MX6450 owners, please share your experiences....

No need to apologize. No harm done.
Your post just gave me a little pause in my decision making process. I still was most likely going to buy this model, I was just holding my breath waiting for the outcome of your problem. Glad it worked out, and please keep us posted on your experiences and impressions as you continue to use it throughout the coming days.

 

Well, I returned to Best Buy to inquire about their Service Plan. I was told when I purchased the open-box buy that I could purchase their Service Plan and it would be fixed or eventually replaced if it had any problems. However, I returned to ask if the Service Plan cost would be based on the retail price, the open-box price, or the purchase price. They talked with a manager and returned with some good news: the cost was based on the purchase price and some bad news: they would only refund if it couldn't be fixed (I wouldn't get a new replacement from them). Gateway's warranty also states that if the notebook cannot be fixed they will replace it or refund the purchase price (minus depreciation ??). So, in order to try and salvage the great deal I am having it sent off to Gateway. Hopefully, it will not fall into the Gateway Service black hole I've read about.

 

what is the gateway service black hole?

 

Why are you sending it off? Thought your little HD corruption problem was already fixed?

 

I think that it has to do with Gateway actually losing your notebook when sent in for repair.
My impression is that this "black hole" happened during the dark days of the hinge cracking. Gateway was receiving large amounts of repair work, thus they were unable to keep track of all notebooks.

That is my depiction of the 'Black Hole.' I imagine that it would be over by now

 

hellmans: how many times a day do you change your avatar? lol? iv seen like 4in the past 2 days

 

Sorry about that. The problem came back. I picked up a new HD. I wanted to have a spare to play around with anyway. And, that did not solve the problem. My only concern is that the random problem may not occur while it is being observed. The rep did say that she would include a note requesting an extended observation. I don't know if that would actually happen but it did make me feel better. I'm a sucker. It sure would be nice if they just send me a new pc. But, I saw in their warranty that their service will either 1. fix the problem, 2. replace the pc, or 3. refund the purchase price. I have a feeling that I would just get a refund. But, I still wouldn't loose anything.

Here's to hoping ...

 

LMAO
Yes, I change it a lot
I don't know why I change so often. I plan to switch again soon though. Hopefully, I will find the right one soon

 

i just got bored and make a nice sig and that was that... but its almost like you are advertising food on a notebook forum lol... or mayyybe its jsut that the word "gooch" is funny and reminds one of jacka$$

 

Haha, Yeah,
I'm not trying to advertise food here
Martha Gooch is a real brand, that is why it is so funny. My brothers and I joke around about the name because of the word 'Gooch' (need I say what it means?). Surely we're not the only ones who find it funny that a company would use such a name

 

Oh ya i got a MX6421 TURION62 ML-32 1.8Ghz Giveing me the same problem as the other person is haveing in here frequent shut offs and stuff so i dunno im thinking about just not worrieing about it and live with it but i might send it off cause i done had it sent one time for oberservation and they said it didnt cut off at all so i dunno and i think its a model problem then anything elese

 

Well, I'm ticked. I just got my MX6450 back from Gateway 'Support'. There was a Repair Service Report stating "No Trouble Found (no failure claim description provided)". I powered it up and it died 1 hr later. I called Gateway 'Support' and told the lucky tech that answered what the report said. He said that it sounds like the *&#^#* tech that created the Service RMA did not provide a description of the problem. The tech that started all this said that she had also put in the description to keep for extended viewing because of the randomness of the problem. I asked if looking up the issue would give him more information (because he hadn't done that ...). He said he couldn't access the account now because their system is being updated.

Today is the last day I can return it to Best Buy. I'm going to call back in an hr and see what the account says. As it happens, I am going to be in Nashville, TN for a wedding this weekend and Gateway 'Support' is located just SE of Nashville. I might just have to visit and, well, ...

