Picking up a 7811? How to spot one with the updated Bios:

I'VE CREATED THIS THREAD NOT ONLY TO HELP OTHERS, BUT BECAUSE I PLAN ON PICKING UP MY NEW GATEWAY P-7811FX SOON, BUT WANT TO BE SURE THAT I'M GETTING ONE FROM THE NEWER BATCH.

OK, so now the question - how to distinguish between one of the newer batches and one of the old.

It's been posted that on the outside of the box, one will find an orange and white sticker. On it, various numbers will be printed. Batch:H250000 or above will be of the newer bios. However, mine was from H260000+ and did not have the new bios. Others have posted that they had the new bios on H250000+ and H260000+ models. One important thing to note is that the one I received from the older batch, although above 260000, had "W:03" to the left of the batch number, whereas others with the new bios had posted theirs to be "W:04". Whether or not this is any true indication is uncertain.

Best Buy has told me that the sticker that has that batch number on it is in fact a Best Buy sticker, it's not gateway affiliated. However, I agree that it is a decent indication of how new the computer is, but obviously it is not a definite answer, and I've made the mistake of trusting it once already.

Another good indication is to see which stores have been sold out of the 7811, and then got restocked, however Best Buy customer support also pointed out to me that sometimes those computers that they restocked with have simply been sitting in a warehouse, and can still be from the older batch.

One last indication that I can think of is to check the serial number (it's on the outside of the box), but you would have to have another serial number to use as a reference point. If you know of a serial number of a new batch unit, try to find a serial number of equal or higher value.


The only sure way of distinguishing that I've seen thus far is to look at the carton on the inside of the box. If it says 8/25/08 or older, it's one of the newer batches. Here's the problem: Best Buy won't let you open the box to view the carton, nor will they do it themselves for obvious reasons (if it's not one of the newer batches, you won't accept it, and then they're left with an open box product).

UPDATE: It has become apparent, though we are not positive, that the serial number may indicate the bios revision. Serial numbers beginning with P2887 have been found to have the old bios, while the new bios has been found on serial numbers beginning with P2888 - it is possible that the final number (7 vs 8) might represent the month in which it was produced, July vs August. Even if this is not the case, this might indicate whether or not it has the Bios revision. Credit for this find goes to oiler2112 and E-wrecked. Please continue to post the beginning of your serial number and your bios if you have not yet, to help us further research this possibility.

If anyone has other ideas, please post them.

 

Any idea whether the new batches have the problems of over-heating and whether it just freezes while playing games???

Bcoz am planning to buy one very soon and need some advice

 

Make them open it anyway.
Put it to them simply. "Either you open the box in store to let me make sure i get the product that i want, or i take it home open the box anyways and then bring it back when its not the product i want."

Either way they are going to end up with an open box, so they mine as well save the time and effort (and the threat that you'll start a VERY LARGE scene in their store) and just let you open the box there. At least it will be under the Geek Squad supervision and they can basically reseal the box (its not like its welded shut...its just a piece of tape)

 

My original 7811 had a yellow and white sticker, batch 227881, W:07, serial #P2887 010 04??? and it had the old BIOS.

I just tried another one from a different BestBuy and it had a green and white sticker, batch 262380, W:07, serial #P2887 010 08??? and it had the old BIOS.

I agree that this sticker is a best buy sticker and I am assuming that the W:04 and W:07, etc, are probably different regions in the US, so the info on this sticker is more than likely useless.

I think the serial number, may be the only way to tell, so we will have to get serial numbers from known units that have the newer BIOS.

 

Jakamo, I realized this when examining my tag the other night.. it may make a difference regarding batch #s and age of unit.. But I believe the secret lies in the Serial number. My initial models began P2887, and this is the only one that begins P2888. Best I can figure, the 4th digit is the month of the product manufactured. I could be way off..but it would make sense. As the batch idea obviously wasn't fool proof for you. But my sticker is orangeish red and white.. And 250k+ batch, and w:04, but the serial is one thing that is definately a Gateway reference..

Can anyone else confirm whether their serial number is p2887 or p2888? And which BIOS is installed?

oiler, u may wanna remove the rest of your serial number..someone may hijack your warranty


EDIT: All of the BestBuys should have the new models by now..depending on how busy your BB is. The warehouse ran short, that's when all was backordered for a week or so. And since then, I would think its safe to assume most if not all incoming units should have new BIOS. But, check the serial and lemme know if it makes sense to you! That last digit may represent the month.. 7=july 8=august..same as the white label on the inner box containing charger and such.

