Official M-6862 & M-6864FX owners thread

G0t0,

Why you want to upgrade the RAM? When you put 800MHz memory in the
laptop it will downclock to 667MHz, the chipset won't let it run at 800MHz. It's useless, I think.

Better save you money for next generation of notebooks in the future.
As to 8GB...in my opinion it might work. Two years back there was no 4GB sticks available just 2GB max, that is why they wrote in the specifications the 4GB is the maximum that the chipset can see, I think.

In my opinion, this is the reason you received three different answers from Gateway.

Joshthor,

How you know that? Have you ever seen a alien? How can you tell
there is no a alien in your laptop?
I have got at least five inside mine. Maybe even more. One looks like CPU, the other one looks like RAM...there are aliens everywhere...gee

 

From the 3 answers I got, 2 out of 3 said it will recognize 800mhz and 2 out of 3 said it maxes out at 4gb of memory. can you show me where the chipset says the laptop will run a 800mhz cpu? cuz I cant find that either. I only paid 39 bucks for 4 gb (2x2gb). Even if cpu-z doesnt recognize it, the latency on it is 5-5-5-15 so it will still be better than the value ram Gateway put in there anyways. I honestly think it will recognize it tho. Why would they allow the cpu to be upgraded only to be bottlenecked by the ram? Especially when its the only M series to have a dedicated video card and that card has a core speed of 750mhz?

 

http://www.intel.com/products/notebook/chipsets/pm965/pm965-overview.htm

You can try, there is always possibility that will work.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/specupdate/313057.pdf

 

Hey all bringing this thread back!

Well I had a acer that broke and they are offering me this as a replacement laptop. My acer was only 2gig ram, and a older Ati card. Anyways after 6 months im finally getting a replacement.

How is this laptop? Should I tell them I dont want it while I still have a chance? Or is it okay? The specs are twice as good as my old laptop.

IF/When I get it, what should I do to it? Any tips/tricks to help optimize it?

Thanks,
Matt

 

Just finished installing my t8300. ran COD5 with FRAPS and Everest Ultimate. I still run between 18-30fps, at an average of 68Celcius. I installed the bios update from Gateway, but im not sure if it was an update(dated June 2008). Is there anything I should be doing/adding to get a better gauge of my new cpu?

 

Hey Matt,
It's a good laptop. I've got the 6864FX and a 7805uFX, the 17" big brother. For a 15" laptop it has a decent cpu, 4GB ram is great to have, 200GB HD is usually more than enough for a laptop, but if you wnat more then you can always swap in a 320GB for under $100. And based on the fact that your getting it as a direct replacement for a laptop that has half the specs?...NO BRAINER!!!

 

Thanks, and anything I should do when it get it. I see people over clocking/under clocking and messing with the graphic card??? I will be running vista.

Thanks

 

now they said I cant get that one anymore because it came unavailable.

They offered me the Acer Aspire 7520 which I declined....is that notebook any good?

 

Congrats...You can update GPU driver, the newest one from 3/18/09

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.2&lang=English

Cheers...

 

I just installed 4gb OCZ pc2-6400 (800mhz) ram. I played COD and now get between 25-40fps instead of the 14-25 i was getting before. I use Everest and CPU Z to try and see if the ram is making a diff. Everest and CPU Z both recognized the 400mhz freq the 6400 had where as they only recognized 333mhz freq in the gateway ram (667mhz). Also, my Vista performance index went from 4.5 to 5.1. Now I don't know if the motherboard recognizes the faster speed, but everything else does andI am getting near double fps now so I'm extremely happy! Now my only wish is for ATI to upgrade the GPU for this board!!

Also, My temps are around 55c at normal use and 88c while playing COD 5. anyone know if we can upgrade the fan to a faster one? Until then, I just ebayed a PMCIA card fan for 5 bucks to help with the cooling. Cooling pad fans are not an option because I need to pack light as I do most of my gaming at work ( ;-) ).

 

I'm glad you have got what you want. I have no idea if the motherboard
recognizes the faster RAM. Let's hope so. My index is exactly the same as yours in RAM.
The temps look normal I guess for this series of laptops. I will have to look around for bigger fan, but I think it might be very tight fit or almost impossible
to put bigger one in such small space. I'm curious about such upgrade, too

Cheers...

 

Hello everyone i need help plz help me

I wanted to update my drivers for my gateway m 6862.
But i messed up and my computer is showing the screen all weird and stuff

Can anybody give me a step by step tutorial how to install these drivers.PLZ
I followed all the steps but when it comes to running the setup it just fails.
I knoe ur supposed to modify the drivers but after i modify them, i run setup after its finishes it shows me a log of what couldn't be installed properly so that being said the display drivers where the one that failed to install.

