HELP!! my new p180 wont power on!

I purchased and recieved this p180 about 2 weeks ago, i was using it just fine last night however now it wont power on. Well, it will but it wont

I turn it on the HDD indicator light blinks quite a bit but the display shows nothing, i can hear the fans turn on and run through their test, and even if i leave it sitting for a while and swipe my finger to get into the OS incase the monitor isnt working the touch panel controls at the top wont even respond, so it doesnt even seem like its getting into the OS.

Frustrating that there are issues when i just purchased it

 

So you don't even get the boot/bios screen upon initial startup?

 

No it doesn't even seem to post

 

Have you tried contacting a rep from Malibal yet? They seem to be on this forum daily........if the screen isn't even posting up.............not necessarily a good sign...........and of course there has never been a "defective" P180HM according to their distributor, so we know it can't be that........

Curious, do you use a cooler like the Notepal U3 or something similiar, or have your laptop in an area well ventilated. I have noticed that these machines video cards are suspect to overheating if the intake fans and exhaust are not free and clear. I will NEVER run my P180hm without having the rear of the unit raised off the surface its resides on ever again. THe cooling is fantastic when the fans underneath have plenty of air volume underneath, but when you place it flat on the surface using its own feet, the fans have issue bringing in sufficient cool air for the ATI cards. I get a 10-15c swing in gpu temps just by raising the rear off the surface top just an inch or 2.

 

So you can't get into your bios upon startup I assume using F2(or whichever F key it is)? Or can you?

 

I was running a cooler last night max cpu temp was in the 70s gpu was mid 40s. I am in contact with MALIBAL support and am being told to just return it for a refund despite being told when I was ordering it parts would be available of soethong went wrong. I wont be ordering from them again

 

We never said we couldn't get parts and/or service your laptop. Please go back and read our emails.

 

Id be asking for a return shipping label too if its a straight return and parts aren't available.........sucks to hear of your issue man, I feel for ya, and I hope everything works out to your satisfaction in the end. I went through the same thing basically. I diagnosed my P180hm with not one but 2 faulty 6970m cards(one went bad, then a few days later the other went bad)originally when I recieved my 180HM. I dealt directly with Eurocom(a major distributor for a number of these boutique resellers). I sent in the first 6970m(they did pay the return shipping after a lengthy "conversation")and when they got it they claimed it was working perfectly. Right after that the second one went bad. THey told me to send em back the entire unit on my dime even though I had the unit for about a week with problems upon first day of reciving it. I just wanted to send in the second card and not be down a latop for X amount of time with a new pair sent to me. But after another lengthy conversation, thyn finally agreed to send a return label, but I had to send in my RAM,HD and windows op system with the laptop. I asked why, as none of those items were at fault and tested out perfect in other machines and passed stringent bench testing programs. I felt uncomfortable about this but decided to send em anyway, even though I knew the video cards were BOTH faulty. Anyway, I documented the contents of the return with photos etc and sent the unit in. A few days later, they called me and told me the system was up and running perfectly in an email and gave the distinct impression that there no nothing wrong with ANY of the hardware that came originally with the laptop. I called em up, and one of the techs told me that just one of the video cards were a little "iffy" after further questioning. Well, when I got the machine back, I found that BOTH video cards were replaced(I took pics of the S/N's of the MB, gpus etc)...........so that was my experience to date. So far since then the laptop has been running without fault, but I am already a bit nervous about the longevity/life of this laptop since I have a short basic warranty and the teeth pulling and hoops I had to jump through to get the issue resolved quickly......so I will not run this system without a cooler underneath at all. I love the laptop, but I am already chalking this up as a potential $1400 loss in the near future and already picked up a spare set of 6990m's just in case the 6970m's fail again. Im hoping I can reflash the Dell cards to work correctly in the P180HM so as to have a spare set on the cheap. Anyway hopefully this is not the case(knock on wood)as I take care of my electronics meticulously and don't want to find out I flushed the money spent down the toilet. I actually really like the Clevo products but will NEVER deal with Eurocom again or any of its direct resellers(PM me for an interesting PM I recieved too. ). Next purchase I make on a Clevo/Sager product will most likely be through Xoticpc.com I have noticed that they are without question the most professional reseller and have a great track record. Im sure there are a few others just as good, but Xotic seems to be grouped at the top of the boutique sellers.

