I'm starting this blog about my very bad adventure with Gateway Computer.
I bought a Gateway gaming laptop, the P-7811FX, at the end of August 2008. This was a very appealing machine since it has an Intel P8400 core 2 duo processor, 4GB RAM, a nice 200 GB hard disk, a 17" screen and most of all an Nvidia Geforce 9800M GTS with 512 MB of RAM, which makes it very good for gaming. By the way, I wanted a laptop for gaming, but I'm also a programmer and I need it for work too.
Did I say "good for gaming"? I wish that was true. Unfortunately, gaming with this computer has always been a big pain in the butt. I started experiencing system freezing very soon after I started using this computer. The first game I played on it was Crysis. The performance is very good but after a hour or so the computer just froze. And it was a serious freezing issue: I was forced to manually shut down the laptop each time (holding down the power button for a couple of seconds). Also, I noticed very soon that I had the same issue when Windows Aero was activated after the Windows Vista Aurora screensaver was up for a while. The issue was probably due to the graphics card overheating and causing a system lock up. I double checked this hypothesis using GPU-Z, that showed a peak in the GPU temperature right before the hang-up (around 70 C).
My big mistake was not to bring the computer back to bestbuy when I still could and also to underestimate this hang ups. Anyway, I am Italian, so I came back to Italy at the end of September and these issues became more frequent. I had the same troubles with other games too, like The Witcher. I contacted Gateway customer service but of course I needed to be in the US for them to be able to repair my laptop.
When I came back to the US in February the first thing I did was to send my laptop in for repair. I thought: finally I am going to have a working machine. I had to pay the shipping and packing expense, which cost me 70$. After about 10 days, I received my laptop back and with big disappointment they had not done anything! On the technical support note there was written that they updated the BIOS and cleaned the fan. Now, I'm not a computer manufacturer engineer but I think I have enough experience with computers to say that cleaning the stupid fan can't fix a serious hang up problem. In fact, the problem was still there. I contacted Gateway customer support again and I had to call more than once to make them pay for the shipping. They finally sent me a FedEx drop off number and I shipped the laptop back to their repair center. Since I didn't want to replicate the first experience, I sent them an email, saying that they should have checked what happens with Windows Aero with the Aurora screensaver on for 20-30 min. Having done part of their job, they realized that mine was a serious issue and replaced a bunch of components: motherboard, CPU, GPU and RAM. So, it wasn't a dusty fan, huh?
The laptop came back after another 10 days (so I think it was middle of March). This time I was much more satisfied. They actually did something and I was feeling more confident. All I had to do was to test it. The first tests I ran were quite successful: I could run a bunch of games for quite long without hang ups. So I decided to get some more games and I got Fallout 3.
I have been playing Fallout for a while before I got some troubles. After 2-3 hours of gaming, I randomly experienced hang ups again. The temperature of the GPU was going much higher this time though (80 C). Since the issue didn't happen so often, I neglected it for a while. I even managed to finish the whole game quite smoothly (beside some times when I haven't saved and the computer would freeze...).
At the mid of July I got the game Anno 1404, a strategy game. This game doesn't have incredible graphics. It looks very good but it's not cutting edge technology like Crysis for example, so I was pretty confident. Surprisingly, even with very very low graphics settings, the game would cause system hang ups after just 15min of playing! That was too much. I don't really care about this game, but I find really frustrating having to deal with this crap, since this laptop is supposed to be made for gaming.
With big frustration and disappointment I finally called Gateway customer service again and this time it was much easier to get them to pay for the shipping (too bad I had to pay 10$ for the box...). I sent the laptop in at the beginning of August 2009. I was concerned already because my previous experience wasn't very good. After another 10 days I got the laptop back and not very surprisingly the repair note said that they were "unable to reproduce the issue".
This was really too much. I wrote an email to PCWorld's "On Your Side" and started a complaint on BBB right after. I also called Gateway again and talked to their level 2 support. The level 2 support told me that they have some kind of level 2 technical support, which apparently goes more deeply into the diagnosis of the computer problem. By now my computer should have gotten to level 5 support then... They also gave me another drop off number.
I shipped my laptop to the Gateway repair center for the fourth time today. My warranty is gonna be over by the end of the month and even though my laptop will have an additional 90 days warranty after the repair, I don't feel any confident at all. It's been a frustrating and disappointing year with this computer and with Gateway customer service and technical support. I think they have been working in a very superficial way and with no real will of solving my issue. Also, my laptop is clearly a lemon, but Gateway apparently does not have a replacement policy and there's no way they are going to refund me, which is actually what I would really want: this laptop doesn't do what it's supposed to do and it's been a huge waste of my time.
Is there anybody who had my same bad experience with them? Any advice?
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Same laptop, same issues. WotLK with high settings will lock up after a few hours with a black screen and the sound stutters until I force a shut down. I have to unplug the power then start the laptop to even get a bios screen. Strange that the power is involved with the issue.
ReplyDeleteI just started playing AION online and it might go 15 min full settings. My FPS is 80 ish all the way till it locks. I have the laptop elevated for better airflow with no obstruction to any vents. heat sinks are clean.
I turned the max processor power down to 50% and it didnt change the time it takes to lock. This sucks
Did you try to contact the tech support? As you can read from my blog, they were no help and they are also denying I have an issue at all. I'm going to send Gateway a formal letter and I'm going to call the State Attorney General's Office and the FTC. BTW I also tried The Sims but I have to play it at a very low res with all the settings to low otherwise it just crashes. Same thing with Fallout 3, Crisis and The Witcher. I'm going to publish some videos of my crash on youtube as a proof.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm having the same issues on my computer, same brand, same type.
ReplyDeleteActually, ALL of the Gateway FX laptops are having this problem. Oh, and they DO have a replacement policy.... but it's only good for one year (they sent me an e-mail saying that they had extended it on mine to 3 years because of 'serious and repetitive problems with the series of laptop'.... only for my father to have them tell me "No, we didn't do that!") then you are SOL.
RivaTuner and setting it to keep a 'constant performance level' in RivaTuner solves the problem.... but you lose some of the power that you bought the goddamned gaming laptop for, so I don't like that.
The real issue, however.... BAD DESIGN. Either the GPU is not getting enough airflow to it to cool the thing (I think it is) or the GPU is defective OR.... NVidia has cocked up their drivers big time!
Actually, that's a complaint right now with NVidia GPU's even in desktops: they overheat during extended gaming sessions so bad that you cannot use their 'full power'.
Thank you for your feedback.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try rivaTuner too.
I haven't blogged about it yet, but I sent my complaint to the Attorney General Office here in PA, so I hope they can help somehow. I really wish they give me my money back so that I can buy a Dell!
i also have the 7811 and have the same problem when gaming (black screen, sound loop). this problem started for me out of the box, and only after sending it to gateway 3 times did they actually fix it. the first 2 times they did nothing and said there was no problem, at which point i told them straight up to replace the motherboard/gpu or else i would take legal action. they did, and the problem went away.
