Sager 8800 Update

Date: 11/27/2007
NP9261
We wanted to write to confirm that current (D901C) units will not be able to accommodate the new nVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics card without a mother board swap out / modifications. Unfortunately, when we design our units we cannot predict the impact of unforeseen technology. In this case the old mother board simply cannot accommodate the new graphics card. We recognize this is disappointing to our customers, and Sager intends to launch a very reasonably and attracted discounted priced upgrade path for Sager branded units only. That will include the new graphics card and a motherboard swap out.

Currently Sager is working very closely with both Clevo and nVIDIA to sort out all the issues and at this point we know that a motherboard swap out is a MUST on the NP9260/1 (D901C) series.

NP5791
We are currently making good progress on the NP5790/1 (M570RU), but we have one outstanding issue that would require a motherboard revision. The issue is related to suspending the system to memory (S3). With the current motherboard the unit would resume into a blank black screen.

At this time we have been informed that this cannot be fixed by software, however we are currently considering different upgrade packages for the NP579x (M570RU) if this remains the only hardware modification required issue.

1.We will allow the customer to upgrade on their own, under the pre-condition that the customer understands that the unit cannot resume from suspend to memory
2.We will do the motherboard modification rework at a discounted rate
3.We will swap out the motherboard and graphics card for the customer at a discounted priced upgrade package.

Further upgrade package and pre-order details will be released on Dec, 6th 2007


11/30/2007 UPDATE

Upgrading Sager NP9260/1 (D901C) & NP5790/1 (M570RU) to new nVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX w/512MB

Due to specification changes out of Sager’s Control, the Sager NP9260/NP9261 will require a motherboard swap out to the updated Revision V6.x motherboard to correctly support the new nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB. The motherboard version number can be located on the bottom memory socket. The Sager NP5790/NP5791 has three different upgrade options available*.

For NP9260/NP9261/NP5790/NP5791 users wishing to purchase the nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB, Sager will perform the necessary motherboard swap out and install the card. Shipping and handling charges to and from Sager will be the responsibility of the customer. Sager will not be responsible for any case scratches or paint chipping that may occur during the modification. Please Contact the Sager Technical Support department for detailed information.

The upgrade/swap out kit will be available beginning Jan 15th, 2008. For Sager brand Clevo D901C/M570RU customers the swap out process will take 5 business days. Non-Sager branded Clevo D901C/M570RU units will require 10 to 15 business days. Rush service available call for details.

For Sager Branded Clevo D901C / M570RU customers, the nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB GPU and motherboard will receive a new 1 year warranty or the remaining extended warranty if longer than 1 year remaining; the rest of the unit warranty (or extended warranty if previously purchased by customer) remains as is.

Non Sager branded Clevo D901C / M570RU units will have 90 day warranty for all replaced parts. Sager is not responsible for the terms and conditions of any other warranties on Non-Sager Branded units, and you should review those terms to determine whether Sager service on such units will void other warranties.

For a limited time (Jan 15th, 2008 through June 30th 2008), Sager will offer the upgrade packages at a discounted rate.

Sager NP9260/NP9261 (Clevo D901C):
• Price good between Jan 15th’08 through June 30th’08
• New revision D06 (Ver. 6.x) motherboard
• 1x nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB Card
• Labor included
• $899.00 after instant $200.00 off for Sager Branded customers
• $1099.00 Non-Sager Branded systems

$745.00 for additional nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB Card


Sager NP5790/NP5791 (Clevo M570RU):

Option 1: Full swap out package
• Price good between Jan 15th’08 through June 30th’08
• New nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB
• New Motherboard
• Labor included
• $899.00 after instant $200.00 off for Sager Branded customers
• $1099.00 Non-Sager Branded systems

Option 2*: Send in to Sager for Motherboard Rework
• Available Jan 15th’08
• New nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB
• Sager will perform motherboard Rework needed
• $745.00 Sager Branded Systems FREE Labor Included
• $845.00 ($745.00 +$100.00 labor) for non Sager Branded systems

Option 3*: Pre-condition User self upgrade
• Available Jan 15th’08
• New nVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTX w/512MB
• User understands that the system will have unable to wake from suspend to ram (S3) aka: Suspend / Sleep mode issues.
• $745.00





* NOTE: NP579x Option 2 & Option 3 may or may not be available depending on final testing results from Clevo.

 

No love for us 2090 owners either Justin?

 

I wish there was a way to squeeze the 8800 into the 2090

 

i am not happy anymore

 

ill wait the new motherboard than...

this will be my first and last gaming laptop!

