Before I Open (Can I remove my Nvidia 8800mgtx from Sager 9262?)

Ok ive had problems after problems, think this forum has finally nailed my problem to a problamatic gpu.

Previous post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/489518-my-computer-dead-my-card-2.html

My comp is a sager 9262 with an Nvidia 8800m gtx.

So before I pop this 8800m in a toaster oven (which is the ony thing available in this remote Japanese village) a couple questions:

#1 : Is it possible to remove my gpu card from my computer?

#2: Ive never taken apart a laptop before. Is there anything I should know? (static electricity? Some grease on the gpu? Special tools maybe??)

#3 other than screwdrivers, is there anything I should buy before attempting to bake my card?

Thanks as always! This board is the best!

 

Get the D901C manual disassembly it contains step by step instructions,

P

 

You can do a search for more info, but here is one from DHS on a previous thread.
========================================================
There are several threads about it.
Short Version:
Take your Graphic card out of the mobo, you must be takeout any thermal paste, cooler, heat sink... anything that doesn’t make part of the Graphic card. Pre-heat the oven to 180-200ºC, put the GC inside, don't let it touch the oven (you can make 4 foots with aluminum paper). Keep ‘it there for 8-10 minutes. After that turn the oven off and let the door open for 30 minutes. Take the card out connect to the mobo and "voilá" is working again (I can't guarantee that, but already tried a couple of times and it always worked.

=========================================================

Good luck,

 

service manual in my sig

 

Thanks for the servise manuals!

Can I bake the card with a toaster oven?

Ovens arent popular here in Japan. Also, my toaster oven doesnt have temp control so I have no idea how hot it gets in there.

 

I have only ever used heatguns to fix nvidia cards personally so if you have one of them available you could use it. You just take your time heating the core up slowly moving the heatgun around to keep from heating it up to fast.

Without a temp control on the oven you would just have to make sure not to get the card to hot. You could always use a thermometer to watch the temp and turn it on and off until you get the card up to about 200°C. You can find plenty of videos on different methods on the web.

 

I showed some pictures of heat guns to my Japanese coworkers today and they had no clue what it was, so im going to assume that no such magical device exists in my small japanese village. Ill check the hardware store tomorrow though.

All I have is a small toaster oven, no temp control, no way of knowing how hot is in inside

 

Ok so Im bringing this thread back from a 6 month hiatus because I didn't bother to bake my card, rather I ordered a new 9800gtx from Sager. But now I'm worried that I screwed something else in my computer just before my card arrived- which was last week.

Since April, I figured out that I could watch movies, tv etc by disabling my nvidea 8800 and watching them half screen. It was still a bit choppy but I have a 17" screen so it kept me from ordering a new card for months. By the way, I could only do this with my fans on full and a housefan behind my computer.

So the months passed on without a hitch. I couldn't play any games obviously, but it was the summer so what the hell.

In September I found out that Baldyrs Gate 2 would work fine without my card enabled so I started playing that. That may or may not be relevant , but I thought to include it.

But about a month ago my computer started to load windows slow. REAL slow. After the boot screen , it started taking a few mins until last week, where it would take 15 minutes for windows to start. When it started to happen I decided to bust $800 on the new card.

So the card arrived last week. I didn't install it right away. Then today I start my comp and wait. But something is different. My hard drive indicator stops flashing , telling me that windows would eventually boot. It always let me know that windows was coming if that little light was flickering. Today it stopped.

So I decided toinstall the new card. I did so. Started my computer and the same problem occured. No windows after bootscreen, no flickering hd indicator light.

Did I do something to my computer by using it for so long? Thad what I'm worried about now. The only thing I see that's different with the new card , is immediately after the boot screen. There is an lightning quick moment where some (DOS?) text can be seen in the top left corner, then it just hangs in darkness. No hd light either.

What can I do? Help me notebook review pros, you are my only hope.

Ps: apologies in advance for any typos etc, I'm sending this from my iPhone.

 

A few more things:

-I've tried starting it up with Ubuntu in the cd tray, drive fitness test and the vista64 recovery disk, and the result is the same. They won't load up.

-sometimes after the sager bootscreen a curser will flash 2 times, for a split second, in the top left of the screen, before the comp hangs in darkness.

-remember, it started hanging in darkness BEFORE I installed the new card.

 

Sounds like your motherboard might have gone to hell.

 

Plug in a external screen and see if that works.

 

If it is in fact my motherboard, could it have been caused by me running my computer for so long with my graphics card disabled? I watched movies/tv for a few months halfscreen, and played Baldurs Gate 2 for half a month before everything went to hell.

Another Q: I assume a new motherboard will cost quite a bit. *sigh* if it IS the motherboard, what a colossal waste of $800 on a new GPU

Should I just give up on my Sager 9262???

