Is my 2090 a lemon?

I've searched these boards for people having similar problems and haven't found any, but my NP2090 has been nothing but trouble. I take that back, the first month of use was fine, but it's becoming a nightmare here 4 1/2 months in.

First, the sound quit working, new drivers from powernotebooks, new drivers from realtek, and searching the internet and trying various tricks for a while didn't help so around New Years I finally reinstalled Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit. I took my time installing the various drivers for the various things this laptop comes with, rebooting after every driver, making sure they were all installed in the "correct" order. It took couple of days but after all the ! were out of the device manager and all of the buttons worked, I started by installing iTunes to see if my sound still worked. The machine crashed during the reboot and Windows was irretrievable. No Last Known Good Config, no safe mode, not even command prompt available. At one point, it wouldn't even power up to get to the bios setup. I had to reset the memory. I tried everything, including calling Powernotebooks and Sager. They said it was one of 3 things: memory, hard drive, Windows. We tested the memory over night one night and the hard drive over night the next and both passed without any errors.

So Sager says, reinstall Vista, again. I'm hesitant, but what choice do I have? This time I went even slower, making sure to create a system restore point after every driver and testing every component, every program, every button before moving on to the next. It took a very long time. Finally, when all was working, I got online & installed all of the Windows updates first. Then tested every program, every button, you get the idea.

Once every thing was running, I installed just the must have software/hardware. Again, one at time, restore points, testing blah blah blah. It was so tedious, but I wanted this to be the 3rd but last time I'd have to reinstall Windows for at least a year.

Here it is, 6 days later, and when I awoke to a hibernating laptop I decided to reboot. It restarted with tons of errors, and when the desktop finally came up, nothing worked. So I tried to reboot but it wouldn't. And again, there is no Last Known Good Configuration. There are no restore points to restore to. Recovery is not an option.

Back at square one. A $2000 4 month old paper weight. So, what do I do now? I don't see lots of complaints like mine here, or anywhere else on the web. And I don't know how to proceed. I've got a call in to Sager, but if they say reinstall Windows I might just crawl through the phone and hurt someone. I'd like my money back to try another brand. I doubt they'll be into that. Should I ask for a new system with XP installed?

Do I have the only lemon Sager has produced? Any tips/suggestions would be great.

Tori

Are any of these programs that I installed known to be a problem with the Sager? I was really careful to check them out before installing but maybe I missed something.
Open Office
AVG Free
VLC
Firefox
Quicktime Alternative (I hoped iTunes/Quicktime was the problem)
Media Player (yuk, but I thought iTunes/Quicktime was the problem)
Real Alternative
Flash
BoClean
Eraser
Java
SpeedFan
RivaTuner
Power Defrag
Photoshop Elements
HP printer

 

-So the problems only happened once you started to install the programs?

-Do you have a 64-bit system?

-Try a new hard drive

 

Vista quit booting
1st time-right after the first program I installed (iTunes)
2nd time-a week after a handful of programs (but not iTunes)

32-bit(that was the 1st reinstall of Vista on day 1, when the cd-drive failed and I had to wait several days for a replacement, which now sounds like a helicopter is landing) is required for my schools network

I did an overnight run of Hitachi Drive Fitness Test between Vista installs, no errors. I know that's not conclusive but...

Any old hard drive? An old 40GB 4200 rpm to replace my 200gb 7200 rpm? And spend another week installing everything to find a week later that it just won't start up? Sounds almost as bad as what Sager wants me to do!


I think I got a lemon, but Sager says it has to be in for repair 3 times with the same problem for them to replace the system. No loaners either. And they can keep the system for 5 days, plus 3 day shipping X 2 which means they could have this thing for over 2 weeks (business days only counted) 3 times, that's 6 weeks without a computer, before they'd swap it out for the same system.

I spent a good amount of time on the phone getting the run around today. I'm now certain that Sager has no interest in trying to keep/make me happy even though I have been very civil with them so far. And Powernotebooks is only good at taking up time and then referring me to Sager. I'm very disappointed with this laptop.

None of you are having any problems with the 2090 &/or Sager?

 

My only laptop ever was an eMachines POS. It overheated and set on fire while I was playing CS 1.6 . I'm not sure what the problem is but it sounds like its hardware-based. Try taking it to a Geek Squad or put up a posting on Craigslist, lots of people on there offer computer support.

 

As I understand it you haven't sent it in for warranty repair yet...if that is true please don't jump to all of a sudden having to send it in three times.

I would recommend calling tech support and getting an RMA to return it for warranty repair. I would STRONGLY recommend making a copy of your event log and sending that along with all of the applications that you are installing.

Sager will put one of their bench hard drives in first to see if they can duplicate your errors. If they cannot, then the problem lies with either your software installation or your hard drive. They will test to determine where the problem is and fix it if it is the hard drive, and give you a clean Windows install with all of the correct drivers.

I am curious though, where are you getting the drivers that you are installing? What applications are you installing, and are they all LEGAL copies?

 

It could be any number of things; without getting at least a copy of the various event logs, there's almost no way to tell for sure. Have you enabled the full range of event logging (you may have to be signed in as administrator to do so)? In particular, make sure you have it set to generate a bootlog (I play around strictly in XP, so I don't know what the precise analog in Vista is, but it should be something similar).

It could also be a hardware problem, anywhere from a bad ac adapter/battery, a mis-set CMOS switch or jumper, a bad CMOS battery, or a corrupt BIOS, all the way up to a bad motherboard. There are a number of different diagnostic utilities floating around on the internet, some of which might be able spot possible trouble lurking in one of the hardware components.

I will, of course, defer to anyone else who, having more experience, can suggest a better HW utility, but I've been playing around with a couple and like the info I can get from some of the following:

Fresh Diagnose, avail as trial-use shareware: http://www.freshdevices.com/

HWAccess, avail as a free trial (tho it kicks up a 20-sec ad every minute or so until you register): http://www.asymmetrics.com/

PC Wizard 2007, available for free (thanks guys! ) (2008 is also out, but 2007 will do a BIOS dump whereas 2008 will not - as far as I can tell): www.cpuid.org

In particular, PC Wizard will give you access to your sytem event logs, and from there you might be able to find a hint or two about what's going on.

P.S., I would also urge you to follow Paladin44's suggestions; he may not wait on each and every one of us hand-and-foot 24/7/365, :wink: , but he owns Powernotebooks (AFAIK ), so talking/emailing with him is, more or less, like talking to the CEO of HP or Sony, except only better because he seems to be able to turn around and, as a general rule, get things squared away.

Also, it is most assuredly a pain in the a** to have to send your system in, but there has to be some sort of orderly process to get things properly sorted out without either chasing all customers away, or causing the resellers/Sager to lose the shirts off their backs, so it's best to get it started now rather than later.

 

paladin44

You'll get all the details in a cc of an email I'm sending to Sager, don't you fret. Regarding your insinuations, I assure you my software is legal & reliable and that the drivers are all Sager's very own.


Shyster1

Thanks for the tips, I've never messed with an event log so I'll be checking out the software you recommended.

 

tori111, I wasn't insinuating anything...I was trying to help you trouble shoot your issue. You weren't clear on those issues so it is only appropriate to ask.

Just stay working with support and they will get it resolved for you. However you do have to realize it may require sending it in to Sager for warranty repair...that is what your warranty is for.

Please don't calamitize the situation by suggesting that the only cure will be replacing your laptop, or that you will have to send it in 3 times. If they cannot resolve it for you on the phone, they will be able to fix it once you send it in.