Anyone had overheating issues with the FX gateways?

Hey good people, first post here.

After much research I bought the 173fx and received it yesterday. I'm really impressed with it ( a little jealous now that i know about the new models coming out soon). Anyways, my problem is that my lappy shuts off anywhere from 15-30 minutes of gaming. I'm pretty sure this is due to high cpu/gpu temps? My cpu is usually in the high 60's or low 70's during gaming according to speedfan. I tried to install forceware for a gpu reading but it was unable to install.

Has anyone else experienced these issues? I've been reading about everyone is playing games on these things but I'm starting to wonder...

 

get HWMonitor and check your temps with it, 15-30 minutes is definitely not normal. i have it on maybe 10 hours a day and it never shuts off

 

My T8300 tends to run in the 60s when stressed. The 8800 runs higher, but I can't recall the exact temp. I've never had any BSOD/shut down issues, and I've only seen a few such issues reported. Thus the lappy seems to be thermal-friendly. However, your suspicion about thermal issues is probably right on. If the issue is CPU-related, you're in luck. The CPU is very accessible. If the issue is GPU-related, you're hosed. The GPU is not easy to get at.

 

30 minutes is definitely not normal.
Are you using it on your lap or on a solid flat surface (laptable/desk/etc) If your not using it on a flat surface then you are more than likely covering up the fans and the laptop will heat up like an oven.

Be sure to update your drivers as well (using iamtheanimal's guide on this forum) this can sometimes help.

And dump speedfan... its not a very good temp monitor for the FX line. HWmoniter is much better as Ryo suggested.

If none of this help then you most likely got a bad vid card. Because those temps are VERY high.

I don't play the most demanding games, but i can play them all for days and never get above 60 degrees on my GPU side and I've only had the machine throttle down once due to extreme temps because the room i was in was about 85degrees F.

 

Hey thanks for all the tips and advice everyone. I picked up hw monitor, and loaded up titan quest. Cpu temps were at the high 60's. The gpu temp hovered in the high seventies/low to mid eighties. Also, I'm gaming on just a normal table, shouldn't be anything constricting airflow.

I went to newegg and ordered a notebook cooler. When i get some more time I'll do a forum search and download those drivers. If that doesn't work I then I guess I'm sol and will get on the phone with gateway.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834998492

 

Your shutdown issue shouldn't be because of your CPU temps, I think. My P-6860 FX ran extremely hot out of the box, with the T5550 at 60c idle and 80c load according to RealTemp, but I was still able to game for hours and hours.

 

I would ask for a replacement. If it doesn't work like it should out of the box (no overheating), then you should return it. Notebook coolers are only a temporary fix.

 

Is it plugged in or are you running on battery?

Does it shut down on other games, or have you only tried that one you mentioned?

 

i bet anything its your power supply taking a crap on you and not heat issues cause your cpu is fine interms of temps and the GPU would just throttle if you were hitting 105 degrees .

 

I second this, and since you will have to wait to have another shipped to you, consider returning it and getting one of the new models as well.

 

Agreed. The CPU throttles itself long before it shuts the machine down and the gpu just hard locks if it overheats. Not to mention your temps are nowhere near the danger zone. Theres something else at work there. I would check the System Log. I'm having a very random issue with iostor.sys bluescreening my PC, which is a known issue with the Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers. You may be getting hit with this as well. The system log should tell you what happens when it shuts down.

 

hey were you able to fix that overheating problem? I just bought the 173x FX and I'm getting the same heat shutdowns, i cannot play crysis or flatout ultimate for more than 7min before it shuts down. Mine reaches 98c for GPU and 66c CPU, btw I use a notebook cooler and play in an airconditioned room too. This is a 1 week old brand new laptop i bought from tigerdirect.

Where do I get the drivers for the video card anyway and will it fix the heat issue? thanks

 

I also had this problem with CoD4. Try lifting the back of the notebook an inch or so from the table to lower the temps.

Also, get newer drivers from laptopvideo2go and just keep trying them until you find one that works for you

 

Ok....I've had the same problems! I was playing Left 4 Dead today and it just shut off on me! What should I do? I was thinking of ordering a laptop cooler...

 

Ah, 9 month old threads bring back memories...

So start from the beginning.
What are your temps?
What are your playing conditions?
What drivers?
When was the last time you cleaned your system?
Solid flat surface or some kind of surface that is the exact oppisite of solid and flat?
What system are you actually using?

Any other relevant info you would like to share besides "my system is over heating"?

