Gateway 7811FX Refurbs.. Have you had any issues?

Hi all.. I've noticed that the Tiger Direct refurbs of the 7811FX have given several of you issues. I'm not sure if it's a REAL problem, or just needless worries. This thread isn't meant to be a solution thread..but a thread to report the issues you've had, if any. Please, note the issues and let's see if there's a common denominator. Then we can take it from there. If you haven't had any issues, then congrats!

 

Well, for my part, I have the pulsing GPU fan problem...which is bareable for the price I have paid.

I have the white-ish bubble-like thing in my screen which moves when you rub it. I don't see it except when I have a black background so I don't really mind it. The screen is really nice appart this exception above.

But my main concern is this
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=340728

Still haven't found any clues yet and I am REALLY pissed because I really like this laptop and I may be in a position to return it.

 

Nothing major to report, yesterday I noticed that I couldn't connect to my aunt's wireless network on battery, then again its not the only notebook that I've had that problem with; and the screen isn't as screaming bright as I'm use to.

I ran Prime95 on here with Vantage and games for multiple hours when I first got it, no problems; I came from a Asus C90s, so this notebook literally does not have the "Turbo Engine" so its relatively quiet and I absolutely love the battery life (3 hours).

 

Other than the fact that they didn't install all of the drivers and whoever did the final QC on mine didn't feel the need to shut it down properly, I haven't had any problems. I ran it through its paces with furmark and prime95 with no issues. The temps have been really good in all areas so far (I keep it elevated on a cooling pad, but haven't had to turn it on yet). I do have it undervolted a bit to prolong its life, but its been rock-solid so far. Its even from the dread 2887-run.

 

I had a loose display cable connection that seemed to be the cause of my screen distortion but otherwise no problems. See thread.

My buddy at work who ordered his 7811 the same day as me had a recurring "air bubble in the LCD" ghost issue, so he sent his back and picked up a 7805u.

 

I just got mine today (been on vacation for awhile) updated video drivers and got 8800+ in 3dmark 06, installing steam and temp monitoring program right now and will edit

EDIT 1: Also have bubble but never notice it unless at a weird angle and a black screen

EDIT 2: Ran 3dmark06 again with steam downloading bioshock at 1MB/sec and got a score of about 8600, not bad, temps were never above 80 celcius

EDIT 3: Ran into some big problems and had temps at 98 celsius but changed drivers and now I have not gone over 68 after 40 loops of crysis benchmark @ 1920 x 1200, medium everything except for shaders and shadows, so I think I am safe...

 

my TD refubished p2887's video card is causing lockups as i mentioned in this thread. it also has the ghosting display problem discussed in this thread.

 

My hard drive gets too hot, if it's gamed on for like two hours the game locks up. I don't think it would be Fallout's doing, I also notice that the light below the touchpad is always blinking. I think the hard drive is being overworked or something because right now I've been surfing the web for like an hour and my hdd temp is 40.

I don't know if I should return the laptop since on one of the lockups, after I restarted on normal mode, a sound driver was installed (I could only see it on the taskbar), also the headphones don't show up on the sound playback devices even though they are working. My temp just reached 41 but the screen came without a bad pixel.

I'm thinking of buying another hdd to test it out or if I should reformat and see if the problem persists (I never did a reformat before)

Please help out with any knowledge, I was thinking of making a thread but saw this as an easier alternative. Temp just reached 42, thanks in advance.

 

P-7811FXs come with 200 GB 7200 RPM HDs so they run usually hotter than say a 320 GB 5400RPM HD. The operating temperatures are up to 60C for the HD so you're fine at 40. Your lockup problems are probably from something else rather than the HD.

 

Problem is I've seen it get to 49 before a crash, and I'm not sure the hard drive light should be so active even when I'm doing nothing.

 

Nothing wrong here. Everything seems to be going just fine.

 

Well I was having issues with mine. I could run Furmark for sometimes 2+ hours or sometimes 5 minutes and then it would hard freeze. GPU temps never went higher than 73c on stability test at 1920x1200, which is well within range. I had it freeze at 59c at one point.

I tried everything, new drivers, 32 bit OS, etc etc. Nothing worked.

I love this machine though and didn't want to go the swapping route, my screen is great, my cpu undervolts down to .9125 and runs at 21c. So I was determined to fix this blasted machine.

Finally fixed it by ripping apart the thing, and putting some artic silver on the GPU VRAM chips. I put some on the GPU core as well but I can tel you it didn't drop my temps by even 1 degree. They did a fantastic job on the gpu, but there wasn't ANY paste, pad, nothing on the ram. I put that in, and badabing we are good to go.

BTW this is a MAJOR job, you have to remove the motherboard from the casing, and you could easily damage it. I do not recommend doing this unless you are experienced in laptop repair/computers.

 

left speaker had some tiny holes in it and a few tiny broken pieces of staples stuck on it (guess that was what the owner did before so he could have an excuse to return it) perfect other than that was able to pull staples out and works fine now.