Gateway LX6810 BIOS and fan issues. Help!

gtmethod3

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Hi all.

I purchased a Gateway LX6810 a little while ago. Later I upgraded the video card, sound card, power supply, added another hard drive, and put in more case fans. Gateway neglected to include ANY case fans, and the unit overheated often.

The problem I am having is with controlling the fans and the BIOS. Basically, there is no control available (through BIOS or Speedfan). They came out with a recent BIOS update (which I installed), and the only change I can see is the CPU fan runs at 3250 RPM instead of 1400 RPM. It appears to me that Gateway realized they built it wrong, so they increased the fan speed of the CPU.

Now it is loud and annoying. I can't change any of the speeds. Overheating is not an issue because I installed more case fans appropriately. My issue is with the BIOS and controlling fan speed. Is there any way around this? Can I flash the BIOS to unlock it? Am I doing something wrong?

I am contemplating just putting a new mobo in. I am sick of dealing with Gateway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

ajshell

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having same problem hopefully someone will have an answer: followup 12/06/09
thks to all my problem is solved, especially to tylerryan79 and TeronosaurusRex. "thanks again for sharing your knowledge"
 

gtmethod3

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I emailed gateway a week ago and no reply. Their tech support is worthless. I think i am just going to buy a new motherboard because I am that picky.

Anyone else have any news?
 

elitecamper

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I had the same problem. What I did was install a fan controller. The controller controls the speed of the cpu fan. With it I lowered it down to to around 1600 rpm then I installed a silent fan for exhaust 120mm in the back and a silent fan for intake 80mm, in the front.



The thing is that if you install a new motherboard the gateway oem version of vista that came with your pc most likely will not work with it. You will have to find some modified bios for it to work or buy a new copy of vista.


Well both of these options are not exactly easy. You have to know what your doing. I went the fan controller way but I had to do a little mod to my fan controller because the connector for the Gateway cpu fan is 4 pins and my fan controller was 3 pin.
The 4th pin only controls the fan speed the other 3 pins are the same. So on the fan controller connector I had to cut the side of it off. Because it is like a little rectangle and I had to remove one of the sides so the 4 pin connector could fit in properly. So 3 pins were connected properly and the fourth pin is not needed. As we can control the fan speed through the controller. I used this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118217&Tpk=ZALMAN%20FAN%20MATE%202
 

stooge0120

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I am having the same problem with the BIOS update and now the loud annoying fan. Contacted Gateway support, and they want me to ship (at my expense) the computer to them to fix. They believe it is a hardware failure. Has anyone shipped it in? Do they fix the problem? OR, can I flash back to the previous BIOS?
 

elitecamper

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They should just make the old Bios available online, but they don't want to. Their customer service is pretty awful.

You could install a fan controller to lower the speed of the fan down, which is what I did.
But if you are not really comfortable messing around with the insides of the computer you could ship it out to them.

Good luck.
 

amileaway

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i am having the same problem, what a piece of *** customer service they got. I asked them original version of the BIOS and they want me to ship the PC to depot or what ever the hell they call. It drives me crazy, it got louder and normally BIOS updated fixes problem not make it worse. I got my lesson, F*CK gateway. I don't know if there is any way to downgrade the BIOS version or fix this without going through the shipping process.
 

gtmethod3

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I just bought a completely new motherboard and installed a clean OS. Now it runs quieter, cleaner, and I have it over clocked. Pre-built PCs are a pain.

Does anyone know a way I can flash my Gateways MOBO at all? I just have it sitting in my closet. Is there any way to unlock it? Or even do anything with it? I don't really care if I end up bricking it...
 

maseace

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Found the older Gateway LX6810 Bios on the Gateway site:

ftp://ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/drivers/LX6810/

Just download and run the file LX6810_BIOS, and the fan returns to normal quiet operation!
 

joe78721

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I am having the same issue I have not updated the BIOS or added a fan yet my PC just started to to the random shut down a week ago so reading all of your inputs what the best route to go should I leave the LX6810 the way it is and just update the BIOS and that should fix the overheating issue or don't miss with the BIOS and add a new fan if so what fan is recommended
 

gtmethod3

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It appears that all the BIOS update does is increase the CPU fan speed. I believe this fixed the problem for many, but at the cost of having a loud noisy fan going all the time. I would recommend putting a 120mm case fan for exhaust. Just having some sort of airflow really makes a difference. If you call Gateway, all they will say is to update the BIOS. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any other info.
 

TeronosaurusRex

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I have updated the BIOS and have noisy fans. The machine already has additional fans and has been problem free. NOW I have a very noisy revved up fan...

The link for the original BIOS is asking for a username and password. How do I login to get that original BIOS?

Thanks!
 

maseace

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The link to the older BIOS does not make me login, not sure why it's doing that for you. I did have a problem after downgrading to the older BIOS - I was getting a CMOS checksum error that would not clear unless I removed the motherboard battery. The CMOS settings would not save for some reason. I ended up going back to the 722 BIOS and getting the fan speed controller mentioned by a previous poster. It's nice to be able to adjust the fan speed to exactly the balance I like between speed and noise.
 

TeronosaurusRex

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I figured it out...google search eventually showed a user/password for the ftp.

