P-7811 FX Drivers

Thank you everyone who has contributed to this thread.

I must have XP x86 on this machine for work, and if it was not for all of you I would have already returned this thing... I am going to attempt this today/tomorrow and I will report back with my findings.

 

rancid, what i did to fix this problem is force a driver update on the ide driver and forced it to use the AHCI driver. then i proceded to reboot the laptop and switch the bios back to AHCI. once the machine restarts windows xp you can install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager. i had to do thid cause i setup a dual boot with vista and Vista wouldnt start without the AHCI enabled and Xp wouldnt start with it enable. hope this makes sense.

 

Syngen.. I've installed 32bit Vista, tried flashing..no luck. I tried USB, CD, and even used Winphlash 64Bit in vista, but no luck. I've got gateway on the phone right now.. their advanced "level 2" support..and he's looking into it. I'll post with any useful info, but I believe this BIOS is not meant for our computer. Even though the readme file included with the download specifically states these as supported:

P-6831 - 1015088R
P-6832 - 1015406R
P-6832 - 2906062R
P-6836 - 2906018R
P-6860 - 1015340R
P-6861j - 1015462R
P-7811 - 1015641R
P-7812jFX - 1015785R

And others, of course.. There are other Godzilla BIOS downloads on their site.. I'll ask the tech if any of those may be cross-compatible.

 

VWRacer- Thanks, I will wait and see if someone can confirm their eSATA port is working before I risk screwing up the OS since I need the laptop for this weekend

 

I'm still trying to locate that friggin eSATA cable. I know I have it somewhere... I did pick up a ext USB sound board and haven't opened it yet. I'll try one more night trying to get the sound. Thanks for all the help rancid. I'll get back to you on that eSATA port unless someone beats me to it.

 

Yep, I'll wait for E-wrecked to blaze the BIOS trail.

 

E-wrecked/fire268: Hey guys thanks for the info on Acronis. I'm going to buy the latest copy and image my current vista configuration, and then i'm going to experiment downgrading to xp with the help of all the great info in this thread!
= )

Rancid: you solved the audio issue, AWESOME. I can't wait to try xp on the p-7811fx, though i must admit most of my 32-bit applications work flawlessly and lots of old utilities i use for Half-Life surprisingly work as well, so my impetus to downgrade is not as strong. I bought a brand new copy of xp professional tho so i'm trying it no matter what! = )

 

Rancid: I found my eSATA cable and used it to plug my original (stock) drive (with Vista 64) in my external enclosure into the 7811. Bam! No lights, no noises, no luck...

Then I checked it using the USB 2.0 port and it works! Then I remembered that eSATA was un-powered (duh) so I plugged the powered USB only plug into the enclosure with the eSATA into the other port. Again, nothing happens; worse, my machine froze. I unplugged the eSATA and everything was back to normal. Ugh.

So I go back and and checked the drivers and installed the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2101&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Home+Edition&lang=eng&strOSs=45&submit=Go! and rebooted...

I try the connections again and it froze again. I'm not sure what's going on. I'll have to do some troubleshooting on this...

 

Thx Fire, same exact same thing as me except mine didn't lock up under Xp 32-bit. Very disappointing to say the least

 

Ok, I can independently confirm that Rancid's workaround for the audio issue works! I now have audio. Rancid, have you confirmed that your mic works also?

Btw: in your write up you should fix the devcon portion as I mentioned in the "downgrade thread" message #48:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=294159

I guess I'll have to return that USB sound card after all, thx a bunch!

Btw: for your optional HD Modem device, I manually installed using these drivers and they seem to work:

http://www.conexant.com/support/

click on "Modem Driver Assistance" and choose the HDA audio for XP:

http://www.conexant.com/support/files/HSFhda_WinXP.zip

Also, the last audio device is the NVIDIA HDMI Audio. I noticed that it would pull the driver from the Driver & Applications CD I burnt. I'll make sure by redoing all my steps (reinstall XP from scratch) and posting an update. Then we can tell Ashura to update the XP links for the modem as well as that NVIDIA HDMI audio device! I think the end is near my friend...

