Sager NP2096 Owners Lounge

well i dont know what drivers come with the 2096 but i have synaptics drivers for my touchpad on my m17x and I use the 10.0.12 version of the drivers on the system and they allow me to disable tap to click but it does not allow me to create areas to scroll... there is a newer version out once i get my laptop in another 3 days i can let you guys know

 

no one has answered my questions...

how is the sound quality on the 2096? and is the screen LED? and does it have dedicated exterior audio controls?

and by the looks of it it seems like the touchpad doesn't have scrolling

 

decent, no, no, no

 

think no's from all those questions just deterred me from buying one

 

The touchpad issues (can't disable tap-to-click, no scrolling function) are driver issues, not hardware issues. I found an ALPS touchpad driver on the net that works on my NP2096 (with XP) that enables these features. The same driver installer that I downloaded claims to support Vista as well, but I can't test that myself.

 

Thanks Jbrennen. So obviously there is a lot of us putting a significant amount of importance on the functions of the touchpad which will aid in our decision to buy or not buy the 2096. Can anybody else that has already recieved it comment on this? Can some one confirm that with a different driver, you have gotten the scroll working and tap click function off? Mostly intrested in Vista, for thats the OS I will be using

Thanks for your support!

 

@unknown00: Not every laptop comes with a LED screen. Imo, the screen looks amazing even though it's not LED. It's bright and evenly lit. I actually turn it down all the way and it looks as good as my Dell Inspiron 6400 on full brightness.
How many laptops come with external sound control? :s I've only seen those things on gameboys. Or if you mean two buttons to increase/decrease volume, then you have to use the function keys.
People claim that a proper driver can make the scrolling/tap to click work but I haven't been able to do it yet (vista 64 bit).

@Amaracuracuf: You can use the fingerprint reader (which works at least 95% of the time, btw) as a scroll wheel. It's not as bad as I thought it would be.

As for the ALPS driver, I couldn't get it to work for Vista 64 bit but I haven't really looked around all that much.

@jbrennen: can you post a link to the driver? Thanks

 

Regarding the ALPS touchpad driver, I found this forum post:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=7121

I'm at work and the laptop is at home, so I can't check my history or downloads folder at the moment, but I'm 99% sure I downloaded the driver from post #7 of that link (the one from Toshiba's US site).

 

Thanks Jesung

I wasn't aware that the fingerprint reader worked as a scroll as well. I guess that's good enough. I just hate to use my arrows when reading stuff online.

If anyone else can find specific drivers that'll make it work that would be great, but the finger reader will do just fine for me!

I am convinced once again to get it

 

Thanks jbrennen. I'm at work now too so I'll test it when I'm home. I downloaded a driver from hp but it didn't really... do anything.

No problem. You just gotta set it up in the fingerprint reader software; it takes 5 seconds. I have the shortcut set as scroll lock. Seemed fitting lol

Now all that's left is tap to click. Then I won't have any complaints about this laptop

 

[edited by moderator: do not use bad language on these forums]

I have had a bad time w/ Sager...
I will preface this with a couple notes:
1) I leave for college on Monday the 25th (in 5 days).
2) As far as Sager is concerned, I leave for college tomorow, Friday the 22nd.

----------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY (last week):
BRIAN LIAW:
We in local with you, so if we ship your order out, it will just take 1 day to your end!
I will keep in touch and your order should be ship Tuesday the latest!
----------------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY (last week)::
ME:
Hello,
I realize that you are planning on shipping my order sometime early next week, and just wanto confirm when it will ship out. I don't mean to be pushy, but I leave for college at the end of next week and would like some time to configure the laptop before I head out. If at all possible, it would be nice to know exactly when I can expect my order to ship.

Thanks!
NAME REMOVED
SO# xxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------------------
MONDAY:
BRIAN LIAW:
Yes, your order is shipping out today!
tonight, you will receive our email for this purchase invoice and UPS tracking number, because we in local with you, so it will just take one day service to your end!
thanks,
----------------------------------------------------------------
TUESDAY:
ME:
Hello,
Just requesting an update on my order (#512230). Was told it would ship "early this week." I hate to sound/be pushy but I must inquire as I am leaving for college this Friday and it has not yet shipped...

Thanks!
NAME REMOVED
----------------------------------------------------------------
WEDNESDAY:
BRIAN LIAW:
YES, Your order will be on my production and ship by tomorrow!
By the UPS Ground, local deliver will be your end Thursday!
Thanks,
----------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY (THIS MORNING):
I still have not received shipping information at this point, and emailed him a long nasty letter including this record of our correspondence. I tell him that I do not believe the computer will ever ship and am beginning to think Sager is a scam. Before he could respond to the email I called him and talked to him personally. It is one thing if they cannot ship it due to work overload, but then they should tell me so beforehand, not repeated tell me it will definately ship "tomorow." This record doesnt reflect it, but before I ordered the thing last Thursday, I called Sager and made sure that the comptuer would be here by Monday (THIS PAST monday, the 18th) and they confirmed it would be if I ordered it that day... which I did.