 

I'm thinking the same thing i still have some time to return this one i don't want to have to buy another mb in 3 months to upgrade i might wanna wait 2 week and get the upgradable one. crap

 

Oh that why we saw the video or a m570ru with a 8800 inside... so its just the suspend mode the problem...

anyway i want to be sure and ill wait the next motherboard... ill ask justin to send me a email when it will be available

 

i have had that suspend problem when it resumes to a blank black screen as well. So you're saying, Justin, that 5791 customers can have their notebook mobo replaced and videocard upgraded at a discounted price because of this problem?

and is this a Sager policy or a XoticPC policy?

 

Justin,

Thank you for the update.
-----------------------------------
The rest of you guys and gals,

I know that you are disappointed and some of you feel betrayed, but do not bypass the language filter and please discuss the topic in a mature way or the thread will be closed.

Thx

Kdawgca
NBR Moderator

 

Justin, I have one question. Can I upgrade my unit in my sig without sending it back to Sager, can I do the upgrade myself? And please dont tell me to wait till Dec 6. I use this system for my business and I cant be without it for even a day. Please god I hope we can just order the parts!!~!!!

I hope they will get the 45nm CPU taken care of with this MB upgrade too.

Just relax Dexgo, they will take care of us.

 

FriscoPowers - What they are stating is for current owners of the 5790/1 the 8800 Upgrade is done it causes S3 errors. If this error is not a concern to the end user they can proceed with the upgrade to the 8800. If the error is a concern there will be a motherboard upgrade available soon to address this issue. Sager will have a discounted upgrade package for customers that want to upgrade the motherboard and 8800.

CRFfred - Most likely 9261 customers will have to send the system in as a motherboard upgrade is not easy. We can certainly check into providing the parts..

 

clevo pulled the same stunt in the previous generation of the D900 and now pulled it again with the current generation D900. so much for their "user upgradeable" notebooks!

yeah they did the same thing last generation....a discount of $100 dollars (for a $1,000 dollar "upgrade"). i know it is not sager's fault or any resellers for that matter, i just want to throw this jab in there to express my utter dismay that this has happened again.

gotta love clevo's R&D and their marketing folks!

 

Very good, all I want is to be able to swap the MB and cards myself. I hope they give us a break on the price of the MB. What about the 45nm CPU's, will this MB upgrade take care of that issue if there is one. Would be nice to slap a new quad in when ready.

 

As far as I know the machine is upgradable. If it wasnt we would not be able to upgrade the MB to use the 8800M GTX. Justin just said it will be a discounted upgrade package. So you have to spend a few hundred $$$$ more, who cares. As long as we can do this upgrade ourselves, if we cant then I will be very upset.

 

So upgrading the 8800M video card myself will only cause the S3 error which only occurs when I use the suspend mode? (sleep mode or stand By mode?) If that's true then it's fine by me since I never use sleep mode... All I did is power it up or shut it down.

 

I own a D900C, I was thinking of upgrading the motherboard to accept quad cores, but I figured I should wait until there was more information on the 8800. Lo and behold, another motherboard update! Woo.

Anyway, I'm not complaining really, but I would like to make sure it IS possible for the D900C ( not 901 ) could just get one motherboard upgrade to accept quad core AND the 8800. Any pricing would be helpful too. I bought my laptop from rj-tech.com so I fear the discounted thing with sager doesn't even apply to me. :/

 

i have just emailed justin asking whether or not the new mobo will support the new 45nm penryn chips and also be able to overclock the cpu..

hopefully we get some good news!!

hey maksin you are in OZ rite and u ordered from xoticpc..?? did you pay GST when u got it into the country and also what other fees did you pay

 

Wow very happy my D901C wasn't shipped yet. Just sent Justin an email to hold off my order with 8700 gt sli for the 8800m and new motherboard. Would I need to pay more? I would think 8700 gt sli would at least cost the same as one 8800m.

 

yep exitium, i reckon you will have to pay a bit more mate for the upgrade. im in the same boat as you, i ordered my system a week before the 8800GTX was announced, so i told justin to hold off on my order too.

 

Sager and Clevo will come through for us, I hope.

 

I, too, would like a clarification as to what the "S3 error" really is for those who're not as technologically efficient. As long as I have absolutely no performance limitations with my current motherboard, I may not mind keeping my current one.

 

(S3) = Suspend to Ram AKA: Sleep

if you don't use (S3)

and are use (S4) Hibernate, or shutdown the system every time, the issue on the M570RU shouldn’t be a issue to you.

 

I paid $235 for the international shipping fee to XoticPC and about $300 GST to the Australian Customs when it arrived (10% of the total cost of my NP5790)... I've heard that we don't need to pay GST for anything below $1000 so if I only buy the 8800M from XoticPC again then I shouldn't need to pay any GST...

Nice. Looks like I'll be ordering the 8800M by itself if this is the only problem it has.

