**M570TU/ETU (Sager 5796/5797) Owners Thread**

That is correct as far as i know.

 

Check the vga temps idle and gaming. Put new thermal compound on the vga/heatsink.

 

Idle temp 38C, Load temp 72C.

No problem so far...except for 1 BSOD after exiting Left 4 Dead 2, but I checked forums and others reported BSOD after exiting L4D2 too (and according to the dump file it is related to win32k.sys).

 

btw I installed the latest Nvidia driver to check if VMT works again with that...this time it took 8 min (with other driver 10sec) to give tons of read errors in DirectX (No errors in CUDA)

 

Random Freezing Update:

It has been about a week and a half without any freezes. It appears that the RAM was the culprit.

Happy New Year!

 

I have also seemed to have cleared up issues with my rig. The back story is that it got a new gpu and then when I got it back it exhibited the same symptoms. So I decided to give it a clean install of Win XP. After testing with OCCT and a memory tester from Standford's F@H program, everything seems to be fine.

 

My sound cracks. I hear crackles through my speakers and even through my headsets. I didn't blow them, but I know it's something with the audio that causes this occasional pop. Sometimes it goes away, and sometimes it comes back.
I'm using the default Win7 drivers since I can't find any Realtech ones that work.

 

You should be able to install the High Def Audio from Realtek. Their sit can be a pain sometimes but I am using the drivers and I do not have any cracking.

When you run the installer it will unistall your old driver and then re-boot your machine. After the re-boot you will need to run the installer again now that you old drivers are removed. This should install the Realtek drivers and may also require a re-boot.

Good Luck

 

Laptop just froze for the first time since I replaced the RAM. I was just reading posts on this forum.

Has anyone else with the freezing issue replaced their RAM? If so, did it fix your freezing issues?

Happy New Year!!

 

I'll try the sound drivers again.

With the ram, I also freeze with my Crucial 4GB ram on occasion. My first pair were faulty. Seems this second pair is not 100%.
So I went to 2GB with my original 1x2GB and so far, no freezing. I might have to get some very good quality ram. Although, Crucial is usually good, I can't trust their laptop ram again.

 

I get random freezes with 2x2GB too under Win7 Balanced mode...so you say GEIL isn't good neither ?

If it was only RAM problem, why aren't there any freezes under Vista or other OS?

 

Have any of you tried the RAM Memory test?

 

I had one freeze after the RAM replacement, that was on Balanced mode too. It was a day or two after I got the laptop back from repair. Since then no other freezes.

@DRevan: I had them under Vista x64 too, but reading here I was one of the few that had them with Vista.

Yesterday I had a blue screen, something about the BIOS not ACPI complaint.. Ran the Windows repair tool, and everything is back to normal now although I don't see the connection between the repair and a BIOS that is not ACPI complaint..

 

just an update to my situation. i have to rma my laptop again because overheating problems persist on my laptop. 98C on furmark for the gpu and 91C on intel xtreme burning utility for my q9000 are too high for me. i hope this time sager locate the issue and finally fix it because this is the last time i´ll send my computer to their facility.

 

I think 91C for CPU after a few mins under intel xtreme burning utility is normal. But 98C for GPU is high yes.

 

Laptop has froze again under balanced mode. Left it on overnight and it was frozen in the morning. I also had a freeze under High Performance while trying to open a picture.

Has anyone noticed a high occurrence of freezing if the CPU is overclocked?

I am starting to think that there is something more than just the memory causing this random freezing. My money is on the motherboard.

Will keep you posted.

Jeff

 

How much of an overclock are you running?

 

Or maybe the motherboard/Win7 is not 100% compatyble with x9100? (because I have x9100 too and it's a bit strange that I have random freezes too under Balanced mode)

 

I have been using the x2 overclock which gives me the x13 multiplier vs the x11.5 without the overclock.

I just re-installed my video card drivers, pulled the battery and held down the power button and disabled the overclock. I used to be able to get the laptop to run for a couple days on balanced mode by holding the power button down without the battery in. Makes me think that there is something up with the motherboard.

Just waiting for the first freeze under balanced mode.

Jeff

 

I've just noticed that my CPU has started to automatically downclock if it reaches 86C. I used to be able to reach 93C without problems. Does anyone have this problem with their CPU or something has gone wrong with my Q9200?

