M6809 on battery sometimes just shuts down - Page 15

Just an update. Eveb using the RMclock utility I still experience some shutdowns.
Still an ongoing issue, still denied by Emachines/Gateway.

sigh

I have had similar issues on AC power and battery. The M5300 series had a law suit settlement for similar issues. The EMachines tech support told me to buy a cooler. That is plain stupid. I do not know if these are heating issues or not. If you boot to a blue bios screen, the CPU and GPU are not taxed and I would not expect that there would be a heat shutdown.

On battery it would not start. Now it will not start on AC. If I boot on a bootable cd or to the bios it will start but now there is a blue screen error. It will not start in any safe or diagnostic mode. A year ago when it experienced the shutdowns, it physically trashed the hard drive. Emachines replaced the CPU fan and the hard drive. I removed the HD and put it in an enclosure and tried to read it in 3 other machines. It locked them all up. Has anyone else experienced a hard drive failure issue caused by the restarts? Could the restarts be hard drive failures due to excessive heating?

Hi there.

How did the modified power supply go. Does it fix this issue?

I just had my hardrive replaced on my m6811, and I'm thinking, that it was just fed up with all those sudden shut downs. I'm not an computer wiz at all, but it is damn anoying.

I had a recurrence of the shutdown problem. I loaded the latest amdk8.sys driver and that seemed to cure the problem for me. Did you try this driver?

The Windows XP driver is located at

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...mdcpusetup.exe


Description
AMD Athlon™ 64/FX Processor Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version (x86 and x64 exe) 1.3.2.16 - Allows the system to automatically adjust the CPU speed, voltage and power combination that match the instantaneous user performance need. Download this Setup Installation program (EXE) to automatically update all the files necessary for installation. This package is recommended for users whom desire a graphical user interface for installation. This .EXE driver is a user friendly localized software installation of the driver designed for end-users. This driver supports AMD Athlon 64/FX processors on Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 SP1 x84 and x64 Editions.


I also am running a program called Speedswitch that provides a higher degree of control over your cpu clock speed. I keep it set to dynamic switching allowing the cpu to run at 800 mhz versus full speed of 1.8ghz which is used when necessary. Things seem to run cooler. You can find this program at

http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/index.html

I've read through this thread, and I read through this thread a year ago...still having the same problems. I've sent my laptop in 3 times. Twice they replaced the hard drive, and once they replaced the fan. It still randomly shuts down after the fan goes into over-drive. I've spoken with anyone who would listen to me at e-machines, and best buy, where I bought the machine.

My 3 year warranty is almost expired and I'm getting ready to send it away again. I'm sure they'll replace the hard drive again, tell me it's fine, and it will have the same problems. Is there any sort of lemon law for computers? I took home a computer from work since this one is so unreliable.

Thanks

I have the Gateway 7405GX, not the emachines, but they are more or less identical, right?

I have replaced the DDR in slot 2 with a Kingston 512MB PC27000, it's been in there for about a year.

Anyway, since a few weeks ago, I've had this shutting down problem.
it happened once, maybe a month or more ago, i put it down to some freaky os shit, only in the last few days it's happened it's back and happening regularly.

It's the same symtoms as mentioned here, the fan goes into a super-high speed, that it never reached before in 2 years, then shuts down after some 3 or 4 seconds. It does not, and i stress that for people who may have this symtom and are playing with thermal paste, it does NOT have to do with CPU overheating due to lack of cooling, as the case is not extra hot, and anyway, the machine can be running "Cool'n'quiet", doing nothing, then suddenly, it's like there is an error in the sensor, or power control and the fan comes on full speed and..... bye!!

I've installed the AMD CPU driver for windows XP that is mentioned here, although I really can't see how this is a windows thing, it hasn't happened to me when windows is not running, but if it's happening to others on the bios screen, then it isn't OS related.

I think the power issue is interesting, at one time i wondered if this was happening only when the battery was charging, and I think that this is the case, maybe even only happening when the battery is almost fully charged, it seems to hang around 99% for a long time before the orange charging light goes out.

