BestBuy's Gateway MT3707

Hello: I have an MT3705, All the Xp drivers can be found by searching for MX3702 on the gateway support site. This is an identical machine with smaller hd and less memory otherwise identical. I have successfully installed XP Pro and now have a sweet dual boot machine. By the way the machine flies with XP. You will be very happy with the performance. Hope that helps. TGB

 

I bought the memory in the link above, works like a charm. Depending on what aps you use, it can make a huge difference in performance. I bought my 3707 to handle light 2D CAD operations in the field, but I tested it on some 3D drawings (which are way more of a load for the system than 2D drawings) and with just 1 gig it could not run CAD 3D drawings well enough to use. After installing the 2 gigs it handled the 3D drawings much better, even surprising me as to how well it runs.

If you want to search using Corsairs memory locater, just use the MT 3705 model number, as its pretty much the same machine (I may be wrong but I think the 3705 has Intel instead of Radeon integrated graphics?) and uses the same memory.

Overall I'm very happy with my 3707, I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Much like how some TV manufacturers (notably Sony) send their TV's to stores intentionally out of adjustment, with the contrast being cranked up overly high, just to make them appear better in the store while sitting next to their competition. Shiny things sell.....


And I'm growing accustomed to Vista, I was dead set against it at first but after using it a while I kinda like it. It may be somewhat of a resource hog, but it also has some performance advantages over XP that make it able to run very well while using those resources. I really like how little time it takes to start/shutdown, and some aps actually seem to run as good or better than XP. And Aero is quite a good looking interface. I now have my desktop in a dual-boot config and I find myself using Vista more than XP now, even for games !

 

Hey guy, I'm really happy with my system 3707 too, especially after removing Vista. Your comment about shiny screens is off. I'm certainly no layman when it comes to this. The glossy screens provide better contrast and color saturation, especially if you are doing photo editing and watching movies. I don't watch movies but I do a heck of a lot of photo editing and I'm a web designer / software developer. The glossy screens render images that more closely resemble CRT screens, which by many professionals are preferred for color saturation etc. The disadvantage as you pointed out earlier is glare. If you sit in a spot where that is not a problem, the glossy screen definitely renders a more lifelike image. It also boils down to a matter of personal taste. But please don't insult others and call them laymen for being attracted to glossy screens; similar to people grocery shopping and being attracted to bright packaging.

 

Mine came with a restore CD.....restores Vista to Gateway specifications....with no bloatware at all.....nice CD....they also included the Windows Vista CD which I guess they give to everyone trying to get them to upgrade.

I'll sell it to your for half price 115 ....lol

I would be curious if you just use the Windows Vista CD and install it...and see if you can just use the Activation number on the bottom of the laptop.....should work in theory.....then just go and get the drivers at gateway

 

My MT3705 gets over 3 hours surfing the web with the display set to 50% brightness.

 

I find Vista is better than XP in handling adwares and viruses (no longer surfing for porn sites for over 3 years now). So normally for surfing on the internet, I will use Vista machine rather than XP machine which slows down when adwares are monitoring my surfing acitivities.

 

I fail to see how having a shiny, reflective surface is going to give a better image. I use a 24" LCD monitor for my desktop and it is as good or better than any CRT monitor and it doesn't need a shiny reflective surface. I use my laptop outside alot and the reflective surface is almost enough for me to take the laptop back. Glare in even the slightest sunlight is horrible.

I honestly believe, and this is only my opinion and nothing more, that these shiny screens are there just so that to the average joe walking in to Best Buy they look a little "better" than the non-shiney screens.

 

There are no matte screens available in retail outlets like bestbuy or circuit City or whatever....they simpy are not sold at retail anymore.
Not on shinny screens are the same....some are less shinny. They are technically brighter....but a matte screen is better for longer usage in my opinion.

This is no different than matte vs gloss printing of photographs.

I think matte is better....but you can not find them in retail. There is one current exception at Office Depot for the lowest end Toshiba....but that is not a normal stock item.

