**Official eMachines M68xx Thread**

[eastvillager]

omg, my hand is killing me. 8+ hours playing Painkiller on a 6805 using a tiny ms notebook optical mouse. Eyes are fine though, laptop works nice.

 

[TomPico]

Great tip regarding the driver -- how did you find out that the chipset for the eMachines M68** wireless card is the BCM94306?

 

[gweilo8888]

The info came from the website of somebody working on getting Debian Linux working on our laptop:

http://people.debian.org/~ccheney/arima-w720-k8.html

I find these Linux pages can often be helpful to users of Windows in researching for drivers as well.

 

[flu3ncy]

Okay, I kinda need help. I've had my M6805 for like a day now and I just installed Zone Alarm.. had to reboot, when I get back, it says Windows is corrupt. This is the second time this has happened for no apparent reason. But when I try to restore this time, I can't. I boot the restore DVD, and say to restore XP, but it just goes right into saying "XP Restored" without actually loading the ghost... so when it reboots XP still isn't there.

Help? Any ideas?

 

[Insomnibyte]

Got my laptop end of April... works great btw.

I have a few questions I want to ask.... one, on benchmarks and the like the score seems rather low for what this laptop has for hardware. I was wondering if by using Windows XP 64-bit edition, would that increase the CPU's performance at all? Second I wish to install 2 Crucial 512MB PC2700 into the laptop. Does the replacement of the stick under the keyboard void the warrenty? Also is there any place I can get a diagramed guide for taking it apart to get to the second ram slot.

Btw, highest score in PCMark 2003 that I got was 3,200.
And the highest in AquaMark3 was 19,780.

I know the abilities of this laptop should have resulted in higher scores, so im wondering if the 32 bit version of XP is limiting the capabilities of my 64-bit processor.

 

[alexruiz]

No drivers yet for Win XP AMD64, but the included driver on the CD work for almost any flavor of windows... tested succesfully in WinME and Win2K SP4.

Alex

Originally posted by: 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

 

[Kaido]

Has anyone found a body glove that will fit this 15.4" monster? When I get it, it'd be nice to be able to toss it in my backpack without scratching it

 

[ShellGuy]

You wanted to know about the second ram slot here is the page to look at. As for voiding your warranty with the one stick no but what you will have to do to get at the second slot will def void it....



Will

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Insomnibyte
Got my laptop end of April... works great btw.

I have a few questions I want to ask.... one, on benchmarks and the like the score seems rather low for what this laptop has for hardware. I was wondering if by using Windows XP 64-bit edition, would that increase the CPU's performance at all? Second I wish to install 2 Crucial 512MB PC2700 into the laptop. Does the replacement of the stick under the keyboard void the warrenty? Also is there any place I can get a diagramed guide for taking it apart to get to the second ram slot.

Btw, highest score in PCMark 2003 that I got was 3,200.
And the highest in AquaMark3 was 19,780.

I know the abilities of this laptop should have resulted in higher scores, so im wondering if the 32 bit version of XP is limiting the capabilities of my 64-bit processor.

If you're going to spend the money for 2 Crucial 512mb PC2700 sodimms, why not just get a 1gb stick of Transcend ddr333 from Newegg for $281? It's a bit more pricey, but you won't have to void your warranty this way.

Also, I talked to a tech a few weeks ago using the live assistance thing and he said that yes, you can put two gigs of ddr333 ram in (2 x 1gb sticks), but it will void your warranty.



Has anyone performed the 3400+ upgrade? I'd like to know how it affects battery life, stability, and laptop heat (I don't want to burn my legs off if I do it lol).

 

[fishsauce]

This is the only person that I know of that put a 3400+ in their emachines.

If anyone knows where to get new rubber feet for this laptop, I'd like to know. Three of mine have come off and I dont know where to get new ones.

 

[jcolby]

Just wanted to say I bought one last week and love it. It had a bad video card when I got it, (memory problem) looked fine in Windows but wouldn't play dvds without ugly green sparklies. Best Buy just swapped the machine out, put my hd in the new machine and I went home.

LOVE THIS MACHINE. I bought a 256 mb Lexar Jump Drive USB 2.0 memory widget to put all of my sensative stuff on (billing program and the like). With a wireless mouse and a pair of headphones for my music, this thing just rocks!

I got it for $1499 at Best Buy with the $250 rebate. What a deal!

 

[Tower1]

I got a 6807 about a mouth ago. So far this is a great machines. I have owed a computer since my old trash80 and have countless since including two other eMacines. This one replaced a IBM P-4 1.8, the 6807 is of-couse way faster. I also have a Gateway P-4 3.0 HT. The 6807 kills it in the 3dmark 9780 to 12048 (I can run a 11870 with 3dmark in a loop for days no problem).
I will say that the gateway is faster over all in the real world.
The first post in this thead by MDE was very helpful thank you.

