NP8662 Replacement Motherboard?

Besides Sager, anywhere else I might be able to get ahold of a replacement motherboard? My whole spill saga continues. I thought it was just my keyboard and touchpad, but my USB ports are acting all wonky. One port it always says over power on bootup if I have anything plugged in it, and if I plug something in the combo eSATA port along with something in the USB port below it, it disconnects the USB device below it (which I use for my mini dongle for Logitech mouse).

I requested a quote from Sager, but I know it'll be expensive. I guess maybe look on eBay for a machine with a broken screen or something?

 

LOLWUT?

$400 for motherboard + $80 labor + $40 UPS shipping! ???

They claim they won't sell a motherboard individually. Come on Sager, stop

Sorry but I won't buy another laptop from you.

 

What did you spill? I've salvaged quite a few systems from various spills so I might be able to come up with something.

 

Wine.

I cleaned out the system thoroughly. Completely disassembled, replaced the keyboard and touchpad and buttons as it seemed that was all that was compromised. I wiped the motherboard with 99.9% pure alcohol. Maybe it has nothing to do with the spill, because that happened a few months ago and didn't notice this issue until recently, but then again, I don't use my USB ports all too often, until I replaced my DVD drive with an HDD caddy in the last month or so.

 

If you think it is indeed the motherboard the one process I have tried that has never failed (as long as whatever was spilled didn't actually eat into the board) is to take everything off the board that is reasonable, run the board through the rinse cycle in a dishwasher (assuming you don't have hard water), then the air dry (no heat!) cycle. After that soak the entire board in pure alcohol (ethanol or methanol, whichever you can get more easily) for 2 hours. Take it out and let it sit for an hour. Heat your oven to the lowest temperature it will go, when it reaches that temp, put the board inside and turn the oven off. Leave the board in for 45 minutes. Take it out and let it cool to room temp. Once it's at room temp reassemble, pray, and turn the system back on.

I've used this method successfully on spills involving water, iced tea, beer, fruit juice, salad dressing, projectile cat vomit, and dog urine.

 

Thanks. Other than the USB ports, everything works fine. I'd rather not risk a completely fubar system, I can work around what I've got for the time being. Sager says they do have a way to replace USB ports, and are quoting it. That may be an alternative.

However I will remove my SSD and HDD in the caddy and put in my original HDD and see if it has the same issues. Perhaps it's related to the caddy? I doubt it but might as well see.

 

It could be the caddy. I've seen very strange things occur if there is any kind of feedback into the system bus.

 

Well, I do have a 9.5mm caddy inserted and supported by two anti-static foam pieces because of ordering the wrong caddy. I plan on ordering the proper size, but that shouldn't matter I wouldn't think. I'll try it anyhow.

 

Nope, same problem exists without the caddy or even ODD in the slot. Just original HDD was in there.

 

Someone made a thread about a very similar issue, two months ago. However, there was no mention of a spill.

[M860TU] USB ports not working / dying out one after the other

I couldn't find anything on it at the time.

 

I don't have a hard drive caddy at all. Is that bad?

 

No. The caddy replaces the DVD drive, and lets you put a hard drive in it so you can use a second hard drive.

 

Thanks. Seems a little different, but close enough it may be related. I PM'd the person. Not sure if they will respond since they only have 7 posts here.

It appears I'm looking at a $400 motherboard replacement (plus shipping) and my own labor. I think this means I'll have to take apart my laptop AGAIN and see if I can find anything like residue that might be causing the issue. A couple hours of annoyance to possibly save me $400+ may be worth it.

I was hoping to get by until next March or so when the Sandy Bridge came out and get a new laptop then. I guess as long as the mouse still works, I will have to go without a DVD drive for a while, or maybe get a powered USB hub on the port that I know works. This laptop rarely moves, and rarely need a DVD drive, so it wouldn't be a huge deal, just an annoyance. Although I did just get a slim external Blu-Ray player. Use it primarily on my desktop connected to my 24" monitor but occassionally nice to use on my laptop.

 

Well, if you do decide to replace it, I'll take the crappy one off your hands for a few bucks. I might be able to adapt it for something I'm working on.

 

Ok. But I just hate to dump $400+ in a laptop I'm planning on getting rid of in six months time. I'm hoping if I open it up I'll be able to find the culprit. If it were acting really screwy I might try your cleaning method though.

 

The more I think about it, I guess I'm just going to get an expresscard USB adapter for when I need it. Hopefully this laptop will last 5-6 months until I buy a new one based on Sandy Bridge. Then I can just sell off my NP8662 as components hopefully fetching $350-$400. I figure the GTX 260m and LCD should be worth ~$220, and rest (keyboard, touchpad, wifi module, RAM, heatsink, fan) maybe another $150. Not ideal but better than spending upwards of $450 for another five or six months of use.

 

Good idea. When you do replace it, keep me in mind for the motherboard, even if its a little screwed up I can probably still use it.

 

NP. I will do. I mean it works fine for everything else (so far), only the USB ports are acting a little wonky, one works great unless another USB device is plugged into the one above it, and the eSATA so far works fine. Probably because it's running off a different bus, except for the power comes from USB.

Probably as soon as a decent packaged notebook comes out with Sandy Bridge I'm buying it, this time with an accidental damage warranty . Most likely with an i7-720QM equivalent and whatever the latest high end less power hungry GPU is available (to replace HD 5870 or 480m).

