Sager NP 2740 Laptop Flickering

Had this laptop and it has had lot of issues. When i first got it, it was great. Battery was good and everything. After having the laptop for a bit, my battery went bad. Had that Red X mark on it. I bought a new battery replacement which was expensive. Had to go to repair shop to install battery on laptop because you had to open laptop in order to put battery in.


After that, battery went bad and had that Red X mark ever since. Then recently my laptop flickers a lot the screen. Like rainbow color. The thing though is i connect my laptop to an external monitor so i dont have this issue. Thus it would be impossible to use my laptop on that small monitor because of the blurry lines.


Since I'm out of warranty... this is with xoticpc, what can i do about this case? Go to a repair shop and see what they can do about it? The thing is if i need a replacement part, wouldn't i need to order from sager/xoticpc for this issue? I have had nothing but issues with this laptop once the battery first ran out.

 

I also had another issue related to this. Earlier when i was trying to click on things on my laptop screen... it kept asking me if i want to delete this program from computer. I click no and then i had this message show up over and over again where I cannot X it out. Had to been like that message popping up over and over again. I assume this is related to the screen flickering?


Because when i clicked on restart computer... when it restarted... it asked me which program i want to start with a black screen and it showed windows 7. I then clicked it then it loaded. Had same issue again. Then did it again... then screen finally loaded where i could actually clicked on things on my desktop without the message saying... are u sure u want to delete this from desktop. This isnt a mouse issue because i used 2 different mouse and same thing. Im sure this has to be related to the laptop flickering and or my battery? Because this actually happened when battery went all the way to 0 percent when it was around 80 percent. My battery use to be 1.5 hours. Now its at most 20 minutes even with the replacement battery which has went bad.

 

Theres a huge issue also when im typing this. as i type this, it would start deleting everything i written by backspacing it. Does anyone know why it does this? For example it would just randomly backspacing. And the backspace button on my laptop and keyboard is fine. This has to be related to the battery/light flickering or the system. Which one is it?


I don't think this is a virus. I think this might be something wrong with my system such as graphic card or something inside that is causing this? So basically this issue... my battery has went bad... and my screen flickering. Does anyone have advice on what i can do here?

 

I would talk to Xotic first about your issues, screen flickering can be the panel going bad or just the cable being loose among other issues. It may be a case of getting it sent back in to be looked at.

A good method of ruling out software is taking an image backup of the system that you can restore back to and then formatting the drive and re-installing windows to see if the same issues remain.

 

The messaging and backspace issue definitely makes it seem like you might have a virus or something. I don't see how it would have something to do with the battery and light flickering on the screen as they seem like separate issues.

Have you tried running virus & malware scans and have you tried to re-calibrate your battery?
Have you done anything that could damage the battery such as leaving it charged all the time or letting it constantly hit 0%? I assume your new battery came with a warranty. If so, I would try to get it replaced with the warranty. If it doesn't, I would still try contacting the seller seeing that it failed so fast.

Also, have you checked to see if you have any usb devices plugged into your laptop that could be interfering with input? (such as an external keyboard/mouse)

 

How do i do image backup of the system? I only ahve a usb that has 16gb. I assume that isn't enough right? I have ssd... says 101gb free of 232gb. So basically just save everything i have to my usb file then? I do have important things in my laptop that i need.


I read online that this could be the cable being loose. If its the cable going loose... is that easy to fix or not? I also will mention that im not in the usa at the time. Im in mexico. Thus theres lot of stuff here that you cannot get. Last time i went to a place and wanted to know if i could get battery replacment for my sager... was told none for this brand.
If its cable loose, can they open my laptop up and replace it just like that? Or it requires a specific cable that i probably cant get here in mexico?


I read about this and many say it isn't a virus but more likely a hardware issue. I dont believe its a virus. my sager has tons of issues. my usb ports... 1 of them doesnt work. Even my camera stopped working a while back. Then my replacement batter which cost close to 200 lasted me few months only.


