Official M-6862 & M-6864FX owners thread

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=105310

For future reference...Describes the problem with graphic drivers and links to the uninstall utility that actually works.

 

Excellent, you found the info! Thanks for putting it up in this thread.

JP

 

I think my DVD drive on my M-6862 is messed up. Has anyone experienced an issue where it continually fails to burn a dvd (either data, music, or movie)? It plays em back fine, and can burn a music cd w/o issue, but during some point of burning like an ISO or data dvd it fails and I gotta pitch the DVD it messed up on.

 

That can sometimes happen on a laptop if the lcd shuts down due to inactivity as part of the power conservation. When burning discs be sure to put the laptop in High Performance mode, set it to never shut off the display or hard drive when in High Performance mode. If that doesn't work then you may have a faulty drive.

 

I have it plugged in on "balanced" mode, so I dont think it should be an issue with that should it?

 

It could. I used to burn a lot of things with my old Dell E1505. Every time I did a burn, walked away and came back to a screen that was off the burn would fail. Every time I did a burn and the screen never shut down because I was surfing the net or doing something else it would burn fine. I've only burned one disc with my 6864FX but I was doing other things while it burned and it came out fine.

give it a try and see what happens. I'm betting it works.

JP

 

well my computer is set to never go to sleep and for the monitor never to turn off when it's plugged in (even on balanced) so i don't think that is it but i'll try

 

Hi Slayer,

1) You have nothing to "lose" if you try Jeremy's Solution. Can you try the same DVD or ISO with the Same Blank and Same Speed .. well our burner can only go as fast as 8X for DVD anyway ... so you are A-OK there.

2) Sony Optiarc are not known to be the Best Burners in the world!

3) Have you by chance changed anything on your Drive or Firmware?

4) What program do you use to make your Burns!

G!

 

What does your laptop usually run temp wise....

I was playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC with HWmonitor running in the background, my cores got up to 83C and my GPU got up to 82C. You think that's alittle hot?
Mind you, it wasn't constantly that high, when I exited the game it was at about 65c. The Max it got were the temps above.

Highest I ever had it was 85c, playing Crysis Demo.

 

Cd burning issue sounds like software issue to me and not a hardware problem. It burns music and has trouble with data. Look there first....Are you finalizing? Are you experienced in burning disks?

http://www.videohelp.com/

One of my favorites. GL

 

Also another question,
The CD that this computer comes with is a full vista install?

I'm thinking about deleting the Recovery Partition (I think I brought this up already) and I was reading someplace that the recovery DVD you make may not work properly without the partition, so I just wanted to make sure that if that were to happen I would still have the Vista disk to fall back should anything happen.

Wanna try out Windows 7

 

That's correct. The 6862 and 6864FX came with a OEM Vista install disk so you can do a clean install. Why not leave the recovery partition in tact and install Windows 7?? That's what I did. You can do an upgrade of Vista to Windows 7 or you can do a clean install in a new partition. There's some good threads in the Windows OS > Windows 7 forum.

By the way, so far I like Windows 7 a LOT. Don't expect any huge changes as it's pretty much just a better, leaner, faster Vista.

JP

 

My laptop maxes at ~68C when playing games like Fable, Bioshock, GoW, and Crysis. The GPU goes up to ~78C.

 

Yeah that's what i ended up doing. My Shrink Volume nonsense wasn't working right but I found a site and a work around and now it is....

Just finished formatting the partition, probably will install tonite at some point...

 

Does the T8300 your using make that much of a difference?

I'm still using the stock T5750 and besides it getting only slightly warm I really can't complain....

 

Yes, it makes a difference in battery life as well as Temperatures. I can undervolt the T8300 to .9250v on the SuperFLM setting. That is crazy low and cold.

On top of that I'm seeing a 15+ increase in FPS on games like Crysis and WOW.

 

krazyphire, all your talk about your 8300 is making me jealous. I feel the need to get the 9300 now just to outwit you. *shakes fist*

 

Well till then my M-6862 is the best around!

 

hey krazyphire, when you upgraded your cpu to the T8300 did you upgrade your memory to the 800mhz speed or leave it alone?? Also curious where you found the best deal on the T8300 processor.
Thanks,
JP

 

I left the Memory at 667Mhz b/c the M-6862 can not use the 800MHz speed. Found the T8300 on ebay for about $165, but if you can I would say get a T9300 b/c they are only $230 (or less).

