. As I have said in other posts I will make the best of it for another six months and buy a Dell. I have had dell laptops before and they have stood behind them and their service has been good for me. I really hoped that the Sager would have been a good computer and they stood behind them, but after the artifacting issue that clearly should have been recalled, I do not trust them.

I wonder if Warrantech employs baboons in their PC-repair facility. Hopefully Sager and the resellers are reading this article and taking notes.

Poor service= lost business.

Just to add to the misery-fest. i Had to send in my 5670 to Micromedics. Yup you guessed it not fixed. Called up Phillips and they said I had to send it back to Micromedics. I said nope I want a refund of the warranty. They said I had to go through PCTorque. I did and Phillips/PCT worked on it. After about 6 months of not hearing anything I Emailed PCT and the person that was working on the refund didn't work there anymore. Started over. Finally after almost a year (9-10 months) I finally got my warranty. Oh yeah I ended up paying for an upgrade out of pocket. Never again.

I'm afraid I'm in a very similar boat. I sent in my laptop about 7 weeks ago and it is still at micromedics. There seems to be a ridiculously inefficient relationship between warrantech and micromedics. I'll be talking to the micromedics people and have them telling me that warrantech hasn't OK'd the repairs. I've had warrantech tell me that micromedics hasn't given them a quote. I've had warrantech tell me that micromedics gave them a quote but it was unclear what exactly had to be taken care of. I really am never going to buy a sager again simply because of the trouble I've had with the extended warranty people. I had a problem with my computer within the first 6 months and after sending it in to pctorque, they took complete care of me. I can't say enough about them. Unfortunately, the moment my warranty with them expired, I knew something bad was coming. So like I said, 7 weeks and nothing much, except that I have to pay 1500 dollar for the non-covered repairs or they won't repair anything (covered or not). They were so nice in letting me know that if I didn't want the repairs, they'd send the unit back to be for only 95 dollars! What a deal. I paid someone to hold onto my computer for 2 months.

I'm going to post separately about this, but does anyone know where I can get a replacement motherboard for the 8790? I'm just going to buy it and do the work myself. Once I get my computer back, I'm never sending it anywhere again.

burn your house down and collect the insurance.....no really, i have stressed plenty over computers, vehicles, cancer and foot stink. we pay for insurance for a reason, not to make people rich.

the sqeaky wheel gets the grease.

I've had dealings with micromedics too. A while ago my 8790 just up and stopped working, in what I assumed was a power surge. Not panicing, since I had insurance that covered accidental damage, theft and the like, I called up Sareware (the company) and told them what had happened. They had their repair company (micromedics) send out the box, and I shipped them off my system. So, after about 2-3 weeks of unhelpful phone calls, they end up telling me that it was a system defect in the motherboard, and since it wasn't accidental damage, they couldn't do anything about it, and they actually answered "Basicly" to my question "So I'm just left with a two thousand dollar brick?"

So, after another 2 weeks, I got the system back, aparently they told UPS to NOT deliver the package, and have it only available for pickup at the UPS facility, and wanting a second opinion I RMA'd it with Sager. After 2 weeks of emails and not getting a single reply, I got an email simply saying, in horrible grammar. "One memory stick bad, when take out, computer work fine, want us replace broken stick?" This, after Micromedics ASSURED me that they took my system apart piece by piece four times.

I have the system back now, and it works just fine when the one bad stick is taken out, and I'm in the process of trying to get some memory that works, I've already tried two different sets and they haven't been compatible. Now I'm considering suing the insurance company for the cost of having Sager look at the system, all in all about $120 bucks. Another thing that seemed fishy is that they refused to send me the "Signed afidavit" stating what was wrong with the system.

Just my fifty-three cents,

-Vicviper