I cant even check my battery b/c it has an internal battery. You have to unscrew 15 screws to take battery out.


I tried malwarebyte and avast. Shows nothing. The only thing though is when i check home network, it did say my internet isn't that good because password is weak. Never had this before but dont think this is any issue.


I have to leave it charged all the time. Reason is b/c my battery has went bad the 2nd time after the replacement. When not charged, battery last max 25 minutes. When i first got laptop, it was close to 1.5 hours. So if i were to unplug my charger, i can only use it for 20 minutes or so until battery hits 20 percent... then i have to charge it quickly otherwise it shut down. theres been times when it would be 50 percent battery then computer shut down... then when charging it... i saw it had went to 0 percent. So i have to have battery charged all the time.


I never dropped laptop or did anything to it. Also i had noticed this new replacmenet battery i bought from sager directly... it wasn't as good as the original battery when i first bought laptop from xoticpc. I will contact sager to see if i can get warranty for my battery.


I have 3 usb ports. One of them dont work. 1 usb port i have this 4 port usb connected to it. Basically everything is connected to that port. The other port that works, its to my usb wireless mouse. It has nothing to do with usb interference... even though im not that familar with it... i can tell it isn't.


This laptop has had so many issues for me when i got it. I think its the hardware or motherboard or whatever thats inside thats causing all this. I mean... my webcam stopped working for no reason a while back.


so basically i would like to get this laptop fixed as i have lot of things on it. I dont want to install a whole bunch of new stuff on a brand new laptop. I also paid a lot for this laptop so i figure... if i paid a lot for it... i wouldnt have issues. Im starting to wonder if i should have just gotten a regular laptop instead of this one.

 

I would recommend reaching out to our support team as well, and they should be able to help out with the issues.

You could make a USB recovery drive of Windows with a 16gb drive. I think usually you can do that with 8gb of space. It might be better to do a clean install of Windows instead of copying over everything that is on there, in case it is a virus. Plus, you could start fresh and see what issues might persist. It's not a bad idea to do from time to time, just make sure to back up any important files first.

The screen does sound like it is a cable that is loose or might need replaced. You could open up the computer and just check to make sure that any cables are properly seated internally, and see if it helps. If it is happening only on the laptop screen, and not an external monitor, I would think it is either the cable is loose, needs replaced, or might be the screen. If it was the graphics card, it would more than likely be happening on the laptop screen and the external monitor at the same time. If you have questions about checking the cable, our support team can get you some instructions or a manual for looking it over.

For the webcam, I'm not sure if you tried it, but there should be a Fn + F button combo that turns it on or off. Did you try that possibly? For the USB port, did you try uninstalling and reinstalling any drivers for the USB as well? Those might help out.

But if you need help, let me know and I'll do what I can to help, or get you in contact with one of our support team members.

 

Hello there. Well i cannot open laptop by myself as its very complicated. You say it could be cable is loose or need replace or might be the screen. What if its cable being loose or need replace? Is that very simple? Do i need a special cable if it needs to be replaced and where do i get it?


If its replacement screen, i assume i can either buy that directly from xoticpc or from sager or go online and look for a site to buy it? I saw one site that offers my replacement screen.

 

I would first just look to see if there is anything that you can tell is loose, as that usually seems to be the case more than the cable needs replaced. Our service team would be able to tell you which places to look for the cable itself, or get you a manual to show that. If you do need a cable replacement, we could get you a price on that as well. We could also get it set up to have the screen replaced if you want to send it in to do that. Buying a screen outright is possible, but involves a good amount of tear down.

 

Hi heres my issue with this. I'm not in the usa at the moment. Now if i need a cable replacement, is it really hard to get a specific cable replacement for this laptop? Thus similar to like a screen replacment that when i check online, theres only 2 sites it seems that has it?


