**Official eMachines M68xx Thread**

[MDE]

It may be a 2.4x +R and 4x -R, but that's just a guess.

 

[jm0ris0n]

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.

The 6809 while word processing seems absolutely silent. As far as I can tell neither the cpu fan, or the gpu fan is on for a task such as this. This is one very quiet laptop ! At 2ghz its still relatively quiet. The optical drive is not loud by any means, but rather just sounds like an optical drive

 

[acebake]

It drives me crazy--I work at a Circuit City in North Carolina, and we haven't even stocked these models in the store. I really like them!

 

[DingoDoc]

Originally posted by: 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.

Burned a dvd-r and it burns at 4X

 

[oldyellowcat]

Hmm...how come my 6809 only burns at 1x?
Takes 1 hour to burn 4.7G !!

Any help?

 

[jm0ris0n]

Are you using 4x media ?

 

[oldyellowcat]

I was using DVD-R 2x media from Compusa

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: oldyellowcat
I was using DVD-R 2x media from Compusa

There's a thread in the Hot Deals forum about that media being hit-or-miss. Try a different brand.

 

[alexruiz]

The recommendation to use win XP for aMD64 is to have a dual boot array. Your main OS PLUS the beta of the 64 bits XP..... tough to beat that way!

Alex

Originally posted by: 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

 

[boblon]

Does anybody know where to buy an additional HD tray that will fit an M6809? If I was to upgrade the hard drive I was thinking it would be nice to have the original mounted in an additional tray ready to slide in for whatever.......may be crazy........but figured I'd ask.

BobL.

 

[mudboy]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
The recommendation to use win XP for aMD64 is to have a dual boot array. Your main OS PLUS the beta of the 64 bits XP..... tough to beat that way!

Alex

Tough to beat other than the fact that without the wireless NIC working, just about any OS would be useless on a laptop that has a wireless NIC.

Pete

 

[gweilo8888]

Originally posted by: boblon
Does anybody know where to buy an additional HD tray that will fit an M6809? If I was to upgrade the hard drive I was thinking it would be nice to have the original mounted in an additional tray ready to slide in for whatever.......may be crazy........but figured I'd ask.

BobL.

I'd been thinking the same thing myself, so if you find a source, let me know please!

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: gweilo8888

Originally posted by: boblon
Does anybody know where to buy an additional HD tray that will fit an M6809? If I was to upgrade the hard drive I was thinking it would be nice to have the original mounted in an additional tray ready to slide in for whatever.......may be crazy........but figured I'd ask.

BobL.

I'd been thinking the same thing myself, so if you find a source, let me know please!

Wouldn't be too bad of a thing to have...

 

[Crellion101]

Is there much difference in performance of the 5400 RPM HD of the emachine 6809 vs 7200 RPM HD laptop with a 1.8 Dothan?

 

[ShellGuy]

You would be compairing apples to ornges in that one. The hdd with make a nice diff in benchmarks. It also depends on what is loaded on the machine and alot more things. I would get the 6809 with a 7200rpm drive if it was me. But i have also been lookin at the new Asus lappys...

Will

 

[flu3ncy]

Question.. to get the M6805 to work with a wireless network, do you have to go out and buy a network card? This is the first laptop I've owned, and for some reason I had the impression I'd just be able to take it out of the box and have it synch with any network it's inside of, but when I tried it didn't exactly work. Thanks!

 

[flu3ncy]

Also, how do I get the rebates? I didn't see any kinda paper in the boxes for them..

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: flu3ncy
Also, how do I get the rebates? I didn't see any kinda paper in the boxes for them..

You should have gotten Rebate Reciepts when you paid (assuming you got it in-store).

 

[flu3ncy]

I didn't-- got it from the Best Buy website.

 

[MDE]

You could probably take the reciept or invoice in-store and have them print the rebate reciepts for you.

 

[ShellGuy]

As for the wireless you are right. You should be able to take it out of the box and it will hook to just about any standard wireless network unless you have messed with the IP settings.



Will

 

[lawcounsel]

I ordered from Best Buy and received my notebook via UPS just like you. You need to print the rebate forms from online and use the stickers on the side of the box. Your invoice is also your receipt for the rebate. Just call the number on the rebate form to make sure you send them the correct documents. I followed the instructions exactly and I just received my two rebates (after approximately six weeks).

As for you wireless network issues. You should also see if you can connect to your router through a wired connection. You should then make sure you turn off all of the security on the router (ie, WEP, MAC Addressing and WPA) and then try to connect through the router. Of course, make sure you enable wireless on your laptop by FN + F2. Also try, http://www.pcworld.com/resource/video/preferences.asp?vid=8 for assistance on setting up a wireless connection. Once you connect you should reinstate the secuity.

 

[mudboy]

Yes, wireless should work out of the box (just hit the fn-wireless key to activate the radio). If it doesn't work after that, make sure your router has its radio on, make sure you are on the right channel, SSID, key, etc.

Pete

 

[ShellGuy]

But please remember to turn the security settings back on or have someone who knows what they are doing help so you can keep your network safe.

Will

 

[gweilo8888]

Originally posted by: gweilo8888
I'm having an odd problem though, in that with a default setup with all current Windows Updates loaded, I am having difficulties with the Broadcom 802.11g 54G wireless lan.

The problems are as follows:

* The Fn-F2 shortcut to enable / disable wireless LAN does nothing
* On resuming from hibernation, my wireless LAN says it has connected to my D-Link DI-713P 802.11b wireless router, but the connection does nothing. I have to manually disable / re-enable wireless before the connection will work, and if I disable / re-enable too quickly the connection is still dead, or the wireless router never shows up in available networks.

I have now found a fix for the second problem above (the Fn-F2 shortcut still does nothing for me, though). I found more up-to-date drivers for the Broadcom wireless LAN from Hewlett-Packard's website. Look for two HP Service Packs, SP23107 (Driver) and SP27942 (LAN Config Utility). HP uses the exact same Broadcom chipset we do, the BCM94306, for their NX9000, NX9005, NX9008, and NX9010 laptops.

Before updating, I was on 3.30.15 driver and 3.30.15 config utility. After updating, I am on 3.40.25.3 driver, and 3.40.25.6 config utility.

As an added bonus, I now have WPA and WPA-PSK authentication options, although I don't have a WPA WLAN to test these on right now.

I still don't know why the Fn-F2 key combination does nothing on my laptop though. All the other key combinations, including the unmarked Fn-F1 to turn the LED lights on/off, work just fine.