Some links to the place u went to get the drivers or a link where their is a tutorial on this would help me.THX

Im running windows vista 64 bit
The old drivers r the one from gateway. 8.24 i think.

ANY HELP IS GLADLY APPRECIATED

 

Ever tried to do System Restore?what specific drivers are messing up? you should have a restore disk that comes along with the laptop. If those don't work, I go by the Motto "if all else fails, reinstall"

 

If you already messed up with your system better do as Goto said use System Restore Center and step back to the point when everything
was ok. Simply restore your system to the point before you messed it up.

Next get needed drivers and start updating them again. So my advice is,
if you don't have drivers, download them and burn to the disc. On the
Gateway site you can find them, or go to my thread with the links and get
them from there. These drivers are the same for all notebooks in M68 series
running Vista 64bit, in the M6862 you would use Conexant modem driver.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=355556

You should uninstall old driver before installing new one. To do this, right
click COMPUTER, click MANAGE, in the computer management click DEVICE MANAGER, next click DISPLAY ADAPTERS and ATI RADEON, in the next
window click DRIVER tab, at the bottom click UNINSTALL and reboot PC.

To install driver, unpack it and go to C:/cabs folder on the drive C:. Your
driver should be there, open folder, run driver setup and follow the instruction

Cheers...

 

Really appreciate your time: martee & g0t0 for helping me out on this problem.
I did the system restore and everything is back to normal. no prob now

sorry,
Well the one prob is that the catalyst control center was displaying more options like anti analising (AA) and color rendering and stuff like that now its just simple. When i had the laptop first day it had way more options went even in advance mode under view menu but still nothing.

Any help would be nice.THX

 

Well these are my temps after playing Command & Conquer 3 Kane's Wrath for 10 - 15 mins on high/ultra high settings don't know if they look safe. Anybody can comment on this or tell what i can do to lower the temps i made some extra holes where the fan spins did decrease the temps by at least 3-5 Celsius. Thats about it, still better than nothing.


As you can see from the picture those are the games i play and they all run smooth. But they all seem to make the temps reach at high temps even those old games like serious sam 2 encounter.

 

I run 180's also but at 800x600 on COD5. they should be ok although the gpu temp looks kinda high. you can go to ati's website and find out the temp. intels says 100c is max for the t8300 (what i have). i ebayed a pcmcia fan
( http://media.photobucket.com/image/pcmcia%20fan/PCGeezer/Slot.jpg) to help with the cooling. i know it will help cuz i've bolown cannehd air through there with noticeable affects. i will show the differences when i get the fan. i only bought it for $5, so not a bad investment if it drops my temps around 10 degrees.

 

Well g0t0 i looked at that pci fan and it looks good i might order one of those puppies myself prob this Monday. well i was bored again like always and made even more holes and Im impressed with the results just played command and conquer again with high/ultra high same settings as before for 10-15 mins .SEE RESULTS IN PIC. NICE HUH

 

Just, wondering does any1 have a sleeve or a Case for there M6862 and where'd you get it from thanks.

 

Increased my FPS 6 times greater than it was!


A search on how to overclock my M6862 led me to this page and it certainly has some great ideas and I wanted to give something back.

After reading this morning about Overclocking I downloaded some of the linked software and started to play. My goal was to increase my FPS in games, namely World of Warcraft. Sitting in a LA-Z-Boy chair with my legs up and the machine on my lap is not conducive to cool temps.

To shorten the story; while playing with overclock settings I saw just how easily this machine is affected by an increase in temperature. I realized that getting better FPS may just be directly linked to temp and not so much overclocking the machine....yes, Im a noob.

So, I kept reading about how to lower temps. I read reviews on some laptop pads with fans and found one that had OK reviews. I dashed to Walmart and bought a Belkin Cool Elevate pad with a single fan for a whopping $20.

Now, temps did drop but when under extreme circumstances the machine would still climb to over 80C and my FPS would tank.

I read above about someone drilling extra holes for more airflow and while that scared me, it did give me an idea.

By removing the cover on the bottom and then placing the unit on the coolpad and then onto my lap I saw astonishing results.

FPS in the Warcraft city of Dalaran went from 6FPS to 38FPS. Dalaran is know for its drain on most machines and is a great benchmark to test.

FPS in any other area of Warcraft was 60+

Temps? Never got above 60, ever.