 

I dunno what to do at this point. Waiting for a refresh wont matter because this model isn't getting replaced and the x7200 is another 1000 with 580s and I simply can't justify that cost. Is there maybe an alienware or another brand?

 

Best thing to do is see how your reseller is going to deal with the issue and go from there. The m18x is the Dell equivalent to the P180hm..........Clevo(Sager or whoever)has the new NP9270 out, and this would be the only one I would trade in the 180hm in for if that was an option, it is more money, but at least it has a full blown backlit keyboard now. Not sure what YOUR warranty is on the 180hm, but it is a fantasitc performing machine. If your resller treats you right, I see no reason to not keep it. I love mine, just wish I had a longer warranty for it for the piece of mind.

 

If they're going to issue a refund, and you like the laptop, why not seem if they'll just cross ship you a laptop? Same specs, just swap your HD (assuming that's not part of the issue) and you're good to go. Malibal been pretty reputable thus far, just be reasonable and tell them what you'd like to do. I'm sure they can figure something out.

Switching to Alienware is going to cost you more money.

 

just to give you guys an update, i swapped the slave card into the master slot and it powered on just fine, im gonna hook the master card up into the slave slot now just to see what happens, do you know what vid card options will be like on the 9270? from what im seeing in only see dual 580's which is much to expensive for me, +rep to you ntrain

 

check out Mythlogic. they offer it with everything from a single 560m up to sli 580m's (actually they offer a high end quadro card too)

MYTHLOGIC :: Configure Your System

when in doubt, check with mythlogic..

 

it powered on with the master 6990m in the slave slot now, however my catalyst control center doesnt recognize it or give me the option to turn crossfire on, i would take this to mean the card is just completely dead? a bad connection perhaps? i put the cable back on exactly as it was

 

Sounds like a faulty card. You should be able to just RMA that card I would think.

 

So your saying you put the slave card in the master MXM slot and the master card in the slave MXM slot(basically flipped cards)? Sounds like your going through the same thing I am. Run each card in the master slot(keep the slave slot empty and card out of laptop)and see if both boot up. Both cards should boot up and run just fine in the master slot. If one doesnt good chance of a fried card. Lets start here first.

 

yeah thats the agreement i think me and malibal reached, however sadly they say the cards arent as readily available anymore so i may have to wait up to 3 weeks for a new card

 

thats exactly what i did, i pulled the slave card out, tried to boot and nothing. So i pulled the master card out, put the slave card in the master slot and it booted. Then i put the master card into the slave slot and reconnected the crossfire cable, booted, and it booted into windows however CCC did not give me the options for crossfire.

Is there anything special you need to do for it to recognize a second card or should it detect it automatically?

 

It detects it automatically, unless its crispy toast.

Curious, how was the "paste" job? Eurocom and their all mighty "ISO bull rating" did a poor job of pasting my CPU and GPU's.......one GPU had about 10 pounds of paste on it(enough to cover a full slice of bread), and the other, half the GPU was bare, barely any paste at all, and on the CPU they forgot to pull the thermal application paper off the thermal "putty". I repasted with Artic Silver 5.

 

i cant say that ive pasted anything in a long while, not since building my brothers desktop over a year ago, it seemed decent though, maybe a little thick in some spots it didnt cover the entire area but idk how it should look on a vid card, is it fine to leave the card in there temporarily until i send it back to them?

 

If one card is toast, Id pull it. Hopefully, your reseller does you right and sends you out a new card with a return label in the box for the dead one.

In the meantime, Id run a stress test on the other card to make sure its still fully functional. Furmark 1.9.2 is a great program to make sure your card is working properly and didnt thermal overload. Temps with good thermal paste and proper ventilation under the laptop should stay well under 90c.

 

run it with or without a cooler?

also should i pull the xfire cable off too?

