Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

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If they will not take it back might I suggest you replace the motherboard with one of these
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010369 at $208.99
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10011008 at $207.99

Both of these boards will drop right in to our cases and if your going to build one anyways I'm not so sure you can even get all the parts that are in this one for 500 bucks. But I totally understand if you are completely over this thing and just want it to go away. If you bought it from Tigerdirect its been my experience with them that they will take things back without a hassel but don't quote me on that as I have never purchased a refurb item from them. Good luck I wish so many of you didn't have these problems.
 



With our system, it was ordered by my son for one of his college friend. I was given the task of checking it out before the acceptance for main stream use.

Our refurb company is Seneca Data Distributors Inc, from NY state. They seem to get problem systems from Gateway/Acer/eMachine.

With the first go around with their Tech Support (customer service), they had made the offer to:

Take back the whole unit and exchange with one of five systems that they had available.

-- or -- Refund the purchase price (I'm unsure if that also included the initial shipping charges)
Thus far the refurb company has picked up the shipping charged from me, to them, and back to me, although it goes by UPS ground ship, taking about 5-7 days.

I asked for them just to replace the video card, but they wouldn't do that (whole system swap)

I'll be calling them back on Monday to ask for another RMA, this time with a refund.

Our initial order was made mid March, and the system came on the 23rd, returned the next week, replacement system came the following weekend, this last week has been used to document the system, verify the actual problems being seen, and box it back up for a return. One whole month was invested on-and-off, well within the 90-day warranty offered by the system purchase.
 


I purchase from each of the TigerDirect entities (which are also CompUSA and CircuitCity for Online purchases). I purchase refurbished equipment from them, and never had any problem with their return policy (exchange and/or refund). Their systems generate the return paperwork, email out UPS shipper documents. I just have to go to my local pack-and-ship company and drop it off. I do think that UPS will come by and pick it up from my door step too.

CompUSA has re-launched storefronts once again, so when possible, I can actually stop in for that touchy feely experience.
 


I would try the second port provided on the video card. This would verify if it is a port problem or not. Make sure that the cables are screwed in tightly into the interface(s), both on the video card and to the actual monitor port. Watch out for power cables close to the video cable.

A secondary problem may be related to any ODD cable that you may be using.

For my level of testing, I use DUAL port operation, where two monitors display the same output of both BIOS and a Windows running system. I use both DVI direct interfaces to my monitors, and I also test with the conversion plugs that come with the Gateway system, which take the cards DVI and convert it to D-Sub (VGA DD-15). That way, I'm checking out the full range of operation of the video card. For backward checking, I plug in different size CRT monitors. My LCD monitors are Samsung 19" dual interface, and ViewSonic 22" dual interface. I also modify the display properties within the Windows environment to run from the lowest resolution to the maximum resolution that my monitors will provide (800 through 1920, by xxxx). I change the ports to operate with both monitors, where one is wide screen, where one isn’t. I use the exact monitor definition for each model that I’m testing, and don’t use any plug-in-play default. I also tested the video card in each of the available PCI-e ports. You have to watch out with the full profile ATI Video card, as the fan gets very close to the cables coming from the front panel of the chassis. This motherboard interface’s location isn’t very efficient, because of the restricted air flow, where the video cards fan is so close to the bottom of the case.

If you are running with two Video Cards, try just one. I only had of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 cards. And the single card would fail in actual operation (remember my video card worked without issue in another computer, my issues were related to the interrelationship of the motherboard and the video card).


To clarify one point:

My video ports stop outputting any image(s), at random times, while running a stable Windows OS (all versions of VISTA and WIN-7, both 32 and 64 bit, all BIOS releases, all versions of ATI software, along with what was found on the Gateway Support site, I used the ATI ver 10.3 to increase the GPU's internal fan speed, I used the BIOS to enable and disable the motherboard's SmartFan feature).

