Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

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Gateway (Acer) did not include any information on the changes made to the BIOS.
But there are a few changes/additions to the BIOS, it looks like they made some improvements to it, (?)possibly(?) to make it more compatible with Windows 7.

As to the firmware problem with the hard drive, I've been lucky so far with mine.
According to Seagate, it's supposedly isolated to a limited number of drives of a certain serial number range.
YEAH Right.... We've All Heard That One Before
 
Hey Renegade...

Just a little update....

On the 25th I pulled out the OEM PSU and added the OCZ ModXStream-pro 750w. I also took out the Seagate and replaced it with a WD Caviar Black. I through in the second HD 4850 video card in crossfire.

I then proceeded to do a full clean install from my ISO burned copy of Win 7 Home Premium. That install went in flawlessly... and unbelievably fast. I did have to call Microsoft because my clean install would not activate with the Upgrade Key I have (simple fix with excellent support... did I just say that... things have changed). I also upgraded the video drivers to Catalyst 9.12 (smooth again... I'm on a roll).

With all that taken care of, I moved on to the hot swappable drives.. I installed the Intel Matrix Storage software, which works... Although my computer sees nothing when I install a drive. I then looked closely with a flashlight and kinda determined that the end of drive (Seagate) does not reach the connector when installed in the drive trays. hmmm.... I think I might just try to install the seagate as a second drive and move on from their.
 
Looks like you're on a Roll there Killer95Stang :)

As to the Seagate, when using the Hot swappable front bay, you need to make sure the drive is fitted in the tray correctly. It's very easy to misalign the tray unless of course the drive is a bit on the short side.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year :)
 
So, I got a 1TB WD caviar black to replace my bricked seagate drive. My bro had a copy of vista enterprise 64-bit, so I did a clean install of that. Maybe it was just my hard drive, but everything runs so much faster now. Vista doesn't hang at all like it used to when doing simple things like opening the my games tab or control panel(always used to get a windows is not responding delay, followed by it opening 10 seconds or so later). Thanks for all the help to Renegade and others. Everything seems fixed for now, but as far as this computer is concerned, I may be back to this thread again someday...lol.
Happy Holidays,
Modo
 
You're Welcome Kashamodo :)

What you are noticing now with the better performance is because the Gateway crap which was running in the background is no longer there. :)

Just make sure you keep everything up to date including any software installed on the system.

Happy New Year :)
 
Was away for awhile, busy with other stuff..........

This thread here - FX6800 New BIOS Out 842P181G is for the latest BIOS update.
Here is the section you are most probably encountering at this moment.

You should see the BIOS start to update, then when it finishes, then system will shutdown quickly but the fan will stay on. Now at this point I advise you to wait a minute just in case. If after a minute the system has not rebooted, hold the power button in until it shuts down fully (10seconds).

Now restart the system and be ready to hit F2 after it starts. You will notice that there will be a Check Sum error. This is OK, the BIOS Update took just fine, you just need to enter the BIOS and make some adjustments to return everything to how you had it set before the update. After you finish with the BIOS and save your settings, you will find that the Check Sum error will be gone.
Click to expand...

Now if your system has restarted, but you aren't getting anything, I'd say to try shutting it down fully and let it sit for a bit before you try booting it up again.

Once you turn it on, immediately try to get into the BIOS so you can go over the settings.

-

Now if any of the precautions I listed such as disconnecting the system, making sure it is clean, disabling any security/antivirus software and such were not followed, then there is a possibility that the BIOS could have been corrupted.

If the BIOS is corrupted, chances are, the system won't even power up.

But as long as you get a display screen, the system should be OK, it's just a matter of finding what went wrong.
 
Another good bios update thx Renegade. I to think I will be switching Mobo's the asus or the evga both are direct plugin boards. I got this almost a year ago and its was a great buy. As a gamer I like new videocards and will replace them often. But this year I think I will switch the mobo its only $209 dollars and I can tap all the power of the I7. I have seen our processors run at 4.0ghz and be stable. I have always OC'ed videocards but never the processor and ram so I'm looking forward to blowing something up. Joking I hope
 
Good Luck with your new motherboard and with the OC'ing 😀

Happy New Year!
 
