NP9260 Post-mortom (why you might wanna reconsider buying Sager)

Hey guys,

So after about 3 short years of ownership, my Sager NP9260 bought from Power Notebooks decided it was time for it to burn out in a spectacular fashion.

While I suffered through the hinges and the case breaking and snapping off around the hinge and screen area. I didn't really mind the cosmetic blemished on my system that much.

But about a few months ago the system began randomly seizing up, blue screening, hard locking, random stuttering in games, all sorts of problems that no amount of driver foolery or a complete reload couldn't fix.

Fast forward another month or so, the GPU has completely and totally burnt out. The system will power on, beep (one long, two short. Can't find video device). Very rarely will it stay on it's feet long enough to boot into the OS. Even then I have maybe 10 minutes at the most before it craps out.

Contacting Sager support has proved to be pretty much a waste of time, since I'm out of warranty they couldn't give a rats and refuse to even sell me a replacement GPU. On Ebay even the lowest end mini-pci GPUs are around 600 USD, 1/3 the price of the laptop to begin with.

That's not even the worst of it.

I opened the laptop up to try and re-seat the heatsink to the GPU to see if that would solve any of the problems. What I found was 3 torqued and half destroyed screws, and in one case, a screw that had been forced into the socket at an angle, jammed into the motherboard.

Upon prying these screws out and inspecting the heatsink and GPU, I found that the amount of thermal paste applied to the GPU was CRIMINAL. One, Small, thin spot of paste sat between the main chip and the copper. This spot didn't cover the entire chip AT ALL. When I tried to use the Arctic cleaning solution to reseat the GPU properly I found that the chip had actually burned an imprint of the lettering on the dye into the back of the heatsink (I don't know if this is common or not, I have never seen it before this.)

In the end, I am disgusted with the build quality of this notebook. I bought a Sager thinking I would get great support and excellent build quality over the big box computer manufactures. I see now that I made a grave purchasing gaff.

NOTES:
#1 I took crazy care of my system, including regularly cleaning dust from the fans and heat sink fins.

#2 Power Notebooks has always been great to me over the phone, and granted, this issue was out of their hands as I was far out of my warranty. They did try and help me find a replacement GPU, they are not at fault here, as far as I know.

 

nvidia gpu were fautly from the factory 3 years ago they got sue pretty bad a few times in different countries...

http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/

Hinges tend to break i see in alien ware, asus, dell, and etc.

You can maybe save your GPU by reflowing it. You can google it and read about it in youtube. Avg person bake the GPU in a oven but be careful lead oxidized at 400F degree it can gave out harmful fumes.

 

Did you ever monitored the gpu temp before break down? If the heatsink was not seat onto gpu properly, you should see shut down the moment you run graphic intensive task

 

I had a very similar thing happen on my NP9260. I wrote about it here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/554914-my-experience-myth-sager-build-quailty.html

Actually put the age of the machine wrong in my original post. It was about 3.5 years old, not 4.5 years old as stated.

 

Honestly, I never consider Clevo / Sager has a superior build quality especially in the 17" class (mediocre at best). Those who said they are better probably never had laptop from another brand.

I went with them because they are cheap or in another word, better price / performance ratio. Clevo / Sager is about $200~300 less than Alienware based on same configuration.

When you build a 12lbs laptop base on plastic chassis.... something WILL break down the road. Not mention the extreme heat cycle from dual GPU and a desktop CPU will cause plastic became fragile & brittle overtime. The hinge cracked because you putting force to it every time you open & close lid. Maybe its best not to move lid around when the system is still hot?

They "should" went with magnesium & carbon fiber chassis (like Sony's premium models) in their 17" dual GPU models. But I doubt it will ever happen because they are budget performance laptops.

Now, dual GPU in 17" is probably not a good idea anyway. Have you ever wonder why new m17x r3 decide to goes with one gpu instead of two? I had the very first m17x with dual 280gtx SLI and extreme processor. After 1.5 years of 10hr / day usage, the system start to give me BSOD and black screen occasionally glad I was able to sell it before it finally die on me. Constant high temp = short life.

If you want to laptop with superior build quality, go with Thinkpad, Sony and Apple... Clevo / Sager is cheap for a reason

 

That is your opinion and if you are going to publicize it, you should have some factual data to backup your claims. Dolt... Do a little research before posting this non-sense.

How can you say that budget performance laptops that are customizable are in fact "budget"? Especially since most of the components are name brand and selected by the customer? Sony hardly makes a top of the line notebook and has the audacity to charge top dollar for sub-par performance. Elitebooks just plain suck. We use them at work and are constantly fixing various hardware problems. Apple is just laughable. Apple is mainstream hardware assembled by them in California. The reality of this thread is that, ALL manufacturers source their parts from "some other company" and simply assemble a working machine. Clevo builds that chasis and Sager assembles the final product.