ReplyDeletenow after a year from the original purchase date, my warranty is up, and the problem is resurfacing, and seems to get worse the more i use it. after doing a lot of research and seeing that so many 7811 users have the same problem, i have come to the same conclusion as the post above: bad design. i've heard all the possible fixes like bios, drivers, propping, cooling stands, etc. but none seem to really be the silver bullet.
it's at least comforting to know i'm not alone, i just wish i knew what to do now. i feel like i'm stuck with this computer that doesn't work how it should, and my money is gone. perhaps had gateway been a little more helpful i might not have wasted all that time and money shipping my computer back and forth just to be in the same position one year later.
-joseph
Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the "bad design" hypothesis. and also with Gateway inability to do their job: they should have a replacement or refund policy since I'm pretty sure they know about the issue that so many users seem to have.
I can suggest to all of you to send a BBB complaint, an FTC complaint and a formal letter to the Attorney General Office of your State. Gateway has to know we are disappointed and has to acknowledge its mistakes and we as customers have to make our voice as loud as possible.
I'm not giving up on this.
just an update: i spent all day yesterday disassembling my laptop and cleaned out the dust and reapplied thermal paste to the gpu and cpu, etc. i managed to get the idle temps lower, but it still crashed on a stress test. i'm now conviced of what some others have suspected in that it's a faulty chip, to which there's absolutely nothing i can do.
ReplyDeletei will definitely look into filing with the bbb (again, as i looked into it when this happened to me the first time a year ago) and all other avenues i can pursue as obviously there's nothing else i can do at this point.
maybe we can start a petition, at least to have a record of 7811 users with this problem.
-joseph
That's not a surprise... My operating temperature can be very low but the computer will still crash.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of doing a petition makes sense. I might look into that next week.
My 7811 has also locked up and crashed where I've had to do a forced shutdown. The screen on mine has also turns to red flashing pixels on black screens and puts green lines on white screens and after text.
ReplyDeletekeep us updated on the petition if you get one started, i am thinking we might be able to then look into something like this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lieffcabraser.com/computer-defects.htm
-joseph
Thank you for the suggestion. I will call the Attorney Office to know if they are processing my case before looking into a class action.
ReplyDeleteSame problem too, riva tuner is the only solution.
ReplyDeleteI've also had the same problems. Bought mine while deployed to Iraq for gaming. Didn't get any. Chatted and emailed tech support who blew me off. I'm in if you're looking into a class action.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the support guys! I see we are all in the same situation and the class action option seems to be the best right now. I still have to call the General Attorney Office to know the status of my complaint, I had some family problems and I couldn't focus on this but I will asap.
ReplyDelete@iraq: i think i saw your posts on notebookreview?
ReplyDeletewe all definitely need to band together and settle this situation... i'm convinced after reading all over the net that this whole line is defective, there are just too many people with the same problem.
re: rivatuner--i tried it, but it is merely a workaround, as it also kills performance.
recently i've managed to get stability in borderlands by lowering the resolution to 1600x1024. it keeps my temperatures under 70c (as opposed to 80-90) but l4d2 still crashes in the res/temp!
-joseph
Hm... I'm having 7811FX too and with problems too.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I have not constant FPS in games. Just now (after a year of usage) I realized to check GPU tempeture. It takes just a few minutes to reach up to 110C (omg!) then FPS drops and tempeture seem falls to. Then it grows again etc. I have no words yet about. It seems I can battle that by lowering resolution, but wtf?
Second, just for a few recent months I have experienced very weird issue: my laptop hangs up (till I press Power for a few seconds) after 15 minutes if I doing nothing! Not sure THAT is linked to overheating because it works for hours when I'm working with it.
Thanks for your reply.
ReplyDeleteThat happened to me too: with Vista Aero active once the screensaver starts the computer would crash after few minutes. Maybe you are having the same issue. My computer doesn't have that problem again after they replaced the motherboard but it still hangs up while playing videogames. If you send it in for repair make sure they know in which exact condition you experience the issue. I suggest you to just activate the screen saver (the aurora triggered mine) and wait until it hangs up to check if that's the problem.
I have owned the p-7811 Fx for almost a year and a half with zero problems. The other day I upgraded to Windows 7 and now am black screening. The thing is that my temps are hitting well over 100C before I crash. I don't know why people are crashing at 70. Some newer games like Operation Flash point don't crash but just become choppy. This would be playable except I know I am at over 105C and causing damage to my system. Let us know what changes they make to your system. I know when I used to play for an extended amount of time my GPU fan made itself heard, which is doesn't do now.
ReplyDeleteAfter they replaced my motherboard my crashes happen at 80C or more. Sometimes the temperature doesn't even reach 60C instead. I don't think we have just a temperature related issue, but a design fault. I haven't called the General Attorney yet. I'm going to do that today and see what are our legal option (beside the class action).
ReplyDeleteAlright, so I kind of fixed it. Today, Let me know if this works for you. Its technically under-clocking you GPU but the graphics don't suffer.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that games will run without crashing on battery power (I also read this is forums where people were crashing at 70-75C). So I ran a game that I knew crashed while plugged in, and waiting for things to heat up. I then alt-tabbed out and using Nvidias systems monitor I wrote down what my GPU clock GPU Shader clock and GPU Memory Clock were. I then unplugged the machine, and watched those numbers instantly drop (as the GPU cooled). I then changed my clock speeds to match the max allowed under battery power. Follow these steps to do that.
Open you Control Panel... Then Nvidia Control Panel...Then Under Performance Click Device settings... There under current settings change the clock speeds from Factory shipped to Custom.... I use the following numbers;
Core Clock - 400 Mhz
Memory Clock - 300Mhz
Shader Clock - 800 Mhz
I got these numbers from my battery settings. You are welcome to play around with them and see your max. As soon as I set these numbers my temp during World at War dropped from 105C to 65-68C. I can even put AA on x4 and put the Resolution to 1900x1200 and it stays at a solid 70.
I know this isn't technically a fix but rather just underclocking your GPU. But I did notice while running on battery power that the graphics did not change due to the lower clock settings, the same applied for here.
Let me know if this works for you or if you find better clock speed numbers.
That's an interesting tweak. I didn't know you could change the GPU clock with nVidia control panel.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice fix if you are stuck with a bad designed computer. :)
I called the General Attorney Office and I'm waiting for them to call me back. I'm still hoping for a permanent solution (like a money refund...).
Let me know how that goes. I would also like a refund. I just got off the phone with Gateway and they were no help at all. It is absurd to see how many of these laptops do not function properly.
ReplyDeleteI am a p7811fx user that has these problems as well. When playing CoD4 I would get BSoDs often along with the usual screen froze/sound stutter problems you guys get. The BSoD I would get the driver_power_state_failure BSoD and some other one which I forgot the name of.
