Sager np8662 Review (A Few Benchmarks)

[Knightfall84]

First of all, I would like to thank User 'Hanzo' for giving a few tips on his review of the Sager 9280 from which I (Yes, I admit it) stole some of his Ideas. I hope he doesn't mind...
The Ideas I borrowed from him are:
1)The Resident Evil 5 Benchmark
2)The Street Fighter 4 Benchmark
3)The wPrime Benchmark.
The rest I was planning to display to begin with. I will update the images, there's still a lot of stuff I need to do, this is for starters.

Keep in mind, I mainly started up a thread of a notebook that already has a review to it's name because in that particular review, the laptop was maxed out with 8 GB RAM and a 2.93 GHz Processor. I thought that this review would help a few mainstream users who don't need that kind of power and/or are on a budget. (Like I was)

Also Note that I have overclocked the GPU to 640/1600/950 for these benchmarks unless mentioned otherwise...However, I got the pretty much the same benchmarks when overclocked to 620/1522/950 (The shader was a bit skewed in GPU-Z), so in interest of stability, I would recommend this setting for OC'ers. Once again, I would like to thank user DRY_ICE for helping me figure out how to OC and giving me a few base clocks to start with.

Also note that in some cases Vsync is disabled to prevent throttling of FPS at LCD refresh rate(60)

The Benchmarks are:

Here, note the Overclock at 620/1522/950 at GPU-Z, A very surprising 3DMark 06 result for a comparatively low OC. Also, Keep in Mind Scores may vary....I think this must be a comparatvely high score. I'm sure If I run 3DMark06 again I'll get a lower score..This score mentioned here is by no means the average score. The averge most probably will be around 10,200-10,400 with an OC'd card. The first time I ran it without OC'ing, I got score of 9700.
(Also for some reason, 3DMark06 has detected my GPU to be a GeForce GTX 170m instead of the GTX 260m)

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/3DMark06Benchmark.jpg


Note in the below image that I have edited some Command Variables (Cvars) to increase performance. In actuality these Cvars don't do much, and also I edited a few Cvars that would actually increase visual quality, like adding Edge antialiasing, which makes the foliage thicker an more detailed.

For more information on Cvars, check out the Crysis Tweakguide:
http://www.tweakguides.com/Crysis_1.html
I inreased performance only by doing some minor adjustments, like mking the shadows lighter, reducing the impact of HDR and removing some Coronas and adding ambient occlusion, which I thik puts more load on the graphics card but takes some off the CPU.
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/CrysisBenchmark.jpg

Devil May Cry 4:

Default Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/DevilMayCry4_Benchmark_DX102009--3.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/DevilMayCry4_Benchmark_DX102009--2.jpg

'Very High' Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/DevilMayCry4_Benchmark_DX102009--1.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/DevilMayCry4_Benchmark_DX102009-07-.jpg

Resident Evil 5:

Default Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/RE5DX102009-07-2500-24-29-27.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/RE5DX102009-07-2601-30-17-15.jpg

'Very High' Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/RE5DX102009-07-2603-05-24-63.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/RE5DX102009-07-2603-22-25-37.jpg

Street Fighter 4:

Default Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/SF4BenchmarkDefaultSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/SF4BenchmarkDefault.jpg

'Very High' Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/SF4BenchmarkSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/SF4BenchmarkHigh.jpg

wPrime Benchmark:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wPrimeBenchmark.jpg



To be added:
3DMark Vantage Scores
Vista Experience Index
Crysis (Without Cvars)

The first time I tried the free version of 3DMark Vantage, I got a score of 6409 with and OC'd card (I think something's wrong, that score is too high).
Since I could only use it once, I could get screenshot evidence. Now that I've reformatted my HDD, I may be able to install It again..We'll see.

[GIG.AD]

Great work man!

[Knightfall84]

Great work man!

Thanks! I'll keep adding more benchmarks as they come up...For now, I'm downloading the Far Cry 2 Benchmarking tool. If there are any other recognized benchmarking softwares or if you want to know of a benchmark in particular, do mention it. I'll see what I can do...

[Justin@XoticPC]

Good job on the review! Well laid out and lots of good scores! :D

[Knightfall84]

Good job on the review! Well laid out and lots of good scores! :D

Thanks a lot! Also going to have to lay out the temperature graphs....Any suggestions on how to do so are welcome, though for now I'll see what I can do with nVIDIA System tools.

