Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

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I've just read over this entire post and i'm having a small problem that wasn't addressed. Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.

We wiped the harddrive do to some problems we were having and went to do a clean install of Windows 7. When we try to load it in, it can't find the hard drive. Anyone know where to find the drivers for it?

I've got an FX600-01e from November 08...
 
Rioger, are you saying that you are booting off the Windows 7 DVD and it can't find a drive? Or that your BIOS while booting up doesn't find a bootable drive? You should be able to boot right from the Windows 7 DVD and let the setup process take care of the partitioning and formatting.
 


Sorry, I was just coming back to clarify things and saw your post.

We were booting of the Windows 7 DVD and it begins the set up...I get through to Type of Installations and hit Custom, there is no drive found at this point. I've looked around and been told I need to get the the hard drive drivers and do a "Load Driver" from that screen...but can't seem to find one.


PS the drive was fdisked and partioned PRIOR to trying the upgrade
 
I would go into the BIOS and see if it can still detect the hard drive. The Windows 7 installer shouldn't need a driver for the SATA drive. Have you changed your drive to be a RAID array or done something different like that?
 
Rioger


If you haven't already checked the drive connections, then you'll want to do so now.

- Here is the Drive port layout.

With the system laying flat on it's side so the motherboard is facing up and the
front of the system facing you, 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 drive Seagate drive which came with the system is the Operating system drive and this
drive should be connected to SATA-1. If you're using a new drive for the Operating System,
connect this drive to SATA-1 instead.

Also, in the BIOS the (Boot) Operating System drive should be set as the first Boot device.

You can boot from the Install DVD drive by hitting F10 when the system first boots up.
 
The drive ports seems to be incorrect. SATA 1 is going to the empty slot for an additional drive and SATA 6 is set up as the Seagate. I'll swap and retry?

Thanks for the help by the way...
 
Sorry I wasn't around, had to meet a Jeeping friend from another town. :)
They came over to pickup the Side Steps and brackets which I had removed from my '02 KJ

The way I listed the ports is correct, but the way that Gateway (Acer) assembles the systems,
they just connect the cables where ever they happen to connect them.

I checked all the ports out myself to see which ports were which.

So after you connect the drives accordingly, you need to be sure you set the boot sequence
in the BIOS to be sure it recognizes the correct drive/s.

Almost forgot, you also need to check the rest of the drive settings in the BIOS too after
correcting the cable connections .
 
I have the same BIOS issue with my Gateway FX6800. It will be the last one I purchase. This is my conversation with Gateway's Tech Support.

Vineeth_GWSI1097 joined the incident.
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Welcome to Gateway Chat. My name and badge number are Vineeth_GWSI1097. I am looking at your account and the information you submitted. I will begin troubleshooting with you in just a moment.
d d says:
hello
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Hi
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Thank You for being online. May I confirm your serial number is ptg410x001904057c52700?
d d says:
I have gateway fx 6800
d d says:
that is correct
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Since the warranty period of your PC/Laptop has expired Im going to see what best I could do for you on this chat. As a One Time Best Effort I can provide you with some self help links to fix the issue.
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
If my understanding is correct, you are not able to flash the bios and getting checksum error. Am I correct?
d d says:
that is fine or can you tell me the BIOS to download, something to get rid on this Checksum error so I can set my BIOS settings and have them hold
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Thank you for providing the information.
d d says:
I flashed the BIOS with gateway's program and Flash file
d d says:
the machine reboots and now gets a checksum erroe press F2 for seup or F1 to load defaults and continue
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
From the error code that you provided, it indicates that there is a hardware issue with the motherboard an d needs service.
d d says:
Why would I need service?
d d says:
the machine as had no problems until I tried to flash the BIOS
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
The checksum error code indicates that it is an hardware issue with the motherboard.
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
You may either send the system for paid service which will cost you $199 plus one side shipping or consult a local technician.
d d says:
if that is the case, I would have gotten the error before I tried to flash my BIOS
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Flashing the BIOS may have caused the issue.
d d says:
Flashing the BIOS did cause the issue
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Yes
d d says:
so how how do I put the original flash back on it
d d says:
so I can get rid of the error
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
The best option is to send the system for service or consult a local technician.
d d says:
Sir, I am a technician
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Okay
d d says:
the question is, are you really tech support
d d says:
I will never send a machine in for repair for $200.00 when a new board will cost me $170
d d says:
and this is a BIOS that I have download frm gateway
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
This is the best that I can do for you.
d d says:
so what you are telling me is pretty much, stay away from Gateway all together
d d says:
ok, no problem
d d says:
I'll replace the board
d d says:
and make sure this is a last gateway I will ever purchase
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
I can understand your frustration. However, this is the best that I can do for you.
d d says:
Look likes HP will get my money from now on
d d says:
I am not frustrated
d d says:
I asked gateway for help with a BIOS upgrade that you guys provided
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
I am sorry for the inconvenince. But, this is the best that I can do for you within my scope of support.
d d says:
it is all over the internet that this is a problem and Gateway is denying it exist
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
May I confirm whether we recommended to update the BIOS?
d d says:
wether you recommended the BIOS is besides the point, You do not supply updates or upgrades for your products that are known to fail
d d says:
and then deny that the problem exist
d d says:
because of this, Gateways sales will drop
d d says:
and techs like me, will never promote your products
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. But, these are the suggestions that I can suggest you.
d d says:
these are not suggestions, they are "blow me off" responses
d d says:
which is cool, I was a Gateway Sucker who was blind, but now I see
d d says:
see ya
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
I am sorry, these is the best that I can do for you.
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
It was a pleasure working with you. My name and badge number are Vineeth_GWSI1097. Thank you for using Gateway Chat and have a great day.
Vineeth_GWSI1097 says:
Bye
d d says:
whatever dude
 
