My 5797 Sager Purchasing experience from XoticPC

Well, I've been lurking for a few weeks just researching the heck of my first laptop. Been a long time builder of my own computer and built countless others for friends and family. But, never delved into laptops.

I knew I wanted a mid/high end machine that could withstand some of today's games at reasonable framerates. The main 3 features I wanted were a mid/high end graphics card, 17" display, 1920x1200 resolution. Oddly enough I could really only find 2 of the 3 in most systems. The only thing that came close was the Gateway P-7805u if I wanted to "play the guessing game" and try and get lucky with one of the 1920x1200 displays they randomly throw in some of them.

I looked at the Sager 5797, but the price was much higher than the Gateway. I hmmd and hawed over it for a few days but ultimately decided I'd rather spend the money and get something EXACTLY like I want and that should hopefully last me 3+ years. So the budget thing kind of went out the window and this is what I ordered from XoticPC.

Sager 5797
-17" WUXGA (1920x1200)
-No Dead Pixel Policy
-P9700 Processor
-4GB RAM
-2GB Turbo Memory
-320GB 7200rpm HDD
-Blu-ray Optical Drive
-No TV Tuner
-No external sound card
-Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Order Placed: June 3rd, 2009
Shipped: June 9th, 2009 (UPS 3-Day)
Arrived: June 12th, 2009

The package arrived and man was I excited. There was a several inch tear in the box at the lower end of it and I was a bit worried, but after opening the box I saw that not only was the laptop packed within its own separate box, but the only reason the gash happened was because that was the section filled with peanuts. In other words, awesome packaging.

Fired the laptop up and started doing mass updates/installs. I had been overly prepared before the laptop even showed up so I had my own copy of every device driver possibly needed as well as the latest BIOS and EC updates. Obviously the drivers weren't needed but I went into BIOS to double-check on the versions.

I was very impressed to see that XoticPC had already loaded BIOS v1.00.17 on my laptop. After all, that BIOS released 24 hours prior to my order being placed. The EC firmware was one version out of date (v1.00.10) but it took just a few seconds to bump that to v1.00.11.

The nVidia drivers were also the latest available at the time (185.85). I am thoroughly impressed by XoticPC's dedication to making sure you have the latest firmware/driver versions available.

This is where the first and only problem cropped up, though. After rebooting after completing the EC v1.00.11 upgrade, I was greeted with "Operating System Not Found". Since I had to readjust the boot order to boot off of my USB Flash Drive for the EC update I figured I messed something up or might have to revert out that modification. Nope - very eerily BIOS was no longer seeing my hard drive. Simply not detected at all. Soft rebooting several times via CTRL + ALT + DEL did nothing to help.

I hard rebooted by powering off via the power button, waiting a few seconds, and powering it back on. All seemed well and Vista booted without complaints. I continued some more installs and some time later decided to shutdown the laptop and bring it upstairs.

This is when the problem resurfaced. Upon starting it back up from a cold boot it no longer saw my HDD yet again! Several soft reboots and hard reboots (included removing the battery for a bit and reinserting it) did nothing to remedy the situation.

Considering a loose connection, I decided to take it upon myself to pop off the back cover and reseat the HDD. I didn't want to send this laptop back immediately upon receiving it!

Took off the back, popped out the hard drive, and even reseated that little plastic "riser" piece on the SATA header. Put everything back together and booted her up. All seems well yet again!

Hopefully that was a fluke and reseating the HDD spells the end of that problem. Against my better judgment I even launched Dead Pixel Buddy and looked very hard to find any bad pixels (knowing I hadn't purchased the no dead pixel guarantee). Impressed yet again, not a blemish on the beautiful screen.

All in all, the process from order to receipt was almost flawless (The HDD problem being the only issue). I have to say I never expected the speed and dedication to even "the little things" like firmware/driver updates when buying a laptop. I definitely recommend XoticPC to anyone considering a Sager laptop!

 

Well.. I spoke to soon. Shutdown the laptop then powered it back on and we're back to "operating system not found" and BIOS not seeing the HDD anymore... hmm. It's very sporadic. Sometimes hard reboots will fix it.

 

Download a copy of BIOS 1.00.17 and reflash it.

 

Good idea. Doing so now, we'll see how it goes.

