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

Luck, the good kind that is.............

 

Almost wrapped up

 

Success!!!! Thanks to the OP, guide helped out %200.

Temps are cool, PC is WICKED WICKED fast!!!!!

Installing all my updates, etc. Then to test it out on some games!!!

Thanks again to the OP, great guide.

 

Okay, disregard this post. I thought I'd undone something and killed my wifi while tearing down my computer. Turns out, I did... I turned off the freakin' wifi switch.

Doh.

Teardown went great, my northbridge temps are a good ten degrees lower.

Interestingly, though, my GPU temps are a good six degrees higher. That's disappointing, since that was one of the core reasons for the second tear down.

 

What are your temps, and what did you put on the GPU?

 

ICD 7, and as of fifteen seconds ago, my nVidia temps are ranging between 48 and 49C while sitting atop a Zalman NC2000. Before I changed the thermal paste out (I used Arctic Silver about three months ago, because I didn't have any ICD 7), GPU temps were ranging between 42 and 44C. So far, the low post ICD has been about 44C.

As I said, I'm somewhat disappointed; I'd hoped to lose at least a couple of degrees on the GPU. But I'm happy to say that my NB temps haven't gone above 44C since I re-pasted. Before, they were hovering at around 54C, even when idling.

 

Your temps are about the exact same as mine for the GPU.

Take a look at my HW Temps thread.

IMO Idle temps don't mean to much, from a lot of research, even room temp throws them off a bit.

Put it under a load, Prime95 and FuturMark, then check your temps, this is where it really matters.

 

Tear down and rebuild complete; all thanks to this awesome guide. ICD7 applied to CPU, NB, and GPU. Temps are way down.

Unfortunately, I'm still getting black screens during gaming that require a hard reboot.

 

And I'll be using the guide again. I purchased the modular metal GPU fan and heatsink. I am waiting though to decide on if I am getting another laptop. If I don't I'll be also upgrading the SSD to a 240GB and data drive to 750GB along with a USB3/eSata dock..............

 

Any news on the possible laptop change, TANWare? And if so, what laptop are/were you thinking about getting?

 

I wanted the NP9270 but that has been delayed. I may go with a NP9170 and 7970 but I have heard Clevo is not cooling the Vram with the GPU heatsink and this may kill that for me.

 

Modular metal GPU fan/heatsink? You mean the OG one where the fan is not attached to the Heatsink structure?

I switched from the P-78 setup for the GPU HS/Fan to the P-79 setup and noticed temperature drops... even with cooling 3 extra PWM modules!

 

Right, the all metal modular unit.

 

Who has the ballz to break your laptop into parts?

 

Used this guide like two months ago to clean the fans on my computer. Was great and easy too follow. Can't believe how much cooler my laptop runs now with clean fans.

 

This guide is awesome! I used this previously to clean the fans and put decent TIM in all the needed places and am using it now to fully replace the case on my FX. (Yeah, it's the only laptop I've ever had that outlived the case! lol) Thanks again for this!

 

LOL, mine is almost 4 years old now. Longest I have ever had one machine. My case while a bit dirty still has a long life left to it. While it runs Win7 like a true champ the I wants new hardware i getting to me.

In my signature you can see where that is leading.............

 

That looks like a sweet machine! Be sure to keep us in the loop on that one.

 

I am expecting it will be a monster performance wise. Even the i7-3610 just kills the C2D or even the C2Q in every benchmark by a long shot. TBH in casual use I doubt I'll see much of a difference.

Where it will make a huge difference is when I convert photo's or video. I shoot in raw format and to convert a short 136 picture set to JPEG takes 10 minutes and 45 seconds at 3.2 GHz on the P79. A bit longer if I do other things at the same time. With the new system I expect that time to reduce significantly. No video before could covert real time as I could easily be down to only 17 FPS. Now I expect that to reduce as well. I should note though as since those conversions are single thread the x9100 at 4.0 GHz was faster unless converting 3-4 videos at the same time.

I am not huge on gaming so the GTX675m is a waste on me other than benchmarking. The fermi core is know for being OpenGL crippled, this is what I mostly would have used it for. I think Kepler based cores are even further crippled unless you go to quadro cards. Even with the cripple it should still be faster than the GTX 260m................

 

Man your notebook is going to kick my desktops rear quarters! lol Where are you ordering from?

 

I ordered it from Computerupgradeking on their web site. If you go to his ebay store or Amazon it is more expensive for the same thing. For a few dollars less I also got a BD R/W over the BD reader. To me this new computer if the FX systems equivelant for todays technology.

