**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

That's pretty cool. Have you tried stressing it a little more and seeing what kinds of temperatures you get? You could use benchmarks or just play games. That will probably be more indicative of whether you need to be worried about anything.

 

AS5 takes a few days to settle, it may be that you just used too much of it. Regardless, 92C is high but within operating parameters. I doubt it'll be covered under your warranty. If you're still within the return period offered by your reseller you can certainly return it. You'll probably have to pay for it, and there's no guarantee the new one will perform better, and it's possible the replacement might have the same problem, or worse.

Perhaps open it up and take a look at the thermal paste and how it settled? You could always try another thermal compound. 28C ambient is pretty high. I'm not sure how linearly that will affect your GPU temps, but it certainly is a contributing factor.

 

I will try some to see what i can get. Until now i just tried COD MW2 max but it does not stress it that much.

btw i did not remove the other plastic thing that blocks some air flow, and from what i got, it does nothing and ups the temps around 5ºC.

 

I know there have been some disagreements about this on this forum but I've removed it. I probably should have ran some tests to monitor the difference between having it on or off but every engineering fiber in my body was telling me to rip it off. I honestly don't think the fan is using its full cooling potential if the air going to be forced through some other vent in the back panel, thereby generating unnecessary flow resistance with minimal overall cooling gain.

In addition, I don't have to worry that much about heat affecting my ssd. I would also rather my ram burn out than put my cpu at risk. However, this model has an incredible thermal design so the likelihood of either of either of these happening is also pretty low, so long as you clean it every month or so -something I am susceptible to forgetting.

 

When I first receive my laptop, I'm leaning towards following SS' suggestion of discharging the battery to 0% and charging it to 100%. How do you exactly discharge it to 0%? Do I do this with the laptop off or what?

Is one discharge-charge cycle enough for 1 month of continuous battery usage?

 

If I may, I believe he goes into the bios screen and leaves it till it shuts off (correct me if I'm wrong). 1 discharge per month is also what I think is recommended.

Personally, I don't think I would feel the difference between having 30mins or 50mins of battery life.

 

Hey all, I'm expecting delivery of my 8690 today. Can you point me to the link to download the bench mark testing software? Thanks!

 

One page back. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5637933&postcount=1594

My D400V battery just dipped below 80% total capacity last week, and it's over six years old. My four year old M38AW battery is holding nicely at ~90%. Once a month is a bit on the longer side, but is still very safe and won't harm the battery. Even five weeks per discharge is still safe, though I wouldn't recommend that long. If it makes you feel more at ease, you can discharge it every three weeks.

I still discharge my battery in BIOS, but lately I've been going back to discharging it in Windows since the OS's power saving features use less power in total compared to BIOS. Either way works the same way though.

 

Look in this forum for Mutant_Tractor's D900F benchmark thread. Links are in the first post.

 

Yikes, and I was worried about my max temps hitting 80C! I feel like kind of a dimbell now. I'm envious of 28C for an ambient temp tho. Wow! Mine were around 50C and have gotten cooler for whatever reason. 40-45C or so now.

I sure do love the fans on this thing, too. Quiet and downright pleasant, if you ask me. Still unsure of the speakers and hating on the touchpad a little. Overall, absurdly pleased. Haven't noticed any dead pixels at all, but I'm not gonna sit with a magnifying glass and look for something I can't fix anyway.

Big kudos to everyone here who helped me pick this computer out. If it hadn't been for you guys, I would have ended up with a less-powered ASUS which would probably over heat. And even that would just have been by good luck.

Thanks for the battery discharge methods, too. Did not think of the BIOS! I'm going to run it down to 10% playing some games, log out, and hit the BIOS right now and begin the monthly ritual.

 

I could be mistaken, but when that person referred to their ambient temperature as 28C, that meant the temperature in his room/house, not this CPU/core temps.

 

Oh duh, of course. Sorry. I'm so used to room temp being in F. I'm a dumb American. I need to go back and read his post now that I understand. Ha.