There isn't even a Blue-Screen-of-Death event. Windows had crashed, because I ran citrix remote access into the problem computer, to verify if the computer continued to run, after the video stopped working. The citrix process allowed the computer to run for longer periods of time, without the video crash, but once it timed-out because of idle timers, and the citrix remote access went away, the video crash event manifested itself immediately. Also, if I was running remotely into the computer via citrix, then disconnected, the video crash would occur immediately or shortly thereafter. The citrix feature does not support Aeros [or whatever that is called in Vista/Win-7, therefore the operation is converted to Basic (this may have something to do with the system living longer before a crash)].

My citrix server function is done using GoToMyPC.. along to with other similar products. You can obtain free eval copies with 30-45 day evaluations via their website.
 

I see there was a lot going on last night while I was sleeping :)

Here is what you said and the image you posted.
Also, does everyone else's BIOS throw a bunch of random exclamation points on their screen?
http://imgur.com/japfP.jpg
These are skulls, not exclamation points.
It's a cheap ansii way of producing skulls, but it works.

As to talking to Teck Support?
I've found Gateway (Acer) tech to be not very helpful. They don't even have access to the motherboard manual for this system, so they can't even tell you what the jumpers and pinouts on the motherboard are for which us customers really should have access to seeing as we purchased these machines.

Unless you get someone who really does know what they are doing, you are more than likely talking to someone who is following a script and reading from an instruction manual on their screen.

Just tell them you are sick of the problems with this system, sick of the constant run around, sick of wasting good money on a junk system and request to speak to someone higher up, someone in customer relation or what ever the department is that would deal with pacifying upset customers and giving them the refunds they want. Just don't mention anything to them about infections or RootKits or such. They should have been responsible enough to check the system out thoroughly before selling it again.

If you do decide to keep the system and replace the motherboard with something better. Then I would recommend taking the hard drive and connecting it to another system as a Secondary drive so as not to load anything that my be on it. Then do a full scan of the drive with such tools as SpyBot-Search & Destroy (without the TeaTimer), MalwareByte's Anti-Malware and a good antivirus. I would also advise opening a DOS window, switch the the drive from your current system and format the MBR of the drive. Just be careful doing this so you don't do this to the wrong drive. You may want to look up some information on doing this. This is to get rid of any RootKit which may be in the MBR of the drive so as to make it safe to use with the new motherboard.

After this, once I have made sure the drive is completely clean, I would copy any documents or other important stuff off the drive, then I would try to get rid of the EISA partition and wipe the entire drive.

The ATI 4850 card I would not use as it does show signs of corruption, possibly infection.
The Sapphire card hasn't shown any signs of this yet.
 
I read that someone on this thread bought an Asus Rampage II Gene and swapped it out with gateway's motherboard. My question to this person is this - did you connect gateway's hard drive with vista 64 to the Asus motherboard? Did it boot properly without any problems? I remember that this person was able to overclock the i7 to around 3.9 GHZ. If this is true, what type of liquid cooling did you use, corsair h50, swiftech, koolance, etc or did you stick with an upgraded air cooling heat sink/fan? If anyone knows, please respond...thanks in advance.
 
Here is one satisfied Rampage user

I'm not sure, but I think that Fastway may have switched to the Rampage also.
Click to expand...

Thanks RW. I guess that since you're a satisfied Rampage user, you had no issues getting the Gateway OEM hard drive to boot using the Asus mobo. Are you still using the original OS (Vista Premium 64) or Windows 7? I've read some of your posts and you seem to be very knowledgeable regarding this Gateway and computers in general. I appreciate your quick response!!

Also, are you using the new GTX 400 (SLI) or ATI 5800 series cards (crossfire)? Thanks again RW.....from what I've seen, you've been very helpful to many people on this Gateway. There aren't many people who would go out of their way to help as much as you!!!!
 
:lol: I just had to laugh 😀

No, I'm not the one running the Rampage motherboard yet, although to tell the truth, I wish I had spent some of my money on one instead of wasting it on other stuff this year. :)

I had linked to another user's post in this thread who is currently running an Asus Rampage motherboard. :)

Click on the link and even though the window will open in this thread, it'll open with dpizzle1968 at the top of your window as he's the one I was referring to. But you'll still be able to scroll up above that post. 😀
 
Renegade_Warrior: Do you know how to disable hyperthreading for Fx6800-01e with bios R01-B0.
It seems there is no option to change that. I need my Matlab run a higher percentage of CPU usage.
 
