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"Beware: Random Shut Downs!" on by nogoalz
Pros: Starts out as a beast of a machine. Runs great for 3-4 months. A lot of computer for the money!
Cons: Begins to randomly shut down. Will only run for a maximum of 30 minutes at a time
Summary: The random shutdown problem is a widely known issue with this computer however Gateway refuses to acknowledge it. It is well documented on dozens of websites and forums as well as Gateways own site. I have spent the last week on the phone and chat with Gateway reps in India trying to troubleshoot the problem. They now want me ship my computer to TX for additional troubleshooting. In addition, they advised me to backup my computer before shipping as the repair facility would likely return my machine to factory specs. Duh, I can't get the computer to run for more than 20-30 minutes so how am I supposed to do a backup. Why can't Gateway just admit that this machine has a major design flaw and authorize repair facilities to install case fans to correct the problem? I'll be calling Best Buy today to see about having a fan installed, at my expense!
- 11 replies to this review
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i bought the same computer. had the same problems. after arguing with bestbuy for 6 months i had my buddy blow out vista and install windows 7 it runs cooler and faster. gateway was a joke, so is geek squad. get rid of vista. i lost all my info when bestbuy backed up my files they gave me blank disks and would not refund my money.
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I concur, have the same problem with this computer. Definitely is the fan, bad design. Complaining to Gateway does nothing. Others also are reporting it's the fan. See this post, http://www.classactionfaq.com/defective-products/gateway/
Time to get some answers. -
I had the same problem. They had me flash my bios(I believe the bios date is late July 2009) and so far the problem has been resolved.
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I had the same problem with my Gateway but it started after 6 months, it would only run for about a half hour. Gateway told me to update the BIOS. I thought it was BS since the online forums said it's probably the power supply. I went ahead and updated the BIOS expecting nothing good to happen. It's been 1 week and I haven't had it shut down since the update. It was an easy fix.
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I too have this model of PC and after 6 months started to experience the random shut downs. Now I can barely get in an hour early in the morning while it is cool I have yet to try adding fans, but that is the next step.
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I realize this is frustrating but the fix is actually very simple. Hte unit is having heat issues. You can add additional fans to teh inside in the open spots and the problem will go away unless the heat build up has already caused permenant damage. Gateway will replace the mobo if this is the case and may even add an additional fan. They put out a Bios update to turn the single fan in the unit up to max speed and run constant.
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Fan, motherboard and power supply did not work. My computer has been down since July. You are 100% right, after 3.5 months it just start shutting down.
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It is indeed a heat problem. I had the same shut down problem. I bought a quiet $10 9" box fan, pulled the side panel of the case off andnow it will run for days upon days with no shut down.....
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Nogoalz, this is EXACTLY what has happened to my LX-6810 as well. I had to contact Gateway support and I was told to ship my CPU (at my expense) to them for "repair". I wonder if that "repair" includes adding additional case fans? Hmmmm. I think the machine is definitely a beast when it runs but when it shuts down in the middle of searching the Internet or playing a game, it is very, very frustrating. I am going to write a review here as well so that others who may be thinking of buying this machine will think twice. I WILL NEVER BUY A GATEWAY again! I can't depend on my machine and that is not a good thing!
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I installed 2 cooler fans and it seems to be running better. Same here, bought it in February and it started shutting down in June. Gateway is not helpful! Neither is Best Buy even with the Geek Squad protection plan. I recommend buying 1 80mm fan for the front (pulls air down away from the HDD) and 1 120mm fan for the back. These are very cheap at newegg.com. .99 for the 80mm and 4.99 for the 120mm. It's a bunch of crap but it seems to be working. (Knock on wood). The heat issue is caused by the lack of the fans and the video card. It gets hot enough to hurt you when you touch it and since the PCI slots are so close together my wireless card and TV tuner started to fail too. Geek Squad replaced the TV card and the video card, I installed the fans, all SEEMS to be well for now. Hope this helps.
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I own one of these too and to be honest I would hope putting an honest bad review here would force Gateway to take care of me as a customer and fix this dam computer but I know it won't help because people will stop buying them and then only a handful of people will be left out in the cold with no warranty or tech support. Its better for me to leave a 5 star review so gateway will sell a ton of these and then when they all take a crap on the buyers, gateway will be flooded with so many complaints they will have to find a solution or face a huge backlash from the public. My computer also shuts down at random sometimes. It also does not run as fast as you would expect for a Quad Core 2 Processor Machine with so much RAM. The Vista 64 OS obsoletes all your old accessories that don't have support or drivers available and more than half of your software that was for XP32 or even Vista 32 will not run on these computers as well. Its a major mistake to buy something that is so new etc.
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