7811 fx already RETURNED

So i was amazingly excited after checking out these boards to get a 1500 dollar laptop with such an amazing set of features. I play WOW mostly and few other random games.
Fx 7811 laptop.

Bought the laptop and full warranty from bestbuy 3 days ago. As of today I no longer own the Laptop and have received a full refund with no restocking fee.
I literally installed WOW updated it and went online. Within 6-20 minutes I was getting freezes. No mouse movement, no cntrl alt del, now windows key. nothing. Apparently the the Pc heats up too high and is overheating on me. Tech squad guy confirmed me on the overheating and gave me a full refund with no restock fee.

I really loved this laptop when i was using it for the short times I got to. Great graphics and speed was very nice on loading screens and processes. I tried setting the laptop on things and with the PC leaned off a table edge and id still get freezes in both WOW and Starwars Battlefront 2.

Any chance this laptop in the future will have updated fans/ or cooling.

Hapes

 

dunno, i played WoW on it for 3 hours with no problems.
Also played Crysis for an hour.
Could be you got a lemon

 

Hi Hapes, I finally got wow installed on mine and so far no isses.. It does get pretty hot, but hasnt locked up yet. Played about 3 hours a nite x2 so far.

Wonder if the overheating lockups are related to an assembly lot? Id post mine if I knew which numbers to post heh.

 

You just got a lemon. Very few users here note any type of heat problems; perhaps you should try another one? Maybe the fan was dead...

 

Hapes, which BB did you get yours from?

 

I've played Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike for upwards of 10-14 hours at a time and then left the computer on all night watching movies.... you got a lemon.

 

TBH with the price tag of 1449 and those specs...there are bound to be a quite a few lemons out there.

 

Did it ever occur to you in light of all the positive press this unit has, that you just might have gotten a lemon, and to exchange it out in lieu of a full refund?? Seems to me like you're itching for a reason to be negative.

 

Agree with Dook, you simply got a lemon, it happens to all lines of computers. I don't think i would have gotten a refund, just an exchange. Not a single problem on my 7811, and I'm playing pretty intensive games

 

I agree he probably got a lemon, but from reading the various threads, it seems like there are quite a few of them out there. Does it seem like there are a lot more issues with the 7811 then previous models, or do you think there are just so many purchased due to word of mouth of how great the bang for the buck is on the FX line?

 

Same thing was happening with my first 7811FX. Random freezes/lockups when playing WoW or any other games. It even locked up a couple times while downloading patches. I don't know that it was heat related. Best Buy couldn't diagnose the problem, but they did let me exchange it for another one. I've had no issues whatsoever with the second one. Works perfectly with WoW, Oblivion, TF2, HL2, Counter-Strike, Crysis demo, BF 2142, BF 2, etc...

 

For anyone who is complaining about it getting warm, stick 2 DVD cases under the battery, just to elevate the back. That dropped my temps from 92C, to the highest it has gotten since, 68C.

 

I think you got a lemon; I've played WoW for hours at full resolution and everything turned up full and the GPU fan stays on a nice low speed - not a single lockup or glitch so far (sacrifices chicken, does "safety" dance, touches wood).

With Crysis I have had a couple of weird things happen but I'm beginning to think they were simply bad loads of the game itself. Most of the time it plays without issues for me now at 1600 x 1200, everything set to High.

Two things may have helped: I bought a new hard disk and did a totally clean (no crapware) install of Vista with just the basic Gateway drivers. Secondly last night I updated the video drivers to the latest from nVidia, 177.92, and it seems to be a very happy match.

In any event I think you just got a bad one and I'd encourage you to give it another try. I actually booted my 7811 in my car before leaving the BB parking lot to check for egregious problems, and then went to a Starbucks to play with it for 2 hours or so before leaving town (I live 45 miles away), looking for any issues and you might want to do something similar just to be sure you get a good one this time.

 

Why would you get a full warranty and not put it to any use?

