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    #21
    Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

    Originally posted by bgavin
    Actually, I'd buy an eMachine and discard the BESTEC before powering it up.

    I have several dead eMachines in the bin that were murdered by the BESTEC. They appear to use 100% Intel boards, not the customized bullshit put out by Gateway. The tip-off is the BIOS mfgr code. These use genuine Intel BIOS, which is up to date. The Gateway BIOS is always downlevel and/or nonexistent.

    It will blizzard in Hell before I ever buy a Gateway. Or HP. Or VAIO. Or Lenovo.
    Seems to me that sort of thing flip-flops back and forth with Gateway and eMachines. Depends on the specific board.

    I have several Intel SE7210TP1-E which are OEM to Gateway server boards.
    They flash to Intel's BIOS without a hitch.
    -
    Also have some FIC VC37-L and VC37GV OEM to eMachines boards. They have eMachines crippled BIOS with few settings available and refuse to flash anything else.

    .
    Mann-Made Global Warming.
    - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

    -
    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

    - Dr Seuss
    -
    You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
    -

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      #22
      Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

      Originally posted by gdement
      Seems to me like the general quality of computer hardware has been in decline. Perhaps as a result of the components being under more stress, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it.
      With newer computers, it almost seems like they're all a bunch of Ferraris - fast but prone to break at any moment. I feel safer running old stuff.

      The only Gateway I've dealt with was a microATX Celeron socket-370 model. The only thing wrong with it was a pathetic 45W power supply. It has an Intel board in it and still works great, but I'm sure a lot has changed since 1999.

      I had a similar observation of Packard Bell. As bad as their reputation was, I happened across one of their late Pentium machines one time and it had a perfectly good Intel board in it. Overclocked like a demon too, once I looked up the jumper settings. If only the original owner had known what it was capable of.
      I generally find older computer parts can take a lot more abuse-software wise and physically. Most the old socket 370/slot 1 boards I have laying around I just pick up by one end, no ESD strap, boards usually flexes a little. Same with the processors and ram, just kinda laying around, usually with stuff on top of them. But, I will hook everything up and they fire up just fine. New motherboards, if you move the case the wrong way they suddenly won't post, now you have to open it up, reset the bios, reseat the video card, etc...

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        #23
        Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

        I've never owned an Emachine but fixed many.
        My Gateways however you'd have to pry from my dead hands.
        My main machine is this Profile4, the wife is on her Profile3.
        The Solo2000 notebooks here may be clunky but still solid, hinges and all.
        I laugh when I recall the Emachine giveaway program, Everyone gets a free new computer, (when you commit to three years of exorbitant internet acces)
        Jim

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          #24
          Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

          I love the Solo series notebooks! - You are right. They are tough.

          I used to refurbish that series for resale. I still have some working 2300, 9100, 9150, 5300, 9300, 9500, 9550 chassis around here left over from that. Some are incomplete due to parting out but I have enough parts to check they work by swapping things around. Even the ancient 2300's still work great.

          My favorite were the 9100 and 9150. Very hard to break those.
          The some Trident Chipset 9100's and all 9150's have 'hardware' DVD decoder. Those don't need much CPU and make great portable DVD players. The Decoder in the 9100 was an optional add-in PCB module but any originally having a DVD player got one. The chip on the 9100's add-in module is only driver supported in W98 and earlier. The one in 9150 works in W2K with no issues and W2k has the drivers built in. - I've read that the 9150's decoder works in Linux and I think it's XP compatible. I haven't tried Linux on one (yet) and I don't use XP but I received a 9150 (bought to part out) and it came with XP already loaded. I checked before I wiped the drive and the player seemed to work fine,, but I'm not sure if XP was using hardware decoding or software.

          I was still using a 9150 w/15" LCD as a portable library /document reader (off to the side of the work) up until early this year when the hard drive finally croaked. When 'old faithful's' hard drive died I decided to upgrade to a 9550 for the Tualatin based CPU core, the 15.7" screen, and more RAM capacity. ,, But I miss 'old faithful' and I'll probably put it back together.

          I still use a Solo 9100 that's dedicated to reading the computers in cars via a USB interface gadget. Just seemed easier and safer to load that software up on a dedicated (and inexpensive) machine. 'Safer' because wires get tangled and things get dropped while working on cars.

          Of those I've had the only one I didn't care for was the 5300 model.
          Have to swap floppy and optical and it's not hot-swap.
          And disregarding confused (aka WRONG) data-sheets the actual chipset is a ZX which is a wimpy BX based chip.

          Some of the data-sheets for 9550 are also wrong. They state the wrong chipset [which is self evident by the fact the chipset they say it is doesn't work with the CPU's the model shipped with] and give max RAM at 512MB.
          - 9550's actually support 1GB RAM via 2 512Mb modules.
          I once checked with Crucial's 'configurator' to find compatible RAM, but Crucial is going by the wrong info and so reports the wrong compatibility info.
          - I explained it to them (Gateway and Crucial) ~2001? ~2002? when 9550's were still fairly current machines. Neither one gave a shit and the bad published info persists.

          .
          Mann-Made Global Warming.
          - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.

          -
          Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

          - Dr Seuss
          -
          You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
          -

          Comment


            #25
            Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

            Hmm Hateway...

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              #26
              Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

              Originally posted by bgavin View Post
              I am annoyed with the entire Gateway service experience. After spending 25 years at IBM Service, I know that wiping a disk to replace a failed part is complete bullshit. I don't need the customer password, or operating system, because I have all the tools required to fully test the entire hardware system.

              I place many Dell machines with my clients. For warranty repairs, the tech comes on-site, Next Business Day, and never wipes a customer disk when replacing a power supply or mother board.

              Almost none of the general users have your ability to back up and restore their system. Most don't understand backup at all, let alone restoring a system image. Destruction of customer data is a prime example of terrible service and utter lack of concern for the customer. It is also typical of big corporate policies. The customer should be told point-blank this will happen, and this should be confirmed in the RMA paper work, not buried in the fine print.

              Q: If the warranty repair shop kept your car or turned off your water for 60 days, would you be happy?
              A. Not at all!!!!!

              I think it should be a crime for repair people to wipe the drive over a failed anything. Gateway (uh, Hateway).

              Comment


                #27
                Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

                You revived a four-year-old thread?

                Anyway, I didn't think my Solo 2500 was very good. It always had USB issues, and the plastic case started to crack and fall apart a few years ago. The hinges are currently attached with JB Weld because the captive nuts broke out of the top lid. Of course, the replacement top lid is only available for the 12" model, and mine is the 13" version.

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                  #28
                  Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

                  Originally posted by lti View Post
                  Of course, the replacement top lid is only available for the 12" model, and mine is the 13" version.
                  ebay?
                  sigpic

                  (Insert witty quote here)

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                    #29
                    Re: Gateway Hall of Shame

                    I haven't seen any on eBay either.

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