The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Gateway 7811

    Discussion in 'Gateway and eMachines' started by crudisill11, Aug 10, 2009.

  1. crudisill11

    crudisill11 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    4
    Messages:
    41
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    What specifically will a BIOS update do.

    I did a fresh install of Vista 64, do I need to update the BIOS?

    Will it affect how cool the laptop runs?

    Will it fix the irregular fan speeds?

    Thanks
     
  2. hanime

    hanime Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    313
    Messages:
    501
    Likes Received:
    20
    Trophy Points:
    31
    A BIOS update can improve performances, but I have heard both stories, good and bad. Therefore it's hard to know if it'll work for everyone. I have the latest 9C.17.00 and have no problem with it. Fans felt the same as 9C.12.00.
     
  3. tallan

    tallan Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    122
    Messages:
    896
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    31
    The original 7811 BIOS did not support RAID; all the later ones do, as far as I know, plus fixing small issues - you can read what each brings to the table on Gateway's site. I've been using the latest 9c.17 which seems to help the fan revving slightly and have not heard any complaints here about this BIOS.

    No, you do not need to re-install your BIOS after a fresh install of the operating system; the BIOS is firmware, and "talks" to the hardware at a very low level, making it OS independent.

    In that a new BIOS may or may not change fan settings, CPU timings and voltages, etc. it may or may not affect the computer's operating temps. If your machine is running unusually hot, however (for example) the problem is NOT likely to be the BIOS but more likely obstructed airflow through the cooling system, bad thermal coupling of CPU or GPU with their heatsinks, etc.
     
  4. Hello_Moto

    Hello_Moto Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    39
    Messages:
    473
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    To answer the last question from OP: GPU fan pulsing still lurking around in .17 bios iteration.