Sorry guys been working to much. No I have not made my switch yet ran out of money but I am still planning to switch to the rampage board. In the old days you would have to buy the factory board for a factory pc. Power conns and thing like that made it hard to pull off but not with many new systems our case is setup just like one you would buy from Fry's or Tigerdirect just no wiring diagram to help you out. The rampage gene will drop right in you just need to read your conns and match them. Right now I'm running my gateway board in a P193 tower connecting it was easy. As far as just dropping a drive with an operating system already on it from another running pc I have never been able to pull it off without a bunch of errors so I just do a fresh install but its probably better to do it that way anyways new MB new operating system. The only thing I haven't been able to make work with my P193 tower is the reset switch and the gateway tower dosen't have one anyways it only has a power switch. All the cables in the gateway tower are marked as to what they are and the new motherboard will have a wiring diagram for the plugs to show you where to plug them in. As you can see I have kinda picked up two projects at the sametime. I'm still going to buy the Rampage Gene for the gateway and put it back together and buy the new Rampage 3 and put it in the P193 tower and store the gateway board for a backup or til I find something better to do with it. Hope that helps you a little if you need more info just do a search and check the Asus website forums there are some guys in there that have switched there Gateways already. If you have never built a system but have a friend that has have them help you.
 
That is one thing I do not know as last I knew, no one has access to the manual for the actual motherboard to this system.

We would need the manual to know what the jumper settings and the pin-outs on the motherboard are for.

But to get better performance out of this system, the things to do is this....

-1) Keep the system cleaned of dust periodically to keep it running cooler

-2) If you can afford 12 Gigs Tri-Channel DDR3 Low CAS memory, then go for it.
This system will support a maximum of 24GB (4GB per channel)

-3) Keep the system as cool as possible, that means well ventilated with plenty of air movement unless you can afford a good liquid cooling solution.

- 4) Keeping your system fully updated including any software and plugins which may be installed on it.

- 5) Making sure your system stays secure and is kept clean

All these things will help you run your programs run at peak performance. This is the best advice I can give you along these lines.

Good Luck. :)
 
Hey Renegade in the hacked version of the bios there is an option to enable or disable hyperthreading but I'm not sure if it worked or not. I couldn't see any improvement from playing with the other settings that would be a try at your own risk thing.
 
For a Layout of the Gateway motherboard inteface pins, you may want to refer to this link (with picture):

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/265735-30-gateway-fx6800

The two pins directely across from the power button cable (red/white) on header " FP1 ", is what can be used to add a reset button, when one is provided via your new PC case.

You can test it by just shorting those two pins together, which will restart your motherboard.
 
Myuu,

I did ship back my refurb FX6800-01e, with the long list of problems as I had described before.

The Refurb company will refund the entire purchase price, including taxes and shipping charges. I'm out of pocket for my time invested in the effort.

Along, with a Corsair TX-750 W Power Supply to be used in another real project, vs. this misadventure.
 
Hmm....

I hadn't tried the hacked BIOS, so I hadn't realized that it included an option to disable HyperThreading.
 

What specifically did you say?! I called Monday and described my symptoms and I was told the best they could do would be to RMA me another system! They said I could go and buy another case since the desktop is known to have cooling issues. What a bunch of bull, maybe I should use my angry voice next time =/. I'm glad everything worked out for you though! If I do get a chance at a refund I'll just build my own, I live 3 miles from a Fry's anyways.
 
Redacted

Sorry for the out of sequence thread, but I was given an email that said that at that point in this discussion board, that new entries had been made. I was attempting to contribute against that area of discussion.

Blame the message board notification system, not the contributor.
 
dan_sundin

PLEASE!!!!!!!!

Before you go replying to all the posts in this thread, read through and you'll find that many of them have been solved and helped already.

Also, make sure you look at the dates.

