Question Sager NP 9377 No Boot No Display All LEDs Blinking + Beeping, Help!

Mar 25, 2019
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Hello Everyone,

I am trying my Sager NP 9377 to get to work but to no avail. NO POST, NO DISPLAY.
in short>> powering on laptop causes fans to run at full speed after 10(cpu only) + 10 (now both cpu+gpu) with Caps Lock + Num Lock + Scroll Lock LEDs blinking, continuous 1 second beep, repeats for one minute with 1 second in between, then laptop shuts down.

IN DETAIL
System Specs
are i7 4810mq 8gb gtx 880m SLI variant (though my laptop has other GPU Slot empty so only singular 880m running) 120 Hz display.

The Problem
if i take out the battery and plug in AC only, the power light comes on ORANGE
if both battery is connected, then i have both power and battery light ORANGE
and if only battery is connected then of course laptop is waiting for me to press the power button
but in all 3 cases the following happens
> Pressing the power button brings laptop to some signs of life, power LED turns green, both the CPU and GPU fans have a very quick jerk but does not spin., keyboard lights up with Blue Backlight (dont know if this is relevant or not), HDD activity light starts to blink showing HDD access maybe (even when hdd is removed)
> Display remains blank (i dont even sense the display backlight being on)
> HDD activity light sometimes goes off after only 1-2 seconds, sometimes shows rapid blinking/activity for 4-5 seconds
> both fans remain off (i removed back cover to check this)
> after about 10 seconds or so, the CPU fan spins up (speed is normal, just like when using the laptop in IDLE)
> after 10 more seconds have passed, the CPU fan seems to be turning off for a split second then both the CPU and GPU fan turn on full speed with a lot of noise.
> Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock LEDs all blink together with single beep for about 1 second, repeats beep with 1 second in between.
> goes on for about 1 minute then laptop shuts down.
> forcing the fans to spin down using FN+1 key makes them spin back up to full speed after a split second (dont even know why i tried this one -_-)

What I Have Tried So Far
EC and Bios Reset (take out battery, disconnect AC Adapter, disconnect CMOS Battery, Press Power Button for upto 30 seconds)
> Change Ram and check all available slots
change/remove HDD
> Repaste CPU/GPU and clean out fans
> Checked GPU...... Flashed the 880m in this Sager with MSI vBios and tested it in a MSI Gt70 2PC i have, gpu ran fine, tested with FurMark, AC Odessey, Ghost Recon Wildlands for over an hour (unfortunately the cooling in my MSI is not good enough it already runs hot, and this 880m causes thermal throttling as well as power limit throttling sometimes). Reflash 880m with original Clevo vBios and put back into the Sager, still no boot, same results as before.
> Checked the CPU..........checked the 4810mq in the MSI GT 70 which worked fine, as well as tried the 4810mq from the MSI in the Sager, still no boot.
> Suspected bad GPU fan connection......therefore forced both fans to full speed as soon as i press power button (using FN+1 Keys) and both fans turn on full speed, same results.
> tried charging the battery to the max before turning on on battery only, same results.

>>------- The laptop has had some random shutdowns in the past too during gaming but would turn back on fine after waiting for 10 mins or so, then i sold it to some guy who brought it back to me the next day saying that it just turned off during gaming and wont turn back on, i returned his money, did all the troubleshooting above to no avail. then i finally put it aside to wait until i get some other system in which i can test the CPU and GPU.
Then one day i turned it on (after leaving it untouched for a couple months), same results as above, i decided to try once without battery and it Freakin Turned ON!!!, used it for a couple days without battery, played a few games (thermal throttling was observed here and there), but then this happened again and this time it seems permanent . And now i have not only repeated all the steps above but this time also checked the CPU and GPU in the MSI GT70 too. ------------<<


Some Observations

touching the CPU heat pipes feels warm, but the GPU heat pipes are colder (GPU never even booted?). dont know if this is normal or not.
i replaced one of the capacitors near the CPU once, but i did use the laptop for quite a while after that without any issues.
> my Idle temps were always below 40c for both CPU and GPU, so an overheat warning as soon as laptop is powered on seems unlikely (false overheat warning?, but GPU does not even seem to be detected/ booted as heat pipes remain cold to touch), also i repasted the CPU and GPU multiple times.
> The guy who sold me the laptop told me that the power adapter was originally a Dell, and it was modified to use with this Sager by replacing the cable with a 4-Pin one from a Toshiba (same pinout as the Sager), but then again i have used this laptop for quite a while on the same adapter.
> From day 1 of having this laptop, some keys on the keyboard (w, s, t, c and numpad 4) did not work 99% of the time. pressing really hard on any one of them sometimes made ALL of them work for a while. any thoughts on this issue?? (even if its unrelated).

