7811 defective

So i bought this gaming laptop from bestbuy - gateway 7811 fx - about 4 month ago. I started playing 3d games like counterstrike source and WOW but after about 20min - 1hour of gameplay, the laptop would freeze with repetitive malfunctioning sounds. The computer is really hot, I finaly realize that i got a defective laptop - a lemon or w/e the term is. My friend who has the exact same laptop would play for 7 hours straight perfectly fine. I cant return mine since its been 4 month i bought it. What do i do?? Did i just waste 1500 dollar on this defective laptop?

 

If you don't have the Best Buy warranty, call Gateway, All Laptops have a year warranty. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation under your lapy, try a stand, cooler, or even proping the back up about 1/2 inch with a book, deck of cards ect.

 

i have done all that and even bought a cooling pad, howevr it still crashes.

 

Get a temperature gauge for the laptop, intel has one, asus just about every one that makes mobo's - I use asus's just because my previous 2 desktops were custom built and the software is quite nice for the purpose.
You can google temperature gauge also im sure there are a few programs, secondly why buy a $1500$ rig without an extended warranty? There are a few places on the internet you can extend your warranty for cheap, I got this 7811fx for $750 with 90day warranty, before it runs out however I am getting a 2 year replacement plan warranty for $60. Thats one replacement laptop per year for 2 years, $60. If they can't fix the problem you get your money back, however they do have 96% success rating far as what I researched. I'll get back on here later when I get the website information, if your warranty is still active which as flyn says you should have a year under gateway, I would consider extending it through 3rd party.

A Neat trick you might want to consider - goto walmart get a cheap $10 mini-fan and place it around the laptop blowing on it, sounds funny but it works, I was playing something other day and it rebooted because of the heat, hasn't since then. Might be a cheap investment if the heats the cause of the problem. Ill get back with the warranty information later, 4am and im bout to goto bed =)

 

try calling gateway like flynnaz said, or you can set up the rma with someone online, but they now make you pay your own shipping.

 

Website I was talking about is called Squaretrade, they deal with extended warranties but are a 3rd party company, but if they can't fix the problem - they will refund you the cost. You must have an active warranty or they won't extend it, even if its through gateway or vice versa.

 

hmm so u guys are saying i can get a replacement through my gateway warranty?

 

Yep, Check out Squaretrade
Long as your warranty is still good through gateway you can get a warranty through squaretrade, right now is best time to do it, I seen a coupon for 50% off the warranty price (which is awesome)

I bought mine off tigerdirect and got 90 day gateway warranty (referbished) - when 75 days are up im going to Squaretrade to get a 2 year extended warranty for only $60, considering my last warranty I got at Staples for a computer same price, I paid $200 for the 2 year warranty - here i'm paying $60 for same thing - you get 1 complete replacement warranty - rest is parts warranty. I would definally check Xbah - how long you have on your warranty, if its only 4 months then you should be fine, I would simply call gateway and let them know you want a replacement. of 4 months you still have another 8 months on your main warranty.

 

wow that sounds sweet ill make sure to do that. Wow im relieved

 

I was just looking at the Squaretrade warranties and they seem OK.

I found THIS website, which has all the coupons, including the 50% off Misconduct mentioned.

I think I am going to get this for my 7805 and/or 7811 refurb.

Hope this helps.

 

Keep me posted as to what you get and what you think of it. I am very interested. Thank you. -Goodspeed

 

how do i check if my notebook is on warranty from gateway? Is it automatically warrantied if its within 1 year of purchase?

 

Call gateway and register it, it has a one year warranty.

 

Does purchasing a laptop from Bestbuy (Gateway) that had been used as a floor model impact any warranty, whether the warranty is through Bestbuy, Gateway, or a third party?

 

The manufacturers warranty is to the end user. Your laptop warranty goes into effect when it is first sold at retail, not when the box is opened**. If you haven't registered the laptop with Gateway, then you should be able to pass the warranty to the next user if you sell the laptop. You would need to provide the buyer with a copy of your receipt to prove the date of purchase, however.