Please, I really need your input on this one, I am lost... my laptop has started to act up in the past 3-4 months.

 

What was your ACPI temp when your CPU temp hit 86*C?

 

92-95C 10 char.

 

That'll do it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5041328&postcount=65
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5676335&postcount=1769

 

Right. But what if I had a QX9300, won't it behave in the same way ?

 

Any CPU will downclock if the ACPI temp hits 95*C in the M570TU.

 

I didn;t know that. Thanx.
So then the problem is that my CPU is simply running too hot... possibly because it is an engineering sample and not a final version. Correct?

 

Probably. I just thought about what you said again. Theoretically, the Q9200 should run cooler at the same clock speed as the QX9300 at 2.93GHz since it is two SP9400's stapled together as opposed to two T9400's.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5263074&postcount=21

Then again, the quality control may have been taken a step further with these chips; Intel may have hand picked only the really good T9400's and mashed them together. I've noticed this with the Q9100 and the QX9300; the Q9100 tends to run just as hot if not hotter than the QX9300 in some of my buddies' notebooks.

 

What were your temps with the QX9300 without any hardware modding?

 

I don't know. I never stress tested my QX9300 before I modded. But if I were to make a guess, I would say I would get similar temps compared to yours. I immediately began modding my notebook a few days after I got it back in February. Not conducting "before" results and recording them was one of my regrets. I hate to say that I did it yet again with my W870CU.

 

Fair enough then... if I start to bump into problems with my CPU I can always just replace it. My older P9700 was really nice, but the price of the Q9200 made me jump towards the quad, at least to try it. It did hurt my battery life by 15-20 min, but I figured I could live with that... I am starting to regret getting the quad.

Anyway, now that you are online, maybe you can give me a guess on what is wrong with my laptop. I've made a thread some time ago but no one replied.

I first got a BSOD sometime in September, I didn't pay much attention to it. But it has happened again after that, although it was very rare. I think I got like 4 BSODs until December this year. I've looked into them and they seemed to be caused by a memory error... . In the mean time I have also changed my RAM to HyperX (in November) and recently the CPU to the current Quad. The reason I started to get concern is that in the past month I started to get more often BSODs, all when I exit a game or Steam for example. Also games like Fallout 3 tend to freeze, exclusively when the game has to perform some action, like displaying information on an item or an enemy dies, etc.

After this series of BSODs I have decided to run MEMTEST86+ under DOS and I got a ton of error, something like 1000. I decided to test the memories individually, each in each slot and individually and they give no errors. It is only when I use them together that they start acting up.

Also today I have tried to run prime 95 on the small FFTs test and it works fine altough it leads to CPU downclocking. When I try to mix the memory in (Blend Test)... things start to go wrong and after the first intineration it says "FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4". Sometimes it gives even more nasty errors ("FATAL ERROR: Resulting sum was 4.637300241308058e+016, expected: 1.941885847992254e+016") and I even got a BSOD when trying to run the test This happens with or without overclocking... the result is always the same. If I use just one memory, again prime95 fails.

I have also tried to test different memories in my system, but only with MEMTEST86+ and they worked just fine. Even if paired one HyperX with one normal memory, still MEMTEST runs just fine... I will try tomorrow to see what happens with Prime 95 if I use different memories.

I will do some more testing, but I am puzzled to what is the problem? The memories... then why did I get BSODs before I bought them and why only when paired together....

 

Part of me is saying that one of the actual RAM slots if bad, but you were able to pass Memtest86 with one stick in each slot in different rotations, meaning that your CPU may be giving you these errors. Your CPU also plays a role in how well your memory performs. Blend is a bit harsher on the CPU and uses more available memory than small FFT so it may be that the CPU is producing these errors at it nears it's "boiling" temperature. Usually when I stress test my memory, I restrict my CPU to LFM and run the test overnight while I sleep easy. Memtest86 doesn't get the CPU as hot as a Prime95 run, but then again we cannot monitor the CPU temp in DOS. Memtest86 will still tax your CPU fairly hard with two sticks in as opposed to only one.

Also, what were the specific BSOD error codes when you exited Fallout 3 and your other games? It may also be a software error as well.

 

Actually, when I use the Blend test, the CPU doesn't get anywhere near the temps I get when using the small FFT. Max temp under blend test before error is 78C.

My belief is that the only possible explanation is the motherboard...