ReplyDeleteWhen playing TF2 I am only able to play the game smoothly for a few mins until the frame rate drops drastically. It would then return to normal after a while but after a few more mins the problem returns. It has even got to the point where the comp had the screen freeze/stutter problem while playing TF2 when it only happened with CoD4 before. I thought it was a problem with CoD4 until this happened with TF2 which made me look more into the problem online. Then I found this blog and noticed that alot of people are getting the same problem as well. Would be great to share methods on how to eliminate, or at least lessen the effect, this problem. I know many of us bought this laptop over cheaper ones because we wanted to primarily game, but we cant even do that because of this. Would be great if we could gather enough p7811fx users that have the same problem to make Gateway take notice of this and fix our problem.
Also, Amfavs I cannot find a Performance option under the current driver Im using, 186.52 obtained through Windows Update. I don't remember seeing it in the 176.15 drivers found under Gateway's website as well. Are you using another driver perhaps? A link to it would be nice too since going through nVidia just reroutes me to Gateway.
What else is new, i've been having the same problems myself, noticed it after Win 7 was installed though, gonna try going back to Vista and see what happens there.
ReplyDeleteI'm having the exact same problems with my P-7811 FX. Does seem much better with a cooling pad, but still gets choppy when graphics intensive. Propping hind end up causes temp to drop instantly from 90+ to 80+, which is still very high. Already had Gateway fix it once while under the 1 year warranty but as with the original poster, they just adjusted the BIOS and cleaned the fan.
ReplyDeleteI have the black screen of death on my P-7811FX. I had it happen 4 times in less than 2 hours of game play. The first occurring within the first 15 minutes of playing. Ugh!!!
ReplyDeleteGateway support is horrible. I just got an email from them to send my laptop in for repairs for the second time. Though the first time, I'd hardly qualify cleaning dust out of the computer a repair.
I will be watching this blog for more info on a complaint forum.
Same issue yall have, I got the BBB involved and gateway replaced the mobo and hard drive(after 3 returns and 2 months without a laptop mind you). I have yet to test it being it was sent back with a busted hard drive cage and cover panel. When it gets back next week I will test for the same problem and repost my results but from the other user reponses here it looks like I may just be screwed like the rest of you (arent you happy you wasted 1200.00 bucks on a Gateway).
ReplyDeleteI too bought this Gateway P-7811FX about a year ago now, right at the start of the fall semester. I am a gamer and a programming student. I didn't notice the problem at first but just like most of us "with time came problems". I was having problems with this thing for a while like the HD being partitioned for BigFix (which 3 months after I bought it was no longer supported) a so I felt like i was not getting a whole computer to begin with. I got a "virus"(I & geek squad think... they couldn't find anything wrong so they said it was embedded) then had to use the reboot disks that I burned, instead of dealing with slow and lagy computer. It fixed everything for a week or so but after got I WoW and Steam back on my computer the FSOD(frozen screen of death) started again and same with the sound loop when I was actually using sound. Recently I got Windows 7 from school and then got all the updates from the respective sites and it was ok for a while. Now the past few days I have been getting into gaming more due to a little free time in between finale and I have been having to restart my computer every hour just about. I have tested many games with the same result that is coming next just in different times. I get frozen screens playing WoW with the sound cutting out. it overheats just looking stuff up on the internet and hell its even overhearing just on my lap typing this right now. I have it on a cooling pad but that does now work most the time and having it propped on a book does not help either. Its to the point where I do not know what to do. I never sent it in and being under Best Buys black tie warranty that only covers physical problems i do now know what to do being that the computer works fine according to them. If anyone has any advice other than the BBB and an FTC complaint and a formal letter to the Attorney General Office of your NY I would be very happy.
ReplyDeleteHi everybody, sorry for the long silence. I'm in Europe right now. I haven't heard from the AGO yet. I hope they have some kind of solution for us... As suggested on this blog, maybe we should really think about a class-action lawsuit... I wonder how it works and what would be the cost. I might call the attorneys when I come back to the US. In this case, how many of you would be interested in pursuing the legal action? Let me know.
ReplyDeleterandom update. it only seems to be overheating when I have my power cord pluged in trying to charge the battery.... who know could it be a power related issue??
ReplyDeleteupdating again... i guess becasue I bought my laptop when it first came out that there where items that where recalled.... like my lcd screen, battery and carger. ya f my life...
ReplyDeleteHello everyone. Thanks for this site Giovanni. I have a p7805 that I bought last Jan. and it has the same problems you all are having: graphic lockup and sound locked in loop. Sometimes the graphic driver resets and others I have to hard boot the machine. I just browbeat Gateway into authorizing a return for warranty repair, but what you are saying is not encouragin at all. I think we are all getting a bum deal here and especially the horrible support. They had the gall to tell me that watching video and gaming wasn't supported on this machine! Anyway I will try sending in the machine since that is the ONLY way theres a chance that I'll get satisfaction, and will continue to follow this blog. On mine, reproducing the problem is difficult but it will certainly happen if you watch video or game long enough. Sometimes it happens within an hour, sometimes a day, but it ALWAYS happens at an annoying time. I even had it happen just running winamp, with NO video content. So keep the faith - maybe we'll get some satisfaction some day. Meanwhile I will try some of the other tweaks mentioned here to see if they help. Oh, and another thing - mine will lock up even when cool too, and it may run for hours when hot (over 75C), so I can't say I think heat is the problem. It could easily be bad drivers or a motherboard/bios problem, maybe even a Vista issue. I am bummed that the win 7 upgrade didnt fix it - was hoping for a miracle there - too bad. Anyway I will post what Gateway does for the "repair" and I'm going to enclose a note with it that a mere cleaning is not an acceptable repair, and that they need to let it run with video playing until it crashes.
ReplyDeleteI see there are a lot of people unsatisfied with Gateway. The fact that yours is a different model enforces the hypothesis that GW has serious design faults allover their computer line. Apparently the temperature is not an issue for everybody. In my case, after replacing the motherboard and GPU the temperature went down but I still get lockups and, as in your case, sometimes the GPU can reach very high temps without crashing at all. Diagnose the problem is out of question: it's not something we should do and it's not gonna help us, since it's a hardware issue and no driver or tweak is gonna fix it. Lowering the GPU frequency seems to work, but performance goes down and we paid for a high GPU frequency and performance in the first place, so being forced to do that is a real bummer.
ReplyDeleteThank all you people again for your comments: I feel less alone! I will be back in the US on Thursday and will call the AGO to know what we can do.
Update........
