p-7811FX Locking Up on Every Game (Anyone Know Why?)

I've been reading a lot about heat related lockups that people have been experiencing with this notebook, but these seem to be a little different. Every game that I have attempted to play so far (Crysis, Counter-Strike, HL2, EVE Online ect..) has locked up 5-15 minutes after starting. The Lock-up is a complete freeze which forces a manual shutdown to fix. I also experienced one of these when a vista screensaver was running for about 10 minutes.

It doesn't seem like the notebook is getting too hot before locking up, but I haven't taken a look at specific component temps while gaming yet (will do now, its just been difficult because I've been locking up before getting a chance to check).

Does anyone know if this could be related to something other than heat issues? Is anyone else experiencing this problem with the p-7811FX?

I'm going to try a few more things now. I'll update when I take a look at my CPU/GPU gaming temps.

 

Common problem. Same thing happened to mine. I even found out what error was causing it but nobody knew how to fix it and I still think that's the case. Do what I did. Exchange it. My second one is GREAT and has NO PROBLEMS.
I tried to fix the darned thing for days. Save yourself the effort.

 

Hmm, maybe I will.

Did you get it from Best Buy? I wonder if i can exchange it at a different store, because the store that I got it from doesn't have any others in stock.

What did the error end up being?

 

I have the same thing going on and my temps are fine. alot of time crysis freezes while i am still in the menu. My gpu temp is only like 70 when i tried a stress test. I have been going through this board alot over the last few days and it appears others have had the same thing.

I talked to the geek squad guy today and he told me to bring it in tomorrow with crysis so he can see it freeze, then i can get a new one. but the problem is they are sold out right now and it says its backordered on Best buys web site. I'm thinking of just getting the Asus G-50 15" anyway just cause i'm afraid i'll get another lemon. I dont know what to do now

 

Anyone know if installing this custom driver fixes this specific issue?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295621

I'm going to give it a shot before result to an exchange.

 

Drivers, Operating Systems, cleaning the fans, etc...

From recent experience, nothing can fix it.

 

I agree with everything said above.

It seems to be a common problem .

The best way to get it fixed, and keep it fixed is to get it exchanged, unless it has been posted here and I missed it, there really isn't a fix to it.

One thing you can try tho, I read a thread a few days back that claimed that some driver update/tweak fixed the problem (some people were saying it fixed their problems, while some said it didn't, I don't follow the thread anymore). I don't have the link on hand tho.

 

I haven't had much Lock-ups besides really heavy scenes on Gears of War, like the Rain chapter, with all settings on the Highest possible, except resolution.
I have my laptop vents with a huge space to breath, they have like 3 inches below them to get air, so it has work quite well for me.

So only in that part I'm getting lock-ups, but I can play for 1 hr online with no problem.

 

Okay I tried updating the Driver to the custom one mentioned above, but the problem remains. Looks like I'll be exchanging it at Best Buy.

 

thanks for the advice on the asus g-50, but i have decided not to get it anyway. the specs are just to low on it compared to the 7811, so i am going to have best buy try to get me another gateway. unfortunately their sold out and the web site says they are backordered right now. Does anyone know if they will just give me a refund since my gateway is faulty?

 

I'm not entirely sure, but I assume they will refund you without charging a stocking fee because they can't restock a defective model anyway. They might also make you wait on a new shipment, which shouldn't take too long.

 

I got one of the 7811fx's that freeze (frozen screen + infinite audio loop) mid-game. I basically spent the entire two weeks trying everything to fix it. I reseated my Ram. I reinstalled new drivers, clean copy of Vista 64. Nothing worked and games would still freeze.

I took my 7811 back to Best Buy and got a full refund (they were out of stock for exchanges). I didn't even have to prove to them that the unit was faulty. I just said it would take an hour for the laptop to freeze in games and the lady was like "oh well I don't have time to test that out." So they just gave me my full refund.

OH and I did get a free copy of GRID for all my trouble, hehe.

 

so best buy did an exchange for me today, they were out of stock so they just ordered one which should be here in a week. they were going to give me a refund if i wanted one. these guys were cool about it, neither the geek squad guy or the manager even took it out of the box. i just told them about the freezing problems, and how i read on the web that there are a small number of the gateways that are doing this without a fix.

anyway i'll report back when i get the new one next week. i'm going to be fricken nervous when i put crysis in for the first time..lol

 

I just exchanged mine today at a different BestBuy without any hassle from Geek Squad or customer service. They were actually really helpful.

My new 7811 is holding up well so far without any lockups or crashes. I haven't done any serious gaming yet, but after about 30 minutes I was still going strong (longer than I could last in any game on the old machine).