 

That must of suck i mean really im havieing the freaking same problems now im gonna have to live with it to me it only does it on AC Power so if i wanna surf the web or something i guess i will have to use the battery but get any more details cause i dont wanna send it up there and not get it back for months and for sure i cant afford it right now so if its just alittle cutting off really nothing to worrie about it who knows they might release a driver update of the problem on the website later on and if its a hardware problem i might know what it is its either the Processor Overheats itself on AC cause i dont notice the thing Underclocks when AC'ed or either its the internal Wireless card but anyways those are my predictions is what is wrong

 

After 3 calls and 2.5 hrs Gateway's system update is complete and they were able to access my account. Apparently, the last *($#%^ tech had put the description of the problem in the wrong field and the bozos in the warehouse aren't smart enough to look at the other fields (I don't know if I want them to work on my pc anyway). Luckily, the tech I talked to this time had a nice voice. It's hard for me to be rude to a women with a nice voice. Anyway, it wasn't her fault. She put the description in all of the fields she had access to (that was her idea, but I was definitely thinking it). I would like to put a note in with the pc just in case they can't 'find' the description of the problem. But, I know if I do that it wouldn't be a very nice note. If anything goes wrong this time I'll be looking for some kind of compensation (like someones head on a platter).

On a positive note, I will be moving shortly and I'm getting lots of free packing materials. There's an awful lot of foam in those 'Laptop Return' boxes.

 

OKAY PEOPLE FOUND SOLUTION TO THE SHUT DOWNS okay there is this program that controls the Clock Rates which i was right about this stuff i was saying to myself "okay it only does it when its on AC but not on battery" okay so i measured the clock rate on Battery is stays at 800MHz but on AC it goes up and down from 1.80GHz to 800MHz i said okay this is weird so i download a program called Notebook Hardware Monitor here is the site http://www.pbus-167.com/chc.htm when you download make sure you have .NET Framework for it to work okay now this is for a Centrino but its also works for this lappy which i run is the Turion okay when you install it click the CPU speed and let this program manage everything okay click the pull down on AC and tell to run at MAX performace when on AC and Battery Optimized or Dymanic Switching on Battery which ever floats your boat if you wnat more battery get the battery optimizer or want more speedo on battery click Dymanic Switching Which ever but this worked for me im pritty sure it will work for other MX6421 so good luck and now i like my laptop so much

 

Jimmyray ... hope it continues to work for you. Unfortunately, mine was shutting down on battery too. I got my box today. So, I'll be shipping it back out tomorrow.

 

yeah i hope too but post feedback when you get yours back i mean i think the issues with my with Clocking issues which i hope dont start giveing me problems like the Heatsink wearing off or the Paste with it running at max speed on AC because it stays on AC almost all the time but i get alot of perfomace on the battery when i need it lol but i hope they get yours working and i bet you its Clocking issues with the Processor

 

fc3.linux: Thanks for posting about your linux install. I am downloading the latest knoppix build so as to run a dual boot and was a little worried that it might not run. Its good to know that some build works on this thing.

Everyone else: Hi. I got an MX6450 about two months ago. It does seem to get pretty hot, but I've never had it shut down on me. The last gateway I had died of heatstroke so I'm thinking about getting one of those fan platforms for this one to sit on. They're only $30-$40, a small investment to keep my baby comfortable.

The only problem I've had with mine is that the DVD drive seemed to seek if I type too fast. I thought this was truly bizarre and sent an email to gateway support. They wrote back to uninstall the drivers in safe mode and then reboot. I did that and windows found the "new" drive with no problems, but it still seeks when I type too fast. Wrote back to gateway and said that didn't work. They suggested removing and reseating the drive which I did and everything seems just swell now.

fc3.linux is right about the lack of **** that comes preinstalled on this computer. I was mildly annoyed to find a trial version of MS Office, but only b/c I use Openoffice.org (the free alternative). Best Buy actually installed more **** than comes with this thing (again, they installed trial versions of things there are free alternatives for). I was also mildly ticked that I had to hunt around to find DVD software. At first, the only way I could watch DVDs was through the Media Center which is way too pastel for me to look at without experiencing biblical rage. Eventually, I found that the software that comes with the computer is PowerDVD which (amazingly) sucks harder than WinDVD. However, after I found some DVD decoders for windows media player, all was fairly wonderful again.

To recap, I have not had any major problems. My experiences with Gateways email tech support was very good. In fact, I was by far the slower correspondant. I wrote to them and they wrote back within a few hours, then I wrote back like three days later. The instructions for reseating the DVD were way more detailed than I really needed, but that's better than the alternative. Hope this helps someone.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that you will have to find some other program for creating DVDs. The version of Nero that comes with lacks the ability to create video DVDs (although it does provide ample links to the website where you can buy Neros latest suite).

