Sager NP9262 - Stuck On Boot Clocks

Ever since I got my Sager NP9262, that I purchased through Xotic PC, there has been a problem with it, both cards' clocks stay at boot frequencies (275 MHz Core / 301 MHz Memory / 550 MHz Shader) and won't go up to their max frequencies no matter what game / graphics application I am using, I have tried flashing the VBIOS to the version 62.92.34.00.08 from Clevo but I have had no luck making the clocks go higher than boot-time, I have already sent the laptop to Sager once, supossedly, a "dissassembly" had fixed the laptop and they said that the laptop was scoring 13,666 3DMarks at 3DMark 06, once I received the laptop, it had the same problem as before I RMA'd it in, is anyone aware of a fix to this problem?, I have had my laptop for 6 months already and the 8800m GTX SLi performance is halved basically due to the clocks not going up.

Help is really appreciated.

Postdata: Disabling PowerMizer and setting Power Settings to "High Performance" did not help either.

 

are you actually monitoring the GPU clocks dynamically?

most of the time the GPU does not throttle up until it needed.

you can check the clocks by using RivaTuner's OSD and hardware monitor.

have you done a 3DMark06 benchmark to see if it reaches 13K+ score.

 

you can also monitor the clocks with GPU-Z

 

Okay, I am going to run 3DMark 06 with RivaTuner and GPU-Z on, both with logging activated, by the way, with RivaTuner, under the "Target Adapter" section, there is an "Unattached Device" under the 8800m GTX in the drop-down box, could this mean that the second card is unattached?

 

you can check to see if SLI is enabled in the Nvidia Control Panel.

 

Okay, I have ran 3DMark 06 with SLi Enabled, and I got a score of 8,855 3DMarks at 3DMark 06 with default settings:



The clocks of the cards' remained static:



And Riva Tuner showed the 2nd card as an "Unattached Device":

 

that score is fine for a single 8800M GTX... but not for SLI.

make sure your notebook is plugged into AC power.

make sure your Power Options (Windows) is at Max Performance.

make sure your Powermizer settings is disabled or set to Max Performance.

 

yep, looking like a disabled sli to me. when i disable one card, it drops just like that. and goes in to it's crazy power saving mode...(for an extra 10 minutes of run time.lol)(speculation of course)

 

Okay, tried disabling PowerMizer via the registry keys, still downclocking.

I tried disabling SLi then running 3DMark 06, the framerates pretty much halved than when SLi was enabled.

 

I had a friend with that problem before, he tried a different driver, then switched to XP.... now hes happy.

 

so it never shows the clocks as 500/1250/799?

 

I'd switch to Windows XP if I had a 64-Bit CD of it, but I only have CD's of the 32-Bit version.

I guess I will try formatting with Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit to see if it fixes the problem somehow, thanks for the help so far guys, I will come back once I am done re-installing and report you the results.

 

hold that thought aeris!!

just make a second partition first before dropping your old partition for 64 bit.

 

No, strangely enough, when I disable SLi, the parent card's clocks show up as 200 Core / 201 MHz Memory and the daughter's shows up as the same values I said before (275 MHz Core / 300 MHz Memory / 550 MHz Shader).

 

and both cards have the same bios numbers and codes and match even under the device manager too?

the two sets of number you show are the 2d and throttle numbers. so your not even getting 3d or extra.

that's why i say, just install the second os or a second copy of the 32 bit..because if it's your cards...it will show up as soon as the os is loaded. you wont need to load drivers. the os driver should show your card as 500/1250/799. now if it doesn't...then something is up with the cards.

 

Okay, I will make a partition with Windows XP 32-Bit to see if there are downclocking issues.

 

ill be around here waiting on the results.

 

Ugh, a problem came up, I cannot install Windows XP with my installation disc due to that it won't recognize the Intel Matrix RAID Controller when I hit F6, I will try again with Ultimate and Home Premium tomorrow to see if anything changes. Thank you guys for the help so far.

 

thought you might have had the usb floppy drive for that....

 

>.> I wonder if the cards clocks aren't properly setup, you should try downloading nibitor and load your bios into. If it shows your 3dclocks as only startup clocks it should be a easy fix.

 

Ah, installing the Matrix RAID Driver from a floppy? Thanks for the tip.

Sadly, I tried dumping my VBIOS from GPU-Z and then loaded it with Nibitor, all of the clocks were properly set, even "Extra".

 

You aren't running your laptop off a external monitor by chance?

 

No, I am not.

 

What is your bios version, not vbios version.

edit one other thing, when you sent your laptop in for repair did you also send the powersupply with it?

 

D900C 1.00.20as LS2.

About the Power Supply, I did not, can the problem be related to the power supply?, I have a spare one if that is of any help.

 

Is it a spare power supply specifically meant for the np9262? Also when your laptop is plugged in are you connected to a surge protector or directly to a socket?

Your bios seems to be the latest release according to eurocom,
http://www.eurocom.com/support/drivers/bios/D900c_bios.htm

If your spare power supply is meant for the np9262 go ahead and try it. Another thing you might want to try is removing the battery and running the system completely off the adapter. These suggestions are more on the diagnostic side than trying to fix it right now. =/ without knowing the problem, it's hard to suggest more radical fixes.