My other issue is you mention you could have my screen replaced if i want to do this and have it sent to you. My problem with this is the time it will take. I cannot wait 2-3 weeks or longer waiting to receive the laptop back. I did see this screen online on a site that i could buy. I obviously would never try to do it myself and go to a computer repair shop to do this. Thoughts on this?


My last question is this. Im out of the usa at the moment. The place i went to here didn't have any sager replacement parts. Because last time i asked if they had sager battery replacement and they said they didn't. Now if i go there and have them check my screen... would they be able to tell me exactly the reason why it has that flickering light? Thus i want to know if they would know the exact reason for this such as can they tell me 100 percent is the reason my screen went bad or cable needs replacment or its just a loose wire thats easily fixed? If its a cable replacmenet, that should be pretty easy to install it at a repair shop? Again, my main issue is it will take way too long to send and receive back my laptop since i need to use it. Thanks.

 

I would call them, they should be able to walk you through some steps and things to look at. If you hit on something fairly concrete you might be able to sort something out.

 

Alright. I went to the computer repair shop here. Basically he took a look at it... he pretty much instantly told me i need a LCD replacement screen and thus he cannot help me with this since here in mexico, you cannot get a sager replacement screen. Said if i had the replacement screen, yes he can replace it for me.


I then asked him... well could it be either a loose cable connection or a broken cable connection that needs replacing. He tells me instantly that isn't possible. He said if it was... i would lots of these flickering lines everywhere across the screen. I only have it on one spot. Basically what i have is a long vertical rectangle that goes from the top of screen to bottom... its about 2 inches horizontal and whatever it is from top of screen to bottom. As to where it is at specifically, it on the left side... but imagine you were to cut my computer screen veritically into 5.5 equal parts. This part that has this is part 2. So does this give an idea of how it looks like?


He then tells me when i connect the laptop to an external monitor, is there anything like that on that monitor. I told him no. He said that confirms that this isn't a cable issue or anything like that and its 100 percent lcd replacement screen. What has me a bit confused is i called a xoticpc and a repair shop about this thats not in mexico... they both told me in order to confirm why my monitor is like this, they have to open it up to confirm if its a loose cable, broken cable or LCD replacement.


So based on what i was told at the computer repair shop here, is that pretty much close to 100 percent the LCD Screen? He told me since there wasn't any sager parts he can order here, theres no point for him to open it up. He tells me its 100 percent the LCD screen based on what he sees on laptop screen and the me mentioning external monitor no issues.


Thanks.

 

This is very similar to how it looks like. Basically scroll to around 1:05 to the end of the video. Basically from 1:30 forward, thats how my laptop screen looks right now since if i don't move it around, its like black vertical rectangle. But if i move it around, you would see shades no purple, neon green etc and flickering. But now its not flickering, its just black vertical rectangle like from near the end of the video...

 

Does the issue happen more when you move the screen? Like does it get worse when the screen is tilted back further or in certain positions?

 

Yes when i move the screen, it changes color. Example let say when looking at screen, you move the screen downwards like when you were to close it. The shade of that whole area would go to neon, then white then purple etc...


So basically i move the screen to where its a shade of color that isn't that distracting such as the black rectangle or say dark purple as oppose to neon green.

 

That is why I think it might be a cable. If the screen had the same issue at all angles, and it wasn't changing at all, then I would agree that it might be the screen. But if it is changing depending on the angle the screen is at, the one part that really has any movement is the screen cable. It could be a faulty cable.

I would email our support team with some pictures, and they can help with getting it taken care of.

 

Hi. But is there a reason that the repair shop i went to after looking at it tells me he is 100 percent certain that its the screen then? He seemed to have no doubt about it. His explanation was when you extend it to external monitor, anything there... i said no. And he said it wasn't all over the screen etc.

 

It COULD be the screen, but it is doubtful in my opinion. Since you aren't having the issue on the external monitor, then that would rule out something like the GPU. It generally would leave the screen or the cable as an option. If you had the same image problems at any angle when you tilt the screen, then I would say it would be more than likely on the screen. But when you tilt the screen back and forth, then that cable moves a little bit inside (the angle it is at), and it might be the angle of the cable that is causing the image distortion to change.

