**Official eMachines M68xx Thread**

[ShellGuy]

I would like to know where they got their list price on that lappy. Unless it is Canadan. Because if it isn't anybody who really payed that much I also have some Ocean Front Property In Arazona I would like to sell them as well.



Will

 

[sutter]

Originally posted by: sutter
My Broadcom disconnects randomly, even when hooked up to AC. I checked Properties and the power saving schemes are turned off. I tried to reinstall drivers from Restore DVD and they were the same ones on my machine. No reply yet from Broadcom.

Looking for answers on 3 forums. Others also have the problem

One solution for wireless disconecting was found over at Amdmb.com. Solution was from emachines tech support

Link to Amdmb thread on emachines wireless problem

 

[TomPico]

Aloha - I've been following this thread, reading everything I can find since it was time for me to finally get my first laptop. Decided that the M6809 was the best all around (for the money) and put my order in at Best Buy (no strore in Hawaii was had this puppy in stock - not that there are all that many computer stores in Hawaii - no Best Buy only CompUSA and some small locally owned shops) Anyway, rig arrived yesterday, set up a wireless router and here I am out on my deck surfing the net. And what do I find!!?? No posts for a week!! Are you all on vacation?

No problems to report, no dead pixels (that I've noticed),don't get bumped off my wireless connection (Yet!) - Of course, like everyone else, the 800 slow down on battery but I can live with it for most of what I do.

Anyway, if you are out there - Aloha from Hawaii!

 

[MDE]

I wish I was on vacation... in HAWAII!!!

Good luck with it Tom!

 

[biff420]

I love the M6809..typing on one right now. This is actually the second one that I bought because I took the first one back for a dead pixel. This one is tip top however. I have no major complaints except the 800 battery problem but since this is a desktop replacement of me I rarely use battery anyways. One thing I did right away was install a 7k60 drive and installed XP Pro on it. This was a fast lappy before the upgrade but now it really hauls a$$. I think this is the best $1600 I ever spent (1400 +200 for HD).

Althought I didnt really pay full price beacuse I returned my M5312 beacuse of a "overheating" problem. This thing only cost me like $250 because of that nonsense. Thos Best Buy guys are so freaking retarded but oh well all the better for me. I would recomend the 3 year PSP to anyone who buys this at BB. Who knows this thing might be a total pile in 3 years and it worth the $300 to be able to return it for some stupid reason later down the road.

Have a good weekend all!!!

 

[TomPico]

Aloha MDE,
I wish I was on vacation in Hawaii too!! We have a joke that some of us here think funny ? ?I don?t live in Hawaii, I just work here.? Of course, there are worse places to work.

BTY ? Thanks for starting this thread off and for the informative posts ? :thumbsup:

Just for fun I decided to Aquamark my M6809 against my home desktop computer, an eMachines T4155 ? Pentium 4 @ 1.5 MHz with NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400 running XP (Home) SP1 nicknamed, ?Main Frame.?

Main Frame benchmarked at:
Aquamark = 3,586 [This is NOT a typo - it is 3,586]
Avg. fps = 3.58

My M6809 out of the box benchmarked at:
Aquamark = 19,257
Avg. fps = 19.26

M6809 with CPU O/C 2020 MHz ? Video O/C Core 350/Mem 225
Aquamark = 22,347
Avg. fps = 22.35

And I was perfectly happy with Main Frame before today!! Only heavy graphics game I play is MechWarrior 4 and it plays fine on Main Frame. I?m afraid to load MW4 on my M6809 ? I can?t afford a new Main Frame!

Any way, thanks again for all the info and links to good stuff!

Tom Pico

PS ? This message may be duplicative. I?m having some difficulty getting my messages to post ? Newbie problem.

 

[MatthewF01]

read around and find out about running the PowerNow! software installation under compatibility mode for Win2K...works awesome!


Then when you wanna overclock, set it temporarily to performance mode so clock goes up all the way, OC with Clockgen, then set it back to Automatic.

When proc scales the speed up, it hops up to your overclocked speed!
(doesnt work after reboot though)

 

[sirnh]

Tom,

I found that you can get better results by leaving the CPU clocked at 2GHz, and overclocking the video core up higher. I am currently running at 430/230 without any problems, and I tend to play 3D games for hours at a time (currently City of Heros hogs most of my CPU cycles).

Realistically, the ATI 9600M is just a stripped down 9700M which runs at much higher frequencies, so it should run more reliably and produce more manageable heat than overclocking your front side bus.

Let me know what kind of results you get.

 

[TomPico]

Aloha Sirnh,
You're right about that.
Aquamark3 benchmarks:
Plugged in ? M6809 at 2059MHz & Video O/C 353/220:
GFX ? 2,601
CPU ? 8,110
Aquamark ? 22,422
Avg. fps ? 22.42

Plugged in ? M6809 at 2000MHz & Video O/C 400/219:
GFX ? 2,898
CPU ? 7,904
Aquamark ? 24,492
Avg. fps ? 24.49

I thought I?d compare battery mode against plugged in mode. Very interesting and a happy surprise.

Battery benchmarks ? M6809 at 800MHz & Video O/C 400/219:
GFX ? 2,874
CPU ? 4,215
Aquamark ? 21,448
Avg. fps ? 21.49


CruisinGT posted some 3dMark & Aquamark results earlier

Default Speed with original drivers (Cat3.9-3.10)
3dMark2001SE: 9142
3dMark2003(b320): 2438
Aquamark3: 19320


Video OC 420Core/234Mem with original drivers (Cat3.9-3.10)
3dMark2001SE: 11496
3dMark2003(b320): 3075
Aquamark3: 25833


So, for Aquamark & 3dMark, OC'ing the video card gives the best results.

