D901C / Sager 9260/9262 / Pro-Star 9191 Owners Thread

Thanks. Yeah yesterday I took out everything but the heat sink, video card and hard drive and I still couldn't flip the board to get to the cmos.

 

Hello everyone, its been a while since i last bugged anyone in here.
yet once again i need assistance.
i updated my OS to Windows7 x64.
i'm running with 2x 7950gt cards, i used to run SLI smoothly with vista.
yet with win7 when i turn the SLI on it displays in some phantom monitor that aint my laptop display.
pc boots i get windows logo and then it goes black. i can hear windows booting but i cant see it.
nVidia site gives me one version of latest drivers and windows updates gives me a more recent one.
i have tested with em both and still the same.
anyone knows how to fix this?

 

Got a 2nd monitor? Could fix it real easy then lol

 

Hey Guys,

I posted a while back with questions about my D901C and possible replacment graphic cards. Thanks for all the previous help.

Well I finally bit the bullet and purchased the GTX 280M which should be arriving soon. My question this time is can/should I just use the latest drivers at the nVidia site or is there a better set of drivers out there somewhere?

Again, thanks for all the help previously and hope to hear some more good news.

Have a good one.

Robert

 

Did you make sure that you got the single GTX 280m with no SLI connector that is the MXM 2.1 type? If you got an MXM 3 card (like for the M980nu) then it will physically not fit in your system

 

Try going from the keyboard side!

 

Yep, That is the one I ordered, the MXM 2.1. Let's hope that is the one that comes.

Now I just need to find some good drivers for when it arrives.

 

Good good, its crazy what you can do with Clevos, anyone want to trade PM me man i hate doing it like this.

 

Ok im in a a bit of a pickle. i have just bought meself a new Corsair SSD and installed win 7 x64 on it together with my other 2 hard drives. however when i went into bios and set it to AHCI mode and tried to reboot.. the computer just hangs.

i rebooted and tried to press F2 to get back into bios and it wont go back in again. now im stuck. i cant get back into bios to turn it off. please help.

is there any other solution or do i have to reset the bios.??

 

pull the cmos battery to hard reset the bios

 

yes i had that in mind, but where abouts is the CMOS battery? i have the service manual. can you tell me which panel i need to remove.

 

afraid not, never owned a D901c (wish I had though lol)

someone here should be able to help you though

 

Yeah man its nicer and more stable than the m17x R1 lol.

 

any takers..?? or anyone who has reset the battery.

 

I did it once.I remember taking out everything and not finding it and then realized it's under the palm area.Try taking out the key board and going this way.

I cudnt take out the battery, due to the angle, but then was able to take out the wire that runs from the battery.Tht reset it.

Hope this helps!

 

ok guys lucky for me i didnt have to pull apart the laptop. all i did was

remove the cd rom and all hard drives. turned on comp and pressed F2 and woila it booted back into the bios..

all good now everything is running as it should. thanks guys

 

well i got it to partially work..i cant set the bios to AHCI mode for the hard drive. everytime i do that it, loads windows and just after the windows start screen it BSOD and resets.

 

that means you need to switch windows to ahci mode first....because it loaded in ATA mode

this is just a registry change

do a google search on it

 

oh really.?? ok i will search

 

Sorry not really able to search through this whole thing, but I am sure this experience has come up with you!

I have a failing video card (9800m GTX) and I am debating:

a.) Baking it (possibility of destroying it)
b.) Sending it in for out of warranty service (about $1k)
c.) Buying a new one ($870 new, $330 refurbished)
d.) Buying a new computer (sager 9280, $2.5)
e.) Buying a desktop ($1.5)

I guess in terms of money its pretty obvious what I should do but I was wondering what others have done in this same situation (as this computer is 2+ years old and I'm sure you have failing video cards.

As for replacements, anyone happy with any ATI cards? I'm looking to move away from NVIDIA if possible.


Edit:
- How much could my system sell for if I fixed up the video card?

 

Buy a new one, you can now get the machine with the GTX480, i suggest you update the graphics card and replace it and then sell it.

 

with a fixed video card you are still only looking at about $1200 at best

 

Yeah so better to fix the gpu and keep it as a secondary unless you have a netbook or something. I say start at 1,000, its going to be hard to sell.

 

It is a VERY cool notebook, but the MXM 2.1 is just too limiting

If you could run the Alienware M17 4850s in there in crossfire that would be something but I am not hopeful

 

Well i want to see how that goes, i would try it out if i buy one for only 1,600 or so but the core i7 totally destroys the Q9450.

 

D901C with a 5.2v revision:
question 1:
will i be able to run ONE single 1gb 280m card? will there be much improvement from my current 2x 7950gtx sli set?

question 2:
what is the current most powerful processor tested with this revision?

thx in advance

 

you should be able to run a single GTX 280m

also the most powerful cards for this laptop are the 9800m GTX in SLI, which equal GTX 260m SLI

 

im pretty sure with my revision i cant handle sli for 8800 and up.
just wondering if i could run a gtx280.
any chance u happen to know the best processor?

 

I am not sure about the motherboard revisions

as for the processor, I know that the xeon x3380 is the highest speed quad since overclocking was never enabled on these

 

Hi guys,

I have a 2 year old Sager NP9262/D901C. I am pretty sure that my 8800M GTX is dying (black screen). From what I have been reading, I am e out of luck as GPUs are a very costly piece of equipment in gaming laptops. This is what it has on it right now:

Intel Core 2 Q9450 @ 2.66GHz
4GB RAM (2GB x 2 @ 800MHz)
GeForce 8800M GTX
200GB HD
Windows 7 Home Premium

Any recommendations on what to do?