Apologies, Mongerman! What are your idle temps at on your CPUs and GPUs? What kind of ranges are you getting? I'm new to all this, but I'd found CPUID to be most useful.

My temp ranges, which are higher than some folks', are about like this so far--
Min Idle Max
CPU 31C 44C 70C
GPU 31C 40C 78C

I was freaking out about mine yesterday, as you'll notice if you read back a few pages, but my worries were needless. I'm still going to take the current paste off and put on some MX-2, though. You could try doing the same, although you might want to check with your reseller.

I'd also try out FurMark on extreme burning stress test mode and see how high the temps get.

And, finally, keep in mind any advice from me is from a perma-noob and should not be construed as authoritative. SS, Brandon and others are who I'd listen to.

 

So? I'm a dumb American too, but I use SI units.

 

Stupid Americans...

oh, wait..

 

Guys I got a little problem and I was wondering if you guys can help me out. For some reason when I put my computer to sleep it will turn by on again in a couple minutes. So if I close my laptop it will still fire back up in a few minutes. So if any of you have an idea of what is causing this could you please give me a hand.

Thanks
Shawn

 

Is it the mouse?? Touchpad?

It's sad how utterly little conception I have of anything more specific than "a meter". Celsius means nothing to me, unless I convert it to F in my brain. It's like another language. I wish America would switch over already and just force us to come to grips. Oh well, OT.

 

So, I had my Sager np8690 for nearly a week now, and I'm not sure if the temperatures are tolerable. My CPU temps were up to 87 degrees, so I decided to take off the sticker covering the vents. This decreased the CPU temperature by nearly 10 degrees, but now the GPU goes up to 91 at full load...is this too much for the GPU to handle?

 

Ok thanks!

Just opened the box and now playing with my new 8690 yay! Beautiful piece of work this is. Coming from an old 2005 VAIO.. centrino somefin and this 820 with 1080 screen just blows me away! I have Norton Ghost and I'm thinking of ghosting the stock OS minus the office suite stuff. Or does windows 7 pro come with a similar tool?

 

Two things--

#1 I once again see I was being lame for complaining about my temps. (From what I've read, 91C is still within tolerable limits, making my 80C at full load seem pretty fantastic. I'm going to replace the thermal paste in my unit, and I think it will drop temps at least 5C across the board, hopefully 10C. Maybe that's what needs to be done on yours, too?)

#2 I am so iffy about the cover on that second vent. On the one hand, the story makes sense, that the cover deflects air across... stuff... (like the GPU, apparently) and is there on purpose (I mean, face it, they wouldn't just put it there for fun; they must truly think it's helpful), but, on the other hand, you can't argue with data that shows removing it assists in cooling in some/many (perhaps even all) respects. A 10C degree difference on the processor is pretty huge. However, if it's at the cost of a 10C increase on the GPU (and maybe the memory or something else)...

Results vary, but one thing stays the same: my confusion.

 

You should not have any damage done to your system but I would recommend reapplying the thermal paste to both the CPU and GPU. I haven't done any stress testing but when running games such as Left 4 Dead 2 and COD MW2 the highiest temp I have seen on the CPU it about 79C and low 70'sC to high 60'sC on the GPU. Of course when doing actual bench temps it will be higher because you are working them close to 100%. I would though put the vent cover back on. The vent is meant to push the air across areas of the motherboard and without it you are nothing cooling the components. I will edit this post as soon as possible with the temps I am getting in certain benchmarks.

EDIT: Just did Prime95 for a bit and max temp I got on the CPU was 83C with an ambient temp of 22C.

EDIT EDIT: Just ran Furmark for 15 minutes and the max GPU temp I got was 78C. The ambient temp was 22C.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: Just ran 3dmark06 and got a max temp on the CPU of 83C, and the max GPU temp of 70C. Ambient temp of 22C.
Also ran HD Tune 2.55 and got a max temp of 34C on the hard drive.

 

Those temps are similar to mine.

What are your idle temps at? Just curious.