 

Found this thread through google and had to chime in.
I just got a gateway MX6421, I did not get the 6450. I noticed today when I got home that the keyboard has "stickers" on the keys, and when typing over by the i,o,p, row of keys the keyboard actually depresses downward, like im "bending" the keyboard... Aside from that im wondering if the 6450 has the same type of keyboard and design?

I've been throughly researching and looking at laptops and overall the keyboards's just seem to be made the same no matter which brand I have seen at bestbuy. Only thing I can do now is either return it, cause im not too happy with the thought of "stickers" on my keyboard.. Are the HP's any good?

Sorry for the garbled post.
-Kaotik

 

I just purchased my MX6450 on Tuesday of this week. I was really in the market for something lighter and thinner than my Sager 5690. I looked all over the web, I had roughly $1300.00 to spend and finally settled on this machine because the price, styling and no shipping. I have to say so far I am very impressed with this machine. First it is 3 pounds lighter than my 5690 and is much quieter and cooler. And it is even faster than the 5690 which has a 3.0g HT P4 and 512mb ram, and a 5400rpm 100gig drive. The 5690 has the WXGA screen but the glossiness of this new screen is really enjoyable. First thing I did when I got it home was burn the drivers DVD and then reinstall with WinXP SP2 and Office 2003, then pull down all the updates. I hate preinstalled software and would much rather install and set up my systems myself. The guy at Best Buy really wanted me to go with the extra software the geek squad does. They really don't like it when you buy just the laptop and no extras like the service plan. They really hard sell the service plan, but anyway, I really like the styling of this machine, very sleek and clean. I love the paint and the glossiness of it. These machine use the same LCD that the 15.4 Powerbooks and Macbook Pros use, probably all britevue 15.4 use the same screen. I don't really miss any of the jacks that some lappies come with, like S-Video and keyboard. I never used either on my 5690. And I like the placement of the USB plugs on the side instead of in back like my 5690 has, it was always a pain plugging stuff into the back of that machine. But the best thing about this machine is battery life. I've gotten 3hours or better so far and I've had a charge last all day, allowing the machine to go into standby. This is waaaayyyy better that my 5690 with 2 batteries installed. I can barely get 1-1/2 out of the 5690 and most times even less. I'm definatly most happy with the battery life. I'm a liitle concerned with reports of other similarly built Gateways with hinges cracking. I hope this is not an issue with these machines. The design is a little different the the models that are cracking, and since this is a new model for them I hope they have resolved the hinge issue. I have high hopes for this machine so much so that I am going to sell my 5690.

 

I just got mine 4 days ago, it has been a smooth ride since, i want to by a screen and cover protector, since they are so glossy, i'm afraid they will scratch easily, and also this will eliminate some of the glare.

 

Someone asked about the battery life. For most of the work I do I get 4-5 hours before I get down to the 10% level that makes me start looking for outlets. No problem playing DVDs off battery power either. I've never really payed attention to whether the juice runs out any faster, but I know you get at least 2 hours of playback. I haven't tried burning CDs/DVDs on battery power b/c that's just foolish, but overall I've been very impressed with the battery life.

 

So i just got my mx6450 yesterday.. took it home.. installed winamp and trillian.. made some updates and hot fixs..

I'm really annoyed becuase like most people i like listening to music while is urf the web.. and do my thing

the laptop seems to stutter and freeze up while the HD is being accessed... which causes my music to stutter and pop.. its so annoying..i'm going to runt he recovery .. and get a fresh clean start.

 

Good News. I got my mx6450 back from service and all is well. The service report just said something about resoldering. It did not say whay they resoldered. Who cares, I just got a $1200 laptop for $600. This is a first for me. I am usually the sucker who buys something 2 weeks before the price drop. Only problem is that OSX x86 10.4.3 does not like the ATI x200m chipset.

 

sweet so i formatted and its so responsive its awesome.. very happy now

 

Hey, I just bought this laptop and I stumbled upon this board, and I figured I'd ask a question. First, I hope everyone likes theirs because I love mine, It's so cool to look at. Anyway, this machine obviously has great but not excellent specs but one thing I was wondering about was the video card. Does it have a good video card in it because 64 mb shared does not seem like a lot. Could it handle games (not that I'm going to play them on the pc anyway) ?

Thanks

Hbk55585

 

The only game I've played on it was Civ 4. I had to turn the video detail down to medium because it ran too slowly but there are no actual problems, unlike 80% of video cards out there.

 

So far I am pleased with my MX6450. One issue I'm having is that it takes the machine about 60 seconds to start coming out of standby. I haven't done a lot of research yet. But, I figured I would see if anyone else has had any issues with standby.

 

Ok, i have had this mx6450 for few days and i have not yet run into any problems with the labtop itself in relation to heating issues. But I am a gamer, i basically play Counter Strike 1.6 on this labtop and I was wondering if anyone else does too? Since when I try to play I cannot strafe while doing another function(like quickswitching or jumping). It's odd cause i can jump while strafing up and right but not up and left and i can jump while strafing down and left but not down and right... any suggestions for this clueless gamer?

 

Hi, I just purchased the MX6450 from Bestbuy, I formatted and reinstalled, but forgot to back up the drivers. I was able to get them from gateway's site, but the audio driver does not seem to work? If anyone backup up the drivers, I would greatly appreciate if you can send me them

TIA

 

Glad I found this forum. From what I have seen, the 6421, 25 and 50 are similar, right?
I have a mx6421 I got from Best Buy (open box, $700) with Media Center and Fedora Core 5. FC5 loaded easily and sound, video, NIC, all worked out of the box. However, I have had issues with the NIC (sky2) (reports to RedHat's bugzilla and to Marvel). The wireless worked with ndiswrapper and a 64-bit driver (Gateway only ships a 32-bit driver so I had to search on the net).

Very hot to use as a true laptop.....

Has anyone with the 64xx and Linux had issues with the sky2 wired ethernet driver -- it seems to drop out under load and has to be reloaded? [I use wireless, so not an issue at this time, however....]

What should the CPU temp be? My AMD 64 desktop shows about 30C, but the laptop hovers around 50C (cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/* on Linux)? Other laptops I have had tend to run 35-45C under light load (e.g., browsing).

Under Linux, I can't control the fan (when on AC, I would like to leave on to keep cool, makes the computer last longer). Any ideas?

Also, how can you control the processor and fan, and display the temp under WIndows?

 

Hmm, I guess this laptop does tend to run hot. You are not the only one with this complaint. You might look into undervolting the processor, which won't degrade performance at all. I personally can't help you with that, but there are people on these forums who have done this to turion processors. Along with running slightly cooler, you can get about 30mins better battery life too (results may vary). Search around for it
Alas, I don't know of any ways to control the fan through windows. If you can work with the bios, however, I would think that you can set the fan sensitivity lower, but you will be hearing the fans more. Again, I can't help you with that.
Good luck.

 

Hi All
I'm interested in MX6450 but have some questions about it:-
1- Is it can run Windows Vesta ?
2- Is it can run 3D applications ?
3- Is it really has S-Video output port ? if no Can i connect it to TV by another way ?
3- what exactly weight of it ?

 

Hi. I don't have one, but I think that I can give you an idea on the first two questions.

1- Is it can run Windows Vesta ?
Yes, it will be able to run Vista

2- Is it can run 3D applications ?
It depends on what applications you mean. This won't get you very far if you mean gaming, where as if you mean actual applications, such as video editing, it will perform very well, as will most other cards.

4- what exactly weight of it ?
I don't have an exact weight, but it is around 6.5 pounds. Not extremely light, but not heavy by any means.

 

I mean 3D desktop that will generate in Linux Suse. any news about s-vedio port
and, Is it really has S-Video output port ? if no Can i connect it to TV by another way ?

 

i accompanied a friend to best buy this morning and showed him the gateway MX6450 Platinum Ed. we compared it to HP/Compaq with similar specs. for the budget he has alloted for his first ever notebook, he chose the Gateway. he then gave me the machine to configure and i am toying with it right at this moment. out of the box i would say that the machine is a beauty to behold because of its color. starting the machine and allowing it to boot and configure itself went on smoothly. but i would definitely say that software wise, Gateway machines have so many trashware that i really hate. so without any hesitation on my part, i re-partitioned and reformatted C: but maintained the recovery partition D: (it is just around 8gb). With 92gb for the main partition i can afford to have an extended/logical partition.

i am doing now a clean install of Win XP Pro Media Center Ed. (not the recovery disk) the pre-install went well but when rebooting for the complete install part, an error occured it was looking for an hal.dll file. i am surmising that the presence of the recovery partition somehow has an effect when doing a clean install. exactly how, i do not know. nonetheless, i do not have any qualm whatsoever of also deleting the recovery partition. in truth, it is a convenient utility but since its database is filled with trashware, one can really do without it and recover the hd space it occupies and integrate it with one of the other other partitions. i did this thing with my Gateway CX2610 a few months ago. of course one should be comfortable doing this because once deleted there is no way to recover the recovery data.

well after almost an hour tweaking i finally was able to make this baby run well. and by the way it runs i believe my friend would be happy with this machine for at least the next so and so years.

