P-6860FX 8800M GTS dying/dead?

I have a P-6860FX and basically the same thing. I usually put a couple of dvd's or something under the back to prop it up for ventilation, one time I didn't and played a game while my desktop was working on something. The laptop froze, and would freeze when rebooted with little pink and purple symbols and I couldn't do anything with it. It would start in safe mode, so not sure what I did but I got it working and decided to not play any more games with it, just use it for the architectural CAD programs for work. Well, after a couple of weeks I thought I would hook it up in the bedroom and watch a movie through the HDMI cable going to the flat screen. I fell asleep, then the computer screen was completely black, I don't even get the boot up screen, nothing.

So I read this entire thread, and was going to ship it to l2repair, but since they apparently need to learn 2 repair I deleted that bookmark and am not sure what to do.

I could bake it, but would like a longer lasting fix.

I sort of thought I had a clue about reflowing, but don't know what reballing is, and don't know if I need a new GPU chip installed or who to trust to repair my laptop.

I was looking at getting a new Sager, but really like this old Gateway for some reason.

What should I do?

 

man my laptop is dead for 2 weeks now its has a short circuit after i baked my motherboard and i still have it and im looking for a fix. it is strange why i love this gateway and they still run fast as even they are old like 3-4 years.

to me it looks like BGA has failed. if you took care of temps the gpu is find just the BGA that is quite common these days because of bad solder and new rules for better environment

yes my next laptop will be SAGER (fullstop). they are good cheap and reliable

 

It is funny, I love that thing too. It has decent battery life for what it s also. I'm cool with investing a couple hundred to get mine going, just don't know where to take it and what they will do. I may try the baking trick!

What is "fullstop" in reference to SAGER? I was looking at the NP8170

Anyone know where to get this fixed?

 

Alright guys. It seems L2 finally got it right the third time. Beat HL2 and Portal on it with no issues. Played around 10 SC2 matches. Watched Alice in Wonderland in 3D all the way through. Hasn't gone bad yet. I'm calling it good. I will update if anything changes. If anyone is having issues I would either 1) PM niffcreature and see how much he'd charge, 2) contact a local repairer on craigslist (they usually advertise repairs for PS3 YLOD or 360 RROD) that should be able to do the job for (possibly) cheaper and faster, 3) send it to L2 or 4) bake it yourself. Best of luck

 

i did bake mine but now the motherboard has a short circuit and im still waiting until next week to see it its going to be fixed.

 

Mine's dead finally, after 4 years.
Lines and texture corruption and nvidia driver crashing.

Would I be able to replace the motherboard with a 79xx series one?

 

just do e reball and it will run fine. i found a gou who wants to look at my laptop so i still have hope. 4-5 weeks without it.

if i ware you i would go and do a BGA reball

 

You need to get the GPU chip reballed (BGA Reball), I can recommend a shop where I had it done (California, US), PM me if you want details.

 

so... question: laptop has never given me problems other than occasionally overheating if I wasn't careful. was shut down last night. when I turned it on this morning it started up fine. about 3 minutes after startup the screen blinked off/on once, then went black. I force-restarted and the screen never powered back on tho I could hear the windows chime so I know it was loading everything up. Nothing happened when I connected an external monitor to the VGA port either, so I'm assuming the GPU is shot or having issues... I know nothing about reballing/flowing... would that possibly fix this or am I SOL? my p6860fx graphics symptoms don't sound like those previously posted...

niff, would you possibly be able to fix this?

any advice appreciated... on my fking phone at this point... ugh, kill me now...

sidenote: I had a friend on FFXI named Nif

 

The ysmptoms vary per system. Some loose everything in the video where even windows will not boot, others like yourself get the sound but not video reponse. sorry to hear you are having issues though.

It is possible the inverter went, if so a reflow will not cure your issues. I do assume you had it set before where an external was plugged in it defaulted to or shared the desktop. if so then it most likely is not the inverter............

