Gateway FX 7811 hangs during game play

I just bought my laptop a few weeks ago from Best Buy. I tried downloading the newest drivers, BIOS, anything that would help me to not have this problem as I've researched it quite a bit. Can anyone tell me what the problem is? Is it the GPU? Heat? Should I try to do an exchange? I really like this laptop but I want it to be reliable. Is there a conclusive answer to the lockups? I've researched the forums but there just seems to be speculation and no definitive answer. Thanks for any help in advance.

 

Please be a little more specific with what happens and what you're doing when it happens. By "hangs" do you mean pauses or full on infinitely long lockups? Or do you mean consistent lag? What game(s) are you playing when this happens? What are your temperatures like when it happens (use HWMonitor)? Do you have any other significant processes running?

 

If it's lag...check your TZS0 in hwmonitor and see if shes peaking at 98c.

 

What happens is the laptop freezes and i hear a constant audio loop. I can't start the task manager and I have to power off the laptop and power it on again. I tried elevating the battery end of the PC as it does get hot. That seems to be a fix. I'm also using a different USB port as someone had posted it could be a port problem with the right USB port. Should I invest in a laptop cooler? Anymore input would be great.

 

Use HWMonitor and tell us the GPU temperature.

 

Well I would say he wouldn't be able to tell us the temperature when it freezes cuz well, it's frozen. However, try Ctrl-Alt-Deleting out next time, you might be able to.

 

I have had the similar problem on COD4 and even spore. Mainly COD4.
with rivatuner it shows u the gpu temp, which usually hit 95C for me. i can feel my hand burn. When i took it to best buy, they took a look at it and sent it off.
it came back untouched cuz they could not replicate the problem. (how could they if they didnt have the game)
when i got it back and was told that they didnt do anything, cuz there was no fixing to do, i went home to recreate it and it happened. luckily i recorded it on camera. visiting geek squad soon, when i get time to drop it off.

 

I think the problem is more akin to heat than anything. When I elevate the laptop, the problem hardly occurs. I am looking into getting a cooling pad for this unit. I'll report my findings once I have it and have tested it out.

 

yeah your temps should never be that hot mine will never go above 75c and iv been playing crysis and farcry 2 i also played spore for why longer then i should have like 12 hours and no over heating....

 

Well I bought a low end cooler from Frys but it obviously didn't solve my heat issue and it wasn't big enough to accomodate the laptop size either. Maybe that was my fault but now I'm going onto Newegg to buy an aluminum cooler. Anyone have a good recommendation for a cooler for this laptop?

 

NZXT Cryo LX is what i stand by. You could also check out the Zalman NC-2000, but for me the cryo is worth the $$$ spent on it. On my toshiba x205, it lowered max temps only a couple degrees, but on my 6860, i regularly idle in the low to mid 20's, max cpu temp is 50C and that only happened once, max gpu temp is 68C.

 

Hi i have the exact same laptop and what sounds to be the same problem.
I have a NZXT laptop cooler, and am still having the issue. One thing that is slightly different in my case is that the screen will go black instead of just freezing.
This seems to happen after extended play. sometimes it only takes 2 hours other times it just 5 for it to happen.
It does not happen when it is not plugged in. i'm assuming it is built to not run as hot while not plugged in.
I have read that in some laptops a graphics card can actually lose contact with the motherboard due to heat. do you think this could be the issue?
just by feeling the bottom of the laptop after a few hours of play (with the cooler on) it feels very cool. the only warm part is the very left side where the inside fan (and i assume the GPU) is.
I am going to monitor it tonight with hwmonitor and see if it goes about 95 C.

BTW i also sent it in to gateway for repairs, they kept it for 3 weeks sent it back with the repair notes saying "updated driver". great job eh, didn't work of course.