ReplyDeleteSo I got my Gayway computer back yesterday (after the fourth repair and two months with no laptop) and found the hard drive cage still hanging off.I told tech support that they had scratched the laptop cover, so they replaced that and in the process scratched the LCD anti glare, (I think I would have preferred a scratched cover over a scratched monitor). I also found something interesting, let me digress, my hard drive and mother board where replaced in the last repair before I was sent back the busted hard drive cage and scratched LCD lid (I think I got the 7805 mobo being the P-7811fx is no longer in production we all know why that is).What was funny was the Vista error log shows critical errors dating back to 6-11-08????? So in short what that means is that they replaced my hard drive with a USED hard drive and not only was it used, but it was older than the hard drive they replaced (being I bought my P-7811fx in October 2008)this replacement HDD has errors on it showing 4 months before my purchase date. It is now 100% proven that gateway is replacing defective parts, with USED PARTS THAT OUTDATE THERE DEFAULT PARTS.
So have your Gatweway fixed and get parts older and with more use than those that came with the your new machine. What is also clear is that this hard drive was not even reformatted before being put in my computer (being a log file that backdates to 06-2008, can anyone say security risk) if it was reformatted (as it clearly should have been) there would be no error log now would there?
What this all proves is the techs that work for gateway are incapeable of doing there job
and that there corporate masters don't care.
I can assure you that if you buy an ACER PC you will have those same techs working on that laptop as well (being Gateway is now ACER).
What needs to happen here is a class action suit and a complete boycot of Acer and Gateway products, being that as a company, they have proven to us (the customers) that they do not value us, and will provide us with a defective product and an uphill battel to have it supported.
By the way, Gateway refuses to admit that there is a single return or repair of any P-7811fx and as all of us here know that is an outright lie.
Enjoy your 1400.00 paperweight and keep on buying those Gateway/Acer computers (we need to all make shure that there CEO's can buy a new BMW with the profit from there consumer theft.
I do agree with your complant about gateway, but you are far from right about acer. First of all Acer bought out Gateway not the other way around or that the changed their name like you are making it sound. Second Acer is trying to not provide service for anything that is out of factor warrenty that is gateway purchesed before before the buy out. Yes Acer is not the best in the world but they make their "gaming" laptops do what their are intend to do, and they actualy provide sercive for products that are defective.
ReplyDeletejoseph here, just wanted to share something i am seriously going to consider doing--i recently learned that my credit card company extends manufacturer's warranties simply for using the credit card to purchase whatever item (in this case the 7811). so, i am still under warranty and intend on trying to get this thing refunded (the only option since they obviously can't fix it and they don't make it anymore to replace it). if successful, i will be very happy. unfortunately this seems the only "fix" for this piece of junk model.
ReplyDeleteOK so I have a 7811FX and while I have had some freezes / crashes, I've pretty much resolved it by doing all my gaming on a cooling pad. Maybe I'm just lucky, but it's worth a shot for anyone experiencing temperature-related crashes.
ReplyDeleteI posted on Dec. 1st. Just got my laptop back. The battery pack not locked for transport and the hard drive bay cover was half hanging off (I have pictures). They only replaced the hard drive. I turned it on, loaded all the Vista updates, installed Fallout 3 and started playing. Black screen of death within an hour. WTF!!?? They say they tested it but if I can replicate the problem within an hour, why can't they do it? Seriously. Gateway sucks. Already started a new support thread with them. I want my money back.
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe there was a bad production run. I have the P-7811FX. Never locked up. I play WOW on high settings, consistently get 45-60fps. Crysis on high settings. Temps run up to 157F on the GPU and around 110F on CPU during heavy gaming sessoins. I am not using a cooling pad or any exra elevation. I wish you all the best in your resolution. Now I wonder about upgrading to Windows 7....
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure if all the units were faulted they would have been all taken off the market. This blog is not about trying to prove the whole line of laptops is faulted or something like that, but about the bad experience so many users are having with this laptop, and most of all about the fact that Gateway doesn't want to recognize our issue and nevertheless is willing to fix it. As users, we are stuck with a malfunctioning product and a customer service that is not working as it should. I really wish my laptop was as lucky as many others, but it's not and I can't put my head in the sand and "deal with it". A serious company would listen to its users and try to help them as many other companies do. This is what this is about.
ReplyDeleteI posted here back at November 22 and when I checked my GPU temps while playing CoD4, I was surprised to see the temp peak to 111C! If only I had some noodles I would be cooking them right now.
ReplyDeleteBut to get to the point, I do admit to have been a bit careless on my laptop and just letting the dust settle on it for maybe even weeks. During my time off from school Im going to do a thorough dusting of the insides and see how that affects the problems I had before.
It really has gotten to the point where I am frustrated enough that I want to punch the laptop in an attempt to fix it like the TVs of the old days. I play very competitively and it annoys the heck out of me when my fps suddenly drops to 20-10 in the middle of a intense firefight. Then I am just rendered useless to my team for a few minutes till it goes back to normal and the cycle of fps drops just continues.
I am also going to check someone's theory of unplugging the laptop while playing. Even if it works its just counterintuitive since you are then forced to run on battery with only ~1 hour of life on it.
Hope you guys could get something done on the legal side about this issue. I purchased this laptop to game as advertised and it isnt even fit to do the job.
I posted on Dec 1st and 18th about the blackscreen issue I am having with my P-7811FX. If anyone is encountering the blackscreen of death issue, I encourage you to try the instructions in this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5404773&postcount=36
You need to download Rivatuner but I did this and so far (knock on wood) it appears to have resolved my blackscreen issue. I have not had it happen since I did this.
About the instructions Amfavs posted, I had the same issue where the clock speeds were not available for tweaking. If you cannot get access to the GPU clock speeds, you can use Rivatuner to do this as well if that's your problem.
This sounds like the first fix that actually doesn't force you to turn down the performance. It's interesting and I'm gonna try it asap. Thank you for the hint, I hope it works. If anybody tries it, please post the results!
ReplyDeleteI have a P-7811FX. I added a 2nd HD, and in the year I have owned it I have run Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and now Windows 7 on it. Very little gaming; it's on a cooling stand; and I have had almost no problems with it. (I did upgrade it to the very newest BIOS, following a link on notebookforums.com, which was not avl. on the public Gateway site.)
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law got the same laptop on my recommendation. Hers is doing what I see here: black screen of death, crashes, etc. Best Buy (Geek Squad) said it's a "driver issue"; Gateway has been useless on the phone.
Atr first I assumed she had a bad graphics card. Seeing what is written here, I am going to see if the credit card she bought it on can help her, and I'm no longer going to recommend any Gateways. It's too bad; between the two of us we have owned five Gateways and each one has been worse in terms of support. Guess it's time to switch to another brand (the question is, which one...)
Good luck to you all.
In terms of customer support I think the best would be Apple, although more expensive and not really made for gaming. I was thinking about Dell as my next purchase. I have only heard positive reviews about it.
ReplyDeleteHi all,
ReplyDeleteThanks for creating this blog I too own a 7811 FX and well lets just say I have the same problem just like everyone else.