Sitting here typing this, the temp is 22C. My crotch is frikkin freezing but my Gateway is cool.

Now, of course I have to be careful when I pick this unit up and make sure my hands dont go into the open slot where the fan is but the Belkin pad has such a short cord, you have to pick both it and the machine up as one anyway.

So, for $20 and a turn of the screw I increased my FPS 6 times what it was.

I can only imagine how this would affect Crysis or CoD or any other graphically intensive game. I run WoW on max settings BTW.

So there you have it, my small contribution. Hopefully it helps someone out of the same jam I was in. Oh, and as far as overclocking....dont need to now

 

http://www.laptoprepairco.com/searchmodel/searchmodelresults.asp?brand=gateway&model=m-6&txt=M-6000%20Series

If changing the color is the option.

 

Check these covers...

http://www.laptopking.com/kingpartdetails.asp?ref=2553&category=misc

 

How long does your battery last? Mine last an 1hr and 30mins without wifi on, since i use a Ethernet at my dorm, on high performance. Shouldn't it last longer??..

 

It'll last longer if it's not on high performance.
I think 90mins is pretty good for high performance. The real battery drain is the backlight. Thing eats up battery time.

 

Mine lasts for roughly 2hrs and 50mins

 

Hi KP,

Long time no talk. Just out of curiosity ... do you stay plugged into the wall all the time with the Battery running ...

I used to cycle the Battery thru ... charge it to 100% ... run on it until 20% and charge it back up again ... then talking to some of the folks on the Forums ... I came to the Conclusion of just leaving the darn thing plugged in and running all the time! Less cycling!

G!

 

How?? Is anyone having HDD problems, last week my HDD was 145 and now its 132 like at times it goes up and down without DL or deleting anything. Some people have said its Vista and Shadow copy can it be that??

 

Nope. I charge it to 96-100% then unplug and let it run. I usually bring it closer to the critical 12% range so I can make sure the battery is reading the charge left correctly. It might not be healthy, but its the only way I can be sure of the actual amount of battery life left.

EDIT: I read you installed a bluetooth module into your M-6862. Which one did you install and what cover did you remove to add it in?

My battery life is I guess" high" because I replaced the T5750 with a T8300 Penryn which can be ridiculously underclocked and already consumes less power. I also dim the screen and turn off the LED lights.

 

Hello, I've owned the m-6862 for a fwe months now.
When i first got the laptop and i was playing WOW, i got around 80 fps in it when i was in low populated areas. Now I'm getting around the 25's.

I've upgraded the driver of the radeon 2600HD to whatever one gateway had, it was in 2008.

I saw a few pages back a link to a driver from 2009.
this is the link: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownlo...spx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.2&lang=English

i downloaded that, uninstalled the old driver, restarted, then tried installing that one, but after i install it nothing happens. it's like it doesn't detect it or anything. i tried using mobility modder to mod that, then reinstall it, but same thing.. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.


Could anyone walk me through with exactly what to do(or point me to a diff. driver?, maybe i messed something up with it.

thanks



EDIT: nevermind i managed to get it to work, thanks for all the great info in this thread.

More Questions: This laptop get very very hot, so much that sometimes games will freeze up. I've taken the back off and have it on a cooling pad and it helps a little. What other ways can I get this laptop cooler without sacrificing gaming power.( i've tried rmclock to reduce the power input, but i wasn't fully understanding about certain things on it)


another one, i really love the 6864 fx case, is there anyway of switching out of this to get into that one? or any other type of case,LED,etc. mods. I like to customize lol.

thanks.

 

What temps u getting while gaming? How many mins or hours u play?

My gateway m-6862 temps are as follows
--monitoring temps with HWMonitor

These temps are from playing
Call Of Duty 4- 30mins
Fallout 3- 90mins
CPU
idle-32c
load-65c

GPU
idle-50c
load-73c

HDD
idle-28c
load-35c

ACPI
idle-45c
load-65c

 

my GPU can get up to the 90's c while playing games such as WoW.
my cpu gets around 70's too.


with normal web browsing and such they stay around - gpu=65c , cpu=56c.

my fan seems to be on a lot.. sometimes it gets so hot that it'll either give me a blue screen, or i'll have to take the back cover off.

the cooling pad seems to help a little, but not much.

i noticed that this heat kills my gaming experience.. when i first installed wow when i bought the laptop i was getting over 100fps, now i'm getting aroun 20fps with the game in windowed mode and some of the features off.

my driver is:
Driver provider:ati technologies inc.
driver date: 3/16/2009
version: 8.600.0.0

this is the driver a few pages back, modded with mobility modder. I'm getting around the same fps as i was with the old driver, before i put this one on a few days ago.

the one i had before i put the new one on:
File Description: ATI Video Driver
Version: 8.452.0.0
Date: 01/09/2008


--any tips on how to get the most out of this card, keep it cooled, and crank some fps out of it? i'd like to get back to atleast the 50's-60's.
Or any thoughts on what else it could be?