 

When did you buy the GPU? You might be able to return it.

What I don't understand is why you paid $800 for a 9800 GTX. You could have bought a FX 3700m for $200, or even a 280m for $500-600.

 

I bought my Sager April 2008, and I believe the warranty was for 2 years.

The problem with returning it for repairs is that I live in a small town in rural Japan. And computer shops here wont even look at it because its *not a Japanese computer* , which is BS.

I bought a 9800 for $800 because thats what the guy at Sager suggested I buy. And after reading about how buying cards off the internet can lead to getting "baked cards that will bust in a month", I just figured I would pay extra, get it from my manufacturer and have no more problems.

Boy was I wrong.

So if I plug it into an external monitor and it DOESNT work, does that mean my motherboard is gone?

Another question: if my monitor is screwed, would I still hear the windows welcome screen? The thing that worries me most is that the light that indicates my HD is working at startup, immediately stops flashing after the bootscreen.

 

If it was just your monitor there is no reason you shouldn't get into Windows, you just wouldn't be able to see anything. I've used laptops where the entire top half of the system, including the monitor, was completely missing and it still worked just fine as a headless machine. However, if whatever is causing this behavior is tripping some kind of protection mechanism in your system or causing a POST failure then your system will fail to boot. If your monitor is busted then you may not be able to see the message, if there is any, telling you what is failing.

I say try an external monitor, try the replacement 9800, try just about anything else you can think of, as the alternative is a system that is deader than a dodo.

Why are you in the middle of nowhere in Japan? Are you part of the JET program?

 

I've already installed the new 9800. The computer was dead after the boot screen when I had my old 8800 in as well. The only difference is a split second showing of a few lines of text BEFORE the boot screen kicks in, and a curser that blinks twice AFTER my boot screen - just before it hangs in blackness.

I still have control of my fans (Fn+1) and I can see my screen isn't dead when I turn the lights down.

 

This website might be able to help you out, I found my np5793 model on it with a pretty extensive GPU upgrade guide, you can give it a shot if your interested

Clevo D901c

 

Any way you can find out what that text says?

What happens if you try to go into the BIOS?

 

I can try to take a picture of the text, if I'm lucky, it only blinks for a moment.

When the Sager logo shows on the first screen, it says "press F2 for system utilities". I assume that is my BIOS? In there I can set up things like BOOT PRIORITY ORDER, sata stuff etc.

Typing from my iPhone so not sure how to post pictures

 

Ok so I shot a movie with my iPhone of the text that flashes for an instant and this is what it says (I think, it was a little blurry)

"692 P390 SEU 0003 MDOM VGA BIOS
Version 62.92.34.00.18
Copyright 1996-2007 NVIDEA Corp
512 MB RAM "

Please keep in mind 2 things:

1- that message never flashed before I installed my new 9800
2- my computer was already hanging in black with MY OLD 8800 installed. That's what motivated me to install the 9800. Seems like the only thing the new card is giving me is a moment of text before the Sager screen. Then hanging as usual.

Please help!

 

Another thing- if I press ESC during the Sager screen a quick scan is run. Here's most of what it says:

CPU=1 Processors detected, cores per processor=4 (I have an Intel Core 2 Quad)

No TPM
4095M system RAM passed
4096 KB L2 Cache
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
Fixed disk 0: Hitachi ~
Fixed disk 1: ST ~
ATAPI CD-ROM: Matsua ~
Mouse initialized
---------------------------------------

 

mmm, no TPM (trusted Platform Module) could mean your BIOS doesn't recognize some of the hardware. Make sure you have the latest BIOS!

 

How do I obtain the latest BIOS and install it ? My computer won't read any disk I put in the drive.

 

The Nvidia text you are now seeing is to be expected and unfortunately provides no real info. I def. think it's your motherboard.

 

So that's it then. My Sager is dead. $3000 paid, 2 1/2 years of use, and an nvidea card fail followed by a motherboard fail.

Guess the next topic I start will look something like "how to build a new laptop with the parts from my Sager 9262! "

 

Ok here it is, had to upload it first. All you have to do is burn the image to a cd and in your bios tell it to boot from the cd first. It will automatically flash your firmware and update your bios to version 20 which is the most up to date Sager bios.

Don't forget to restore default settings in the bios after flashing and set your hdd to the proper setting as well.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2z838ld62yvq3lv

As for tpm being missing, its because there is no tpm module for this laptop model. Its used for encrypting and has nothing to do with the problem your having. The first np9260 had a tpm module, but later models do not, it was just left in the bios.

No one appears to have gotten a fx 3700m that wasn't from sager/clevo working yet, I'll be trying next week though.

 

What makes you think that?


I think about 5 of us have now.

I've found 4 of them working. All HP cards. Also got 5 3600m to work.