:lol: I can just picture it now, some guy from India with a wrap around his head sitting on the sidewalk somewhere, wearing a headset and balancing a laptop in his lap while taking tech support calls.

Gateway (Acer) tech support is nothing more than a joke.

Then Check sum error most of the time has nothing to do with the motherboard or other hardware as that Dumb A@@ Hindi tech said it was.

If you haven't checked the following thread which I posted for the newest BIOS which was released publicly in December.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/267550-30-fx6800-bios-842p181g

Then please check it out as it'll help you get past the check sum error.
 
Thanks for the help so far...

So I swapped the SATA Ports around and the Boot sequence seems to be fine (HD, dvd, open). Still, when running the update I get to the point "Where do you want to install Windows 7" and it's not finding any hard drives. The BIOS lists the hard drive. The only options at that point for the install is the "Install Drivers." RW, what should the other drive settings in the BIOS look like?

Thanks again for all of your help!
 
Also...I did find a website that said in this situation...go to the motherboard manufacturers page and pull the drivers from there. Can't find them anywhere...closets I've come is the Gateway drivers page. I grabbed those but when I have the Windows Install program search the thumbdrive, none seem to be acceptable to the installer.
 

Negative...nothings been changes since I got the comp...so it's still in it's original config with the orig BIOS.
 
Last few bits of info...
AHCI - Port 0 - HD
AHCI - Port 1 - CDRom
AHCI - Port 2,3,4,5 - Not detected

On Board SATA Mode - AHCI
ESATA - AHCI

SATA Port 0 - Auto

Not sure what else to do...
 
Pull the drive from your system and connect it to another system either as a secondary drive or using an external drive case then check the drive using windows explorer to see if it shows up and also use the Computer Management Console > Disk Management if necessary to see what is going on with the drive.

A few things a I can think of off hand is this:

The drive may have stopped working
It may have accidentally been entirely converted to an EISA partition (real pain to deal with)
or there may be some other problem.

In the Bios, did you disable the Gateway bootup logo so you can see the bootup sequence as this can be very helpful?
 
Hrm...well the drive is fine, partition is good...not sure what the problem is...

Anyone like to recommend a decent mobo to replace this one? Say like $250 or less? :) (serious question)
 
Hey Guys,

I just wanted to chime in that my FX 6800-01e refurb from tiger direct started acting up after about 7 months. I too was getting stuck at the "starting windows" (win 7 ultimate 64) screen. After running startup repair and what not I was able to find a log that said "a patch was preventing windows from starting".

I was and still am running a raid 1 so I was pretty confident that my cpu should still be booting even if one of the drives was having problems. So, since I could not even boot into safe mode I was convinced it was a hardware failure of some kind even though I was getting the weird patch error. I had not done any major install which could have led to the boot failure and I have top notch security on my system. Anyway, long story short I googled this error and found a forum where someone had fixed there cpu from this error by changing the power supply to a more robust one. I am happy to say that I have not had a single boot failure since changing the power supply to a 700 watt one.