I'll do some more serious tests soon, but as I'm sure you can imagine, I'm a little hesitant. I guess all I can do is hope for the best with this one.

 

Folks, I purchased one of these laptop last Friday (9-19-08) from Bestbuy in Carolton, TX. I took it home - loaded up Supreme Commander on it - and it froze after about an hour of gameplay. Loaded World of Warcarft - froze after about 30 minutes. Reloaded the Vista 64-bit OS - same result. Reloaded the Vista 64-bit OS using the drivers off of Gateway's web site - same result. Re-seated RAM - same result. Installed Vista 32-bit with drivers from Gateway's web site - same result. Ran 3DMark Vantage with Hotfix 1.01 - locked up after about 15 minutes consistently. Ran 3dMark 05 (which is DirectX 9) - same result after 15 minutes. I even tried disabling hibernation (which makes no sense at all to do - but I tried it anyway - hibernation would only make sense if somehow the system was thinking that the system was dormant and was to go into hibernation mode - which of course would be a but in Vista if that were to happen while you were in a game) and it did not help. I also witnessed a lockup while running the default Vista screensaver after I walked away for a bit. So - I called Gateway. (Actually chatted with them on-line first and wasn't told anything other than to re-load the Nvidia driver - the chat was not helpful at all) and made my way to level 2 support. I can not believe what they told me. They stated that they had NO record of ANY issue with the P-7811FX notebook at all. They claim that NO-ONE has contacted Gateway to complain of this issue, nor have they seen ANY notebook returns for this model where the issue was a full lockup. The ONLY thing they could do was to replace my notebook - which I refused since this issue is systemic and so there is no confidence that replacing it will fix it. The chances are high that a replacement will exhibit the same issue. (And in fact this was reported in this forum that some people had to replace their notebooks numerous times before they got one that worked.)

Folks - it is very important to understand these lock-ups and to also make sure we are all talking about the same kind of lock-up. When my laptop freezes, the CPU itself is halted. I know this because the num-lock and caps-lock keys don't change the status lights on the keyboard. The interupt to handle those lights is usually able to run even if the OS is somehow frozen. This is a great test to do when overclocking to see just how far you are pushing your hardware. If the computer freezes but you can turn off and on the status lights for num-lock and caps-lock, then your CPU is actually still running. If you can't turn those lights on and off, then the chances are 99.9% that the CPU itself is halted - which can mean a much more serious issue - usually heat related.

Now - in order to try and figure out which component is faulty, I ran Prime95 to see if the CPU working hard would cause a freeze. It ran fine for over four hours before I killed it. This points the gun right at the 9800 GT GPU. My guess is that there is a bios updated required of the 9800 GT, or that there is more work to do on the driver - but since there are at least two known version of the driver that I tested that had the same issue, I have to say the issue is bios related - and if not then it's a systemic issue with the 9800 GT.

It is interesting to note that running the notebook doing things like Web Browsing, emails, etc. for hours don't cause the notebook to freeze - only when the GPU is stressed at all does it freeze. I never got around to putting a temperature reporting tool on the notebook, but I can tell you that when the notebook froze I was able to touch the bottom of the notebook with no problems - it was only warm.

I really don't want to return this notebook - and if I do return it I don't think I will take the chance on another one - not after reading the stories in this forum (or the reviews posted at BestBuy.com). But I do want to make one more stab and trouble-shooting this issue.

If people that HAVE running notebooks that can happily play for hours on end could please answer the following questions, it would help a lot:

Which Nvidia Forceware version are you running?
Which Video BIOS version is your GPU at? (Nvidia control panel, bottom left click 'System Information', under the Components section you should see all this information.)

It would be great if people that ARE having this issue will also respond.

I am running Vista-32 bit right now, and for me:
ForceWare version: 176.15 (<-- from Gateway's web site)
Video BIOS version: 62.94.37.00.13

The bottom line here is that there are WAY to many people reporting the exact same issue with this notebook - if Gateway is really shipping these things out the door with this many defects it would be another reason for me to return it. It amazes me that Gateway claims that no-one else is reporting these issues.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! I am going to try and contact Nvidia directly on this . . . . .

 

I'm not at my 7811 right now so can't tell you the video BIOS version but I've been running driver 177.92 since getting the machine with no problems whatever.

I did have a lock-up on Crysis the very first day when the machine was stock; I replaced the HD with a Hitachi 200GB 7200, popped the Seagate in bay 2, installed Vista 64 fresh on the Hitachi, updated the video driver to 177.92, updated the Intel chipset and Matrix drivers to the latest available on Intel's site, and have not had a single issue since.

I hope this helps.