A few more questions for the group:

Undervolting is probably totally unnecessary on these computers, right?

How do you guys carry yours in the carrying case? I know, seems like a silly question, but I think it's important! Vents up? Vents down? In the inner-flap with velcro? Out of it? Screen towards the pouch side behind the flap? In front of the flap?

I'm thinking of getting one of those little slip-on protectors that was mentioned a few pages back. I want to keep it really safe, and I think that would help keep junk out of the vents, too.

 

How NOT to apply thermal paste (unless it's to a toothbrush for your teeth)


(ganked from an older thread and reposted for lulz and cautionary measures)

 

Haha! I wouldn't even feel right putting that on my tootbrush.

 

I carry mine with the vents downwards since its thicker and allows me to fit not only the power brick up top, but also my mouse. It fits in the smaller front pocket but bulges out a lot.

I don't really have any preference which way it faces, but I usually have it in the velcro'd pouch.

 

That makes good sense! If doing it in that fashion, I'd face the screen-side inward (toward the pad) since it seems to be less well-protected than the bottom. Maybe that's a non-issue, though.

Keeping the mouse and brick on top is a good idea. I hadn't thought of that and have been letting them bulge out the outer pocket.

 

In a sleeve, vents down, in a messenger bag, screen away from my back, Xpad infront of the screen side of the sleeve, PSU and other junk in the front pockets.

 

I like that technique, SS. I'll do that when I get my Xpad. Checking into those sleeves, too. Seems smart to me to take every precaution and then not worry.

Question for you folks--I was discharging my battery in the BIOS, and even tho I had the "beep when battery critical" (or whatever it is) option disabled, it started beeping until I went loony and had to stop at 5% or whatever the battery was at. Anyone else get this? What is the work-around?

And a comment (kinda question). Since I got my unit, I've seen my max, min and idle temps decrease. Why? I've done the test at the same table with the same room temps. I thought it was the paste settling but I've been told that's not possible. My temps have gone down about 5C across the board, maybe a little more. (Idle temps used to be 50C and are now 40C. Max load temp has gone down from 84C or so to 78C. Processor still idles around 50C, but it now maxes under 70C.)

Another question--For those of you who chose the 15" unit over the 17", what was your reason? (I decided based upon money--$2000 was my cap. I'm glad I got the 15". I'm relieved that it's plenty big.) Just curiosity on this one.

I think that about covers my interrogation for now! I promise I won't always be so chatty! This is a big event in my computing life, though. I love this thing. I've also never owned a computer as part of a community before. It's nice to be able to chat with other owners.

 

No idea.. Christmas Miracle?

 

maybe is the result of the thermal compound reaching it's optimal performance. (as5 needs 200hr of curing time)

 

I originally got the 15 because I've never had any laptop larger. If I didn't have to send it back, I probably would have kept it. Though the 1920x1080 resolution for me was a bit too small for that size. While I was going to send it anyway, I was either going to get the lower resolution screen, or a larger one.

Also I really like my cargo kensington bag

 

These look REALLY nice... Which one do you have?

 

or decreasing ambient temp. sort of like a xmas thing indeed.

 

The battery beep notification controls whether the notebook will beep in the OS when your battery is low. If you're in BIOS, that feature means nothing and the notebook will still beep as a precaution.

 

I have both the small and extra large size of this bag. The small one I use for light load and the big one I use for my notebook with a WaterField SleeveCase. As much as I try to avoid picking out 21st century hipster gear, I have to say that it satisfies the workload that I put them through.

http://bbpbags.com/hamptons.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4963458&postcount=5

I went with the 17 inch variant primarily of the screen and the amount of internal space in the chassis. The W870CU for me really isn't that big since it's wedged at the front and at the left and right sides. A lot of people thought that I got it over the W860U because of overclocking. That is true, but even though I talked about it a lot, my emphasis was more on size. I have gotten used to a 17 incher and it's not that much bigger in footprint than the W860CU. The screen is just to stunning to pass up compared to the W860CU.

 

That one, the notebook messenger. It is super awesome.