 

HP cards should work as niffcreature said, it's the lenovo ones that need a vBIOS flash.

 

A hp fx 3700m should work in the d901c as of yet though no one can confirm that. Only a lenovo version has been tested and it did not work. Seafox22 has still not gotten his graphics card working yet in his d901c.

 

Thanks for the link Rorsch. As I wrote earlier, my DVD drive won't read my ubuntu, drive fitness test or windows recovery cd, but at this point I'm out of options and will try anything. I'll burn the cd tomorrow and let you know.

 

Damn. It is as I expected and my computer isn't reading the cd image. After the boot screen it just hangs in black limbo.

What else can I do ?

 

Is it possible that the problem is my hard disk ?

 

You can check that very easy. Remove the hdd and see if it boots from the DVD/CD. If the effect is the same come back with the full story of what happened and what did you do so far.
(just an observation if you need to boot from the cd you also need to set the cd as the first booting device)

 

Does anyone have a link to show me how to do this? When I installed my new GPU that was the first time I've even seen the inside of a laptop. Also, I have 2 HDD. How can I tell which one is my main that has windows on it? Thanks.

 

the service manual is in my sig, but hard drive removal/replacement is in the user manual anyway iirc

 

I can't seem to be able to download the file with my iPhone. I'll google around for it

 

I printed out the manual at work (shhh, dont tell them) and will take out the HD tonight. So you are saying that if I put my Windows Recovery disk in, remove the HD and start my comp then Windows should load from the disk?

If Windows loads from the disk then the problem is my hard disk? If it doesnt load and the problem stays the same, then the problem is my mainboard?

 

YES!! I removed my hard disk and it's booting from the Windows disk!!

I guess that solved the problem , right? Anyone know the cheapest place to find a new hard disk that is comparable with my laptop?? I will need it sent to japan if I order online!

I'm so happy it's not my mainboard!!!

 

Ebay is one place, might not be the best place to get a HDD though (hard to return if you have problems).

But any computer store should have notebook HDDs.

 

Any thin (9.5mm thickness) laptop will work. You can buy online, but make sure is the proper thickness. Some big (1TB) hdd laptop are 12.5 mm thickness. Try some online stores.

 

This is not true. Any 9.5mm SATA laptop hard drive (2.5 inch) will work.

 

Hello,

My mistake. Yes, all SATA laptop drives will work. I just wanted to point that the SATA laptop hdd may have 9.5mm or 12.5 mm thickness. While both types work the thicker one will physically fit only in the main hdd bay (under the mouse pad) and a second one will not fit anymore.

 

So for my sager 9252/Clevo 901c I will need a SATA 9.5mm hard disk only? Ok, I'll start checking.

In the meantime, anyone know why my windows recovery disk installed 32bit VISTA on my secondary HD , when my OS has always been VISTA64? I don't recall skipping anything when I reinstalled vista today, but after DL-ing my new 9800m drivers it said 64 wasn't the version of windows running. Strange, since it's always been 64.

 

I think we might have confuse you too much. Choose yourself a laptop hdd (SATA) and post it here and we can advise about it. Check this link and choose something that seems reasonable (capcity, speed ...): Newegg.com - Notebook Hard Drives, Laptop Hard Drives, Notebook Internal Hard Drive, Laptop External Hard Drives, Hard Drive

 

You probably just went through the install process to fast, the install disk from sager includes both versions.

 

ithxan. I just read your post now, and I’m not sure the disk as any problem.
I think you had the HDDs in RAID 0 configuration and for some reason you "lost" the RAID configuration and the laptop couldn't start because of that. Test the disk before buying a new one.

 

Is there any way I can test the disk myself? Or do I have to take it to a computer shop? Yes, I believe I had a RAID 0 config. I will double check the papers that came with the comp when I get home today. Thanks

 

Is there any way I can test the disk myself? Or do I have to take it to a computer shop? Yes, I believe I had a RAID 0 config. I will double check the papers that came with the comp when I get home today. Thanks

 

OH.MY.GOD

My sager is dead AGAIN.

To be so happy to have it back, and thinking it was only a hd problem, I was elated. Then my joy was dashed.

I was playing assassins creed 2 and then the game froze. I had to Dona cold restart. Then during the sager logo the screen went all screwy. Colored scanlines and stuff. The Windows welcome screen could be heard in the BG, but the screen went to black. And then nothing.

THIS IS WHAT I REMEMBER HAPPENING BEFORE WITH MY 8800. Then I spent a ton of money to buy a 9800 and 3 days after it's in this happens???

Mow my comp won't even boot. No sager boot screen no nothing. Just a power-on light and the fans running in the BG.

please help me. This battle is becoming an epic tragedy.

 

have you tried swaping out the ram?