 

My friend also has this same problem.
He hasn't installed any temp monitors but theres no way the CPU / GPU could heat up enough in 30 minutes to shut the machine down.

I recommended him install the latest NVIDA drivers [186.03], no luck. I also recommended him prop up his computer and not play on his lap. No luck.

He suspects it's cause of the Windows 7 RC [Build 7100], I said it was unlikely...

He's got a NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS and some T series C2D.
Any ideas?

 

When you state shutdown what does the system do?

1.) does it shutdown as if windows were shuting down?
2.) does it shut down as if all of a sudden there was a power loss?

if the second is true then it may be a BIOS protected shutdown from the temperatures. Some bios's alow you to control these triggers, most on a laptop do not. If you have these controls or a way to dissable them you can try that.

If you suspect the power brick the best test is to run the game and while the game is active pull the brick from the computer. You may want to try this several times in a frequent succession as well to be sure a flaky power connection is not the issue as well.

EDIT;
This however will not test if your brick is just borderline. if it is and the cpu voltage gets flakey this WILL cause the sudden off situation. The thing here is the voltage will drop and shutdown before you could record, on the PC, there is an issue. As a side note to this power line conditions can casue this as well. As an example a brown out could lower the bricks output durring high load times to a level that will shut the system off.

 

Hey thanks alot for your response TANWare!

I'm going to double check this, but I believe the computer shuts down as if there was a loss of power, so #2. I will check in greater detail and get back to you. Thanks alot!

 

Without being there it is hard to diagnose. I have seen rail pwer issues create many an issue with CPU's. The problem also builds itself up. As the cpu gets hot the resistance within the cpu and that increases the need for more voltage and more voltage creates more heat. A never ending self destructive cycle........

Now to the other possible fix, Undervolting. This will cause less heat reducing the need the need for the higher voltage. Also this will reduce demand on the power brick giving it more head room for providing clean power. Also less stress to the components should help increase their life............

 

Just an FYI here guys. The systems works well heat wise. My system may be relatively new but this is from my last encoding session (used HandBrake to shrink a 20GB 1080p video to 10GB - 4 hr first pass + 24 hr second pass). All temps are min/max.

TZS0 39C/80C
TZS1 39C/81C
Core #0 20C/67C
Core #1 17C/69C
GPU Core 43C/55C
HDD 40C/56C


(the low processor temps are the processor stuck on stock. Probably from the AC and cooler running after the task finished)

 

Well it's been a year and I have not been able to fix the problem lol. I've pretty much just given up gaming on this thing. I've reduced power consumption, ive underclocked the gpu, ive tried laptop coolers. You name it, ive tried it. Very frustrating.

 

I am writing this post to help anyone with gateway fx 78 series notebook overheating issues.

I started experiencing laggy graphics after owning my gateway p7805u for about one year. GPU temperatures reached 80-90 degrees at idle and rose to 110+ degrees while playing games.

I was able to get my temperatures down to a max of 70 degrees under load and idle at aorund 50 degrees. Some steps require that you open your laptop so proceed with caution and only follow the steps if you know what you are doing, research the topic thoroughly, and get someone to help you if you are unsure.

Step1
Obvious, but can make a big difference - get a can of compressed air and clean all the dust out of the exhaust/intake ports located on the left side and rear of laptop (underneath draws air in, then it is expelled out the side/back) If there is a lot of dust it will dramatically affect airflow and cause higher than desired temperatures.

Step2
This involves opening the case and applying thermal paste to both the CPU and GPU. I used arctic silver 5 which is available at any radioshack for $10.

1. Open the panel on the bottom of your computer - this requires removing 5 screws with a small phillips head screwdriver.

2. After removing the panel you will see a cooling fan on the side of the laptop and the cpu and gpu is located to the side of it. To remove the heatsink from the cpu and gpu you will need to unscrew the 4 small screws around the proccessor and the one screw located on the side of the gpu.

3. After loosening these 5 screws you will be able to lift the heatsink straight up out of the laptop. ( it is all attached with a copper pipe that runs to a heatsink next to the fan - this is all one piece and lifts out together. Dont force it, it comes out quite easily once screws are loosened. The screws will stay attached to the heatsink and this is great because you wont lose them)

4. You will notice that the gpu uses a thermal tape (horrible) and the cpu has some cheap paste on it - wipe/peel both of these off of the cpu and gpu and the heatsink ( I used some alchohol pads, you can also purchase products designed specifically for this, also at Radioshack)

5. Let the surfaces dry, and then apply a SMALL amount of heat paste in either a dot the size of a bb or a small line on the gpu and cpu ( the gpu has a slightly larger surface area). You do not want an excess amount of paste - only enough to cover the polished copper surfaces after the heatsink has been refastened (really about the size of a bb dot or an uncooked grain of rice line).

