PLEASE Help! Advice Urgently Needed!

hey guys,

i wasn't really sure where to put this, or who to really ask, so i figured this would be the best place to start. let me begin my story about 6 months back, when my NP8850 started to act up on a more regular basis. so about 6 months ago, all of a sudden i turn my laptop on and there's a big line of dead pixels there to greet me. it was literally a whole line of dead pixels going horizontally across the bottom portion of my screen. i tried all of the recommended pixel fixers to no avail. yes, it was annoying, but it didn't bother me too much.

a short time after the line of dead pixels appeared, my laptop started bugging out very often. so often, it felt like it was happening every other day, almost. my screen would just bug out and display all kinds of crazy shapes and colors. there would be tears and artifacts everywhere. it didn't matter if i was doing nothing or something on my laptop. it just started bugging out, randomly, whenever it wanted to. it would literally cripple my work efficiency, browsing, gaming, or whatever i was doing at the moment. i wouldn't be able to do anything with my laptop but keep on doing hard restarts because all the laptop would do is bug out and then lock up and freeze. a hard restart/shut down were my only options when my laptop felt like bugging out. at that point, i was really worried because all the signs were pointing to a faulty GPU or motherboard. my warranty is up in a month or 2, so i did not want to be stuck with a $3000 paper weight. i filed my RMA and sent my laptop in.

fast forward to about 3-4 weeks later, i finally receive my laptop from Sager. when i opened the box and checked the order/work list, the only fix mentioned was the screen replacement. i saw no mention of them even touching anything else, let alone the GPU. there was no GPU work or part(s) order on the work list. when i opened up the bottom of my laptop, everything looked totally untouched. it looked exactly the same way as when i sent the laptop off to them. that really concerned me because the GPU/motherboard problem was my biggest priority; not the screen replacement. i was really questioning if they even took my laptop apart and/or ran any kind of diagnostics test(s) on my laptop. if they did, i'm pretty positive they would've ran into all of my problems.

well now i'm sitting here and still experiencing the same exact problems. i'm not really sure what to do anymore, or who to talk to. as stated, my extended 2-year warranty is about to end in about a month or 2 and i definitely do not want to be stuck with a $3,000 paper weight...

here's a VERY SMALL sample of what i frequently experience from my laptop. this video was taken just a few moments ago. prior to me waking up the computer, it was just sitting there idle overnight. i just clicked on firefox to check my email and...yeah...

Sager NP8850 tripping out - YouTube

 

that sure looks like a defective graphics card to me especially half way through the video.
i would defo get back onto their support as its still covered and get them to sort it out once and for all. also send them the video as proof.

and send me your screensaver

 

Have you tried reinstalling graphic drivers? Maybe downgrading works to stable drivers will work.

 

As MrDJ has stated, that seems to be much more indicative of a bad graphics card than just a simple drivers issue. I would contact them and send them the link to that video, see what they have to say.

 

Try a new driver as Heihachi stated or simply use your warranty.. that GPU is seriously out of bounds, happened to me when I OC'd the 8600M GT too much for a while, needed to reflash the damn thing

 

x100000000

Dont be affraid to call back up and just yell at them. More then likely someone just had an off day or was in a hurry but it is still no excuse. They should have test the computer afterwards to make sure it was fixed. If they did they probably just booted it up and used it for 30 seconds and figured it was good. Because just like your video shows, sometimes it takes a minute for an issue to show up.

Instances like this really show me how much of a value the slightly higher price of a laptop purchased through Mythlogic truly has. I can't wait to get mine in my hands.

Good luck with your fix! I'm sure they will sort it out for you if you just call up and complain that you are still having issues and share your YouTube video with them.

 

That video looks like a lifter GPU ball, like the rrod of an xbox360. I'd say call them up and show them the video.
If sadly the warranty is up, you could reflow the GPU if you have the tools, or look for someone or a shop who does reflows and xbox repairs. They have the tools to fix it.