It all started when I bought my laptop in the summer of 2008. I was thrilled to finally get a gaming laptop that I knew would hold out to all my gaming needs.
Few months later while playing World of Warcraft I noticed vertical lines going through my screen after playing for 20 min. I was shocked and prayed that my computer wasnt broken. I went to Best Buy where I purchased my computer and they told me that they would send it out to the manufacture because it is still under manufactures warranty. Well I got it back saying that they reconnected the LCD cable. So after doing a test the problem occured again. Went to Best Buy again they sent it out and told me they reconnected the heat sink fan. Well what do ya know, that didnt fix the problem and by this time I was starting to get frustrated. Not to mention I found out from my friend that Best Buy doesnt send out there laptops to the manufactures but they send them out to a Greek Squad Headquaters where they fix computers. Anyways finally they replaced my whole motherboard and all was going well up until now...
Few months later, I am having the same problem as everyone else. While gaming my laptop would freeze forcing me to power off the laptop manually. So I decieded to go to Best Buy hoping that they would help me out with this problem. They told me that my warranty was up and that there was nothing they could do unless I wanted to pay 70$ for a diagnostic test. Which would only tell me what was wrong with the laptop. Frustrated enough I started to do some research. I updated my drivers, service pack 2, cleaned out my fans and surley enough none of this really helped. Also the Riva Tuner program didnt work for me. I changed my settings and all it did was lower my performance and I still had crashes.
So now where do WE go from here since I now know that I am not the only one with this problem. I contacted Gateway and they told me that it was my "software" or World Of Warcraft that was causing my crashes. Then they told me to go to there "Answers by gateway" which they charge 60$ for 30 min of talking over the phone what kind of customer service is that? Ive tried almost everything and I am getting tired of having a laptop which I cant use for what I bought it for.
Giovanni, How is the status of the AGO office? Have they contacted you back yet? I am willing to do a class action suit so you can count me in on that.
Hopefully in the end Gateway will either fix/replace our laptops for us but who knows lets keep our fingers crossed.
Hi Phil,
ReplyDeleteI see you are in our same situation. I haven't heard from the AGO. I'm going to call on Monday but I will go to Italy on Tuesday so I probably won't be able to do much about it. I guess the class action is our only option right now although I don't think it will get us to a settlement in a short time. We should seriously consider it though.
I haven't tried the rivatuner fix yet because my laptop is in Italy right now, but I was afraid it might not work for everyone.
Alright keep us posted on that. Also I found a forum not sure if anyone knows about it or not.
ReplyDeletehttp://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=419939&page=7
Talks about everyone's problems with the 7811 FX and how they are trying to fix the problem.
One interesting note was that people found that running the laptop on the battery, they didnt get any crashes. Once they plugged it into the power brick the computer would crash. Maybe its the brick thats producing to much heat and all we need is a new brick? Who knows. But that is something to keep in mind. Ive done a test on just the battery and the laptop didnt crash until I had to plug it in when the battery got low.
hey phil i know the pain your going through with the motherbord being changed, I just got my 7811 fx back yesterday. Just wondering if you know if they changed the motherbord with the 7805. That is what happened to be and I not to pleased with it but Best Buy told me that it is what they determined to be the best fix and it falls under the terms of a "new or referbished part".
ReplyDeleteAlso when i got my laptop back there was a few scratches but its the least of my worries. They forgot to send back teh PCI expansion slot cover and the LED cover to the power light is also missing, also I can tell that the computer was taken apart becasue the gaps are bigger now.
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like they did a terrible job on your laptop (no offence). On my laptop it doesnt even look like they changed my motherboard out. But when it came back they gave me a geek squad sheet and all that was on it was "replaced motherboard". So Im not sure if they replaced it with a refurbished one or not.
In any case I'm mad at Best Buy and Gateway, Best Buy shouldve sent the laptop out to Gateway since it was still covered under manufactures warranty. Oh well now I have a paper weight atleast...
Bought a P-7811FX in August 2008, started seeing blue discolorations and red display artifacts over what should have been black a few months after that. Gateway support told me to perform a system restore for what was obviously a hardware issue. Fail. They offered to let me send it in, but I'm a poor college student and couldn't afford the shipping or to be without my notebook.
ReplyDeleteThe black screen crash/hangs started last summer (2009) and have been getting progressively worse. I've tried different/updating drivers, BIOS, dusting, $60 cooling pad, any other various tip I could come across on Google... no dice. I get anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour or two of gameplay before it hangs on a black screen with a sound loop. Notable games are Bioshock and Civ4, although the problem has occured in Chronicles of Spellborn, Oblivion, and (!?!) Homeworld 2. Sadly, my warranty has expired so I'm out of luck as far as that's concerned.
It would be encourage to hear some positive news from/about Gateway or if any fixes have been successful.
On a side note, I bought a Seagate Freeagent Go 640GB HD from Best Buy last fall, the disk failed within less than a month. Couldn't find my receipt in the 30 day return window, and I'm still trying to save up to send the thing back to the manufacturer. It's sad how companies produce flawed products, but rob you of hundreds if not (in Gateway's case) thousands of dollars... all for a defective product they know good and well has issues.
Hi everybody,
ReplyDeleteI finally had a chance to try the Rivatuner "fix". I have played The Sims and Stalker without crashes (they would both crash after few minutes without the fix). I'll keep using Rivatuner and see how it goes.
Oh wow, glad I found this! I too am having the same problems. I keep thinking about all the changes - BIOS upgrades, Driver upgrades, Windows 7 and none of these stand out as being the point where I started noticing the black screens. And, it seems like my black screens are getting worse!
ReplyDeleteI'll post back if I uncover anything.
so the Rivatuner trick seems to work fine for me. Playing wow on high setting and I only notice a small performance decrease but at least I can complete an instance without crashing!
ReplyDeleteI have posted on Dec 1st, 18th and 21st about my blackscreen issue. The latest was this tip for using Rivatuner:
ReplyDeletehttp://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5404773&postcount=36
(reposting so folks don't have to search the entire blog)
I have to say this is an official fix for my blackscreen issue. I have not had problems with it since and I was even brave enough to upgrade my P-7811 to Windows 7!
One note, if you do upgrade to Windows 7 and allow the upgrade process install the updated video driver, you will need to reapply the fix.
Good luck to all!
Had this problem for a total of 6 months.Brought it in once to best buy(I have a 3 year warranty),and they did some bullshit job and said that they cleaned the fan and the heat sink.The laptop would overheat less quickly,but it would still overheat.Brought it in last month for a second time,and they changed the motherboard.Can now play Crysis and ARMA II without a hitch,at chilly temps.
ReplyDeleteJust for the record on Acer...when I told the Gateway tech I wanted to file a complaint, he told me to go to support.acer.com. I asked him why acer.com and not gateway. He said he was sorry and to go to support.gateway.com. They are the same tech support.