** Unless otherwise stated (ie: hard drive warranties start from the date of manufacture when they are not part of a system, but they are much longer warranties).

 

I've got a similar problem, but with a twist. I have a refurb from Tiger Direct. When i first got it, it would lock up during Warhammer online. I propped it up and it worked fine. I finally went out and bought a pc cooler (ZM-NC2000) and now that runs below.

However, if I try to play ANY other game besides WAR, it locks up within 5-15 min. I've tried Civ 4, Rome and Medieval 2 Total War, CoH/CoV, and even MLB Front office manager which isn't gfx intensive. Outside of games it runs fine. With WAR it runs hot but fine, but play any other game and i have a complete system lock up within 5-15. I've tried running them as Admin, and even at XP SP2 settings.

What in the world is going on? Why is that a new mmo that runs at max settings @ 1920x1200 runs fine but EVERY other game locks up my whole system? Completely at a loss here....

 

do a clean install of vista. windows update. and voila. your system will work just fine.

 

Squaretrade will also warranty items bought off of Ebay, so you can work around the warranty timeout problem that way. I was concerned about selling my 6860fx refurb without a warranty, but now I can advertise that the unit can be warranteed when it's bought.

 

Well, I did a clean install of vista. Actually installed ultimate instead of home premium. Installed all the window updates and installed all the drivers that i needed from gateway.

Now, not only does WAR lock up in a few minutes, as do all the other games still, but now the sound mysteriously vanishes about 60 seconds before the game locks up my whole system. At least before I could play the game i enjoy the most ATM. Now I can't play any games at all. its gone from bad to worse with the fresh install.

Any other suggestions?

*update* I also contacted gateway and they are claiming that I have no manufacturer warranty through them. It actually expired a month before I bought it from tiger direct even though it left he factory in Aug 2008. So i guess i have to go through the third party refurb, which expires in a month, but a squaretrade one or just pawn this off on some unlucky individual on eBay. =c

 

Check temps as already stated.

What drivers are you using?

 

I've tried to install various temp monitoring programs but none of them work with vista.

I've tried running with the drivers off gateways site, the 179.48 that are posted on this site, as well as the current 182.06. However, when installing this last driver the 9800GTS was not an option so i selected the 8800 GTS 512. I've noticed the heat isn't as much but I still lock up.

Before the fresh install of Vista I had 7.15.11.8100 (181.00?) that at least let me run Warhammer but i can't see why one driver would work and all others not (*update* found this driver and installed it using the instructions on this forum and i still lock up). It has to be a heat problem but i already have a notebook cooler running full blast underneath. After the last lockup i noticed that the ram felt really hot but the cpu and gpu did not. Could this be the reason? Bad stick of ram or just bad airflow perhaps?

Maybe i'll remove the panel guarding the cpu/gpu/ram etc? more air would get in at least. I just want this bloody thing to work. I'm so disappointed right now. Getting desperate for this thing to stop locking up on me in games.

*update* ran vista mem tool and no errors were detected. Its either heat or faulty hardware, or a bad os install that i'll have to flesh out

 

I've installed the EVGA Precision tool. I'm running 37-47 C during normal operations. Haven't tried a game yet.

However, I still can not manually control my fan speed. This is the second tool (nvidia is the other) where the fan speed has been grayed out. Is there a setting somewhere that I need to enable/disable in order to control the fan speed?

 

After scouring the forums it would seem that its impossible to control the fan speeds. That's disappointing.

I'm running WAR in a 1600x1200 window atm and the highest temp i've seen is 59C which isn't hot at all for a GFX card.

However, it did stutter for a few seconds about 5 min into it. Instead of locking up the game continued as normal. I don't know if I can deal with playing every game in a window on my desktop but at least I know its probably not a heat issue. The variation in temps between full screen 1900x1200 vs 1600x1200 in a window can't be more than a few degrees if any.

*UPDATE*
About 15min into the game in windowed mode I had a complete system lock up. At the time of the lock up the GPU temp read 56C!! So this isn't a heading issues and this isn't a memory issue.