 

yeah I'm pretty sure it's the card. I'll hook it up to my tv with hdmi tonight to be sure, but usually any external display I connect widens the display. Ive had this laptop 3 years and really I need an upgrade.. just can't afford one ATM hoping to be able to fix it for $100 or so.

 

Heh I overheated the FX by covering the GPU fan vent, and voila! It is again working well, but for how long is another issue.

 

I really don't want to do the baking thing... i'd rather a semi-permanent solution. was looking at new laptops today, but i really don't want to spend all that.

Would rather just fix what I have. Is it possible to send a PM on this site? I'm curious if Niffcreature is still fixing FX's with this problem...

 

Hi niffcreature!


8800GTS died again last week. I was tired of baking mine gateway's motherboard to fix the GPU and... I bought new g92-751-b1 gpu for original - g92-700-a2 replacement. I decided to solder g92b core onto board. I did it today and currently I'm writing from gateway with 260M GTX. Operation was succesful. Firstly I was a bit scared because, screen didn't show up, I thought that I wasted my money. Then I moved 2Gb ram into second bank, and screen showed up. It started with orignal Gateway's P-6860FX bios (R01-A1P)

I also was wondering about the differences between 8800GTS and 260m GTX - outputs, clocks and most important 512GB vs 1024GB.
Before soldering new gpu I made two bootable cds with two bioses for possible blind flashing: one with original one and second modded with changing 8800gts bios into 260m GTX( that I took up from Gateway P-79xxFX with help of phoenix bios editor) - I lowered the clocks of gddr3 to the 8800GTS ones, but it started without changing original bios. This what shows everest and gpuz after cores replacement:



I'm wondering how is the 260m GTX workis as a 8800GTS or 260m GTX, it shows that it has 112 shader, but are they all working? Or only 64 are working? Clocks are slower than original but I don't mind it.

260M GTX
Core Speed * 550 MHz
Shader Speed * 1375 MHz
Memory Speed * 950 MHz

8800GTS
Core Speed * 500 MHz
Shader Speed * 1250 MHz
Memory Speed * 800 MHz

Should I try to upload the 260m GTX bios into 8800GTS one that the 260m GTX currently working on (voltages in both are the same)? I think that is too risky because of differences with ram (512mb vs 1GB)? Am I right?

Edit:
Just few minutes ago I saw screen blinking on windows 7 down bar (memory problems?), and I started furmark temperature and I think that temperature was going up too fast when it showed 79*C screen turned black and I manually restarted laptop maybe it is the reason is that the I have just put today thermal paste (thermalright chill factor II) and it has just to overheat more. I have also put paste on memories maybe they're overheating cause of the gpu? I will post updates.

Edit2:
I have installed Nvidia 290.36 drivers and blinking has gone, but still screen sometimes turns black (when temperature increases)

 

My FX P-6831 has also been acting weird and im not sure what is going on. My computer reboots its self everytime i try to install a NVIDIA driver, so i have to use the VGA one. Also, There are strange lines and marks during the boot up process. Below are some pictures of what the boot and windows loading screens look like now. Anyone think they can help me? I was thinking of sending it to one of those companies over on ebay to see if they could fix it, but wanted to check if anyone had a better idea.

Red Lines on the Right


Blue Lines going across screen

 

It's going, like mine did. Try overheating it for half a day.

 

Hi everybody! I have P-6831FX 8800 GTS and I have a problem as well Can anybody tell me if this is 8800 GTS or LCD problem? Is this video card MXM or BGA type?
I was playing Crysis 2 and I've seen colored dots squares and lines. I reinstalled GPU driver but it was getting worse and worse. Now my laptop is not bootable and I see these pictures. Pressing start button I see first picture and after 1 min I see another. I tried to connect to external monitor but I couldn't...
Thank you for answers beforehand.

 

Hi Pietro06!
Have you solved that overheating issue?
How's the perfomance in games now?

