**Official eMachines M68xx Thread**

[roma086]

Originally posted by: TJ69
Anyone's CPU fan starting to make noises? Any recommendations for fixing it?

I've started hearing a grinding/clicking noise coming from the fan. Its coming from the larger CPU fan (the one closest to the ESC-key corner). It only makes this noise some of the time. Typically, after a cold boot and once the cpu warms up to operating temps and the fans kicks on the first time. However once spinning for a bit (30sec to a minute), the noise goes away and seldom comes back (the fan is still on, but the noise has dissappeared). Any ideas what could be causing this?

I have disassembled the heatsink assembly and both fans. I cleaned up the fan fins, vents, etc thoroughly to remove all dirt and dust, but the noise is still there. Next step will be to try to find a replacement fan, unless someone else has another idea?

My fan also makes noise now... I've tried opening it up but so far haven't reached the fan (chickened out and put it back together). I sent it in to eMachines a while ago and they didn't fix it (said there was no problem). And my screen backlight flickers sometimes, but whatever...

 

[Mugwumper]

This notebook requires a lot of power. I've shoped from replacement power adaptors and found some did not provide the 90W a M6807 needs. Here is one that does;

iGo ice90 Universal Home/Office Notebook Power Adapter

It has a $20 rebate making it $30.00 total plus shipping, not bad BUT it's from TigerDirect (some hate this place).

 

[roma086]

 

[anon1mat0]

Has anyone succesfully upgraded his processor on this laptop?

 

[sputkin]

Anyone experiencing the screen backlight flickering problem roma086 mentions above? I notice it on mine every once in a while, amost imperceptible, but it seems to flicker between brightness settings. Anyone?

 

[alexruiz]

Well, happy birthday to my baby!

Yesterday it reached the 2 years mark in my hands.... and still going strong!

 

[jm0ris0n]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
Well, happy birthday to my baby!

Yesterday it reached the 2 years mark in my hands.... and still going strong!

Congratulations ! I will be hitting the two year mark in may. This christmas I added a gig of ram and might buy a 100GB 5400 rpm hardrive. Except for the dual core notebooks that will soon start popping up, these 68xx notebooks have been the fastest of the market for the past two years ! ! ! :beer:

 

[lateralus1082]

I am sooooooooo tired of my M6811 notebook. Constant shutoffs when I do something OTHER than surfing the web. Listening to MP3s is a chore with this machine. BAH! I'm waiting until the stuff I ordered from newegg so I can take this thing back to Best Buy

 

[ChuaChua]

An update ( haven't posted in a LONG time):

The m6809 motherboard is broken. I've been having video problems such as half of the DX8/9 cube from dxdiag is not being rendered and I was having video artifacts. Also, the screen hinge plastic came off.

I sent in the laptop for repairs at BB since I bought the 3 year warranty. Unfortunately, I have an American PSP and I live here in Canada. Furthermore, I just moved from Vancouver to Calgary and I had to go to the BB here in Calgary. The BB personnel said that I will have to pay for the repairs myself and I will be reimbursed later by BB USA.

 

[Kaido]

My 7405gx hinges cracked and my brother's 7405gx hinges cracked last month. Just aesthetic problems tho. I am considering upgrading mine a bit more. I already have 2gb of ram in it (wonderful & highly recommended); I'd like to add a 7200rpm Seagate and possible a new processor (2.6ghz a64 4000+). That's like $600 into an older laptop tho. If I can find a Lightscribe drive, I'll add one of those in too.

7405gx: heavy, loud, totally worth it

Oh and I should add, mine just turned a year old about a month ago

 

[Kaido]

Some ideas to upgrade your eMachines/Gateway model:

1. More ram (2 gigs is a Good Thing)
2. Bigger, fast hard drive (up to 120gb @ 5400rpm or 100gb @ 7200rpm)
3. Faster or lower wattage processor (up to 2.6ghz Mobile 4000+ @ ~62 watts or 2.2ghz Turion @ ~25 watts)
4. Better optical drive (slotload dual-layer DVD burner or Lightscribe slotload burner)
5. Paintjob
6. XP Professional, XP Media Center edition, Linux
7. Paintjob - http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=900739#post900739
8. LCD flicker fix - http://emachines.fizi.ca/guides.php?ID=4

Still stuck with a 64mb 9600 tho

 

[thebaron]

I had luck after I installed several AMD drivers and utilities, plus changed the power management mode seemed to help. I had to reinstalled and must have missed an update, so the problem exists again. I started using a cooling pad to reduce heat.

 

[microdoc]

Well, its been a while since the last post, so I hope someone is listening.

For fun, I upgraded my M6807 to 2 gigs RAM, and 100G 7200 Seagate Momentus drive. System seems more responsive.

I also wanted to try upgrading the cpu, so I took off the fan/heatsink, removed the original Mobile Athlon 64 3000+, and put in a Mobile Athlon 64 4000+. System would not boot/POST - nada. Put in the original CPU, no problem. Tried the 4000+, nothing - nothing on the screen, etc. Put the original CPU back in, and system runs fine.

Am I missing something? Did I get a bad chip? Is 4000+ too fast?

Thanks for any and all help.

microdoc

 

[microdoc]

Update for anyone who is interested (and it doesn't seem anyone is out there).

