Force 3298 / Compal JFL92 Owners Lounge

[Anewbus]

Well, I decided to come into the lounge here and share my lappy I got from XoticPC. I assume this is the right section since mine is a Force/Compal.

Yeah, I know this is a discontinued model, but it wasn't when I got it.;)
You can see the specs of this machine in my signature.
There are those that would immeadately dis the GPU and speed of the CPU on this machine, but you can't judge a book by its cover. (Well, maybe in this case you can, but I'll get to that later). Perhaps I should say that not everything is as it appears to be instead.
First, I must say that purchasing my first lappy (this one) from Xotic was a pleasure and fun, not to mention educational. I wish I could do it again right now, but it took forever to save up for this one with money being what it is....scarce.
Anyway, this was all the machine I could afford and it proved to be more capable than I thought. When I ordered it I was told that it would be able to handle the games I bang about with on medium settings for smooth frame rate and performance.
Well, I'm here to tell you that it does far better than that inspite of the perceived weak GPU and CPU. It only has 2GB of RAM, a 320GB 5400rpm HDD to save a little battery and heat aswell. Yet, this machine will play MoH and CoD etc on high settings across the board with out a hiccup! I should also mention that the load time is 100 times faster than my desktop which has a 7200rpm HDD and a 2.64Ghz CPU and same amount of RAM! In fact, this lappy blows my desktop to pieces.
I mainly got this to of course have mobility when needed (rarely), but also to save space, go wireless and mostly to connect to my TV and receiver. While it does not have an HDMI or DVI out port, it does have VGA as most LCD TVs do. There are also convertor cables out there, but I don't know if that would change anything yet. I have not hooked it up to my TV yet, because I am moving soon and its easier if I wait till then. I'm a little concerned about the sound card, but I'll have to try it out first. I have a very smart Receiver and so it may compensate for any sound anomalies.

Unfortunately, I have no pics to post because they are too big and I don't have a decent easy photo manipulation program. (There are good ones out there but they are either too expensive or require a Phd to use). I posted some here a long time ago somehow, but I wouldn't know how to find them or if they are even still here.

[moral hazard]

The T8100 CPU is great, mine gets to 2.75ghz.

Undervolts well too, 0.9500V for all VIDs when not overclocked.

[IronCrux]

How's your 8600M holding up? I had a CZ-7 Elite from iBuyPower (...I'm now here for a reason) and the 8600M shorted and killed my entire machine. Even did something to my HDD's TPM so it's basically more trouble to recover it than to just download everything again. nVidia had some problems with that chip in general, so I hear. Not sure if there's anything to do about it if something happens, but just watch for warning signs.... Mine were display driver crashes and screen flickers.

[powerpack]

Anew I know you are not game for OC/UV but you should talk to moral. You will not hurt your CPU and if moral has a road map try. It is FUN!

OK on the photo editing gimp is free maybe it is the one that takes a PHD to use? I have PhotoShop and I feel like I need a PHD? Paint can actually downsize photos? Give it another go. I might be posting some photos in my Xotic hoody in the near future. Would be nice to have a new i7 notebook in those though. But until summer same money issues as you, scarce.

Yea Anew that card has a history been a while since I read up on. If yours does not? Knock on wood. I recall it starts overheating as the "weld" breaks between two (incompatible) materials adversely affecting the thermal dissipation capabilities of the unit. But like I said been a while I would not worry unless you start having issues.

Go Xotic!

PS Iron I have in the past called iBuyPower iBuyCrap on other non Xotic sites. I have grown since then and try to not dwell in the negative. But I think iBC is funny if nothing else.

[moral hazard]

You will not hurt your CPU and if moral has a road map try. It is FUN!


Yes it is fun:D


Yea Anew that card has a history been a while since I read up on. If yours does not? Knock on wood. I recall it starts overheating as the "weld" breaks between two (incompatible) materials adversely affecting the thermal dissipation capabilities of the unit. But like I said been a while I would not worry unless you start having issues.

Yes the G84 and other cores by nvidia have a known fault where the BGA solder cracks because they chose the wrong underfill. Basically you have to keep the GPU under 60C (almost impossible) to be sure that yours wont fail. At 80C the underfill is more than 100 times less rigid and a lot of stress is put on the balls, eventually they will fail.

ATI is a better brand ATM, doesn't fail and the latest cards already support DX11.

[Anewbus]

Anew I know you are not game for OC/UV but you should talk to moral. You will not hurt your CPU and if moral has a road map try. It is FUN!

OK on the photo editing gimp is free maybe it is the one that takes a PHD to use? I have PhotoShop and I feel like I need a PHD? Paint can actually downsize photos? Give it another go. I might be posting some photos in my Xotic hoody in the near future. Would be nice to have a new i7 notebook in those though. But until summer same money issues as you, scarce.

