Gateway FX Disassembly Guide (Covers all 17in FX Notebooks)

have you figured out how to do the lcd yet? i want to change my 1400x900 lcd to the 1900x1200 ones ive seen on ebay.

 

Try this thread . . .

 

Just say thank you to OP. I disassembled my 7811, made a internal clearing and changed the thermal grease on CPU and GPU according to the extremely detailed instruction, now it works great )))

 

Great post, pretty much identical to the 7811.

 

Hello ,
Thanks first to the OP for going through this tricky disassembly,and having the foresight to take pics and mark them ..


So Previously.

The palm and wrist-rest areas to the right of the trackpad would get quite hot making even surfing a miserable experience...Also CPUID reported my CPU was 55C Idle (my GPU would be cooler at 50C),which seemed quite annoying

I dont remember which BIOS it was .. but after a session of gaming I Fired up CPUID whic reported my GPU at 116C (Thats C not F) .My heart almost stopped.I knew these things run hot but damn...


So in an impulse I decided to see if something could be done about this

First thing I did was relocate the hard drive to underneath the track pad (the leftmost slot) .Instant cooler ... highly recommended.no nothing changed in vista..

Some Notes

1.People advice to to blow dust off through the outside fins ..that is a bad idea as it will come back and rest there again ..The right way to do it is the hard way .Complete dis assembly and then blowing it out.

2.The default TIM from gateway was hard and dried up and cracked as hell .. better than nothing but no good still ..

3.There are several tiny surface mount caps around the GPU . caution caution caution .. when working on it..

4.The GPU memory chips (and possibly one VRM) have no TIM between them and the heatsink . So I added a blob of TIM on the center ..better than nothing...THe funny bit is there are more memory chips on the underside of the MOBO with not cooling whatsoever.

5.AS5 Drop kicks heat and takes its lunch money * ..Between cleaning the vents and AS5---- CPU at 32 idle 44 load and GPU at 40 Idle 95 Load..

6.Removing the Media bar was not a big deal as I had thought it was -- Just push from the hinge covers from the back of the Laptop - Up ..and they pop out ..Also the bar's plastic tab things are visible from the battery bay .use a flat head to pop them out.. I highly recommend this than the OP'S method .

hope this helps ..I have done this process a few time so I was not worried .Use precautions and you should be good..

Also when you are in there cleaning take a moment to stare at the crappiest pair of loud speakers on earth.


keba

P-7811FX

 

Hi, my Gateway 7809 runs great but I have a little... tiny problem
When I press key "2" is like that key is not so responsive, is like is stuck, can someone explain if I can fix this, maybe to remove that key and putt it back

 

so this is where i screwed up...didnt undo clip correctly so the little teeth on it broke....reassembly lead to it being loose....prayed to god good contact was made...nope i can use maybe 1/4 of keys if that. how hard is it to get a clip and where or is there an alt fix maybe. any ideas? many thanks because im typing this using the accessibility keyboard in windows which is not very efficient

 

All notebook speakers arent that great,and with a gaming notebook that has as good a value as the Gateway FX,they had to go cheap somehow.
Danger zone in notebook cpu's btw is about 80C,and max in most Intels is 100C.
I replaced what looked like "thermal foil" on the cpu of my notebook with as5,and next the cpu,the gpu?(looked like the gpu,idk) covered with a thermal pad,it didnt seem to need a gap between the heatsink and the chip,it runs fine, at overall 8-10C lower @ 46C according to CPUID HW monitor.

 

anyone??...even still under warranty i cant really call gateway and send laptop for replacement clip...its not something i can just get on newegg or take in to local shop for what is prob a couple dollar part...and i know how to fix just dont know here to get the clip...or hackjob fix

 

If I wanted to just take the back plastic cover off to clean out the fans what step should I start on?
Or do you have to take out the keyboard and stuff to be able to take off the back cover?

 

Well you could try but since the part is inside your laptop I almost guarantee you that they will want you to send it in for the repair work.

 

I like how they changed the thread's title, I just used this guide to disassemble my P-7811FX (though I've read numerous similar guides, I just found this one more quickly than other guides thanks to it's "sticky"-ness!!!

 

Yeah i got tired of linking to it because people would glance over it due to them thinking it was model specific.

Now everyone can see it will work for all current and past 17in FX models

 

great guide. I just took my laptop apart and put it back together. I have like 20 left over screws... wonder if they're important... probably not...

 

Hi All..

Great post, I was able to open up my lappy and replace the thermal paste on both my CPU and GPU and give the fans a well deserved cleaning.

