Gateway P-7811 FX Question

I got this laptop for a discount (~ $1000) at Best Buy. It was the display model. I have been running into all sorts of problems, like my programs not working, being unable to uninstall games, and all my programs having the application but not the files. I know there are better ways, but anyways, how do you bring the laptop back to factory settings?

Specs:
Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
Intel Core 2 Duo ~2.26 GHZ
4 GB of DDR3 Memory
512 MB, GeForce 9800 M
7200 RPM Hard Drive.

 

Uhmm...how about reformatting your HDD and reinstalling Vista. You should have done that the day you got the Laptop home.

 

Yeah um... How do I do that?

 

Oh man, I can tell by your first post in this thread that you don't really know what you're doing. We were all at that point sometime. To reformat, first back up everything you want to save onto a DVD or a USB or external hard drive. Then just put the "Gateway Recovery Disk" that came with your 7811 into the CD drive, and restart your computer. You will probably see a message during boot-up that says "press any key to boot from CD", and obviously, you should press the key. It's pretty straight forward from there.

 

Yeah when i did mine it was the first time i had ever done an OS install and it was very straight forward, and now it runs great. There is so much junk put on these computers(to make them less expensive, mostly) a clean install goes a long way.

 

No "Gateway Recovery Disk". Am I screwed?

 

Ouch. Call up gateway and talk them into sending you one for free.

 

i got a 6860fx, but the disc is labeled Operating System Disk. You'll also want to make a recover disc of your drivers and apps.

 

Ok, check your program folder (start, Programs) there should be a problem called Gateway recovery, its stock on every install.

Run it, burn a copy of your Drivers - reboot and put your windows CD in, format then reinstall and your good to go.

Edit. If you need the DVD because you don't have Gateway Recovery, get mozilla ( www.mozilla.com) and get an Addon for it called FireFTP

I can creat an FTP server so you can download the Gateway Recovery disk.

Make sure you don't have the folder though you can check by Right clicking Start, go Explore - Look under C:\Program Files (x86)\Gateway Recovery\

 

dont need that burned CD. just get the drivers from here, they are hosted everywhere. just make sure you have the OS cd that should have came with your laptop.

 

I know you don't need it specifically but some like me are required to have it, just because of the fact I want to have the original burned dvd

 

Usually whenever I do a clean install on my 6860 I just let Windows Update grab all of the Drivers, it does a pretty good job and the only thing it doesn't find drivers for is the Agere 56k Modem, but who uses a 56k modem on a gaming laptop?

 

I do not like Windows to find my drivers, sometimes it picks the wrong ones, its better to install all the drivers you have first then let windows catch the rest and update.

 

Well I have neither a Gateway Recovery disk, nor a Vista 64 Disk.

 

Hnim, if your laptop has a factory install of Vista, you should be able to go to the Gateway Recovery Program folder in the start menu and click on make restore disks. IIRC, you'll need 3 DVDs. 1 DVD for drivers (you can probably use a regular CD, and 2 DVDs for the OS.