 

There's some truth in the cliche of "you get what you pay for". I bought my 8170 fully knowing that its very reasonable price was solely because I was buying hardware specs only, and that the manufacturer will likely be going low cost on things like case construction, secondary and tertiary components (cheap LG LCD panels), support, aesthetic, and possibly fit and finish. At the price these resellers are carrying these, you have to wonder as both the reseller and the manufacturer have to make a profit somewhere.

These are not very attractive laptops and the ABS plastic construction (with glued on brushed aluminum appliques), subpar keyboard and a couple other things leave a lot to be desired. That his laptop lasted 3.5 years is about average for a lot of laptops. It's not out of the ordinary for laptops to fail after 3 years. I am surprised that in the 3.5 years of ownership that he never checked temperatures and tolerances to make sure everything was on the up and up.

I've had my 8170 for a few weeks and redid the thermal paste on my cpu and gpu with IC Diamond. When I stress tested the 6970M with the factory applied paste, I was hitting temps of 103C under heavy load, with ~53C idle! Unacceptable! After putting IC Diamond on myself, I barely break 80C with a 42C idle now. If I had just trusted the company on their word and never double checked that the temps were within spec, I'd probably have a broken laptop after a few years too.

I know that sounds like a huge diss against Sager/Clevo, but it's just the reality of the purchase. I love my 8170, but I am not kidding myself one bit about what I purchased and realize that I could only have peace of mind after I vetted the components myself. Anyone buying one of these laptops will need to do due diligence in making sure everything is ok with the laptop ~before~ the warranty expires. Does that make Sager/Clevo a bad brand? Not at all.

 

Now, I don't have an Apple, or an HP or whatever, but my 9800m GT died March 26. Nice.

 

What evidence or factual data do you need? Both the OP and Techno shared their personal experience with NP9260.

Being fully customizable doesn't make it superior. Since most major compoents are made by the other manufactures, build quality simiply referring the material and craftsmenship of the laptop chassis. Thinkpad and Lenovo may have same spec on paper but surely not the same build quality.

Plastic is a less desired material to build chassis for a laptop of this weight and heat output. When compare to aluminum, plastic is brittle, deteriorate faster under extreme heat, less rigid which limit the size of air duct openings, and terrible heat dissipation. So why do Clevo decide to go with ABS plastic instead Aluminum or Magnesium? Because plastic is cheap and easy to craft.

I am not saying NP9260 has terrible build quality, but from the material used and craftsmenship it is mediocre at best (over torque and broken screws, improper thermal paste and etc). Clevo's build quality is no where near Sony's premium model or Thinkpad. I have owned and disassembled Sony's TZ, Z, P and X series laptops. They maybe flexible and superlight but do not fail apart overtime thanks to magnesium and carbon fiber chassis. They use thread lock on all screws so there is no need to over torque it.

There is a small percentage of clevo / sager owner who has this belief that clevo / sager is superior in every way. They often give the potiential or 1st time clevo / sager owner the wrong expection about this brand. guess what? disappointment will come sooner or later.

You get what you paid for, a budget performance laptop! Best price / performance ratio on the market... But hey... it is made from plastic after all..

 

First off thanks to everyone who's posted so far. Kinda ticked I missed that suit by a month or so, might have gotten like 30 bucks out of it or something.

Secondly, I monitored the temps CLOSELY. I sent it back on one occasion because the temps were above normal. They replaced the cracking case and a snapped audio jack in addition to doing whatever they did to the innards of the laptop, since it came back running at excellent temps, for like a week.

I seriously want to know why people buy faulty cheap laptops. My old Dell Latitude from 2002 still functions AMAZINGLY as a linux machine. No case breaking, heat problems, or other issues over the 9 years I've owned the cheap $500 POS. In fact I'm typing this post on it, as it is my "pool side" computer.

It's dismal to think that a 3 THOUSAND dollar laptop lasts 1/3 of that time. Kinda speaks to the quality of the company as well.

 

I do agree with you while many here will deny that Sager is a "budget" laptop with mediocre reliability. People who buy Sager / Clevo pay for the components inside rather than build quality.

You simply can't compare the price of a dual gtx 485 + i7 (np7280 for example) to an average specced laptop. After paying huge chunk of $$ to Nvidia and Intel for those expensive components, Sager / Clevo couldn't afford anything beside generic design and plastic shells. I bet the same configuration from Apple or Sony will cost over $6k (if they decide to offer them).

I strongly suggest anyone who purchase Sager / Clevo get their 3 years extend warranty. Chances are one or more components in your laptop WILL fail within that period of time... at least you don't have to bear the financial loss...

 

Yep, I'll be buying the 3 years extended warranty regardless of whatever was posted here After one year when my parts warranty runs out.

But I still think Sager is good and I trust my reseller.

Mr. Mysterious

 

The 3 years extended warranty will not be worth it for most since they sell their laptop within 2 years.

 

It will help in selling the laptop as the warranties are transferable, and buyers are more likely to buy/pay more if the machine is still under warranty. The new owner may have to pay a nominal fee to transfer the warranty, but it's still good.

As long as you use an authorized Sager reseller and they are offering the warranty through Sager, this should be in the terms of the warranty, quoted below: