NX860X review?

Storm,
I finally recieved and am currently playing around with my NX860XL, I mean M685. Anyway, I can really tell the difference in this machine compared to my friends I9300 and M5700. This notebook is smaller than those two and even more sexy. I haven't run into any problems here, yet. Ill give it a few days before I want to test and tweak performance. Ill be back to report my experience.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a poorly seated heatsink, If I knew that that was the problem I would just fix it myself, but I don't want to ruin the waranty.

I installed NHC and my cpu temps don't seem to be out of line compared to what you guys are reporting, but I'd really like to be able to check out the GPU temps, does anyone know of a good way to do that?

I haven't suspected that the memory is bad so I haven't tested it much. Normaly if it's bad memory you would get unexplainable crashes, lock-ups, and restarts.

Update: Well now I'm about 90% certain that this is heat and video card related, I removed the big pannel on the bottom and propped up the laptop a couple inches off of the desk and pointed a small fan at the video card, and guess what happened, all the screwy performance went away! I played UT2004 for at least 20 minutes at the highest details with perfect performance, Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft played correctly too. I even unplugged the fan while playing UT2k4 and the screwy performance came back a couple minutes later, then I plugged it back in and a few minutes later it was perfect again, so it has to be heat related. I'm really interested in getting a program to monitor video card(gpu) temps now.

 

I've noticed similar choppy gameplay when playing Doom 3. Where can I locate the driver updates?

 

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/dlcenter.asp

 

when you find the program please tell me. I want it too.

 

I'm guessing that these gateway drivers just don't support temp monitoring, my desktop 7800 gtx shows the temp right in the properties with everything else. I tried RivaTuner to try and read temps but it didn't work, but I was able to monitor the core and memory frequencies of the video card with RivaTuner, I played UT2k4 for a while and RivaTuner showed the core speed droping down from about 350mhz to around 200mhz everyfew seconds, and the memory went from about 1000mhz down to around 600mhz at the same times. So this pretty much shows that for some reason my laptop is heating up enough to make it throttle the speed of the video card down.

I'm going to try and contact gateway again tomorrow, I never heard back from the "advanced tech support".

 

I've been using xtreme G's 84.25GS. They seem to give me the gaming experience I only wished for. My laptop does heat up but my Notepal W1 fights off the hot stuff and I only get warm temps from my GPU.

 

I couldn't do anything.
I downloded xtreme G's 84.25GS and windows would boot up and then I had a bue screen and it would reboot itself. I had to go back to the old driver.

 

OK, I'll bite. Is this extreme G 84.25GS (assuming it works) that much better than the 83.20 driver update just released by Gateway?

 

Storm,
My computer was shipped with the 83.20 drivers. I know that the 84 series drivers did better with every game so it was a no brainer.

 

new nvidia driver, 83.40

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_mobile_83.40.html

 

Actino, that nvidia driver update, 83.40, appears to be for the GeForce Go 7800GTX. Will it work with 7800?

 

Got the laptop yesterday. It's my first. My inital experience was one of frustration. Not so much from the laptop but from trying to install windows xp pro on it. There are 2 partitions the 100Gb drive. One was the recovery partition about ~6GB. I proceeded to erase this and make one partition in prep for the install. As I booted up the win xp install cd it would not detect the harddrive.

The problem was not having any SATA drivers. No floppy either. I had to slipstream the SATA drivers in and then it would install. I was unable to get the gateway intel chipset drivers to install so I had to get the drivers from intel. They seem to work fine. All I need to do now is get my video drivers on. I also wasn't sure the 7800GTX drivers would work. If they do let me know. Everything else works great.

I was having a problem with the touchpad making a left click at random times. Turns out "tap to click" was on. Didn't know such a thing existed. Anyway I found it annoying and was ready to send the thing back.

I haven't done too much with it yet. It is of sturdy construction and I like the numberpad. The screen is gorgeous, very comparable to my 21" CRT.

Right now I'm transferring files with a crossover cable and it smokes. I'll give an update after I've taken this thing for a serious spin. I am getting the X-G 84.43 drivers to check things out.

 

well.. I found this throught the nvidia menu on the desktop properties..

 

Actino, have you installed it? Does it work?

 

Well, just a few hours after stating in yesterday's Gateway poll that my notebook was working just peachy great, I seem to have a problem. I left the notebook on the table hooked up to AC for a few hours. The table was smooth topped, no obstructions to vents. Coming back to use it, I noticed that the CPU temperature was up 56C. In an idle state like that it's normally been about 40C. It will usually peak out at around 52-56C when running Doom 3 for very long. I have a CPU monitor running and it was pulsing with a 50%-70% spike about every 5 sec, just sitting there with me doing nothing on it. I switched over to battery to see if it would cool down. I started with a fully charged battery. Within a minute or two the battery was down to about 60%! I shut the notebook down and restarted. When rebooting, it popped up and said the fan was malfunctioning and shut down immediately. I shut down and restarted again. This time no fan warning. It started normally and temperature settled down to 40C, no more cpu spikes. I looked underneath to see if the little fan under the cpu was running. It was idle. All seems OK now, no more fan warnings, but I'm wary about leaving on and unattended for very long. Does anyone have a clue what was going on? Does the litlle fan come on only when over-heating or is it malfunctioning?

 

Next time you hear the fan, watch it (if you can see it through the vent, I am unsure) to see if it is struggling. If it is, it probably has some bad bearings.
As for the CPU, my only guess would be spyware (I once had spyware that made my cpu run at a constant 100%.. needless to say, my fan got an exercise).. but since you no longer have that problem, I have no idea.
Atleast it is working correctly now. If it happens again, contact Gateway.

 

Thanks, Hellmanns. I had picked up a few spywares since last check. They're gone and all's well today running at 40C. Fan does seem to be running now. Knock on wood.

 

Has anyone used the NX800XL for video editing? That's one application that I would do that is CPU intensive. If you are using it for video - what are the specs of your system (i know 7200rpm is better). Wondering if anyone had issues. Thanks!

 

Well, after waiting 11 days for advanced tech support to contact me and getting no calls or emails from them I just got fed up with the whole thing, I have an RMA number now and I'll be returning this laptop for a refund(minus $200 for shipping and restocking!). Maybe I've just been unlucky since no one else seems to be having the problems that I have, but I still wouldn't recommend buying from Gateway. It's a shame because I can see that this is a nice laptop, I just wish mine would have worked properly.

dlstorm: If you are having problems with spyware I would suggest using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, if you aren't already.

 

no... mine is working fine atm so i'm not upgranding it because i'm oing to have some presentations at school and need the computer fully functional..

I also using Speed Fan 4.28 although I couldn't configure the fan speed yet. temperatures reads:
HDD:37 iddle which i think it is really hot because it is where ur left palm rests.
CPU:75 when using BOINC it uses 100% of the processor. gets to 75 in about 5 minutes and then doesn't change. when iddle 44-46

 

I have been using BOINC for the last 48h. For those who don't know it uses 100% of both processors at the same time. That means that my computer has been on at 100% for the last 24 hours. I have underneath an inexpensive fan blowing air at the bottom of the laptop. From the SpeedFan reading the temperature has never change from 104F.

I think that is pretty good!!

 

I'm back to the US and now I don't have that cheap cooling fan from the previous post.

Anyone knows any good and silent cooling fan for this laptop??

 

I was considering buying this laptop because of the built-in numeric keypad and the memory card reader, but I'm disappointed by the overheating issue.

I just got finished dealing with an overheating Toshiba 5005-S504 laptop. Toshiba installed a desktop processor in the laptop to try to out-due their competitors, but it only resulted in constant bios shut-downs from overheating. Toshiba finally released a bios upgrade that they said solved the problem. Really, all the new bios did was turn off the overheating protection, so now the laptop just overheats. I hope this is not the same type of thing for the Gateway laptop.

 

I have the solution for this issue. it is quite cheap.

The only thing I did was raise it. I placed two gum packadges on both sides on top of the laptop so that it sits there half an inch from the table. The built in fans have now more air available and the cooling is much more efficient. The computer never heats up more than 44C even when running BOINC that uses 100% of the cpu.

but I'm still looking for an additional cooling fan to put underneath to make sure that the cooling is done better.

 

I haven't been having the heat isues described by some other users. It gets warm during games but cools right back down to normal levels quickly when doing other things.

Hopefully it was just a few isolated incidents for you folks.

BTW: I just got Oblivion and it's running like a champ. Outside the graphics "hitch" every once in a while but I think a few video setting tweaks will fix it. (I've only played the game till you get out of the sewers and start walking around.)

 

I’ve had my system for a month now and am very happy with it. THE GOOD: The picture is stellar and the games I play, play well. (Ghost Recon, Doom3) The key board with number-pad on right is cool, I just wish a left hand version was available. The Notebook feels solid enough & has 4 USB ports, PC-Card, S-Video, Firewire, Memory Stick slot, and on the front is the Microphone and Headphone slot. For the money, I haven’t found a better notebook system if your looking for a laptop you want to play serious games on. Battery life is average, but I only got the standard battery because I plug mine in 95% of the time. I saved $200+ by speaking directly with a Gateway Sales Person and letting them know I’m a return customer. A similar spec system from Alien-ware or Dell was at least $800 to $1.2K more. The only difference is the Dell XPS and Alien-ware shells look better (so what). THE BAD: The Notebook does run a little hot. I got the only notebook cooler that fits the 17” (Notepal by Cooler Master). It works great, but interferes a little with the headphone jack. MISC: This is my second laptop and I really impressed with the 17” Ultrabright screen. I would have liked a 7200rpm hard drive, but they didn’t offer it when I ordered. (They do now) In my opinion, best gamer notebook for the money I could find.

As I got it, NX860XL; Intel Duo Core 2.00GHz Processor, 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 17.0" Ultrabright (1680 x 1050 res), nVidia 7800 256MB Graphics Card, with 80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive,

 

we already discuss this cooler but I would like ur feedback.
Your cooler only has fans on the top and has u know our laptop has the cpu and the hard drive on the bottom (that's why it gets hot under our palms). Can you measure with speedfan or any other software the temperature with and without the cooler?