 

Really? I had checked the motherboard specs and it lists it as being capable of 533/667/833mhz. Check out the link below. I may have to look into this a little further

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2008/TempestFX/4006270R/4006270Rsp2.shtml

 

Yeah the FSB speed is now 800MHz, but the DDR2 memory is bottlenecked by the motherboard at 667MHz.

 

Hi KP ... how long have you had the T8300!?!?

A T9300 ... what would you gain with that. I am not Gamer ... so!

But I do a lot of Video Stuff ... encoding and recombination ... just hobby type ... so if I am going from CD/DVD player then I guess I am bottlenecked at our DVD Player at 8X ... so no matter what my CPU is ... it can read only that fast ...

Unless if I go with an External which then I don't know what my USB limit would be.

So, for the biggest $$$ bang if one wants to upgrade from T5750 ... what would next logical CPU be?

I suppose changing my CPU will then void my 3 year GeekSquad Warranty!

Thanks,

G!

 

Hi Guys,

Q1: Has anyone connected a Printer to the M-6862?

I have a high speed printer that it has a DB25 Male output ... so I was thinking about using a "DB25 Female to DB9 Male Cable" and connect thru the Serial Port of the laptop. But this type of connector usually is used for COMM stuff ... so I am not sure if it will work with the Printer?

Q2: Does anybody know if the above DB25 to DB9 will work or not!?!?

Thanks,

G!

 

With a T9300 you gain better battery life, lower temps and chassis heat, better performance from CPU intensive programs like when video encoding. This is due to the new SSE4.1 instruction set.

If you really do a lot of video stuff then the Penryn T9300 would definitely be better for you than the T8300 which are both leaps and bounds ahead of the merom T5750.

Changing the CPU will not void the Geeksquad warranty because as long as you change the T5750 back in before taking the laptop for repair they would never know.

 

If your printer's connection is a DB25 serial connection then this should work with a DB25 to DB9 adapter. In the printer properties on the ports tab is where you would select the comm port for your serial printer. I believe you will have to set up the printer manually.
Hope this helps.

JP

 

Does your webcam work after the upgrade to Windows 7? I updated a few days ago (x64, of course), and now my webcam doesn't want to work for anything. The built-in software says "graph render fail", and I've tried re-installing the drivers, but nothing works. Gateway.com has older drivers than I originally had though, it seems?

I want my webcam back!

 

makitaki, my webcam is working just fine in Windows 7. I just tested it out by taking a picture.

JP

 

Have people used a 7200rpm drive in the m-6862? I ask, because there is the pretty highly rated WD Scorpio drive at a very good price at newegg, like $90, and I would be interested in installing Windows7 on this machine. I installed W7 on one of my home machines using an old raptor hdd I have and so far I really like it, very fast. It might be fun to install on this machine, W7 64-bit. On my home machine, all my hardware was recognized except for my wireless network card, though I'm not surprised by that as it's sort of an obscure card.

Here's the link to the hdd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

Anyway, any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

marty

 

Hi KP,

THANKS! Yeah I do a lot of video encoding ...

I wish I had never paid the $129.99 for the Geek Squad warranty ... I don't really think I will ever need it with this laptop ... it keeps ticking just fine!

G!

 

Hi JP,

THANKS! ... so I guess I can give it a try!

G!

 

Hey gang!! Quick question to anyone who may know. I reformatted my M-6862 and now when I try to burn my dvd's or cd's with the labelflash I get the message to insert a blank cd or dvd, there is already one in the drive. anyone know why this is happening? I installed the printlabel that came with the computer but I can't get the flash label to work. Thanks for any suggestions

 

Can't avoid accidents.

 

Hi uab ...

You are not really telling us much to go with ... but if I had to guess ... one of these things might be happening ...

You are using somekind og Virtual Image Drive thingy ... so it probably crashes your application quietly.

Or one of your programs crashes your DVD player application.

Q1: Does rebooting fix this problem!?!?

Q2: Does this "asking for a blank" only happens with LabelFlash?

Q3: Can you play a CD with WMP and DVD with PowerDVD or some similar type software?

G!