 

I tore down son's 3.5 year old 7805 due to an intermittant thermal run away on GPU. Like aristers post and pic's NO thermal pads on Samsung GPU memory chips. It seems like if this laptop has lasted 3+ years without artifacting or other known memory issues, why are people putting TIM between chips now? Why did Acer not do this? (sound of head exploding)

Big + to azricster for the guide..beter late than never

OT here, but like I posted last year with graphs, my X-775 was my FX replacement. They were both $1.1K and original performace was way surpassed. The FX really raised the bar, in it's time, for the money no?

What I'm finding on my new hardware is, though they be fast.. I'm really getting annoyed with the lack of I/O ports such as express and other really usefull ports. For some reason, 25 pin VGA ports live!

BTW, I got one of mine for CKings. Good price but return service issues have not come up so can't really judge.

 

True, can't seem to get rid of the VGA port. Agreed other data transfer ports and formats seem to go by the wayside. This is the way it is though, always something better around the corner.

While this is not a dollar for dollar replacement it is more so for the P7805u after it was upgraded;

Machine base $1,100
P79 board $400
Q9200 $400
8GB $150
BR-DVD $100
USB 3.0 $30

Total $2180

 

Why would a manufacturer add costs to his product that offer benefits beyond waranty period? Cost Benifit Ratio is a driving force in manufacturing.

Heat is the enemy for silicon based devices as it accelerates junction wear and eventually causes device to fail. This fact always leads me to maximize heat transfer away from the device and thus extend it's life.

Thermal pads are a little better than nothing but avoid the cost of holding tight tolerances in the placement and soldering of seperate devices covered by a single heatsink.

The best TIM is never used in manufacturing due to application inconsistances and thermal movement (pumping). Silicone based TIM is the most forgiving, stable and cost effective available but not thermally efficient.

Simple answer is Acer did not do this because it cost to much and not doing it did not cause excessive waranty costs.

So my answer to you in your original thread was not the ramblings of some adolescent but conclusions from an adult with many years of training, experience and observation.

If manufacturers used your thought processes then your son's FX would last forever and cost $10,000.

If your head must explode, then so be it.

 

Hey smlindahl,

Yes, I see your point. Also consider what would happen if thousands of the laptops failed, before warranty was up, with screen artifact problems. Two edge sword, no?

Anyway, the original poster noted that the GPU ram did not come with TIM, but, he added the TIM with IC7. This is what bothered me, why not Acer as I said.

Anyway laptop is back up and running great, bad TIM. When going back I think i found out why Acer did not bother. Flipping the board over reveals three more Samsung video memory chips! You can add TIM to the one side if you want, the other side is in a dead area zone with no air flow when top deck replaced.

I just plugged what i needed to check out the laptop, no keyboard or top deck, using external keyboard and mouse. I used my temp gun to read these (3) chips under load, 76C.

..and on third day, back to slow, quiet running fan and runaway GPU temp to 90C before I shut down Kombustor. I plan to take a hard look at the GPU fan, again...and see what happens if I cut the yellow tach wire. If I don't have an intermittant fan problem, I also plan to monitor fan voltages external as the laptop is not in use for now.

Update Updated..

Like the TV shows, cut the yellow wire. At least on the 7805 the fan will now run at full speed. Max temps, after 1 hour, as below post for reference. I'll continue to try different stuff but now guessing the fan was not commanded to full speed OR I have a bad fan tach that is intermitant. I need spare fan...

 

Old post but exacly the same temps under load and same TIM. I used this as reference before and after.

 

LOL, I glad someone else noticed. Sorry to dig up the old post but bookmarking. I gota get my old google search working again...

 

I have this laptop for around 4 years by now and still rocks for me.
Unluckily last week the HDMI stop working after a storm that turn off the power in my house.
I would like to know where is it connected the HDMI port to the mainboard/gpu and if it would be possible to fix it or replace it. In my local area I couldn't find people that make this kind of work.
Could you give an idea of this?
PS: I've already checked with different HDMI cables, also with Win 7 and Ubuntu and different LedTv.

 

The problem could be as the power went out there was a power spike. This could have burnt out internal circuitry and that is a fix most electronic stores will not attempt other than a new main board. The other option of course is to go to the power company and or insurance to get a reimbursement. Problem with the age of the system you may not get much for it.

 

Yes, I guess so. I spoke with a technician and he said that the it the octocoupler might be damaged, but wans't sure and ask me for photos of the mainboard connections. I only found the images of this post.
Maybe I will have to buy and USB-HDMI converter, actually I don't know their performance.

 

Just wanted to say thanks, made my life so much easier, was able to disassembly without any problems.

 

I need help... I've followed this guide previously and disassembled everything and put it back without any problem. Today I disassembled it again to clean the left side fan which can't be done unless you disassembled up to the motherboard. I put it back in, and it won't recognize the power adapter, but it did run on batteries. I read through the pages and seems some people hadh this problem and it seems that the motherboard didn't connect well with the lower board that link it with power adapter, so I decided to disassembled it again.