 

First I would call your vendor's tech support to have them trouble shoot it for you.

If it is your GPU dying you could buy cheaper cards if you can find them, but if it is going bad the only solution other than replacing it would be to connect an external monitor and use it instead of your laptop screen.

 

I agree with everything you just said also hopefully they can replace it for you, even if they have to charge you, do you have sli 8800gtx?

 

Thank you for the responses. Unfortunately I only have a single 8800M GTX. I will shoot Xotic PC a message tomorrow.

Jake

I also forgot to post the symptoms.

Flickering
Screen Freeze (with all colors of the rainbow showing up, distorting the current picture) and then proceeding to black screen.

 

Yup deff dying graphics card don't worry its a know common thing push for sli!!

 

So I just recently got a sager 9262 with a single 9800m gt, so I was wondering if I could sli this card, and where I could get one. Thanks!

 

Hi, I have a two year old 9262 with the following specs:

Q9450/4GB DDR2/1x8800M GTX 512

It's installed with the latest video drivers (258.96 WHQL -do you guys even recommend this?). My problem is that with most if not ALL games at one point video will hang, refresh once or twice (video card driver has stopped working) and ultimately hang (screen freezes, whole machine unresponsive with still image on screen). I cannot play games properly as I'm always interrupted... what could be wrong?

Note: It could play Starcraft II on high/some ultra settings but after the game starts the screen starts tearing and hangs.. I noticed that if I play on ALL LOW it takes about 20-30 or 2-3 games before the machine hangs.

What could be wrong?

Thank you in advance.

Isamu

 

Hi darkendheart23, thank you for your very helpful reply. Would you happen to have any recommendations for the best stable driver under Windows 7 64-bit for the 8800M GTX?

 

Just got my hands on one of these, here are my specs:

CPU: E8400
MEMORY: 4GB RAM
VIDEO: 9800M GT 512
HDD: 3X 640GB Seagate Momentus Drives
OS: Windows 7 32bit

My only problems is with some drivers. Anyone know where I can find drivers that work with Windows 7. Still missing 2 Multimedia Controller and 1 Multimedia Video Controller. I am pretty sure those three will be fixed with a Chip set Driver but for some reason all chip set driver I find don't work. Any help will be much appreciated. If anyone cares, the laptop came from a company called Imperial Computers, I have never heard of them but hey I got this laptop for free!

Thanks,
Chris

 

Oh one more question, it only came with one vid card, besides getting another card, heat sink and fan.. what else would I need to run this bad boy in SLI? Is it even possible.

Thanks again,
Chris

 

it depends on your motherboard revision.
if it supports the 9800 sli then the only other thing that you need (besides another card, heat sink and fan) is a sli cable.
2x 9800m cards is currently one of the most kick setups

 

btw now that i'm here i have a question

Will a Q9550S (not Q9550) processor work with my Laptop?
D901C (NP9261) with 5.2 revision currently using Q6600

anyone?

 

There is no compelling reason to get the s version. Multiple sites have done tests showing IDENTICAL power usage between the 2 models. The non s can go upto 95 W but under normal use at stock clocks never exceeds 65W anyways. Save yourself some money

 

I have that cpu in my D901C, the only issue would be your motherboard revision.
People have been discussing it regarding upgrading to 8800M GTX cards but I think that upgrading the cpu is much more probable.
Try upgrading the BIOS/KBC first.

 

Mine has been running beautifully with a Q9650 for about a year now. Follow the directions on the Clevo BIOS update thread carefully. It worked just fine for me.

 

hanko panko has his Sager np9261 with Q9650:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...laced-their-d901c-motherboard-themselves.html

but Q9650 will run at 1066 MHz FSB rather than at the 1333 MHz seen in the NP9262 revision.

Some of the last batches of the NP9261 may even be able to upgrade to 8800M GTX / 9800M GTX setups, but those upgrades may be too expensive to be worthwhile.

 

9262 Owner here specs are in the sig.

Im thinking about future proofing now with Windows 7 64 -Bit.
And 8GB ram upgrade.

As for GPUs and SLI in particular when it comes to performance game developers of these latest games just can't seem to write good enough code and optimize thier software to take full advantage of SLI/Quad Core setups.

So I feel for right now SLI is kinda overboard for these poorly written games released lately these days...IE GTA4 and ARMA2.

 

GTA4 is vram limited, which is a problem regardless of what core your gpus are running - so don't feel bad haha. And if you are worried about future proofing, then the quad will come in handy as soon as this generation of consoles is dead and games are actually made to take advantage of modern hardware. As it is, pretty much only RTS games use all the cores well.

 

Yeah, I was about to do the same "future proofing" as well but then decided to go with an SSD instead of ram. Now I am finally breaking down and going to order a new x7200. Someone in my family is about to get an awesome, used laptop for christmas.

 

What is the diff with SSD and Ram?

 

Looking to extend the life of my Laptop. Currently has the Q9650 and 8800m GTX in SLI, running WinXP. I have a Qx9650 that I can put in to push the speed to 3.2 [or 3.3 using ThrottleStop] and am tempted to pick up a GTX280M for the Computer before they are gone. Anyone have first/second hand gaming/PhotoShop input regarding the 8800 SLI versus the 280M?