Happy New Year Renegade_Warrior!! By the way That Asus Rampage II Gene is a nice board. I'm currently stable @ 3.9GHz.
Ran that Prime 95 on it for about 2hrs. with no problems.
 
Hello,

I've been trying to see the flash file and cannot see more than a line of it in NotePad.

I know you've halped a lot of people with your great insight, but I would ask you to help out one more.

Is there any way that you can send me the Falsh file and the switches that you talk about in the forum.
Please let me know,

David I.
dave@adrenaline-rc.com


Check your messages Irish2 :)

Ok now, when the Firmware was fixed, the only thing that was changed is the one item in the flash.bat file as you can see in my previous reply.


When you download the BIOS, there will be 5 files included in the Zip file.

AFUWIN.EXE <<------ This is the Flash Utility
842P161G.ROM <<-- This is the New BIOS

flash.bat <<----------- This is the Batch file which contains the update instructions

UCORESYS.SYS <<---- Driver for Microsoft© Windows© NT/2000/XP/PE/Vista (32bit)
UCOREVXD.VXD <<--- Driver for Microsoft© Windows© 98/ME
UCOREW64.SYS <---- Driver for Microsoft© Windows© XP64 & Vista (64bit)

To run the Flash utility using the Program window, double click on AFUWIN.EXE then "carefully" reading the labels check off the same boxes as the listed switches from the flash.bat file (use a text editor to view the file)

If you're using the flash.bat file, it'll open a command prompt (DOS window), then close it just as quickly. This will be the Flash Utility running in DOS Mode.

Once the BIOS has been updated, there is no need to keep the Flash Utility.

Here is a link to the American Megatrends Inc. BIOS support page which has some useful information.
http://www.ami.com/support/bios.cfm
Click to expand...
 

From your post, it seems your system is most probably at the original Factory BIOS.

The Most recent BIOS can be found in the following thread with comprehensive
instructions for updating your BIOS to the Newest BIOS.

FX6800 New BIOS Out 842P181G

Now when you get to this part
Next open Notepad and paste the following line into it:
AFUWIN.EXE 842P181G.ROM /p /b /c /REBOOT
and save as update.bat
Click to expand...

You Will Need to Do This
Use the following line: AFUWIN.EXE 842P181G.ROM /p /b /x /c /REBOOT

instead of this AFUWIN.EXE 842P181G.ROM /p /b /c /REBOOT
Click to expand...
Here is an explanation of the switches used by the Batch file.

/P - Program main BIOS image
/B - Program Boot Block
/X - Don't Check ROM ID
/C - Destroy CMOS checksum (Clear nVRAM)

In your situation, the /X switch is necessary cause Gateway (Acer) changed the Default BIOS naming convention with the release of the first BIOS update. So with the First update, it was found that the BIOS could not update due to a naming mismatch. Two weeks later, Gateway pulled the update, fixed the Batch file by adding the /X Switch, then uploaded it back to the Ftp site.

Once your BIOS has been updated, future updates no longer need the /X Switch.

Don't worry about trying to "SEE" the Flash file and as to the single line you saw in Notepad, that was from the Batch file which is used to execute the flash program and pass the command switches to it.

As to the reason you can't see the file/s, it's the same reason you most probably can't see the file extentioons. You need to configure your Folder Options so you can see file extensions, hidden files & folders and system folders. There are detailed instructions in this thread on how to set Folder Options and you can find them reposted several times, I'm sure :)

If you follow the instructions in the other thread, you should have no problems.

Good Luck.
 
Hello Renagade,

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, its much appreciated.
I've never seen someone take the time to help out others to this point. :)

Gratefully yours,

David.
 