I have a problem though, my laptop now does not receive any power from my power brick, also the left USB ports do not work either.

I am guessing that section is not talking to the motherboard, but it looks like its plugged into the motherboard (through the large white plug).

Anyone else come up with this problem, or have any suggestions as to how to solve this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance..

Starting to get Borderlands withdrawals...

 

i tryed .....the P7811fx of Rhadamanthis score will raise again....Mod on in course

 

Wow thanks a lot for this.

+rep

 

Hey, Sorry if this is the wrong thread but here goes.... I'm the proud owner of a P-172S FX. I recently lost the snap on CD-Rom Slot cover and can't find one aftermarket. Gateway won't help me because I didn't buy my mean machine from them. Can someone tell me where to go and what part # to ask for, please...Much thanks

 

It sure was nice to find this before I decided to take my 171S-FX apart to see if it had a removable video module. my video card died last night and i'm not sure what options I have ? it runs in some crippled vga mode but no hardware accel and i'm pretty confident its dead, shows up in device manager as a vga device and if i open any direct x game it crashes my computer, i reboot and the bios screen has white lines all over it.. any ideas ?

 

i need to clean my fans and stuff, as I'm getting extremely high temps on load. Do I have to go all the way down to step 15? That frightens me!

 

Not at all man, there is no reason to take apart the lcd screen, keyboard etc. Take a look at where the fan is at on the first pic, it's not that hard to clean it out lol. Grab a can of compressed air and go from there

 

Plus rep, good stuff. Will use when I upgrade my cpu.

 

Thank you for posting this! This disassembly guide is a GODSEND even for me, someone who is trained to repair laptops and computers... because they are all so DIFFERENT and have different instructions on how to remove stuff.

There is one question I have however... I am assuming that you disassembled this after awhile of using it..... how bad was dust buildup on the GPU? My GPU is overheating on a regular basis without using RivaTuner to 'fix' it, and I was wondering if it might have gotten all cruddy in the less than 1 year we have had it.

 

yeah, clean out your system... you need to clean it about once a month. Laptops are small and have very little space so any dust gets to be a problem quickly.

You dont have to take it apart once a month just a good can of air will do (though i recommend a through cleaning about once every yearish)

 

I need to specifically pull two GIANT pieces of fuzz off of the gpu fan. Is there a way I can just get to it quick? The temps went from 90 to 60 on full blast since using compressed air and stuff but that made two pieces of dust get stuck on the fan which stop it from spinning. I can pick up the peices through the vents. I don't really want to take everything apart but just want to pick the pieces of dust out.

 

Hello azrickster, and thank you for you post, there is a lot of details! I have a question (i'm french, my english is a little bad): can we acces easily to GPU without disassemble all of the laptop (just remove the bottom laptop).

I want to change and add TIM (arctic silver 5) on the GPU like I did it for the CPU but I don't want to take apart the Media Bar, the Keyboard, the LCD, etc. Can we just remove some srews on the bottom en remove the back of the laptop?

I have try it already but I have fail (I realise now that I've forget the DVD srew lol). So is someone have already did it without problem? How to did it?

Thank you!

EDIT: I can see that masterkeba did it. Have you totaly disassemble your laptop or just the back?

 

where is the cmos battery/jumper located?

 

I have one year old 7811fx, i am working in very dusty environment and my GPU & CPU fan making noise so I did cleaned CPU fan with brush and compressed air but I couldn’t clean GPU fan inside. My question is that it is compulsory to complete disassemble the laptop or another easy way to clean fan inside. I am very confused how to remove bottom chassis of the laptop just like CPU compartment cover without remove the LCD, Media bar and Keyboard.

Thanks.

 

Just took apart my p6860 to bake the motherboard (it worked). I used this guide and it was perfect except the p6860 has an additional cable to the power button, near the media bar cable. Has to be removed along with the media bar cable to disassemble the media bar.

 

Hello all,

I have compiled a PDF of the disassembly guide, useful for printing and offline viewing if anyone is interested.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mzmzrfkhjmz

P.S if the link doesn't work then i will host the file elsewhere

 

Not Working.

 

Link states that to download, you have to be a Premium member.

Nice work, by the way.

Repped, even if I don't own a FX anymore.

 

ok sorry about that, added a new link with a different file host, should work now

 

Good work to both of you for making things easy for the rest of us.

 

I'm trying to install a second drive but have no screws for the caddy. This is relevant to this thread becasue I tried to remove the original drive so I could match the original drive caddy screw and get 4 more.