 

I was talking about the internal caddy

Can I call dibs on the heatsink?

Will be interesting to see how much you can get for the casing parts...
I would recommend you try and get a lot more than 220 for the gtx 260m, and probably ~60$ for the LCD, just a suggestion

 

I meant ~ $220 between both the LCD and GTX 260m. Based on eBay these cards go for $150-$170, and LCD about $75. I figure by the time I go to sell it will have dropped 10% at least.

 

Yeah, I was saying you could easily get more for the card. Where do you see them going for that cheap?

 

eBay. I just did a search in completed listings. New one sold for $220, used for ~ $150.

 

i also believe i have a motherboard issue with my 8662. same price crap i was quoted. problem is, i need this laptop working YESTERDAY, and i can't afford a month of having sager around with it.

anyone got any ideas? any way to source a motherboard from clevo directly?

 

I wish there was some acer or gateway crap that had a dumbed down motherboard revision...

haha yeah right.

 

email [email protected] or call Phone # 909-598-2263 and ask for a quote for replacement motherboard. It will have to ship from Taiwan though.

 

I'm in the same position.

My coffee spill has rendered my machine obsolete, in regards to gaming.

I either spend the $480+, or put that money towards a brand new machine. I want to be able to game now, but my target is a W880CU with 6870, which means I'm going to have to deal with a gimped machine until possibly early 2011.

Order one from R&JTech. It's $400.

 

Yeah, I'm just holding out until Sandy Bridge comes along. I'm game for any brand, and realize after this incident that the cost of replacement parts is quite high. Not sure if that is common for most laptops but $400 for a replacement motherboard is almost twice what it really should be IMHO. I was expecting ~$250. Maybe I'll spring for a SquareTrade warranty with accidental protection next time. But that cost still seems exhorbitant, considering this is the first significant incident I've had with laptops since I've ever started using them.

But I do like the build of the Sager. I would just like a backlit chiclet keyboard. I loved the one on the Envy 14. And I used to think I needed a 15" but I think I'd be fine with a 17".

I'm sure there will be plenty of options come February 2011.

Most likely i'll go for an i7-2720QM / HD 6870 / 6GB RAM (unless 8GB is more reasonable) / Vertex 2 60GB & Momentus XT I already have unless a screaming fast high capacity SSD (> 200GB) at a good pricepoint comes along. But I doubt that by February.

 

You should expect an updated version of the Asus G73, w/ Sandy Bridge, 6870, and space for 2 HDDs early next year, around $1600. That will be very tempting. My only issue with the Asus is that you have to remove and flip the mobo, just to gain access to the main components.

I'll go barebone from R&JTech again. With 6870, a decent barebone build will probably max at $1600, with a max ES.

re: mobo pricing, $400 seems pretty normal, to me. Years ago I was quoted $380+, for an out of warranty HP piece of junk.

 

Yeah, I'm not super keen on the Asus, although it seems to be pretty favorable, I think mainly the inexpensive Best Buy version. I definitely am looking for 1920x1080 screen though if I go with a 17", even a 15" if I can find one.

Considering the cost of the sager NP8662, NP8690, and NP8760, I'm hoping to get a 17" equipped as noted earlier for < $1800. If I can part out my NP8662 for ~ $400-$500 it will definitely help.

Thanks on the mobo pricing too. So I guess the accidental protection is worth it then, well, if you're prone to accidents I guess. But if I bought a warranty for $400 (with accidental) for every laptop I've owned, I probably would have spent a couple grand in warranties alone before ever making a claim.

 

I expect the AMD equipped W880CU to be of similar price to the W870CU, so <$1800 will be easily attainable. I'm definitely not spending more than $1750.

And to think, I spent $1900 on my launch day M860TU, with just a 2.4Ghz P8600 and the 9800M GT. Now the W870CU is going for ~$1300.

Notebook pricing has changed for the better, over the last couple years.

 

I'd prefer to spend less obviously. I think I spent about $1600 on my NP8662. I typically spend about $1200 every 18 months on a new machine + whatever I can get from selling my old one. So $1600-$1700 would be my price range realistically if I can part out my NP8662.

That's good news on the pricing. Now for the waiting game. Actually I probably would have held on to my NP8662 longer if it didn't have these issues, but I'd rather put that money towards a new laptop at this point. It works fine for the most part, just USB issues mainly, and about $150 in repairs already (keyboard, touchpad, and buttons).

 

Ok, I got my PCMCIA USB adapter today. Works fine. I can at least use my external DVD drive now for the occasions I need it. And USB flash drives seem to work fine in one of the side USB ports. Seems to be the higher power draw devices that it has issues with. Strange thing is the expresscard doesn't seem to be able to provide enough power on a single cable to power the DVD drive. Plugging the power cord in the built-in usb port works though, for power only, not for data and power. Really really odd.

 

Gah! This is ticking me off. Still same issue. Seems to be an issue supplying enough power through the external device ports. I found three old powered four port USB hubs. The cheapest of them all (Inland) worked. The other two actually had issues. Of course it has the largest power brick of all of them. Strange too because it's 6V/2.1A vs. 5V/2.5A of the other two USB hubs. After interchanging power supplies and hubs, the cheap Inland with it's humongeous power supply fared the best. Go figure. I guess I'll just run with that for the time being. Sigh.

I just hope this machine keeps up just fine for another 3-4 months. !!!