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- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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2.5 stars
"Inexpensive but unreliable."
Pros: When it's working, Vista boots and runs with adequate speed. Out-of-the-box setup and wireless performance were fine. It's an attractive package and we thought the screen, keyboard, and controls were OK. Word, Excel, and Firefox run fine.
Cons: After two months of use, it looks like the file system and disk drive are already failing.
Summary: This notebook is a major disappointment. Reliability is poor even though we've always treated this computer gently and used a cooling pad. I sent my daughter off to college with this notebook two months ago and we're now spending many hours trying to fix it.
This notebook black-screened every couple days until we updated the BIOS. The machine still continues to un-sleep itself and crash intermittently. Two months later it can't even boot Vista without attempting heavy file system repairs. The Vista START button quit working, dozens of gigabytes of disk have disappeared, and Gateway support can't explain how to run CHKDSK.
I've had good luck, though, with other inexpensive notebooks running Vista. I'm looking for a replacement machine, but not at Gateway.
