**Official eMachines M68xx Thread**

[HemoPhilic]

Theres a program called A64Tweaker. Basically you download the correct components for the K8T800 chipset used by the A64Tweaker program and use a menu to select a slower(or faster ) speed.

Try this link Xtremesystems.org forum thread

It didnt work when I just now tried it. But google for it and use the K8T800 motherboard component.

 

[imported_Woody]

Originally posted by: ShrimpCreole
Wow, flashing the BIOS was some scary sh*t. I used the 6811 bios, and everything worked out as planned, BUT .... now, once entering hybernation at 1.8, then unplugging and starting back up, I re-enter at 793. What have been your results?

What are you using to determine CPU speed? Windows and other apps often report the wrong CPU speed with this thing. Best way to tell if you are running at full speed (1.8GHz) or at 800MHz is to run your favorite game and see how it performs differently under battery power and while plugged in. You can then see the results of the CPU speed changes firsthand.

 

[imported_Woody]

Originally posted by: Aratharn
.....but eMachines does not support SP2 or condone its installation.

This is true if you call them but there is no indication of this on their website. In fact this quote is taken directly from their support page:

Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2
eMachines provides Windows Service Pack support for all Windows Products that ship with our systems.
Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2 is available to download from Microsoft's website.
You can find additional information on Service Pack 2 on our Frequently Asked Questions page.
If you need assistance with Service Pack 2 and your eMachines system, please contact eMachines Technical Support.

They will also tell you they don't support or recommend updgrading your OS to Windows XP Professional since they don't provide separately downloadable drivers but this quote is taken directly from the support page for the M6805:

eMachines recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

I think if you challenged their warranty after upgrading to SP2 or XP Pro by flashing your BIOS with one from their own newer system they would have a tough time. The problem is going through all the trouble of challenging them. Best to just save a copy of your old BIOS and flash it back prior to sending out for repairs if needed.

 

[ShellGuy]

They can't say much about SP2 for the fact that Microsoft will be pushing it out over AutoUpdate. Which you are soposed to install ne ways.



Will G.

 

[bigal40]

To everyone not running catalyst 4.8 drivers update to them now. I got a huge performance boost. In americas army on certain maps i went form running at 15fps to 30 fps. in doom 3 i had a 25 percent increase and in UT2004 i got something like a 20 percent increase in fps. I don't know what drivers i had previously but they were what came with an m6805 i bought in april

about the hairline cracks on the hinges. i have a large crack on both of my hinges. best buy wont take it back beacuse i did not get there extended warraty. but i was looking at the disply m6809 at bb and it already had a crack on one of its hinges. the m6811 did not.

I read someone saying that they had problems using the side usb ports. i have had no problems and have connecting everything from a mouse to a printer to a jump dirve to them.

 

[ShellGuy]

Big they were talkin about usin them after SP2 upgrade not out of the box.


Will G.

 

[Connoisseur]

Originally posted by: bigal40
To everyone not running catalyst 4.8 drivers update to them now. I got a huge performance boost. In americas army on certain maps i went form running at 15fps to 30 fps. in doom 3 i had a 25 percent increase and in UT2004 i got something like a 20 percent increase in fps. I don't know what drivers i had previously but they were what came with an m6805 i bought in april

about the hairline cracks on the hinges. i have a large crack on both of my hinges. best buy wont take it back beacuse i did not get there extended warraty. but i was looking at the disply m6809 at bb and it already had a crack on one of its hinges. the m6811 did not.

I read someone saying that they had problems using the side usb ports. i have had no problems and have connecting everything from a mouse to a printer to a jump dirve to them.

heh I've been saying that since the day the 4.8 omegas came out. Apparently, no one was as enthusiastic as I was.

 

[jcolby]

Has anyone run benchmarks on the M6805 4200 rpm hard disk?