 

Driver 177.85 (link in sig)
BIOS 62.94.37.00.13

No Problems.
Worth exchanging IMHO.
Why this happens to some and not others is beyond me but such is the case.

 

Thanks for the replies - just so everyone knows I am running two Western Digital Black Edition 320gb 7200 RPM drives (not in RAID) in this notebook. I am trying the 177.98 driver to see if this fixes anything - but know that once you install a driver not available from Gateway's web site you can't get support from them (what little there is). Thanks all!

 

Make sure you uninstall your old drivers absolutely before installing newer ones. Go in device manager and completely remove the driver, restart. Then use the program **Driver Sweeper** and clean out any old geforce drivers.

 

Where do you go to see the Video bios you are running?

 

nVidia Control Panel > lower left > system settings.

 

Excellent post and excellent troubleshooting. Instead of just whining about the problem, you actually make the effort to pinpoint the problem and find a fix. Definite reps to you.

 

Sir - where did you find these "updated the Intel chipset and Matrix drivers to the latest available on Intel's site". I tried 177.98 - I didn't find 177.92 out there - but in all honesty I didn't exactly spend a lot of effort looking for 177.92 either - found a newer one and went with that . And no - 177.98 didn't help.

 

Thanks Dook! I now know and understand why people have spent a lot of space on this forum talking about this thing - it's an awesome laptop - if only I can get it to work. The thing about this issue is that it's nagging me that so many have obviously experienced the same issue. I am 99% certain that returning the laptop and getting another one won't fix it - there is a root cause in here somewhere and it's disappointing as heck that Gateway either can't figure this out, or knows but has lousy communication channels to their level 1 and level 2 support analysts.

There HAS to be a difference in the notebooks that are working and those that aren't. It would be completely different if there were a lot of people complaining about multiple issues with the laptop - but the only glaring issue that is discussed is this lockup issue. That is why I think it might be helpful to compare the BIOS versions of the GPU. I believe so far there is one reply that stated the same BIOS version as I have.

One other little tidbit - I am running this system bios:
"Phoenix Technologies LTD 9C.05.00 07/10/2008" - anyone else running a different bios?

To get this information, and a LOT of other useful info about this or any other machine, use Belarc Advisor ( www.belarc.com).


I am going to be working on this until this coming Saturday - after that I am getting a new HP HDX16t. I need this notebook to work for both work and play - and while I absolutely love the screen on this thing, it's gotta work ALL the time. I am off to try and find the Intel drivers that were mentioned in a previous post - still waiting for Nvidia to reply. (I work for a VERY large software company - not microsoft - but pretty close - throwing my weight around to get-er-done!)

 

Most of us have the same BIOS as you have. Only some of the newest batch have the 9C.08.00 version, which is what we all want for the RAID option. No info on if it helps anything else.

 

My first one got returned because it froze up too. Second one does everything flawlessly, including playing COD4 at 1920 x 1200 without a single hitch for an entire afternoon and video stress tests.

So I don't think you should assume every laptop will have your problems. It wasn't the case for me.

I am now doing fine with both the drivers that came with, and the new video drivers that Gateway posted on their site last week. Still using the stock Vista 64 OS. At work now so can't give anything more specific than that.

 

Just to be clear. You DO NOT install the Intel driver. Just let Vista handle the chipset. That is my understanding of what the poster did. Just do video and try that to keep the other drivers out of the picture. Then add sound and try etc.

Sounds like a pain in the butt! Glad mine is perrrfect.

 

I am going to try what you suggest as well - but apparently someone else suggested that there are newer Intel drivers up on their web site - which I haven't found yet - going to try that as well. Thanks!

 

Ah yes, I heard of the new one too, but never heard if it helped. Looking forward to hearing your progress. Good luck.

 

For those following this thread and not the 'other' one I am posting on for this issue:

I was able to successfully run 3DMark-Vantage set to 'Extreme' mode for almost five hours with no issues. Do do this, I had to prop up the back of my notebook - using the power brick of all things. About fifteen minutes after I laid the notebook down flush with the disk it is sitting on, it frooze. So the question is now how to fix it? Any suggestions on how to get the cooling system for the GPU more up to snuff?

 

LOL See answer in other thread.

 

Dude I could fry an egg on that power brick. I think you may have done more harm than good putting your laptop on that.

I just got a Targus 180W power supply for mine, btw. It's soooo much cooler. I was afraid to leave the room when I was using the other one, for fear of having to jump up from the toilet when flames started licking up from underneath the door.

 

I too was afraid, I did once said that I was afraid of the ac adpater explode under my desk and annihilate my legs... I did have the targus brick way before I got 7811fx so I didn't even bother touching the stock brick when I exchanged for replacement

 

LOL. Gotta love leg annihilating power supplies!