What in the world is going on?

 

I ran through a round of 3DMark6 without any lock ups. Highest I saw the GPU at was 65C, each core got as high as 54C or so.
Final tally of 8523 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 4036
SM 3.0 Score 3703
CPU Score 2036

Not sure if any of these scores are telling but there you have it.

 

Install the correct video drivers first. You do not have a 9800GTS, you have a 9800M GTS. You need to install the drivers for the correct video card and for the correct operating system (32 bit or 64). Have you tried speedfan? I believe that's what most use with vista to monitor temps.

 

I do have the correct drivers. its showing up as 9800M GTS on my device manager, but perhaps I'll reinstall the drivers just to be sure.

I am running speed fan and EVGA Precision atm to monitor things. Not sure if this mean anything but....EVGA was showing a Core clock of 400 and a memory clock of 300. I increased the core to 500 and the memory to 480. My cpu didn't go above 55C and I did not lock up either.

Is it possible that for whatever reason my card is, dare i say, underclocked? Could that be causing the lockups?

 

It could be because:

 

Limited Warranty
This Item's Warranty is:
- 3 Months Parts
- 3 Months Labor
Warranty provided by
- Gateway Renovation Group
- View Warranty Info



Gateway P-7811 FX Refurbished Notebook PC - Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz, 802.11n WLAN, 4GB DDR3, 200GB HDD, DL DVDRW, 17" WUXGA, eSATA, HDMI, Webcam, Windows® Vista Home Premium 64 bit

Limited warranty 3 months for parts and 3 months for labor.
Support Phone Number: (866) 243-1450

 

That was before I reinstalled the drivers. its now running the 181.00 drivers that are posted on this forum.

GoodSpeed - I called them on monday. They were convinced it was a ram issue or a heat issue and told me to run a mem test ( I did, passed) and download a program to force fan speed up (which apparently can't be done on this laptop, but judging by the temps, my PC doesn't look like its running in a danger zone, 39-59C for gpu and both CPU cores run 28-48C).

So I guess I will call them back tomorrow and see what can be done. I get the feeling that whatever is wrong with this Laptop they won't be able to fix regardless. They already had one go at it before it was sold to me via tiger direct so I dount they will fix it the second time around. I ran an automated battle in Medieval 2 for over an hour and didn't lock up at work. Yet I come home and try to play and i locked up in 14 min and 9 min respectively.

I've worked at best buy and circuit city and I've come to absolutely loath refurb companies. I can't tell you how many people kept bringing back laptops with the same problem that was "fixed" by whatever refurb companies BB and CC used.

 

I just finished running every test I could find on Hiren's and nothing failed. Been locking up in games all night with GPU and CPU temps sub 50C. Has to be a problem on the mobo or the CPU or something. I've been hoping this could be something that someone on here could help me fix it but it just looks like a lemon. Hope they fix it when it gets sent in.

 

3Dmark06 really doesn't stress the system enough to really bring out any problems, try running Prime95 and then 3Dmark06 or play COD4 for a bit. That should let you see if the lock ups are gone.

PS No issues with my 7811 thus far, going on month 2.5 now.

 

I hope it stays that way. I called the refurb center earlier today and they are going to send me another one after I send this one in. They offered me a 6860 instead (which was tempting since those seem more stable) but after seeing the processor was a big step down, the ram would drop from ddr3 to ddr2 and I would lose the 1920x1200 rez i said no thanks.

I'll just be patient and wait for the next batch of 7811. For now i can run whatever I need on my boo-camp partition on my macbook. I just hope I get another P2888. I like the strange font on the keyboard.

 

181.00 drivers? Don't u have a 9800M GTS with 512MB DDR3?

Im using the DOX optimised 185.20 drivers with no problems at all, and I also used the regular 185.20 drivers from Nvidia (For a 9800 M GTS) and had no problems with those either.

Have you checked the frame rates in the games your playing?