It also occured to me that it could be power related (because I had a problem with an external firewire drive spinning down, i eventually traced it to the cheapo 110V power regulator I was using that wasn't giving out enough power and the voltage was dropping) I am in a city with an unreliable mains voltage supply, it varies a lot, goes as low as 90v, as high as 150.

So, what can i say for sure?

up to now,
1. this has not happened with the battery removed.
2. this has not happened before booting and logging into Windows XP.
3. it has happened a lot more in a friends house than anywhere else (supply voltage issue?)

i'll post more if there's more to say.

I also want to say, i feel for those people who have sent their machines in and had hard-drives replaced and the like, that is just disgraceful behaviour, and that transcription early on in this thread with support telling the user to turn off windows auto-reboot on error would be comical, if it wasn't so sad. how do these people get their jobs?

Update:

I have installed RMClock Utility (which is great, I have to say) It allows me to lock the CPU at 800Mhz and 0.8V, which keeps it really cool, the temperature hovers around 35 degrees C without the fan running at all, which is great for doing something like video encoding, when I don't really mind how long it takes, I prefer to leave it overnight rather than having it run really hot for 2 hours.
Now I can play a game of chess without feeling like it's going to burn up.

If I configure the CPU maximum of 2Ghz and 1.45V, the temperature shoots up rapidly, and hovers around 50 degrees, with the fan running of course. If I run something that consumes 100% cpu the temperature will maybe go up another few degrees, but i haven't managed to force it to shut down since my last post.

I am currently using RMClock configured for Performance on Demand, using:

04x 0.80v (800Mhz)
05x 0.90v (1Ghz)
08x 1.25v (1.6Ghz)
10x 1.375v (2.0Ghz)

I could maybe even run 2.00 Ghz at a lower voltage, but it certainly locks up right away at lower than 1.00v

The fan behaviour is very consistent, comes on at 43° and switches off at 32°

Today I turned off RMClock and then used cbid (cbid.ambclub.ru) to force the clock up to 2Ghz and the Voltage to 1.45 and then I ran Prime95 torture mode for 45 minutes, the temperature jumped right up to around 55° and then fluctuated between 54° and 57°, never any higher and no problems. If it didn't overheat after 45 minutes, i figured it wasn't going to.

I also noticed a definite change in fan speed at 53°

I'm now 99% convinced that this problem is not to do with inefficient cooling, but rather some error that trips the overheat protection.

I've been having hte same problem on my Gateway 7426. It would do it from 10 seconds after hitting the power button, to 6 hours later. AC only (battery removed) or with the battery in while it was on AC. The first time it happened, I took it to Best Buy (I have their PSP) and they replaced the heat sink and fan. That was about 7 months ago. It stated again last month. The fan will suddenly rev up to max, then about a second later it will shut down.

So, this has been happening with more than one model of E-Machines/Gateway laptop, for two years, and the problem has still not been corrected. Says a lot about their product design. All of the affected laptops are using the same chassis aren't they?

My warranty expired last week. I've given up on this laptop, but I'm wondering if I have any other recourse. I bought a laptop that never worked right, went back to e-machines twice to be worked on, and still never worked right. It seems that my warranty should be extended since it's spent so much time with them, but I can't find anythign to back that up.

At the end of the day I can chalk this up as a learning experience, but it does piss me off and I'd like to see if there is anything else that I can do.

I've had my m6805 for about two and a half years, and recently the shutdown problem has been happening for me as well. The fan will go really loud and a couple seconds later it'll shut off. It was seeming like this problem was happening when the battery was charging, so i took it out. However this problem happens when the laptop is plugged in as well.

About 5 mins ago, the fan went high and it turned off. I restarted it, and within a few mins it happened again . Not to mention, the hinges cracked and the screen flickers at times as many of you who own this laptop know.