 

So my confirmations were right, M570RU is fine with 8800M GTX without a new motherboard... who cares about the standby/sleep... no one really uses that anymore.

But its unfortunate for the D901C.... since I couldnt get confirmations for that unit to work with SLI.... single card is a different story it seems from some test leaks. but to have it fully support SLI 8800M GTX's, then the mobo upgrade will be needed.

 

Excellent, thanks maksin looks like i will be paying at least 5K or if not more in total for my beast. which is bladdy good considering the same thing from pioneernotebooks will be at least 7K with the new 8800GTX

 

I am OK with the new MB needed for the D901C, if we can do the upgrade ourselves and at a reasonable price and supports 45nm penryn chips. I dont ask for much there is only one way to go and thats SLI.

 

I`m happy no matter what, my 5791 will be getting a lovely gift in the 8800M GTX form pretty soon
Long live 5791
death to S3

 

Glad I waited.

To all the complainers: nVidia designed the cards, not Sager. I am sure that if nVidia went to Sager 8 months ago and said, "here is the 8800m, future proof your notebooks by tailoring them to its design" they would have done so.

 

Exactly, I agree.

 

It's not that big of a deal, if they (Clevo, Sager) said you cannot upgrade period, which is what Dell or AW would do, that would make me angry. But they are not, they are giving us hopfully the option of swapping in a new better board, and we get the full power of 8800M GTX in SLI.

 

well i am angry right now! i have a few more days left of the satisfaction guarantee i think its 12 outta 15 days so i will talk to justin tomorrow to see what is going on. I'm not mad at xotic. they are hating that this is happening also. i hope they will make me happy and meet me half way again. i bought this on the premise that i was going to upgrade the gpu's in feb or march not that i cant upgrade unless i buy a new mb that's why i waited from the 9260 to the 9261 so i could get the new mb i hope all goes well i don't wanna return this lappy and go a month without it but if i have to to i will. the whole situation really stinks at no point can u have more then 2 weeks without something screwing up one of the best laptops available
i think u are right they should do a little more testing and stop kicking out lappys that are not upgradeable. they are rebuild-able but not upgradeable
if u have to change multiple parts to upgrade something its not upgradable u are re building it
these old mb's are useless they were produced for a month and replaced one month later this is insane lol
ok im not going to be able to sleep tonight till i talk to justin lol
my stomch is in knots i dont know about u guys but im gonna have a breakdown $4000 and i have to rebuild if i wanna upgrade

 

what would be really nice is if sager/xoticpc/insert your reseller here had a program where you got a discount for the upgrade and they also purchased back your old motherboard and video card to make the upgrade worthwhile. i know they wouldn't be able to sell those items as "new" but that would definitely make this situation a little better for the users that feel cheated and would put some of the older items back in stock for users that don't wish to shell out such a high amount.

a few hundred bucks to upgrade isn't that big of a deal, but i definitely don't want to spend $1,000 to upgrade and then just have my old motherboard and video card sitting around collecting dust.

 

I totally agree.

 

Well, this is just darn sad, and makes me darn angry. but i'm gonna contain myself because I would hate to have my posts deleted for speaking my mind.
If I allready bought mine I would return it and let them keep it (if it was in the 30 day period)

 

It's almost funny if ya think about it.

My New clevo gets delivered tomorow with the 8700M in SLI.

It will be the badest laptop in the land for....Oh 3 to 6 weeks....LOL

No problem, thats life on the bleeding edge.

3K for the laptop. to upgrage the laptop in the 1st quarter of 08. to Dual SLI 8800M GTX's and a motherboard also...LOL

$800 a video card each....1600 Bucks
Last motherboard upgrade...Rev.4 to Rev.5 to accept Quads $500 Bucks
If the pricing is the same?

2100.00 total....plus shipping I'll bet.

100.00 Discount for being a good customer.

2K just for 8800M GTX in SLI for the D901C .......????

Or is my math as bad as my Spelling.......LOL.

For another 2 grand ? No thanks....the 8700m SLI is just fine. it will play all the games OK for most of the life of this laptop.

I'll just Delete 3Dmark 06.

Problem solved.

 

ya know...i thought about that.

But it would be the retailer who would be taking the hit, not the people that caused the problem.

My new laptop will be just fine the way it is. because theres no way i'm paying another 2K to keep on the bleeding edge.

Lack of buliding the motherboard robust enough for future changes to save a few cents per motherboard on componet cost. well....Someones going to loose sales in the long term.

Again it will be the resellers caught in the middle with no control of the orignal problem/s caused by the video card maker and the laptop manufactures lack of communication skills.

 

taking the entire laptop apart to replace the motherboard does not constitute as user upgradeable. don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

so much for the MXM IV "feature" in the D900C.