 

Hi KP,

Next laptop ... I ain't buying any kind of Insurance!?!?

G!

 

I've owned this laptop since about October, and now when the fan starts up, I swear it's a lot louder then it used to be. Anyone else having this issue?

 

^ yea mine is the same

 

This is an annoying problem I still periodically have with my m-6862:

Does anyone else experience the computer freezing up completely (so you hafta hold down the power button n turn it off n reboot it) sometimes when you either have the computer running and then either disconnect the AC power, or when you re-connect the AC power? Like it doesn't happen ALL the time, but a good 50% of the time if i am doing something then either re-plug in the computer, or unplug it, the laptop locks up, making me hafta turn it off completely.

The best "go around" solution I've had so far is just putting it into sleep mode which only takes 10 seconds or whatever, whenever i am connecting or disconnecting it from AC power, but it's annoying.

Anyone else experience this?

 

Yes, I am still getting this problem every once in awhile. Does not seem to have any set pattern to it - I just follow your "sleep mode" advice and it seems to do the trick.

 

Yeah I get this and it has very little rhyme or reason to it. For awhile the laptop was freezing 2 out of 3 times when unplugging it. Then for awhile it never happened. Then today it happened 1 out of 3 times....

So it's really odd, and infuriating.

 

Did you guys have the freezing problems from the beginning, or is it something that happened over time?

 

They happened from the beginning for me, but then stopped for a long while and almost never occurred, but now it's about 1 out of every 3 times i plug/unplug it it does it, so I just keep putting it in sleep everytime i'm plugging it/unplugging it. It's annoying and random n wish it didn't occur lol. Wonder what Gateway would hafta say about this?

 

no problems here....I couldn't even replicate the freezing problem you guys are having.

I STILL cannot get my webcam to work though! ARGH. any suggestions?

 

I always shut down my system completely before doing anything with the AC, so I've never experienced any kind of freezing. Not sure what's up with the webcam. Does it need to be initialized or anything? Mine has worked from day one.

I just upgraded my hdd to a 320G WD Scorpio. Used acronis 2009, it was a so incredibly easy. Used a usb external enclosure, cloned the original hdd to the scorpio in the enclosure, and then swapped it out. Works fine. Faster, boot is shorter, programs load faster, a bit louder and hotter, however.

 

i reformatted and my webcam doesn't work anymore anybody knows how to get it to work again? thanks

EDIT: found the drivers for it thanks gonwk for trying to help.

 

Hi Alex,

What did you do with your 250GB!?!?

G!

 

Hi Morningsup,

What do you mean by reformat!?!?

Did you wipe the whole disc C & D drive!?!?

Did you by any chance make any "Restore" discs when you first got the laptop!?!?

G!

 

I bought an enermax enclosure to use with the scorpio 320. It's a really nice enclosure, here's the link at newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194024

So I loaded the scorpio into the enclosure, downloaded the trial version of Acronis True Image onto my laptop, and cloned the 250 over to the scorpio via usb. I've never used acronis before and wasn't sure if it would work with vista 64, and I've never closed a drive before via usb, but it worked perfectly. So I swapped the scorpio for the 250 and now the 250 is in the enermax enclosure. I can use it for a portable backup drive, but more than likely I'll keep it for use as a dedicated backup drive should the scorpio fail. I do that with most of my systems, create cloned dedicated backup drives. This laptop is mission critical, so I need it to work. I'll probably buy another drive to use in the enermax enclosure for a dedicated portable storage drive.

BTW, I notice a definite improvement in snappiness with the scorpio. Programs load faster, the system starts up faster. It does run hotter and there is a little bit of noise, but I don't find it a big deal. I'm pleased with my purchase, it just adds a little extra snap to an already pretty snappy system.

marty

 

Hey Alex,
That enclosure looks pretty cool. I like the fact that it has a USB cable for data and a seperate USB cable for power. You can actually use it as a portable drive. Very slick.

JP

 

Yes, it is pretty slick, especially given the price, and it seems to cool quite well. I wish it had a power switch, but other than that, I like it. There does not seem to be any limit as far as how large a hdd you can install. I was looking at a very cool 2.5" hdd enclosure at best buy, but it cost $50US and it could hold only up to 160G hdd, so forget it. I'll stay with this one.

marty