Should I keep my 7811?

Sorry to make another 7811 thread but I'd really appreciate some input on this issue...

I received this laptop last Friday and I have until this Friday (two days from now) to decide if I want my money back for it. Purchased over eBay for $950. I also believe I have the 3 month warranty still.

I have been getting quite a few blue screens/resets, maybe 20-25 in the 6 days I've had it. It runs games fine.... I play AoE III on all max settings at 1920x1200 for about 2 hours without any problems.. Deadspace plays beautifilly on very high settings... Crysis is so-so.. Temps in HW monitor usually hover around 40 C for gpu, tzso 45 C, 30 C for cpus, and 43 C for HD.. When gaming the gpu never goes above 72 C...

The problem is i just get so many BSODs.
Here's some examples of what ive been doing when i get blue screens...
-surfing the net + downloading something
-watching a divx movie
-first time playing crysis BSOD very early, second time played fine
-leaving the computer on overnight to download something..

I do want to point out that after i upgraded from the stock drivers to the newest Nvidia drivers, the BSODs were much less frequent, though still present.

Gateway seems to think it's a hardware error when I click "check for solution to this problem" after reboot.

Other than these issues I do love this computer. It handles audio production well, and is really an awesome machine. Very quick. So my question is, should I keep it? I really dont want to go through the hassle of having to wait for another laptop, I really need this now. But I dont want to get stuck with a screwed up machine that may get worse. What do you guys think?

Thanks for any help here.

 

If its giving you that many problems you might want to consider something else.

It will cost you 200 more to get a 7805, but there seems to be alot fewer issues than the 7811 had. Though you might also have to "suffer" a 1440x900 screen. Not sure if thats a deal breaker for you or not.

Another thing you can do is look for another 7811/6860 on tiger direct of over ebay and use the savings to upgrade. I think you can get good deals on the machines. Tiger direct is selling 7811 for like 800 most of the time and a 6860 (which has had little to no issues through out its time as top dog) sells for less than that. Easily cheap enough to upgrade screens and cpu's for about the same cost as a 7805.

Its really all according to what you want to do. And what your looking for in a laptop.

What are the specs you want and what is the price you are willing to pay for them?

 

Reformat it to "factory fresh". If you still experience said issues return it.

 

i'd second that. start from a scratch. there is a very nice guide here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=327669

make sure all your drivers are up-to-date. bsods might be caused by some software incompatibilities. When i started reading your thread, i thought it'd be some overheating issue, but your temps are more than adequate.

 

Indeed i 3rd the suggestion to start from scratch. I've only had two BSOD's since i got the 7811 and both were caused by unplugging the wacom tablet while the computer was turned on. A new wacom driver corrected this issue.

But i do get lots of random little errors with quite a bit of software mostly due to the 32bit nature of the software. VLC is a prime example of a program that I completely love to death but the developers don't see the urgency in writing a 64 bit version. So while i can't bring myself to remove it completely as it's still useful for some things and a majority of the time, i've had to switch to other video players for the bulk of my watching needs.

Windows Media Player in fact.. bleh never liked it, but it works flawlessly in 64bit. even files that were giving me errors in VLC will work in WMP without a hitch.

start from scratch and see how it works then slowly install software and see if that is the problem.


It could be a hardware issues, but as far as trouble shooting we don't have enough information about the problems to really help ya.

 

I have a question for people who own a 7811 that they are happy with... How often do you get the BSOD? And for what reasons? Has anybody fixed the BSOD's by reinstalling their operating system? What about upgrading their drivers?

 

I have a 7811 and have had it for months. I think I've gotten 1 BSOD and it was because of my external HDD.

If you're getting a lot of blue screens, something is causing them consistently. All you have to do is find out what it is (I know that's not as easy as it sounds).

A few tips:
-use the event viewer
-keep track of the blue screen codes that you get in a notebook and start googling them / looking for consistencies or things that they have in common (such as if they're all video drivers codes, etc).

All else fails, just start from scratch. Your last resort should be returning or exchanging it.

 

I have owned it for 1 week and no problems at all. You should run Crysis with one of those config mods from EASY.

 

Jak, I think tomorow morning I may just use your fresh vista install guide and start from scratch man... I could just skip the raid steps, right? And, do you think I should update the Bios? I'm using 92.05.00

 

For those of you who have followed my adventures with the THREE 7811s that I now have I have to say that I HAVE NEVER HAD A BSOD. EVER. I am still using the as shipped drivers on all of them As I posted in another thread here at NBR @9600+ 3dMark 06 score when I OC the Vid card. I am very pleased with these lappys. Even the one I paid $1250.00 for. lol

 

This is my second unit, first one BSOD'ed i think three times in a week and i exchanged it (other issues too). This one is FLAWLESS

 

So after I restored it to it's factory settings today it still BSOD's.... once while just browsing the web and again while in the middle of installing crysis. This thing is f-cked up....

Ill be returning it for my money back...

On a side note, does anyone think if i upgraded the bios to a higher version it will fix the issue?

 

It couldn't hurt to upgrade the bios real quick to see if you get any better results. Otherwise back it goes I say.

 

Im being offered to exchange it for a p-6860 with $150 back from the original price... what do you guys think is it worth it or should i get my $950 back and take my chances with another 7811?

 

I would get my money back. Iffin it were me. You might even see an EXCELLENT working 7811 in the "for sale/trade" forum soon. (hint)

 

Honestly I would, I got 4 7811's and i'm probably selling 2 soon, simply put I don't need that many. I work primarily as a software dev, and only thing I hate about the 7811 is how bulky it is. Honestly after seeing my best friend during her prego days - I don't really mind it all that much.

Whats funny is I ditched a Mach 5 Falcon desktop for my laptop, meaning gave it to my dad to use and all he does is "Search the web", all that power gone to waste really. Not like i need a desktop, laptop does everything I need it to do, honestly haven't had a game out perform the laptop yet.

 

Nah, man, 800 for 6860 is pushing it. Tigerdirect had 7811's for the same price.