Sager NP5750 = Here + Questions

Alrgiht...I'm fairly certain that nobody here cares that my Sager NP5750 finally arrived, although this was on Monday (I'm late. ). As I'm sure you all know, waiting for my new laptop to be shipped was near unbearable and when I saw it sitting on the living room floor 2 days early I was so excited. I'm not sure a new thread was necessary since I already had one about ordering it, but I also had some questions about it so meh.

To my surprise, the ATI X1600 128MB runs the 2 games I play beautifully on the highest settings with absolutely no jumping that I have noticed, and I can say without a doubt that this machine is much more powerful than the icky desktop I used to use. The glossy screen, which I expected to be shipped as a matte one, is great for the most part (1 question below). Overall, I have very few complaints about this wonderful piece of work and believe I got my money's worth out of it. Anyway...on to the questions...

1. My Sager NP5750 came with an Intel PROSet/Wireless 3945 A/B/G card. When I pulled my NP5750 out of the box and got Windows all set up, the first thing I set off to download was Live Messenger because I knew I couldn't live without it. I noticed that the download speed was painfully slow, and figured it may just be something with the MSN website. Later on when I was installing all of my programs, the speed was still the same. I figured it may just be a problem with the router or the modem, so I hopped onto my desktop real quick to check that speed and it was fast, reaching speeds far above 20 kb/s which the laptop can't manage to do most of the time. The router, which is located just down the stairs from me, is a Linksys BEFW11S4 V4. I updated the card's drivers and I still had no luck...I figured someone here could help get this headache of an issue solved.

2. Though not at all noticeable on light backgrounds, there are 2 blue stuck pixels in the lower left quadrant of my screen that stand out when a dark background is around them. I tried to excite them and I tried applying light pressure to the screen in the area they are located but with no luck. Are there any other tricks to getting stuck pixels to do the unstuck?

3. Merom. Is it worth the upgrade and *about* how long will it be before I need it to run the latest software? I imagine it will be a while...but it's better to be safe than sorry...

Anyway. I havn't been able to pull myself away from this awesome laptop and am positive that my next one will be ordered from Sager. They rock! I must also thank DiscountLaptops for constantly staying in touch and making the purchase easy...and for shipping it super fast!

-Sesmo

 

Congratulations on taking delivery.

If you move right next to the laptop, are the speeds any different? I would also set the wireless card to max power.

You won't need it for a long time . . current Core Duo owners should simply stick to what they have.

 

Alright. So earlier I went down the stairs with my laptop and set it right next to the router on the desk. The signal was shown as "excellent" which it usually is, the lowest it has ever gotten has been "very good", with a very, very rare poor signal...yet I still had the same download and loading speeds. I did notice that my idiot-of-a-stepdad left his hole puncher right by the router as well, and although I don't think this could affect anything, when I moved it things seemed as if they had sped up a bit.

To summarize...
Moving closer to the router did not help improve the speeds any.

I'm totally confused though because my desktop is in the same room I use the laptop in, and like I said in the first post it can reach speeds far above what the notebook will. I do, however, get an occasional 60 kb/s+ on the laptop, but this is not something I experience often. Also...unless there is some hidden setting I know nothing about the wireless card is at max setting. :scratches head:

Thanks for taking the time to help. =)

-Sesmo

 

Did you download the updated drivers from Intel? There was a fairly large patch a while ago that helped - around ~80MB.

 

i believe this is the update:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?&DwnldID=11141&ProductID=2570

 

Because I'm a stickler for running as few processes as possible, I actually installed ONLY the Intel Drivers. Not the Proset software. I use the XP built in wireless configuration and have had no problems connecting at home or at work. Less hassle and no Intel software cluttering up my taskbar and process list.

Maybe worth a try?

Also, did you install any firewall software that might be slowing things down?

 

Mmkay. Took me a little longer to respond this time...but blegh. Just to be safe, I downloaded the latest drivers again and reinstalled them, and to my surprise they didn't do any good. I also had tried the XP built in thing without the PROSet wireless stuff...still no good.

I did notice, however, that the Windows connection told me I had a weak signal while the Intel keeps telling me I have a strong one. I'm guessing Windows is right since I have such crappy speeds and all. I am starting to think I may have got a wonky wireless card.

Bah. Frustrating. I'm gonna screw around with settings a little more and see if that does me any good. Thanks again for the help guys.

-Sesmo

 

technically your signal strength and connection speed aren't directly related. you could have bad signal on a very high speed connection, and it will run faster than excellent signal on a regular home cable connection.
try running the speed tests at http://www.dslreports.com/stest and try running them once on wireless and once on wired. wireless should be 20% slower at least, going down to as much as 50% slower in some cases.

couple a questions though... first, do you have wireless security set up on your router? WEP security and most others can cause slowdowns, so if it is on, try turning off wireless security and then test the speeds (don't leave your security off for too long though). if your speed jumps way up, there's your problem. you'll have to choose between security and speed. personally, I'd choose security.
second, how is your wireless set up? do you have a wireless router? or do you have a router and a separate wireless access point? (think you said you have just a wireless router right?)
wireless routers are notoriously slower than having a separate wireless access point.

 

Here is a good guide. Strengthen and improve your wireless signal with these tips