 

I followed the steps on the form here for updated drivers, downloaded the drivers/.inf from the sites listed and installed the drivers. the only card listed was the 9800M GTS and after installing the drivers the last 4 digits are .8100 in the driver details portion under device manager. 181.00 was the driver I had the most success with before I upgrade to Ultimate 64. I've tried the drivers from gateways site that were originally installed, the beta drivers for notebooks and various 9800M GTS drivers listed on this site and every time my games would all lock up at one point in time or another. Never tried DOX or forceware.

I'm wondering if whoever owned this laptop before me OC'd the cpu or gpu and fried something. Thats the only explanation I can come up with. Games shouldn't be locking up my whole system when the GPU temp is below 50C.

Frame rate seemed to run between 35-55 FPS (thats my guess, never checked, but it was generally very smooth until it locks up) in WAR. If it was a big ORVR battle they would drop sometimes to 10-15 fps roughly. Regardless I'll be sending it in for a replacement. I already wiped the HDD Ultimate and installed the OS that came with it. I'm not going to play with it again.

 

If its a 7811FX locking up shouldn't he get HWMonitor and watch the TSZ0 and TSZ1 temps as those are the big "problem" with that laptop?

 

I have a couple questions for you. first I have a 7811FX and I also have lock-up issues. I cannot return it ATM as I am out of the country in Iraq. I have been playing with my computer to diagnose exactly when it locks up and this is the best I have come up with.

I can play a movie or a game and it will lock up every time IF I have something (except my cooler) plugged into a USB port. It does not matter which USB port, it doesnt matter the device. I have had HDs, game controllers, a mouse, you name it and it will lock up. If I play a game/movie without anything plugged in it does not lock up and I can play with no issues. This is frustrating but at least CIV4 does not really require a mouse or anything.

I have done driver updates, different versions, and I did a clean install of windows prior to leaving my home.

I guess my question is have you tried playing a game without a USB device connected?

If you havent, then try it and see what happens?

If anyone happens to know an easy fix to this please let me know.

Rechtien

 

Actually, thats a very good point. Whenever my games lock up I am usually moving my mouse or at least have one plugged in. In fact, before I started using my Microsoft mouse my logitech one use to lock up Vista with BDOD's. Like I said before though, the OS is back down to Home Premium and its ready to ship. I'm not screwing with it anymore. I've just wasted so much time in it already. However that does make me want to reinstall the drivers for a few key components and try again. I can't imagine playing games with the touchpad though =/

In fact, when I was running Medieval 2 the other day at work trying to stress the system with a big battle, it did not lock up and I did NOT have a usb mouse plugged in. Thats interesting...

I'm not sure what would be causing that unless its some sort of power issue? Perhaps the GPU and CPU are pulling so much power that the slightest overdraft my a usb device puts it over what the adapter is giving it and locks up as a result? Just an idea.

*update* now i'm putting all the drivers back in so I can run the game w/o a mouse and see

 

If its a heating problem he could try to open it and apply some Arctic Silver 5, surprisingly enough I've seen notebooks being fixed by this.

There are no warranty stickers on the inside of the case, just be very careful!

 

The 7811s just plain have a bunch of defective units with the same problem of freezing while gaming. I bought mine and spent like 2 weeks trying to fix it. Nothing would work. I just returned it for another one and haven't had a problem since.

I remember researching this thing forever. I tried multiple fixes but none of them worked. I narrowed down the specific error number, tried all types of drivers, tried messing with stupidly complex settings, tried making sure the insides were all connected right. Nothing. It's a stupid problem that stumps even most computer adepts and the few people who have been able to fix it usually provided solutions that didn't work for the rest of us.

It's not a heating issue for most of us. The laptop naturally can get decently hot and it SHOULD be able to handle high temps anyways.

Good luck! lol

 

At least try them. If they don't work then you can say told ya so

 

Well, following the advice about the usb, i installed all the default drivers and reinstalled medieval 2. played for over an hour w/o a usb mouse and no lock up. trying it with a mouse right now. then i will go from there.

Also I haven't installed the NIC or the Wi-fi card yet because i forgot to download them. Either of those could be at fault to. won't spend to much time playing with it but if i can't get it to lock up again should I even bother with sending it back in?