Upon searching the web, I found a reference to the Gateway 7426GX notebook, which supports a 3700+ chip and uses the same notebook motherboard. I flashed my computer with the BIOS for the Gateway notebook, and voila - now the system boots up with the 4000+ chip (running at 2.6 GHz).

Unfortunately, though, the system is acting funky - errors while web searching, and interestingly enough, scrolling seems less smooth (kind of choppy). I'm assuming that the rest of this particular notebook can't handle the jump from 1.8 to 2.6 GHz. Maybe memory timings? I'm using PC2700 memory, so I don't think its that, and the ATI 9600 core is supposedly happy with OC, but I'm not sure.

So, it can be done, although I'm not happy with the results.

Microdoc

 

[Kaido]

I just gave my 7405gx a facelift. I added a 100gb 7200rpm Hitachi 7k100 TravelStar 2.5" hard drive, reinstalled the OS, and updated the drivers. Boots up much quicker now. Currently using the mobile Catalysts, version 6.3. Running nice and smooth. Downgraded from my MX518 (SetPoint/uberOptions) to my old MX510 (Mouseware/Logigamer) because I don't like the MX518's software. I'd like to get the 4000+ model (MX7525), but I'll wait and see if they release an X2 with a better video card sometime in the future.

 

[FlasHBurN]

Thanks for the heads up about that 3 strike "no lemon" policy. I have already sent in my laptop 3 times. The first time was for a cracked hinge, the second was for the screen flickering, and the last time was for the screen flicker, cracked hinge and one of the USB ports became defective.

After I mailed my laptop back, they kept it for over 4 weeks with no response. I had to call/email them multiple times to find out what was going on. All they could tell me was that it was 'on hold'. Then, a couple days later, voila, my laptop is sitting at my door. The box looks like it was brutalized, and upon opening it up there was a note saying they did not repair my laptop since they could not get in touch with me!

After calling their corporate office, all I could get out of them was that they did not repair the USB port since they claimed that it was broken due to customer MISUSE! They of course have no proof of this, and I refuted all allegations, but with no luck. The problem with the USB port is that the little plastic/silicon tab that is in the port is gone, I am guessing just from plugging/unplugging stuff it broke off at some point. The funny thing is, the idiot CS guy claimed that it was obviously from misuse since the only way that could happen was if I bent a USB device while it was plugged in, which is just stupid, since that would not cause this to happen.

Another thing, when I got my laptop back not only was it filthy, they neglected to attach the bottom right part of the notebook together properly, so it basically hangs completely open on one side. EMachines customer service sure is great! Not only do they keep my laptop for over a month, they dont fix all the problems AND they cause new ones.

I guess today I will call their corporate number, push the issue about the USB port and them busting the side of my laptop. After that I will bring up their "no lemon" policy and demand that they replace my notebook. What a headache this company is. Next time I'll just build my own and save myself from the frustration.

 

[Kaido]

Attention Gateway 7405gx owners! I have made a 2006-edition driver pack! It's available for download here:

download site

mirror

If either of those links don't work, send me a PM and I'll shoot you a link. This is Revision 1 of the driver pack and contains everything but the keyboard driver (installed by default; the Gateway driver lets you program the special keys to do different functions and is available on your original driver CD). I even included instructions. Cheers!

 

[bvinh]

I have successfully upgraded BIOS on my eMachine M6809 to run 4000+ CPU. But unlike "microdoc" user above. Mine runs smoothly.
So, microdoc, if you want PM me, I'll send you my BIOS (I got from Notebook Review's Helmut), may be it'll work better for you.

 

[AVSpec]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Some ideas to upgrade your eMachines/Gateway model:

1. More ram (2 gigs is a Good Thing)
2. Bigger, fast hard drive (up to 120gb @ 5400rpm or 100gb @ 7200rpm)
3. Faster or lower wattage processor (up to 2.6ghz Mobile 4000+ @ ~62 watts or 2.2ghz Turion @ ~25 watts)
4. Better optical drive (slotload dual-layer DVD burner or Lightscribe slotload burner)
5. Paintjob
6. XP Professional, XP Media Center edition, Linux
7. Paintjob - http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=900739#post900739
8. LCD flicker fix - http://emachines.fizi.ca/guides.php?ID=4

Still stuck with a 64mb 9600 tho

So what memory is needed and were do I get it to make my Emachine 2GB? Also any info on CPU upgrade would be great too!!!

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: sputkin
Anyone experiencing the screen backlight flickering problem roma086 mentions above? I notice it on mine every once in a while, amost imperceptible, but it seems to flicker between brightness settings. Anyone?

On my current M6805 I'm on LCD #3 because of this issue, and I'm sure I'll be taking it back again in the near future to get a replacement. The backlight actually gets dimmer (maybe 1-2 notches lower) and every now and then dips even dimmer. It's incredibly annoying when you're looking at a Word document or anything with a mostly white background.

 

[xSeongminx]

I just got my M6810 and I was wondering if I could send it in for new hinges, or is it too late?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: xSeongminx
I just got my M6810 and I was wondering if I could send it in for new hinges, or is it too late?

If you bought it new, absolutely not.

 

[xSeongminx]

Bought it used .

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: xSeongminx
Bought it used .

Then it's probably still worth a shot.

 

[panhead49]

hey MDE....do you know if hinges are for sale anywhere, so the user out of warrenty can fix there own lap????