gateway m-6862 review

nice pictures thanks!

 

my gpu nvidia 8600GT 512MB is running at 64C :] at this very moment on my asus c90s that im trying to sell

 

i love how low it is when i turn it in first thing i the morning with the cold mornings (40's)

 

Hi guys,

I hope this is a False Alarm ... but look at this Thread ... someone has reported a BSOD situation.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3934260#post3934260

Has any of you guys experienced anything funny with you rnew lappys?

Thanks,

G!

 

i havent had ANY problems with my laptop.

 

i have a question if you bought a laptop from another best buy can you go exchange ur laptop at another one? or only at the one that u bought it from

 

im not sure, i'd guess so, but they would have to have stock on hand. but im no best buy employee

 

added some gaming screenshots of call of duty 4 and bioshock. ill add assassins creed and crysis soon, and probably half life 2 also

 

Hi Morning,

As long as you have your RECEIPT you can take it back to ANY BB.

Also remember ... if the laptop Box SEAL has not been broken they shouldn't charge you 15% restocking fee. If they wanted to charge u 15% ask for the manager and Reason with him/her.

Best Buy is good about being "reasonable".

However, STAY AWAY from Stupid Circuit City ... they will charge you 15% restocking fee ... if you walk out the Store's door and walk right back in ... they will still Screw you out of 15% ... so guess who is NEVER EVER shopping at Circuit City!

G!

 

thanks! my parents just bought me a m-6862 and i was just wondering.

 

Hey Josh,

Glad to hear the unit is ticking just fine.

BTW, THANKS A BUNCH for the GREAT PICTURES of the laptop itself.

G!

 

Got one on Friday Night for 636 bucks. Tried to get him to price match it down to 438 with a receipt I aquired, but alas no luck. He said something about regions and that was that. Still ended up picking it up.
Maybe I'll add some pics of it for you guys or whatever.

Now I'm wondering two things:
What program do you guys use to measure your temps?
I download RivaTuner but haven't quite got it working yet.

Also what drivers are you using?
I haven't updated it from the one it came with, which came out in January.

So far everythings good, only thing I noticed is that the left palm rest gets warm (HDD?).

Good laptop, well worth the money. For the money it's practically a steal.

 

Hi Justin,

A1: Use HWMonitor 1.11 http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

A2: I am still on Original Drivers ... so can't help you there ... but here is another Thread ... I think I saw something on there ...

Official M-6862 & M-6864FX Owners Thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=290876

A3: I have seen reports of this Warming issue ... I would not sweat it ... but suggest either A) get a Laptop Cooler or if you don't to spend the $ then B) Raise the back of the laptop to get air mor eof Air Cirulation under it or C) Buy a cheapy 4" Persoanl Fan from Wal-Mart for $5 or $6 ... which runs on Battery or AC and push air under the laptop ...

Option C probably the most Efficient and Cheapest ... if not Mobile.

Hope this was of some help!

And don't forget to post back when you find out some good info!

G!

 

Alright thanks for the info.
The palmrest doesn't bother me to much just something I noticed after a few hours of use.

As for HWMonitor, I downloaded it last night but can't seem to read it quite the way I want too.

I'll attach a screen shot.


Would the top one (TZ700?) be the Graphics Card?
besides that I think to the other temps are within the normal range, though I'm not claiming to be an expert. I've just been reading what everybody else has been ranging.

Plus I' want to make sure there's no overheating, and I'd like to benchmark within the next few days. Then get to playing some games :yes:

*The temps in the Screenshot are common usage temps. Just been surfing the web, doing this and that, no high intensive stuff. I don't think they're high but if anyone thinks they are please let me know*

 

I believe the top one is the motherboard. Your HWMonitor is not showing the graphics card temp. Use the 32bit one to show the graphic card temps.

How are your CPU temps so low? My M-152XL is running a T8300 and I idle at higher then that...

 

Hi Justin,

I second Lakjin's post ... forgot to tell you that 32-bit one will show you the "GPU" Graphic Processor Unit ... temps.

@ Lakjin ... his Temps might be taken when he "just" turned his laptop on ... so!!!

G!

 

Ah worked like a charm,
I'm going to post a screenshot

 

Didn't notice the question about the temps. Um, my laptops been on for about 2 hours atleast, been surfing, listening to music, little homework and video chatting with a friend. Using the CPU/RAM Indicator on the sidebar noticed my ram uses about 33% and CPU usually jumps between 20-40% (1 core or both?). Don't know how accurate that indicator is though.

Right now my temps are about the same as the screen shot. Core 1 is jumping between 55-58, and Core2 is about 58 - 60.
Not doing anything to keep it cool really, same time not doing anything to warm it up really.

Kinda curious to see how hot this gets when I'm playing a game, may be a wise investment to get a cooler. We'll see.

 

Hi Jusitn,

Or if you want to go the Cheapest way ... buy a 4" Personal Fan from Wal-Mart for about $5 or $6 (runs on both Batteries and AC) and raise the back of laptop by 1/2"+ (strip of wood trim) and blow cold air under it.

Not very fancy but works like a Charm and blows more air faster.

G!

 

Yeah, heats not bothering me too much right now. When I start gaming it might so I'll probably end up doing this until I splurge on a laptop cooler.

I mean the laptop just "idling" right now is warm to the touch but its not burning hot.

When I stopped video chatting with my friend my CPU temps went down to around 44 C on both cores.

 

Hi Justin,

When you are ready to buy a Cooler ... check out this Thread ... they have specific suggestions ...

NBR Cooling Central
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=263039

G!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=300749
will be a more relevant thread if you are trying to decide which cooler you want to get.