I was running benchmarks on my desktop machines hard disks and decided to run it on my M6805. I understand that I have the lowly 4200 RPM hard disk but it seems that the results are still extremely low. I'm wondering if its something on my machine or if this is just life in the M6805 4200 rpm world.

I am running XP Professional, 512mb ram, HD Tune 2.1 from http://www.hdtune.com/

My results are:

HD Tune: HITACHI_DK23FA-60 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 1.4 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 3.8 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 3.6 MB/sec
Access Time : 19.8 ms
Burst Rate : 3.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 93.6%

The machine feels like molasses. I plugged in a CompUSA generic external hard disk container using USB 2.0 containing a 250g 7200 rpm hard disk and the bench numbers come out virtually identical to (in fact as little higher than) my MSI K8N Neo running an Athlon64 3.0ghz benchmarking this same drive.

HD Tune: Maxtor 6Y250P0 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 21.8 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 24.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 23.5 MB/sec
Access Time : 14.7 ms
Burst Rate : 24.4 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 12.4%

 

[MDE]

Here's my results on an M6805 with the 4200 RPM drive:
Link (disregard the CPU usage, I'm running Folding@Home).

Try to install the latest chipset drivers from VIA (K8T800).

 

[jcolby]

Which leads me to ask, what is slowing my disk down so drastically? I am getting about 1/18th of your speed.http://forums.anandtech.com/i/ratingicons/sad.gif
sad.gif

 

[oldyellowcat]

More on the hinge crack --- just found my 3 months old 6809 has the problem and very upset although many said it is purely cosmetic.
Called emachines 1-801-401-1419, and they dont have any problem replacing the parts. They will cover all shipping costs as well.
So all fellow 68xx owners if you have the same problem you can do the same.

 

[PerryJoeJimBob]

I have been reading the posts here about updating the BIOS to correct problems related to Windows XP SP2. I think I will try this, but I am confused about the motherboard for my M6807 that I purchased in February. According to eMachines tech support my M6807 has a W720-K8 motherboard installed. The site with the instructions how to flash the BIOS references a W730-K8 motherboard. I have read where others have updated their M680X notebooks, but I don't know if all these had the W720-K8 or W730-K8 motherboard. Will the BIOS updates listed work with the W720-K8 motherboard?

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: ShellGuy
Big they were talkin about usin them after SP2 upgrade not out of the box.


Will G.

Yeah i forgot to mention i have upgraded to SP2 and it was a very smooth process for me. I did not do any bios flashes and have had no problems. I wonder why some have had problems and some haven't when istalling sp2

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur

Originally posted by: bigal40
To everyone not running catalyst 4.8 drivers update to them now. I got a huge performance boost. In americas army on certain maps i went form running at 15fps to 30 fps. in doom 3 i had a 25 percent increase and in UT2004 i got something like a 20 percent increase in fps. I don't know what drivers i had previously but they were what came with an m6805 i bought in april

about the hairline cracks on the hinges. i have a large crack on both of my hinges. best buy wont take it back beacuse i did not get there extended warraty. but i was looking at the disply m6809 at bb and it already had a crack on one of its hinges. the m6811 did not.

I read someone saying that they had problems using the side usb ports. i have had no problems and have connecting everything from a mouse to a printer to a jump dirve to them.

heh I've been saying that since the day the 4.8 omegas came out. Apparently, no one was as enthusiastic as I was.

will the mobility modder work on the 4.9 drivers since that are betas? has anyone had success or performance gains using 4.9?

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: jcolby
Has anyone run benchmarks on the M6805 4200 rpm hard disk?

I was running benchmarks on my desktop machines hard disks and decided to run it on my M6805. I understand that I have the lowly 4200 RPM hard disk but it seems that the results are still extremely low. I'm wondering if its something on my machine or if this is just life in the M6805 4200 rpm world.