[edit] i just ran the furmark 1.9.2 BURN-IN test, temps got up to 100 degrees C and i aborted it, didnt want to run it any longer than that, bad sign?

Running it again with my u3 cooler on 100% and at 4 mins into the test its at 95 degrees
hit 98 degrees 7 mins into test with u3 at full blast

 

I'm glad our support team was able to help you get back up and running. We can email you a prepaid shipping label so that you can return the defective card for a replacement... just request that through our ticket system. Thanks.

 

Im glad its running too, however it is still disappointing having to wait 2-3 weeks for a new card, because that means from the time i ordered till having a fully functional unit is going to be over a month. If i didnt absolutely need a laptop for group programming assignments chances are i would be returning the entire laptop.

Im not blaming Malibal or your business at all for the card failing, however i would hope that if your offering support for a model that im sure u sold a ton of you would keep some spare parts on hand to prevent repair times from being so significant

 

Stock fluctuates - sometimes you have parts in - sometimes they are backordered - that's just how the business works. You never have every part in at all times, unfortunately. However, with that said - we will do our best to make sure you get a replacement card ASAP.

 

Bad luck? you made me paranoid considering im getting almost the same exacly setup as you. Hopefully you wont have anymore issues after this : /

 

I feel like the quality in manufacturing is going downhill. Significantly. Everyone is cutting costs left and and putting out lower quality products despite the advances in technology. I still have a playstation 1 and 2 and super nintendo and even the very first nintendo and a 64 and fire them up no problem but I've had both a 360 and ps3 fail. This past week alone I've had to send 3 things in now counting this vid card, my ps3 my asus ep121 slate tablet and the video card.

Who's to blame? Idk maybe the fact that all manufacturing is done oversees maybe just company's not putting as much effort into quality control who knows

 

That's not even mentioning the problems I've had when building towers. My first tower had an asus mobo go out which they took a month and a half to replace and only did so after I talked to someone about how long the repair was taking, a monitor backlight go put and an 8800 gts card which were failing left and right suggesting a manufacturing defect that company's still wouldn't honor. And my brother had a DOA power supply when building his

 

100c??? Way too hot. Where exactly are you located to hit temps that hot? I would pick up some Artic Silver 5 and repaste. With the notepal U3 cooler(and without using the fans)your temps should top out around 90c max.

On a side note, at least now you see one advantage of having a laptop with dual cards. If one does fail, at least the notebook is still operational due to redundancy.

Anyway, a repaste is something you should do IMO, especially if you have been pulling the heatsink on and off without repasting, very well could have air pockets now, here is a link to grab some quick : Buy.com - Arctic Silver 5 3.5g Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Grease CPU Heat Sink Compound

 

My idle temps seem to be higher than they were before, my GPU is idling at 56 degrees C now, well not idle under light use of web browsing and what not. CPU cores are all mid 40's with my cooler. The fan for the GPU keeps coming on which it has always done, but even playing SWTOR my GPU temps never even broke 50 i dont think. Im wondering if i should game or not with my idle temps being high, ill keep a close eye but i sure hope i dont need to just go out and get a tube of paste for 15 bucks locally just because i had to swap my cards around

 

U got the link right? 7 bucks for the best stuff shipped. Hell my local computer shop only charges 5 bucks for choice of Artic Silver 5 or IC Diamond(7 application tube). The stuff is not expensive at all, nor should it be.

 

computer shops arent very common where i live, in fact i dont really know of any higher end/custom shops, Local BB only sells a store brand of thermal paste

[update] Ran SWTOR with my cooler on max, and my temps after only about 20-25 minutes (if that maybe even 15) reached:

GPU: 90C
CPU: 2 cores 70, 2 cores, 71, package 72

The GPU temp seems worrisome especially since SWTOR isnt exactly a graphically intensive game, should i purchase some paste and repaste sooner than later? im guessing i wont get the paste from Malibal until i get the card which will be weeks and im not entirely sure these temps are really acceptable, i dont dare load MW3 or Witcher 2 with these temps on swtor