 

That's the thing, the CPU has to juggle more memory in blend and the chance to error is higher at a lower temperature if one of the sticks or the stick slots is bad. It doesn't make your CPU hotter than small FFT, but it does raise the chance to error if the memory or the motherboard is faulty. Small FFT uses chunks of memory small enough to be handled in your CPU cache, meaning that it doesn't use the system memory as much. But an error occuring at 78*C is really strange. I guess I have to say the same and say that it's the motherboard.

 

I will try to see what happens tomorrow in prime95 using different memories... just ran it again on my system. The same error after the first intineration, max temp was 74C.

 

That brings us back to square one with two possibilities: one of the sticks is bad, or one of the slots is bad. Failing at that low of a temperature nulls the possibility of the error being a CPU or chipset issue.

 

I will get a P8600 and use one of my friend's memories andl test this sucker until I figure out what's wrong with it. Pisses me off though, cause I have a lot of work to do and dealing with hardware issues is the last thing I needed.

 

Update:

Tested today with different Ram memories in Prime 95. Everything went just fine although I could only test for 20-30 minutes.

I've put in the Hyperx and after 3 minutes... HW Fault.

I guess the memories are to blame then...

 

I guess that explains it. The SODIMM DDR3 HyperX kits are notorious for having a high fault rate in their manufacturing batches anyway. Just send them in and get a fresh new kit.

 

Well, if an electronic component works well cold, and starts working bad when hot, or backwards, it could be a soldering problem, cold solder for example, could you just return the memories? warranty should cover that.

 

That's what I am doing right now.

 

RJTech has completely revamped their homepage after how many years of having the same old school layout. It looks a lot cleaner now and some of their older products have been removed. I'm sure they still have them, but you will need to email them for it. Getting to the point, they have "normalized" the price of the MXM 2.1 GTX 280M back down to $520, so anyone that is still interested in bumping up their GPU has been given a second chance to pull the trigger.

http://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29791

 

My Sager 5797 worked fine until I updated it to Windows 7.

I formatted the drive with Killdisk and installed Windows 7 clean. Used Driver Genius to get my drivers back.

The 2 issues I have are as followed

1. Sometimes when I unplug my machine it freezes, requiring me to turn it off with the power button. There is no BSOD or any visible error on the screen. The mouse and keyboard become unresponsive, the sound turns off and all video stops playing.

I can power it on from battery alone and plug it in without any problems but unplugging it causes it to lock up completely and I am VERY concerned about that.

The event ID that precedes this is as followed

Log Name: System
Source: Kernel-Processor-Power
Event ID: 37
Level: Warning
User: System

The speed of processor 0 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since last report.

Log Name: System
Source: Kernel-Processor-Power
Event ID: 37
Level: Warning
User: System

XML View for Event ID 37

Event xmlns="http:schemas.microsoft.comwin200408eventsevent"
System Provider Name="MicrosoftWindowsKernel ProcessorPower" Guid='{0F67E49FFE514E9FB4906F2948CC6027}'

EventID 37
Version 0
Level 3
Task 7
Opcode 0 Opcode
Keywords 0x8000000000000000 Keywords
TimeCreated SystemTime= 20100119T07:31:25.865742100Z
EventRecordID 23566 EventRecordID
Correlation
Execution Processid='4' Threadid='52'
Channel System Channel
Computer InfamousPC Computer
Security Userid='S1518' System
EventData
Data Name="Group" 0 Data
Data Name="Number" 0 Data
Data Name="CapDurationInSeconds" 71 Data
Data Name="PpcChanges" 1 Data
Data Name="TpcChanges" 0 Data
Data Name="PccChanges" 0 Data
EventData
Event

The speed of processor 1 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since last report.

2. My wireless does not stay connected. It disconnects and reconnects or it will connect with no internet connection. My connection displays the same erratic behavior whether the network is open or secured on WEP, WPA, WPA2 etc etc.