 

I would be surprised if you are seeing anything different other than IE 7 on Vista and IE 6.
Firefox is better than either

 

Ok,
I'll keep it simple, and again it may be user preference. The effect of a shiny screen is similar to when you wax a floor. You'll notice if you look dead on, the floor will have a nicer contrast. It is not any sharper, but it is more pleasing to most. If you place a water droplet on a dull surface, the surface under the droplet is more contrasty. I have systems with both glossy and matte surface, the images just stand out better to me, the blacks are blacker. I've noticed the same with Plasma screen TV vs. LCD, they can be equally as sharp, but to me the plasma appears more pleasing. Again all personal. Not an effort from manufacturers to trick customers into purchasing because they don't know any better. Matte screens have their drawbacks as well. When viewing at an angle, they have a different kind of glare that blocks out a good amount of the image, I don't find them as glare resistant as implied here.

 

I had one of the MT3707s. I brought it back for one reason and one reason only: I wasn't paying attention to the omnipresence of ExpressCard in the budget sector (I can't figure this out for the life of me; wouldn't it make more sense in budget lines to wait until there's some actual *hardware* for the protocol?), and needed a Cardbus slot for my Echo Indigo. Not having one was a dealbreaker, especially since Linux does not yet have the ability to use the existing audio chipset. The thing really is a steal presently for what it cost-- especially the week it was on sale-- and I think the build quality is definitely above and beyond anything else you can get at that price.

Re: the perennial glossy screen controversy: I like glossy screens and own a couple other laptops that have them; I find they're better for outdoor use. But my only other complaint would be that the glossy screen on the 3707 is in fact TOO glossy. It was a problem both indoors and out. I'm really used to glossy screens indoors, but it was just way too much.

 

Not having one was a dealbreaker, especially since Linux does not yet have the ability to use the existing audio chipset. The thing really is a steal presently for what it cost-- especially the week it was on sale-- and I think the build quality is definitely above and beyond anything else you can get at that price.

Re: the perennial glossy screen controversy: I like glossy screens and own a couple other laptops that have them; I find they're better for outdoor use. But my only other complaint would be that the glossy screen on the 3707 is in fact TOO glossy. It was a problem both indoors and out. I'm really used to glossy screens indoors, but it was just way too much.

 

I agree, I did not look closely enough when I purchased and thought it was a PCMCIA slot, which at the moment would have been a preferrence for me. I'm pretty happy with the system anyway. It exceeded my expectations in that price range. Nothing else comes to close at that price point.

 

Hi guys, I just got my MT3707, it's a really nice lap for a cheap price. So, where do I put more memory for the video card? I cannot find it!!! Thx

 

Unfortunately you cannot add more memory to your video card because the ati 200m shares memory with your ram. What you can do to speed up your system though is add more ram. When i bought mine, the memory shared by default was only 64 mb, you could change that in your bios to 128 to give your aero interface a little bit smoothness.

 

I have had this MT3707 for about a week, and have a lot of trouble with the keyboard. Specifically, I have to hit certain keys exactly dead-center, or they will not register. This means that I have to spend a lot of time backspacing to fill in the missed keystrokes. The keys click obediently, but nothing shows up on the screen. Anyone else have this experience? I am not a poor or unusual typist.

Also, despite what everyone else seems to be posting, this Vista machine is VERY slow to start up and shut down (3 minutes or so to full shutdown) and seems to run slowly in comparison to my home Gateway PC (similar processor speed and RAM, but running XP instead).

I occasionally get an error message regarding the ATI software preventing shutdown, and Gateway support directed me to remove and reinstall the ATI driver as well as installing a 93 meg Gateway update. No change to the problem.

Other than the above issues, I do find it a good value, light in weight, and easy to use.

Also re: the earlier post about Best Buy wanting to charge for a restore CD; there is a restore-point partition (D on this machine. Don't know if that would help- unless it's already been wiped off your machine.

Thanks-

 

I just bought a Gateway MT3707 a couple of weeks ago. I was testing the optical dvd-rw drive last night and it was very loud when the drive starts reading the disk. Is anyone having the same problem? Is it normal for the optical drive to produce this much noise?

