Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported - Page 2

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Sounds like you were able to find the defective memory stick,
- Congrads on finding it.

Any time you purchase memory, you always run the risk of getting one or more defective sticks. - Hopefully you'll be able to return the it.

When I ordered my memory, it came with free shipping, but I paid an extra $10.00 for 2nd day FedEx which was worth it.

At the rate memory prices are dropping and how fast technology is coming out, I expect that we'll probably see Tri-Channel kits composed of 4GB sticks soon. When that happens, I won't hesitate to purchase a full 24GB kit for my system

The FX 6800 Core i7 series should be able to handle a Full 24GB cause the design structure is 4GB per slot.

I really don't see how who ever was in charge of writing up the specifications came up with 16GB as those are the specs for the Intel X58 motherboard which only has 4 slots. It's like they never had access to the manual either.

Good Luck with your system

Did your pc come with Vist Home Premium? and you upgraded to Ultimate?

Cause I know Vista Home Premium is limited to 16gb, thats why I think Gateway told me 16gb was the max.

I dont know the true max of the board.

I had planned on upgrading my memory asap, so i could sell the old memory before it becomes a dime a dozen.

Hopefully I will have the 6 new sticks of memory by Friday, if not on Monday, then its back to testing them again to make them all work.

Did your pc come with a 1GB video card, instead of the stated 512mb video card?

I bought the FX 6800-01e December 13th last year.

It came with the ATI Radeon 4850 with 512MB and Windows Vista -64 Premium

Purchased the Vista-64 Ultimate upgrade with it and did the upgrade the very next day as a
Clean install on a Western Digital Caviar Black Edition drive which I installed that same day.

Right now, with Gateway having recently become a subsidiary of Acer, it's like no one
really knows what they're doing and they can't seem to get their act together.

-

The true Max for the motherboard in this system "Should" be 24GB
- 6 memory slots rated @ 4GB each, for a total of 24GB

But the problem here is how much each Windows operating system supports and that there currently are NO Tri-Channel kits composed of 4GB sticks YET. Although I suppose you could purchase six individual 4GB DDR3 sticks at a cost of $2400.00 or more at current prices. There would be no guarantee that they would Match though meaning there could possibly be problems.

The way that Intel gets by with supporting 16GB on their X58 motherboards which have only
four slots is the first three sockets are individual and the fourth socket is shared.

- The FX 6800 Core i7 systems use the following

Motherboard: TBGM-01 8EKS3H

Bootup Identifier: 64-2776-009999-00101111 <BIOS Date & Version>

M/B #: MBG4109002842004A8EK00 (sticker found on top of eSATA ports on the motherboard)
- This number when looked up on Gateway's site brings up results for other (older) systems.

There are several different Brand and Model numbers using this same motherboard
- Acer Aspire M7720
- Packard Bell iPower 2.0 I9920

I've seen a few others, but off hand, I don't remember the Brand & model numbers.

It seems that everyone is having the same problem, no manual for this motherboard.

I assume you purchased the Corsair HX3X12G1333C9 12GB Tri-Channel Kit?

Or possibly two 6GB Tri-Channel kits?

What ever brand you purchased, you can check the specifications at the manufacturer website.

-

The HX3X12G1333C9 kit is rated @ 1333MHz (that is 1.333GHz)

You can download and use CPU-Z to check your system and the memory.

I just checked mine after seeing your post and I've got the 12GB Corsair kit in my system and my system is currently running several programs.
CPU-Z shows it to be running at 2133MHz - That would be listed as NB Frequency on the memory tab.

Then on the same tab, under Timings, it shows 533.3 MHz for DRAM Frequency.

I'd have to reboot my system to see what the BIOS says.


With the New BIOS, TurboBoost is enabled. This engages Automatically as Needed. It adjusts the speed of your processor and (I assume) your memory, giving you more boost when you need it and idling things when not needed providing you with just what you need.

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As to any Jumper settings, without the motherboard manual, I can't give you any advice in regards to using the jumpers.

You could try pulling half the memory, seeing what the BIOS says, then shutdown and replace the memory with the other three sticks to see if there is any difference. Cause if the memory is running under clocked and CPU-Z doesn't show a higher frequency, even under load, then it's possible you might have gotten one or more sticks where the actual rating is lower than what they're supposed to be.

