**Official eMachines M68xx Thread**

[gweilo8888]

Originally posted by: Woody
gweilo8888: You're making this BIOS update issue more complicated than it is. I'm sure any BIOS update available by eMachines on their website will not void your warranty and I doupt there is a conspiracy to track customers who have been told specifically not to install an update. There are several unsupported BIOS flashes that work just great on these laptops that will void your warranty but it is pretty easy to undue the changes you make if you need service, so long as you don't have any problems during the process to render the system inoperable. I haven't heard of anyone having these problems.

Umm - I'm the one saying that they can't refuse to honor the warranty if you install it (unless you've spoken to them and they specifically told you not to - in which case they WILL have a record of that call, and while unlikely, could conceivably try to refuse you warranty service unless you got a lawyer on the case).

You need to be correcting the people claiming it will void your warranty, not me.

 

[imanewguy]

well, sounds like I should go ahead with the bios update, but my question is now: which one?

Clicking on the first post of this thread, the link provides a list of emachines m680x model bios', but some of them list that the battery indicator doesn't work afterwards (something I'd rather not have to deal with).

Woody: did you use the bios for the m6811 from that first page link posted by MDE? Also, did you rollback to sp1, then update the bios, and THEN reinstall sp2 afterwards?

Lastly, has anyone updated their bios with the official bios update provided by emachines and has it fixed their sp2 problems?

Either way, I'm probably doing this tonite, since I can't really take all the crud and problems SP2 has caused my computer at this point.

 

[lionsh]

Hello,

I have M6807, installed the new ROM update and the SP2 update.
Now I noticed many times in my taskbar near the clock (where all the small icons appear) the battery/charging icon ,the Volume icon and the wireless icon don't appear.
Only if go to the control panel and unchecking and checking again the "Show in systray" they appear again.

It never happened before? Does anyone knows what's this all about?

 

[imported_Woody]

Originally posted by: imanewguy
well, sounds like I should go ahead with the bios update, but my question is now: which one?

Clicking on the first post of this thread, the link provides a list of emachines m680x model bios', but some of them list that the battery indicator doesn't work afterwards (something I'd rather not have to deal with).

Woody: did you use the bios for the m6811 from that first page link posted by MDE? Also, did you rollback to sp1, then update the bios, and THEN reinstall sp2 afterwards?

Lastly, has anyone updated their bios with the official bios update provided by emachines and has it fixed their sp2 problems?

Either way, I'm probably doing this tonite, since I can't really take all the crud and problems SP2 has caused my computer at this point.

If it was me, I'd roll back to SP1 (probably don't need to), install the BIOS from eMachines for the 6805, then reinstall SP2. But my guess is that whatever you do it will work.

 

[AVSpec]

Ran the update on my 6105 with no problems. It updated the bios to 0F08.P00E

I already had SP2 installed and did not roll back.

 

[ax2467]

I'm kinda dumb when it comes to computers.
I have a m6805. Does that mean I shouldn't have any problems with this new BIOS?
When I installed SP2 last year it caused a lot of problems so I got rid of it. Should this update fix these problems so I can finally install SP2 again?

 

[Cannon Fodder]

Hello All, new guy here.

I?m the happy new owner of a m6805. I?ve wanted a laptop for a long (read ? long) time but could never find one that offered a really good match between power and price. I finally decided that I had some spare cash and it was time to jump into the laptop arena. The idea of working from my porch in the spring simply got to appealing with this crappy winter? So I started to do some research and found a strong following for this line of emachines. Emachines?!? I thought ? are these people nutz? The more I read though the more I realized this is not the same emachines from the late 90?s. So I was convinced and set out to find the best deal I could. After a few weeks of patience and a couple of close misses I got my m6805 on ebay for $810. Woohoo!!!! This machine is simply awesome. I ended up getting it from a company in Toronto the deals in refurbs/shelf pulls/demo?s etc. From what I am lead to believe, mine was a Best Buy floor model. I was skeptical until it arrived and I ripped open the box (not original). The machine is in great shape (only a few minor scuffs on the top) and came with all the original trimmings: restore CD?s, manuals, cables, etc.

I spent a few hours and read through all the posts to this forum and found it was well worth it. There is a wealth of information here for the new M68xx owner. I was a bit concerned that mine would have cracked hinges as so many others. Not the case however, thanks to these forums I realized that I actually got one of the first runs of these units (sn: N3041 300 00297). This in turn has two advantages: 1. it was made before the hinge manufacturing problems started, and 2. it has the faster 5400 rpm HD. Boy did I luck out.

The first thing I did was wipe out the drive and use the restore disks to get the unit back to stock. I then did the following (which I learned about from reading this forum):

1. Updated the Bios (0f08.000)
2. Updated XP to SP2
3. Updated the Chipset (VIA Hyperion 4 in 1)
4. Removed the Bloatware

I then did some benchmarking and tweaking using ATItools.