6. Replace the heatsink (it drops straight down to replace and straight up to remove) and tighten the screws - you should do this a little at a time alternating between the screws until they are all tight in about 3 passes.

7. That is all there is to it - if you are unsure if you applied the correct amount of paste you can again unscrew the heatsink and lift it straight out - if there is any clumping on the heatsink around where the edges of the cpu or gpu raised copper surface ends, you applied a bit too much. The object is to apply as little as possible and cover the entire surface of the cpu/gpu. Depending on the heat paste you use, for instance arctic silver 5 is a bit thicker at first, it may not cover the entire surface immediately as this paste is designed to spread under heat and eventually dry out and provide maximum cooling after about 200 hours use - you will notice a HUGE difference right away though. If you applied too much paste clean it off and start over.

These two steps alone allowed me to run games on higher graphics settings than i ever had before without coming close to even the idle temperatures I experienced before.

Step3
This is just making sure your laptop is not sitting on a flat surface - it needs to be propped up somehow to allow air to flow underneath the laptop. Laptop cooling pads can be a good option although 99% of them ignore basic laws of physics and since air will find the path of least resistance do absolutely nothing to help in that regard. A good one is something like the cooler master infinite cool http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=2581 that draws in air and forces it to the bottom of the laptop, letting the least amount of air escape from the sides/bottom of the cooling pad. I should however note that cooling pads will for the most part have very little effect other than to raise the laptop off of a flat surface and allow better airflow underneath it.

Following these simple steps should solve overheating issues I have seen so many post about and experienced myself. I would like to end by saying gateway support is horrible and they should just be honest and tell you that you are on your own. And if done properly, none of this should void your warranty. If you are unsure about the steps I outlined you can find more information in insane detail by searching for it. This post is mostly just to let people know what worked for me.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought accessing the GPU was much more involved than just taking off the rear panel ;(

 

It is, he's crazy. He's also reviving threads that are like half a year old. lol You pretty much have to take out the motherboard to get to the GPU. I wish it was that easy.

 

I think it's a power issue. I have a Gateway p79 FX. It shuts down whenever I am playing visually demanding games (Bad Company 2) online. All component tC are never much above 70C during peak playing time, except for the MB, which gets to up to 90C. I tried playing on the battery and it did not shut down after about an hour of playing (with the power cord, it'd shut down after only 15-20 mins). Eventually I had to plug the cord to recharge. Only about 5 minutes after I did so, the shut down occurred (not a usual shut down - the computer just switched off instantly). Interestingly, I have noticed that this problem occurs only with North American voltage. I used to play the same game in Europe, plugged to the grid, for hours, without any shutdown.

If it's really a power issue, how can it be resolved on a laptop?

 

I think it's definitely a power problem. I decided to plug the charger directly in the wall (no power bar) and it worked fine for an hour of play, when I decided to move the laptop and touched the power cable. It turned the computer off immediately (voltage problem?). I turned it on right after and got back in the game. Without touching the power cable, I was able to get 3 hours of playing time online (Bad Company 2), so this is definitely not an overheating problem. Oh, it did not switch off after 3 hours, I just had enough of playing. So, if the power cable is not moving and if it's plugged directly in the wall, no problem at all. But it's still annoying to play while anticipating the computer to switch off as it has done so many times!

 

"if the power cable is not moving and if it's plugged directly in the wall, no problem at all"

...can you explain to me what that statement means?

It's electrotechnics, not physic! Listen...in my oppinion the problem with the Gateway p-7811fx freezing isn't overheating, but materials installed inside called...AU Optronics. This is our HD display
I Accidentially broke it one time (speaker fell on it). I started to use an external monitor by VGA connection. It worked brilliant, no lockups or freezing at all. I could play whenever I wanted for a loooooong time. But when I bought new one (unfortunately again AU Optronics) the problem came back.

Maybe the problem is the EPROM, maybe the voltage...I lost my faith in solution of this problem. If someone could try with external monitor and write down his conclusions...?

Sorry for my english...I'm still learning Greetings from Poland!

 

I just played last night at a lan tourney and monitored hardware temperatures. The GPU peaked at 96C and the CPU at 92C per core. No shutdown and all was stable.

 

you are borderline with those temps................