A few replies back in this thread, I outlined a method for checking the memory.

I have not seen any kind of setting for TurboBoost in the BIOS and I have the newest BIOS installed right now.

If you go to the Intel Website and lookup TurboBoost, they explain this feature.

From their explanation, it seems that TurboBoost is automatic. It engages as needed. It's kinda like the SpeedStep technology. But I do not recall if it uses the same tech or if it's related to it.

I'd have to reread the explanation to remember exactly how it was described.

This feature was enabled by the new BIOS update.

I just wish Gateway (Acer) would release the manual for the motherboard so we would know exactly what each of the jumpers on the board are for.

Ever since I updated my BIOS, my system has had more of a kick to it.

If you don't mind a little bit of noise (loud fan), then in the BIOS disable Smart Fan. This will help to keep the CPU temp down, allowing the TurboBoost to work better.

But then again, I have a habit of running my system under heavy loads.

Check your messages

Thanks to this info I was able to successfully do the bios update (yay). Perhaps not a smart thing but, in order to move off of 64 bit, I purshased 32 bit Vista ultimate and installed on my FX6800. After the install NO drivers were recognized. No network, no video, nada. Gateway indicates the only 32 bit thing they offer for the FX6800 is bios. From the technical specs I know the video card (and *should* be able to get up to date 32 bit drivers), but they say nothing about the network card brand. Anyone have any idea where I might get 32 bit network adapter drivers for this machine? I am in dire straights.
Thanks!

Not for the faint of heart but I was able to install the Vista 32 bit Intel Network Card drivers successfully and get connectivity. Then I installed the 32 bit ATI Radeon driver successfully. Things seem to be running smoothly but I am not sure what driver's I might be missing so there may be problems in the future.

I only have the standard 3G anyway but yeah, I get that you wouldn't be able to go beyond 4G on a 32 bit machine.

BTW, Gateway made it clear this voids the warranty.

Thanks

I am running windows 7 on my FX 6800-01e which I got this week. I have not been able to get the system running smoothly - the crysis demo crashes after a few minutes, encoding video crashes too, and other game demos have crashed out.

I know its possible that it is becuase windows 7 is a beta, but something doesnt feel right. I've updated all my drivers - pretty much in line with everything you recommend, renegade (thanks for all the advice)

The only drivers missing now are 7 "system interrupt controllers" listed in the device manager - anyone know how I can get these installed?

Wow - that is a lot of maintenance...I haven't had to do any of that even once with my older computer and it never crashes (in 6 years...). I got the system interrupt controllers device drivers installed by navigating to the vista drivers area in the install directory of the Chipset device software - just running it did not fix the problem.

However, crysis still wont run without crashing after a couple of mins - do you think that is just the "lack" of memory?

These are all the ones I could find which you can manually identify although you won't be
needing all of them to identify the ones with yellow marks. These are all from Vista-64 on my system.

The Red items will help you to identify each item in Windows 7

Direct memory access controller
Intel(R) ICH10R LPC Interface Controller - 3A16

High Definition Audio Controller
PCI bus 5, device 0, function 1

High Definition Audio Controller
PCI bus 0, device 27, function 0

High precision event timer
Intel(R) ICH10R LPC Interface Controller - 3A16

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers - 3423
PCI bus 0, device 20, function 2

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers - 3422
PCI bus 0, device 20, function 1

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub I/OxAPIC Interrupt Controller - 342D
PCI bus 0, device 19, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 - 3408
PCI bus 0, device 1, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 - 340A
PCI bus 0, device 3, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 - 340E
PCI bus 0, device 7, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers - 342E
PCI bus 0, device 20, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers - 3438
PCI bus 0, device 20, function 3

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port - 3405
PCI bus 0, device 0, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer Registers - 3425
PCI bus 0, device 16, function 0

Intel(R) 5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol Layer Registers Port 0 - 3426
PCI bus 0, device 16, function 1

Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E
PCI bus 0, device 30, function 0

Intel(R) ICH10 Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 3A40
PCI bus 0, device 28, function 0

Intel(R) ICH10 Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 3A48
PCI bus 0, device 28, function 4

Intel(R) ICH10 Family SMBus Controller - 3A30
PCI bus 0, device 31, function 3

Intel(R) ICH10R LPC Interface Controller - 3A16
PCI bus 0, device 31, function 0

Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
ACPI x64-based PC

Intel(R) ICH10R LPC Interface Controller - 3A16
Programmable interrupt controller

Intel(R) ICH10R LPC Interface Controller - 3A16
System CMOS/real time clock

There is more than one model of the FX6800 systems out which is part of the problem.
All of them use the same motherboard, but the differences in the models is such as Video card, hard drive, CPU and wireless.