 

I've had a fujitsu, acer, toshiba, and lately i bought this MT3707 and comparing the loudness of the optical drives I could say that yes it is indeed loud among the others. I'd like to think that the reason why notebook optical drives are quite noisy is because they are at ears point. Comparing to optical drives in desktops, usually they are quite noisy too, but because it's quite far from the ears we usually don't notice 'em.

 

the DVD drive is on the high average for noise....not out of bounds though. It relates to the speed of the dirve and the amount of laptop available to buffer and sheild the noise.

For the sound....I would not be concerned at all....if you said it was vibrating like crazy that would be different.

The other test would be playing a DVD which is a relatively slow spin

 

Which Chipset Did You Guys That Have The Upgraded Mt3705 Got?
If You Were Supposed To Get A T2060 And Got A T2250 Did The Chipset Change From Xpress 200m To Intel 945gm?

Is The Xpress 200m Compatible With T2250 Core Duo?

 

i got the MT3708 T2060 from C.C

i am impressed .. i dont know what everyone is talking about when they mention vista takes a long time to load and shut down ..

side by side by desktop ( P4 2.8 ) it maybe .. maybe takes a extra 10 seconds to load up and shutting down is less than 30 seconds ..

take the bloat-ware off the start up programs

things i like .. i like the BUILD QUALITY . feels very solid . hinges and palm rests are the best i have felt in years ..
the aluminum on the palm rests are worth it .. especially if your like me and hate it when the plastic gets that "worn" look after a couple months /; year or so of use .....

doesnt get too hot ... is the lightest notebook for the price on the market .. i love the 14" screen compared to the larger 15" screens that are available for the same price ...

Gateway included a Vista OS disk along with a Recover disk .. BIG PLUS .....

my two big problems

1. the wireless car is controlled by teh FN - F2 combination .. and if you happen to start the computer with it NOT ON .. or if you turn it off during a session .. it will not REACTIVATE ... until you restart the computer and have it on at start up ..
( i have found a way to get it to work .. you have to go to DEVICE MANGAGER and then DISABLE the wireless adapter .. then after that .. ENABLE IT .. this seems to kick it in the A** and it starts working then without a reboot )

2. the USB are on the left side . which makes using a corded mouse a little stupid ....

all in all for 579.00 ( from what i paid ) i think its a pretty good buy

 

I haven't noticed any problems with my wireless card, but then again I leave mine on all the time.

As for the mouse issue: do yourself a favor and get a decent wireless mouse. Believe me it is a very worthwile investment. Not only will it take care of the USB location issue, it will make mobile computing much handier. I use a Logitech v320, which I like because the usb plug is small and it you can plug it into the mouse for storage when you're done using it. Being right handed, I actually like having the USB ports on the left side of the machine as it keeps the wireless USB plug out of my mouse-hand's way.

I love my 3707, and so far have had no problems.

 

Hi Sanboy,

Boy, I wish I had never read your post. I just bought an MT3707 today at Best Buy, and while I was setting it up, I didn't want it to access the Internet. So I hit FN and F2 and turned my wireless off. Now I can't get it to turn back on! I tried everything you suggested, including the Device Manager thing, and it still won't work.

I know there is nothing wrong with my network, because I have other computers in the house and they are working fine.

I have rebooted my laptop several times, but it still does not find the network. If I can't get this to work in about five minutes, I'm returning it to Best Buy!

 

Well, I finally got it to work. Don't ask me how, I just kept switching things on and off and rebooting, and then it worked. Funny thing is, that while my wifi stopped working, the little light that comes on when you press the Caps Lock key stopped coming on. Yes, it would type in caps, but the Caps Lock light was off. As soon as the wireless came back on, so did the Caps Lock light!

Anyway, everything works right now and I'm happy. This is a great little laptop. Three months ago I had bought Gateway's MX8711 17-inch laptop, but it was just too big unless you were using it for a desktop replacement. Also, the build quality was kind of flimsy, and the case was easily scratched. I think the build quality of the MT3707 is great by comparison.