 

Have I solved? Hmm... in half way yes, with lowered clocks and voltage it's working normally without blackscreens, but referential clocks from 260M GTX in 3Dmark or Furmark show blackscreens after some minutes.

I think that are higher, but that was not in my intention for swapping.

 

I thought that swapping the 260M GTX chip was an awesome idea but having read another post of yours where you described all the troubles you came through and are currently in half way... I guess you really have to be a PC guru for that and that's who I'm not)) Though I wish you good luck! The experience you've got is kind of unique!

 

hi! does anybody know if g92-700-a1 and g92-700-a2 chips are identical? I decided to completely replace the old g92-700-a1 chip in my p6860fx instead of just reballing the old one but there's only g92-700-a2 chips available on ebay...

 

They're identical.

 

Update:

I started having problems with the vga chip once again. Today I was watching a vid with VLC and the system completely froze, at the same time the screen had those familiar colored streaks all over, even during boot.

Anyway it seems the "reball" was also a temporary fix... I don't feel like baking or spending any more $ on a new vga chip since the machine itself is way past its lifetime. I may offer it to a friend so they can experiment with it or I may recycle it altogether (except for the hd!).

To those who still own these Gateway machines: enjoy them while they last, just as I did!

If you're looking at an alternative to upgrade/replace I recommend Sager/Clevo all the way! Check them out in these forums.

ownasaur out.

 

Any machine is on borrowed time, these seem to be on a shorter leash than most with the VGA issue. nVidia did the industry no favors with the problems they have created. Gaeway is a ibt at fault here too as with all that money put out by nVidia they have done nothing for us as well.

I can only hope with the 260m that the P79 boards are longer lived. The 9800m sems to have a better life span but stilll some have issue. I don't think I have heard of a single 260m yet with reball issues. Time will tell though.

 

Heyya, ive got 3 gateway fx 7805's that im gonna be experimenting with! One has the hi rez screen
Ok first off, there all busted. All of them same problem, the gpus. So ive got a specialist thats giving me a good deal on reballing. Hes gonna use the leaded solder, so right off the bat these fx's are going to be better than out of the factory, with the right solder these are reliable machines! Now after reading this thread, niff creature is awesome! and Pietro i know its been a year, but i was wondering if you did the bios update for the gtx 260, did that help your temps and reliability?gts
Ok since i have the 7805 it has the g94 BGA, so im going to side grade one of the fx's 9800gts to a gts 160, which is the same but runs much cooler~ PERFECT for a good overclock! So im going to try this on one, and see how it works out. If it doesnt work, i wont be dissapointed just getting these fx's fixed with good solder is good enough for me. The fx is a good gamer, i get t9600 cpus for fricking 40 bucks, which is right at the bottle neck of the 9800gts video card. With the cpu upgrade the FX is a decent modern day gamer, ill be able to high at 1024x768 Resolution, why spend a grand or more on a new gaming laptop when these older ones are cheap like 200 to 400 dollars, and game good. New laptops at 600 dollars or less cant even load up, or even begin to play a newer game. Geez and if spend an extra hundred bucks i can get the x9100 cpu and over clock the out of this! They say they get close to 4ghz on the FX. Then i could turn around an overclock the hell outta the gts 160, higher than the stock 9800gts, see where im going with this. Thats a huge HUUGE Gaming boost, for cheap. Where would that knock this laptop up too? Like 2 years ahead of its time?