1st Test ? Stock
----------------------------
3DMark2001se: 9140
3DMark03v360: 2439
AquaMark3: 19,326*
GFX: 2,202
CPU: 7,885

2nd Test ? w/ Omega Drivers
----------------------------
3DMark2001se: 9593
3DMark03v360: 2500
AquaMark3: 20,249*
GFX: 2,325
CPU: 7,843

3rd Test ? Omega?s OC?d to 425/225
----------------------------
3DMark2001se: 11,736
3DMark03v360: 3091
AquaMark3: 26,362*
GFX: 3,168
CPU: 7,861

* (1024x768x32, AA: off, Aniso: 4x. Detail: V. High)


I could not be happier to say the least. It has been running rock solid with no issues at all since I did the wipe and updates. Not only will this machine be great for portable working/surfing is also rock?s for most games! What a joy it will be to not have to lug my ailing Athlon t-bird system with me the next time friends get together for a lan party (nothing like chili, beer, and 10vs10 CS).

There are still a few things I have not done yet. I have downloaded but not installed the audio drivers. Does anyone no if it?s worth it? The sound seems fine and even the newest updated drivers are from 2003. In addition I still need to update the broadcom drivers so I can use WAP. For the type of work I do (web dev/admin), I would feel safer with the extra protection. This is the one stumbling point in this forum. The exact location of the drivers posted here are no longer available. Could someone please repost which drivers we should use and where we can get them? Thanks.

All in all ? I am beyond pleased with this system. It?s got a ton of power, great flexibility (tweaking, OC'ing, etc), and its available for a great price!! In hindsight I wish I had picked up a m8610 or 11 so I could have the faster CPU and the DVD burner, but these are not necessities and the model I have suits me just fine. I would highly recommend these laptops to anyone in the market and I thank everyone here for sharing your troubles/fixes so that new guys like me can get our machines up to speed and rock?n quickly.

 

[imported_Woody]

Originally posted by: ax2467
I'm kinda dumb when it comes to computers.
I have a m6805. Does that mean I shouldn't have any problems with this new BIOS?
When I installed SP2 last year it caused a lot of problems so I got rid of it. Should this update fix these problems so I can finally install SP2 again?

Yes, go ahead and run the BIOS update for the M6805 from eMachines downloads and then go ahead and install SP2 from Microsoft. You should have no trouble.

 

[DingoDoc]

Hi,

I love my 6809. Lately, however, I find that when the fan turns on (presumably a cooling fan for the system or cpu...I can't tell), the machine turns completely off...poof! It happens on a sporadic basis, either on battery power or ac power. I'm not sure what it is...some kind of short circuit maybe. Anybody have any ideas. My machine's still under warranty.

 

[dfinder]

hi everybody, thanks a lot for the info

 

[ax2467]

Originally posted by: Woody

Originally posted by: ax2467
I'm kinda dumb when it comes to computers.
I have a m6805. Does that mean I shouldn't have any problems with this new BIOS?
When I installed SP2 last year it caused a lot of problems so I got rid of it. Should this update fix these problems so I can finally install SP2 again?

Yes, go ahead and run the BIOS update for the M6805 from eMachines downloads and then go ahead and install SP2 from Microsoft. You should have no trouble.

Is there anything I should know before doing this? I've never done this before so I have no clue what i would do. I've read some things saying I might have to re-install windows xp after i do this. Is this correct?

 

[spdfreak]

Well I called emachines about my cracked and crumbling hinges, and they had a box here the next morning. It is going to gateway in texas so it should be a pretty quick turnaround. I"ll update when I get it back. All in all, good service so far.

 

[Cannon Fodder]

Q. Has anyone tried pulling the DVD-burner drive out of a m6811 and putting it in a m6805? I love my m6805, but I could really use the ability to burn DVD's with it. I've considered buying a protable USB job, but the less I have to lug aroung the better.

Thanks!

 

[Paul S]

Still looking for someone who has loaded the BIOS update that is supposedly only for the 6085 (according to eMachines tech support) specifficaly onto a 6087.

I know I posted several posts about this a month ago, but haven't heard from anyone who loaded it onto a 6087 with good results.

Sure would like to install this bios update if it will allow me to install service pack 2.

 

[imported_Woody]

I'm not tech support so I can't guarantee anything but if you have a M6805 and install the BIOS flash upgrade from eMachine's website in accordance with the instructions it should work fine and you should not have to reinstall anything. It's actually surprisingly simple to do.

