Some quality problems with my NP9170

Hello everyone. I bought a NP9170 from LPC-Digital about a month and a half ago, and I have been having some recurring/developing problems with it. Needless to say, it is starting to get on my nerves a bit because I don't really want to go through the trouble of RMAing it during the school year as I have a ton of information on it.

It has been a very good computer overall, but I have a few problems/questions:

1. When I first got the laptop, there was some scuffing on the bottom of the screen bezel. I figured it wouldn't bug me much so I didn't bother with doing anything about it. The scuffed-looking area has been growing in size and when I leave the monitor closed for a while, there is a tiny bit of powdery stuff on the main shell of the laptop under the scuffed area.


2. The period, left shift, and L (as in the letter) buttons all tend to require additional pressure to register keystrokes than all the other buttons.

3. The W (as in the letter) button randomly stops working when depressed. As a result, if I am playing a game that uses the w button to move forwards, the character randomly stops moving forwards until I lift my finger off of w and depress it again.

4. There is one button where the backlight is very bright compared to the other buttons.



5. One of the fans makes a grinding noise occasionally. I have found that tilting the laptop can cause this.

6. Sometimes when I start up the computer it goes through all the boot up processes, then gets to the login screen and the screen turns off. This can be fixed by putting the computer to sleep and then taking it out of sleep, but it is a bit annoying and I am wondering if there is a way of making this stop happening.

I am wondering what you guys would suggest.



Disclaimer: I am in no way complaining about LPC-Digital, it is a great place and they do not directly handle the laptops, Sager does, so it is really Sager's fault.

 

number one would drive me nuts. that has to be an issue with the bezel and or the speaker cover. one of those (or both) is sitting warped or higher than it should be. no comment on number two or three because i use an external keyboard. fwiw in re number four, i have the exact same brighter-key on my 9150 c/o of the keyboard manufacturer. number five may be remedied by opening up the component bay cover and observing where any trouble wires might exist. either that or it's the cooler itself which you may be able to have replaced under warranty. number six is a software issue. if i was experiencing a similar bug, i'd reinstall windows. it's that serious of an issue to me.

 

When I got my laptop from Xotic, it had the exact same issue with some of the keys. They were the y u and t keys for me, but they did exactly what you describe. It seems that the Keyboards for the 91x0s are a 50/50 shot. Get with LPC and sending you a new one. Xotic had Sager open a ticket and had me pay for the keyboard. They then shipped me a new one and refunded the fee totally when I got the keyboard back to them (They shipped a label and everything, so it ended up costing me nothing at all). The new one fixed all of my issues.

As far as the bezel, Contact Larry about that one, I have never seen that, and it is not a reported issue. That arrow key has been a bit brighter on both of the keyboards I have had, I make the assumption, it is just brighter lol. I think that the bezel itself is something to look at and see about getting fixed, it sounds like something is out of alignment.

I could go on and on, you really need to get a hold of Larry and ask him what is going on with it, he is a really good guy.

 

I have this same problem. When I saw it for the first time I thought it was dirt, so I tried scrubbing it for awhile until I realized it was permanent! My scuffing is not quite as bad as yours though and it doesn't really bother me too much, but it still catches my eye from time to time. I purchased my laptop through XoticPC so the reseller is not a factor here.

I also have some issues with my keyboard. I would type and it would not register keys randomly, very irritating (this problem is also well-known with this keyboard unfortunately). I removed the keyboard one day to clean it, and when I replaced it I noticed that I now RARELY EVER have this issue, so I would give it a try before an RMA.

Minor issues really, I'm still very pleased with my purchase.

 

my screen bezel is a bit uneven, so i see distorted reflection of myself, but this really doesnt bother me. i dont have the dust problem. my left arrow key is a bit brighter, but i never noticed it till now when i looked it carefully, but again that doesnt bother me. i also do have the fan sound issue, but since i am using my laptop on a desk, it doesnt affect me either. but thats just me, not very picky

 

the dust stuff is weird. it is just like finish is coming off, and it is only in the scuffed areas. I checked to see if the bezel is rubbing on the shell, but it isn't.

 

i am guessing it got scratched in the manufacturing process then