[putochip0123]

after gaming what is the temperature?

[DRY_ICE]

She's a sexy machine alright...

Temps after excessive... very excessive... gaming, for me, is about:
-CPU ~55-60
-GPU ~75-80
-HDD ~50-55
-ME ~99-101F

[Knightfall84]

after gaming what is the temperature?

I'll post a screenshot soon enough, though for now, you'll jut have to take my word for it....

GPU-
Overclocked 600/1500/950: Idle: 45 C
Load: Crysis: Maxes out at 90 C
VERY High, I'll need a cooler.
All other games: Max out at below 80 C

Factory Settings 550/1350/800: Idle: 35-40 C
Load: Under 85 for Crysis, 75 below the rest.

CPU-
Idle: Both Cores around 45 C
Load: Both Cores around 60 C

HDD-
Idle: 45-50 C
Load: Around 60 C

I'll get Screenshots for visual confirmation soon enough.
It seems my notebook runs pretty hot overclocked....If you're planning on purchasing this one and overclocking it, you'll need a cooler. Otherwise, You should be fine without one.
And as for the temps themselves.....It seems that in the first 15 minutes of gaming the temps shoot up a lot. After that they seem to hit a threshhold, after which the temperatures don't rise much.
And I concur: She IS a sexy machine.

[Knightfall84]

Alright, So here's the rest of the Benchmarks, Including temperatures under Load and Idle.

3DMark Vantage:

Note in the screenshot that the score of my 'Previous System' is also displayed. That score was taken before I reformatted my Hard Drive, so you have two scores of the same Notebook. You can draw an average score from them...
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/3DMarkVantageBenchark.jpg

Far Cry 2:

Default Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FarCry2DefaultSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FarCry2DefaultBenchmark.jpg

'Very High' Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FarCry2VeryHighSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FarCry2VeryHighBenchmark.jpg

Crysis: Without Command Variables; and Vsync Enabled:
Here, I've underclocked my GPU to 600/1500/900, But I didn't see much difference. Since I'm a graphics addict, for me even around 20 FPS is good enough. Besides, in Crysis, 20 FPS (or thereabouts) is still reasonably smooth.
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/CrysisBenchmark-1.jpg

Temperatures:

Idle:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/IdleTemperatures.jpg

Load:
I took this screenshot right after running three loops of the Crysis Benchmark.
While these temperatures seem high for about 10 minutes of gaming, I've mentioned in my previous post that after a certain point the temperatures do not rise (much).
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/LoadTemperatures.jpg

Well, I think that's it. If I've missed anything, Please let me know and I'll see what I can do about it.
Oh, and one more thing: The Resident Evil 5 Benchmark was the Variable Benchmark; I felt that that would emulate a proper user-gaming environment. It seems that the fixed Benchmark gives a (quite) different FPS than the Variable....At the moment, I'm not going to post the fixed benchmark out of fear of redundancy (2-4 Extra Images) and just plain laziness...However, I will if requested.

Till Later, Then.

[Hanzo]

Great post, sent ya a PM. :)

[Knightfall84]

Great post, sent ya a PM. :)

Thanks, And By the way, great job on your review, too. It's where I got a few pointers from...PM'd you in return ;)

[putochip0123]

did u put AS5 on your laptop?

[Knightfall84]

did u put AS5 on your laptop?

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound is a default accessory. So Yes, It's there.

[AOwpr]

Hey, great job mate, loads of useful information. I'm extremely tempted, but I think I'm going to hold off until the release of Windows 7 to buy one (and I guess if I'm lucky there'll be either lower prices or more shiny stuff in store :)).

By any chance though, do you think you could do a World in Conflict test? I don't play the game anymore, but I remember it taxed even my Q6600/8800GT (couldn't max it, 'nuff said) desktop way back when, so I'm curious as to how this takes it.

[NasGhost]

Well, it cant max WIC, thats for sure, at least, not at native res.

[Knightfall84]

Hey, great job mate, loads of useful information. I'm extremely tempted, but I think I'm going to hold off until the release of Windows 7 to buy one (and I guess if I'm lucky there'll be either lower prices or more shiny stuff in store :)).

