Jeff, Hopefully you found a fix to your problem and that you are still using
this fine machine. The problem that you have is a well known problem with
both the GW 7422GX and the EMachines m6811. Both GW and Emachines (before
the buy out) put out these machine and are based on the Arima Shadow MB. It
seems that E-machines had a bigger problem with this that GW and it could be
that GW had a tougher QC process than Emachines.
It is believed that the problem is in the thermal detection fan switch
somewhere but it has never been pinned down. There hare several temporary
fixes out there. I have both machines and still use them today for various
things. If you go to
www.notebookforums.com you will find a bevy of
information on fixes that people have tried.
There are two big things that you can do to reduce the frequency of the cut
offs but I can't guarantee that it will totally eliminate your problem.
(1) You need to open your machine, remove and clean the CPU fan. Once dust
collects on the fan blades, it drops your cooling efficiency sharply. You
will have to use some type of cleaning solvent because you have two fans in
your assembly. Please use some Q-Tips to clean as much of the dust out of the
inside as you can.
(2) Clean the processor and apply new thermal compound. Artic Silver 5
worked very good for me.
(3)When you replace torque them down but be very careful! If you torque
them too much, the screws will break and you will have to replace the
mounting bracket and get new screws which is not very easy to find.
There is still a flaw in the circuitry but this should drastically reduce
the overheating issue.
On one of my machines, of re-engineered the heat sink to add a thin layer of
copper plating and some additional venting slots to get faster heat
dissipation and dispersal from the chamber. I haven't had a problem for a
couple of years now and these machine (although not in primary rotation) are
still heavily used with confidence.
Good luck if you are still having problems.