The M6807 is identical to the M6805 and even though this BIOS update isn't officially supported for the M6807 it is no more likely to cause problems since the two machines are absolutely identical in every way as far as this BIOS is concerned. Unless they programmed something into the updater to recognize the different model numbers (which I highly doupt) it will work just as well in any of these laptops from this series. It would very likely even work fine in other laptops from other brands that use the same motherboard.

 

[Paul S]

I see I got my model numbers mixed up, but I see wooody, and I hope others, know what I meant

models 6805 and 6807

 

[pinion120]

Hey guys, had a question about the case around the LCD display on the m6805.

At the bottom right of the LCD display, the black case below that is sort of bended outward a very small amount It's hard to describe but if you tilt the display towards you and look at it from an eye level, you can see there is a small opening about 1-5mm. It's large enough you can put your fingernail in there. The rest of the case below the LCD is fully shut.

Is this a problem or just a design issue? I ask because my previous machine had the same problem (an m6805 that I had to get replaced by emachines due to a horrible LCD, and a month long RMA so I just said send me a new refurb - thats a different story though)

Anyway I wanted to know if anyone else had noticed this opening in the case directly below the LCD panel, and if you guys thought it might cause any damage to the LCD display. Thanks.

 

[spdfreak]

Originally posted by: spdfreak
Well I called emachines about my cracked and crumbling hinges, and they had a box here the next morning. It is going to gateway in texas so it should be a pretty quick turnaround. I"ll update when I get it back. All in all, good service so far.

Wow, 3 day turnaround. Sent it off tues afternoon, and got it back friday afternoon. That is Atlanta to Houston.

 

[AVSpec]

Anyone else running XP 64 on there Emachine?

Any other 64 OS's being used?

 

[Haywire]

I recently bought a memory chipfor my 6811 from Crucial to take my machine up to 1.25 GB of RAM; however, now I get a BSOD about every five minutes. I have run several checks on the memory and not found anything wrong with it. I even put it in another machine and no problems. Any suggestions on what may be wrong?

 

[Connoisseur]

Hey guys. I just did a fresh install of XP with SP2 after I got my 6805 back from emachines repair. They had the shadow-k8 bios loaded up (the one from the website) so I thought it'd run fine. Wireless network wasn't detecting and I know it isn't the router. Point is I downloaded the 6811 bios and tried flashing it using winphlash. Always shuts down the computer before the flash succeeds and it just keeps the shadow bios. Anyone know how I can fix it? Right now I have no wireless and it's pissing me off.

 

[imported_Woody]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
Hey guys. I just did a fresh install of XP with SP2 after I got my 6805 back from emachines repair. They had the shadow-k8 bios loaded up (the one from the website) so I thought it'd run fine. Wireless network wasn't detecting and I know it isn't the router. Point is I downloaded the 6811 bios and tried flashing it using winphlash. Always shuts down the computer before the flash succeeds and it just keeps the shadow bios. Anyone know how I can fix it? Right now I have no wireless and it's pissing me off.

It's tough to say what the problem is. If the rest of the system is fine you probably have a good flash and the problem lies elsewhere. You need to troubleshoot to isolate the problem then you can try different things such as reinstalling the drivers for the wireless device. You can find them online or on your original isntall CD. There are also links in this thread if you can search through all the pages.

 

[Connoisseur]

Originally posted by: Woody
It's tough to say what the problem is. If the rest of the system is fine you probably have a good flash and the problem lies elsewhere. You need to troubleshoot to isolate the problem then you can try different things such as reinstalling the drivers for the wireless device. You can find them online or on your original isntall CD. There are also links in this thread if you can search through all the pages.

Thx got the problem fixed. Uninstalled the wireless device from hardware manager and tried reflashing with a new download of the bios. Worked for some reason. Hey, I had to send in my laptop previously because the video had gone corrupt (screen was full of red and green bars whenever it was on). I have a strong suspicion it was cause I had the radeon 9600 O/Ced for a while. I want to OC the one I have now since it provides a huge boost in frame rates. But I'm not sure how reliable these things are. Has anyone else screwed up their M680x video by overclocking, or was I just extremely unlucky?

 

[AVSpec]

When running 64 Bit XP how do you get the 1280x800 widescreen mode to come up on the built in widescreen display with the Ati 64 bit drivers??????:|

 

[billpool]

>>Still looking for someone who has loaded the BIOS update that is supposedly only for the 6085 (according to eMachines tech support) specifficaly onto a 6087.


Hello:

I installed the 6805 official bios in my 6807 in hopes that I'd be able to install SP2 and have it work. NO DICE. After a 5th install of SP@ after the flash. Same thing, the machine is inoperable with SP2 installed and once more I failed back to XP SP1 and am working happily but somewhat pissed since I am still well within my 3 year warantee and thought that I'd get better tech support from the e twirps.