Yea Anew that card has a history been a while since I read up on. If yours does not? Knock on wood. I recall it starts overheating as the "weld" breaks between two (incompatible) materials adversely affecting the thermal dissipation capabilities of the unit. But like I said been a while I would not worry unless you start having issues.

Go Xotic!

PS Iron I have in the past called iBuyPower iBuyCrap on other non Xotic sites. I have grown since then and try to not dwell in the negative. But I think iBC is funny if nothing else.

I have not had any issues with my lappy to date. Still going strong and I've had it for well over a year. I've been doing everything from general work to playing games from Trivia type to Golf to Myst to Riven to MoH and CoD to watching TV on it and not one problem yet. If the GPU was going to go it would have given signs by now.
Now if I want problems (including overheating GPU) and the expense of repair or replace, all I have to do is start messing about with OC/UV and that will do it. My lappy is the only fully functioning, working PC I have right now and I need to keep it that way. My desktop is near dead and will be replaced soon (by an XoticPC desktop thank you), but even then I prefer not to fix what is not broken in regards to my lappy. Besides I have a 3 year top shelf XoticPC warranty in it and if I mess around OCing and what have you I can kiss the warranty goodbye.

[Anewbus]

Yes it is fun:D



Yes the G84 and other cores by nvidia have a known fault where the BGA solder cracks because they chose the wrong underfill. Basically you have to keep the GPU under 60C (almost impossible) to be sure that yours wont fail. At 80C the underfill is more than 100 times less rigid and a lot of stress is put on the balls, eventually they will fail.

ATI is a better brand ATM, doesn't fail and the latest cards already support DX11.

ATI = better brand? Jury still out on that, but it appears that recently it may be true due to the fact that I suspect that Nvidia is just slapping new lables on old cards with known issues. I wonder if ATI still has it's own driver and control issues though as I have experienced in their desktop models?

[powerpack]

Anew it seems every few months I mention OC to you and you give the same type response. I suspect in a few months I will mention again and again you will respond the same. We are creatures of habbit.:laugh:

[Anewbus]

:laugh: Probably will. I'm of the opinion that if it's not broken don't fix it.
I figure get the power you want at the on-set with the machine configured to handle it and leave it there.

[IronCrux]

PS Iron I have in the past called iBuyPower iBuyCrap on other non Xotic sites. I have grown since then and try to not dwell in the negative. But I think iBC is funny if nothing else.
I attribute the failure of the pc to the 8600M GT...and yes...after owning one...I'd reason to call it iBuyCrap. Their tech support's rank. Shipped me the laptop with half of the drivers installed and some Phillips disks that they themselves burnt the drives to.

Have you seen the driver download site? :D

Sales here has been incredible, and I'm not looking forward to trying out support :P

[Anewbus]

Sales here has been incredible, and I'm not looking forward to trying out support :P

Well, just know that in the event that you ever have to try out support here, your in luck. That's because the tech support here is good. You get to talk to someone who speaks and understands English for starters.
I have actually tested it my self on a couple of small things and found the tech support to be very helpful, often times going above and beyond.

[IronCrux]

Good good. It's always nice when a company actually cares about the customers after the product's bought. Loads of companies don't understand that when products are bought, the customer also buys basic services along with it.

Not sure if the tone transferred to bits'n bytes well, but by saying I'm not looking forward to it, I don't want to have to need support.

[jpmduck]

How's your 8600M holding up? I had a CZ-7 Elite from iBuyPower (...I'm now here for a reason) and the 8600M shorted and killed my entire machine. Even did something to my HDD's TPM so it's basically more trouble to recover it than to just download everything again. nVidia had some problems with that chip in general, so I hear. Not sure if there's anything to do about it if something happens, but just watch for warning signs.... Mine were display driver crashes and screen flickers.

IronCrux,

I bought one from ibuypower too with same motherboard and card. My 8600m just shorted a month ago. :( I haven't check my hard drive yet though. :confused: I had installed SCII the day before and it prompt me to update my video card driver. I did, and the next day my laptop is out. :mad: Have you been able to fix your since or did you just have to replace the entire laptop?

Thanks,
jpmduck

[powerpack]

Take it apart bake the MoBo (I assume GPU cannot be seperated from MoBo).

[jpmduck]

I was thinking that mobo was separate and that I could just remove/replace the card. I guess if the card is shorted already and if it's integrated with the mobo, there's not much hope of salvaging even the mobo. Is that right? or can any of it be salvaged?

Thanks,
jpmduck

[mrmatt]

It depends on I the card is soldered to the mobo or not really. And then what's compatible etc