 

i've tried many, many drivers. all from official nvidia links only. right now i'm using the 296.10 drivers which was the latest WHQL-certified drivers, at the time. i've tried OEM, older, newest, verde, and beta drivers. all of them produced the same results.

the funny thing is that the video i posted is actually the "second take". when i first woke up, and turned on my laptop, the artifacts and lock ups were even worst than what's shown in the video. i just totally forgot to hit the friggin record button on my phone so i didn't get the "first take" lol.

when i connect my laptop to an external monitor, the problems seem like it gets even worst...

also, i specifically picked to open L4D2 because it's not a very GPU-taxing game. i wanted to show that even everyday activities and a low/mid-tier game, graphics-wise, would even trigger these symptoms.

...honestly...don't really know what to do at the moment as my warranty is nearing with every passing minute.

see? before i RMA'd my laptop, i did alot of research and most RMA's came back with a clean install because the guys at Sager/Clevo are supposed to look into our RMA's alot more thoroughly.

when i got my laptop back, my OS looked the same as the day i sent it off. when i opened the bottom of my laptop up, it looks so very untouched. even some of the dust was still there from before i RMA'd it. that led me to believe that they didn't even touch, or look, at my GPU. i found it really odd because the GPU, itself, was never mentioned during the whole RMA process and there are no indications of it on my work/order log. only the monitor repair was in the work/order log.

the sucky part is...i JUST got my laptop back from an RMA job not even 2-3 weeks ago. i was a bit swamped with work, so i didn't really have a chance to thoroughly test my newly RMA'd laptop til this week.

please, if any of u guys have more sound advice, don't hesitate to lay it on me. i really appreciate all of your care, concern, and time. i will slowly +rep all of u guys that helped out in this thread. thanks

 

Dude, you already got all the sound advice you need - this GPU is failing (or something is not seated/connected right, or what have you). I had something like that when my AMD 4870X2 card was failing.

There's no magic solution that will resolve this stuff, this is strictly a hardware issue.

It doesn't matter that you just received it from RMA, these guys didn't do any real work on it. Reminding yourself over and over your warranty is about to expire while doing nothing won't help.

Now snap out of it, email Sager's support this youtube video, demand that they'll handle it and call in their working hours to make sure they saw this video and understand this issue. That's all you need you need to do.

Good luck!

 

well the reason i asked for advice/help was that i wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything i did, on my end, to mess anything up. if i did it then i'll be responsible for it. if it wasn't my fault then i just want the right thing to be done. as i stated again and again, i won't be very happy being stuck with a $3,000 paper weight...

i've already emailed the RMA guy that specifically dealt with my RMA order. i sent him the link to this thread and the youtube link. i also PM'd Hutsady about the matter because i've spoken with him the most out of all the XoticPC staff.

P.S. - not sure if i already mentioned it, but i also tried doing a fresh win7 install to make sure that my OS didn't have any corrupted files. i actually did 2 fresh installs back to back just to make sure everything went 100% A-OK. and...nope...no improvements besides a little speed boost from freeing up my drives.

 

Stop thinking you did anything or have anything to justify. That wasn't anything you did, these things happen, and this issue was apparent before you even sent them the laptop.

Like you keep saying, you don't want to get stuck with a $3000 paper weight, so use your warranty. Just be glad it happened before your warranty expired

 

what i'm really worried about the most is that i might end up getting screwed because my warranty only lasts for about another month or so.

what if i send in my laptop again, they "say" they fixed it, send it back unfixed...AGAIN, and then my warranty is a goner. what do i do then...?

 

They must open the bottom case to make the LCD apart. However, I think Sager can only catch the screen issue when you send it in for repair. I think they did not get the graphic card issue.

 

that would be very disappointing because one of the RMA conditions is to: write out all of the symptoms the machine is showing.

i took my time out and actually printed everything out so that it could be easily read. i used perfect grammar and described all the problems out in detail. i even put the print out under my lid so that it would be the first thing a tech sees when they open up my laptop and begin working on it.

 

MAN! Sorry to see you are having problems with your laptop man. Btw, how old is your Sager? Good luck mate.

 

Just send it in before its too late. Write that the GPU is bad, and you know because LCD was replaced, drivers were reinstalled, and that did not fix the problem. Also let them know you have videos as proof.


Stop beating around the bush and attack that warranty!

 

the NP8850 will be 2-years old next month.

i'll probably start my RMA process as soon as i get an email back from one of the XoticPC guys.