 

Have you looked into undervolting? My 6864fx was running hot all the time while I played EQ2. Within a minute of loading into the game, the fan would be running full blast. I found a good article on undervolting here at NBR and carefully followed the steps. I was able to cut the voltages fairly close to half and running stable for over a month. Now my fan never has to kick into the highest speed. In EQ2, it kicks up to the middle speed setting and temp never goes much over 65c. With the cpu not getting as hot, the gpu seems to be able to dissipate the heat better and stays within a few degrees of the cpu.

Though it makes no sense, I swear my framerate increased on average about 8-10 fps. Unfortunately, eq2 is more cpu intensive, so hitting 60 fps or over isn't gonna happen till I can upgrade to a faster cpu.

 

Wanted to share my results on improving the performance of my M6864FX. Stock out of the box, it was running in the low to mid 80s C, and my 3DMark06 scores were 2300-2350. It worked fine for the applications I use---word processing, internet, light photo/video editing, and older games (I multibox Everquest 1, usually running 2-4 instances at a time and play Civilization 3; haven't tried much else on this comp), but the temperatures concerned me, and I was a little disappointed in my 3D benchmark score.

I read about undervolting, so I gave it a try. Lowering the voltage from 1.25 to 1.15 brought my temps down to the mid to high 70s, but my 3DMark06 scores were still in the 2300s. I further undervolted it to 1.0 volts (the lowest I could get it to run with any stability) and used information from these forums to increase Windows Vista performance (turning off or down as many settings as I could live with). My computer now runs in the mid 60s (usually 64-67 degrees C) and my 3DMark06 scores jumped to 3629 (the highest of 3 tests, 3626/3626/3629).

Undervolting helped a LOT with the temperatures, and lowering the settings in Vista allowed my graphic performance to increase considerably. I believe the big jump in my 3DMark06 scores were probably a combination of the 2---less demand the CPU/GPU from lowering Vista settings and lower temperatures making them work more efficiently.

I'm going to try overclocking the GPU slightly to see if I can hit 4k on the 3DMark06 benchmark, although I'm having trouble finding good software for this...I'm not in love with ATI's CCC for overclocking, since it caused problems with my home PCs and overheating; ATITools won't seem to run for me, so I'm working with Riva. I'll post my successes or failures here for anyone who's interested.

 

how long does it take for Gateway to boot up??

 

I like this computer M-6862), but mine has been terrible. BB has had to replace to motherboards on mine. One more time, and I get a new computer. When it works, it works well. But it has been very unreliable over time. Three times it's been sent in for repairs. The first time the screwed up and did not fix it, the second time they replaced the mobo, and just recently had to replace the mobo again. I'll cross my fingers and hope this is the final replacement, but two mobos, jeez. I'm not optimistic.

 

my m6862 is wierd, whenever I run anything graphic intensive, it freezes, and it doesn't freeze if I play games that are older (not for a while (2 + hrs) anyway). When I run the graphic intensive games on lower settings and on batter saver mode, it holds off the freeze for a while but it always comes.

I know for a fact that the m6862 has a HORRIBLE way with dealing with heat, from lurking on a similar thread and the fact that my m6862 ALWAYS seems hot. So I'm guessing that the freezing is due to overheating, since most times the computer is really hot when the game freezes...


So yeah is it because of overheating, and if it is, do y'all know the best cooling system/laptop pad I could get? ty!

EDIT: oh what vista optimizations are yall talking about?

 

I don't know if this has been asked in a previous post but how would I go about replacing the dvd drive on the M6862? My disc drive doesn't seem to read discs anymore..

Mine has stopped working...
Me dropping my laptop a few months might be the reason but after I dropped it it was working fine for months. But now the drive doesn't seem to work anymore.

I tried looking at the user manual but it says nothing about replacing the optical drive. How would I go about doing it? Would it be simple to do?
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2008/Tempest/1015594R/1015594Rnv.shtml

 

whenever I play Cod4 it freezes right away, like after 30 secs. For other graphic intensive games its like 30 mins but the freeze always comes, I'm going to try your idea. And its actually really good your crotch is freezing (if you're a guy that is, well even if you're a girl) since your ballz need to be in a cool environment to create the best sperm, and having them cool while on the cpu will make up for the times you wear tight jeans/do anything else that makes them warm (they need to be cool, and that is why they are not inside your body, but outside))

 

It all depends, i did this to my laptop (pic below) and i run much cooler now than before.....and to top it all of i bought a laptop cooler this one:::::: http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzM= which was only $7 dollars at my local electronics store.