By any chance though, do you think you could do a World in Conflict test? I don't play the game anymore, but I remember it taxed even my Q6600/8800GT (couldn't max it, 'nuff said) desktop way back when, so I'm curious as to how this takes it.

No Problem! Er..Just let me see if there's a suitable benchmarking tool available on the net., and I'll post the Benchmarks in about a day.

EDIT: Ok, So it seems that it has no benchmarking tool like the Far Cry 2 BT...I'll DL the demo and give it a test run, Even I'm curious so as to how it will go.
Also Going to post:
FEAR 2 Project Origin Demo Results
GRID Demo Results
STALKER Clear Sky Benchmarks

[AOwpr]

No Problem! Er..Just let me see if there's a suitable benchmarking tool available on the net., and I'll post the Benchmarks in about a day.

EDIT: Ok, So it seems that it has no benchmarking tool like the Far Cry 2 BT...I'll DL the demo and give it a test run, Even I'm curious so as to how it will go.
Also Going to post:
FEAR 2 Project Origin Demo Results
GRID Demo Results
STALKER Clear Sky Benchmarks
Alright, thanks. :) It has a built-in benchmarking tool under the graphics options, if that's what you mean.

[Knightfall84]

Alright, thanks. :) It has a built-in benchmarking tool under the graphics options, if that's what you mean.
Erm..That's where the problem comes in. Does the Demo have the Benchmarking tool? I don't own the game myself, Since I prefer RPG's and FPS's myself, not much for strategy..Anyway, If it does, all well and good, If it doesn't, I'll take a few screenshots with the FPS counter on the corner.

[Knightfall84]

Ok, Here we go:

World In Conflict:

World in Conflict Default Settings: With 1280x800 Resolution:

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-38-06-01.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-40-07-19.jpg

World in Conflict Very High Settings: With 1680x1050 (Max) Resolution:

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-41-11-09.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-42-39-94.jpg


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky:

STALKER CS Default Settings: With 0xAA
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSDefaultSettingBenchmark.jpg

STALKER CS Very High Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSVeryHighSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSVeryHighSettingsBenchmarkr.jpg

GRID Demo:

GRID Very High Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0313-32-13-27.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0313-32-19-75.jpg

Screenshot:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0315-25-47-20.jpg

Benchmark Through FRAPS Log:
2009-08-03 13:32:50 - GRID
Frames: 9874 - Time: 282537ms - Avg: 34.948 - Min: 26 - Max: 48

FEAR 2 SP Demo:

Very High Settings: At 1680x1050 Resolution (Max)
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-29-40-81.jpg

Screenshots:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-31-25-81.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-32-36-49.jpg

Benchmark Through FRAPS Log:
2009-08-03 15:31:29 - FEAR2SPDemo
Frames: 2446 - Time: 66108ms - Avg: 37.000 - Min: 19 - Max: 60
AND
2009-08-03 15:30:23 - FEAR2SPDemo
Frames: 2930 - Time: 61975ms - Avg: 47.277 - Min: 19 - Max: 61

Both taken at different points in the game.

[Knightfall84]

Ok, Here we go:

World In Conflict:

World in Conflict Default Settings: With 1280x800 Resolution:

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-38-06-01.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-40-07-19.jpg

World in Conflict Very High Settings: With 1680x1050 (Max) Resolution:

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-41-11-09.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-42-39-94.jpg


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky:

STALKER CS Default Settings: With 0xAA
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSDefaultSettingBenchmark.jpg

STALKER CS Very High Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSVeryHighSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSVeryHighSettingsBenchmarkr.jpg

GRID Demo:

GRID Very High Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0313-32-13-27.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0313-32-19-75.jpg

Screenshot:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0315-25-47-20.jpg

Benchmark Through FRAPS Log:
2009-08-03 13:32:50 - GRID
Frames: 9874 - Time: 282537ms - Avg: 34.948 - Min: 26 - Max: 48

FEAR 2 SP Demo:

Very High Settings: At 1680x1050 Resolution (Max)
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-29-40-81.jpg

Screenshots:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-31-25-81.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-32-36-49.jpg

Benchmark Through FRAPS Log:
2009-08-03 15:31:29 - FEAR2SPDemo
Frames: 2446 - Time: 66108ms - Avg: 37.000 - Min: 19 - Max: 60
AND
2009-08-03 15:30:23 - FEAR2SPDemo
Frames: 2930 - Time: 61975ms - Avg: 47.277 - Min: 19 - Max: 61

Both taken at different points in the game.