 

Nope. No go. Successfully reflashed with v1.00.17. Initial boot not a problem, but about 30-45 min later tried a shutdown/start up and it's not seeing the drive.

 

I'll never understand why people insist on flashing bios and firmware right away on a brand new laptop....if it isn't broke don't fix it. Send it back back and let them fix it before you break something else.

 

Rorschach is right. Update your drivers, but don't mess with the bios/firmware unless you have a problem. The possible headaches far outweigh the possible benefits if you mess up a bios/firmware flash.

 

fixin what aint broke maybe broke it?

why did you feel the need to update the KBC firmware, when xotic didn't?
just wondering.

but i'd be willing to bet you just screwed it up, why on earth would you screw around w/ a brand new machine at least enjoy its awesomeness first.

 

is that you rorschach.....???!!!

p.s. OT

 

why ,did xotic feel the need to ship it with what seems to be a prob in the first place...just wondering.

 

Unfortunately there is no way to tell who caused the problem now. Thats why you don't do this kind of thing right out of the box. If sager/xotic didn't have first class customer care service with a return option and this was a alienware system they might even charge him to do anything since he could be the cause of the problem.

 

Firstly fail to you.

Secondly,I would be willing to betcha what arrived at his doorstep worked properly and he probably corrupted his system by trying to update (unnecessarily) his KBC firmware.

XOTIC runs the system through extensive tests before shipping and wouldn't ship a system with this sort of problem, therefore logically, this problem began after this attempted update. Unfortunatley as already mentioned, now there really is no way to tell since he unwisely decided to screw around w/ his system before giving it a chance as shipped. gg.

again the 'ol proverb - if it ain't broke, don't fix it applies. Probably gonna have to send it back to XOTIC and they'll fix it for ya, luckily for you its brand new and under warranty.


P.S. I would just send the whole system back for a full refund, wait like a month, or wait until the VISTA - WIN 7 upgrade option (so that when WIN 7 comes up you get a free upgrade) and then buy it again. Seriously this is your best bet. Good Luck.

 

"-_-

DO NOT BIOS. DO NOT FLASH GPU. DO NOT FLASH EC. DO NOT FLASH PERIOD.

Unless there's a problema nd if there is talk to the place where you bought it from before you do and let them help troubleshoot. If I was Xotic I would void you warranty and tell you your out of luck. But I know the guys there are nice enough to help you.

 

I'm definitely willing to concede it's my fault. It's definitely not XoticPC's fault if it's in any way related to BIOS/EC firmware - which more than likely it's seeming to be. Lesson learned on my part.

In my defense as to why I did it, I've setup dozens of desktops in the past. All custom built, and I've always ensured *everything* was up-to-date on first install, BIOS included. Updates wouldn't exist if it didn't improve upon something, no?

Guess the situation is different with notebooks. Again, lesson learned. I have to wonder if it's because I used the BIOS/EC firmware direct from Clevo's website (link found in a Sager BIOS update thread in this very forum) as opposed to what I assume exists as a Sager branded form.

I've asked for XoticPC to send me the latest versions of both BIOS/EC firmware and will be installing whatever versions they send. Based on what I've seen so far and by the responses/reaction towards my post as foolish, this will fix it. We'll see. I apologize for making everyone upset in this thread by my actions. The main focus of this thread was to convey my excitement over my new laptop and give XoticPC the praise they deserve for their service.

 

Hi Venthos. I doubt that the problem is related to the BIOS or the keyboard firmware. If you were able to operate the computer after flashing, then the problem here must be hardware related, and my blind guess right now is the hard drive's SATA connection. I've had clients come to me with problems related to corrupt BIOS and the symptoms usually vary. The machine would POST and the status bar would hang for a long time. The screen would display "No TPM." The machine would not recognize your keyboard strokes. Or a basic blank screen. There are other symptoms but because you were able to boot into Windows on a few instances, the BIOS doesn't seem to be the issue here.

 

I definitely am able to "reliably" boot the machine. I have the "Diagnostic" screen in BIOS turned on. If I don't see "Fixed Disk 0" show up immediately when BIOS starts I know it won't boot so I just power it off and power it back on. Seems only 1 or 2 power cycles at most and it'll see it and boot without issue. But at this point, I'm just going to wait on XoticPC and see what they advise.