I called him immediately following this email and spoke to him. He guarenteed that It would be shipped this evening and that I would have a UPS tracking number today. He has said this before but I hope that he is telling the truth, because if it doesn't get here tomorow it actually WON'T reach me in time for college.

 

Oh wow. That sounds horrible.
I'm starting to think I got very lucky because the laptop arrived at my local UPS pickup location in 5 business days and I picked it up on the 6th business day. Did you order directly from Sager? They seem to have a fairly low lifetime rating (compared to xoticpc or powernotebook for instance).

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Sager

 

i did

unfortunately at the time i didnt know about power or xotic...

But truth is, Sager is only one day's shipping away from me and even with the California tax (160$ for me), it was cheaper than xotic and power)

 

Sager was cheaper than xotic & pnb?
That's not what I've heard. You probably could have negotiated with them. In any case, I hope everything works out for you. Hopefully you can get some kind of a compensation for your troubles.

 

@Devgru38

Hmmm, I am really sorry you had this issue with Sager, but I do want to clear one thing up for others reading your post. There is no way Sager was cheaper, our prices are the same.

 

Devgru38 please keep me updated on how long it's taking them to ship your laptop. I also ordered last week (friday) and so far my order status is still "Pending" (how about you?)

I live in Canada so the shipping time will be much longer, however I dont have to leave for university until saturday of next week. I called them today and they told me that they'd ship the laptop next monday. I hope they keep to their word because I hope it gets here when I move.

 

guys just take a backup comp to school to use until you get your 2096... im very sad i wont be getting mine for a couple weeks (school starts monday), but at least you wont get into the habit of gaming when you should be working (for a while at least...)

 

With a Balkin notebook cooler, my gpu idles at about 60 C. While playing World in Conflict the gpu temp hit 95 C. Room temp was 26 C.

Is this something I need to worry about?

Is there something I can do about it?

Is it possible that the gpu fan is not coming on?

If it is not coming on, how can i find out?

Any other possibilities?

 

Thanks for all the information guys.

I just got my NP2096 in the mail today and I've gotta say, it's an impressive piece of machinery. Unfortunately, I've been having the same problem as a few others with the touch pad affecting my typing. I found the ALPS Driver that everyone was talking about, but I have no idea how to replace my current touchpad driver with it. Would it be possible to help me out with this?

thanks.

 

about the fn and ctrl key being swapped you could try to rebind them
I don't know if it will work for the sager but it didn't work on my old acer travelmate. Unfortunately i couldn't find a scan code for the acer fn key probably b/c it is implement before windows.

here is the link to the page
http://www.randyrants.com/2006/07/sharpkeys_211.html

i just downloaded the exe and it worked (for rebinding keys) in XP and it does say it was updated for vista beta

 

Hi Paladin,

Used to be that your price and Xotic's used to be few dollars lower than Sager's ... but for few weeks I have noticed that they are matching their prices with you ... If I configured the same set up with either of you 3 folks (Sager, PNB, or XOTIC) ... all the same price.

So, I guess Sager lowered their prices to take away the incentive!!!

G!

 

My guess is there's probably been more demand than expected for NP8660s, and Sager's trying to take some of the load off of the resellers who are unable to process all the orders, so they don't loose sales to their competitors.

Only a guess though. I could be way off.

 

Hey Devgru,

I hate to suggest this ... but ... if you have not received any info from "Sager Notebboks" by now ... call them and cancel ... call your Credit Card company and tell them you want to Stop payments because Sager is not coming thru their deal. Why pay extra $164 ...

So, you are going to college ... you live in CA and going college where ... probably one of the States closer to "Power Notebooks" (in Nevada) or "XoticPC" (in Nebraska) ... as long as your College is not in one those 2 states ... save yourself $160 or so ... then get a Student Discount or Free Shipping and you deal with Paladin or Justin ... and not Mr. Trouble from Sager ...

I wonder if you can have PNB or Xotic ship the Laptop directly to your College.

Also, don't forget to get on "ResllerRatings.com" and post your experience and 10 cents on Sager.

G!

 

Hello, I am in the club yay!!!


anyways... So this touch pad thing is getting annoying where it taps to click. And I have been reading the posts and the link to that toshiba site, the ALPS does not work with my vista 64. Dang if the touch pad was a little bit to the right i wouldnt have this problem.. (or atleast centered)

Also, how do I make the finger print thing a scroller?

Can I unbind the keys ctrl and fn and swap it with vista 64??