We all know the cpu manufactures are pinching every penny so the only put the bare minimum psu into these cpus. I guess with my raid of two 1.5's and various other drives in and out eventually sent the old psu over the edge. I wish I had come here first before as I see others have realized how important a healthy psu is. I highly recommend anyone else having strange boot problems or failures of any kind swap their psu. You might want to take this as a warning to change your psu even if you are not having problems... yet.

-Kevin
 
Well now I think this forum is bad luck :sarcastic: . I have been leaving my computer on at night and letting it go to hibernate. Today I hit a key to wake it up and I got the BSoD. First time in about 2 months and only the 2nd time since upgrading my PSU.

Oh well, better than it was before.
 
Hibernation is the one thing I have previously stated that I never recommend.

Reason being is that Microsoft has had too many problems with this feature in the past and it's only recently they supposedly got the bugs out of sleep mode. Yet, they found they had a memory leak in Sleep mode and some other problems.

No, I do not think that Hibernation is ready for prime time seeing as they can't even get Sleep mode to function correctly yet. Too risky.
 
This question might seem silly to some of you but why do you hibernate or sleep or suspend your systems? I personaly have never had any luck all the way back to Win98. I've experienced crashes, lockups and all sorts of crazy things coming back up from those settings. (Side note) I just shut down Win95 and I dont remember anything older like Win 3.1 even having those options. What I'm getting to is I have an Hp with a 1.5 processor that is 12 years old used to be a gaming rig back in the day and up til a month ago a place to save files. It got shut down to upgrade videocards twice and a clean out once every 6 months it ran 24/7. In that time the only thing I replaced was a powersupply. Next is a Dell 3.4ghz it is 6 or 7 years old it has had one 9800gtx+ upgrade and a 700w psu to go with it and gets shutdown once every 6months to clean out. This Gateway is on the same plan shutdown for a few upgrades and clean out every 6 mo. It runs 24/7 it gets a restart once a week because one of my System Mechanic settings requires a restart. The only thing that shuts off is the display after 10mins. My biggest use is games but I also use office. If im in the middle of something and have to go I just walk away and its there when I get back. Everything in a pc is pretty much rated at 50,000 hrs of use or more but as we all know a part can fail right out of the box. So now back to my question what are you saving? Power? Tring to make your system last longer? Maybe I have just been lucky with my systems but for the most part I run the samethings most of you do with no errors and my systems last a long time with little or no trouble. Its go or blow theres nothing in the middle. :sol: This is not meant to upset anyone nor do I think your doing it wrong its just my opinion. And my opinion is a power button has 3 uses your first startup when its new, any upgrade done inside the case and that one stupid program that totally screws up everything. Sleep,Hibernate,suspend should'nt be an option til they fix it to work on every system with every program so no one ever errors coming out of them.
 
I agree with you on that.

I used to run my systems 24/7, only shutting down or rebooting when needed.
Although these days, unless I happen to be downloading some stuff which requires me to leave it on overnight, I shut my systems and network down at night, then in the morning, I turn everything back on. This makes for at least a savings of one third in my electric bill.

Everything is plugged into Battery back ups. But I also use power strips which are plugged into the UPS. The power strips are used for transformers for such items as the network devices and a few other items. This way I can just shut off the power strip so the transformers don't continue to suck up any power.

The only things I leave turned on is the UPS, the strip for the phone base and the MX1000 mouse to keep it charged. That's pretty much it.

In the morning, I just hit the switches and turn the systems back on. 😀

The only power savings feature I use is I allow the monitors to turn off after like say 30 minutes of no activity.
 
I also use battery back ups. APC with surge protectors built in. The place I work pitches them when the batterys go bad kinda silly but great for me batterys dont cost that much when compaired to the APC new. I guess with 7 of us here my wife and I and 5 kids saving power is almost impossible unless I follow them around the house all day lol. I just always thought it was odd if you get the system running the way you want why stop.
 
Got it to update , everything went perfect, booted up good. system info says new bios as of 2/11/09 and its running 2.67ghz. thanks for all your help. justwant to know is their any way to OC ram or processor. have tried but with no luck, maybe you guys have figured it out?
 
Thanks a lot got it to work. Is their any way to overclock my ram, its only 3gb and it would be nice to have it running a little faster as vista eats up 1500mb of it...
 
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