ReplyDeleteI have a 7805. I'm having the black screen of death while playing World of Warcraft. They told me it is an issue with the game, not the computer. So far they will not take my computer back.
If you are propping up your PC uder the battery to help cool it, don't do it. The connector to the video is directly behind the battery. Repeated stress from propping in this area flexes this connector, causing it to lose a good connection on the ends and partially unseating it. This problem is usually seen as horizontal "static" in areas with mostly high contrast black as the background. Reseating the cable usually fixes it, but the connector is fragile and doing this repetetively can ruin the cable connector itself. They sell adhesive feet that accomplish the same thing, so I would use those.
ReplyDeleteThey keep lying saying they are all software related issues. I think we should try the class action.
ReplyDeletehttp://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=439999
ReplyDeleteSomeone just found a VERY interesting issue with the GPU settings in the driver. On most of these laptops, setting the core GPU voltage down from the stock 1.12v to 1.0v-0.9v solved all the overheating and performance issues. 0.9v seems to be the most successful setting, but some have reported needing to set it higher to keep it stable under heavy use. It is a difficult process to reprogram and flash the GPU BIOS with new settings, but it does shed light on the source of the problem. Nvidia appears to be at fault with this GPU. Either the driver is not correctly setting the core voltage, or the GPU is unable to handle the voltage it is designed for.
That is a very interesting thing. Lowering the voltage lowers the energy consumption and produced heat. The frequency is another factor that lowers those two. So I guess the issue is related to either of them... I'm using the Rivatuner "fix" and I haven't had any crash since.
ReplyDeleteThe difference being that setting the freq. down degrades the performance. Setting down the core 3D processor voltage cools the processor and improves performance. I may give it a shot, when I have time. I use this PC for classwork and cannot afford for it to be down. Particularly with home brewed files, flashing the BIOS of the MB or GPU involves the risk of "bricking" the PC, perhaps irrevocably. So it's not something to be taken lightly, or done by the faint of heart.
ReplyDeleteWell of course. I am afraid of doing that for the same reason, but maybe when I get a new computer I'll do it.
ReplyDeleteI might bookmark this blog. Very interesting. Might I propose a new idea to the crowd? I've been have freezing issues lately and I also can't watch flash video in full screen without stuttering. I've had a similar problem in some games, mostly in Demigod, and I think I know the culprit. The sound card. I honestly am beginning to think that the onboard sound is the source of all our problems. I've noticed a distinct popping noise when watching flash video in full screen (yes I have the latest version, no it doesn't matter what browser I use), and even when just playing mp3's off the hard drive. Pandora.com has the same problem, a popping noise that occurs either on its own, or when I open a new tab and try to visit a new site, or even just scroll down the page. In light of this theory, I'm planning to disable all onboard sound (can't wait, thanks so much gateway) and see if I still have crashing/freezing/stuttering. I'll post back with results, unless they are non-conclusive.
ReplyDeleteI would almost agree with most of you that the GPU is the main issue, but mine doesn't overheat. Besides, why would a 9800m gts struggle to play 640x480 flash in full screen?
Thanks for the comment. I don't know if the sound card is related. I have the same issue with flash and I fixed it by lowering the resolution from the native one to 1600x1024. I think the graphics card has some trouble with the 1920x1200 since I don't have any sound stutter, it's just video related I think... Let us know what happens if you disable the sound though.
ReplyDeleteMy P-7811FX just died (second death in two years). Probably a dead video card, as went black while connected to an offline monitor. Now it acts like it boots but no video on board or off.
ReplyDeleteI will never buy another gateway. You are buying some cheap japanese computer, and the support is terrible. I am so sick of cheap products, what a bummer.
Is there any laptop out there that doesn't die every year? Is the problem inherent in laptops, or is this cheap piece of japanese garbage to blame?
I think it depends on the brand. I have had my HP for 4 years and it has been working fine until my wife dropped it for the 3rd time and now it's having a hard time... My sister has had her Toshiba for the past 3 years and it's still perfect (she never dropped it!).
ReplyDeleteBigger brands seem to be usually better (I'm talking about HP, Toshiba, Dell and Apple) and they definitely offer better support (and extended warranties that are awesome). I'm never gonna buy a Gateway ever again either. I think I'm going to get a Dell desktop and a MacBook in the future...
Thanks Giovanni. (anonymous, above). Looks like its the motherboard, again. Not on warranty this time though, so the computer is gone.
ReplyDeleteIt was really fun having a laptop, but I think I will likely go with a desktop next time, too. I feel like packing all the high end stuff into a laptop is just too finicky and fragile...
I own a Gateway P-7811FX too. What a dud. I started having problems within 6-months. Now it boots to a white screen. From what I have seen all we can do is hope for a class action so we can be compensated for these problems or Gateway needs to be more responsible for their mistakes. I never used it as a game machine either. Good luck to others, hope I can help too.
ReplyDeleteTook the FX to a local repair fellow and learned that the graphics card had been overheating and cracked the solder connection to the motherboard. He heated the card and was able to reconnect the card to the board. He also replaced some of the heat transfer compound with something better and the card is running about 8 degrees cooler. We'll see how it goes...
ReplyDeleteI have a p-7811fx it started overheating.
ReplyDeleteI ended up installing ntune it lets you adjust your core clock, memory clock, and shader clock. my settings are currently 550,700,1400 not much lower than the default but no more crashes. I had trouble getting it to start with these settings but if you look for the file ntune creates you can put that in your startup folder and it will load every time :-) you can also make a file to underclock like crazy for when ur just sitting there idle.. good luck
Quick follow up about my post.
ReplyDeleteI said I thought the sound card was causing the problem. My theory turned out to be premature, but the sound card does sound like crap regardless.
The real culprit turned out to be my hard drive. It contained bad sectors which corrupted my Vista installation, causing serious crashes every hour or less. Seagate is shipping me a new one.
While I was troubleshooting I deconstructed the entire laptop to remove all dust and clean and check connections. Everything has been good so far. I re-installed Vista on another hard drive I had laying around and have not had a single crash since with over 50 gaming hours in.
But honestly, the sound card does suck.
I was just wondering if there have been any confirmed user fixes for this problem? The only thing I have been able to do to reduce lock ups and crashes is play with a laptop cooling pad AND a regular fan blowing onto my laptop. It generally lets me play most things no problem. So I'm hoping someone has found some type of fix that has worked! I can't even play Star Craft II without it locking up anymore. It's ridiculous and Gateway denied the problem existed during the time my warranty was valid! Help please. What can I do!?
ReplyDeleteSciBoy, any word on how it has been going?
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI have been using Rivatuner to force constant 3D performance and that has stopped the crashes. I don't know if it's affecting the performance of the graphics card. I recommend to try that.