 

wonder if i use his SN can i send my 6860 in for a retro fit to the new mobo/GPU

j/k by the way oiler

 

P2887xx... here, old BIOS.

 

Who else has the new BIOS on here? Mista returned his..but maybe he remembers his serial? *shrugs* Can't hurt to ask.

 

Man, you just cant trust anyone any more

 

Both my computers have had the old bios, both have been p2887. I think you're on to something, updating the original post.

 

My gateway rep just called me. The new bios is at home sitting in my email inbox right now. 9c.08.00. He emailed it in a zip. I'll upload when I get home in about ten minutes.

 

Sheesh, this is turning into a big hassel. What prevents the simple flashing of the new bios revision??

I'm going to a Best Buy in Sacramento, CA later tonight after I get off of work to purchase my P-7811FX. I hope that they will be understanding enough to let me open the box. I've already paid for it online with a store pick-up, so it's mine already. But if it doesn't support RAID out of the box (i.e. newer bios), then I don't want it because that's one of the first things I plan to do with a 2nd harddrive already on order.

 

well.. here's the link to the BIOS download in case it doesn't have it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3965947#post3965947

 

I picked one up Tuesday night here in Arkansas where I live, I used HWInfo32 once I got home to check it, i have the updated BIOS.

I recommend you ask the salespeople to open it in front of you, let you put a flash drive in there and install HWInfo32 on it and check the BIOS.

 

why is RAID so important btw?

I've had a 150 GB hard drive since 2006 and have yet to fill it.

the lowest it's gone was 20 GB unused space and I just deleted some stuff I didn't use anymore to make room.

I do know that game installs have gotten larger, but all I've been playing is WoW so I guess my case isn't that severe.

But, if it really comes down to it, I'll just buy a large hard drive, put it in my desktop and use my IPOD as a hard drive to move files from my desktop to my laptop.

Why have 2 hard drives in a laptop? One obvious reason I can think of is "I don't have a desktop".

I don't really get it, but to each their own.

 

You can press F2 on startup to check the bios btw. The hard part is convincing BB to let you open it and look at it before paying for it. Did the BB you went to actually let you upload from a flash stick while testing it? Those guys are fearless.

Number of times this week that i tried to rep E-wrecked but can't: 6

 

OK. I think I can somewhat confirm that if you get one with a serial number that starts with P2888, you will get the new BIOS.

I went to a different BB today and they had just got a shipment and these were a mix of P2887 and P2888, I got one with P2888 and it had the new BIOS, even though it had the exact same batch number as the one that I had bought a few days before, that was a P2887 and had the old BIOS.

The geek squad guy seemed pretty cool, so I asked him if he had any returns that still booted up and he said he had several that were getting BSOD's in Vista. He had 3 of these. 2 were P2888 and 1 was a P2887. I asked him if he could bring them out so I could see what they were doing so I could make sure mine was not doing the same thing So, I booted up the P2887, old BIOS, booted up both of the P2888's and they both had the new BIOS.

Everyone on here so far that has got a P2888 has the new BIOS, so, I really think if you get one that starts P2888 you will have a new BIOS

 

...And if you don't get the new bios with P-7811, just flash it with the new one, since now its available, all glory to E-wrecked..

 

lol.... I may have taken it a bit too far, eh?

 

I picked mine up last night at best buy because of all the info on this site. It had P2888 on the lable and has the new BIOS. Now to start testing.

 

Make sure you test the crap out of it (so long as the screen is good). I thought mine was doing just fine but after the first couple of days when I tried to stress test Furmark, I think I cooked the GPU.

It heated up so much it was causing graphical artifacts for an hour after I turned it off. Eventually it started booting up again, but it's going back to be exchanged.

This was AFTER I installed all my apps on it. Fortunately I had True Image to back it up and restore it to my replacement 7811 (which I will be stress testing the crap out of when I get that one, too).

 

This is my first post here, I thought I'd contribute to it.

I just purchased a 7811 a few hours ago and I asked the guy to get me one with the serial number starting with P2888. Evidently, I came home and it has the newer BIOS. So I think we can safely assume that those with the serial P2888 are the ones with the newest BIOS revision.

So far, so good. I ran 3D Mark, FutureMark and GPU temperatures are remaining less than 60c. I'm currently installing Crysis to beat the hell out of my hardware and see how it performs.

Thank you guys who contributed to this post.

 

I would strongly recommend Furmark. Of everything I tried, for GPU temperatures Furmark (different than FutureMark) ramps up the GPU the fastest.

Edit: I don't know HOW long I would run Furmark. It's so stressful on the GPU that I wouldn't want to damage it!