P-7811 issues voting

I would like to ask everyone who cares and ownes a P-7811 to submit their oppinion on their computer in this thread. This will let everybody understand the impact of the issues with this model. Also, if you vote, please post a message here so that we can see who owns one and who does not.

 

Had a bad lcd panel that had the same problem as seen here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3830640&postcount=23

I exchanged it and got a new one that is now triple booting winxp, vista x64, and ubuntu (still working driver issues in ubuntu)

 

The first one I had had an LCD issue like mindstorm as well. The second one I got has it, but not as bad (hardly visible unless you're really looking for it to be honest). I've ran 3DVantage for 8 hours, f@h SMP for 2 days, and GPU2 client for 12 hours and no lock ups or issues.

Note: When benching this laptop, I used a notebook lap desk pad that could be folded to set the laptop at an angle. With this, the back of the notebook had an inch clearance, therefore, allowing for optimal airflow to the GPU/CPU. The P8400 seems to run extremely cool (then again, the fan seems to run no matter what ) whereas the GPU does run hot, but not any hotter than my old HD 3870X2 did at idle. I haven't seen it get passed 85C and that was with 3DVantage and GPU2 (folding@home GPU client) running. Best laptop for the price IMHO (Got it at Best Buy for $1249.99 + Tax with free game up to $49.99 value ).

 

No problems here. Gaming is stable, temps appear normal, and all software and drivers are working under Vista x64. I did give a bunch of programs administrator access to prevent issues, but that's more of a Vista thing than it is a hardware thing. My screen is good with very little light bleed at the bottom (disappears depending on screen tilt). No dead, stuck, dim, or bright pixels. Performance is also excellent.

I've had one hiccup and that was a driver_power_state blue screen on my first 3 hour battery run. It happened about half way through, but I was screwing around with the power settings at that time. I am on all stock drivers. When gaming, I use a Pacific breeze and I see my two HDD's (I added a second 320 GB one) in the upper 40C's and CPU in the low 50C's. The original box that the system came in was flawless as well, and everything inside was wrapped new.

 

Once we get a few more users to vote, we can start understanding the volume of the lemon computers purhcased by educated buyers.

 

Like I read somewhere else. People are more likely to post more issues with their laptops then praises. In fact, that's how it is for just about any consumer product.

 

Mine's working great as well, though I haven't done any extensive gaming runs on it. Replaced old CPU thermal paste with AS Ceramique and it dropped idle temps by about 10 degrees. Still working on adding bluetooth internally.

 

Seriously? No hyperbole? I take is that is 10 degrees Fahrenheit as well. On which parts did you do the work? The cpu, gpu, both? Thanks as this is good information to have.

 

You can not (well technically you can but in practice you can not) remove the GPU on the systems. I wouldn't be surprized if he is talking in celcius degrees.

So far 1 user with issues.

 

I am on my second 7811FX. First bright spots on the screen. This one locks up randomly. I am troubleshooting it now since none of the solutions have worked

 

like we honestly need another thread contributing nothing to these forums.

 

My 7811FX's GPU would get up to 100C within 10 minutes from Crysis or Furmark. This is unacceptable to me. The 6931fx I used to have would only get up to 84C after hours of gaming. (Both of them are on a flat surface, with no notebook cooler because I believe a laptop shouldn't require any extrenal stuff to make it perform normally.)

Edit: I just got a replacement from Bestbuy today, let's see how it goes.

 

Looking at the gateway forums, nobody would dare to buy a P-7811 since ti looks like every single one has an issue. I am trying to show people that it is actually not that big of a deal (or it is a big of a deal). I understand that this is not a guide to do this or that and do not say that this post is a must have but, it is helpful to understand how big the issue is.

 

i dont understand why kamin checked everything... check poll...

 

what i would like to know is how come its more than 140% all together

 

You can go with multiple selection since one computer can have more than 1 issue and the owner may have exchanged it also.

 

i do need it, since all the bad threads out there.. i kinda dont know what to buy anymore... if nothing useful to post dont plz.

 

I had my laptop on for 14 hrs yesterday, about 5 of it was gaming off and on and it never froze, rebooted, or did anything it shouldn't even once on and off battery power.

If you get a good unit, there are no issues.