 

Attn ACTINO;
I really don't have a way to measure temperature, but the notebook only runs hot when playing graphic intensive games. When doing anything else, the temp is quite cool. Even when it is running on the hot side, I have not had any issues. The two fans on the bottom of the laptop seem to disperse the heat well.

 

I have a gateway NX 860 X notebook which is just over 2 months old. I have had such a bad experience with this purchase that I am going to buy another notebook, and make sure it isn't a gateway.

First the battery that came with it was defective; yes they replaced. it. I had an agreement with the salesman that I was to get a stand alone operating system with none of gateway's crap on it - they did not honor that. Then the system came with a sata hard drive without my knowledge; my old drive which I had wanted to plug into the new unit was useless. Further, I couldn't format the hard drive and reinstall windows with my legit xp pro copy because of that sata drive, and gateway was no help explaining that to me.

Now the main cooling fan won't work under battery power, just under a/c. Upon contacting tech support the first thing they told me was to return the unit. Apparently they've had other problems with this, since there was none of the 'try this then try that' stuff.

I need a dependable unit that will work every day since I depend totally on a computer for my work. So, after 15 years of dealing with gateway, they've lost me as a customer.

The previous notebook I purchased from gateway had such an overheating problem that I think it fried one of the ram sockets; it will only operate with ram in one socket. Unfortunately this is out of warranty. What a disappointment gateway has turned into. I will not recommend them to anyone now, and I was responsible for about 20 purchases of notebooks and desktops. May not sound like much, but they just don't seem to care.

 

Sorry you had so much trouble. The battery thing happens, but that's just one problem for you. The operating system thing...well...the salesman probably has no idea what you meant and just said whatever to get the sale. Any of the bigger manufacturers don't offer just clean installs(except that thing Dell's starting to offer...but it's still not a completely clean install). So taht doesn't surprise me.

The SATA hard drive isn't really their fault. It's a newer, faster(theoretically) performing feature. It's preferred on that machine because it places the hard drive on a separate chain than the optical drive(since there's only one supported parallel IDE channel on those chipsets I think). Frankly, you can get an SATA adapter for your hard drive I bet. I also doubt your older drive is a higher performing unit than what came with the laptop...so if you just needed data off it(which means it would need to be running at the same time as your original drive to copy it off), an external drive shell would be the logical solution.

Installing a straight copy of WinXP Pro though...I don't see how that's their fault. The machine would require specific SATA controller drivers to be provided during the install. It's not unusual and someone experienced enough to be installing a clean install of XP should know this. Gateway doesn't support those kinds of installations though. Many would try to help, but if they don't set their systems to install the driver that way, I could easily see them not wanting to get too involved in giving tech support to those configurations. They don't want you to call be a week later cause you get it "sort of" working, but OS takes a dump later on due to an incorrect loading procedure, which results in you screaming at them more on the phone. Blame those who ***** for no reason for eliminating all of the big box providers for not being able to offer decent customer support to traditional end users.

I can't comment on the fan issue though. Sounds like a problem. My machine is an older version of that shell and I've never had issues with my main fan. It rarely runs when on battery, mostly due to the clock speed of CPU or GPU(mine clocks down on battery). I can't see a reason for it to run much on battery, mostly A/C, but it does occasionally. So there might be an issue with your machine.

Sorry it's soured your experience so much. Hopefully you'll find what you need next time.

 

Hey, is there any chance anyone with the GeForce Go 7600 could make a system BIOS dump?
I have the M685-E (pro version of the NX860X), and both fans remain on whenever AC is connected. I'm thinking of trying the NX860X BIOS.
Then again, it may not be worth the risk .... and the fan-always-on behavior IS less annoying than the fan-spins-up-and-down-repeatedly behavior.

Edit: now there's a new BIOS, but it doesn't change the fan behavior. Also, i discovered that a BIOS dump will be useless because they all share the same BIOS.

 

Am using the older model (nx850x-Pentium M 1.73 ghz of 2 gb ram with 60gb of 7200 rpm drive) for the past 18 months primarily on our multimedia presentation production business for mobile and on site editing. We do video editing, 3D graphics and photo editing on this machine and it'd never failed us once. After four months with this machine I've spent more time working with it than with my desktop vaio rz-cg50. It does get real hot when you work long hours with it, but it'd had never hang. It's really a nice desktop replacement! I have dropped it thrice (all enclosed in carrybag) from the back of my suv when I got some stuff out from the baggage, when sling got loosen and when i opened the back passenger side of my car.
Nothing got broken (luckily)!
If you're into video editing be sure to get the 7200 rpm drive to avoid drop frames when capturing video from your cam or player. Defrag your drive every other week. I'm using premiere pro, newtek speed edit, photoshop, after effects, macromedia director and cinema 4d for the video & multimedia presentation prodcution.
If my machine has done a great job for business , the newer model nx860xl must be better for sure. My machine has no "L" it's ony a nx850x and it's proven to be worthy road machine.