 

Hi Kingsnite,

Use "HWMonitor 1.10" (HWM) program and Monitor your Temps.

Try this ... without using your Belkin ... andf then with Belkin do the followings and Record your Temps for CPU / GPU (Graphics Card) / and HDD (Hard Drive)

- Start the laptop and immediately start HWM. DO NOT RUN any applications or Programs at all for now. Record your Start-Up Temps.

- Then Record your Temps at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minutes interval.
(Note your Room Temp.) ... leave teh Laptop during these tests on Full ON ... no Hibernate or Battery Save mode or anything ... probably Plugged in to A/C.

- Now start using the laptop Normally ... I don't know ... some word processing, Surfing or whatever ... tehn take Temps at 5 minutes and 10 minutes into this operation.

Then post back your results ... IF your GPU climbs up from a Cold Start ... let's say at 50 or 55C and then climbs up to 80+C in matter of 5 or 10 minutes in IDLE MODE ... you might have a potential problem ... may be!!!

G!

 

We only match Sager prices on the lower priced models.

Our prices are still lower than Sager's on the NP9262, NP5796 and NP8660, plus we provide 2 extra years of Labor Warranty when you buy the standard Sager 1 year warranty, and we provide Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Customer Service for these three models as well.

We also offer the option of no OS, and we offer a 3% Cash Discount, which can make us cheaper on all Sager models.

 

I hope I don't have the same problems with xoticpc that that guy had with sager.
btw, is sager low on inventory or something? I checked with xoticpc a couple of days ago and they said there were too many orders and not enough supply yet, and so my order might be delayed.

 

I think the build time was mostly dependant on the screen size (that's just my theory).

But in any case, if you chose an express shipping, it should come within a day or two. Mine arrived in a day. If you chose ground shipping, you'll have to pay brokerage fees which should be approx. $80.

Yup. I'm glad I have an external keyboard but I'll have to take care of this problem sooner or later. The ALPS doesn't work with me either (vista 64 as well). Whoever finds a working driver for 64 bit should post here

As for the fingerprint reader, you go to the fingerprint software and select one of the settings; System Settings, I think. And the rightmost tab should be scrolling. I'm at work right now so I can't confirm this. If this doesn't help, then let me know.

 

so did anybody order a 2096 with the intel 5300 wireless? I have been browsing around and it seems that some resellers are offering it while others offer the 5100 only. Xotic PC said that there was problems with equiping the 2096 with the 5300 so they only offer the 5100... I found 3 other online stores that offer it with the 5300 only though...

Also, can anyone comment on the performance of the 5100 as compared to the older 4965? I am at home a lot and use hi speed internet from my mom's router so I def need a fast wireless card.

 

I don't know how fast the 4965 card was but I have 0 complaints with the speed of this wireless card. I recently switched ISPs, got a wireless N router and got this laptop and my speed just about doubled so I can't really complain

I get up to mid 500s for single files if you're looking for some #s. Dunno how fast internet is in the US but it's pretty good compared to what I'm used to.

 

thanks again Jesung! i dunno, transfer rates are weird. My ISP says my internet plan allows up to 10mbps and the 5100 says it transfers up to 300mbps!!! ***?

I ORDERED IT!!!!!!! now the waiting game......

 

about how long did you have to wait? mine was 15" I think.

There was only one UPS shipping for Canada I think, so I chose that one, it didn't say express and it was 40 dollars. any idea on how long it'd take?

 

Since the Sager NP2096, or any other branded Compal JHL90, only comes with 2 antenna leads it will not support the full range and speed of the 5300 WiFi card. The 5300 WiFi card requires 3 antenna leads to support its full range and speed of up to 450MB/s.

Now, you can install the more expensive 5300 card, but you will only get the performance of a 5100 card...so what's the point?

 

That clears things up a bit... Thanks Paladin! So is the 5100 better performing than the old 4965? i hear it has less antennas (antennae?) than the np2092 had....

 

It took the laptop 5 business days after ordering to get to my door, and 1 more day for me to go pick it up since I wasn't home.

It should take about... 5 business days for shipping? Not sure about ground.

 

Edit: Read the post below for more detailed information about the routers , sorry for my somewhat wrong info and thanks for correcting/adding more information

 

^--^
Less antennae yes, but possibly more speed.

The 4965 has speed of up to 144MB/s when working with a 2.4GHz 802.11n Router, and up to 300MB/s when working with a 5GHz router.

The 5100 has speed of up to 300MB/s when working with either a 2.4GHz or 5GHz router. However in Vista make sure your Intel network card configuration is set to "Auto" from 20Mhz to get past the 144MB/s speed. The 5300 has speed of up to 450MB/s working with either router.

The 4965 may have better range than the 5100 (but not the 5300) due to its 3 antennae. This will vary however from environment to environment.