[AOwpr]

Erm..That's where the problem comes in. Does the Demo have the Benchmarking tool? I don't own the game myself, Since I prefer RPG's and FPS's myself, not much for strategy..Anyway, If it does, all well and good, If it doesn't, I'll take a few screenshots with the FPS counter on the corner.
Yeah, about a year ago when I downloaded the demo, it did have it.

[Knightfall84]

Yeah, about a year ago when I downloaded the demo, it did have it.

Yep, It does, and the benchmarks are done. Now We just have to wait till the moderator approves the post for it to be displayed.

EDIT: Let me try again to post the review. If It's an annoyance that I'm repeatedly trying to post the review, I apologize (I've already tried twice) but I'm rather new to the forums and all my previous posts were accepted immediately...So again, If there is any inconvenience, I apologize.

Ok, Here we go:

World In Conflict:

World in Conflict Default Settings: With 1280x800 Resolution:

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-38-06-01.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-40-07-19.jpg

World in Conflict Very High Settings: With 1680x1050 (Max) Resolution:

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-41-11-09.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/wic2009-08-0312-42-39-94.jpg


S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky:

STALKER CS Default Settings: With 0xAA
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSDefaultSettingBenchmark.jpg

STALKER CS Very High Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSVeryHighSettings.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/STALKERCSVeryHighSettingsBenchmarkr.jpg

GRID Demo:

GRID Very High Settings:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0313-32-13-27.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0313-32-19-75.jpg

Screenshot:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/GRID2009-08-0315-25-47-20.jpg

Benchmark Through FRAPS Log:
2009-08-03 13:32:50 - GRID
Frames: 9874 - Time: 282537ms - Avg: 34.948 - Min: 26 - Max: 48

FEAR 2 SP Demo:

Very High Settings: At 1680x1050 Resolution (Max)
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-29-40-81.jpg

Screenshots:
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-31-25-81.jpg
http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/FEAR2SPDemo2009-08-0315-32-36-49.jpg

Benchmark Through FRAPS Log:
2009-08-03 15:31:29 - FEAR2SPDemo
Frames: 2446 - Time: 66108ms - Avg: 37.000 - Min: 19 - Max: 60
AND
2009-08-03 15:30:23 - FEAR2SPDemo
Frames: 2930 - Time: 61975ms - Avg: 47.277 - Min: 19 - Max: 61

Both taken at different points in the game.

[AOwpr]

Hmm, World in Conflict and Clear Sky were pretty rough, but they're intensive games I suppose (and in the latter's case, arguably not ideally-coded...). Overall more good news, though. :)

Off topic: Very cool ObjectDock you have there. ;)

[Knightfall84]

Hmm, World in Conflict and Clear Sky were pretty rough, but they're intensive games I suppose (and in the latter's case, arguably not ideally-coded...). Overall more good news, though. :)

Off topic: Very cool ObjectDock you have there. ;)

Exactly, STALKER Clear Sky's Engine is not optimized at all. Hell, The Cryengine 2 Gives better performance and visuals than the Clear Sky engine.
I don't get it though....STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl has visuals pretty much equal to those of CS, and yet it runs with everything maxed out at over 60 FPS. Hell, two years of development isn't enough to justify that kind of performance drop for such a comparatively low increase in Visual Quality. Ah well.

To respond to your off-topic: Thanks! The Dock on the top is rocketdock, a free utility. The skin I used is 'Twirl' and the one on the botoom IS Objectdock, Skin 'Eminence'. All my customizations were done with free utilities...Amazing, what can be dug up on the net....

[AOwpr]

Exactly, STALKER Clear Sky's Engine is not optimized at all. Hell, The Cryengine 2 Gives better performance and visuals than the Clear Sky engine.
I don't get it though....STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl has visuals pretty much equal to those of CS, and yet it runs with everything maxed out at over 60 FPS. Hell, two years of development isn't enough to justify that kind of performance drop for such a comparatively low increase in Visual Quality. Ah well.

To respond to your off-topic: Thanks! The Dock on the top is rocketdock, a free utility. The skin I used is 'Twirl' and the one on the botoom IS Objectdock, Skin 'Eminence'. All my customizations were done with free utilities...Amazing, what can be dug up on the net....
Agreed.