So what seems to be the issue here?
GPU not detected ?, False temperature alert?, Bad fan?.
Any help towards resolving this will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance .
 
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Well I have to say your charger, and possibly your battery, are the problems I would start with, and hope it is nothing else on top of that. But the GPU not being detected screams new motherboard.

I have to say, that story they gave you about a modified charger sounds like just that, a story. And a really bad idea.

You should never use another charger on a device without being completely positive that all the specs are the same, exactly the same, as the original one. And to be honest, even then I wouldn't risk using an alternative. It is not worth saving a few dollars on the charger to have a different one fry the laptop.

I would start with a new OEM charger and go from there. If that doesn't resolve it (and at this point I think it would be a hard sell for that to be the only thing to fix) then I would seriously consider taking it to a local tech.

And never buy any electronic equipment that the person says oh this part (that is for whatever other device) will work just fine with it. Never a good idea.
 
Mar 25, 2019
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Hi, thanks for the response.
yes, i do understand power supply is an extremely important part of any setup and i try my max to verify that any power supply i get is compatible with the setup.
the power supply in question is a "Delta" PSU, 330 watt, 12.6 amps 19.5 volts. i had checked quite a few forums and found out that Clevo does use Delta PSUs with same voltage and ampere ratings.
just that the cable in it was originally a Dell barrel pin, that was changed to a cable from a Toshiba charger (again searching on forums confirmed that some Clevos/Sagers do use same pinout as Toshiba (inlcuding the model i have) .
though now i am considering checking the output from all pins from that cable, i will test that as soon as i get back home.
one thing though, if charger is the issue shouldn't the laptop turn on when unplugged/on battery only?

the thing about the new motherboard.............i am afraid of that too :(.
hoping its not that.

the thing is that here in my city (Karachi, Pakistan) its next to impossible to find parts for any well known brands such as Alienware, Asus, etc let alone brands like Sager,Clevo.
if i did have to get a new motherboard or a charger, i will need to import it which will put its costs about the same as what i paid for the whole system originally (50,000 PKR = 355 USD. at the time it was eqaul to about 470+ USD)

Any guesses on why the laptop works randomly for more than a whole day if i turn it on after leaving it out for a very long time though?
 
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Mar 25, 2019
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hello,
firstly thanks for the response and apologies for my late reply, i have not been well for the past week. m plans to take this to a technician on this weekend were also canceled.
i intend to do that first thing next weekend. though i have low hopes , the reason i say this and the reason for why i come to online forums without consulting a technician first is unfortunately we dont have a very technically qualified and knowledgeable market here. they can mostly only hunt down a shorted out IC on a motherboard or fix highly common problems such as power jack issues, etc.
more than half of the issues here are resolved by simply "replacing" the part, not by attempting repairs. which is not an option for me since only popular brands such as Dell, HP have spare parts here.
i mean i am talking about a market that has been selling OCTACORE i7s for over 10 years now
:neutral::neutral::neutral::neutral::neutral::neutral::neutral::neutral::neutral:, simply because they dont understand the concept of HyperThreading and they point out to "8 CPUs" in DxDiag and say "See it has 8 cores".
this is the state of over 90% of market here.

so my only hopes are that they narrow the malfunction down to some common damaged component and replace it from some other mobo, otherwise i'm back to figuring it out for myself or wait for some compatible Sager board to turn up here in market, as one of the perks of the out of shape market here is that you often find really high end stuff for cheap because dealers go by brands and not by specs.


appreciate the help, will update after i have visited a repair guy. Thanks :)