Ok Now lets get back on the subject of the fx 68xx series. The 2nd best cpu for it is t9500, and that puts it at being capable of modern gaming. And the CPU is cheap, less than 40 bucks! Im going to pick some of these laptops up. Im not going to slap in a gtx 260, but right now im comparing 9800gtx temps with the gtx 260.. And theres alot more other options besides the 260, you know i bet 8800 gtx bga would slap right in there with no temp problems whatsoever! Thats upper tier, way better than stock 8800gts, that would be a severe well worth it update. It depends on bga gpu thats better than 8800gts, but runs at around the same temp range, my limit is not as high temps as the gtx260. Hmm what about a gtx 460, i think it runs cooler than a 260 lol, i mean it would be bottlenecked by cpu. But that upgrade isnt really worth the extra cash it may be, i mean the vid card doesnt even show in the system, it always shows as 8800gts even if its diff, which is very lame, i cant sale that. Thats why i was asking about bios upgrades.
Any info or advice comments, are all welcome!

 

Oh and wow, if i just put a 8800gtx or 9800gt , 9800gtx in a fx 6860, that t9500cpu would be the bottleneck. X9000 cpu is expensive, but its 3.0 ghz! U know how much better would it perform than the 7805? It would have ddr2 ram instead of ddr3, how would that affect gaming fps?? 4gb ram is cheap for these, but they say u see a diff in 6 gb instead of 4gb, but not 8. So imagine the fx 6860 running a 9800gt, with a x9000 cpu, running 6gb ram, best buy for money

 

So my reliable FX6860 has shot on me. my 8800M failed with (43) error codes and no GPU functions, but is working as a stock VGA for now.

Is this the part i need to replace?

NVIDIA 8800M GTS G92 700 A2 512MB MXM III He VGA Video Card | eBay

 

No its not, gateway fx doesnt have a mxm card, its a just an ONboard Nvidia BGA CHIP. Couple post above guy posted 2 of the chipsets to look for. This is what you need, u have to have a reballer computer tech install it for you http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Piece-NVI...518?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d3a0bf07e

 

Thanks for the info. Now i have to figure out how to search for someone capable of doing the working to remove old and install the new one; not even sure what to ask. Will have to do more research.

-TRUZ

 

Can anyone with 6860-FX confirm something for me?

When you power on the 6860FX does the GPU fan (the fan directly under numeric keypad) power cycle and spin? If it does, does it stay on thru boot-up, or just briefly?

I'm trying to figure out if my fan is dead which is what is causing the GPU to not power up, before I go thru the big effort to tear down the laptop.

Thanks in advance.

 

Well, add me to the list. Lost my baby Last night while sitting idle. Booted it up, nvidia updated drivers and it ran fine for 2 hours idling while I was installing my new Xbone. All of a sudden, screen was garbled up, I hard booted and while the screen is backlit, nothing shows on the screen during post or windows boot up, just a backlit black screen. Sound like it's the 8800? I love this damn thing, got it when it first came out , upgraded the stock cpu to a t9300 back when. Without the the harddrives, should i sell for parts? Not sure if i should just buy a new laptop or fix this....i think this is the saddest I've ever been in loosing a computer/piece of tech lol.

 

If I can recall , mine only ran the fan during post and when the windows 7 logo popped up it wasn't spinning any longer.

 

Unfortunately the majority of the 8800's are just on borrowed time as they all have the same media. The 9800's are a mixed bag on the media with some of the earlier ones being the worst.

 

I have the sinking feeling that mine is dying. Installed Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon yesterday, along with some Windows updates (still running the x64 Windows Vista that came with it) then started getting some weird issues with the laptop: as it boots up, sometimes the wallpaper (or the login screen) will momentarily flash some distorted colors, then go back to normal. It freezes with XCom: Enemy Unknown and Half-Life 2, where it didn't before. I did a System Restore to last week, and uninstalled/reinstalled the NVidia drivers, and I'm getting the same symptoms.

I'm not getting any crazy scanlines/streaks or freezing in anything other than 3D games (yet). Does this sound like a hardware issue? I'm going to be backing up all my stuff over the next couple of days regardless, but I really hope this doesn't mean my laptop is dying. I bought it in Dec. 2008 (refurb). It helped get me through grad school, and now that I've graduated, I was looking forward to sitting down and finally finishing a lot of the games I started!