Wireless Adapter: Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN

Device Manager Properties Driver

Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 3/26/2009
Driver Version: 12.4.1.4
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows

Device Manager Properties : Advanced

802.11 Channel Width for band 2.4 : 20 MHz Only
802.11 Channel Width for band 5.2 : Auto
802.11n Mode : Enabled
Ad Hoc Channel 802.11 b/g : 11
Ad Hoc Default Wireless Mode : 0.802.11b/g
Ad Hoc Power Management : Disabled
Ad Hoc Qos Mode : WMM Disabled
Fat Channel Intolerant : Disabled
Mixed Mode Protection : CTS-to-self Enabled
Roaming Aggressiveness : 3. Medium
Throughput Enhancement : Disabled
Transmit Power : 5 Highest
Wireless Mode : 6. 802.11a/b/g

No conflicting devices listed
This device is working properly

Event ID 1001
Event ID 1002
Event ID 1014 - Too many instances of this to count
Event ID 4321

Less technical information here, more concerned about the power situation

BIOS Information

Phoenix SecureCore Setup Utility

BIOS Version: 1.00.17 LS2
KBC/EC Firmware Revision: 1.00.103
VGA Card: nVIDIA GTX 280M
VBIOS Revision: 62.92.70.00.07
VBIOS Build Date: 01/05/09

Installed O/S : Vista (Choices are Vista, XP and Other. Other doesn't work)
SATA Mode Selection: AHCI
Legacy USB Support: Enabled
Boot-time Diagnostic Screen: Disabled
FAN Control: Auto
Power On Boot Beep: Disabled
Legacy OS Boot: Enabled
Reset Configuration Data: No
Battery Low Alarm Beep: No
DFOROM (Robson) Support: Enabled

I still haven't checked if there is an update for my BIOS available. I'm going to reformat and reinstall Windows 7 on Sunday once I'm back at my apartment where my Windows 7 disk is and see if that fixes it.

Please, any help is greatly appreciated

 

Well. I have to admit that I am placing this post from selfish intentions but I'll start by saying hello to you all and wish you all a much better time than the one I'm having right now.
I joined this lovely club of M570 owners about a year and a half ago and have thoroughly enjoyed that machine. That said, it's now dead. The GPU (9800m GT) gave up the ghost for unknown reasons and so now I have a nearly-useless hulk sitting on my desk. I've gone through a change of drivers, BIOS settings, and even a wipe of the HDD and a return to XP from Windows 7. None of that helped, sadly.
I've run out of ideas and am looking for advice. The only place I know of to buy a new GPU for it is at Eurocom and they're charging $585 for a 260m (the 9800m GT is actually $720). That's not exactly a price that I'm comfortable with. If it were to come down to it, does anyone have any estimates as to what the system would be worth were I to sell it (given its present condition)? Thanks if anyone has any advice to extend.

 

Have you opened the system up and checked to make sure it hasn't come loose? Also this is gonna sound funny but you could try putting the GPU in the oven. Read the links below as it has worked on a bunch of peoples cards. Haven't tried myself though and not sure how long it lasts. Also not sure how good it is for the oven and the food you put in after.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385857
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385973&page=14

 

Yeah I have a year warrenty on this... I'm not going to dismantle or cook any parts lol.

I contacted Sager and they sent me an updated bios iso so I just updated it. My bios now says Vista / Win7 whereas it use to only say Vista.

Only time will tell if this fixed it, I'll post with updates.

 

Haha, that's amazing. I have to say, I wasn't expecting a solution of that nature. The principle behind it does indeed seem sound-ish, so I'll be sure to try that if all else fails. I agree, I'm not sure just what that would do to the oven itself.

Also: I did indeed take apart the laptop to get at the card. I ended up cleaning it and the heatsink in order to apply a new coat of Arctic 5 to see if that would help. The core temperature did indeed drop, but the crashing persisted.

 

Ecar, I also have the 9800m GT and I feel for ya. My first card started going black like 2 months after I got it but they replaced it. This one runs peachy.

I'm tempted to get the 280m GTX like Soviet pointed out. Perhaps you wanna buy mine? I never overclocked or anything. It would definitely persuade my consideration for the 280m.

 

Sotoa, I'm tempted to take you up on that offer. I'm going to hone my culinary skills first and see if the baking makes any difference. If that doesn't work, then I don't suppose you could give me an idea of what price you'd ask for?

Quick Update: The baking didn't change anything. Ah well. I will indeed take you up on your offer, Sotoa.

 

Update on my Sager

Installed new BIOS 2 nights ago.

It just crashed again when it was unplugged. Definitely feels like a Hardware issue at this point.

Same events as always, processors in reduced performance mode then it completely locks up.

 

Ecar88, let me find out what my card goes for, and get back with you.