This is where I did what was probably the cause, I disassembled it up until I can see the motherboard but since I want to make sure that I connected it correctly, I plug in the adapter and the cable that connects the MB to the power button (my logic was that I could at least see the power button light up which mean the MB and the lower board connected properly).

I put everything back again and now it won't even turn on... BUT the battery indicator shows that it's charging (and now it's full) which mean that the power supply does work now... so I'm not sure what's wrong... is it possible that I fried something, or maybe the power button cable got messed?

 

It could be even that a connection isn't properly placed or even skin oil on the connections etc...............

 

I would do it all over again...

 

What is it they say, "third time is the charm"........................

 

I did it 2 more times after writing it, both times I checked and make sure everything connect properly. I've searched for it's components, all of which are grossly priced. The power button board alone is $20 something, the cables around that price too, p78 MB without CPU 150ish, P79 200ish and since I've no idea what exactly is wrong it would take an expensive trial and error purchasing the parts... so I kinda give up on it, and already order a new laptop... maybe when I have money to throw away I'll buy the parts just to figure out what's went wrong...

 

Actually can someone remind me, when the laptop's unplugged/battery only, is the battery indicator supposed to light up when the laptop's off? When you turn it on, the indicator is pink indicating the draining battery, but when the laptop is off... any light?

 

unplugged and off = no light

 

Oh ok, ty Tanware

 

Hey guys... Apparently, I went ahead and upgraded my Gateway P7915u FX without posting my results... I've been using a Q9100 (quad core) in it, as well as, I upgraded it to 8 GB of RAM. The quad core would overheat under load. However, since I had previous experience with the Rightmark CPU Clock Utility, I was able to undervolt the CPU to run at the minimum voltage for all cpu speed grades. Of course, I thoroughly tested it with Prime95, having it locked at each speed for a day or more, and it never failed. It's been at least a year, if not two, since I performed this upgrade. With the utility, I can also lock it on the lowest speed, whereby, even with it fully busy, and on a desk, it won't overheat. In order for it to run at the highest speed, even with the reduced voltage, I have to either have the right side of the laptop off the side of the table (so the CPU fan can breath better), or the laptop raised somehow (again, so the CPU fan can breath better).

 

Not too sure what TIM you used but with ICD and the copper shims I could run the Q9200 at 2.67 GHz at the lowest possible voltage on Prime95 without ever breaking 80c on any core. The shims were 1.0mm for the CPU and 0.5mm for the NB YMMV.

 

Hi 1st off great guide, I've got it all apart. The only this is when I removed the motherboard I found a small spring in the tray, I don't see where it came from. its as long as it round maybe a 1/4 inch. Do you have any ideas?

 

Those are from the heat sinks. 4 for cpu heatsink and 4 for gpu heatsink.

 

p-7915u fx mainboard in the P-7811fx is it possible?

I need to replace motherboard in my P-7811fx because GPU is defective (due to soldering). I tried to bake motherboard two times for 10min in oven. Computer runs fine but I have black screen (screen suddenly shutting off but on the background I can still hear sound from movie or game) because of that I had to reboot 7811fx 5-7 times per day. I also reduced GPU core/mem clock otherwise I have to reboot 12 times per day!!!
Is it possible to replace motherboard with p-7915u fx motherboard?

 

Yes and it fits like a glove. It does end up changing the sound card driver. that and remove the GPU settings too.

 

Thanks TANWare
All Heatsink from 7811fx will fit to p-7915u fx motherboard fine?

BTW do you have part number of p-7915u fx motherboard?

 

some older threads;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gateway-emachines/570826-c2q-not-c2q-question-imho.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gat...y-p-fx-series-gtx-260m-motherboard-225-a.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gateway-emachines/649553-cqd-owners-rejoice.html

Have fun;

http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-P-7908u-P-7915u-Fx-Motherboard/dp/B004571G0M

 

Thanks for the links, I read it.
Please Confirm: as I understand 7811 gpu heatsing will NOT work and I have to get P-7908 or P-7915U GPU Heatsink??

 

the heat sinks all work but the CPU heatsink for the quad cores is different than the C2D but some 78xx's used the quad core cpu heatsink. The GPU heat sink of the later 79xx's is also better one as well. I still have the 7805 GPU heat sink in. Below is a pic of the better GPU setup, if you can find one.

 

my heatsink on the CPU now below.

Example links:

The old heatsink; http://www.ztronics.com/parts-by-br...x-p7805u/gateway-fx-p-7805u-cpu-heatsink.html or http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gateway-P-6...788?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20f4c85b74

New CPU; http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gateway-P-7...265?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d4f05bf61

Original, non metal GPU; http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gateway-P-7...902?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418589f426

Edit; on the New CPU HS you want preferably a02 not a01.