Awesome, I'll download Rocketdock soon. :)

[Blitzy]

HI i am very new to the OC scene..may i ask if the software u used is the NVIDIA System Tools 6.03? cos i just got the NP8662 and wanted to try oc..hehe thanks!

[DRY_ICE]

I use the most recent version of system tools (I'm not sure exactly which version they're at now just go to the site and make sure you're getting the most recent version) and OCing to 600/900/1500 seems to be the best overall OC solution.

[Blitzy]

I use the most recent version of system tools (I'm not sure exactly which version they're at now just go to the site and make sure you're getting the most recent version) and OCing to 600/900/1500 seems to be the best overall OC solution.

alrite i will try that, thank you!

[jav2008]

Could Isee the vista expirence score on your sager Np8662.
Thanks

[DRY_ICE]

With the p9700, 4gb ram, 260m and 7200rpm hdd they're all 5.9s.

...and as far as the system tools the most recent version I'm aware of is 6.05. (late reply haha)

[Fashby]

With the p9700, 4gb ram, 260m and 7200rpm hdd they're all 5.9s.

...and as far as the system tools the most recent version I'm aware of is 6.05. (late reply haha)


Glad to hear; those are the same specs I am getting with the 8662.

I hope this is right area to ask quickly... I was wondering if anyone who owns an 8662 had any problems with it?

[DRY_ICE]

I've had no problems at all with mine.. works flawlessly.

[Ryvaeus]

It may be a bit of a necro, but I feel like I should post what I have to say about my experience with the NP8662 so far.

A few months back I made some posts here about a nagging problem I experienced with the laptop within the same day of receiving it from shipping. After a while of use, whether gaming or not, loud patternless beeping is emitted from the speakers, and the Caps Lock and Num Lock LEDs blink in conjunction with the beeps. I've muted the PC Beep levels in the speaker properties menu, but I do still see the blinking LEDs - moreover, if the laptop restarts immediately after this (by my input or on its own), the beeping volume is restored to full in the BIOS screen, before the OS boots up and mutes it again.

Additionally, when gaming for an hour at the least or watching a video in fullscreen, after closing the game or video, often times the laptop will restart. This may or may not happen simultaneously with the beeps; it's fairly inconsistent.

I'm about 90% sure it's due to a heating problem. There are no BSoDs nor crash logs, and WhoCrashed reports that there are no crash logs generated.

Aside from this I'm quite happy with the NP8662, I haven't overclocked anything and it still runs everything I want to play in full settings (though I usually don't max things out; this heating thing is very limiting). I'm considering underclocking/undervolting the CPU and GPU to see if this solves the heating beeping, but I don't have any experience with this whatsoever. Could anybody advise how I should go about doing this?

[Knightfall84]

It may be a bit of a necro, but I feel like I should post what I have to say about my experience with the NP8662 so far.

A few months back I made some posts here about a nagging problem I experienced with the laptop within the same day of receiving it from shipping. After a while of use, whether gaming or not, loud patternless beeping is emitted from the speakers, and the Caps Lock and Num Lock LEDs blink in conjunction with the beeps. I've muted the PC Beep levels in the speaker properties menu, but I do still see the blinking LEDs - moreover, if the laptop restarts immediately after this (by my input or on its own), the beeping volume is restored to full in the BIOS screen, before the OS boots up and mutes it again.

Additionally, when gaming for an hour at the least or watching a video in fullscreen, after closing the game or video, often times the laptop will restart. This may or may not happen simultaneously with the beeps; it's fairly inconsistent.

I'm about 90% sure it's due to a heating problem. There are no BSoDs nor crash logs, and WhoCrashed reports that there are no crash logs generated.

Aside from this I'm quite happy with the NP8662, I haven't overclocked anything and it still runs everything I want to play in full settings (though I usually don't max things out; this heating thing is very limiting). I'm considering underclocking/undervolting the CPU and GPU to see if this solves the heating beeping, but I don't have any experience with this whatsoever. Could anybody advise how I should go about doing this?



Check out this thread I found a while ago:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=381254&page=9

Search over the pages, User 'Soviet Sunrise' has posted a guide about how to underclock and undervolt the GPU. I think I have the guide somewhere....

