I’m just so darned irritated with Gateway…I’m tired of the run around, i’m tired of them not knowing what the hell they are doing, i’m tired of the email tag, i’m tired of them sending email responses to me saying dear (my husbands name), when the emails were clearly signed in bold letters MRS. (my name). Even when i bitched about this clear disrespect towards me-in a letter, I received a letter in response addressed TO MY HUSBAND!!! Funny, the computer is even in my name!! I’ve been having problems since i’ve reformatted my computer. Nothing runs properly anymore. I keep getting illegal operations, fatal errors, etc etc. My clock in my computer is bad, they insist it is in my head…HOW THE HELL CAN IT BE IN MY HEAD WHEN I CHANGED IT 2 HOURS AGO, AND IT SAYS NOW…IT IS 11:28AM, WHEN ITS ACTUALLY 1:30AM??? You know, i’m not computer illiterate, and i know i sure the hell am not the computer guru…but give me a damn break!
okay, sorry…i just had to rant and bitch. i have so much to complain about with this company!!! what happened to the old gateway company that cared about their customers?? when i went to purchase a new computer, i should have known better not to go to gateway. Anyone else have problems with gateway??
Mm. Sounds bad. Take a deep breath. Maybe we can help you. But you have to be more specific since I don’t think it matters to what name they reply. Personally? I love Dell. Never had a problem. But maybe I can help with yours. Can you get the system to boot up? If yes, what do you see when you do? Windows 95 or 98?
Best!
Byz
Voted most sex obsessed. (Yeah, blow me smart ass!)
I work part-time as a network admin, and have purchased over 20 computers from Gateway over the last year and a half. Sorry, this isn’t a flame or a bitch but want to give you my take on things.
Yes, I have had 2 machines that were crap, but they both went down with in a week of each other manufactured the same date. I suspect it was the mother boards…
Anyhow, rather than emailing, you might try calling their 800 #. If you have a Gateway country store close, try that too, I have had very good look with the local service center when a hardware issue pops up.
It sounds to me that you may have a bad system battery…this can be an easy fix for anyone without fears of a computer…course this is just my observation.
You may have a motherboard problem, since you have reinstalled your OS, and I am going off my past, you may have a hardware failure. Check to make sure that your power supply fan, in the back is kicking out air. If it’s not, you have a bad power supply and can mean serious problems for your system as a whole. I had this happen on a local built machine, it aint pretty.
Again, you should try calling them rather than emailing them, I am sure a tech will understand if you calmly call and explain your issue…BTW how old is this machine?
Byzantine & Techchick…thanks…
the fan is kicking out air. I’ve thought about it being the system battery, but when I spoke w/a gentleman on the phone about it (gateway tech rep) he said he doesnt feel this is the problem. i’ve called them a few times, most the time all i hear is dead air. i never really thought about taking it to the gateway country store we have nearest me. i’ll have to give it a try. thank you!
Oh, i almost forgot…i purchased the system in december 99. thanks again!
(pulling this out of the cobwebs of my brain) but if you hit F2 when the machine is booting up, you can get into the BIOS. This, if you aren’t up on 'puter stuff, is the innerds of your computer.
Did they have you change the BIOS clock or the Windows clock?
Tech – are you trying to help her boot up into safe mode? That might help her load up but not solve the problem. I’d get your butt to a store… most PCs, regardless of where or who they are from, should at least “boot up”.
If not, call the 800 number or go to a dealer near you. Take the CPU with you (since that seems to be the problem).
And hey, let us know what happens!
Best!
Byz
Voted most sex obsessed. (Yeah, blow me smart ass!)
Nope Byz, that last remark was to see if she has been in the BIOS to figure out if the RTC is set properly.
Also, from what she has said, she can boot the machine up but is having an extraordinary amount of IOs. I had a similar problem when my power supply went out.
I even think, if things were working correctly before the reinstall of the OS, that she may have a corrupt installation. But since I don’t know all the details it’s hard to say…
In any case I am hoping we can help her with the problems she is having.
I have a new gateway at home, and computer’s are my thing (nice way of saying tech geek), so I know how to do lot’s of stuff on them.
Hey strait, why not follow these steps? (after you replace the battery-they sell them all over for like 2 bucks-and flash the bios.)
If I worked in tech and you called me, here’s what I would have you do:
First I would pull the battery.
Wait for the new one, or tell you to go buy a new one at the local Radio Shack. (Take the old ond so you can match the number.) And install the new battery when youy have it.
Boot to the 98 CD and exit the program.
Format the hard drive from there (you’ll end up at D:\win98> ) by typing “format c: /u /c” without the quotes.
When it is done (about 30 minutes later), it will ask for an 11 character volume label. Press enter for none. You’ll be back to the D:\win98> prompt.
Take out the 98 CD and insert your system restoration CD and boot to it.
Once at the main menu, you will have to select the options to install your operating system (windows 98). Here’s what I don’t know: The menu will look different depending on when you got the system. BUT, since you seem to have a clue, you should be able to figure it out from there.
That should be enough to get you to a point where you can set it up yourself, with out it being all messed up.
Once you have the OS up and running, before installing anything else, I would do this:
1)click start/run
2)type “msconfig” (no quotes) and OK
3)It should run the “System Configuration Utility”
A) Put a bullet next to “selective startup”
B) Take all the checks out except process win.ini and system.ini
c) Click apply/Okay, (it might put a check back in config.sys, that’s okay.) it will prompt for a restart, click yes.
After it restarts you will notice that all the extraneous crap that runs in the background is gone from the systray (the lil icons by the clock.)
A lot of these programs are tsr’s (terminate and stay resident) and they can cause all kinds of shit, much like what you are understandably pissed about.
This has a good chance of fixing you up. HOWEVER, this is based on a very limited description of the problem at hand, and your problem could be indicative of a deeper problem.
As long as there is no hardware that is having a problem other than the battery, this should cure what ails you.
Lemme know…
“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”
Lex – I don’t think it’s a good idea to have her re-formatting her hard drive… only in the most dire of circumstances and only if she really, REALLY knew what she was doing…
Let’s just vote to take it to the distributor… K?
::terrified that all our “advice” will make things worse for her::
Best!
Byz
Voted most sex obsessed. (Yeah, blow me smart ass!)