BTW: forum won't let me rep you again. Gotta spread it around. Perhaps my rep is too low...

 

It seems to me gateway may not be the brightest pixel on the LCD. After an hour of explain and wait time.. The final verdict is..... *drum roll please* It will be reported, investigated, and results will be provided in only 1-2 weeks. The tech said it seems like it may be an error on their part.. I agreed. They are supposed to call me when programming and research complete my inquiry. OR in the meantime, I can check back with the support site for any updates that may appear. I asked about driver support as well, since the laptop has been out for almost a month.. his response "Most releases take 1-4 months for support to be available on our website" to which I laughed softly, and apologized. He followed with "Our goal is to have a full support site, where when a new system is released, the original drivers are released at the same time, and updates follow".
Sounds like a canned response, but I let him know I wasn't laughing at him..just the script. Nice guy tho, and I have a service number to follow-up with in the event I don't hear back in a manner I deem timely. I will likely call tomorrow. The short of it is, there is no solution provided by gateway yet. And they apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

By the way, I found a few forums complaining gateway/acer doesn't support any 64bit flashes.. so one person used the original Vista install disk to boot into the install(32bit), and hit Ctrl+F10 to open command prompt..then try flashing from USB. Well, this is all making sense to me, until I try. All goes as planned, until Vista 32bit went ahead and began overwriting my original install. I just finished re-installing 64bit Factory Edition

I did learn a couple things though.. Trial and error, as I thought, can lead to a headache. I'm really good at thinking when tired, especially 5 in the AM. And, Gateway support may be based in the USA.. but just cause I can understand the person reading the script, that doesn't provide a quicker solution to my issue. So, any other frontiersmen who care to try and flash the BIOS..please, let me know when you are successful.

 

Fire - Thx for testing my method, I am glad it helped. I will fix the devcon portion so it is more precise.

The HD Modem device installed with the driver package I provided so you shouldn't of had to download anything additional.

So you got the second HD Audio device to install? Can you post your drivers? I looked for an HDMI driver and could never find one. I wonder if I can just point it to my Nvidia forceware directory, I will give that a shot in a few.

Once I get the eSATA port working I am 100% confident we can say that we have a working XP install. I spent a great deal of time today looking up the hardware ID's for the 3 unknown devices and they point back to the orange multimedia buttons which XP does not support anyways. I did not test the on-board MIC, but the line-in port works fine and I am able to hook up external speakers to the laptop so the MIC should work. I will test that as well.

 

Just don't be affraid to hit the lil white scale under our postings. It may come back to ya

 

Built-in MIC port works, but the internal MIC (I guess built in with the webcam?) does not work. I tried it in Skype and with the windows hardware wizard setup and it never detects my voice. I don't think anyone ever got this working on the older FX series laptops either. I know I never could get it to work on my 6831-FX.

Windows does recognize there is a MIC present because you can adjust the MIC properties and boost, but it never registers.

Please upload the driver you used for the Nvidia HDMI port, I can't get it to install using the forceware drivers. Thx.

 

Btw Ashura, your winxp 32 bit link for the intel wireless 5100 doesn't work; it appears that you have an extra "g" at the end of the link.

 

Ok, I've posted my writeup on how I installed WinXP 32bit on the P-7811fx. Here's the thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295516

Note, it isn't WinXP 64bit nor WinXP/Vista dual boot...

 

whats the bios number on your 7811 ?
the 6831 was shipped with 94.26 and afaik the 6860 had the 94.28

look at this :

i wouldn't install that on a 7811

 

Okay here is my contribution, such that it is, to the 7811 community!

I've been through two routers now (DIR-655 and currently WRT610N) and am having connection speed issues.

I downloaded this driver that comes with a small piece of extension software that adds right into the Vista64 functionality. It's directly from Intel and is less than a month old. Anyway, it made it a little better.

I'm coming to the conclusion though that the 5100 might be my problem of why I can only get 135Mbps on a purely N network running at 40Mhz wide in the 5Ghz range.