I was looking at the above reply and realized it looked strangely familiar.
One of the problems in that post was the Hot Swapable trays weren't being fitted correctly to one of the drives. The pins on the back of the trays must be inserted in the holes on the drives meant for the screws.

Some of the problems were discussed both in this thread and by private message.
 


myuu,

I had a very detailed list of issues with the first unit, and a very exacting test plan on each issue that I had encountered.

On this go around, this took 4 calls, I layed it out to them! Those calls were based upon 30 hours of testing, every which way from Sunday.

They offered to swap the refurb unit that I had been shipped initially (whole unit swap). -or- refund my purchase price.

At this point, I figured that I had been shipped a dud, and asked for another go around.

But, the second unit was even worse than the first.

But, because of the first try, I was up to speed on what I needed to do, I have my plan in place, I even had the Dual-Boot Image of Win-Vista and Win-7, I'm ready to go, all updated and current, with all the nesessary drives, updates and configuration details. Remember that, I said that this unit failed, worse than the first one, in the first 30 minutes of testing.

Again, three calls, and they want to ship me out a third. I told them that I had enough with the diagnosis of their problems, and forced the refund option to become a reality.

The bad thing about each event, is the hope, frustration, delay in ground shipping, the long analysis of tests required to insure that the box will live longer than the 90-day warranty.

I didn't think much of either the Refurb company, nor Gateway Technical support.

I do this type of support stuff for a living. I can see why they are in the condition that they are now. Acer purchased Gateway, after Gateway purchased eMachine. Loads of mess left from years of miss-adventures in building computer for retail users.
 
need some help, any photoshop cs2-cs3 users here that had updated there system and had phtotshop slow way down? b/c after i did some updates i found that Ps cs3 had slowed way down and cant seem to fix it ><
 
Sounds like you may very well have something running in the background which should not be there.

Try using Process Explorer just to see what is going on.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/

For PhotoShop, I sincerely hope you did not use a cracked version or a keygen as these may very well infect your system to the point where you could possibly end up with a RootKit if left unchecked.

For a 64-Bit system, you would want to use CS4 which is optimized for 64-Bit systems or the latest release which just came out recently.

You may need to head over to the Spywareinfo Forums to seek assistance in the Malware Removal sub-forum.
Please read the Pinned topics so you'll know what to expect.
 
Sounds like you may very well have something running in the background which should not be there.

Try using Process Explorer just to see what is going on.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_process_explorer/

For PhotoShop, I sincerely hope you did not use a cracked version or a keygen as these may very well infect your system to the point where you could possibly end up with a RootKit if left unchecked.

For a 64-Bit system, you would want to use CS4 which is optimized for 64-Bit systems or the latest release which just came out recently.

You may need to head over to the Spywareinfo Forums to seek assistance in the Malware Removal sub-forum.
Please read the Pinned topics so you'll know what to expect.
Click to expand...

it's a copy i got from my school. now that i think of it i think it started after i updated that chipset and realtek driver. i may ask and see if my school has cs4 + and see if i can upgrade, if now i may have to downgrade to elements seeing that sc4-5 is 700+ usd ><
 
If it started right after that, I'm wondering if anything else got through in the mean time just from every day surfing. The Intel driver and the RealTek driver shouldn't have caused any performance hit at all. If anything, the Intel driver should have increased your performance.

The Creative X-Fi MB though does have it's problems. I downloaded the most recent update from Gateways ftp site for this system and made sure I included the installer code showing that it's a registered package, then I installed it on my system and ran it for a couple of days. After that I completely removed it from my system as I found it was causing some glitches which weren't there before I installed it.

Trying the X-Fi MB updated package out just confirmed that they still haven't gotten their act together.

For making sure your system is clean, I do recommend MalwareByte's Anti-Malware, SpyBot - Search & Destroy (without the TeaTimer), OpenDNS (added layer of protection) for an anti-virus Avast! is excellent or ESET NOD32 (64-bit) or Microsoft Security Essentials.

It's extremely important that everything on your system is kept up to date including software and plugins. With Adobe reader or Acrobat you want to disable Javascript as this is a security risk and is not needed in documents.
 
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