 

I'm glad I didn't jump on the motherboard wagon and switch it out when they put revision 5.x out for the G0 stepping. I think I'll wait for Penryn support in the motherboard where I can put a Q9550 in. Then I'll upgrade my cards to 8800's. Anyhow that's my plan.

 

Folks, PcMicroWorks has already done this! With purchase of the Diamond Protection plan (which would seem smart on a $3000+ laptop) You get BOTH of the following among other things.

All Upgrades at Wholesale Cost

The most beneficial and exclusive part of the Diamond Program is that we offer all of your future upgrades at our wholesale cost. Because of our volume purchasing and distribution connections, we can offer much lower pricing to our Diamond Program members for upgrades -- savings as much as 75% off our normal retail pricing. Through any other manufacturer, you would have to pay full price for any upgrade to your system. This incentive alone could pay for the Diamond Program after only a single upgrade! No longer do you have to buy a new system to stay ahead of the technology curve, simply upgrade your existing system under the Diamond Protection Program.

Trade-In Credit

When you are ready to update your computer system, you will receive trade-in credit on your existing components that you are upgrading to greatly reduce the overall cost of any upgrades to our Diamond Program members. Since all of our computer systems are based on an open architecture, you will be able to perform most of the upgrades yourself with one of our experienced technicians to guide you through the process over the phone. Our laptops and desktops feature upgradeable Video Cards, CPUs, RAM, Hard Drives, and more to keep your system one step ahead of the competition as new technology is released. Ready for a brand new system? Don't let your old system sit in the closet collecting dust, instead send it back to us for trade-in credit towards your next computer purchase! PC MicroWorks Corporation is one of the only manufacturers in the world to offer this unbelievable policy. Don't let your equity go to waste, sign up for the Diamond Blanket Protection Program when configuring your next system

Copy and pasted directly from their website.

This makes me feel good about my order!

 

Well I am not a noob at upgrading computers, so I dont really mind. I am pretty much in the same boat as Wu Jen, I have had a good 5 months of use out of my system, and ready to upgrade. I am really looking forward to dual 8800M GTX's and the Penryn which will more than likely need a mobo upgrade anyway to use.

Man, I remember arguing with someone about the fact that the current mobo's would not support the Penryn. I guess it really doesnt matter now that we need to upgrade anyways to use the 8800M GTX. LOL

 

That was one of the reasons I purchased from PcMicro. I just hope that their 'wholesale' pricing and that the $ you get from a trade in credit is actually decent.

 

Mmm... waiting is not for me but... we cannot be swapping all the time!
I am on your side, good plan!

 

According to Justin, Sager will take care of their customers

"We recognize this is disappointing to our customers, and Sager intends to launch a very reasonably and attractive discounted priced upgrade path for Sager branded units only. That will include the new graphics card and a motherboard swap out."

 

For M570ru users: I don't think Justin's findings are correct, unless someone can reconfirm what he said.

The motherboard does not need to be replaced: the S3 error has existed ever since the introduction of one of the more recent video drivers (I don't know which one in particular; I update often). Since somewhat recently, my current M570RU's display would often completely black out with not picture when coming from Sleep mode. The computer is still functional, just no image is being produced.

This leads me to believe that because I have a 8700m, this is NOT a hardware compatibility issue with the motherboard, but a recent driver issue with NVidia and M570ru motherboards (and their compatibility with DX10[?] cards). This S3 error doesn't happen 100% of the time, but 80% for me.

No offense Justin, but remember everyone you have to take his words with a grain of salt. He works for a laptop retail company. He is a salesman. This is an opportune time to increase profits by "motherboard tweaking". We should not all be so gullible.

Eventually, people will start purchasing 8800m video cards for their computer; if that person tries to rollback to older drivers, we can then determine if this problem is persistent. If not, I would also recommend official word from Clevo and hope they've done more thorough research in different conditions.

 

Crap after looking at this new post I am very sad that I even waited for the new 8700 SLI for about two when they announced it. Now that I have to upgrade the new motherboard to support the 8800M SLI that kinda sad but I am willing to do it and I hope that they will at least save us some money.

 

Would you guys mind if I said "told you so"?

 

Hi, Ice-Tea you are so right about this. Can you tell us again how did you friend get a hand on the card and test on the machine?

 

Ice-Tea was right... kinda.

The M570RU seems to work without new mobo... (only minor S3 issue, which is not significant)

While the D901C will need a new mobo... but from what I was told, a single 8800M seems ok.... but SLI has issues.

 

Hi, Gophn if I want the 8800M SLI in my Sager 9261 and don't care about the s3 issue then I should be ok ya?

The S3 issue is only when you try to go to the sleep mode ya?