Models I've seen listed online so far in the last few months are:

FX 6800-01e
FX 6800-03
FX 6800-05
FX 6800-09

I don't know when each of these were produced for retail or if there are other models that have been sold, but they all
look much the same, with the exception of a new model which shows RCA connectors on the front panel to the left of
the FX6000 series label.

The original Specifications for the FX6800-01e is the ATI Radeon 4850 512MBwith 750GB drive and the Core i7 920 CPU

On the Gateway website, they do list the various models and what each is supposed to come with, although the specs
are not entirely correct such as how much memory is supported.

As to the various results others have had with the different items in their systems, it's possible that some stuff may have
been installed in the wrong systems (poor quality control perhaps) or that the systems were mislabeled or some such.
Either that, or Gateway may have decided to up the anty by throwing in a larger hard drive or better video card. My system
was manufactured in November and I purchased it in December.

As for this thread, I didn't start the thread.

Instead, I jumped in to help others who were having problems updating their BIOS.

Generally, the reason for updating the BIOS is cause Newer BIOS usually contain fixes for the system or even provide new
functionality by enabling features that previously were enabled or working.

Now I'm NOT going to say that I know for certain what's going on here with the new BIOS.

But Gateway specifically states that the new BIOS enables Enables the Turbo Boost features on the motherboard. They don't
make any mention of enabling it in the processor. So if it is already enabled in the processor, it's possible (I'm not saying this is the case)
that it wasn't working correctly cause of a problem with the motherboard itself. I'm NOT trying to state a fact here, instead I'm just speculating.

I do know this, after I updated the BIOS and the system reinstalled the chipset drivers, it did detect one or two items
that previously didn't show in the Device Manager. Off hand, I don't recall what the item/s were.

As to speculating about stuff, theorizing as to why something IS can be interesting and I enjoy doing so.

How to measure the TurboBoost, I honestly don't know without doing a bit of research myself into that subject.
I'm not much into gaming these days.

Use CPU-Z to check the system if you haven't tried it yet.
Without the motherboard manual, it seems we are all screwed.

As to the updates on the Gateway website, all those files are the same as what came with the system except for the BIOS.

As I have stated previously, get the latest updates from the manufacturer websites such as RealTek, Intel, ect......

The only thing you won't find any updates for is the Creative X-FI MB as this is an OEM package for which it appears that Creative does not supply updates, at least none that I have been able to find.

I'm not disputing any of that and I'm not saying your system is not an FX6800-01e.

Re-Read what I wrote more carefully and you'll see that.

Yes TurboBoost is enabled in the Processor,
- But what I said is it may not have been working correctly cause Gateway specified that it was to enable
TurboBoost on the MotherBoard. In other words, a possible hardware problem corrected with new code.

IF this is the case, then maybe their explanation was their was of saving face without admitting they made a mistake???

Only the programmers who created the new BIOS know exactly what the real problem was that it supposedly fixed.

As for your system, Here are the specifications for the FX6800-01e
http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668210.php

Seeing as you got the 1GB dual slot card, it sounds like you got lucky.

Here is the Gateway page for all the FX6800 systems
http://www.gateway.com/systems/series/529598057.php

I think what is messing us up here is our understanding of how the memory works.

Also, remember that the memory controller is built into the Core i7 processor instead of being separately on the motherboard.

When I run CPU-Z, I get the same readings you got.

The rated frequency of the memory sticks, I not sure, but at a guess, it appears this is done by multiplying, in other words, the
Timing - notice readings on the Memory tab under Timings. FSB : DRAM 2:8 and the other settings use like 8 Clocks and 19 Clocks.
Also notice the FB Frequency 2133 MHz

It appears there are a lot of variables here.