Big thanx for R.W and others , I succesfully flashed my bios and clean installed window7 . Now I have little some thing for all of you FX6800-01e owners : a custom tweaked bios that allows O.C ! ! ! yes , after days of searching, I finally found it ! now don't get over - excited , this bios unlocks the option to force RAM to run faster than 1066, very helpful because most of us bought faster RAM and got stuck with 1066. it also unlocks CPU Multiplier , but it won't go higher than 20x because the i7 920 is factory locked, you can lower it though . There is also a unlocked QPI option that allows 6.4ghz/sec . There is currently NO option to adjust BCLK speed , or FSB speed in older computers :fou: .Good news is the master mind behind this custom bios is still woring on unclocking the BCLK, just be patiant . I have personally tried the bios and it works , but I take no responsibility if anything should happen, so try it at your own risk . I did not make the bios , it was made by 1234s282 at bios-mods.com , so kudos to him.

click the link to download it :

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/747181/Gateway%20FX6800%20R01-A4%20With%20Overclocking%20By%201234s282.zip


again TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK !
 
I noticed that the bios mod link you posted is for the pervious bios update have you flashed to the new one yet? I to was looking at that site awhile back really surprised they havent unlocked it yet. And wonder if after every new version will they need to redo the mod. Of course once you unlock the bios and have it working and are running win7 theres would probably not be any reason to ever update them again
 
I know I'm not going to try the hacked BIOS for two simple reasons.

1) R01-A4 was used for the base

2) This is the first I've seen of this Hack-BIOS and I have not heard of anyone using it yet, so I have no idea of how safe it is and I especially have no idea if it might have any hidden coding in it as I do not know the person who Hacked this BIOS.

There is another reason to hold off too....

I'm currently running the latest BIOS which is R01-B0 and I'm not sure but this morning when I turned my system on, I tried to pay close attention to the boot screen and I think that one of the new updates in this BIOS is the jmicron BIOS may have been updated along with the system BIOS.

Thing is, I don't have any record of what the original jmicron BIOS version was when I first purchased my system.

I have used Hacked BIOS/Firmware before, but only after carefully verifying that it was safe and yes, I am a very paranoid person when it comes to computer systems and the internet.
 
Im runnig the hacked bios now , yes its older but knowing that it gives me the edge on O.C makes me feel a lil better. hope they tweak the new bios and unlock the BLCK soon.
I have been runing this bios for a week now and I m pretty sure there is no hidden codings , but again like R.W said, if you don't feel comfortable running custom bios , don't do it , plus it does not offer much performance gain as of now .
 
It's not so much not feeling comfortable as it is waiting to see what happens after others have tried it so as to make sure there is no problems or hidden surprises.

Cause like I have said, I do not know the guy who hacked this BIOS and I'm not familiar with him either.

But any time something like this is released, it's best to play it safe unless you can afford to replace your motherboard. :)

I just spent over $1500 today, so I can't risk my motherboard right now.

As to gaining more performance now that the BIOS has been unlocked, try adding more cooling to the processor. The colder you can get it, the higher it'll perform as this will trigger the self-OC'ing.
 

Once you updated your BIOS did you notice any improvement?
 
This time around I'm not really sure if I noticed any improvement or not.

About the only thing I am sure of is there are a few changes/additions to the BIOS menus and the one other thing I'm not entirely sure of cause I do not have any records of the original is I think they updated the jmicron BIOS this time around.

There are basically two BIOS in this system, the main system AMI BIOS and the jmicron BIOS.

If you have the Gateway logo disabled in the BIOS, then you will see the jmicron BIOS during the Boot sequence.
 
To anyone that can help...I have a Gateway FX6801-01 and noticed that BIOS update 842p181G was available for download. I looked at the six files and decided to call tech support on it's proper install. They stated that I was doing this at my own choice and that I could harm my computer. Mind you THIS IS GATEWAY tech support! I have had problems with heat build up and my cooling fans NOT varying speed in order to cool off the CPU. This only happens when playing games like Call of Duty and Dirt2. My present BIOS only allow you to enable or disable Smart Fan, which will speed the rpm of the fans from 1,000 to 4,000 and a lot more noise.
 