 

I really need to look into these different bags. Guess it goes without saying that the 15" fits in the Cargo Kensington Notebook Messenger bag since people have it and are using it for such.

If I had to do it again, I might go for the larger one, but I really do like my 15". What a great computer. (Still can't master the touchpad, tho, or the quirky fingerprint reader, which sometimes works like magic and other times makes me want to pee on it.)

The speakers actually sound quite nice to me, but they do seem to lack bass. I wonder if I need to "turn on" the bass as was described a few pages up? I tried to find the utility described but it didn't seem to be on my RealTek whatever ya call it icon. I'll try to find the post again.

 

Any of you guys have a high pitched noise once the fans start working more? mine is completely new....

Other from that I hope a new bios will solve some of the problems with the fans kicking in at a quite low temperatur.

 

I've heard of some people with bad fan whines. Mine mostly just sounds whooshy, like someone vacuuming across the street. There is a tiny little mechanical whine, but it's so quiet that I just don't really even notice it.

 

well it is mechanical i would say... but it gets louder or chnages with the fans changing too. i guess illl return the computer, i cnat work like that, especially at night when i need it a bit more queit.

 

I could be wrong, but I have to assume it's something wrong with your fans. It's so weird, because a lot of folks (and I'm one of them) describe the fans as being really quiet, and others describe them as loud. If it's not defective fans on some units (or just flat-out louder fans, if not defective), then I'm at a loss.

Someone did some decibel measurements on another thread. That's not 100% useful unless you too are able to do measurements of that kind, but on the same thread, I did provide some comparisons as to what each decibel level should sound "like" (a certain level is a fridge in another room, another level is someone mowing the lawn in front of you, etc).

 

the main issues of the 8690/8760's seems to be the fans, thermal paste, headphone jack and touchpad. although most are not present in my unit, these seem to point to a build quality issue. and sagers are known most for their top of the line products and build quality.
although not deal breakers by any stretch of the imagination, they can be frustrating, especially for a high-end notebook.
maybe we can inform our resellers or sager of these so they can improve their QA for future products

 

rofl, you might want to sort that

 

I haven't tried out the headphone jack yet. :/ I'm scared to. I bet it'll be fine tho, or at least as good as everyone else's.

Some folks have complained about the speaker quality, too. The lack of a subwoofer is a little odd, considering it's present on the 17" model, and the drivers seem to possibly be an issue with the speakers, too; it isn't so much that the speakers seem low-quality to me as the bass seems non-present, and I think it can be tweaked somehow. (Actually, I think it's possible a lot of these issues could be fixed or ameliorated via drivers or BIOS. Maybe even the headphone jack, but probably not the thermal paste! )

 

I was wondering what people are finding wrong with the touchpad, and headphone jack? The reason why I am wondering is because in my opinion I see nothing wrong with them, they work like I would expect them to. But I may not be using them for things other people are.

 

the headphone jacks outputs low audio and the touchpad is not as responsive to sliding/scrolling.
im personally not bothered by these, but i understand where others are coming from - getting your money's worth and build quality issues.
resolving these issues together with the thermal paste, fans, and 3 cell battery just hinders this laptop from being the best 15inch ever.
it probably still is actually, but with these issues gone it could have been f!@#ing perfect!

 

One more thing to the electronical noise, whining, HOW OLD ARE U GUYS lol, since I hear it and my girlfriend too but my dad doesnt lol. I guess he'sa bit older lol

 

He's probably just deaf to any kind of "whining" after living so long with your girlfriend and her mom.

 

Say guys how do I enable Bluetooth to start up on windows 7 pro load? I have the 8690. Thanks.

 

So if you turn the BT on, then shut down, it doesn't turn itself back on?

I remember someone else saying they were annoyed by this. Not sure there's any way around it unless they change it in a BIOS update to "stick" like the wireless network does.

 

Jesse yea that's correct. I have to press the FN + F12 key each time I power up my sager from cold or sleep. I'll check the bios to see if anything is there. Thanks!