Why Not To Order A Gateway Computer

I’ve been jumping through hoops the past week trying to get a new computer for work. Originally, I pieced together a really nice box from parts I found at Microcenter. We ended up getting a Gateway from Newegg…not my call, but it had a sweet processor and 6 gigs of ram to boot so I figured …what the hell? And here we go.

4 Reasons to Avoid Gateway

• Gateway will not provide a copy of the original OEM disk.
• Because they don’t provide a copy of the installed OS new machines with Vista installed cannot be downgraded.
• Technical support is a joke.
• You have to register your computer before they will support it.

Why would you want to downgrade from Windows Vista?

Talk to any network guy and he’ll likely go on about all the many issues with networking a computer with Vista. My innitial problem was Vista has trouble logging into roaming profiles, which is how we are set up where I work.

Read more about Downgrade Rights here

A word about Gateway’s technical support

If you do have to contact Gateway technical support you’ll need to locate your serial number. Once you actually get through the automated support nonsense to talk to a real live person you’ll have to register your machine before they will give you any tech support.

Sooo after I’d done all this and explained that I needed to downgrade my operating system they told me they only provide a copy of the backed up partition that came installed on my computer when it arrived. I explained that I needed the original disk in order to perform the downgrade. They told me to order another copy of XP.

In a word, “AWESOME”!

So bottom line I’m still working on my old machine. I do have 2 new beautiful 22″ Acer monitors so it’s not all bad. I would have a far superior machine than the Gateway I ordered sitting on my desk and operating right now if we’d just gone with the parts I put together. Now we have to return the copy of XP we ordered and pay a restocking fee for the machine that was supposed to save us money.

Sigh…Such is life. Man I’m glad I’m a web designer. I’d hate to build computers for a living. Oh and stay away from Gateway computers unless you have a lot of patience and time to waste.