I would talk with our support guys about a cable first, as those are going to be cheaper than replacing a whole screen.

 

More pictures.

 

I took like a 30 second video of me sort of pushing the lid up and down to give you an idea of how it changes colors of sort.


View My Video

 

Do these pictures and that video give you a bigger clue as to which way it leans more... the cable or the lcd monitor?


Also the reason there is nothing shown on the laptop screen is because i have it attached to my external monitor in case anyone is wondering.

 

Thanks for those pictures, those helped out quite a bit. I checked with our service team, they said it might be a crack in the screen panel in this case. I thought maybe it was mostly on the cable, but it sounds like the angle that you have the screen could be putting pressure differently on the screen and causing the color shift, if there is a crack in it somewhere.

Contact our service team with your order number and they can double check on that, or just email/message me your order number or the email address it was purchased under, and I can have them check in to this as well.

 

Hi there. Did you look at the video as well? I know it isn't that clear but it showed how it looks when i move the lid up and down.

 

I didn't watch it, I couldn't see a video in with those pictures (but that might be part of a web filter blocking it on my side though).

 

I did sent an email to [email protected] with all the information.


Also sent an email to your [email protected] as well in case.


Thank you.


Also anyone else who have had this experience with a laptop, i appreciate if you could tell me what was the reason for it... such as its replacement screen or it was cable.

 

Got the email. Thanks! and let me know if I can do anything else for you.

 

Im curious but is there a possible chance it could be a bad graphics card? Someone had mentioned this to me. The computer shop here tells me that isn't the case b/c you could extend the monitor to external and no issues. However, around this time... my laptop had this huge issue where i tried to left click certain items on my desktop and it went crazy such as are you sure you want to delete this program... would show up 50 times etc. Only way to really fix this issue was restart laptop.


This is a link to similar what someone else posted and this is exact thing i had. It happened for few days... however no issue anymore. I know its 100 percent not my keyboard and i believe its hardware issue as others mentioned. So hardware is related to graphics card right?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/48937-63-remove-virus-delete-icons-when-left-click-recyclebin


I wonder if this is all related? I ask this is because when i had this issue... i had it the night before the laptop screen messed up. Do you think theres a correlation to it? The other issue is when i click start... i usually go and click on google chrome. Around this time, when i go to chrome... it doesn't show chrome icon. Its like a broken icon. Such as imagine you want to play or open a file... but it says show what program you want to open it with for example.


Could this be all related? And if its indeed the graphics card, is that fixable with my sager np2740? So i assume easiest issue to fix would be cable wire... then its lcd replacement... then its graphics card? Or would lcd replacement be toughest? I will obviously have someone else do it as im not tech savy person.

 

If you were having the same issue on the internal screen, as well as the monitor, then I would say it is the graphics card. But since the image is only on the laptop screen, then it shouldn't be the graphics card or the signal it is sending out, but something specific to the screen or cable. The graphics card would be probably the most expensive to replace.

 

Okay thanks. For the graphic card, i assume theres only 1 specific graphic card there is available right? Such that well like my battery that needs replacement, well i have to get the sager np2740 battery and no alternatives? Because i know for asus laptops, i was able to get a replacement charger and possibly battery a lot easier.

 

Right, the graphics card is a part of the motherboard, and it only has the one option that works in that model really.

 

Okay. But from what i read, isn't the graphics card going to be really expensive? I seen a few threads of other sager laptops and i think i seen that it cost close to $1000 for one. That is very expensive as thats close to the amount of the actual machine.


One other question. But do all sager laptops have internal batteries as well?


Also a rep had messaged me back earlier and i then messaged him back my information about my laptop to see how much it would cost for replacement screen and the model. Thanks.

 

It would be the motherboard you would replace and it would not be cheap (should not be $1000 though).

Not all sager machines have internal batteries but a fair amount do.