M6809 on battery sometimes just shuts down - Page 18

It is pain to have users going through these issues. Gateway still struggles with quality control, but I must say they are getting much better.

Please keep us updated as how things turn out for you. You have been most informative with the inputs.

cheers ...

Trooper Award!

I have to assign you the trooper award for viligence.

You will never find a root cause fix for this problem because the problem is buried somewhere in system components. You can make it better but it will come back. I have had this problem on both my 7422GX and my M6811.

I still have both machines and I have to say that the QC of the Gateway must have been better than that of the eMachines. Mine were purchased prior to the merger so they had different QC policies and procedures.

I have had excellent performance out of both of them and still use them for test and development machines.

My advice to you would be to pop the top, and remove the fan assembly and with a Q-tip and some alcohol give it a nice washing. Some people say use a can of air (which is good for quick fixes) but on every laptop rebuild that I perform for people, I pull the fan assembly and give it some tender loving care. Use the Q-tips to clean the blades and places where your fingers won't get. The alcohol helps loosen up the gunk.
and will help with any moisture (H20 is bad)

Don't use acetone or anything strong to be on the safe side. I have used electronics part cleaner but Alcohol is cheaper and works just as well.

Clean the top of the processor and apply a fresh drop of Artic silver when you mount the fan back and torque down the fan tight.

Warning: Be careful when you tighten the fan because you can break the mounting screws and they are hard to find and fabrication of your own is tedious.

Using RMClock to clock down should help. I use it to clock up and I used to clean my fans every six (6) months or so when they were in daily use.

Eunix

Is this repair advice good for M-5312?

My original purchase M-5312 just shut down today. It was on AC power and then stopped. No power LED, no battery LED. Nada.

It had been treated very well since I bought it and was used intermittently until the last month, since which it has been in use perhaps 5 hours a day, always on AC. I did note that the underside of the case near the power plug port was hot to the touch, but I thought it did so since Day #1. The power transformer seemed to get hotter as well, but that could be my imagination.

I put it and the power supply in the freezer for 30 minutes, still nada.

I performed an output power check on the AC power supply which showed 18.5VDC output. Should I attempt to open it up, blow out the fan blades and re-paste the heat sink as discussed above?

Does no LED light-up indicate something more sinister?

Is there a recommended URL with step-by-step photos of how to correctly open the case?

I am posting here because this thread seems the most current. I appreciate any advice. Thank you.

You can try first browse the section for thread regarding your model and its comparable models. Also browse our "guides" section.

cheers ...

Problem Resolved

I went to Best Buy and bought a universal power adapter.

LEDs lit up, batteries recharged. Problem solved.

Glad I didn't have to crack the case open to deal with fan/heat sink issues.

I think I found out something else about reapplying the artic silver. Recently one of my fans went dead, I was still getting the shut down issue. What I did was take a little scotch brite (well actually 1500 grit wet/dry sand paper) and scuffed up the heat sink, and the plate on the cpu. What I think is going on, is originally, these machines run very hot, and over time, blocking the vents, dirt, whatever, the thermal paste cooks itself into the metal surfaces. Alcohol, or acetone is not enough to remove the thin layer of cooked thermal paste, and it acts as a heat barrier. After scuffing the surfaces, and applying a ever so thin film of artic silver, my laptop is running cooler than it has ever run, and it is not shutting down.

A bit brave here I do like the sanding down tip though.

cheers ...

This is a old trick and has been debated forever. Some people like to wetsand the cpu die and heatsink until it is like a mirror, and others like it a little scratchy. I assume the sand scratch you made helped the AC stick better and conduct.

I've been repairing m68xxs for awhile - swapping parts around. I've had two 6811s that had the shutdown problem - battery or ac.

I fixed them both by replacing the CPUs from the amd mobile athlon 3400s, one to e a amd mobile athlon 3000 one to a 3200.

Neither has suffered from the shutdown plague again.

Bought the 2 replacement chips off e-bay for less than $20

Prior to changing the CPUs, I tried RM clock (no luck) and, as part of the repair process, I re-seated the CPUs and renewed the thermal paste.

Core temp had them holding fairly steady in the mid 30C when the shutdowns occurred..

 

 

Another cool tip with different CPU series.

cheers ...

Emachine M6809--I was having the random shutdowm, sometimes immediately upon booting, sometimes after a few minutes. A few months ago I opened the case and removed the fans without disconnecting them. I blew out all the accumulated crud on the heatsink and fans and the laptop ran well for a short time. Lately I couldn't keep it on at all. I opened it up again, fans still look clean, gave them a cursory spray of compressed air and then tightened the four screws that attached the cover/cpu housing. Why are they loose at all? I put it all back together and it runs like a charm...I use this laptop now only for an internet connection to my TV. Works great.

You meant the screws holding down the heat-sink and fan unit were being loose?

cheers ...

Wow, I can't believe this thread is still going. I would thing that many people have put this old gray mare out to pasture long ago but from the first time that this product was introduced, I felt that it had staying power (minus the cracking hinges and shutdown anomaly)

I still use my M6811 and 7422GX today. Battery power keeps the close to a plug but I am running 1 as my primary Ubuntu workstation (when I have my desktop workstation booted up on Vista or Win 7 (triple boot) and the other one runs either Windows 7 or Debian and I use them for photo editing and every day use as I now have my entire family using either Linux, MacOS or Windows comfortably and a NAS shares.

In response to the post about the loose screws, you should remove the heatsink and fan and apply new thermal paste. The screws are spring loaded so after some time, they may loosen up but for the most part they should stay nice and snug. Don't tighten them too much as you may break the screws.

Eunix

Good old machines never die Eunix

cheers ...

Yes, that's what I meant though I said it poorly.

 

I believe you're right. I bought this machine used on Ebay around 2005 and I have been very pleased with it overall. Happier now.