Gateway P7811 FX (bought a refurb)

I bought a refurbished P-7811 FX about a month ago. I wanted a new gaming laptop but didn't have the money for a new-new system.

I love this baby, pretty powerful for a "used" laptop and its been reliable (so far). I mostly bought it for the screen and knowing that the "budget gaming" specs were still reasonable.

My system is a dual-boot Fedora 13 (Linux) and Windows 7 system. One OS on each hard drive.

I have a few questions about it...

1) The fans spin constantly when I'm in Windows. It's not a "loud" sound but it's noticeable. They don't spin the same way when I'm booted into Linux. Is there a way to get the fans to stop needlessly spinning in Windows?

2) I've read discussions about it being possible to upgrade to 8 gigs of RAM but I couldn't find anyone definitively stated that worked for them. RAM prices have come down quite a bit and I'd be able to get the 8 gigs for $200-$250. While cheap, I'd rather not throw the money away if there's no hope (or if I need to buy very specific RAM for it to work).

3) When I play some games (Oblivion, Sims 3, Dragon Age) the programs will hesitate or slow to a crawl for a few seconds every 2-3 minutes. I've gotten used to this and it's not as annoying as it might sound. But, I'd still like to know what would be the most likely culprit? Video drivers? I have whatever Nvidia drivers Windows 7 Update handed me when I finished my install.

4) The DVD drive opens when I even _lightly_ brush against the button. This is inconvenient because the DVD drive is right where I want to hold it to pick it up or shift it around. Is this normal for all these systems? I'm thinking of getting a blue ray drive for it, is there one available yet with an integrated burner?

5) I'm also eying the Western Digital 1TB laptop drives. They're a bit thicker than standard laptop drives. Anyone know if they fit in the bays?

Just as a comment, this lappy runs Fedora Core 13 beautifully, and everything worked "out of the box" except the media buttons (the volume slider does work). Suspend/Sleep is problematic also. Still, much less effort than I expected. The wifi card worked without any fiddling.

No overheating issues, I usually sit with it in my lap wearing blue jeans. After an hour or so of heavy gaming the left vent (next to the DVD player) is blowing _very_ hot air and I need to connect up my laptop cooler. Still, it runs much cooler and more reliably than my previous laptop, an Asus C90.

I think I lucked into getting a reseller who took the time to really clean up the system before selling it to me. It was immaculate inside when I opened it up to check for dust, and a very thorough job was done with the thermal paste on the CPU.

 

#1) Not much help for you on this one

#2) Yes will support 8 gb ram, although cpu upgrade would probably be a better upgrade, depending on what applications you run.

#3) More than likely TZ's issue where it spikes and throttles the machine, RM Clock will supposedly take care of that. A good TIM such as IDC7 or Artic Silver on the cpu and gpu helps.

#4) Can definitely use a bluray player/burner. Many have installed the LG/Hitachi CT10 BD player.

#5) No will not fit to thick.

 

with regard to 1).

a bios flash to 9c.17.00 might resolve the fan issue.

 

#3) is probably the TZS0 temp spiking. Its a bug with the 7811fx. I use rmclock (or throttlestop) to lock the multiplier at max so it doesn't down throttle. I've heard that undervolting can fix the problem, but it never worked for me.

 

I think you should upgrade the processor or HD over the RAM. what do you need 8gb of ram for besides bragging rights? I upgrade my cpu from P7350 to X9100 and it was a huge difference for gaming and encoding.

Also an SSD HD would be a huge upgrade in any load/access times if you dont need a ton of storage...

 

8 Gigs of RAM does run in this laptop.

I don't do any upgrades for bragging rights (as such). The laptop was a bit sluggish (although faster than my previous laptop) and the RAM was a gift. I also read that I could upgrade the CPU. But, I don't know as much about the different types of CPUs and I didn't want to end up buying the wrong one. Given it was a gift and I had a fairly short window to say what I wanted, I think the RAM was a good choice.

I can still upgrade the CPU in the future. I have to say, on 8 gigs, this laptop is SNAPPY.

I found Rmclock, and even found the Windows 7 driver for it. However, it doesn't recognize my processor. I wonder if even though the laptop was used the processor came out after the last update of the software?

I hesitate to use the program without knowing it's not going to overheat/overload/otherwise damage something.

 

Just on this answer...I'm curious why it the spinning would only happen in Windows, not linux?

I'm asking in hopes of learning something .

Gwen