> 'SciBoy, any word on how it has been going?'
ReplyDeleteWithin a day of getting the computer back it stopped working again, so the re-flow procedure didn't work.
I scrapped the laptop and bought a Dell Alienware Aurora desktop, core i7 920, GeForce GTX 260. Stole the hard drive (s) from the laptop and installed them as extras.
Meaning to either throw the P-7811FX off a nearby cliff or parts it at some point, as it is taking up space in the house :)
I was thinking about doing that too. I was gonna get a MacBook actually for mobility and use a desktop for gaming... and toss the gateway!
ReplyDeleteSame problems as everyone else, once i started playing a game, GPU would kick into "high performance mode" and I would get the lockup and sound loop. This has been for over a year. Tried every driver known to man, searched every forum. Tore my laptop down to the motherboard and put AS5 on GPU and CPU. I can confirm as well that temperature is not the culprit on my computer and that the RivaTuner fix worked for me as well. Thank you SOOOOOOOO MUCH for posting that link. Here it is again for all you poor saps like me that bought the 7811FX:
ReplyDeletehttp://forum.notebookreview.com/5404773-post36.html
Gratefully,
Scaryfencer
Has this worked for anyone else?? No damage to CPU?
ReplyDeleteHi, this is the only non-harmful fix that seems to work. There is no actual modification to any GPU or CPU parameters, so you can try without fear.
ReplyDeleteI'm having the exact same problems. I got mine back in October of 2008 and it worked great...that is up until the warranty ran out. Ever since then it's been giving me even more trouble than it did before it ran out. It overheats so bad it fried my first HDD and I had to replace it. Now whenever I boot it up and get to the desktop, It works good for about 2min and then it just freezes. I can move my mouse around but that's it. It even does it in safe mode too.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason i bought this computer is because 1:I needed a laptop. 2: I got a gateway 2000 back in 1998ish and it lasted for about 10yrs. So I thought to myself, Hmm maybe I'll go get a gateway laptop. DUMB IDEA! I will never buy another gateway product again as long as I live. They couldn't even pay me enough money to buy one.
Hello everyone, I know this is an old blog, but I wanted to add my experience in case it helps an individual in the future. I first purchased a P7811FX in August 08 from BB. The serial number started with P2886 and it was two months (and no extended warranty) into my purchase before the first problems appeared. I was playing Mass Effect and the game would lock-up and/or black screen. At first, I thought it was the game and some Vista 64, driver, or other compatibility issue. However, the more I researched the matter, it appeared to be a problem with the laptop itself. Specifically, heat issues with production runs that started with the P2886 or P2887 serial numbers. If you were lucky enough to have purchased a laptop that began with a P2888 serial number, then statistically you seem to fare better than your counterparts. This made sense due to the P2888 being the end of the production run(if memory serves me correctly) and posters on one particular forum confirmed differences between laptops from P2886, P2887, and P2888. Again, relying on memory, I think two of the differences mentioned were improvement to a beefier heat sink in the GPU area and the power brick. Anyway, the BB where I purchased the laptop said they could not look into the matter for at least a week. I told the guy that there were many complaints on the internet refering to heat problems and the look on his face said: "Yawn.....whatever." I left there thinking "what a jerk" and drove to the BB across town. At the second BB, I told the guy my problem, he checked his computer screen and says, "Yeah, there is a recall on those.....I'll get you a new one." I asked for a P2888 and the dude hooked me up. Just to be on the safe side, I purchased a Zalman laptop cooler off Newegg. I have never had a problem with the replacement (P2888) and I have always had it on the cooler. If you have read this post to the end, I will make the following recommendations to you. (1) Stress test any laptop you purchase with benchmarking or similar software soon after purchase. This can possibly expose any hidden problem or weak component. (2) Test every outlet, jack, feature on your new purchase to make sure they all work, so you will not have any nasty surprises at a later date. (3) Know the retail locations return policy. I personally feel I got lucky with BB because I was past their initial 15 day(?) return window. I didn't here of anyone getting to swap out machines at that late of a date. Oh yeah, if you have multiple locations like a BB, try another store if one shoots you down. (4) I would be hard pressed to use a regular laptop without a laptop cooler. The newer processors and GPUs may run cooler, so maybe you could get by without one. If it is a PERFORMANCE or GAMING laptop, its a no-brainer, YOU ARE ASKING FOR TROUBLE IF YOU DON'T USE A COOLER.
ReplyDeleteHere like all of you…same problem.
ReplyDeleteI been referring back to this thread on and off for some time now. I just wanted to confirm some working tweaks on my system (P7811/Window 7 Ultimate 64 bit).
@Amfavs post on 18 NOV 09 – Worked for me… I used this running the DOX 182.46 driver for about 8-9 months.
I recently replaced my P7811 with a G73h and decided to reformat/reinstall windows 7 on the P7811. After that I could not get Ntunes to load up without giving me a blue screen of death…So moving on to other options.
@Scaryfencer post on 15 JUN 2010 – Worked for me…I used this with Nvida 260.99 driver released 16 OCT 10.
Background; I purchased the P7811 back in late summer 2008 from BB prior to my second tour overseas. I updated to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit in 2009. Eventually I started having the problem with a periodic lag when playing all games. That lead into what can only be described as a crash to desktop but with a black screen (occasional sound looping or a buzz). I don’t feel upgrading to windows 7 caused this issues. As far as I can tell it happens across the board with this particular model.
I’ll save everyone the redundant rant by just saying I agree with most of all the previous posts. It’s ridiculous to be left to google and user made tweaks when you buy a name brand product from a large retailer. Even with my G73h…how about this…how’s this for a concept -- stop spending money on making products “more green” and just start making more reliable products?
-Randy
Hey just to throw my two cents in-I've had this computer for over 2 years (7811fx) and the fix for over heating is to prop the back up because the back right fan doesn't draw enough airflow when directly on a flat surface (table etc.) When my cooler when out (which propped up the notebook in this manor) it crashed all the time,GPU reaching temp of 95C, after propping it up, even on graphically demanding games the gpu is ~65C and very stable.
ReplyDeleteNote: no over/under clocking done
The newest issue I had is the impossible task of raiding the two (upgraded) hd's I have. I can't find any bios updates enabling this and after a 20 minutes online chat with gateway the solution is to hold ctrl+i while booting-doesn't work. Or I can pay them lots of money to get phone support as it is out of warranty I've tried more general bios updates none worked, in windows 7/64, vista (32/64) or in any compatibility mode.
If anyone has a solution please let me know on this thread
cheers, Jim
My girlfriend had had the laptop for 3 years now and hasn't had a single problem with it and We've played games like Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty 5, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Sims 3, Age of Empires 3, Sim City 4, Borderlands, Rift, Etc and haven't had a single issue with it and it wasn't even new in box when we bought it. It was the display model at Best Buy. So I guess we were one of the lucky ones not to have problems. Just wanted to Throw my 2 Cents in also..