This case is not really very well designed for cooling. I had to pull the rear fan, cut out the circular area, then install a better fan which was thicker and blew more air. The hole I covered with a chrome computer fan grill which I'm sure you've probably seen plenty of times, the type made of heavy gauge wire. This helped with the air flow and I also installed a couple of other fans to help circulate air such as blowing cooler air on the memory and helping move the heat away from the video card and the North Bridge.

You might just consider getting a good liquid cooling system instead. Just watch out for any cheap stuff as the cheap stuff can leak in your system. You could get one with the cooling unit which fits on the back of the case.

Also, do not forget about periodic cleaning of the inside of your system as dust does build up fast and can cause heat failure.
 
This case is not really very well designed for cooling. I had to pull the rear fan, cut out the circular area, then install a better fan which was thicker and blew more air. The hole I covered with a chrome computer fan grill which I'm sure you've probably seen plenty of times, the type made of heavy gauge wire. This helped with the air flow and I also installed a couple of other fans to help circulate air such as blowing cooler air on the memory and helping move the heat away from the video card and the North Bridge.

You might just consider getting a good liquid cooling system instead. Just watch out for any cheap stuff as the cheap stuff can leak in your system. You could get one with the cooling unit which fits on the back of the case.

Also, do not forget about periodic cleaning of the inside of your system as dust does build up fast and can cause heat failure.
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking the time to respond. This computer is only a few weeks old. Here is a copy of the findings I sent to Gateway: Thank you for your assistance. Few things that I need to tell you is that my FX6801-01 has the intel x58 main board with bios R01-B0 dated 05/19/09. Video is Nvidea Geforce GTX 285. I provide this info since the person before you did not seem to know my BIOS version. I seem to have problems only when playing games that require a gaming computer such as mine. I updated my video card's firmware to 195.62 which is the most up to date. Hoping that the problem was a firmware one. Answer to question one...I now have Windows 7 64 bit, and before that I had Vista 64. No additional memory has been added. Original Hard Drive and only the most functional programs are in the system. My CPU is running at 01% and 21% mem. I am using AVS as the anti-virus. I have no Virus and I use Search and Destroy for adware. Answer to question two...This CPU was NOT miss-handled in any way by me. I did make a claim as soon as I unpacked the Computer to you because I noticed that the case door was misaligned as it got to the BEZEL and that the rear of the door was folded when they assembled and power screwed it closed. This did not warrent a return since it was cosmetic. Answer to question three...The computer has not experiece any power surges and is connected to it's own power outlet. Steps taken...1-9...No change. Commuter started with no problem. Additional comments and observations...I have gone into the BIOS (PC Health Statues) and saw Smart Fan which can only be disabled or enabled! The starting CPU Temp is 30c/86f and System temp 39c/102f. The cpu fan speed is 1157 and the sys fan speed is 1030rpm. This information is obtained in the BIOS PC Health Statues with Smart Fan enabled. BOTH FANS ARE WORKING. I tried to disable Smart Fan and the speed of the fans were 4066 for the CPU with a temp of 29c/84f and fan speed of 2376 for the Sys with a temp of 36c/98f. Unfortunately this setting was just too loud, and when you did play the games that had the problems, You were able to play the games but eventually they would freeze or the images would have little speaks or small dots and these small speaks would stay on the screen even after you stopped the game. Once you rebooted the system all was fine and the image was clear. Thank you for your time, this in not a cheap CPU and even though I am not a big time gamer... it IS a gaming machine. Here is the response from Gateway's tech support......"Thank you for contacting Gateway. I’ll be happy to assist you with the freezing issues.

As per our records your desktop is in warranty and is registered.

Having reviewed your email I understand that your computer is having freezing issues only when playing games.

Since the issue persists only when playing games kindly contact the computer manufacturer to get the issue resolved". Now I think you can feel my frustration with tech support! When I contacted them again I was told to pack it up and remove all personal info since it was to be defraged. I said how about the new BIOS? Conversation was over. Here I am with You fellows.
 
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