Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

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Can't see or think of anything either.

- This may sound a bit screwy, but did you reconnect the power connector to the card when you puled and reseated it?

Not sure if the card would still work or if it would just cause the problem you are currently having.

Wish there was something more I could think of. 🙁

Good Luck!
 
Yes, the power was re-attached and fan is running. I also switched to a second power plug but no change.

I was wondering if the CMOS was drained, would'nt that reset the mobo? I want to try. Other than pulling out battery, is there anything else I need to do on mobo to drain completly? What is best way to do on this mobo. What are consequences.
 
:lol: Looks like we're both having problems now. 😉

I was running Catalyst 9.8 and just decided to upgrade to 9.9 yesturday. Ran into a big problem that I have not been able to correct yet. To to it off it seems like there is others having the same problem with the Catalyst 9.9 drivers in 64-bit Windows 7.

Running dual 24" monitors @ 1920 x 1200 each

After I installed the Catalyst 9.9 drivers, I'd get as far as the Windows starting up screen. After that both monitors would go dark instead of showing the login screen. You can still hear the login screen chimes though and I can do a Remote Desktop login using a system connected to my TV.

In the Device Manager the video card shows as "Unknown", yet under that it is still listed as ATI Radeon 4800 Series. Yet at the same time the Catalyst Manager says that there is no Ati card installed or present. I've tried reinstalling the driver. Disconnecting the system, deleting the windows Ati drivers & inf files and disabling windows update, then manually installing the drivers from Ati, all with no luck.

I couldn't even use system restore cause it turns out there was some sort of mismatch in the drive tables or some such. This PO'd me the most cause it prevented me from going back to before the driver update.

Now I guess I'm gonna have to do a bit of house keeping about a week earlier than planned, gathering together everything I need to save, then use my Windows 7 disk to hopefully effect a repair or a fresh install till my new Disks come in.

Oh well, it's been an interesting day so far 😀
 
Sorry to hear about your situation now.

Maybe it is ATI/AMD's fault. We'll have to send them some info on our problems.
 
:lol: From what I have came across, there are a handful of different problems being experienced, but I gather a good portion are being caused from windows automatically downloading and installing a driver instead of letting the user install the Catalyst driver. After that, the problem just steam rolls.

I just said the hell with it, popped a 320 GB drive in the front bay and now I'm in the process of scrounging through my system, trying not to miss anything which I might otherwise regret losing.

Thank God for Remote Desktop and wide screen LCD TVs 😀

It makes the job that much easier. Although to tell the truth, I've never run into a situation where I couldn't get the video up and running again. At least not to this extent.
 
Backed up about 300 GB of data yesturday, then spent the rest of the evening with my family.

Today I extracted the 64-bit Windows 7 RTM from the ISO image to a flash drive, then remotely logged into my system and started the installation. Then when the system rebooted, I was able to continue directly from the system itself.

I did an upgrade directly over the RC and it fixed the problem with my monitors remaining blank. :)
 
Thanks a ton for all the info in this thread. I successfully upgrade my bios.

I am having trouble upgrading my RAM. Only the white slots seem to work. I have the stock memory that came with the system and then an additional 6GB(3x2GB).

When I place any memory in the blue slots I get the following error:
1) It beeps continuously. I read in Renagade Warrior's post that I should be able to just power down and back up and it should work.
2) If I put new ram in the white slot only (blue empty), no error everything is recognized. Same if I pull it out and put the original 3GB back in.
3) If I try to only put it in the blue slots it immediately makes the one long continuous beep.

Here is the new RAM I am putting in:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4282860&CatId=4327

THe other item I noticed is that is Renegade Warrior's post it said to clear NVRAM from the bios menu. I do no see it anywhere in the bios. Am I supposed to do it with the bios update tool? Would that cause my problem with my other slots?

My gut is telling me that it might be a bad motherboard. Any advice is appreciated.
 
Don't worry about the Clear NVRAM as you successfully updated your BIOS. The setting was programmed in the BIOS update.

Here is the AMI BIOS Beep Codes - on Wikipedia

Here is the AMIBIOS8 Check Point and Beep Code List on the last page, you'll find the AMIBIOS8 Beep codes.

You'll need to listen to the beeps to see if it is continuous or a specific number which repeats.

The Checkpoint stuff in the Pdf document I'm not familiar with, so I wouldn't know how to go about using that information yet.

The only thing I can really see is the new memory is using CAS Latency: 7-7-7-20 which is pretty good, but the original memory has nowhere near that good of a latency and that MIGHT be what is causing the problem as you're mixing molasses with maple syrup (one being thicker than the other) which is giving you a drastic timing off set.

You could try ordering a second set so you would have as close to a matched set as possible. Cause it's preferable to use matched sets of memory to avoid problems.

But first see what the beep codes tell you. If it tells you anything other than the memory, then you'll want to get your hands on a POST card which can be used to run a dianostic on your system unless you know someone who has one.
 
