p-7811fx FAQ

1. is this laptop right for me?

if you think that the price-performance ratio is worth the inconvenience of having to swap it out if you get a lemon or having to work through getting working drivers then this is excellent for you.

gaming is considerably good with this laptop because of the 9800m gts graphics card, the p8400 processor, and the 4gigs of ram. scoring 8k+ in 3dmark06 when vista is installed at stock hardware, this unit is truly a monster for its price of $1450 at best buy.

2. are there a lot of problems with this unit?

there are some problems with a bunch of units of people here at NBR but most of them were solved through replacement, trial and error of solutions (ie driver changes, fresh install of OS) and discussions in the forums.

3. what is a good laptop cooler for this system?

it's been discussed that there are a bunch of coolers (ie nzxt, notepal, zalman) that do the job of dropping the temps 5-15*C. but just elevating the laptop with cartons or dvd cases a bit, can create drops of temps 5-10*C...

aside from taking this baby apart and putting artic silver 5 on the gpu and cpu chips to promote better heat transfer to heatsink, this is the only way to prevent overheating.

undervolting the cpu is another easy way of lowering temps but this entails trial and error and slowly lowering the voltage while stressing it out using orthos. this entails waiting for a bsod if you want to stretch it to its limits.

4. what is the ratio of problematic units to excellent ones?

there is no definite ratio because there is no tracking how many units have been bought. plus there is a pretty slim chance that most people who bought this laptop are as geeky as us and would spend time hanging out here in the forums to troubleshoot this unit or to discuss details about this unit.

plus we also wouldn't be able to tell how many of these units are good because if you don't have problems with this unit (ie games are working excellent for you), then you probably would be playing games instead of burning time in these forums.

but some people made pretty good analyses of what is the ratio and i guess it's safe to say that about 1:5 is the ratio of the bad ones to the good ones.

5. is there a way to purchase this laptop from other retailers?

the only retailer of this laptop is bestbuy and i would say they price this unit pretty decently. and much more decently when a sale occurs dropping the price tag of this unit to $1250 (this has happened twice already)

6. what would be a good bag for this unit?

if you still haven't noticed. this unit is exactly the same size as its predecessors the 6831 and the 6860 so just search the forums for bags that fit those earlier units because they have been more discussed (due to age of those threads)

7. does this laptop have raid 0?

this laptop has drivers that can be found on the this is annoying thread for raid support.

for "raid" info type in R-A-I-D in search bar. there is a decent description of raid and how to set it up in nbr forums. this faq will not dive into details like these.

8. Does it over heat when you aren't playing games?

it generates a fair amount of heat. discussion in forums say that the normal temps range from 40-55C when idling or just watching movies.
if it goes beyond 65 in idle mode, get it replaced.

8. How do i make sure if my unit is defective when i first buy it?

check first page of p-7811fx official thread... my post is in first page to see your unit is not defective.

9. Is it worth it, if i am not going to do much gaming?

if you're not going to use it for gaming, you're better off with a lenovo or an asus.

10. Can i overclock it?

yes you can but overclocking entails generating more heat, and more heat means your hardware gets worn out faster.

You can overclock the GPU but you can't overclock the CPU unless it's a C2D extreme. -copied directly from
WarlordOne's post

your choice.

11. How come there are news that most units lockup?

there is a theory that gateway cut corners with this laptop, specifically on the quality control part. so there are random reasons for these lockups. most of which are driver issues and overheating.

if the lockups don't get resolved by installing drivers or getting good airflow to your laptop, get it replaced.

 

feel free to hit this thread up if you see that there are additional questions that you think are usually asked.

 

Follow up question 7 with Question 8 as "what is raid"

Other questions to add,

Other ways to prevent overheating?
Does it over heat when not playing games like watching movies?
How do i make sure if my unit is defective when i first buy it?
Can i overclock it?
Is it worth it, if i am not going to do much gaming?

 

updated with new queries...

 

and another note, this faq will not answer in detail those questions that are not very related to the p-7811fx itself... if anyone needs to know about terminologies, feel free to hit the search bar or a dictionary.

 

You need to specify your "can I overclock it" question. You can overclock the GPU, you can't overclock the CPU unless it's a C2D extreme. Yes overclocking can produce more heat but undervolting the cpu is maybe the easiest way to reduce temperatures and reduce wear/stress on the hardware.

 

I had an X7900 in my 6831 and it was like a space heater - in Canada that is a good thing 9 months of the year.

 

+1 rep to warlord one... thanks for reminding me...

 

we're glad that you're satisfied with yours sprint... hope most of us get a unit as good as yours.

 

lockup info added...