Sager NP8150 completely black screen with running fan and drive

Hello.

Last week I shut off my laptop on on Wednesday night and Thursday morning when I turned it on, the screen was completely black. I did not even get so much as a bios boot screen. I saw a lot of quick fixes involving holding the power buttong a minute with battery and a/c unplugged, then putting just power cord and powering up. I also saw something about turning it on with lid at 30% angle which would indicate loose or malfunctioning magnetitc sensor. None of this worked for me. Unfortunately my laptop is alway on mute so I do not here anything when it comes on. I tried using the keyboard to put volme up but I heard nothing. Using an external monitor does not work and I tried connecting via RGB and HDMI.

Does this mean that my graphics card is toast? I hope that is not the case because this gaming computer was my last big splurge before getting married and there is no way I can afford to replace it. My specs are below if anybody has any ideas. Cheers.

Sager NP8150 / Clevo P150HM
- Display: 15.6" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Anti-Glare Screen w/ 95% NTSC Color Gamut (1920x1080) (New Sager Option)
- Graphics Video Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 485M 2,048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (User Upgradeable)-
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- Operating System: ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's + Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included with OS Purchase
- Optical Drive Bay: ~ Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included)
- Optical Drive Bay Hard Drive Caddy: No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- Port Replicator / Dock / Adapters: No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Primary Hard Drive: ~ 500GB (w/ 4GB SSD Memory) Seagate XT 7200RPM NCQ Hybrid (Serial-ATA II 300 - 32MB Cache)
- Processor: -2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM, 2.2-3.3GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache)
- Ram: ~ 8,192MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): No Software Bundle
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Spare AC Adapter: None Standard*
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU

 

I see the problem (you got married).

Try removing all RAM sticks (keep track of where they were) and try booting from each one in each slot available, one by one.

Good luck.

 

Thanks. Any idea where they might be? I took out the battery and hard drive and also took off the half of the bottome shell that was easy to remove. I could not find where the ram was. To take off the remaining shell would mean removing more components and I cannot imagine they would put RAM in such an inaccessable place. I will have to get a hold of the diagram. Cheers.

 

More than likely under the keyboard.

 

you are correct. There is even a youtube video. Thanks for the reply.

 

Seems like a faulty 485M - they are quite unreliable in my experience.
You can get something like 260M \ 280M GTX for cheap I guess.

 

So it does appear that the GPU is toast. Can anybody tell me what the best GPU is that this laptop can handle? Also, is it difficult to replace the GPU like having to do something with the bios, or do I just plug it in and install drivers? Cheers.

Edit: Did some reading and I see that the process is similar to when I fixed RROD on my XBOX 360. I guess the only question I have remaining is what is the best GPU available for the NP8150? Cheers.

 

Hi MooMilk. If I want the best option rather than the cheapest, do you have any recommendations? Cheers.

 

I found a place called eurocom.com that sells replacement cards. They have the following two for my laptop. Does anybody have any information about these? Is it worth paying twice as much for the better option? I assume both are considerably better than my 485m.

P150HM/NP8150 Upgrade Kit; Nvidia GeForce GTX 670M
Price: $359

Images Drivers
Part#: P150HM/NP8150 GTX 670M
VRAM: 1.5 GB
Cores: 336 cores
GPU Clock: 598 MHz
VRAM Clock: 1500
Interface: MXM 3.0B
TDP: 75W
Models:
Kit Consists of:
1/ Nvidia GTX 670M VGA Card
2/ X-Bracket with matching screws
3/ Thermal Pads
4/ Thermal Paste (Diamond7)
5/ Heatsink kit
This Nvidia GTX 670m kit will work in the P150HM only!

P150HM/NP8150 Upgrade Kit; Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M
Price: $782

Images Drivers
Part#: P150HM/NP8150GTX680m
VRAM: 4GB GDDR5
Cores: 1344
GPU Clock: 720MHz
VRAM Clock: 1800MHz
Interface: MXM 3.0B
TDP: 100W
Models:
Kit Consists of:
1/ Nvidia GTX 680M VGA Card
2/ X-Bracket with matching screws
3/ Thermal Pads
4/ Thermal Paste (Diamond7)
This Nvidia GTX 680m kit will work in the P150HM only!

 

Please don't go with the 670M cards - they are Fermi based chips (the same as your toasted 485M) and are also quite unrealiable, 680M are nice Kepler based fast and reliable GPUs, but almost 800$ for it is way to much at the moment. PMed you with a better offer for 780M GTX

 

780M will not work in the P150HM.. This model is really fussy with cards... A certain AMD 7970M and NVIDIA GTX680M are the max possible GPU's that work...

 

Hmm, I see, thanks for the info! Then it is really better to stick with 680M \ 7970M

 

Thank you for the advice moomilk. I sent a response to your PM.

 

Thanks Tom. This sucks. I researched gaming laptops for four months while waiting for Skyrim's release. I came to the conclusion that this was near the top of the line and would continue to be high end for years due to it being "highly upgradeable". I had it five years and in that time I had to replace the mother board two years ago ($750) and now have to replace the graphics card (probably another $500-$600). I won't ever have the money to splurge on a high end gaming laptop again. But if I did, I would not even consider sager/clevo. Five years ago i was trying to decide between Sager and Alien Ware. I guess I made the wrong choice.

 

You should have sold it for parts back when the motherboard died and put the cost to a new laptop.. I still think it's a bit stupid to spend even more on it.. I would sell it for parts and get a new laptop...

 

Well the GTX 680M is sold out despite all of eurocom's retail sales sites stating that it is available. The only thing they have is the GTX 675M. Is this the one you referred to when you said I should avoid the 670m cards?

At this point I am done with sager/clevo. Is there an Alienware computer that would be comparable to my laptop and retails for under $1000?

 

okay forget Alienware. Nothing under $1300. Xoticpc has some MSI and Force laptops that I would think are comparable to my five year old laptop. I have never heard of either brand. Can anybody recommend either?

 

MSI are usually nice, but it depends on the model,
GTX 675 M is also old Fermi chip based GPU, that is slow and unreliable,
it is GTX 670 MX and 675 MX - that are Kepler based and totally OK.

 

I would not get a 675M, it is a rebranded 580M and is highly unreliable.

MSI makes competent gaming laptops, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. While Clevo (and all the rebrands) tend to be good value for gaming laptops, their keyboards aren't very good, nor are their speakers.

 

New Clevo like the P650SE/NP9752/9772/P670SE have much better speakers and keyboards now.. The P650SE can be had for 1300, just get it with the LG IPS screen as stock TN screen is junk!