Is there anything at all emachines will do about this? anything i can do myself??
very frustrating situation

Well, quick update here - this is all unofficial of course but I got tired of running the CPU @ its slowest speed all the time just to try and prevent a shutdown. So I downloaded Prime95 and ran one of its torture tests while running RMClock in its "Performance on demand" mode. I then would select the next highest stepping value available and apply it for use. I would then wait a bit to see if it was gonna turn off, and then move on to the next one. It did finally shut off, and so I booted back up (had to fight it a bit but did get booted again) and checked the settings I had. Thus far I have run Prime95 in torture test mode for over an hour with the current settings and all is well. So the highest CPU settings I can safely recommend if you are having the shutdown problem are "FID=8.0x - VID=1.175" for a max speed of 1.60GHz. Mind you that this is on a gateway 7426GX with a AMD Mobile Athlon 64. Though I suspect that it is the voltage that is most important, so as long as you can keep your voltage setting @ 1.175 or lower you should be good.

I have had the same issue on my 7422GX. I was not aware of RMClock and have not tried it yet (I tend to shy away from clocking utilities but maybe this one would be worthwhile). However, since this problem seems to be fairly complex, I am posting anyway in the hopes that something in my experience and my somewhat goofy band-aids may help someone's particular laptop.
Based on what patterns I could see in the sudden shutdowns, I wondered if maybe a particular usage pattern was causing the laptop's internal temperature to rise at a rate that caught the heat sensor off guard. I decided to try keeping the power utilization above or below this "magic" rate. I've read that the processor of this particular laptop runs much faster when plugged in, so I tried using an external monitor so the LCD could shut off and reduce the total power draw. In fact, I cannot remember ever having a shutdown with the built-in LCD turned off. When running on battery, I was able to use the built-in LCD because the processor was drawing less power. However, running plugged in with no external monitor available proved to be trickier. In this case, I tried keeping the power draw ABOVE the "magic" rate. I am a programmer, so I wrote a simple program to keep the CPU at least 75% utilized at all times. Yes, it sounds crazy, but this laptop is fast enough anyways that it was still very usable and it has not shut down yet. I've been playing with the percentage to see how low I can go, but thanks to this thread I may try RMClock to see if I can do away with my program entirely.

Great thread, makes me almost want to cry that my m6810 is completely toast. However, the one variable in anyone's thread I didn't see consistently is something about network connections. Anyone experiment with this? I figure most computers are plugged into some sort of network or using some sort of wireless.

For some reason, my laptop has been running okay for the past few times I started it. I'm talking about overnight usage, etc. But all that was for getting information to a CD and nothing to do with a wireless or wired network. Today, I wanted to transfer something off of it and plugged in a cable and it failed before it even got into the login screen.

I have now removed the cable and again, it is working fine. I will do some more trials and errors but maybe this has something to do with it?

what happened when u plug the cable back in after windows started? hung, freezing up?
. bios uptodate?
. chipset driver uptodate?
. processor driver uptodate?
. a clean re-install would be ur best bet

cheers ...

My M6811 shuts down randomly whether it is connected to the internet or not. I got upset and it sat over in a corner of the office for a few months. I pulled it out the other day and everything worked fine. There is no rhyme or reason.

On another note, I tried to contact emachines and find out what it was they repaired when I sent it in before. They told me I was not under warranty anymore. I stated that I understood that and all I wanted to know was what they repaired so that I could get someone else to fix it. They said it would have to go up into higher levels to get that information. I tried getting back in touch with the "higher powers" a week after they were supposed to call me, and I can't get anywhere.
Sounds to me as though they don't want to ADMIT whatever the problem is.

Oh No. Not this again!

Ok. I am a bit confused. This is an old post (03-13-2005) and I just received a notification on this issues. I thought you had gotten past this issue.

Eunix

Here's a new twist. My eMachine M6805 used to randomly shutdown. (Wireless on or off). It stopped its random shutdowns after I added my 2nd Gig of RAM. Now it randomly RESTARTS! Especially if I'm editing large photo's in PaintShop and Browsing with ACDSee, Or viewing Google videos.

I'm not sure its a cooling problem. I took a Targus dual fan laptop cooler, removed the USB power plug and attached a 12VDC power supply. It sounds like a plane but keeps the bottom like ICE!

Memory problems?