 

I know this problem too, but it only happens under Windows 7 (7057) and the beta graphic driver for it. Screen goes black after some time and the GPU fan is very hot (alternate hairdryer for my wife), thus I'm pretty much sure, it's the GPU in conjunction with this beta-driver (and less Windows 7), cause under Vista 64, same game/same settings), different driver, the GPU hardly reaches 70C (at least that what ntune tells me) and so far never blackscreened on me.
Dumped Windows 7 for the moment
Game is LOTRO on close to ultra high settings (1600x1024-windowed mode-dx9)

 

ya don't say. I too am playing lotro, only i am playing in medium graphics with 1920x1200.
I have vista 64 bit.
I have tried the drivers from the Nvida site, as well as ones from LaptopVideo2Go.com
didn't seem to affect anything.

while playing last night i was unable to record the temps using hwmonitor (need to get pro to record) =( but i did glance at it a few minutes before a crash and it was in the mid 90's. that is with the cooling pad on.

any ideas?

 

@brandocomando:
I think, the 1920x1200 resolution is a bit hard on the GPU. Try the same settings on a lower resolution.
As I said, I am still experimenting, as I just installed a Vertex (and totally clean Vista) for gaming.
I am creeping closer and closer to total ultra high under dx9 (dx10 still seems to cause quite a number of issues with LOTRO as well as maybe with the GPU), though those performance eaters that kill frames and GPU I still keep in the midrange (AA at max 4, something blah blah only at "sharp", in the troubleshooting-option I capped the FPS at 60 - don't need more, only when he can get more, the GPU will be stressed more with no actual visual performance increase, thus cap it, etc.).
My GPU did not go over 60C last night, 1 hour playing, including 21. Hall (that's due to Ntune, but I also felt hardly any warming up of the fan air).
One thing would be to clean the fans (I am sure you did that already) or start experimenting in the game:
Do a 1600x 1024, or around there resolution, and start testing. If you can go close to ultra high, go up with the resolution and if the GPU gets too hot change down the settings bit by bit.
Which driver are you using?
I have to check tonight, but I believe I had some issues with the drivers above 180, but finally settled with one of them that worked (and still does) pretty well.
Also, though I assume you have allready done this, apply the tweaks to LOTRO (forcefullfakepage=false, etc.). There is a sticky thread in the US Forums under Technics - Video.

Regards

 

Hey thanks alot, yea i've cleaned out my fans already.
I'll try lowering my resolution, had my ui all set up perfectly for 1920x1200(windowed mode also btw) and it was great =) but if i can stop crashing i'd be worth it. I don't use dx10 either.
Currently i am running the 177.92 Vista 64-bit drivers
I'll have to try and find that sticky with the tweaks. see if that helps any.

Thanks again, i'll post an update as soon as i get a chance to test this all out.
BTW GL with ur system as well

 

Well i lowered the res, did a few tweaks to the in game graphic options and it seemed to help alot. I played for probably 3 hours without a crash. The tempterature usually stayed in the mid 70's. i did crash twice after 3 hours, to my knowledge the GPU was not in the 90's at the time of crash unless it jumped up extremely fast.
i used HWmonitor to watch the temperature and recorded it, but unfortunatly when the computer crashes it does not save the log, you have to manually stop the recording and save it.

The temperature seemed to raise quite a bit when i placed the laptop (on cooling stand) on the ground rather than on my lap or proped up the back of the cooler. it seemed neccesary for there to be more room underneath the cooler fans that the stand allows by itself.

with the laptop unplugged the GPU stayed consistantly at 58-59 degrees celcius.

any thoughts are appreciated

 

Well I think I figured out the problem with the 7811, for me anyway since I started the topic a while back... The problem is the hard drives get too hot and then the laptop simply freezes as a result. My temps were wbout 135-140 degrees farenheit when it would occur. I had downloaded drivers and upgrades and all manner of software to remedy this problem. But then It finally hit me, since my hard drive was gettting too hot and i couldn't play games for a long period of time due to the heat, I would solve the problem by buying an external hard drive. No heat issues, lots of drive space, and all my games are installed on it. The problem no longer presents itself when even playing Crysis. Yeah it's more money but less trouble than sending back the laptop and dealing with the issue over and over.