 

See there is an inherent problem with what you are doing, and it was stated early in the thread. Here at NBR, and pretty much anywhere else, people are more likely to be negative in regards to a consumer product rather then positive. This leads to an overall negative thread in a sea of other negative threads. I know you are trying to disprove something, but to be honest it just goes against human nature sadly. Valiant attempt on your part.

Reason #151 why I never read or trust polls.

This thread should be a "sing praise for your 7811fx!" rather then try and mix people who have had nothing but issues with those who havent. The reason is that the thread will fill up with negative responses towards the topic alot faster then positive posts will come in. Sad but true.

 

Why all the hostility toward new threads? I find this poll interesting and it could not be duplicated in the sticky.

That said, if people would read the sticky instead of posting new threads, their questions would often be answered (or not) making most new threads unnecessary. Most but not all.

It does seem that post thread first and read later is the practice around here. Which adds to the charming confusion of the Gateway section. And makes it so lovable.

 

Lol syngensmyth, "post thread first and read later". I find that really amusing... but maybe cuz it's true.

I myself found the poll rather informative. It looks like the probs are all across the board. But then again, statistics = ****ed lies!

Actually this is better reading than those posts about trying to flash a BIOS that the 7811 wasn't meant for...

 

anyways... noone in this world has so much time to actually read 1, 2 or 3k of posts in a single thread... thats why its a forum... else, this forum would have about... 1 thread per reference, and 5k+ posts in each thread, makin it... useless.. stop complaining in every thread u see.. if u have no answer to suff just abstain to post... go other thread and move on...

 

Agreed. It looks like there are only 30 people in these forums with the 7811 and yet, more than hundred threads. It is 3 threads per owner. WOW!!!

 

love mine!

 

no problems.

 

mine's been great since the 14th of August!

 

I only had Lock Ups while playing Gears alone and using the Live system when I talk with friends that have 360s. But when I focus only on playing the game I can play for 1 or 2 hrs straight, thought I only have played for 1 hr. Also if I use Live messaging and voice messages when the game is not running (on the main menu) the laptop doesn't lock up. I believe this is normal, but can someone state otherwise?

(BTW I'm playing gears in all settings on the HIGHEST, except the resolution which is like 1200x720 something, can't remember the numbers)

 

Update: Got a replacement from Bestbuy, tested it with FurMark. ~10Mins later the GPU temp. was only in the mid 80's. Not great, but definitely better than the other unit. (It would have been close to 100C by then). But this one's screen bezel has some cracks/scratches (the overheat one was perfect) and the keyboard wasn't put in right (I have to take the keyboard out and reposition it, ridiculous isn't it?) Seems like Gateway has some serious QC issues.

 

Well certainly, there are some QC issues with gateway, BUT all other computer manufacturers also have QC issues. Sony calling 440K computers back, Dell had the battery recall stuff, asus is having keyboard issues, hp has overheating issues with the tx series, etc etc.

 

My problem is screen flickering when i am typing. Its not intense one, but more like half a second to 2 or 3 seconds. Just basically going off for few seconds and coming back on. Its not happening every time i type, but it happens time to time...randomly. Everything else seems fine. GPU reaches max 82c. i Saw 100+ my first day, but i guess i was blocking vents little bit. But yeah other than screen going blank i like this laptop, but i am about to go to BB and ask for new one, because flickering is really annoying.

 

zarraza - I would definitely get it replaced. Let us know how it goes.

 

Had one w/ random crashes and two stuck pixels. Returned it and picked up a cheapo inspiron.

 

the thing is, i dont know if geek squad would exchange/replace it, because as far as i know they have to see the problem, and my problem is so random. I could be typing like right now, and everything is fine. But for example 10 minutes ago i was typing on facebook and screen was going off and on. So you know if i go to BB, and they see no problem, i guess they wont replace?

 

Well, you can try fixing it by changin your video drivers. It sounds like you are having a software issue rather than a hardware issue.

 

i doubt it. my first day it was happening (aug 31st), so i did fresh vista install and then xfastests drivers. and since then i dont think i had this problem, but today its happening again. and like i said its only when i type. like right now it was happening. its random.. you know not everytime i type, but it happens time to time. maybe when i hit keys harder... i dont know.

 

Loose connection somewhere? How often does it happen? And while it's happening does it go away right away or keep happening for > 1 min? If so you could always get a vid cam and take a clip of the flickering...

 

4th time is a charm!

