Sager NP9262 SLi configuration with Dual nVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX w/512MB graphics card delayed

Sager has been informed by their supplier (Clevo) that the Sager NP9262 SLi configuration (D901C) has been delayed until the end of February ’08. At this time Sager will temporarily stop accepting NP9262 pre-orders with SLi configurations. Once the SLi configuration is working, a special package of end-user self install SLi kit will be available for $695 for a limited time ONLY for customers that have purchased the Sager NP9262 with the single nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX graphics card. Further announcements will be made on the News section at www.sagernotebook.com once available.

 

Are you at liberty to divulge any of the reasons for the delay, such as a lack of components, or more difficulties straightening out the motherboard work-around?

 

Thanks god its not the m571ru

 

Sadly, an NDA limits our ability to identify the cause of the delay.

 

Just 'cause I'm a smart-**s :

is the NDA itself disclosable, or is it also subject to its own terms?

 

I cannot comment on the terms of the NDA.

It's OK to be a smart-**s

Particularly after your brilliant dissertation on Maryland House Bill 488

 

That does put you in a little bit of a quandry, doesn't it - if the NDA, by its own terms, applies to itself, then it's logically possible that you would be prohibited from disclosing whether or not the NDA applied to itself. Imagine if it applied to the disclosure of the mere fact of its own existence (I can't disclose to you why I can't disclose to you).:confused2:

Sometimes, it's the only part of me that is smart.

Thanks!

 

Wow! I have been released to disclose the cause of the delay.

Surprise...surprise...it is that nVIDIA pushed out the Driver release date.

For further details see Justin's post at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2788058&postcount=83

The bottom line is that without the nVIDIA driver the V-BIOS cannot be completed...and this is also why Sager (or any other Clevo re-brander) cannot ship the 2nd card and cable kit yet either. Clevo has the bridge cable and is otherwise ready to go...oops! except for nVIDIA's driver.

 

This is unfortunate but kind of expected with the issues that we have all heard about with the vbios and SLI Driver.

Thanks for posting Donald!

 

Thanks for the information, so the orders with a single 8800m are still planned to ship late december?

 

Correct...the target for shipping single 8800M cards in the NP9262 is still late December.

 

Wow, thumbs up, and all due respect for keeping us informed, although i must admit, it was not quite the good news I hoped for initially.

Well, at least everyone is informed now, and hopefully we'll see an end to the flames etc that have plagued some of the other threads. :rolleyes2:

As a developer of sorts in another industry, delays due to other companies holding a critical piece of the project back are something i have gotten used to, and I find this information as no great surprise. Well, what can we do but wait. Hopefully the resellers like PCMW will at least send out the single card config's and I am sure that we are all aware that the resellers would have also been bound by the NDA of their contracts as well. At least somewhere in the cycle of events, the information has gotten out to the consumers/us at last.

Let the wait be worth it. I'm sure it will be. My biggest concern is having pre-paid for the unit in what will eventually be three months advance (us XR5 had been pre-ordering with PCMW up until the 1st December... not that the delay is the resellers fault, just rather inconvenient for us as the people who have made the purchase - in terms of $$ value, that will be three months of lost $$interest from the bank account (cynical I know ).

So I can assume safely that the likes of Sager will ship the units out with the single config initially with a follow up of the 2nd card and flex cable for self install to the users who have pre-ordered the SLI config? Are you able to disclose that info?

But thanks Donald for letting us all know.

Cheers,

-Coors916

 

The NDA has been released from non-disclosure at this point.

Yes, as long as you inform your Sager reseller that you want your NP9262 shipped with one card, instead of waiting for SLi to get resolved, they will ship it with the single card shortly, and then ship the SLi kit once it is ready.

 

WOW!!! This is just unbelievable! nVidia should be ashamed for not being prepared for this before releasing the cards and ALL the resellers should be ashamed for accepting pre-orders with unrealistic promises. And all the rep points and polite postings on this forum don't convince me that resellers did not at least have some inkling of what was going on. My notebook is for work, with gaming on my spare time. It's been a hardship in December, January is much worse and Feb is a disaster. I will have to contact xotic and plead to have mine shipped with just the one card. Then when the second card is ready, either ship it back to them or take it to techs. I've built desktop's but not too sure I want to risk ANYTHING fiddling with a $4500 notebook and risk damaging it. The way this is looking, the newer chips will be out before we get this. Resellers should be looking at the delta in cost from Dec 6 to whenever they ship and give us all refunds! This is just pretty poor and leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Good thing ya'll are all building / selling computers because in my line of business (utilities), you would all be looking for a new line of work. We have to actually provide services on time and as promised. Imagine that.