 

So what type of FPS does this laptop get on WoW? I'm curious during raids as well.. or prime time Shat?

 

just a reminder, do not put it on your lap or anything soft when you game

 

@ 1440 x 900 on the 6860 i was getting between 170-220 FPS on the demo i played around on for a while to test it for someone.

@1920 x 1200 in a very "busy" area i dont think the 7811 should drop any lower than 80-100fps. Though i could be wrong. But you should NEVER have a lag in the game due to the GPU falling below the human eye's tolerance for fps. WoW just doesnt have that intense graphics (almost wanted to say graphicals )

 

@1920 X 1200, in Shatt i was getting a Min FPS of 42, with everything turned up.
I myself use V-Sync since the tearing annoys me, so i can't say how much higher it'll go.
I do know during Kara at prince, my FPS dropped to around 36 when prince summoned all his infernos and what not @_@.

 

I didnt use V-sync, i tend to never use it.

I might be at higher levels the game gets alot more graphic intensive, but up to level 22 (where i got bored and deleted the game) i never went below triple digits @1440x900. I did dip to 121 FPS just standing there looking at a wall once though

1920x1200 probably does put alot more strain on the GPU even on a low end game like WoW, but i didnt think it would be anywhere near that bad. It might be a driver diffrence though. Because the 8800 and the 9800 are pretty much identical cards. With the 9800 getting a slight edge even with matched clocks...but i had no idea 1920 x 1200 would lag the card so badly.

Thats almost enough to make me not want to put in a 1920x1200 panel after all...because if WoW gets hurt in frame rate that badly then most games will start to really suck.

 

no use talking about this dude... he only posted once... must be a troll of other laptop companies...

ps. i dont know what a troll is but im thinking, the way some people us it, that it's some sort of dude that badmouths a product saying he's a buyer who is very dissatisfied.

 

Good point. And you've got it about right on troll; I think of a big old hairy cave troll hanging around waiting to scare folk and do mayhem and murder on innocents... a sower of FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt) and disinformation. Could be an employee of another brand, or just a fanboy with not much else to do.

 

lol... thanks tallan... that's good. plus the info you just gave me a clearer definition of what a troll is. 1 rep to you!

 

tallan you can delete you re-posts you know.

 

Didn't; do now: thanks!

 

Nope not a troll sorry guys. ive actually been posting all over the boards here.
ive been doing alot of lookign around and it seems a crap ton of people are having issues with the 7811's On best buys website a guy even gives the laptop a terrible review. it was the most recent review as of today.

really I wanted this laptop as its so powerful and an amazing deal.
I ended up getting an Asus g50 instead. GPU is less but the other points make up for it IMO.

 

I will echo the idea of propping up the back of this system to lower temps and increase stability. I also agree that the original poster got a lemon. I bought a $3000 laptop 3.5 years ago and the first one was a lemon. Pretty shocking at that price point. Dell did fix things and get me set up with a stable machine that's been rock solid since.

If you really like the P-7811 FX, you should try again. Just make sure you get a perfectly sealed new box that isn't banged up.

 

You gotta remember that this system isn't like the other laptops. It needs its temperatures monitored. When things get hot the video card skips things and can lock up.

 

I just got one of those collapsible stands from Targus -- just four legs that fold out horizontally with pegs on the ends that point upward for you to lay the laptop on. It raises the laptop less than an inch, but that is enough to make a big difference on cooling, for both this laptop and the other Hewlett Packard one I returned (two lemons in a row!) to get this Gateway.

It looks like heating is going to be something you have to watch out for with some of the higher end Nvidia cards, and they have found something wrong with the soldering and will fix it at some point. But for now, you just have to take extra care.

The stand I got goes for 30 bucks, but it collapses to something you can easily stick in a pocket or a small area of your laptop carrying case, if you use one. It's really a nice solution and very steady, even when you lean heavily on the laptop with your wrists, like I always do.