 

yes...that's why she was suppose to be installing a second os. about 20 minutes or so and we would have an answer as to if it's her cards or the os....

well ms? *LOL* i thought you we're done for the night.

 

Yeah, it is for the NP9262, I ordered it at the time of buying it, and... well, I am connected to a multiple outlets adaptor that is connected to a surge protector, maybe that is causing the problem? :/

Okay, I will try it connecting it to an outlet directly, and then try it without the battery in.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

Oh also have you tried forcing the clocks higher by using ntune or rivatuner?

There also seems to be two driver versions missing from the eurocom site, you might try calling xoticpc and see if they can track down a 1.00.18-19 version. The 1.00.20 version seems to be just for the q9550 so a lower version might be ok to test.

 

Yes, no luck trying to force the clocks. :/ On Riva Tuner, the clocks go up to the following frequencies:

Core Clock: 575 MHz (vs 500 MHz Stock).
Shader Clock: 1150 MHz (vs 1250 MHz Stock).
Memory Clock: 455 MHz (vs 799 MHz Stock).

Okay, I will e-mail Xotic PC tomorrow to see if I can get that BIOS version.

 

I guess I will give installing the OS a try tomorrow, I am just too tired and, well... upset due to the laptop not working to concentrate.

 

that's why we are trying to get an idea for you tonight....

 

Okay.

Got no results with battery out and with either adapters, the clock speeds remained the same.

I will use the Floppy Fix to install Windows Vista 32-Bit on this computer and finally check if it is an OS-Related issue or a hardware-related issue.

 

I guess I will just disable RAID to install XP without too much trouble.

 

>.> don't keep pushing yourself nothing worse than messing something up because your to tired.

 

xp takes longer than vista to install...

 

Okay, I was not able to install Windows XP because the setup program could not recognize my hard drives, making them Non-RAID did not help either.

 

no go huh?

 

did you copy these files to the floppy?
iaahci.cat
iaahci.inf
iastor.cat
iastor.inf
iastor.sys
txtsetup.oem


start the windows xp install hitting f6 when it ask about installing other drivers. watch it go through it's task. make sure your usb drive is of course plugged in with the floppy disk in. it should then ask you for your driver disk. hit the "S" key and it will read the floppy. it will show your correct driver. usually the last on in the list for this model. then it should go on with out incident. (hopefully) you want the option to create a new partition or install in unallocated space. then start your install...

 

D901C 1.00.19
1.00.17

There is no public release of .18

 

Good news, crew!, I just installed the ForceWare 178.13 Drivers from LaptopVideo2Go (after having tried the 180.43 drivers, which caused a lot of stuttering, but showed up some horsepower of the cards' in-between the stuttering), I ran 3DMark 06, and I got 13,306 3DMarks, I am quite happy!, many sleepless nights, several CMOS and VBIOS flashes, lots of time spent on trying different drivers, many cups of coffee, but, the problem is fixed now, one card got 10,066 3DMarks, I rebooted 3 times after activating SLi, and the performance is still the same, it seems like that it has to do with the driver lacking powermizer and other mobility options, since the clocks are locked at stock, but since the outside and inside temperature is below 63 F, I get a nice 38 C average on both cards while on idle.

Thank you very much guys for the support, the help and guiding me through all of this, thank you very much.

Edit: Also, the in-game performance is quite good, I have only tried Portal so far, but I average 150 FPS on it with everything set to maximum settings and at 1920x1200.

 

so all it was was a driver?

 

Well, I am not really sure, I reformatted, cleared the RAID Array and made a new RAID-0 one, and installed Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit (came with the laptop) on it, other drivers that were alike this one (aka, lacking Powermizer) did not fix the problem, and in fact, sometimes, they made it much worse, still, I do not get it why enabling SLi seemed to solve the problem on certain drivers, but it would poof after a reboot, this time, I checked 3 times for if the performance went away, but after those 3 reboots, the performance and clock speeds are still here.

 

because when enabling sli. it forces the drivers to stay locked on max clocks. i have seen that with the big bang 2 drivers. if you disable one card, then the clocks would drop. maybe this would happen with some of the drivers.... to much speculation though.... as long as it's working. (yay u) that's the more important thing.. sending ones laptop around the world to get fixed is not fun at all....

 

Ah, I had always wondered why, thanks for the input, John.

True, sometimes, I feel like that this laptop has travelled more into U.S than I have ever did (actually, I have never did), it has been on Vernon, San Diego, City of Industry, Tecate (California, not Mexico), haha.

 

*LOL* i hear ya!. mine made it's way to rjtech twice and clevo once.
and your more than welcome. not sure if i really helped if it was just a driver issue though...

 

Wow! Your laptop is quite a traveler. Did it come back with any stickers on the package, like, "I ❤ Taiwan"?, haha.

 

lol. nope. but it did travel about 20 to 30 miles or so... rjtech, sager & clevo are out here. so it never left southern california

 

Oh!, I did not know that even Clevo was out there in the United States, I thought they were only in Taiwan, but now I know, they are watching us...