Thanks. Its one long continuous beep. I went ahead and ordered another 6GB. One interesting thing:

It will not work with the white slots empty and the blue slots with the memory. It makes me wonder if the system requires memory in the white slots? Anyone know if the white slots are required to be filled first?

Well, I will take a shot with the new RAM (good excuse to get more).

 
Yes, the White slots have to be used first or the system will not work.

As for my using Maple syrup and Molasses for comparison, I was using the difference in viscosity to compare to the timing difference. :)

Good Luck
 
Just remember, if you haven't disabled the Gateway logo Boot up screen yet, you might just want to do this in the BIOS as I described earlier in the thread.

This way, you'll be able to see what's what with the boot up sequence and if the memory should read such as tri or dual channel or something else. Cause with any new memory, there is always the possibility of bad memory as one guy ran into early in this thread.
 
Here is an update on my questioning the bios update causing my video link width problem. It was not the update.

I opened the case again with the intent of cleaning the HD4850's contacts. Looking at the mobo, after pulling the video card, the markings on the two slots were marked PCI-e 16A and PCI-e 16B. The video card had been in the slot closest to the processor which was marked B. I thought that if the slots are marked A and B, your problably should use A first. I put the card in A and, lo and behold, it reports a link width of X16. Problem solved.

The Gateway site says this comp has one PCI-e 16 slot. Mine has two, but why they did not have the card in the slot marked A confuses me. Should it matter? Don't know. Pictures of this mobo on the web all seem to have the card in the top PCI-e slot. Has anyone noticed how their mobo is labeled. The labels next to the slots are in very small print. I find the whole thing curious. Since card now reports x16 then maybe slot B has a problem.
 
As I've mentioned before, Gateway (Acer) doesn't even list the correct specifications for the FX6800 systems on their website and they can't even supply the motherboard documentation either.

As a direct result, retailers list the Specs Gateway provides them and no one (including support) seems to know what they are doing.

As for your video card, congratulations on fixing problem. :)

At the same time, it seems that there may be a problem with slot-B. With my system, the video card performs @ x16 whether it's in slot A or B.

But yeah, mine even came with the card in slot-B

😱 The way things are looking, we may just need a sub-forum to deal with problems just for FX6800 systems. 😱
 
Confirmed. New RAM works. Removing the molasses (original 3GB RAM) proved all slots work. The computer now reports 12GB. THanks for the help Road Warrior.
 
I ran across this thread and saw some mention of the video card issues for this computer so I thought I'd ask a question here. I have not found a way to update the ati 4850 video card driver. When I tried I first removed the old driver and catalyst suite (following ati instructions). When I tried to install the new driver I got got an "out of disk space" error and some message about a Microsoft redistributable something. The driver install stoped , the screen became darker and the catalyst suite was not there so I could not increase the brightness. Numerous contacts with the store I purchased the computer at, ATI and Gateway did not solve anything. Eventually, Gateway told me I could NEVER (huh???) update the video card driver and I had to do a complete system restore which erased all I had on the hard drive and reinstalled the old driver. I was not happy. Is this problem related to the BIOS? Any one have the same problem and had a solution?
 
That should have nothing to do with the BIOS update what so ever.

Also it seems that Gateway fed you a line of crap saying that the driver could never be updated.

If anything, I would recommend installing a new, larger hard drive.
Then upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit as a clean install by selecting custom installation when you get to the selection screen.

You won't need any of the drivers or other stuff from Gateway. About the only thing you'll need is the newest release of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and the newest Ati Catalyst suite along with what ever software you prefer.

I recommend Avast! Anti-Virus or ESET NOD32 (64-bit) along with MalwareByte's AntiMalware and SpyBot -Search & Destroy (with out the Tea Timer).

Read through this thread and you'll find information to help with this
 


Benl9,


I got the error also. Click to close the error message and wait a short while for the rest of the program to finish and the latest Catylyst drivers and menu will install. Why it is look for 2005 redistributable I do not know. Renegade Warrior probably can tell us.
 
It's the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2005 which is required for the Catalyst Suit.

The install package will check to see if it's installed and if it is up to date. If necessary, it'll install the C++ package or if it's not the most current, it'll install the updated package.

Microsoft still releases updates for this package periodically from what I can tell.

I'm surprised that they are still using the 2005 Redistributable too instead of something newer.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. Are you sure it will eventually install? I have not done this in a while, but I seem to recall something about the installation aborting... I may be wrong. It has been a while. In the email I sent to ATI when I was describing the problem I have a screen print of the error report with an indication of a failure of the redistributable and an "Out of disc space" error. "Error Message - Application Install - Out of disk space." I told ATI the the installation stopped. I remember waiting a while and the ATI indicator showing installation progress hung up at one point and did not move. (I have plenty of disk space.) ATI mentioned something about Gateway using a special drive partition (?) that was causing the problem. But they were very vague and eventually sent me back to Gateway who gave up completely and said I will never be able to update this ATI driver. They said I would have no problem with NVIDIA cards. Which made no sense. By that time I did not trust either Gateway or ATI with explaining this problem to me in an understandable way.