Anyway, there it is.. enjoy.


http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det... Vista* Home Premium, 64-bit version&lang=eng


Hope it hadn't been posted before.

 

Well I am happy to report back the following results.

I started out with creating my recovery DVD's and the App's & Driver DVD. Then I switched the HDD support for IDE, and installed XP SP2 to the primary partition, followed by Vista 64 to the secondary (Data) partition. I am adding a Seagate 7200.3 320GB for data/games/etc.

Using a combination of all of your suggestions I have everything working under XP x86 except as others have mentioned: Onboard mic, HDMI, eSATA.

Also I decided to use the L2G 177.92's with the modded .inf and just as reported by Anandtech.com's review have had no issues.

Rancid, your workaround for restarting the audio on boot works perfectly so I wanted to say thank you very much for your time & effort with this.

 

Ps - Why The Hell Is This Not Stickied?!?!?! :cry:

 

It actually is Schmoof in the official 7811 Thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=287180

Scroll down to "Chipset Drivers" and 7811 XP Upgrade guide.

 

Touche Salesman... Touche.

(Family Guy?)

 

Back up, we can't let this guy die until we have all the driver issues sorted out. eSATA anyone?

 

Hey. I downloaded the 7zip and the 64bit driverset to my grandfather's comupter and burnt them both to a CD. I was able to install 7zip on my FX but I cant get the drivers to work...

 

I assume the drivers are original so use 7zip to unzip the folders. Then go into individual folders and run setup.exe

You may want to wait with installing Intel Chipset and maybe Intel VGA UMA and see if things work without them. This is only a viscous rumor at this point but worth a try. You can always add them.

 

Still working on it. Actually I need someway to test if my eSATA drive really works thru the eSATA interface; since the only thing I have with an eSATA connector is the 7811. It's like testing a light socket with a light bulb that you don't even know if it's burnt out, and it's the only socket you have... Also, you never get it to light; so is it the bulb or the socket?!?

 

Greetings forum,
My trusty Gateway MX7525 (WinXP Pro, AMD64 4000+, 2.6ghz, 2 gig fast RAM) died the other day. I used it for professional audio and multimedia with a pro (RME) audio interface. It just froze and turned off - very sad.

I need to replace the MX7525 (Geek Squad said it needs a new motherboard and wanted $945 for the job.)

I am not so afraid of Vista64, my hardware and apps are compatible. Am looking at the new P-7811FX and hope the forum can help with some info:

a) How does the included P8400 processor compare with the AMD64 4000+. What is important to me is processing power for real-time audio. I do not need much multi-tasking.

b) Would upgrading the processor to the intel P9500 make a substantial difference for my purposes? The ghz speed bump does not seem great, but the L2 cache is larger - what are your informed opinions?

Thanks in advance for speedy replies,
Brontoy

 

It has 3GB L2, 2 cores and is C2D so it should smoke the 4000+ even with less Ghz.

9500 would be nice but I'd wait for the price premium to abate.

 

Thanks for the info -
Do I understand correctly that even if my apps are not optimized for multi-core operation, a dual-core 2.4 would out-perform a single core 2.6 in processor intensive appps? Or is my question too general to be meaningful?

Brontoy

 

That has been my experience. Also there is a considerable difference between the new Intel C2D's and beyond and AMD's dual cores. Sad to say because I have been an AMD fanboy for years. I still run a couple 165 Opti's and love them to death but there is just no comparison to Intel at the same or even lower Ghz. How much lower I can not tell you but in your case there are too many differences to even hesitate.

 

OK - so I bought a P-7811 - and am trying to make sense of everything, but I have a challenge in all this. I need to create a dual-boot system, I have built a dual boot XP Pro SP2/Linux desktop with little challenge and have been trying to follow the drivers discussion. I do wonder how hard it would be to boil this all down.

A couple of questions:
1) I would like to build this system to make use of the 64bit architecture - so am hoping to dual boot XP Pro 64 bit - is this possible? I am working with a lot of development 3d software and much hasn't ported to Vista yet... or won't port to Vista...

