Lots of ???s on dead Sager 9860

My 3 year old 9860 has died. It will not go to the BIOS POST when the "on" button is pushed. I think it is not "latching?" the power to the hard drive even though the CPU appears to be running (fans come on and things get warm). The front panel clock acts the same way.

Once and a while it will start and will get through the BIOS POST. It will run fine except for a once in a while lockup. I don't have a clue as to the relationship between the power switch and the "power circuit" and I'm hoping it is something simple like the power switch or a corrupted BIOS etc etc. I HOPE it is not the "mother board".

So if I need a "mother board", what do these cost and are they still available? What is the cost of Sager/Clevo doing the repair. What does one look for to determine what is really wrong so I can keep the repair guys honest? I would hate to buy an m-board if I only need something simple.

This notebook was very expensive and I am learning an expensive lesson. I have had previous trouble (hard drive) and great frustration with this machine. Feel free to comment.

BobCat

 

remove the HDD and then try to go to BIOS.

if it still does not power on to BIOS, then I would try remove the other modules:
(in this order)
- RAM (swap out or just keep a single stick)
- Wi-fi card
- Videocard (might need to be reseated)

Run MemTest86+ if possible to rule out possible memory errors in RAM or CPU cache.

If these all fail, then I would consider that it would be a motherboard problem.

 

So if i'm putting it right, most of the time you don't even see a BIOS screen and when you do, you don't get to Windows.

I think the vid card BIOS is loaded before the BIOS so it maybe only a faulty video card. Bad memory is another possibility. I would doubt it would be the HDD because in that case you would get to the "INVALID SYSTEM DISK" blabla.

Like Gophn said I would open up this baby and reseat the video card first. Check if the heatsink is well seated also. As for the RAM, like Gophn said, try it one stick at a time.

 

You are 1/2 right... as you say, most of the time I don't see or get to the BIOS. When I infrequently do, Windows will boot(?) and things work OK. Interestingly, if I do a restart, I'll get to BIOS and then to Windows. It is only when I shut things off completely that I have the issue.

I had already reseated the RAM sticks but have not tried removing same. I reseated the CPU which also didn't help. Pulling off the CPU cooling module was a real revelation as there was tons of fin dust that you can't get to (or even see) while doing an external cleaning of fan intakes.

I'll try the other things as you guys suggest... thanks for the help.

BTW, what are the chances this is from a corrupted BIOS? Since I know little about how this all works I have to ask these questions.

I'd much rather rebuild an automatic transmission.

BobCat

 

re-seat the ram often. boot up with only one stick. when i took apart y 9860 and put it back together it would not boot up. it acted exactly as yours, power lights on, fans kick in, front clock works but nothing else. i removed all the ram except one stick and it booted up fine. i then thought all was good and put the rest of the ram back in and same problem. i then kept re-seating the ram and finally got it to work after several attempts.

once it boots up with all the ram in don't disturb it again, lol.

too bad a recal was never issued by clevo on the original 9860 motherboards. my first one died on me, and my 2nd one just blew a resistor / transistor and won't keep the battery charged.