Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!zazen!doug.cae.wisc.edu!bodoh
From: bodoh@engr.wisc.edu (Daniel Bodoh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Gateway 2000 Query - Some problems I've had
Keywords: problems, purchasing
Message-ID: <1991Jun27.205854.28818@doug.cae.wisc.edu>
Date: 28 Jun 91 01:58:53 GMT
References: <2781@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us>
Organization: College of Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
Lines: 38

In article <2781@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us> mscott@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us (Michael Scott) writes:
>
>I am considering buying a new Gateway 2000 486/33.  Before I go that final
>step, I am curious as to whether anyone has heard of any problems with
>Gateway.  
          [stuff deleted]
>Michael Scott

Problems?  I've spent this whole week with problems with 2 Gateway 486/25s.
The first had a very noisy hard drive, and did some very strange things.
Every software installation program I ran locked the computer up, but
it wasn't very consistent.  WP 5.1, for example, locked up while copying,
and on the second try, gave me a divide error.  And in windows, moving
the pointer near text causes random pixels in the area to flip color
so the screen quickly becomes dirty.

On the second, I melted the main chip on the IO/Drive/Game port card.
I got a new one, plugged in the printer, and felt the chip heat up again.

After spending about an hour on the phone with Gateway, I'm getting a
new motherboard and memory for the first (suspect memory problem).  And
it seems the second is the case of an old revision of the board - make
sure you get revision B3, not B, of that combination card.

Gateway was very helpful when I called, I must admit.  However, the
first time I called with the Windows/lockup problem, the tech made me
boot up with no autoexec.bat or config.sys (although I didn't change
them and tried to explain this to her) and she concluded that 
it was a software problem 'cause the intermittent problems didn't 
return during our phone call.


The one machine I did get running with no problems works like a charm.
They are nice machines; maybe it was just my turn for a few problems.

Good luck!

Dan Bodoh