 

its hard to explain, it can be happening pretty often, like 10 times or more in one hour, or it could be nothing for few hours and then it would occur. It could be just one flickering an hour. Like i said its random.

1) sometimes it just flickers (goes off for 1-3 seconds) and comes back. (i have not experienced this lately).
2) sometimes it goes off and when it comes back in a few seconds, i would get this screen. This is wmv 540kb file 3 sec long.
3) and here is a video of laptop screen going off and never coming back on, so i would have to do hard power off http://silenceisdefeat.org/~zarraza/1.wmv . 8 mb, wmv 1 minute long.

Sad thing is that on thursday i went to BB and geek squad technician took my 7811 and said he would check it out (i have 2 year basic guarantee) and call me back on friday, but he never did so yesterday (sunday) i went there, and they were like... "we are working on it now". Then 5 minutes later some technician came with my laptop and was like "it has no problems, we ran various tests(gpu stressing and etc)", so i told him that it happens only when i type, then he was like "we checked keyboard too, everything is fine".
Today, its actin up again. What should i do? 14 day period passed yesterday. I bought 7811 august 31st.

 

Don't mean to be harsh but everyone said to dump it. You have to be aggressive on this 14 day exchange. Now you are stuck doing warranty route probably. Maybe you can sweet talk some BB person into a sympathy exchange. Pick up some homeless children to accompany you, thereby increasing your sympathy quotient.

 

Well it was actin up 1st day when i got it, so i did fresh vista install and drivers and it seemed like a problem solver. However after 11 days (this past thursday, sep 11th) it started actin up again, so i went to bb to swap it, but because i had guarantee they had to check it first or someting. It seemed like they were trying to hold my lappy as long as they can cuz like i mentioned before, technician said he will call me next day but he never did. Also interesting thing was that bb guy that sold me this lappy was there and told geek squad technician to give me new one, but technician said he cant do it or sometin.
Sympathy uh? i would tear bb apart if they wont fix it or give me new one. Because there is a problem, and they could not find it and solve it, so someone is not doing their job. Also as far as i know, if technicians cant fix it few times, they must give me new one, even if 14 days passed. Is that right? There is some kind of policy or sometin?

 

One can hope.

 

I had put no issues but that has changed since my monitor is not displaying.

 

zarraza, you should've insisted on a return and even exchange. But since it's past the date, the only way to address the problem is to send it in to gateway (postage paid). have you tried to make sure the cables are all secure?

Although, since you made them aware of the defect BEFORE the 14 days were up perhaps they'll still let you exchange it assuming you can show them the defect... have you tried using the pc in front of them for an extended period of time?

 

Yep that would drop my evaluation ranking every time. Call me picky.

I still think the homeless kids are his best shot. Maybe he could borrow a clergy collar. Think outside the box.

 

Well i asked him to swap it but he said because i have guarantee he has to check it out. The thing is that i am happy with this laptop except that problem, so if they could fix it then i would be happy, but it pissed me off because they said everything is fine and the next day problem occurred again.
Everything is secure. I was thinking maybe my nano vx is doing this, you know some kind of conflict or something, but it is not.
I did not showed them, but i told them like 10 times that it is happening when i type, but i guess they did not care and they just used stressing software, and thats their job to detect the problem, not mine. They getting paid for that, but i guess thats how it works at bestbuy, so next time i'll go there i'll try to use 7811 in front of them. I'll make another more clear video and i'll put that on the flash drive and i will show em that also lol

edit: pretty clear video http://silenceisdefeat.org/~zarraza/3.wmv, 3mins16sec 19MB

 

im on my first 7811, everythings fine except ive got a problem where the audio skips when im listening to music, cant figure out what the problem is yet

 

Over all it looks bad. From the voting, we get one third of the owners have one or more issues. Now, as stated before, we may be looking at a higher volume users with issues due to the nature of the forums but even in that case at least we can say every one machine out of 5 has a problem. 20% error rate is unacceptable IMHO.

 

This is the only thing putting me off the P7811FX and the more I read about the problems the more its looking like i'm picking up a Toshiba X305 instead!

 

I'd pick the Gateway P-7811FX over the Toshiba X305 any day of the week! That's what the 14 day return policy is for at Best Buy!

P.S. Nothing against Toshiba. My first laptop was a Toshiba Satellite that I got back in May 2003 and it still runs like a champ, granted the casing has cracked all around the LCD panel