I am running XP Professional, 512mb ram, HD Tune 2.1 from http://www.hdtune.com/

My results are:

HD Tune: HITACHI_DK23FA-60 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 1.4 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 3.8 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 3.6 MB/sec
Access Time : 19.8 ms
Burst Rate : 3.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 93.6%

The machine feels like molasses. I plugged in a CompUSA generic external hard disk container using USB 2.0 containing a 250g 7200 rpm hard disk and the bench numbers come out virtually identical to (in fact as little higher than) my MSI K8N Neo running an Athlon64 3.0ghz benchmarking this same drive.

HD Tune: Maxtor 6Y250P0 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 21.8 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 24.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 23.5 MB/sec
Access Time : 14.7 ms
Burst Rate : 24.4 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 12.4%

here are my results using an m6805 4200rpm

Transfer Rate Minimum : 2.2 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 29.5 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 22 MB/sec
Access Time : 23.7 ms
Burst Rate : 61.6 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 6.0%

 

[jcolby]

Thanks for that. I reinstalled Windows XP Pro and that fixed the problem, whatever it was. My numbers now:

HD Tune: HITACHI_DK23FA-60 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 1.4 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 29.6 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 19.4 MB/sec
Access Time : 20.1 ms
Burst Rate : 67.5 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 4.2%

It is one messy looking graph for some reason but hey, at least it is MUCH faster now.

 

[bigal40]

Has anyone got a copy of Far Cry 64 when the bought there system. I signed up fora newsletter at amd.com that is going to let me download far cry 64 (it might be a demo). Is there a performance improvementusing farcry 64 vs far cry.

 

[imported_ixsis]

While on the subject of tweaks, has anyone found a temp monitor that works for these laptops?

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: ixsis
While on the subject of tweaks, has anyone found a temp monitor that works for these laptops?

I know that HD Tune works well to find the Hard drive temperature but i can not find anything that monitors the processor or video card

 

[bigal40]

I got a new optical mouse to go with my m6805 today at bb. it is a kensington optical pilotmouse. I got it mainly beacuse i needed to use up my bb reward zone coupons and because it is balck and silver and matches perfectly with the laptop. i'll try and posta pic later

 

[will889]

Originally posted by: bigal40
I got a new optical mouse to go with my m6805 today at bb. it is a keningston optical pilotmouse. I got it mainly beacuse i needed to use up my bb reward zone coupons and because it is balck and silver and matches perfectly with the laptop. i'll try and posta pic later

I posted a hot deal on that mouse in the hotdeals section. No one replied but that doesn't mean no one got it It's one of the top 3 mouses for gaming availible. Super accurate, Great looks and style. Works right with no software installed. You can get it for $19.95 with splintercell at Fry's or outpost.com. My friend has the Logitech MX510 and we have used both and we like mine better.

 

[bigal40]

wow now i feel like i got ripped off. I could have got splinter cell too!! I should have checked the hotdeals section but i did need t use the last $10 of bb reward zone points. I signed up for reward zones the day i bought my laptop and got back like $50. I used most of it on a linksys wireless router which works great with this laptop.

 

[AVSpec]

It does not show splintercell on Outpost with the mouse? Link?

 

[will889]

Linkage Here. You can barely see the game in the background on the box. The box is small. It says "gravis" - it's the company that makes all of those controllers, but the mouse is indeed the Optical pro by Kensington that is listed at the gravis site here for an estimated $49.99. I also saw the same mouse that was actually in a Kensington box next the the gravis one and it costs alot more with no game for $29.99 here . Exact same mouse. Then I walk over to the games and price spinlter cell for $39.99. If you bought the Kensington mouse (in a kensington box) then went and bought the game it would cost $70.00. The Gravis kit is only $19.00 total for the mouse and the game. I hope everyone sees this that doesn't have that game and needs a great mouse . Even without the game it's a killer deal because it's the same mouse as the retail one and carries the same warranty (says in the box). $10.00 cheaper just for a different name on the box...and a nice game along with it.

 

[MDE]

My Logitech MX300 and MX500 both match my laptop as well .