Ah, found it. Here's how the guide goes:-



Okay, the lecture here in class is getting really boring so I might as well burn time here on the forum.

Starting with GPU-Z, there is a a small button at the end of the "BIOS Version" line. Click it and it will prompt you to save to file or submit to online database. Select save to file and save the BIOS.bin somewhere safe and name it G92 for example. This will be your backup just incase you f*ck up your card. You can name it whatever you want, but for safety, keep the filename to eight characters or less. Then select save to file again and save another copy of the BIOS.bin and name that G92X for example.

Now for NiBiTor. Open the utility and select open BIOS from the file menu. Because you saved the BIOS as a .bin container, you will need to change the file type that NiBiTor will look for from .rom to .bin. Open the BIOS that you have designated for tweaking, the G92X.bin. NiBiTor 5.0 should be able to read your BIOS just fine.

Once you load the BIOS, you should be able to see the values for each clock in the clockrates tab. I don't know what the sub max levels are for an 8800M GTX, so I will use the clocks on my GTX 280M as an example. My stock clocks for extra are 620/1550/930, core/shader/memory. I would change those values to match my 3D clocks of 400/800/300. You may set the values lower to the thrtl level if you wish.

After this is done, click on the voltages tab. You should see the exact mode tab that displays the operating voltages for each of your card's throttling levels. I also do not know the voltages on an 8800M GTX, so I will use mine as an example. Because I changed my extra clocks to 400/800/300, it does not need 1.05v as the additional voltage for low clocks is not needed. So I would change the extra voltage from 1.05v to match my 3D voltage of 0.75v. In your case, try a safe number such as 0.85v or 0.80v; you can test for stable voltages later. You may also lower the voltages for thrtl and 2D to 0.75v also as they should be guaranteed stable at that voltage. Now you're done. Save your BIOS in the file menu and overwrite itself as G92X.rom.

Next thing to do is find an empty USB stick lying around and make it bootable. zfactor has made a step by step guide here, (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=246530). Once you have made your USB stick bootable, copy nvFlash and cwsdpmi into your USB stick. Then copy G92.rom and G92X.rom into your USB stick. Reboot your D901C and when prompted, press F2 at the POST screen to go to your system BIOS setup. Move over to the boot order tab and set your bootable USB stick as the first device to boot, then exit and save changes.

When your computer reboots, the POST screen will show followed by the DOS prompt. You may skip reading the rest of this paragraph as it only assists you in verifying files. Type into the prompt "dir" without the quotes to check that you have nvFlash, cwsdpmi, and G92X.rom in the USB stick. Type "nvflash -c" to check if your EEPROM is compatible with your version of nvFlash, which it should be anyway. Type "nvflash -b backup", or whatever you want to name it, to make a backup of the BIOS currently loaded on your card.

Now for the moment of truth. Type in the following command to force flash your card, "nvflash -4 -5 -6 -A -y G92X.rom". nvFlash will proceed to flash the modified BIOS onto your card. Do not turn off your computer during this process. Do not touch anything during this process. Do not breathe or blink during this process.

Once the prompt says something like save successful, you may turn off your computer and reboot with your newly undervolted and underclocked 8800M GTX.




I have the files required to underclock it, so If you need those, I'll send them over. However, I'd suggest following the instructions to the letter, as it seems risky to do otherwise. Had a few problems getting NiBiTor to recognize my GPU BIOS, and the instructions up there are for the mobile 8800M GTX. In the end, I couldn't get up the guts to go through with it myself(I was actually planning on overvolting the card to 1.05v)

Hope that helps. Once again, credit goes to user 'Soviet Sunrise' over at the Notebookreview forums for the guide.

EDIT: Finally remembered how I got the proper BIOS for the 260m GTX in NiBiTor. The aforementioned card is very similar in structure to the desktop 9800 with sightly higher clocks. I think the structure you're looking for is the 'G92' Base. I'd advise against undervolting though; it seems rather risky to me. I would recommend buying a cooler instead.
Here's a good guide to coolers:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=304671

And to reply to Fashby; No problems at all here. Had a bit of an explorer-crashing bug a while ago, but now it's gone.

[Knightfall84]

Sorry about how long it took me to post this, Been rather busy for a while.

http://i952.photobucket.com/albums/ae7/Knightfall84/ExperienceIndex.jpg

System Specifications in Signature.