- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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0.5 stars
"Not worth your time or money. Look elsewhere for a comptuer."
Pros: The black box it comes in is pretty snazzy.
Cons: Buggy, Poor Quality, Horrible Support
Summary: I bought this machine to be our main system for gaming and as a media center computer. On paper it compared well to the Dell XPS line. It had the ports, graphics, memory, sound, and hard drive space you would need for a versatile computer. The price was a lot better. I could live without the edge the XPS would have in speed for the price. I was wrong.
The problems began before I even got it. It took them 6 months to ship it out. They did offer to cancel the order. I made a mistake and chose to give them a chance. Upon receipt I had a noisy fan. Support diagnosed it as a hard drive but I convinced them to send me the fan and the problem was solved.
The fan was just one thing. The computer would give me a blue screen on most boots (blue screen/automatic reboot repeat), when switching users, when waking up after being idle. After a couple of months of back and forth with support they had me reformat the computer. No joy, I had the same problems. Gateway then had me send it in where they fixed it. Guess how? They reformatted it. I knew we would be doing this again.
Amazingly the computer is more stable. A factory format worked better than one using the CDs that came with the computer. Alas the computer now has a connectivity problem. I can?t always get on the internet, or print to my network printer. I isolate the issue to the Gateway. Meanwhile I figure out my DVD burner can?t burn anything and can?t read DVDs. It still can?t wake up and crashes but does it without a blue screen. I can now switch between users, but my start menu won?t update. Maybe that?s a Vista thing. After working with support and getting nowhere on a solution I reformat and get the Blue screen/Reboot problem that they supposedly fixed the first time. Bingo. 6 months to get the computer. 10 months of troubleshooting and tech support and we are where we started except my fan isn?t noisy. A Senior support tech called and asked me what I wanted and I said ?A computer that works? they told me that I can?t have that. I said ?isn?t that why you have a warrantee?? They arranged for shipment and explained how the process works. Bottom line they will do exactly what they did before and send me back exactly what isn?t working.
Along the way I?ve leaned that Gateway doesn?t read emails. I sent them details on the steps I?d taken to figure out the issues. They would send me back a generic list of things to check. Many of them I had already checked and sent the answers to Gateway. They blamed my network printer and the Senior Tech agent tried to convince me that an HP Printer with a Vista Driver from HP wasn?t Vista Capable and could be causing all my problems because it was made before Vista came out. Another agent tried to blame my network printer. Gateway support is the worst I?ve ever dealt with.
So what?s good on this computer? It comes in a pretty black box. The media center works well and I like the 24? monitor.