 

[TomPico]

Aloha again,
Just pushed some more :roll:

Aquamark3 (default setting - 1024x768x32, No FSAA, 4x, Max Details)

Plugged in ? M6809 at 2000MHz & Video O/C 425/225:
GFX ? 3,066
CPU ? 7,890
Aquamark ? 25,675 :shocked:
Avg. fps ? 25.68

Battery benchmarks ? M6809 at 800MHz & Video O/C 425/225:
GFX ? 2,982
CPU ? 4,248
Aquamark ? 22,073
Avg. fps ? 22.07

So, OC the video card and don't worryabout the 800MHz battery bug-a-boo!!

 

[sirnh]

I didnt think about battery testing, since I am always around power (I even have a 2nd PSU for the office).

It would be curious to know what game play time is like on battery with OC'ed vs standard clock speeds.

 

[TomPico]

Does O/c'ing the video card affect battery time? Never occurred to me that it would/could/might/did. Not that I am going back to default timing. Last night I sat outside on my deck and watched "Top Gun" on battery power. Played beautifully on full screen mode - I didn't check battery staus afterwards. Played the whole movie - 109 minutes - good enough. Enjoy!
Tom

 

[Connoisseur]

yes it does. The vid card is just another cpu. The higher the clock, the more power it sucks up.

 

[sirnh]

However, the GPU wont use nearly as much power when it is doing just desktop duty. It really doesn't begin to put a major drain on power until you throw 3D at it. On top of that, it doesn't take much horsepower to play dvd's these days.

 

[mudboy]

I picked up an M6805 yesterday at lunch time, and had a chance to play with it last night. Very, very impressive laptop for $1250...I had been looking at a Dell with inferior specs for $350 more. Sure, I wish they had put a single 512MB stick of memory in the slot under the keyboard. Sure, I wish it had a hard drive with a faster spindle speed. However, for the price, I don't think you'll find a better laptop.

After playing with it for a little while (by the way, it's actually got a sensible set of software installed, not loaded down with crap), I decided to install the 64 bit version of Windows XP Pro. The installation went fine, and the default drivers allowed the Via Rhine ethernet connection to work, so I was able to hit the web for drivers. Went to ATi, acquired and installed the 64 bit drivers. Same for the Via chipset.

The problem I have run into is a lack of drivers for the Broadcom BCM94306 wireless card. The 32 bit drivers wouldn't install at all, and if I can't get wireless to work, I'm going to have to go back to the 32 bit version of WinXP, which makes me sad.

Has anyone found 64 bit drivers for the Broadcom wireless?

Thanks,

Pete

 

[MDE]

I haven't found any drivers for the wireless LAN either. Maybe a huge flood of emails to Broadcom's driver team can change this? If anyone else maintaining M680x threads elsewhere want to post something (maybe a canned message and the address to send it to) in their respective threads we may be able to get either Broadcom or eMachines to do something.

 

[WishRyder]

Hey, just got my m6805 a week ago. Been frequenting this forum quite a bit since then, and decided to just drop in and make myself heard. I have to go to work really soon, but just had a quick question: What speeds are you running your 9600 at? I was playing Call of Duty fine at 430/230 but I get artifacts (using ATiTools) at 415/xxx. Right now I'm just running at 400/220. Any recommendations? I'm really weary of overclocking too high, because with laptops, you never know when too much is too much.

 

[MDE]

Have you tried the automatic overclocker with ATI Tool? It's a pretty nasty torture test and it does the work for you.

 

[flu3ncy]

Hi, I just ordered an M6805 through the BestBuy website. I had a question.. I've never owned a laptop before, would this come with an AC adapter to plug it into the wall? I wasn't sure, it didn't mention it, so I also ordered this "universal AC/DC adapter", 'cause it was listed under recommended accessories. Was that not necessary? If not, I'll try to just take it back to the store, do you know if they will they refund me for something I bought online?

 

[flu3ncy]

Question #2: How long do the rebates usually take to come back after sending them out?

 

[MDE]

You do get an AC adapter with the machine. What you got will probably let you plug the laptop into your car's power. I got my rebates in about a month.

 

[gweilo8888]

Originally posted by: flu3ncy
Question #2: How long do the rebates usually take to come back after sending them out?

I followed the rebate instructions to the letter, and am currently on my third attempt at getting my rebate after it was returned *twice* (the second time, after an assurance on the telephone that the rebate would be honored). I've spent significant time on the phone, not to mention money on postage and photocopying...

 

[Kaido]

How much noise does the stock m6809 make? I do a lot of word processing and I like computers that are on the quieter side. Like, how much noise at 800mhz, how much at the full 2ghz, how much noise does the optical drive make when in use, etc.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Kaido
How much noise does the stock m6809 make? I do a lot of word processing and I like computers that are on the quieter side. Like, how much noise at 800mhz, how much at the full 2ghz, how much noise does the optical drive make when in use, etc.

My M6805 makes almost no noise at 800MHz because the fan never kicks on. When the fan is going at full tilt there's a definate wooshing sound, but nothing that I would complain about. The optical is about equal to a 24x CD-ROM, meaning just about silent.

 

[DingoDoc]

SUBJECT: DVD write speed

I've been enjoying the 6809 for a couple of weeks and have yet to use the dvd burner. The emachines site says that it's a 2.4x writer. When I search for the model number of the drive on the net, it's described as a lite on drive with 4x writing ability. has anyone written dvds at 4x with this drive? Thanks.