So like you, I would need to see an explanation of how this works to achieve the 10666 MHz rating

You might want to stop by the Corsair Forums and post a question to Ram Guy about this to see if you can get an explanation of
how it works and what's what. I'd be very interested to see the results myself so I can better understand this myself instead of
guessing as to how it works.

http://www.asktheramguy.com/forums/tags.php?tag=i7

Sorry but just for your information and all others out there, they are multiple setups from the factory with FX6800-01e. Me and a friend did a load of research on it and also checking like my system out. I have Ci7 FX6800-01e 920 running at 2.67GHz and with stock RAM of 3 GBs... However, unlike the one on tigerdirect.com ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Rk-eBqe0I ) They had the black ATI HD4850 card with 1GB of RAM yet they didn't read the labels on the card or the Catalyst Control center saying that it has 1024 MBs of discrete GDDR3. Its in the top slot, which if you read the motherboard is slot two on mine. and it has Wireless Antenna leads.

Now the one you all may have is the ATI HD4850 red card like on this one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vrZxarxsKw ), if so then you definitely only have 512 MBs of GDDR3 and you are in my systems slot 2 PCIe x16 slot.

But if your system is like my system has the black card in the bottom slot and no antenna leads. You just may have the turbo boost enabled on the motherboard by default and probably shouldn't install the update just cause it causes problems on systems like mine when it was installed.

The only speed improvements you can get is 266 MHz max, and that is limited if you don't have your fans on fast, or you didn't install a case fan in the front of the case like I did.

Most all devices out there like CPU-Z and others, may or may not detect the turbo boost, I haven't seen any Ci7 system as of yet from any OEM show that it has any noticable turbo mode, the only way you can find out is by playing single or dual threaded things, and then the system jumps from core to core with instructions that you may not see it.


A SIDE NOTE....
In my post before this one I forgot to mention that the PC3-12800 and higher RAM for the system creates a serious hotspot and also if your graphics card is in the top slot it creates a even higher hot spot on the motherboards north bridge. I moved my card back to the primary card slot as it is labeled on the board PCIEx16A slot which is my bottom slot and put a case fan in to help cool the hot spot that the RAM created. and also helps the system stay more stable at speed that I believe my systems turbo mode has.

Also if you get the check sum error, don't panic wait a bit, you may have to restart a time or two and it will pop up the check sum again then give you options F1 for something F2 for something else, choose the one that allows you to boot a drive, have it boot the C drive, then go back and do the Start > Run part of 6 above again, as this will just flash over the top of your existing flash.

NOTE.... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU READ AND DO THIS TOO....

turn off or deactivate or close all system tray programs except for the safely remove hardware, also unplug from the network as the link can also throw a problem that causes the check sum.

if you use a gadget or widget anything, make sure they are all off.

You're lucky to have the antenna wires in your case
Mine didn't come with any.

You'll want to use a Mini PCIe WiFi Card which fits in the last PCIe slot at the bottom of your case.
Here is an example of one with a few others listed below it.
http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Wif [...] 000QAY00K/

As for the Catalyst error you're getting, I have no idea how to go about solving that one without checking it out first hand as I haven't had the luck to encounter that error yet.

This is the only thing I could find concerning your error

Here is what Steam is. http://store.steampowered.com/about/

Here is the Wikipedia Link describing Steam

In other words, it's a DRM and content delivery service that comes with many games today.

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As to the Mini PCIe WiFi card, those are the correct ones to use and the one that Gateway uses is the LITEON Realtek 8187SE b g.

If you want the same card, look for the one with the same chipset.

You really need to pay attention to what is written and not read something into it that is not there.

I was not referring to the Modem which is included in the system and I did not say that the WiFi card was included with the system.

What I was referring to is the type of WiFi card that Gateway uses for the systems they decide to include it with. Why else would they include the antenna leads and the driver for the WiFi card?

If you check the drivers that come with the system, you will see this one is included too whether or not the system comes with WiFi included.