 

Actually, this raises a good point, but unfortunately I have to agree in part that in certain professions this is unacceptable, unfortunately, there is not much we can do.

Yeah, I'm in the restaurant trade. Imagine ordering a meal, and getting it 3 months later 'cos the lamb supplier didn't have that new breed ready for slaughter that they promised you. Oh well, that's life on the cutting edge I guess.

-Coors916

 

whiteshadowen, We understand it is disappointing to hear of this. We have it listed on our website that ANY SLi configurations are "(Depending on the driver release schedule from nVIDIA)" Regretfully there is only so much we can do when nVIDIA has these unforeseen delays. If you have built desktops in the past I am sure you can install the 2nd Video Card yourself without sending it in. If any assistance is needed tech support is here to help along the way.

 

Well at least when SLI 8800M GTX driver is ready maybe we will have some more info on Penryn. I like the thought of the Q9450 being $265 for 2.66Ghz vs the current Q6700 2.66Ghz being $500+. I know Intel pushed them back but by the time Nvidia get it's head out of it's arse then perhaps it will be an all around good upgrade for us original 9260 owners.

 

explain to me what the "unrealistic promises" of resellers are/were? you chose to order a product that did not exist, life is full of choices and the consequences of those choices. that being said, i can see how its frustrating.

i doubt you're going to have "plead" with Xotic to ship your laptop with one card.

welcome to the world of cutting edge technology, you'll get used to this kind of stuff. this type of thing happens all the time in my line of work (telecommunications).

 

Providing service is not the same as providing product. You cannot make this comparison.

UNLESS, you are subcontracting your service.

A general contractor for a house can hire a plumber who does not get his job done on time.

Who is at fault now? the general contractor? or the plumber who promised to get his job done by the 18th but could not do so?

Should the general contractor not have told the client that the job would be done on the 18th? Should they tell the client "Hey, I don't know when they are going to be done, they will be done when they are done." They should be ashamed for giving such an unrealistic promise.

Next time you order supplies and they arrive late and/or are backordered, let's see what reasons you give to your client. Imagine that.

 

In this case it is the General Contractors fault. I used to work in the construction business and despite what the workers do it is the contractor that has to own the repsonsibility because he is the customer facing portion of the market, not the "plumber" so to speak. The customer doesn't care if the plumber didn't do this or the electrician didn't do that, they will look at So and So Homes and say, "So and So Homes just can't get the job done on time." But this really isn't a fair comparrison either because the contractor sets the work pace, not the plumber. The contractor says this needs to be done on this date, not, the plumber says I will get to it when I get to it. If he did, he wouldn't have a job.

The only (and I mean only!) reason that we can "blame" nvidia or clevo or anyone else beyond the resellers is because we are far more aware of the background industry than "standard" consumers. All of us on the forums have been pretty well informed that the nature of the sli 8800m gtx release has been chaotic at best. So for us that knew it wasn't a cut and dry process can't really argue about the delay. However, any Joe Doe that went to a resellers website and ordered one and knows next to nothing about the products or its chaotic release will have an argument, not that anything would come out of it.

Think about it, if dell said, "we have to delay a product until our design is finalized" after they took orders on it we would be blaming them from the get go and not the background companies manufacturing or designing "dell" products. We would expect dell to step up, its their mistake for saying they could provide and not following through.

On a personal note, I don't blame the resellers. Its out of their hands as much as it is out of hours. I don't blame Nvidia either. I would rather have them take the time to ensure a good product release than a buggy one. Just my opinion though.

All that being said, Paladin, do you know if there would be an issue if the resellers shipped the systems with the 2nd cards and cables and the consumer could just wait for the driver release? Even if the card and cable were in a separate container and the install could be done when the driver is released?

 

Depends on the deal the general contractor cut with the plumber (a subcontractor). The general contractor will almost certainly be out-of-pocket initially because many construction contracts contain liquidated damages provisions requiring the general contractor to pay the owner a certain dollar amount per day for every day the project is over schedule (usually offset against the payments due from the owner to the contractor at the completion of the project, and secured by the retainage withheld from prior progress payments).