 

Your second screenshot temps are quite a bit higher then the first -_-
I kinda agree with G. It seems your first screen shot temps might be of when you just turned on your computer or something.

 

Sorry I didnt' realize. Its odd though cause my computer was on for awhile when I took the screenshot. hm..

but yeah the second screenshot reflects my avg temps.

What should my temps be? like what are most people temps?

 

these are my average temps, internet browsing, high performance, plugged in, wifi, and gimp.

 

my temps are..
core0 50-55c, core1 47-50 and gfx 62c. hdd is 36.
dunno how those compare, but its been online for ~2hrs and its currently charging (plus youtube and numerous IEs)

a laptop cooler would definitely help with cooling, right? someone claimed elsewhere it caused their laptop to overheat which sounds alittle odd. i got my laptop about 24hrs ago, no issues yet. great for the price (449)

 

those temps sound fine, higher than mine, but im not doing heavy multi tasking and ive only been on an hour tonight.

about the cooler, it does help, my targus chillmat drops my temps by 5-7C depending on weather im doing regular stuff or gaming (not being used right now, im cold and the cooler makes me colder + my temps arent high right now) and a cooler causeing a laptop to overheat is something ive never heard of.

and i hope you like your laptop. i love mine.

 

absolutely love it, its my first laptop lol
trying to decide between the antec cooler or the belkin now, both budget coolers (18-20ish on amazon)

 

Yeah my temps are alittle higher then yours but in that area. I may invest in a laptop cooler eventually, but for now I'll either sweat or do what gonwk said and raise it and fan it.

Yeah so far I love this laptop. Handles vista without breaking a sweat, does everything I want from a computer. Hopefully can get some semi-decent gaming out of it.

Yeah my first laptop as well, and it's great.


Anyway I just got finished playing about 40 minutes or so of the Crysis demo (trying to give myself a bit of a benchmark). Played it at 1280x800, on a mix of low-med settings (mostly low) and had it bouncing between 22-33, dipped to about 15 here and there. Haven't updated any graphic drivers or anything. Thinking if I did tweeking I could probably get alittle bit better but I'm not to concerned currently. Playable IMO. Thought the game was fun.

Took a Screenshot of my temps, after I exited the game. If they went to high let me know. AVG temp for the GPU during the game was 75-80.

 

My recommendation: Undervolt.

 

Hi folks,

Has anyone downgraded from Vista64 to Vista32?

If so, WHY and how do they LIKE it!?!?

Thanks,

G!

 

I set up a partition of 32bit Vista, but it isn't really doing much for me.

 

Doesn't undervolting just help with batterylife. Though I could see where it might produce less heat aswell

 

i got about a 14C temp drop under load since undervolting.

 

hey josh did u make ur icons smaller? because it seems like you have lots of space or just looks like it

 

na, didnt make them any smaller. i dont use too many icons, so thats probably why i have alot of space.

 

Hi krazyphire ... Thanks for the feedback. I actually like the Vista64 (Who Said That ) ... is working with one of my freewares ... I will try others after I make up my Recovery Discs.

BTW ... I wrote a Quick Spill of my take on this laptop see here ...

Official M-6862 & M-6864FX Owners Thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3957044#post3957044

Thanks,

G!

 

i have a question, which OS to run this laptop on ?

XP PRO sp2/sp3
Vista Ultimate 32 or 64 bit
or just Vista Home Premium 32 or 64 bit

which of these would run the best and what do most program and such would work best with 32 bit or 64 bit?

 

oh yeah im doing research and i find that you can upgrade vista ultimate from home premium and just regular vista ultimate, whats the different? beside the price is cheaper for an upgrade, what happen if i upgrade so that means no more vista home premium and later on i want to reformat can i use that upgrade dvd or do i have to buy one that isn't for upgrade? sorry with all the noobs questions , new user to vista

 

If you get the upgrade and want to reformat later. You will have to install the Vista Home first then do the upgrade. Unless you have an actual Vista Home disk, in which case it'll ask for the disk for verification.
While getting the full version you can just install directly or upgrade.

Btw, if you are going for the upgrade, check out slickdeals or fatwallet first. I remember a thread on there about Vista Ultimate for students. I think it was like $50?

and I'm fairly sure all versions of XP will run on this and definitly all versions of Vista. Its just a matter of drivers for XP that is a problem (espcially annoying is the lack of sata drivers during install).

Oh, btw, if anybody is planning on installing a game that uses the StarForce protection, DO NOT reboot after installation. Goto the StarForce website and download the update. Then reboot, during which you have to use F8 and turn off "device driver verification."
If you don't update, Vista will not boot, and will get stuck trying to fix itself.

 

thanks for the info gecko i checked and i saw that its not vista ulimate OS but vista office ultimate still a good deal ill look it to it later

EDIT* never theres both thats available

vista ulimate upgrade 64.99
vista office ultimate 59.99

 

you guys where to get the windows xp 64bit drivers for this?

 

Forgot, always check with your school first. They may offer it cheaper, or even free.

 

what driver are you guys running for the gfx? you guys update it with the driver on the ati.amd website? or using the driver that came with the laptop?

 

hey anyone think or know this LCD will fit the m-6862? http://www.lcdsuper.com/samsung-ltn154bt02-laptop-led-screen.html

 

i updated mine.

 

u got it from the website? where i don't see mobility radeon hd2600

 

i used a program called mobility modder to use the desktop drivers for my mobile card.

 

OK folks ... for those of you who want more out of the ATI Mobility HD2600 Graphic Card ...

DH Mobility Modder
http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

ATI MOBILITY RADEON HD 2600 graphics with 512MB GDDR3
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=285426

Enjoy!

G!

 

cool thanks i will give this a shot