In XP, speed will depend a lot on your router, but with most routers you will only get about 54MB/s with any of the three cards.

 

I have vista 64 bit. The driver at this link has the ALPS driver that I am using right now. It DOES work and can disable tapping to click.



http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/JOYSTICK-GAMEPAD-WHEELS-and-TABLETS/OTHERS/ALPS-Touchpad-Driver-71004013.shtml

If that doesn't work....try an older synaptics driver.

Right click fingerprint softwar iconon right corner and click "sensor scrolling feature"

 

Thanks sphinx!
Much appreciated <3

 

No prob. Also, I found that disabling the bluetooth module, which i will rarely if ever use, gets a little better battery life.

 

The waiting game is so hard.
What would you say is the worst thing about your NP2096?

 

yea its definetly a crappy game, not so much fun... I OBVIOUSLY havnt recieved it yet but i kno my major CON is gonna b the positioning of the USB's

 

Hmm I sometimes have to replug my external monitor because the display settings don't get adjusted automatically and come out really dim. No major issues yet.

Oh, and the display on the NP2096 is so good that it makes my LG external look bad. Granted, the external's a matte but... wait, is this a bad thing?

 

does anyone have a good version of the fingerprint reader software for xp 32 bit? whenever i try to install the one I got off the disc it says something about invalid file path which makes no sense.

thanks. Also, thanks to whoever found that ALPS driver. I was getting frustrated.

 

I have finally ordered my laptop...i've been waiting for the msi 1651 but it got another delay so i gave up and ordered this...i got a better computer (better stuff inside) for a lower price so im stoked

I was wondering how long it took people to get theirs from xoticpc?

 

i ordered mine from powernotebooks 8/06/08 and haven't received my laptop =[ they said sager was waiting for some parts before they could ship. Just received my tracking number on the 21st and the ups website says it will be here the 27th. Anyone else having this long of a delay that ordered around the same time? I was told over the phone before purchasing that it would be here before the 18th but it ended up not even shipped by then.

 

Woot i finally ordered my NP2096 can wait for it to get her

-WSXGA+
-2.4 ghz intel
-4gb memory
-2gb intel memory boost
-250 gb 5000 rpm
-vista 64bit

o boy hope this thing comes before my school starts

 

I got mine! (FINALLY)

It's an extremely solid notebook. The build quality is excellent, the whole thing is solid as a rock. The computer itself doesn't look too bad at all. I like the fact that it is low profile (theft deterent in college). The fingerprint read works wonders, just turn on the computer and run your finger over the reader. And it works great as a scroll tool. Can scroll up, down, left and right, just make sure you disable the acceleration completely in the scrolling options; it makes it difficult to use.

Battery life is great. The computer comes w/ a tool called Green Charger which allows you to decide how full your battery will be charged. The lower the setting, the better your battery will hold up in the long-run.

On a full charge I can get a solid 50-60 minutes per 20% of battery; about 4.5 hours of battery life with the screen at 60% brightness (quite bright still).

The other thing that amazes me is the cooling system.... it's brilliant.

Even when running Crysis on High settings (not too playable; gonna have to tweak it quite a bit), the computer itself stays no more than warm... not quite hot to the touch. HOWEVER, and here's the great part, the air that comes out of the side exaust is BOILING... I dont think air could get much hotter in a laptop, meaning that this thing is pumping out hot air quite efficiently.

Gaming wise, Its about where I expected it to be... It can easily pump out Crysis on medium settings at 1024x768... I HIGLY advise that upon receiving the laptop you goto the NVIDIA control panel and switch the pixel scaling to "NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio." This will keep pixel scaling on, but won't stretch 4:3 resolutions (like 1024x768) to widescreen.

I leave for college (on the other side of the US) in 4 days... so my time is limited.. but feel free to post questions here and I'll be glad to answer them. Or catch me on AIM: Devgru38M



I do, however, have a question regarding the fingerprint reader... By default it opens a menu when you run your finger over it, and you have to set up a hotkey (and press the hotkey every time you start the computer) in order to switch it to scroll-mode...

Is there ANY way to have it default to scroll mode? Just kinda annoying to have to hit Fn + Num Lk (Scroll lock) every time I restart/turn on the computer

 

Couple things I noticed were a little annoying...

1. Keyboard Flex
2. Tap to click issue (I fixed with driver but it was annoying.)
3. no vertical or horizontal scroll on touchpad. ( I don't want to use the fingerprint reader)
4. Usb's in front
5. no esata

Things I love!
1. great screen.
2. great for my moderate gaming.
3. battery life.
4. simple yet elegant style
5. good webcam
6. very quick

 

oh man... i love the fingerprint reader as a scrollbar... just gotta set it up right (no acceleration!)

Btw, what do you use (if you use anything) for video convos?