Realtek Wireless mini LITEON Realtek 8187SE b g

This driver is located in the hidden EISA partition on your system and can be found under this directory:
<EISA Partition>:\D2D\Patch\MODULES\ACER-HQ1\DRV

You can access the EISA partition using Ext2 IFS For Windows
which can be downloaded from http://www.fs-driver.org/

I just realized something as well, the primary adapter is the 4850, i even switched out the cards, no luck, must be a bios fix, but yea, need a lil hand b4 i do anything. don't want to fk it up

Thank you again for ur help renegade.
The AMD game forum has helped out. Still trying to figure out how to get GTA IV and such to recognize both of the cards together. Trial and error.

Take care and Good Computing
~Nub

Not sure if I can solve this or not as remote support is not my strong point, but I'm willing to give it a try with what I can think of.

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Now if you haven't done this yet, then reboot your system and use F-2 to get into the BIOS.

From there, go into the Advanced BIOS Features section, then set these two options

- Quick Boot = Disabled
- Quiet Boot = Disabled

When you've done this, use F-10 to save and exit the BIOS.

This cause the system to show the Boot screen instead of the Gateway Logo and after it initializes the USB controller, you'll see the system run a Memory test. Here you'll be able to see how much of your memory that the system is actually seeing.

If it doesn't show the full amount, then I'd say to shutdown your system, unplug it, then hold the power button in for about 10 seconds to drain any residual power, then open the system.

Next, if you have an Anti-Static wrist strap, use it. Otherwise make sure you discharge yourself before touching the anything inside the unit.

You'll want to pull all the memory from the system, then clean the memory slots with compressed air. The memory sticks you can use an ink eraser to clean the edge connector contacts. Then starting with the slot nearest the processor, carefully insert the sticks one at a time locking the bottom edge first, then the top edge.

Careful not to use too much pressure as you don't want to crack the motherboard.

Once all the memory sticks are inserted, you'll want to be sure they are fully seated. Double check to make sure the top edge tabs are fully locked, then carefully use a flat head screw driver to make sure each of the tabs on the lower edge are fully locked.

Once you've completed this, plug the system back in, then boot the system and see what it says for total memory. You may have to enter the BIOS, then use F-10 to save the configuration before booting to Windows.

-

Hopefully this will help solve your problem.

If not, then there might be a problem with the memory itself such as incompatibility with your system
(I have no idea which type of DDR3 you purchased) or there might be some other problem such as bad memory.

-

There is just one other thing that comes to mind.

With the original three sticks of memory, does the system recognize them as 3MB?

If not, then it's possible that the memory controller in the processor might be faulty although I have no idea if the system would still boot if this were the case.


- This is about all I can think of on this topic

When you buy memory for this system, you want to make sure the memory is rated for Core i7 and you get the Tri-Channel kits so as to make sure the memory is matched up.

- Good Luck

I don't bother with the Gateway site for the drivers as they haven't bothered to keep the drivers updated.

As to the Hard Drive in the front bay, with Intel Matrix Storage Console open, select Actions > Rescan for Plug and Play Devices. The drive should show up in the Consol window.

If this does not work, in the BIOS, did you set the drives to AHCI ?

Integrated Peripherals

- Onboard SATA Mode > AHCI
- Onboard ESATA Controller > SATA Mode

Using the Above settings, the drives are Hot Swappable as long as you have the Intel Matrix Storage Manager installed.
If it's not installed, the system will reboot the moment you plug a drive in while the system is running.

If everything is set correctly and the Matrix Controller is installed, then you might need to do this:

Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management

You'll probably see the drive listed here and in the lower part, you'll probably see a yellow mark.
If this is the case, then right click in the area of the mark and select > Initialize Drive.

It's possible that the drive may not have been initialized. But after this, the system should recognize it when ever you plug it in.

The one other possibility is an SATA cable might be loose or unplugged in the case.

You'll need to check the SATA connectors on the bottom left corner of the motherboard.

The SATA Drive Connectors on the motherboard are as follows:

1 - 2
3 - 4
5 - 6

The even numbers are the bottom connectors (against the motherboard)
The odd connectors are the top connectors.

1 & 2 are closest to the memory.

As to the Restore Disk, you should be able to get them to send the disk to you. Just tell them that you were unable to create a the Restore Disks using the Gateway Recovery Manager program. This has been a common problem for many FX6800 owners. I was able to get the recovery disks this way with no problem even though I doubt I'll ever use them.