Unzip the old BIOS.zip

Copy the name from the new BIOS file and paste that over the old BIOS file name.
Now that the old bios file is named the same as the new BIOS file...

Delete all the files but the BIOS in the old BIOS folder. Copy over all the files in the folder from the new BIOS folder(minus the new bios file) into the old BIOS folder.
Now run Winflash(which is the app that was moved over from the newer bios folder).
It will then flash to the old/original BIOS properly.
After restart it did say something about CMOS checksum error when first booted. I hit F1 or F2 whichever it was to set/restore to default...problem solved. Fan is back at around 1400rpm normally. No CMOS error after choosing restore/default whatever it was when prompted.

With the one additional fan out the back, no issues now. Machine quiet once again. I am going to order a larger 120mm fan for the back(replacing the 80mm that is there now) and a new quieter 80mm fan for the front for intake.
I'd rather have the original BIOS and slower fan speed(with the additional fans) as those fan controllers tend to get hot. With the original BIOS, the CPU fan does ramp up if it is necessary to do so...

Oh, and I did call Gateway. They're beyond useless. Rude, not helpful and argued there is no old BIOS available and wanted the machine shipped back to them. The tech said they don't have an OLD BIOS and the logic board would have to be replaced to fix it. I said, if you can flash a new BIOS, you can flash back the old BIOS...
They are indeed useless. That and a machine under warranty is a machine under warranty. It doesn't matter if I bought it used. They argued about that and finally agreed, by the serial # it was still under warranty. That took 30 minutes to resolve...and another 30 for them to prove how useless they are.

I'll never buy gateway/acer again, no matter if it is for less than half of new and barely used. Gateway is owned by Acer now.

In the meantime, this used machine is great for the $$$ invested. Just had to figure out how to fix what their BS updated BIOS broke. Shame that even under warranty their support is useless. Hopefully don't have any further issues while in warranty as I can see they wont be much help.
 

budmetal

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I think I'd likt to try your suggestion, where do you plug in a additional fan at. All I see is a systems fan 3 pin connector on my MOBO.
 

happy1984

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Hi, what was the user login and password? I tried google searching and could not find it. I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide it as the noise level is annoying for me as well :(
 

amileaway

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Dude, you wrote an essay that's great but did not include the crucial information. What is the username and password for the ftp ? i could not find the damn thing online. Either I will find that password and downgrade the BIOS or throw away this PC from my windows. What a piece of crap gateway customer service is.
 

amileaway

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wow downgraded to the original BIOS and no more F16 engine in my room. Now getting CMOS error even though i did say load default setting but will try to play with battery later on to see if that fixes the problem. If not, screw it. hit the f1 and go from there. if anyone out there knows how to fix CMOS error without playing with the battery? as i mentioned already got into BIOS and loaded the default settings???
 

happy1984

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did you do what at T-Rex guy said to do?

you take the New Bios file name and copy that name and overwrite the OLD Bios name with the New one.
*This was particularly confusing for me because I did not know which file was the BIOS file. what I did was look at both of the folders; new and old, and noticed that the only files that had a different name was the .ROM file. the NEW BIOS name is 8A7G1-C0.ROM and the OLD BIOS name is 8A7G1P02.ROM. you will want to rename the 8A7G1P02.ROM to 8A7G1-C0.ROM.*

You then take all the files from the OLD Bios folder EXCEPT the OLD BIOS itself and delete it.
*In this case, delete ALL of the OLD BIOS files found in the folder except the newly named 8A7G1-CO.ROM file that you renamed*

Now go to the NEW Bios folder and copy everything EXCEPT the NEW BIOS itself and move it over to the OLD BIOS folder.
*COPY EVERYTHING except the .ROM file from the NEW BIOS Folder*

Essentially, after you do this you should have an OLD BIOS Folder with the OLD BIOS name matching the New Bios name (but still retains the Old Bios identity) and the files of the NEW BIOS that were copied over only. RUN WINflash and it should flash

That is my guess. its a little bit confusing so if you have any concerns let me know and I will try to assist you further
 

Hnrgd

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Great job all,

The system (Gateway LX6810) is now quiet.

Now for cooling. The original gpu output heat 105F too just below the cpu air pickup horn. The case will just keep reusing all this hot air til it overheats. Since there is a open slot just under the gpu I put a slot fan there. Now under the cpu intake the air is 74F. Ambiet air is 73F. I also added a 120mm rear exhaust fan. Even though both fan were fairly quiet 21db and 14db I wired them in series to lower their fan speeds reducing noise. The bios downgrade listed above worked great. The exhaust air at the fan is now at 84F. Temps are better than with the side covers off for the cpu 35C and gpu 54C. So at least the pci slot fan must be added to remove the heat from the gpu. For the fun of it, I also added foam tape to the cpu intake horn to take gap between the horn and side cover to insure fresh air to cpu. Now the loudest thing is the hard drive.

Before at Idle GPU 67F CPU 42F
Afterwards at Idle GPU 54F CPU 35F

 

RFC

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How did you power the fans? My fan power connections (3 pin & Molex) are not directly compatible with Gateways power supply connectors.
 

RFC

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