2) The slipstreaming article was awesome - and I have been trying to figure out how to utillize the drivers that DragonRider uploaded - I know it's 32 bit - but if I can get that going at least I could show some demos on this bad boy... I just can't figure out how to integrate them with my standard XP install disc... using NView...

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance - and I think that once I get through all this I will be creating a PDF of the entire -step-by-step- process.

 

I think everything but the audio and eSATA work fine for XP64, although someone else will have to confirm. So long as you won't need those, you should be set.

 

rancid or anyone who knows what to do. I have xp sp2 dualbooting. everything is working except the audio and the built in modem. I tried the audiostart.bat and checked it several times. it will not do anything. it just sits in teh taskbar indefinately. is there some sort of trick to installing devcon. does it need to be in a specific place or the aidiostart.bat in a specific place in devcon. any help much appreciated

 

A bit off topic, but there was a windows update released today for vista and one of the things it improves is "...the stability of systems on which Nvidia graphics cards are installed."

 

Not sure what you are asking (the NView thing???) But if you just want to integrate (slipstream) the drivers into the XP install, just use nLite. You may not want to do every driver for 64bit to gain more control and avoid unintended consequences.

This probably has nothing to do with your question but it's free.

 

its amazing how much of an overclocker the 7811 is. i took Ewreckeds clocks in his sig and score a 9600ish in 3dmark06 and more amazing how stable it is at those clocks compared to the 6860 i had which would crap out if i overclocked it.

 

is that using 1280x1024?

 

Yes sir.... it defaults to 1280x1024 cause of the wuxga screen but im sure you knew this already .

 

well a big thumbs up to ya, sir!

 

Once the prices of the big CPUs come down a tad or they announce that quadcores wont work in the new machines ill snag another CPU.

 

Wow. Thats a nice score, Quad!!

 

you never know..it could have been 1920x1200

 

Lol i wish . im just amazed at the headroom this thing has. i would have never thought of going that high on core/mem/shaders usually 100 over on any of them i feel is really pushing it but this thing barely broke a sweat at those OCs .

i know i have been reading that these cards are thought to be rebranded 8800gts but from what i have experienced so far im thinking that is not the case at all.

 

nice!

maybe not a 8800m gts but more like an 8800m gtx.

e-wrecked: you have to knock off that 8800m gtx over clock record!. i know you can do it. i got faith!! *LOL*

http://service.futuremark.com/searc...0&hardwareshadows=-100&softwarefiltering=-100

the first 2 are running at 3400 mhz, but the next 2 are a close match to ya at 3200 mhz.

 

Done! Running @ 2.9 GHz, and with Vista unlike them running the 3dmark friendly XP.. Still waiting for a new BIOS.. *grumbles*

 

i knew it! nice!

now, this new bios, what are you looking for in it?

 

A fully open BIOS would have me wanting to bear your children...

but a 3.6 capable overclock would be a very close second. Heck anything is better than what we are sll stuck with now.

Though the 7811 owners would probably like RAID capabilities as well (still can believe gateway fubar'ed that one)

 

ok, now this raid stuff...i seen it in there and it can be enabled, but i dont have a 7811 to run the test for it. at least i think so. maybe ill go into best buy today and reboot a laptop and check the bios. see what it really shows.

and so far, it seems that we still cant change the speed. im still looking around on that.

 

oh that would be hilarious.
associate
"excuse me sir, can i help you with purchasing a laptop"
you
"nah, i'm just here to see if my homemade bios flash works or turns your pretty display model into a really expensive paperweight"

That situation is made of pure win
And if you do this please take a picture of the gits face as you do this because that would be priceless.

by the way, what program are you using to toy around with the BIOS, the actual editor or something else? Because if you need the editor once i get back home (11 more days) i might be able to hook you up

 

I just downloaded 3dmark and I was wondering what settings you gurus would use for your stock 7811.. I've never used it before. Sorry if this has been answered or if this is a stupid question. I'm pretty new to all this.