 

that cooler seems cool in that it lifts your laptop up so it can suck more air in. I personally am eyeing this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834998686

or a cheaper variant of it. Atm Cod 4 is unplayable and other graphic intensive programs are playable up to 45 mins + (hour if im lucky) if I dim the screen to less than half brightness. Right now I'm trying undervolting, like as I type this, and am getting a 5 degree max temp reduction, but I'm going to try and push it lower.

Lol i'm not completely sure what you did with your laptop on your pics... did you buy a new bottom? where did you buy it from?

 

I will take that as a compliment no i did not buy a new bottom cover i made it myself actually with some extra parts i had lying around now my computer gets way better ventilation to the components.Im very proud of myself(LOL)

 

I'm beginning to hate this laptop, like really HATE it, if I had known this was laptop was going to be like this, I would have 200$ less and bought a 400$ laptop from hp.com and atleast then I could have played these games on LOW...

This piece of sh1t freezes to EVERYTHING. Can someone help me. When it freezes sometimes, my laptop doesn't even feel hot (the only part of the laptop that usually feels hot to me is the left side next to the fan).

If it helps you all help me, the games I can play without it freezing for a while (the freeze comes but not for a very long time):

Warcraft 3
Savage 2
CrossFire (basically like Counter Strike)
Ace Online

The games that freeze after about 30 seconds:
Call of Duty 4
Combat Arms
Soldier Front ( a game with HORRIBLE graphics and still my laptop finds a way to freeze)

So the general trend is that my laptop doesn't tend to freeze on games that are 1 gen or more old graphics wise. I hear Savage 2 is very graphics unintensive so that may be why that is playable for me.

I have no spyware or viruses and my registry is clean, i did a bunch of checks from different freeware scanners, I'm gonna get norton maybe if its not catching something. My cpu is 50 degrees when not processing anything, and my overall computer is 60 degrees (celsius). Undervolting only cut off about 5 degrees for me when my computer is in full load.

 

Install vista from your gateway CD. It will be a clean install. Then update drivers and install latest ati drivers via ModTool. That solved all my freezing issues for me. From the store my experience was pretty much like what you described.

 

Will any type of optical drive work as a replacement for the M6862?

I need to replace the dvd drive on my M-6862
Mine has stopped working...
Me dropping my laptop a few months might be the reason but after I dropped it it was working fine for months. But now the drive doesn't seem to work anymore.

I tried looking at the user manual but it says nothing about replacing the optical drive. How would I go about doing it? Would it be simple to do?
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobi...4Rnv.shtml

pics of laptop
http://supcontent.gateway.com/sup...ottmV2.jpg

http://supcontent.gateway.com/sup...DD_RV2.jpg


Ok, so I called Gateway and they said they could send me a replacement for free but they also said I'd have to send in the old drive.
The thing is, my old drive, the front panel comes loose
http://www.notebook-doctor.com/im...blende.gif

That part. It's not completely broke off but it does unhinge a little bit(I don't think it's the reason for the drive not working. The drive has been working for months after that happened.)
They said that they would put a small hold on my credit card till they get the old drive back.
But I'm just scared that when they get the old drive they might see that and then charge me for the new drive, which is $77.

So... I guess try and find a cheap one of ebay or something?

 

Don't hate the laptop until you know it's a hardware issue and not a software issue. First step toward doing that, as someone said, would be a clean install.

 

Hello.I need to replace the 250Gb HDD for a bigger 500Gb WD5000BEVT. This HDD support SATA2 only and do not have a jumper for working with SATA1. Will m-6862 support SATA2 or it's works with SATA1 only?

 

not sure but i think it only works for sata1 not 100% sure

 

Near my heat sink,theres seems 2 be dust, how should i go about removing it??

 

@CompUG
Compressed Air - Comes in a can - such as: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899888208



What temps you guys getting. I think I mentioned this a few months ago but mine seem to fluctuate above normal now. I seem to be idling at 55C +

Used to always be below 45C

Gunna check for dust but I'm thinking it might be more the thermal paste or something.
Though on a more positive note, i never seem to go above 85c in game.

anybody replace the thermal pads?

What is that just a few holes drilled with a screen?