ReplyDeletehaha, rift crashing constantly on my FX is the reason im reading this site.
ReplyDeleteI bought my 7811fx long ago - when they first came out. Had heat issues under vista 64, but upgrading the video drivers solved that.
ReplyDeleteI did the upgrade to W7 and then it started to be unstable, but not heat-related. yet. So after a while I reinstalled W7 as a full install, not an upgrade. It ran far smoother, no hangs, blue screens, lockups. GPU temp at idle was in the 40c range, perfect.
Then I upgraded the bios from 028 to 038.
Idle heat was at 70c. IDLE. Aero pushed it higher. Never even tried to run a game.
Re-flashed it back to 028. Identical setup and in aero the gpu temp is 45c.
Note that I do have a cooler with fan, a big metal monstrosity that not only cools it but raises it and angles it forward a bit.
So I'm happy with it now - just be warned that bios 038 is a Bad Thing. Stick with 028.
That's a very interesting comment. I need to check my laptop to see if I have the "bad" bios 038... Is flashing the bios complicated? Can you easily find the bios on Gateway's website? Are you sure the operation frequencies for the GC are the same with the two bios? in that case the "Rivatuner fix" might actually do the same job without modifying the bios (an upgraded bios might have advantages for other reasons).
ReplyDeleteIf anyone else wants to post their bios version I would appreciate it.
Thanks!
So I just checked on gateway's website and the only BIOS version I find is 9C.23.00 ... What's your exact version?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I should have opened the zip file. So the current BIOS version on their website seems to be 041. Does anybody have this one?
ReplyDeleteMy laptop has started crashing again, two years after applying the RivaTuner fix. Ugh!
ReplyDeletei just got one of these laptops used and im impressed.. well mostly.. if figured out the lock ups! basicly what seems to be happing is when the temp goes up the gpu tries to downclock itself and this causes (atlest for me) a total lock up and crash. well useing ravatuner foring promance 3D i no longer have those locks up at all. but now the issue is when the mother board temp sneses its around 92C fps falls pretty badly. i almost wish i could disable to two sensors as my gpu (runs at about 67-76C) is just fine and the cpu seems to be just fine. this may sound silly (i havent tried any notebook coolers) but using a normal house fan and sitting the laptop on top of it while it goes full blast does look really really stupid. but it keeps my temps low (gpu 53C playing crysis on high) and then i never have any hang ups or slow downs at all so it is in fact a heating issue fun fun! but the heating issue aside when i can keep it cool it runs fine for me was even playing skyrim (fun game) and borderlands perfectly fine i was thinking of tring to nicer termial compound and try to find a nice notebook cooler but for now i set it on the fan on the floor use my tv as a monitor and use a controler so i can sit back away from the fan and it works great. lol
ReplyDeleteoh and i wanted to mention im running 9C.28.00 and that was what i got form gatewayts site...
ReplyDeleteso has anyone figured out what kind of repairs to make to fix the black screen crashing
ReplyDeleteanon, there is no 9C.28. Maybe you meant 9C.18? go over to forums.notebookreview.com and look for the gateway forums. there are plenty of threads on modifying and tweaking the laptop and just about every problem ever faced has been put up there by at least one person. :)
ReplyDeletethat said, I bought mine from BB back in Aug 2008 and it has been running like a champ ever since.
I've upgraded it to 8gb of ram, a blue ray drive, 640gb total hard drive space (2 HDD) and an x9100 extreme CPU overclocked to 3.6 stable. This thing has HDMI out and 1920 res...the laptop is awesome and I haven't had any issue past or present as anyone has described, other than an odd thing or two with their latest (9C.20) bios, which I downgraded away from.
M
My laptop gets so hot that the place in front of the numbers pad burns my hands. I have to put something there to keep it from burning me. Been thinking on getting a new computer but I'm not sure which to get to play the new star wars.
ReplyDeleteI got mine summer 2009.Apart from the hard drive crash/data loss(argggggg) its great.
ReplyDeletehope everyone here solved theyr issues, or got another laptop :)
My experience:
ReplyDeleteI don't game...I play & edit video. My P-7811FX worked pretty well for that until I tried updating a video driver. After that, it started acting up. Have since replaced original 2-partitioned HDD with a 128GB SSD and Win 7 Ultimate. Worked well. Also tried adding Seagate Momentus 750GB secondary drive. That has led to problems, i.e. drive was recognized at first, but disappears from "My Computer" after using the laptop for a while. Still on BIOS 9C.05.00. Have ordered a new laptop (Not Gateway/Asus), but am hesitant to install new BIOS until the new laptop has been delivered and tested. Does anyone know which BIOS might allow my new drive to be recognized? Does the 7811-FX have some HDD or partition size limit? Will that be fixed by a new BIOS?
Thanks.
My computer has worked mostly well, only big issue i have had was with the video cable that connects the screen to the motherboard becoming lose. When that happens it will cause the screen to have horizontal artifacts especially on dark images or games. A quick fix for that is pushing down on the media pad bellow the screen. Or you can open the computer up and you will find the plug bellow the media pad.
ReplyDeleteYou people also need to make sure you clean your laptops regularly, at the very least you need to spray out the dust from the fan intakes and exhaust ports. Try one of these: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/182-6316615-6138646?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=air+duster
Also, ALWAYS keep your computer on a hard surface. I know that sounds basic, but some people might not know better.
I know it wont fix everyone's problems, but many crashes could be due to overheating from poor air flow.
Very nice blog BTW!
ReplyDeleteI've owned this laptop for 3 years and changed the mothernoard twice.(gpu IS the problem) I have never seen any gaming oriented laptops that doesn't have gpu problems exept toshiba vostros.
I'm a computer tech and fix laptops everyday.
Here's some tip on buying one.
First buy them just before the school year starts, they are much cheaper then.
Buy Asus or Toshiba for reliability and warranty.
Hp has 33% return for repair within warranty rate so we don't push them to clients. To compare Toshiba has a 4% return rate.
Gateway Lenovo and ACer will both make you pay to ship it for repairs in some location very far(expensive) and the customer support is outsourced and extremely bad.(don't bother)
However acer technicians are releasing fixes for their products much faster and often then gateway.( just look at their tablets: 5 updates in 1.5years and the same tablet branded gateway:None!)
Just remember...
If you want a gaming laptop i strongly suggest Toshiba.
If your looking for a work or school laptop go with any computer that has a low power intel cpu as they never overheat.
Just updating here, but the issue is apparently an overvoltage issue with these laptops. They try to crap out and over-volt the GPU's with 1.1 volts (0.9 volts is pushing it) so they can get higher clock speeds.
ReplyDeleteSince there is a defect in the GPU somewhere, that makes the things conk out because an automatic protection of some sort comes into play!