Check into Eurocom for performance machines.

Thanks everyone. New on board, but will contribute.

hello, i have an area 51 m7700 laptop specs are p4 3.2 , nvidia 6800 ultra, 1 gig 533. i noticed when i turn on my laptop the fans dont turn on. my computer gets overheated and turns off. Now i installed the bios thing for the Fn+F2 thing so i can turn on my fans manually and it works. but back then when the laptops fans worked normally the laptop took time to overheat and shutoff when i was playing games. but now that i installed the bios thing ,my laptop doesnt seem last that long on. seems to me that it overheats worster than wut it did without the bios update. and gaming seems to suck so bad.

i would recommend to throughly cleaning the fans inside.

ATTENTION TO ALL Area-51 7700 OWNERS WITH OVERHEATING ISSUES

If you:

- Have to use Fn+F2 to keep your computer from shutting down
- Have to use GetThermal to keep the fans working properly
- Are tired of babysitting your computer fans
- Generally hate your fans for being stupid and causing overheating issues.

This is the solution, it took me 4 months to reach.

Short answer: Get your heatsink replaced, the sensor on it (the little wire leading from the heatsink to the motherboard) is defective and is now malfunctioning. Replacing this part will restore your Alienware to its former glory as long as the repeated overheating has not caused permanent damage to your other components.

Long answer: Read On


The same thing happened to me. It took me 4 months, 2 motherboard replacements, 1 cpu replacement, 3 video card replacements, and 1 heatsink replacement to finally get the problem fixed.

First try cleaning out the fans, this is the general advice everyone gets.

Your problem is 99% likely to be with your heatsink temperature sensor, this is what the problem was with mine. I repeatedly told Alienware over the phone that all they needed to do was replace the heatsink to fix the issue, but they decided to fix it themselves and had to replace virtually every component a couple of times until they gave in and replaced the heat sink, solving the problem! Hey, it was free to me, no skin off my back.

The tiny little wire that leads from your heatsink into the motherboard is a sensor that tells the fans when to turn on. This is a single fault point in many Area 51 7700 models using the Pentium 4 (just like mine). Over time the wire becomes faulty, incorrectly measuring temperature and not properly activating the fans when they are needed.

So, clean out the fans, get the heatsink replaced, and apply some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste (available at your local radio shack or online) to the video card and processor heat sinks.

Cleaning out the fans and getting the heatsink replaced will solve all your problems, but AS5 does lower the temps a little bit, helping out.

It took awhile, but now my 7700 runs just like it used to (very well, without having to babysit the fans)! FINALLY!

7700 Bios update from eurocom. I flashed my 7700 5.1a board to bios version 1.00.12. Don't see much of an improvement. Does have selection for fan to be automatic or continuous. One problem is that I can't boot from my usb floppy I/O error flashed. Other than that its running fine. Will be installing vista 64 tonight I'll see how that goes. If I have to I'll flash back to ALien Bios

Let us know how the Vista upgrade goes. I heard that these boards dont like Vista in additon there is unlikely to be the 8*** series cards for these boards as the new ones will be MXM. Anybody else has info to share on this I would love to know.

the secret is all in the f8 key. When you get to the final phase of the install of Vista 64 and it boots from hdd it says driver certification not signed. The 64 kernal won't let you load an insigned driver unless it has Micros signature on it. Well just like in windows XP you can hit the F8 key during booting to go to safe mode and stuff. Well in Vista you hit the and F8 key during loading and select disable driver certification. Unfortunantely you have to do that everytime you restart.

hey all....i currently have 915G Chipset Drivers (v 8.1.1.1010) installed...is it "safe" to install this latest thats posted here???"Intel Chipset Drivers (v 8.3.0.1013) " im always spooked by messing with this stuff...
and if so how do i update to this newest??? just install over the old???

i have a AW area51m 7700....also im curious which is the best driver for geforce 6800go....i have v91.33 installed for awhile with no issues (i dont play to many games to notice)

and regrading hd audio driver on the realtek site it looks like V1.74 is the latest..i havent tested it yet..i have v1.69 installed atm...

cheers all...

heres my specs...
clevo d900t motherboard (which was replaced last year)
1gig ram
3.0 intel cpu (i had 3.6 but it fried with my MB last year and was to much $$ to get another 3.6)
geforce 6800go

I have the Audio Driver 1.73 and its run great.. must update to 1.74.Never had problems..
Try a driver from here http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/...p?showforum=72
I have the 163.44 and its run good.. Try this driver..

One Problem wit the Intel Chipset Drivers (v 8.3.0.1013)
I try to install.Better it has install,but watch.Nothing happens

I click install, a half second later,it says succesfully installed.. It was too short to install, the Driver Date dont switch to 8.3.0.1013.The system has the old Dirver from 21.6.2006.
Hope someone understand this and can help

I dunno know why but the utility only updates the drivers and infs on the directory but doesn't update it on the actual devices, it has been happening a long time ago, usually what i did was just did a manual update for the drivers on each device :S

so dont bother with the chipset driver than??

What is your latest Atheros Wireless Lan Driver?
Mine:
30.08.2005
4.2.0.82

And..
have you now install the new chipset driver?

The chipset in that lappy is rather old, so i don't think there is any advantage in updating to more current drivers.

I reinstall Vista today and try to install the Intel Chipset Drivers (v 8.3.0.1013) [25/08/2007] Driver. The Driver install succesfully, but the Date in the Device Manager is the same like the old Driver 6.0.6000.16386, from 21.06.2006.
This is no really a new driver..