Sager np5793 dead?

Have had this 5793 (2.5ghz core2duo, 8800m gtx, etc) for a little over two years now. Everything has been just fine. Last night the laptop was on and running as usual, when suddenly and unexpectedly, it totally shut off (battery didn't even take over). Power brick began to make a consistent squeaking sound at even intervals, and the green indicator light was weak and flashing. When I unplugged the power adapter connector from the laptop, the power brick sound ceased and the indicator light became a solid green. Laptop will not start whether it is on adapter or battery.

So I suppose that the "receiving" power unit within the laptop has completely died. This is bad news as I am assuming it may require a total motherboard replacement. Is this my only option? Has anyone heard of this problem before? Could a simple hard reset somewhere inside fix this? Also, if I must send it in for repairs, what are the odds of something else becoming completely busted up in transit?

My thoughts as to why this may have happened--

I would somewhat frequently plug and unplug the power cord from the laptop, either when moving it around or to give it a rest from any minor surging, etc. I probably should have been unplugging the power cord at the surge protector. Or, it was just a random failing of the power unit. Either way, I do not believe that this is normal or that it was supposed to happen this soon.

Thanks

 

Let's hope you didn't fry your motherboard. Did you check with another power brick / adapter?

 

I have not hanko, but it will not startup (no power, won't turn on) even on battery without the adapter plugged in (and the battery was full when this happened). So I am assuming that something is wrong with the power units on the motherboard, or as you said, the motherboard is completely gone. I am not sure why it would have fried, it has been running in the same way for over two years now, at normal temperatures and I have not modified anything internally. I have never lost something to a power surge either, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary the other night.

 

Remove all cables, remove the battery and open her up! (I assume you did this already a couple of times to clean-out your fans and vents)

Do you see/smell any signs of burn/dammage near the power connector?

 

I have removed the main center cover on the bottom, though I would need to completely disassemble the outer case to get a good look at the power connector area. Maybe I could get away with going above and just removing the keyboard. Anyway, nothing from what I can see so far appears to be visibly burned. On the night of, I did notice what seemed to be a slight burning smell around the back and at the connector jack area, but I'm not sure. It could have just been a mixed heated plastic/dust smell. Most likely was burning, however. I am rather convinced that something fried, I am just unsure if it's the entire mobo or only the power area. Would need a full replacement either way, I assume.

 

Hello,

I experienced the EXACT same thing as you 2 days ago with my M570TU :-(.
The power brick squeaking and so on.
Thought my mainboard was dead as you thought. It smelled like there was something had burned up...
I opened the back to see if I could see something, and then I recognized that the graphics card smelled burned! NOT the power connector area...
I put it out, put in the power brick and what!? Yeah, the bulb lights were shining again ;-).
I had another graphics cards for just that case- put it in and the "babe" is doing fine again!
I did overclock the card quite a bit - see the specs in signature... so I think that was just TOO much for the card. Will be more careful from now on.
The funny think was, all worked very well, no hangs and so on, and then "Wham" everything was off...
But now with happy end - what I wanted to say to you- try to pull out the graphics card and see what will happen maybe there is a chance your motherboard ain´t dead and it´s only the graphics card... (or maybe another part, the CPU...).