 

Huh, ya know i had thought it may be the hard driver over heating. That area of the laptop really has no air circulation, and not much of a heat sink around it. I'll look into getting a external one (i may need one down the road anyways).
when you had this problem did your screen turn black? or did it just freeze?

thanks dinomite

quick question: i would have to uninstall the game from the current hard drive and reinstall it on the other correct? or would it be faster to make a duplicate folder on the external drive and run the launcher out of that folder?

 

Jesus Christ...Haven't been on here for a while. I've had this problem for a while. What I get is a black screen sound loop. After rebooting and checking hw monitor hard drives were at 48c and that's at idle. Gpu temps below 70c Cpu temps below 50c. Gonna open the HDD bay and see if it happens.

 

Please keep us updated about the open harddrive bay.

 

Well after monitoring temps on a secondary display max temp the hard drive hit during fallout 3 was 53c. But........ it didn't crash. The crashes seem to be temperature independent, in my case at least, or a component that hw monitor doesn't pick up is overheating. Under clocking the gpu helps; crashes occur less frequently or cease all together. Wish I knew why this was happening,

 

yea i am still a bit puzzled by it as well. I've noticed that if you switch to power save mode the GPU temps seem to stay alot lower(even if you brighten the screen back up). I am watching all of the hareware hwmonitor can watch while i play and i have not been able to pinpoint an exact cause for the crash.

i just know that in power save mode tempteratures are cooler and the crashes are less frequent if not solved.

 

Gotta remember that power saver basically down clocks your cpu and gpu. Your performance will suffer.

 

doesn't seem to be suffering too bad, and if a little preformance decrease is all it takes to stop crashing, i'm perfecting ok with that.

 

I've been having the same problem as you but with a 7805FX.
I figure the model is similar enough that the problem is mutual.
By any chance do you guys are using a USB mouse or USB something at the same time it crashes. Try plugging it out and see what happens individually if you have more than one.

Everything works perfectly for me only when my USB mouse isn't plugged in so I'm looking for similar solutions to that.
(Everything is updated and I even got a EHDD and a Fan as suggested here but that didn't work for long or at all so I think the problem is temperature independent and caused by an IRQ conflict thats not being registered or something)
I'm not well knowing in that realm of device managers but I hope my own case will help us find a solution overall.

EDIT: Also this problem only occurs when the power cord is plugged in. When it's not, everything is ok.

 

I hope you are wrong. I don't think I could game with the touchpad only. I will try it without the mouse when I get home. Just a general question to the people with the crash issue. Are you over clocking?

 

Also try without the battery charger. I find that sometimes even with the mouse in, I can work it without the charger. Having the charger in with the mouse just speeds up the crashes faster.
I'm going to see if I can get this exchanged as probably there was a batch of lemons surfacing around...

 

When I had crashes, which was only when gaming under Windows 7, no overclocking (killed my last Dell Notebook overclocking, so I am keeping very far away from any GPU OC )

 

No i am not overclocking at all.

so far this is a list of things i have found that seem to prevent a crash:
-unplugging from the wall
-playing in powersave mode

i'm hopeing that its not the usb thing because i cannot game with just the touch pad, and i don't wanna get a bluetooth mouse.

Also are you guys running vista? or xp?

 

vista home premium x64...
Guys just try to underclock your gpu's. Maybe they're stressed or aren't getting enough voltage. Instability of incoming power could explain why this is happening sporadically at higher clocks. Wish we could change voltage to see if this is the case :/

 

i only read the first post.
i'd get a replacement.
i HATE fixing new systems that shouldn't have problems.

trying to fix problems like this is like trying to hide the dust under the carpet.
i usually just assume its a hardware problem.

why should I be fixing my computer when everybody else has no problems from the beginning?

 

Am already underclocking the GPU.

Also to the prior poster who mentioned this, how did you manage to get it to work on power saver mode, mines wont even last with that with the charger in. Anything special or no?

 

no not really. in any mode i can play for at least 30 minutes without a crash, but when i switch over to power save mode it seems to prevent it all together. i even turn the screen brightness up to normal.
by watching the temps durring play in powersave mode it seems to run 20-25 degrees celcius cooler than in balanced mode.

