P-7811 FX (Gateway)

**Kenyth** · 12-29-2009, 03:40 PM

Originally heralded as the "best bang for the buck" gaming laptop on the market. It comes with:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache)
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS with 512MB of GDDR3 discrete video memory
17.0" WUXGA Ultrabright TFT Active Matrix (1920 x 1200 max. resolution)
Genuine Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) SP1
4GB (4096MB) DDR3 800MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 x 2048MB modules)
200GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 16MB Cache
8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVDRW with DVD-RAM featuring Labelflash Technology
Integrated 1.3 Megapixel Web Cam
9-cell 11.1v 7800mAh battery, 120w power supply

It has since shown a flaw or two. The biggest flaw is keeping the damn thing cool. The HDD's and CPU get pretty hot, but the worst offender by far is the graphics card. I'm not sure it could be adequately cooled with twice the heat sink and fan. The temp can climb above 100C. I hear there are tuning apps (Rivatuner) to help alleviate this issue through tweaking. The fact that this is possible seems to indicate that the source of the problem is poor driver software programming, especially considering the chip has a built in temperature sensor, along with marginal cooling hardware. Poor software programming in general seems to be an issue these days. As of right now, I just have to turn down the graphics settings in the games. I thought I would warn others of Nvidia's apparent lack of quality.

**MarineOne** · 12-30-2009, 12:26 AM

It's a design flaw with the case, really. To put it in car friendly terms, you can't have LS-2 V8 engine and expect it to be air cooled.

Grab a can of compressed air and blow it out. You'll be surprised by the amount of crap that will get blown out. Do it to the exhaust first, then the intake. Doing it this way helps to loosen all the build up because of how it clings to the cooling fins so when you use the compressed air on the exhaust blowing it out the intake it might get a little chunky. Then hit it again the way air normally flows from the intake out the exhaust and you should be fine.

For laptops I do this once a week, and desktops as needed or once a month.

**Kenyth** · 12-31-2009, 02:32 PM

Did that. There was only a little dust. It helped, but even brand new the video ran hot. I know this because the heat sink exhaust blows out the left side on to my hand (it can get hot enough to make you jerk your hand back during gaming). Design has something to do with it (They gave it minimal cooling hardware to save space.), but the vid card is supposed to be designed for laptop use. Gateway claims they designed the case and cooling around those specs, but Nvidia was way off on their reported specs for heat generation. Many people online claim that there are big flaws in the driver for controlling the cards performance to meet the application demand. It runs at full throttle for even the simplest tasks, generating excess heat. I plan on checking out Rivatuner to tweak what the cards software lacks, when I get time. The problem with laptops is of course, you can't modify physical components much. Maybe I could get a more powerful fan on the heat sink?

**MarineOne** · 01-01-2010, 12:38 AM

Well this is something I don't recommend for the faint of heart or those not mechanically inclined ....

If it were me, I would take it apart and do a remove/replace on the themal paste for the video card heatsink. Clean it up with some acetone and a very tightly woven rag (microfiber or better) and go with Arctic Silver 5 for the thermal compound.

Now this is what I don't recommend to everyone. Once you have it apart, I would also polish up the contact areas with some very very *very* fine grit sand paper. You need some very specific stuff to do this though.

Kris

**sushiboy** · 01-01-2010, 11:01 AM

Heat is a big problem with a lot of laptops. They just dont have adequate ventilation. Really your best thing do to would be to take it apart and put a high quality thermal grease under all the heatsinks and maybe engineer the ventilation channels a little bit better if possible. Ive done those things quite a few times.

If your not in to tearing apart your laptop (not recommended unless you have an idea of what you are doing - most of them are like jigsaw puzzles), then you can get one of those laptop coolers that attach to the bottom of your laptop and help pull the heat away. Most of them have like 2-5 decent size fans in them. I have a friend that was having overheating issues with his lappy but no longer is a problem since he put the cooler on. I am pretty sure newegg.com has them, but I am not positive.

**sushiboy** · 01-01-2010, 11:03 AM

yea here we go

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0cooling%20pad

most of them are cheap and might be worth a shot

**Kenyth** · 03-15-2010, 08:21 AM

Well, I finally dug into this thing and started reading up on it in depth. There are two main problems it seems.

The cable connector that leads to the monitor is a weak point. It loses a good connection due to minor flexing of the case and cable. Reseating the connector helps, but many have found the cable simply goes bad after doing this a number of times. A new cable does fix the issue, and is a cheap enough part.

The other problem is GPU overheating. This problem doesn't appear to be Gateway's fault, but rather Nvidia's. Some driver hackers have tweaked the flash image and moved the GPU voltage down from it's default of 1.12 Volts down to 0.9-1.0 volts. The improvements have been remarkable on most systems. A 30% reduction in temperature and 20% increase in performance at stock fequencies is not uncommon. The process is a bit difficult and advanced, not to mention risking the BIOS of both the PC and the GPU. I'm trying to think if I should do this or not.

**Mizicke5273** · 03-15-2010, 02:21 PM

Before you flash the BIOS, I'd check out Rivatuner or other tweaking software as you should be able to change the GPU fan speed. This should probably help with the heat issue, as most laptops are set to keep the fan at the lowest minimum speeds, longer than it should, to reduce noise. By uping the speed of the fan, you could alleviate some of the heat build up. Worth a shot first, I'd say.

**Kenyth** · 03-15-2010, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by Mizicke5273

Before you flash the BIOS, I'd check out Rivatuner or other tweaking software as you should be able to change the GPU fan speed. This should probably help with the heat issue, as most laptops are set to keep the fan at the lowest minimum speeds, longer than it should, to reduce noise. By uping the speed of the fan, you could alleviate some of the heat build up. Worth a shot first, I'd say.

I have the Nvidia tuning program. It's called Ntune. I'll double check, but as soon as you start playing a 3D game the fan starts running high and stays there. On another note, they (Nvidia) say that 80C is a perfectly acceptable operating temp for this card. It sounds high to me. The tweak brings the card temps down to the 50-60C range.

**Mizicke5273** · 03-16-2010, 07:03 AM

80C is average for today's GPUs, I have an 8800 that hovers around ~70C in a heavily cooled case.

As for the fan setting, it's probably already set for to the highest speed then and that is good that it starts right away.

Really the only other thing to try, other than an external cooler, is to apply some Arctic Silver to the CPU and GPU as MarineOne mentioned.

**Mangyrat** · 03-16-2010, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Mizicke5273

80C is average for today's GPUs, I have an 8800 that hovers around ~70C in a heavily cooled case.

As for the fan setting, it's probably already set for to the highest speed then and that is good that it starts right away.

Really the only other thing to try, other than an external cooler, is to apply some Arctic Silver to the CPU and GPU as MarineOne mentioned.

Thats kind of hot for a a 8800 I'm sitting at 52c and under heavy load "gaming" i hit 72c on my overclocked 8800gt.
Rip that head sink off it and redo the thermal compound with artic silver or something like that. They come stock with a sticky thermal pad thats not wort crap.

Getting a case set up the right way with proper air flow is tricky you just cant add more fans you need to plan out your set up.