On the other hand, the plumber may be entitled to a fixed dollar amount per hour worked, without any offset for delays, although I would suspect that the bigger the plumbing company, the more likely it is that the general and the sub would negotiate some sort of a pass-through of any damages paid by the general to the owner. In addition, if the general wasn't smart enough to get the requisite lien waivers from the plumber, the general may be SOL as the plumber can enforce payment via his liens, which generally attach to the products that the plumber has, by now, installed in the owner's new building - in order to avoid an even greater hassle with an owner who is going ballistic because they've been sued to foreclose on a mechanics lien, the general in that instance would probably just eat the cost, and maybe try to sue the plumber later on to recover damages suffered by the general on account of the plumber's failure to timely perform.

All in all, the constuction industry is probably a very bad comparison with respect to delays in performance, as some delay is almost endemic (you just try to get your computers built by the promised delivery date if you had to build them outside without any cover, and regardless of whether it was raining, sunny, snowy, etc :wink: )

 

At this time we don't know as there are no driver for sli v-bios for testing. Even if the the 2nd card HW is the same the V-BIOS will for sure be different. We have no idea on how the flashing will work this round as a flex cable is in play, we won't know untill the v bios is issued.

Possible that

1. Both cards installed and just using custom boot cd and flash tool command line to flash between master / slave cards. (what Sager would like to happen)

2. Cards needs to be flashed one at a time in the master slot, meaning user needs to flash swap card flash swap card place the correct card in the correct slot.

If 2 is the case wouldn't it be better that sager first prep the 2nd card with the right v bios and the user just have to update the first and install th 2nd?

Sager will make their decisions of how to ship based on what will be the least trouble for the end-users, once they are able to run testing themselves.

 

I agree with what you are saying about Sager doing the flashing of the bios as it will be better off for both end customer and reseller alike (less DIY headaches). I wonder still though if the option was available to the end user to do the install upon request, perhaps require the install be done with technical support on the phone.

I am simply curious because I am going to be starting school (online) very soon and I will be needing my laptop sooner than February. This isn't the resellers responsibility but it needs to happen one way or another but I will have to talk to my reseller for that.

Thats the only reason I bring it up. Just to see if it were possible for those that are interested in getting their laptop sooner than later. A simply bios flash and a call to technical support is a 20 minute fix and that isn't so bad to me anyways.

Thanks for the info!

 

Justin,

Also on the same point about the cards, considering NP9262s with a single 8800 gtx ordered is offered a $695 sli kit later on, won't this be the same deal? I mean, wont the end user still have to flash the original card they are getting before the sli kit?

Not a big deal but I am just curious. Just getting all the info that I can

 

Flashing the 1st card already installed is easy, and the 2nd card would be sent to the user pre-flashed. So just flash 1st then install received (flahed)2nd card.

User can even flash the 1st card before they receive the 2nd card in the mail then just install if update is needed.

Issue now being is we don't know how the 2nd card will work with the 1st card as it doesn't exist at this point other then we are being told that it "should" be 100% the same as the 1st card HW wise.

 

Ahhh. Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

 

Well for good or for bad PCMicroworks is planning on shipping the sli units with a single card. They said mine should ship near the end of next week and I could expect it the beginning of the following week.

They said they will send out the second card for the user to install. I hope the "should" you are referring too is accurate lol. If not, PCMWs will have to come up with another solution.

Thanks for the updates Justin. Good info to have!

 

^^No problem

Sager is ultimately coming up with the solution and will forward the info to all other resellers once complete.

 

True but we're talking Nvidia here...Forbes company of the year. They can afford to slack on driver support because what are we going to do? It's not like there's a NP9273 built on Crossfire running dual Mobility HD3870's is there?

Which is why I loathe anything Creative for sound cards..good cards but horrible driver support and I'm hoping Nvidia doesn't go down that road .

 

Ah good to hear that is. Lets hope the spread of information from Sager taking the lead on this will allow a smooth transition and all other resellers follow a similar suit.

 

That's a good point, but I'll honestly be shocked if AMD/ATI ever pulls ahead of nVIDIA in driver support. Sure, it's a possibility, but I see it as being pretty slim. It seems like AMD isn't even trying to compete in the high-end mobile GPU market right now, and their current driver support track record isn't exactly a sparkling vote of confidence for AMD, even if they DID get a mobile Crossfire solution going.

 

At laptopvideo2go we have drivers for the 8800M GTX. Or is something else missing for SLI?