P-6831FX Overheating

[nilum]

Hello friends,

I bought this laptop last year because it was highly recommended to me by a friend who worked at Best Buy. He told me that for the money it was the best deal they had when I was in the market for a laptop. I was a bit turned off by the size, but I was interested in it because it would be good for watching movies and potentially playing games on. The only negative that he warned me about is that their display unit got extremely hot, but he told me as long as I wasn't planning on having it on my lap it wouldn't be a problem.

I bought it and sure enough it was really hot, but it ran smooth. The only time I had a problem was when I would lay it on my bed and the vents would get covered up, so i mostly used it on a table. I used it at school for watching movies between classes, and surfing the web, but no gaming. When I got home recently I thought it would be nice to sit out on the porch and play some World of Warcraft, but after 10 minutes the system just shut down.

I went back to Best Buy and talked to one of the techs I knew there and he installed HWMonitor and said "I had a feeling that was the problem." My CPU was idling at 50+°C and my GPU was idling at 80+°C. He told me that they had numerous complaints about that specific laptop overheating and the last time he had talked to a technician at gateway about it they had claimed it was a "design flaw." I am not sure exactly what design flaw means, but it seems to me that Gateway knew about this problem yet never issued a recall. The tech also warned me that the laptop would likely deteriorate running at those high temps all the time.

Because I hadn't bought the laptop with their warranty he said the best bet was to call Gateway. Well, the representative would not even talk to me because my warranty through them expired back in February. I even asked to talk to a supervisor and they refused. So I feel a bit ripped off. If Gateway did know that there was a design flaw and still sold the product, what course of action can I take to get my laptop repaired?

BTW I have done some searching online and it doesn't seem I am alone with this issue.

[glc]

The only negative that he warned me about is that their display unit got extremely hot

Isn't hindsight wonderful? You either should not have bought it or you should have bought an extended warranty. Sorry to say it, but you rolled the dice and lost, KNOWING of potential issues.

[nilum]

I was only told it got hot, he didn't say that it would overheat. Also I mentioned that the product never had issues until I attempted to play a game.

Also why are you siding with the manufacturer of a defective product. Are you saying that it's okay to ripoff consumers by selling them products that won't do what they are supposed to?

Not every consumer is going to think that heat is going to be an issue. I never thought that it could possibly be as bad as it is.

Also I didn't "roll the dice" because I never thought it wouldn't be able to handle playing games. How did I roll the dice? He just told me it got too hot to set on my lap, not that it got too hot to play games.

Also I dislike your attitude: "if I were in the situation I would have made a better decision - so you deserve what you get." Rather unprofessional way of presenting your opinion.

The problem is not everyone is as technically knowledgeable as you and apparently neither is the person who suggested this laptop. Why should I be stuck with a defective product?

Regardless... is there some way I could fix it myself? Seeing as it's probably my only option. Any advice for opening up my laptop?

[Alaron]

Make sure the vents are cleared out of any dust. Use canned air to do that.

Also, I'd invest in a laptop cooler. It will elevate the unit from the table and bring in more cool air with a fan or two, depending on the model. I don't have a specific model to recommend, but it would be the easiest way to tackle the problem.