 

I am pleased with my purchase of about two months ago. The one odd thing I am investigating is the DVD drawer opening at unexpected times. Has anyone observed this?

 

about the audio, i have a problem and i dont know if is normal for MX6450 users, i play a lot of song at 192kb/s in windows media player, and when im playing them at MAX volume, the sound goes off for 1-3 seconds, and then cames back, it usually happens once each track and happens more if im running software, and even more if i run multiple software with audio, but it doesnt happen if the volume is 3 or less bars less than MAX. i already re-install the audio driver, and problem continues, i buy the laptop just 7 days ago.
if anyone can answer me about this or give me information i'll be thankful.
by the way, this song: "the litigants" is the one that most give me this problems, between this part of the song: 2:50-3:10.

i have another question, like 1/3 of the times i enter my system information, the processor speed appears with less, like 1.59Ghz when it is of 2.00Ghz (appears with 1.99Ghz, but i think is normal), i think is for power saving or something like that but i better do the question... is this normal?, hehehe, thats all, thanks for your answers.

bass09 (yes, i play the bass)

 

Can bass09, garitaar or any one else tell me Is MX6450 contain S-Vedio port ?! if no Can i connect it to TV by another way

 

yes i can, hehe, no, the MX6450 platimun edition doesn't have S-video port, but it has a port in the back that can work like one with the correct cables.

SOMEONE RESPOND MY QUESTIONS PLS!!!... (2 POSTS UP)

 

Hey bass09,
I do not know why your laptop would be doing that. Have you tried any other music players? I prefer Winamp. Try that out to see if your problem continues.
And yes, the various clock speeds you are reading is normal. It is how it saves battery. If you must, you can turn it off, but you won't notice any difference in speed. Battery life, on the other hand, will be decreased.

 

nop, the problem continues, i think the problem is with the sound card, i dont think is a software problem, i use a lot guitar pro5 (RSE), windows media player and software that involves audio... and the problem happen with all of them, and when the sound pops off, you can still see how playback continues normal... the sound goes off for all the aplications running at the moment... i think i'll retun it to bestbuy... do anyone know what happend when you retun something to bestbuy?... do they fix your computer, or they retun you the money?... or the ask you to choice?.... what happen? (i bought the laptop "new" just 8 days ago, srry for any mistake on my typing, english is not the language i use, i hope you understand)

bass09

 

First, does it happen when you are using external speakers? Or does it only happen when you use the internal speakers?
BestBuy has a 14-day return policy. Since your computer is relatively new, you can return it for a refund, exchange it with another computer from their selection, or have them fix it. I'm not 100% sure on how stuff works when you take it in within 14 days - for I have never done so.

 

with external speakers the problem dissapear, i played like 5 songs at the same time without problem, but with the speakers of the laptop, problem continues, even when im just playing one **** song!!! and not even at max volume, sound has to be less off 3/4 or sound pops off like every 30 seconds.
So surely the problem is on the speakers... i was so in love with this laptop, everything was perfect, but now this happend... lets see if i can find another laptop with so cool processor, battery and display... or if they can find the problem. Thanks for the answers Hellmanns

bass09

 

No problem. Good luck on your search.

 

Wow, this thread is still alive? I forgot it was even here.
Is it possible I may be approaching the record for most replies in a thread in the Gateway forum?

 

Heh. Mach, hover your mouse over the little folder icon next to the thread (to the left) in main. How many replies?

14 replies here.

 

96 replies overall, 21 from myself. I was actually referring to the number of overall replies, but man, I just can't believe this thread is still going. Thought for sure it would have been long dead by now. Guess the MX6450 turned out to be pretty popular after all.

 

This model isn't even current anymore. BestBuy now has the 6455.. only difference is a 120gb harddrive.
How do you figure your overall replies?

 

I mean just looking over in the right hand column where it shows total replies from everyone to a thread. Highest I've seen in here so far is 88.