Sager NP5793/Nvidia 9800m GTS - problem! Advice?

Hi there,

I have an issue with my notebook. My Sager NP5793 is about 1,5 years old and whenever it's running a graphically demanding game, eg. Modern Warfare 2, Starcraft 2, the computer will switch off after 10~15 minutes. It just completely powers off with no delay at a random time.

This doesn't happen for Windows, MS Office or simpler games like Warcraft 3. Only graphically demanding games.

I have never used anti-aliasing or any other extra high performance options of the card. Never overclocked it. I have tried updating to the latest Nvidia 9800m GTS drivers for the graphics card and also rolling back to older drivers. Neither helped.

Lastly, this is a recent issue - about 3 months ago I could play Modern Warfare 2 for any length of time. I can't think of any major change in driver/software that might have caused this new problem.

Anything I could try?

Thank you!!!

 

What are the temps?

maybe try running furmark to test how stable it is at high temps.

Try re-seating the card, while you have it open change the thermal paste and clean out the dust.

You might want to undervolt the card to cool it down.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Most of what you said I did not understand

I've downloaded furmark and ran it.

I didn't finish this post because furmark caused my PC to switch off!!

Temp started at 53 and went to about 105 where it crashed. Seems HOT!

Let me d/l those other ones and give them a try.

 

Did you have any problems with furmark?

What was the maximum temperature?

Download CPUID HWMonitor and use it to see your GPU core temp.

Can you also download ORTHOS and run the "blend" test for 10mins to see if your CPU and ram are stable.

 

Ok, your problem is heat.

105C is the critical threshold.

You have to take apart the notebook, clean out the dust and change the thermal paste.

That should cool it down a lot. You shouldn't be getting temps over 85C.

 

Ok...I have never done that. Any guides online on how to do that?

I am scared to take it apart because it is very expensive and I am no laptop wiz

 

Like that ^

Service manual might be here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=de6b0df1b481af0fc79b87b207592a1c64c55eb7d7564d4e947708e37b913e74

Or somewhere on the net.

There are many guides on the net about how to clean thermal paste and how to apply thermal paste.
I think the best paste you can buy is ICD 7.

 

I did as above. Surprisingly easy! But shops are closed today so I couldn't get thermal paste. I cleaned out the dirt, though.

I'm assuming thermal paste only goes onto the chip that directly touches the heatsink? Please see my picture.

It seems like that gel has long turned to a kind dust/ash.

How much paste should I apply tomorrow? Moderately, or really little?

 

I usually put a small amount on the die, then put the heatsink on. Then take it off and check if it was covered well. Then I clean the paste off and put the same amount (or different if it wasn't fully covered).

Nice heatsink BTW, so much copper.

 

While you have it open, you sould write down the vRAM chip details (model number) so you can google the part and check the datasheet for what it's rated frequency is.

If it's over 800mhz you can overclock to that value.

 

U do use Fn+1 while gaming right?

 

the max fan setting is not required to keep the laptop from overheating and certainly not required to prevent it from reaching 105 c....

 

I bought some CPU cooling thermal paste.

Probably me being paranoid, but it's OK that it's for a CPU right?

Thermal conductivity:>0.95W/m-k
Thermal resistance:<0.06'C-in2/W

Thanks!

 

Didn't know that at all! Thanks - handy tip for gaming.

 

CPU thermal paste will be fine to use on a GPU.