5760 overheating update

Well, I got my notebook back at last. Sager replaced the video card with a new one and the problem has disappeared. I have noticed overall better fan management (doesn't turn on annoyingly every few minutes as it used to), no more artifacts, and no more fps drops in games---so far, anyway. Heat management does not seem to have improved, though, as the bottom of the notebook still gets scorchingly hot. We'll see about that. But I've played for a while without a problem. Now I'm 99.9% sure this was a hardware problem.

What I did not like was Sager's tech support's relational skills. Very sparse communication in very poor English and no listening skills to speak of (eg, kept asking questions I'd already answered more than once and suggesting solutions I'd already tried). Extremely efficient in repairs/shipping, really can't complain about that, but not the nicest people to talk to.

C.

 

its not their fault, tech support for most notebooks are par... at best. They are just the rebadge/rebranders, not the original manufacturers or designers. When I was at Pro-Star with my notebook issue, my experience was similar.

I recommended them to seriously hire someone from Clevo (or someone rep that can be contacted through Clevo) that can give better support.

Note: It would be great if other OEMs have direct support through their respective ODMs as well. (like Quanta, Compal, etc)

In any case, good to hear that your notebook is back.

For temp monitoring of your GPU, I recommend you reading my Guide to do it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81690

It works great. Resume your gaming.

-Gophn

 

Poor English? Thought they were based out of Nevada. Did they outsource their support to India along with the rest of the world?

 

Nevada ? last time i looked Sager was in City of Industry, SoCal...

 

It is in City of Industry, he might have gotten it confused with DiscountLaptops.

I was in Industry recently for my notebook RMA, i drove by it.

 

Sager is indeed in City of Industry, CA. It's Power Notebooks that's in Nevada, and their English is perfect.

C.

 

Well........ looks like I was too hasty. After further testing, it appears that the issue is happening yet again. Sudden frame rate drop. It just takes longer to happen. I have been able to monitor GPU temperatures using Gophn's tutorial, and they never rise above 73C.

Given these very low temperatures, I found it hard to believe that the card is "overheating"... yet that IS the problem, for after I go back to Windows, let it cool down a few seconds, and then reload the game (without ever closing the game), my fps goes all the way up again....... and, of course, drops again after a few seconds, as the temperatures rise.

All of this withOUT the fans turned on at max. If I turn on the fans at max, no problem at all.

I am extremely disappointed, needless to say. A $3000 computer that overheats at 73C and doesn't "know" when to turn on its own fans to prevent overheating is a major let-down. I must have gotten an overall defective unit, not just the GPU.

C.

 

I'm sorry to hear that claudione314. Do you still have time to request an exchange?

 

sorry to see that happen to you too. I had the same issue, overheating and major framerate drops... even though the temps are too high. I believe that there was physical damage (through overheating) to cause it to reoccur during semi-high temps.

I would recommend to either get them to ship just the videocard to you and have a return slip to send your's back.

Or to send it back... and MAKE SURE you tell them to just switch out the videocard because they might not believe you and try to waste more of your time doing other tests.

Good luck,
-Gophn

 

@Gophn: This is the point, they JUST changed the video card. This is happening on a brand-new 7900GTX just installed. I'll be in contact with them again ASAP. Thanks for your tips.

C.

 

I remember when I first bought FEAR, I had updated to the latest driver. After I would play for a little while, 10-20 minutes, the FPS would go down to about 5 or 10 for several minutes. I would close out and it would go away for a bit but just happen again.

I rolled back the driver to an older one 79.xx. Problem went away, worked totally fine for hours

Recently, my laptop would lock up after about 5 minutes of gaming. Everything pointed it to overheating. I had to turn fans on high for it to work, or when I opened the window and a cold breeze came in it worked fine.
So I booted to the windows CD, did a repair of windows, so it reinstalled windows. It has worked fine ever since, not a single lockup, even for 4 or 5 hour gaming sessions with fans on low.

Try those before doing anything else, I have a feeling it could work.

 

It's also true that your laptop, steMo, is substantially different from mine. I have tried all those things with the previous video card, sadly: old drivers, Windows re-install, and all that. The temperature in my room is stable at 68F and the notebook is on a flat wooden surface. The bottom gets extremely hot, though.

I've just spoken to a Sager technician and they say the problem may be a lack of thermal compound on the card, or that it was applied badly. They'll send me the compound + instructions in a couple of days. They seemed very helpful this time. Let's just wait and see.

C.

 

hopefully its just that, but if problems continue after reapplying compound, i would try to exchange the entire unit.

 

I concur. We'll find out soon enough.

C.

 

wouldn't applying thermal paste now be moot? I mean, if heat damage is already done, applying the paste now would be like putting a bandaid on a dead guy.

 

Maybe there is no physical damage yet, though...

C.