 

Something isn't right there, you shouldn't have to go through all that. Have you updated all of your drivers from both Microsoft and Gateway?

 

No, I haven't updated my drivers. Should I? I presumed that on a new computer all of the drivers are up to date. But then again, who knows how long this laptop was sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

I have done a Windows update -- about a dozen files.

What drivers do you recommend I update? I don't want to update things unnecessarily.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just went to Gateway's support site and there were about 10 driver downloads listed for my laptop. Are these all updates, or drivers I already have? I know the heading on the page says: "The latest drivers and software patches," but do I need them all? What happens if I install them and something gets screwed up?

Thanks for any guidance you may be able to give me.

 

Can somebody please explain to me how to do this? I went into my BIOS but could not find anything pertaining to my graphics card. Thanks.

By the way, my laptop only has a performance rating of 2.2! (This is with the standard 2060 processor).

 

Boy, has this thread dried up. Am I the only one here?

By the way, has anyone noticed poor wireless sensitivity in their MT3707? My previous Dell laptop used to connect very quickly in the kitchen of my house, but my Gateway doesn't. In fact, most of the time I have to manually connect to my wireless network.

Even when I'm in the same room as my wireless router, it takes my laptop about 60 seconds or so to connect to my network, while a desktop e-machines with a linksys wireless card that is clear on the other side of my house connects to my network almost instantly after booting up.

For the last three months I had a 17" Gateway MX8711 and it connected to my network quickly with no problem. (The only reason I sold it and bought the MT3707 is because the 17-incher was just too big!)

 

hey .. well i am on week number 4 with the laptop .. and i cant really complain .. i still find the wireless adapter/card a little touchy ...

( as i said .. it basically has to be turned on at startup or it wont activate .. and if you turn it off during a windows session . the only way i have got it to come back on is to go to device manager and disable and re-enable the adapter )

but it does seem to work fine once connected . and i havent had any trouble with it NOT picking up signals... currently i am visiting a friend and stealing someone elses signal from down the block .. so it must have decent range )

i have downloaded all the windows updates ... as for the drivers i havent downloaded anything .. for the very reason listed above .. i am a little worried of screwing something up ..

but all in all i am still pretty satisfied ..

i still really love the size and weight .. and the BATTERY life is better than anything i have ever owned or even heard from other friends ..

 

Whew, it's great to know we're still alive here!

Anyway, today I'm bringing my MT3707 back to Best Buy because of its poor wireless performance. I've only owned it for 8 days, so I can exchange it for a new one. I'm hoping that the problem with it is only a fluke, and that the new one will work better. I really like this laptop; it is so much nicer than the 17" Gateway MX8711 I bought in March. That one was way too big, however, and I sold it to get the 14.1" model.

Another dilemma: The Best Buy where I purchased my MT3707 a week ago only had one more in stock. I'm hoping they still have it. If they don't, they will give me another machine at "equal or lesser value." However, I don't want any other brand. Now, I just found out that a Circuit City not too far from my house has three MT3708's in stock. From what I've seen, these have the 1.73 GHz processor but only 120 GB harddrives. But if BB is out of MT3707s, I may be forced to eat the 15% ($97.50) restocking fee and head to CC for a 3708.

Comments welcome!

 

i like the 1.73 prc and a little less hard drive .. but thats just me ...

when its all said and done its this or that .. tit for tat ..

but as i said the wireless card on mine is a little touchy .. but i just leave it on usually . because most of the time that the computer is on .. its using the net anyways .. lol

 

I bought my MT3707 a couple of weeks ago at best buy for $699. Overall I love it.

The design and build quality are extremely nice, and the aluminum palm rests are a big plus. Its small and light weight form makes it easy to carry, and I love the black top finish. While not quite as aesthetically pleasing as apple computers, this gateway looks pretty nice.