If this fails again that will mean another restore and doing a system restore is not a pleasant thing to do if you have data you don't want to lose and no quick and easy way to back it up. But I am stunned I can't update the video card driver. (Since this does not seem to be a BIOS problem, I can move the topic to the graphics card section if necessary.)
 
The hidden partition on the drive is known as an EISA partition. These are used by OEMs for System Recovery tools, System Image and OEM Drivers.

Last I knew, you could access the EISA partition using http://www.fs-driver.org/ Ext2 IFS for windows. It allows you to set a drive letter for the partition so you can access it or to remove the drive letter to keep it hidden.

Here is a little something from mydigitallife.info

Here’s the trick to delete and remove the EISA recovery or diagnostic partition in Vista. Before proceeding with the deletion action, make sure that at least a set of Recovery Disc Media has been created. Else, you won’t be able to restore your computer to working and factory default condition when any problem on PC requires reinstallation.


■ Open a command prompt as administrator.
■ Run Diskpart application by typing Diskpart in the command prompt.
■ In the “Diskpart” prompt, enter rescan command and press Enter key to re-scan all partitions, volumes and drives available.
■ Then type in list disk and press Enter key to show all hard disk drive available.
■ Select the disk that contains the partition you want to remove. Normally, with just 1 hard disk, it will be disk 0. So the command will be:

select disk 0

Finish by Enter key.
■ Type list partition and press Enter key to show all available and created partition in the disk selected.
■ Select the partition that wanted to be deleted by using the following command, followed by Enter key:

select partition x

where x is the number of the EISA based recovery partition to be removed and unlocked its space. Be careful with the number of this partition, as wrong number may get data wipes off.
■ Finally, type in delete partition override and press Enter key.

Once the partition has been deleted, exit from Diskpart, and now users can use the much familiar and much easier Disk Management tool in Windows (diskmgmt.msc) to manipulate the freed unallocated partition. Users can create a new volume (partition) with this space, or simply merge it to existing partition by extending the size of the existing partition.
Click to expand...

Warning - If the EISA partition is left in place and you add another drive to the system, if the new drive is connected in a position on the SATA controller lower than the Operating system drive and you try to run the Gateway Recovery Tool to either create a set of backup disks or to restore the system, then the drive that is lower in position on the controller will be converted entirely to an EISA partition due to a set of batch files which are present on the recovery partition.

With the system laying flat on it's side so the motherboard is facing up, the SATA controller ports are as follows:

- - Left, Top Row - SATA-5 SATA-3 SATA-1 - Right, Top Row
Left, Bottom Row - SATA-6 SATA-4 SATA-2 - Right, Bottom Row

The Operating system drive (C:\Drive) should be connected to the SATA-1 port to prevent any such accidental problems.

But I still feel your best bet would be a clean installation on a New hard drive. This way you'll have more space for your stuff as you'll have both the new and old drives. You can always copy what you need from the old drive after the installation if need be. Windows 7 does deserve serious consideration.
 
Just had to fix an error caused when I missed a key while typing last night.
 
OK. The EISA partition was what the ATI tech phone person seemed to think was the problem. He said a few words about the driver being loaded into the recover partition and running out of room since partition only contained the recovery programs etc. But ATI did not have a solution, which is rather strange. He said also it only happened with Gateway. The drivers do not seem to go where they should go. A bit like changing the oil in your car and the oil you pour in goes into the gas tank which is filled with something else.

I understand how removing the EISA partition may solve the problem. The driver will then only have one partition to go to. But I don't understand how putting in another hard drive will solve the problem. Can you explain a bit of the reasoning? I will not do this myself but will have to explain to whomever I have try to fix this what I am trying to do. This is one if the strangest and most unnecessary equipment failures I have ever run across.
 
The problem here is the EISA partition is Partition 0
and the Operating System Partition is Partition 1

When the system Boots, Gateway (Acer) loads certain processes related to the EISA Recovery partition. These processes monitor the system and as necessary, update the Recovery Image and drivers stored on the EISA partition. This is what is interfering with the ATI installation/update.

This is one of the reasons why it is preferable to do a clean install of Windows without all the OEM crap that is included when you purchase the system.

Now the reason why I recommended installing a new drive and installing windows to that drive is to get around some problems. One such problem is the OS being on the second partition which if you remove the first partition, this can cause a known problem which off hand I can't remember right now. (currently sick with fever). Another thing is you wouldn't have the Gateway processes loading in the background and you don't have to worry about the drive accidentally being converted to an EISA partition.

A Plus is more drive space and a clean installation.

You don't even need the EISA partition really. Instead, you can get Gateway to send you the Restore DVDs (there are 2 of them).

The Disk title is:

Applications, Drivers, & Operating System Restore DVD P/N DD G410X SVA
1-4D5MCY

On the back is a Red Warning Sticker about the software may not be returned for a refund if the seal has been broken or tampered with. There is also a part number on the sticker - Part No: 3004919
 
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