 

Funny you should mention this - my power brick is completely cool - even when the laptop is running hard. I thought of that - and even with the power brick proping it up I was sitll able to drop the tempts 10 degrees or so. But - the real kicker is that I also proved (to myself at least) that the laptop is pulling in hot air from the exhaust. When I tape a piece of paper to the bottom of the laptop to ensure that the exhaust air doesn't get pulled back in to the GPU air intake, temps dropped three or four degrees - and I repeated that test twice and removed the paper and saw temps shoot right back up.

The bottom line is that for me this is definately a temp related issue, and no amount of new P-7811FX's are going to fix it. I am thinking that either I live with a vent to ensure that exhaust air doesn't get pulled back in along with thicker rubber feet to rise the bottom off of the flat surface it is resting on. There are obviously flaws in the way this thing was designed that cause it to overheat. Propped up with the power brick it NEVER locked up no matter what I threw at it for hours on end. Putting it back down on the desk flat caused it to freeze after about 15 minutes of heavy activity. All this is assuming that newer models have somehow fixed these cooling issues - but I bought mine only last Friday - so I am not thinking that I will get lucky with another one. It's obviously not a driver issue as I have NEVER been able to run for more than an hour in any case - and with my funny paper and propped up it runs just fine for hours and hours. Check out my posts in the other thread for more info.

I am still pondering heavily wether or not I keep this thing and deal with the cooling issues, or really look at an alternative. Thanks to EVERYONE for their replies!

 

I though it was an added feature, sort of an electronic Nair.

Laptops are not just for computing any more. The personal grooming advantage.

Actually my brick does not get hot at all, warm only. I sometimes wonder if I have the same laptop when reading the posts around here.

 

Yea - so I eat a little crow. The exchanged unit is working as I expected it to - and that is because it is of a slightly different design than the original. Gateway apparently knew about the issues, and they are addressed in the newer version of the P-7811FX. The newer unit has a different keyboard, dvd drive, and has a much more beefy GPU cooler. So the exchange did end up resolving my issues - but Gateway must have known about them or they would not have made these changes . Now it's time to upgrade the CPU - T9500?

 

That is interesting, who knew there was a change? DuVader did you record your old SN? It would be interesting to compare to mine (which works well) but now you have me all envious of the new ones. Maybe mine makes the cut and that is why it has no trouble.

 

I'm curious as to how, specifically, the keyboard is different. That along with the other things listed. If you could provide pics, that would be awesome.

 

Yes, I would like to see pics of the "beefier" cooling for the gpu (and another pic of the "original" 7811 version. Also, how do you access the gpu without removing all those dang screws?

 

I didn't record the old SN - but as for the keyboard, the most remarkable thing that jumped out at me was that the font used on the keys themselves is different - not sure how to identity the font on the new keyboard. There is a slightly raised circle on the Windows key that wasn't on the other unit's keyboard. The DVD drive in this unit is HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T50F as reported by Belarc advisor. This unit is running the Phoenix Technologies LTD 9C.08.00 07/29/2008 bios. The Nvidia BIOS is 62.94.37.00.13. I used the same exact pair of Western Digital Black Edition 320gb 7200 RPM drives that were in the other unit, which means that all software versions are exactly the same as before. I did not take off the bottom of the other unit to look at the actual GPU cooling system in detail, but I can tell you that the newer unit's cooling system is blowing air out at a much faster rate than the older one. I will take some pictures as soon as I can of the bottom and try to highlight some of the differences I remember about how the bottom is different than the other one. The most notable difference that I can see is that the molding has been modified to allow the air-intakes of the cooling fans to pull in air easier. The rubber feet pads are a bit thicker as well. Overall, the newer unit is doing exactly what I expected it to do - and while I do feel a bit more heat through the keyboard, I am completely satisfied (so far ) with this laptop.

I really thought that getting a replacement unit would just give me more of the same - but the truth is that Gateway did refresh the design a bit and for me it is making all the difference in my happiness with this notebook.

I will post pictures as soon as I can.

 

I have the circle on the Windows key but raised (not so much).
You definitely have a different DVD than my Optiarc DVD RW AD-7583S

 

Ditto. Except mines a 7563. I am definitely interested in seeing pics when you get a few extra mins. At your leisure, of course.

 

ours are also an IDE dvd drive dook.

 

Yea. I'm mainly interested in the keyboard and "beefier cooling" part.

 

yep. i have the newer one as well. matches his with the raised windows circle on it.

i really wish i could look at the bios and video bios now....to see if that's what they did...some type of software fix for a log term potential problem.(speculation of course) may go back and get that extended warranty plan after all. i still have 12 days left. and if it fails in 6 months, they would give me the new one.