 

Can y'all explain the crash again. What i get is the monitor turns off/ goes black followed by sound loop. Have to reboot. Running with settings in sig + max brightness..... maybe the monitor is overheating.

 

Yep i get the same thing. After extended game playing the screen will suddenly turn black, the sound will loop, and i will have to hold the power button to reset the computer.

This has to be a heat/graphics card issue. Last night while in the power save mode i watched as the graphics card temp rose suddenly (no settings changed) i cannot really explain why it began to rise, but it rose very fast and i got the crash. I was playing fine for about 3 hours at a constand 59 degrees C, then it went up to 75 degrees within a minute, inexplicably.

My guess is that the card is not connected to its heat sink as much as it should be, or that when it heats up it loses connection with the motherboard. this has been known to happen with some laptops.

in response to the comment about sending in the laptop, i've already tried that it is hard to get gateway to do anything helpful if they cannot recreate the problem. When i sent mine it, all they did was update the driver, as if i hadn't tried that. I even included a long note stating all the things i had already tried. If i do end up sending it in again, i'm going to either video tape the crash, and or include HWmonitor logs showing that the temps are reaching the 90's on MEDIUM settings WITH A COOLER when i should be able to play in very high =/

 

Brandocomando: that is a bummer, I would try feasable alternatives/solutions posted here, but before getting into actually fixing something that should be fine from the factory, I would rather send in the machine and have it replaced/repaired.
Otherwise you will always encounter problems, and by then, you will probably have killed your warranty by playing around were you should not have been playing around.
Try to reach someone good from the "support" find out, what information they would like to get from you (HWMonitor loggs, etc.) and send it in.

Over the weekend and the last days I played LOTRO on close to all out ultra settings for hours on end:
No issues (under Vista 64 temps stabelize at around 55C-57C now for hours and hours) at all! I enjoy LOTRO and even more with my new Vertex

 

Sorry I haven't responded to this topic.

You have to uninstall the game from the internal hard drive and then install it to the external one. I didn't notice any performance loss of any kind and my laptop does now does not overheat or get the sound loop, freeze issue. When I would get the problem, though, the screen would not go black, it would just freeze all of a sudden. I would suggest anyone get an external hard drive anyway. I have a bunch of Hi-Def movies and games installed so as not to take away from the needed space on the internal hard drives.

 

For anyone with the crash similar to the one in my last post, It seems to be related to the design of the 9600gt (basically what we have in our laptops). There are many people with this issue; also happening only in some games. (Fallout 3 and Dead Space for me). After a year of trying to fix it no one has a solution yet. The general consensus is to underclock your card for the games experiencing the crash (Easily done with rules for ntune). If you can, return your laptop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Is it only certain 7805 and 7811 fxs that are affected or the entire line?

 

I have sent in my 7811 twice for Gateway to fix.

They could not recreate the problem (playing City of Heroes or WoW) and sent it back the first time. I got it to crash within 5 minutes of hooking it back up.
I sent it back the 2nd time and Gateway sent it back a couple weeks later. However it has been lost by FEDEX.

I told the Level 2 tech that I did NOT want another 7811 in return. I want the more stable 7805u.

My laptop would freeze(no black screen) and I would have to do a hard reboot(holding the power button down).

Some 7811's are notorious for this (although Gateway denies this)and to this point I don't think anyone has come up with a standard solution that works for everyone.

However, if they decide to send me another 7811 I will definitely try the external HD trick.

Having said that, I shouldn't have to get a laptop cooler(I did) or use an external hard drive for my brand new laptop to function correctly.

@drchatter - I haven't heard anything about the 7805's having this problem on the scale that the 7811's have.

 

Unfortunately I have the 7805, I only posted here because the problem was similar so I thought there would be some mutual support.
Any ideas on underclocking since for some reason I can't seem to get rivatuner to detect my graphics card settings to underclock and ntune just crashes my computer every time.