Could have also been the OS or an error on the partition.

 

So far so good. I'll have to test it for a few more hours but so far its not locking up at all. The only thing left that I haven't done is pop in my 2nd HDD. I doubt that would cause any issues but we'll see. *knocks on wood*

 

So does someone think mine is defective as well? My games have been extremely lackluster as of late. Whereas I was able to play TF2 and a few other source games with all my settings but AF turned up with great FPS, I get incredibly low FPS now. Crysis used to play on medium to high settings and now struggles when playing on Low.

I've tried drivers from Doc to nvidia to the laptop driver site, and they all seem to have no effect on anything. This laptop should be able to handle a great quantity of games, but seems to be struggling on the simplest. CS Source even ran terrible!

I've surmised it might be a heating problem. Here are my temps at idle according to SpeedFan:
GPU: 41-44 C
HD0: 44-50 C
HD1: 40-44 C
Temp1: 51-54 C
Temp2: 56-58 C
Core 0: 44-49 C
Core 1: 42-47 C

They all have checkmarks except for the Cores which both have red arrows pointing up, and the Temps have flames next to them.

Honestly, I think I need to replace this computer. If anyone has suggestions on how to go about calling Gateway and actually getting a replacement, I'd love it. Also, I'm completely fine paying shipping as I just want my computer back to normal.

And before anyone says anything, yes I've tried a cooling pad, I've tried raising it, I've tried a lot. Blowing in the vents and such. Nothing.

I've only owned this computer since the end of September/early October so my warranty should still be valid, correct? Anyway, I hope someone can help me.

 

Hi Shamrock,

Looking at your temps none of those look incredibly hot. Especially your GPU. That looks really cool actually. I had a dell with a 7900GS that went into the 70's w/o issue.

Do you still have high FPS sometimes? Or is it always slow now?

Have you used the drivesweep tool recommended on this site to clean out your old gfx drivers before installing new ones?

Have you tried reinstalling the OS? Gateway will tell you to do it anyways when you call so you might as well be proactive. I had similar issues to what you are experiencing, reformatted and it didn't help. Then I reformatted again, deleting the OS partition and recreating it and now, for now at least, its worked fine.

 

It's not always slow now. It's still quite playable, but after an hour of playing, my FPS will start to go down a bit. Let's say I get in a game with every setting turned up, it'll be 60 FPS then it drops down to 40 FPS, and that doesn't count the slowdowns.

I've used drivesweep, and I'm actually on a completely fresh install now. That's why I reinstalled me OS so it'd be clean to try and see if that was the case. It apparently isn't.

 

If its always after an hour or so then perhaps its a heating issue but from your numbers that doesn't seem likely. Perhaps your ram is slowly filling up (program has a mem leak) or something to that level.

Its a bad example, but if i leave firefox on all day the amount of mem it takes up balloons exponentially. Perhaps the games you are playing fill you ram/vid-ram to the point where it hinders performance? Could also explain your sudden slow downs. Just pure speculation on my part though.

 

Man! I thought I was the only one getting defective units; I'm on my 4th p-7805u! Seriously, is Gateway's quality that bad? Geez!

 

I don't see what could be eating up my memory. I never leave a program other than Pidgin, Windows Live Messenger, or obviously Steam open when I'm running a game. Also, usually it's Source games that give me a problem because I don't play many other games, but they should not be giving me anything at all. They worked perfectly from when I bought it to about the end of November/Middle of December which is when I first noticed some slow downs but thought nothing of it.

 

Did you run any sort of system tests to grade your system when you first got it? Might be interesting to compare the results now to see if anything has changed.

I'm drawing a blank here. My issues is just random lock ups and It looks like my 3rd reinstall of vista might have taken care of them. You may want to contact gateway if you are greatly concerned.

 

Well, I'm sure there is a reason they were replaced by other models so quickly...also I'm sure there are many reasons (beyond profit) why similar notebooks cost nearly twice as much from other manufacturers