It has all the ports you’ll need (3 USBs/phone jack/Ethernet/media reader/express slot/headphone/microphone), and although it lacks things such as bluetooth, most people will probably never need them. Buy a wireless mouse ($25), and the left sided USB ports won’t be a problem.

Packed with a 1.6 Ghz dual core processor, its not the latest available, and while its not a Core 2 duo, or Intel’s new Santa Rosa chip, its still bang for your buck. After first turning it on, and uninstalling a bunch of bloat ware from gateway (mcafee, gateway games, office 2007 trial, ect) and disabling a bunch of the non needed startup programs using msconfig, mine starts and shuts down in a little over 30 seconds. This notebook is quiet NOT SILENT, but it shouldn’t be an issue. THE FAN RUNS MOST OF THE TIME, BUT VERY LOW!

The 160 GB hard drive is a big plus, since most computers still offer only 100GB, and even though you’re down to about 140 GB when you start using it (gateway back up and OS files take up a lot of space), its still has a lot of room. The 1 GB Ram is enough for most users I think, though I plan to max it out to 2 GB later this year. The wireless seems a little sensitive like other have said, but I can live with it.

I bought this computer because I needed a cheap but good quality laptop with the ability to do everyday tasks, plus the occasional 3D work. I installed Autodesk Inventor (student), and the graphics card works fine. I plan to up the memory in the BIOS after I up the RAM, but for now, it works just fine. Even though the graphics card uses integrated graphics, I have had not had any problems.

Summary – For the relatively low price, this gateway computer packs a lot of features in such a small form. It’s suitable for the average user, able to do everyday tasks plus the occasional demanding activities, and yet, it’s small and lightweight. I would recommend this computer to anyone whose not a SERIOUS gamer or relies heavily on 3D applications.

 

question ..

i got a
OPERATING SYSTEM DISC - with the laptop ..

is this a "recovery disk " that will put the computer back to factory fresh ?

or should i be creating one from the GATEWAY RECOVERY SYSTEM ..

in plain english .. i want to make sure i have a disk that i can pop in and put it back to FACTORY FRESH .. and if i am not mistaken there is also a part of the hard drive that has a recovery partion .. correct

just wanted to confirm .. i think this is a case that i am over thinking something simple.. lol .
sorry if the question sounds a bit stupid

 

Well, I took my MT3707 back to Best Buy and exchanged it for a new one. And I'm happy to say that the wireless performance, so far, is much better than my last one. I think it was a mistake for me to update my drivers the last time, something I won't do this time. As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Sanboy,

I think you're going to have to create your own restore disks. No sweat, it only takes a couple of minutes. I made two: A system recovery disk, and an ISO image (complete system backup). Use DVDs, by the way.

In addition, I think there are complete restore files on a partition on your hard drive.

Meanwhile, can anyone recommend a good bag for this computer? The case from my previous 17" laptop just doesn't cut it.

 

i am looking for a decent bag as well .... this lappy is just sized where alot of bags dont fit it right .. or snug ..

 

Hi, i have the drivers for MT3070 gateway here in my page, visit me in:
http://www.software-web-solutions.com/Downloads/Drivers.txt

 

Hi, i have the drivers for MT3707 gateway here in my page, visit me in:
http://www.software-web-solutions.com/Downloads/Drivers.txt

 

To dedicate more memory to your graphics adapter:
1. Restart your computer
2. At the Gateway logo on start-up press F-2
3. Go to the ADVANCED tab
4. Using your arrow keys, go down to the 3rd line " UMA frame buffer size"
5. Hit enter on that 3rd line, a box should pop up with 3 options: 32mb,64mb, or 128mb. I believe stock it came with 64mb, I bumped it up to 128
6. Hit F-10 to save and exit.

When I initially got my machine the performance rating was 2.2 as well. After updating my ATI drivers it went to 2.6. Increasing the frame buffer didn't increase my performance rating, which I was a little surprised at. However in real world graphics performance I don't see how it could not increase performance.

