Vicki
Tampa,#2Consumer Comment
Fri, November 24, 2006
lets get everone together on gateway because i was having screen probs to going black and then coming on waiting on a sticker to come to send it back to gateway for repair the battery heated up and i dropped it and now they are refusing to repair even though their are plenty of people here who had screen concerns as well they have an excuse now to do nothing and refused to replace battery either right now i took the battery out because i am worried it will catch fire it was 30 days old at the time i have a 900.00 dollar paper weight
Vicki
Tampa,#3Consumer Comment
Fri, November 24, 2006
lets get everone together on gateway because i was having screen probs to going black and then coming on waiting on a sticker to come to send it back to gateway for repair the battery heated up and i dropped it and now they are refusing to repair even though their are plenty of people here who had screen concerns as well they have an excuse now to do nothing and refused to replace battery either right now i took the battery out because i am worried it will catch fire it was 30 days old at the time i have a 900.00 dollar paper weight
Vicki
Tampa,#4Consumer Comment
Fri, November 24, 2006
lets get everone together on gateway because i was having screen probs to going black and then coming on waiting on a sticker to come to send it back to gateway for repair the battery heated up and i dropped it and now they are refusing to repair even though their are plenty of people here who had screen concerns as well they have an excuse now to do nothing and refused to replace battery either right now i took the battery out because i am worried it will catch fire it was 30 days old at the time i have a 900.00 dollar paper weight
Vicki
Tampa,#5Consumer Comment
Fri, November 24, 2006
lets get everone together on gateway because i was having screen probs to going black and then coming on waiting on a sticker to come to send it back to gateway for repair the battery heated up and i dropped it and now they are refusing to repair even though their are plenty of people here who had screen concerns as well they have an excuse now to do nothing and refused to replace battery either right now i took the battery out because i am worried it will catch fire it was 30 days old at the time i have a 900.00 dollar paper weight
Lana
Sacramento,#6Consumer Comment
Fri, September 08, 2006
Aafes, Your comment about the BIOS problem is very interesting! I don't know what BIOS represents but, you did a good job explaining what happens when the chip is bad. I sent photos to Gateway of the screen that I managed to capture. The message on the screen said to check installation of software or hardware (this was fresh back from the factory). It says to disable BIOS memory options. At the bottom it says beginning to dump physical memory. At that point the screen went black. The BIOS message was new but, the cd was bad and I had unresolved problems with the display screen. The report from the factory indicated keyboard failure; everything you mentioned. (Plus it was over heating). I faxed this (and other photos) to Gateway. Gateway refused to respond. As you surmised, Gateway is not interested in a single consumer; they ignored me until I sent them the final demand for refund before I file a lawsuit.
Lana
Sacramento,#7Consumer Comment
Fri, September 08, 2006
Aafes, Your comment about the BIOS problem is very interesting! I don't know what BIOS represents but, you did a good job explaining what happens when the chip is bad. I sent photos to Gateway of the screen that I managed to capture. The message on the screen said to check installation of software or hardware (this was fresh back from the factory). It says to disable BIOS memory options. At the bottom it says beginning to dump physical memory. At that point the screen went black. The BIOS message was new but, the cd was bad and I had unresolved problems with the display screen. The report from the factory indicated keyboard failure; everything you mentioned. (Plus it was over heating). I faxed this (and other photos) to Gateway. Gateway refused to respond. As you surmised, Gateway is not interested in a single consumer; they ignored me until I sent them the final demand for refund before I file a lawsuit.
Lana
Sacramento,#8Consumer Comment
Fri, September 08, 2006
Aafes, Your comment about the BIOS problem is very interesting! I don't know what BIOS represents but, you did a good job explaining what happens when the chip is bad. I sent photos to Gateway of the screen that I managed to capture. The message on the screen said to check installation of software or hardware (this was fresh back from the factory). It says to disable BIOS memory options. At the bottom it says beginning to dump physical memory. At that point the screen went black. The BIOS message was new but, the cd was bad and I had unresolved problems with the display screen. The report from the factory indicated keyboard failure; everything you mentioned. (Plus it was over heating). I faxed this (and other photos) to Gateway. Gateway refused to respond. As you surmised, Gateway is not interested in a single consumer; they ignored me until I sent them the final demand for refund before I file a lawsuit.
Lana
Sacramento,#9Consumer Comment
Fri, September 08, 2006
Aafes, Your comment about the BIOS problem is very interesting! I don't know what BIOS represents but, you did a good job explaining what happens when the chip is bad. I sent photos to Gateway of the screen that I managed to capture. The message on the screen said to check installation of software or hardware (this was fresh back from the factory). It says to disable BIOS memory options. At the bottom it says beginning to dump physical memory. At that point the screen went black. The BIOS message was new but, the cd was bad and I had unresolved problems with the display screen. The report from the factory indicated keyboard failure; everything you mentioned. (Plus it was over heating). I faxed this (and other photos) to Gateway. Gateway refused to respond. As you surmised, Gateway is not interested in a single consumer; they ignored me until I sent them the final demand for refund before I file a lawsuit.
Steve
Bradenton,#10Consumer Suggestion
Mon, May 29, 2006
Although I do believe the BIOS is the culprit as well, there is one more snake in the grass. Gateway, and a few other manufacturers use video cards and sound cards, etc that are very old. This makes them out of date and incompatible with SP2, as the software for them was written prior to SP2. I encountered the exact same problems with my Toshiba laptop. I went thru all the same motions you did for 9 months! The problem is one they still have NO FIX for! A Yamaha sound card that has no working update for SP-2 and the BIOS in the Toshiba. The sound card cannot be changed as it is integrated to the motherboard! That was a waste of $2600! I still have it, and it is useless without the motherboard change, or I can use it for non internet activities without SP-2 installed.
Aafes
Viernheim,#11Consumer Comment
Mon, May 29, 2006
Elizabeth, This definitely sounds like a BIOS problem. The BIOS chip, on the motherboard, contains programming code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives (including CD/DVD drives) and other miscellaneous functions. Either the BIOS chip itself is defective, or it needs to be "flash" programmed. Some BIOS chips allow for flash programming by the end user by simply downloading a file update from the manufacturer of the chip, inserting a disk and rebooting the computer. If the chip itself is defective you will need a new motherboard as it is hardwired into the system. Gateway "technicians" are probably not even considering the BIOS. They are able to boot the computer, and if they check the BIOS note it's date is current enough for your system when manufactured. Most BIOS makers release updates to the program code after chips are manufactured. The bottom line, Gateway simply isn't interested enough in you, a single consumer, to care. They think they have already gone out of their way for you. I would find a reliable PC shop locally, take it in, explain all that has occurred and ask them to flash the BIOS first.
Mike
Garland,#12UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, May 29, 2006
I used to work in the RMA deptartment for a company that serviced Gateway computers. The problem that you have described is one that was very common for the 818GM , 816GM and 614GE . It is not the CD rom drive or the hardrive. The problem is the bios on the motherboard. We discovered that problem in January of 2005. The only way to fix that is flash the bios .