 

[walkertc]

I have been reading the back and forth forums concerning the disconnects using the wireless Broadcom connections with the Emachine m6809. I am not sure what is going on, but when I took mine out of the box and turned the wireless connection on, using an MSI RG54GS router, it has not disconnected once. I have not changed any settings witin the wireless connection. I get a connection from low to very good and still stay connected. Could there be something wrong with the built in wireless card?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: walkertc
I have been reading the back and forth forums concerning the disconnects using the wireless Broadcom connections with the Emachine m6809. I am not sure what is going on, but when I took mine out of the box and turned the wireless connection on, using an MSI RG54GS router, it has not disconnected once. I have not changed any settings witin the wireless connection. I get a connection from low to very good and still stay connected. Could there be something wrong with the built in wireless card?

May be your router, mine stays at excellent but isn't very far from the router.

 

[jcolby]

Has anyone tried the Valence NC2A external battery with the Emachines M68xx? I can't find anything anywhere that promises a tip for this machine, nor can I find how many mah it has. Knowing that woud help in figuring out the additional time it might give us

 

[BuckWild024]

Originally posted by: fishsauce
This is the only person that I know of that put a 3400+ in their emachines.

If anyone knows where to get new rubber feet for this laptop, I'd like to know. Three of mine have come off and I dont know where to get knew ones.

I also am missing some feet on my m6805. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[TomPico]

Regarding wireless problems - being new to wireless I didn't realize that I had two utilities to control wireless - One comes with the Broadcom wireless card (neat little antenna icon in your system tray) the other from Windows (boring two monitors icon) - they both have little boxes that say "Let Windows configure my wireless network settings" or "Let this utility configure my wireless network setting." Even though I only had one boxed checked, I was having disconnect problems until I uninstalled the Broadcom. I would rather have kept that one because its cool but disabling the Windows utility screwed up everything - so the Broadcom had to go.:brokenheart: But, no more disconnects

 

[imported_Visigoth]

When I first started using the 6805 I had the problems with the system disconnecting me whenever it found a new AP. Even when I had only mine listed as the preferred AP in the Windows wireless configuration. One thing that helped was to change the wireless card to only talk using 56G. This was under the Advanced table of the configuration screen. I can't remember the exact variable but I will look it up once I get home. The ultimate solution was to upgrade the driver for the wireless card since not only did the disconnects stop completely but I could finally use WPA-AES instead of WEP.

I believe the variable is IBSS mode. I believe normally it is set to "802.11b Mode". I set it to "56G Performance" and it did clear up the disconnects.

 

[TomPico]

I did get the latest Broadcom driver & utility from the HP website. My driver is set to "auto" in the Value window in the Broadcom 54g MaxPerformance 802.11g Properties window. I see the IBSS 54g(tm) Mode and many other variables. No info on any and since I'm doing OK now I'll stick with "Auto"
For those wondering - you get there by clicking - starting with the two monitors icon in the task bar -
"Wireless Network Connection>Advanced>General>Configure>Advanced"
Oh Yes! We're havin' fun now!! :laugh:

 

[mudboy]

You're not alone.

Short answer is to not let Windows manage your wireless connection. I unchecked the appropriate box in the configuration applet and have yet to lose my wireless connection.

Pete

 

[Insomnibyte]

I have one question

I need to know where I can get the drivers for the wireless network..... an exact link to the drivers would be greatly appreciated....

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Insomnibyte
I have one question

I need to know where I can get the drivers for the wireless network..... an exact link to the drivers would be greatly appreciated....

Recovery disc 3.

 

[TomPico]

Hewlett Packard website http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/welcome.html - just search "Broadcom"

Here's the address for utility for the Broadcom MaxPerformance card -

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?lc=en&cc=us&softwareitem=ob-20080-1


Here's the driver address -

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?locBasepartNum=ob-18543-1&lang=English+%28US%29

I'm not sure that you can link from these but they are easy to find by searching for "Broadcom" on the HP site

 

[oldyellowcat]

I got 6809 abour 3 weeks ago --- pretty impressive. Performance is great especially after you remove lots of junk software that eMachines installed.

Kind of sad that got 4200RPM hard drive, because the display model in BestBuy store has 5400RPM --- I thought maybe this store still has 5400RPM model. And after I got it I had no guts to ask for change the harddrive with display model.

One thing to remember --- seems some particular ones are buggy. The first I got had wavy display, so I exchanged it. The second one had intermittent ethernet issue (NOT wireless), so I exchanged it again. Now the third one is OK.

 

[oldyellowcat]

Want to elaborate a little about the ethernet issue I was having. Just in case you see same problem or you are picking up a new one.

The steps are:
1) Remove battery and completely run on AC power
2) Unplug ethernet cable
3) Start your lovely 680x and let windows finishes its boot up process.
4) Plug ethernet cable and check if you can connect to network
5) shutdown machine and unplug ethernet DURING the shutdown process.
6) Unplug AC power and wait about 30 sec before plug in back again

Repeat 3 to 6.

What I saw was, for every 5 or 6 cycles, the step 4 will fail and can NEVER connect to network, until you do step 6. I mean if you get into the "fail" state, it will always fail even after reboot!
The only way to fix is step 6 --- UNPLUG AC power and plug back.

It does not matter if you are using DHCP or static IP, and the wierd thing is when it fails, the MAC address is actully different than when it works!

This is should be a motherboard/chipset problem, I tried several different driver versions and result was same.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to find this problem early enougth to get exchange from BestBuy.