Gateway P-6860FX Opinions?

[Der_Idiot]

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3373&p=8

I'm not alone. Read the third paragraph. I'll check temps during lunch, in an our and a half.

Also, I <3 you for these drivers. It may very well solve all the issues

 

[aaronjb]

My temps are excellent so far - sure, it runs a bit hot when gaming with an overclocked GPU, but I can't complain.

 

[Der_Idiot]

Yeah I think it's the drivers. Runs warm but not unreasonable. I'll edit this later with more information..

 

[Der_Idiot]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3799436
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080819190839AAUjw8n
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3373&p=8

Very common lockup issue for this particular laptop, I have yet to see any solution. I updated my nvidia drivers to 177.89 and it locked up hard 3 minutes into wow last night. Even the numlock key wouldn't register on the laptop (though the wireless light stayed lit). Today, I haven't had it. This is -only- when the system is playing games, I watched From Hell on this last night, and no issues at all. Wow was running in the background, too. I tried re-seating the RAM per gateway support, but no go. I'm now on hold for Level 2 support (IE tier1 where I work, lol their level1 support is quite basic; drivers and reseat the ram, same as the chat line).

I have also noted a distinct Hiss from the power brick, did it with the old one from the 6860 as well. I'll ask about driver updates, bios flashes, and maybe a ram issue, when I get through.

 

[Ashura]

The hiss from the power brick is normal. Honestly Der_Idiot, since you're in the 14 day window, I would just go to a store and swap your laptop for a new one. Someone else at notebookreview did just that and he didn't experience lockups in his new one. No reason for you to waste your time trying to troubleshoot it when the problem could just as easily be with the actual hardware.

 

[aaronjb]

I haven't experience lockups, but I haven't done much gaming. I'll give it the full gamut of gaming / benchmark tests this weekend.

 

[Roncarlston]

What are your temps like?

Also, if you need drivers I posted a bunch at notebookreview: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=287180

Are those all the drivers i would need to reformat and install windows XP?


i wonder how many of the issues people are having with crashes might be due to VISTA itself??? This is worrying me, i ordered mine 2 nights ago, it hasent shipped yet. im considering canceling EDIT: i called tiger direct and they assured me if there were any problems i had 30 days to send it in for a new one or return it, which is a good sign...at least i have the option of getting out of this if its a mess.

 

[Ashura]

The XP 32 list isn't complete, there's one or two things missing. A working audio driver hasn't been found.

 

[Roncarlston]

The XP 32 list isn't complete, there's one or two things missing. A working audio driver hasn't been found.

Question, do the Nvidia drivers shown in your drivers thread for vista/xp work with the NVIDIA 8800M GTS or only the 9800?

by the way big thanks if your the one who made that driver list

 

[Ashura]

No problem, I had lots of help.

The drivers should work for both.

 

[Roncarlston]

No problem, I had lots of help.

The drivers should work for both.

One other thing, have you done any heavy gaming on yours? is it holding up as expected?

 

[Qubix]

I just got the P-7811 FX and I love it, all except the crashing and hard locks which have been pretty numerous. Crashed in wow where the video got slower and slower until at one point it displayed 0.5 fps and this didn't just affect the game, but windows as well until it became unresponsive and had to shut down by holding the power button. 2nd lock was running ATITool 27b3 to see temps while doing a artifact test. I can make it crash 100% using ATITool now but have uninstalled it as a test to see what is causing the locks. I also ran 3DMark06 a few times. First time was with the laptop in Power Saver mode on accident and scored almost 4k. Then I ran it in High Performance mode and scored nearly 8900. I was going to run it repeatidly to see if it would lock and on my 3rd run it hard locked on the 2 orbs test. Then I ran it again after a reboot and it BSOD'd on me with a INTERRUP_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 0x0000003D.

Needless to say I am very frustrated. I did this with a fresh install of Vista Home Premium 64 that came in the box and used the drivers from that 7-zip archive before all the tests above.

If anyone has any other drivers to try or have called Gateway on this matter please shed some light on. I know one person said they had 3 crashes and returned the laptop and their new one doesn't crash. I am thinking of going the same route as I don't want to have to send in my brand new laptop to gateway and be without it for several weeks up to a month?

 

[Ashura]

Roncarlstone: Haven't done any real gaming on mine yet.

Qubix: I would't bother waiting, take it back to BB and get it exchanged asap. I know of two people now who've experienced your problems and got an exchange; their new ones were problem free.

 

[Roncarlston]

Roncarlstone: Haven't done any real gaming on mine yet.

Qubix: I would't bother waiting, take it back to BB and get it exchanged asap. I know of two people now who've experienced your problems and got an exchange; their new ones were problem free.

Ashura, dunno if youve seen this yet, but its a guide to installing windows XP on these machines and they apparently have the audio drivers working correctly because of some INI files this guy found

http://neonpulse.net/2008/03/06/windows-xp-on-the-gateway-p-6831fx/#comment-271


might want to add that to your thread

 

[Qubix]

Exchanged my laptop yesterday. Was funny, the Geek Squad had to make it crash before they would replace it. Figures 3DMark06 would would for them when it crashed each time for me. But they took my word on it and exchanged my laptop. I was kind of concerned because the box litterally fell apart as the glue on one side was detached but the laptop and contents were fine inside and haven't experienced one crash with this new one with gaming on it all day yesterday and running 3DMark06 over 20 times.

I am satisfied now that this one is working reliably and much happier.