My problem came about when i tried to pull on the grey tab to remove the original drive. It just ripped right off in my hand and I can't seem to coax the drive out no matter what I do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

HELP!!

I did everything as detailed, up to the step 12 (I just wanted to remove the dust from the GPU heatsink). Then I reassembly and when I plug the notebook to the power, the POWER button (the orange one, by the media buttons) stays lit and pressing it won't turn the notebook on. The battery indicator doesn't lights up, either.

Anyone know what I have done wrong?

Edit: wait, I did some more stuff and now the battery indicator lights up, but the POWER button does not. However the notebook still won't turn on.

Edit, what happens is that when I hit the Power button, the orange light lits up for 1-2 seconds then turns off.

Edit, I think I identified the problem. It seems that I teared the cord that links the Power button to the Motherboard (mine is the P-6831). I'll take the notebook to the assistance.

 

Maybe you would like to use the button between the media bar and the power button to power up - it serves the same purpose, if you are out of warranty.

 

great post
rep +

 

Just wondering if anybody knows if the GPU can be accessed by just taking off the bottom panel without going through all the other steps.

 

No, you have to completely remove the bottom housing to access the gpu

 

I use my P-172X FX for music production, and when I hook it up to an amp while it is connected to the power brick (either through the headphone jack, OR EVEN THROUGH FIREWIRE with my firewire mixer, which is really surprising) ,there is a distinct buzzing noise in the background – I assume that this is due to extra electricity somehow making it through to the jack...or something. But anyways, my point is that I am wondering if there is anything I can modify to remedy this?

I could use what is called a "ground loop isolator", but I believe that these distort audio.

Any help would be very very much appreciated!

 

I am thinking of disassembling my p7805u myself, but I am a bit nervous about taking this endeavor on my own. Applying ICD7 and cleaning out the heat sync is very tempting though as I'm sure that my temps would be much lower if I did this...

 

Well...doing the CPU and northbridge is easy, its the GPU thats the pain because that does need full disassembly. I havent done the GPU yet or cleaned out my vents in over 3 months, so i think its soon time for a complete strip down

I just have to make sure i have the guide printed out first

 

You wouldn't happen to live somewhere around the Miami area would you?

 

lol, unfortunately no, i live 4300 miles away from you. But like anything i took apart as a kid, i was always left with a couple of screws at the end when i assembled it again. Hopefully wont be making that mistake again!

 

I don't know if I'm the only one with this problem. But my GPU fan doesn't always speed up when playing demanding games. Sometimes fan speed idles till it hits 107 -108 degrees C. At which point the game gets laggy, and I know to blow on the fan till it speeds up. I just sent my P7805-U to gateways repair depot, I know they are not going to fix it, because 90% of the time it works fine. I want to jerry rig my fans to run on 12V at all times. Anyone know of a 12V cable in the laptop I can sodder my fan to.
This would be the PC equivalent of connecting a fan's power cable to a yellow 12V cable on the 4-pin molex ide connector for instance.

Also just out of curiosity. Any one here uses ready boost with an SD card on a 7805U. When ever I use the media card reader intensively, for a long period of time, like readyboost would. I get BSOD with "Power State Failure" Message. This is also something I believe the Repair Depot will not fix because I don't think they will attempt to duplicate the problem.

 

I spilled some syrup on my laptop FX keyboard. So im using this guide to dismember it and clean it out.

It's ok to remove all the black tape on the motherboard, right?

 

Yes, as long as you replace it, the tape is only used to stop things shorting out

 

Has anyone ever made a video of this process; it would be very helpful to see video of particular moments of dis-assembly (taking the media bar off, unhooking plugs etc.). Could fast forward most of the unscrewing. Someone should give it a go if they have done this process already to show the rest of us with cold feet about it

--Edit: Actually I just found one on Youtube. It's a slideshow of pics, but still has some good close-ups of the screws that need to be removed. Here's the link for anyone who could use it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_RZtwDKgS4&feature=related

 

I have a question about installing the internal bluetooth module (only now finding out that the P-7801uFX doesn't have one like the P-6831FX did): what level of dis-assembly does the laptop need to undergo for me to get to the plug (assuming I get one of the compatible modules on Ebay that comes with the cable)? Do I actually need to go through the tear-down instructions in order all the way down to 13E to get to the plug? I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question, but I'm horrible at dis-assembling laptops, and would like to know what I'm in for before pulling the trigger on buying a module. Thanks.