 

I'm not sure what happened, it's never a bad thing to have updated drivers (well 99% of the time anyway). Could be you just had a bum machine. Vista Windows-update installs most of the drivers that need updating automatically anyway. The exception to this is graphics drivers: Microsoft tends to have ones that are out-of-date; probably because they are updated by graphics card manufacturer's so often.

 

zarono,

in the BIOS, can you only increase it to 128mb? because i've read everywhere that it can go up to 256mb shared through BIOS, and if not, that will really piss me off me. I cant access mine to check today, and I haven't done so before.

 

Hello,
I´m from Peru in South america and I´m very happy with my MT3707, about the recover disc i´m not sure about that, but if you see in MY PC, there is a recovery disc D or E.
I have one question for Zarono about the corsair memory that you recomend: the original memory is PC2-5300 (667mhz), why to buy a slow speed memory?
thanks and sorry for my bad english

Lucho

 

Actually mine came stock with 2 Hynix 512MB PC2-4200S's, but gateway has been known to mix and match parts so it is possible you got PC-5300's in yours.

However, since the FSB of the 3707 is running at 533mhz, and there is no way to adjust memory timings or FSB speed in the 3707's BIOS, even if you get the faster memory it will only run at 533. So basically, PC2-5300 modules should work just fine, but they are more expensive and will only run at PC 4200 speeds. Givin the latency timings of DDR2 memory, you may even see a performance loss rather than benefit with the 667's.

 

Mine only goes to 128

 

well, I posted the question I asked you in another forum here and was told that if you add more ram (2gb), you'll be able to increase it more.

I just realized that don't you have 2GB ram? so I guess its not true then? oh well. I'm talking about it here if your interested:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=140315

oh, and you mentioned earlier you ran some light 2D and 3D work and the computer handles it pretty well with 2GB?

 

I upgraded to 2 GB of ram. I use AutoCad 2008 and Land Desktop, but only for transfering data from the field. It runs AutoCad surprisingly well, although it will not be replacing my desktop anytime soon. But I didn't buy it as a desktop replacement, in fact I had no intentions of even installing CAD on it originally.

As for the issue with the UMA shared memory, even if you could increase it from 128 to 256 there would be no increase in performance. Video cards, like all other computer parts, are only as fast as their slowest part. And in the 200M the bottleneck is not usually going to be video memory, unless maybe you limit it to 32 mb. I saw no improvements at all increasing it from 64 to 128.

Increasing the overall system ram from 1 gb to 2 gb made a huge difference, however. Once I increased ram I could actually run AutoCad (slowly) with fairly complex 3D drawings; not fast enough to actually use but fast enough to look at them. With 1 GB it couldn't do it. Not to mention all the performance gains in Vista in all other applications with 2 GB.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Radeon-Xpress-200M.2175.0.html gives a good summary of the 200M's performance levels.

My 3D mark scores were close to what they have listed: they got 450 points for 05 and 1100 for 03, I got 565 for 05 and 1151 for 03.

 

Thanks a lot for your soon answer Zarono, I´ll buy that 2GB soon, and maybe can get a good offer for the PC5300 memories
About the Vista, can anyone tell me what innecesary software can I unistall?
Thanks.

 

Zarono,

Thanks for the info! I'll try it tonight.

 

Lucho954,

Its up to you what you delete, but some of the things that I uninstalled, that came with my gateway/vista notebook are:

1. Office 2007 TRIAL - I will either use openoffice or MS office 2003.
2. Gateway games - some are just trials, some you buy, ect. your choice
3. Microsoft digital image suite TRIAL - I think part of that is free, and some part of it is a 60 day trial, either way, I'll never use it, got rid of it
4. Napster 30 day TRIAL - I use itunes
5. Google toolbar and desktop search - I don't need it, I just set my web browser to start at google.com
6. AOL 90 day free TRIAL - I use aol, so I kept it. (yes I know its AOL)


^any of those are up to you, whether you may use them or not, but they come with your computer.

I also recommend going into "msconfig" and disabling some un-needed startup programs. GOOGLE THIS BEFORE TAKING MY ADVICE, THERE'S A LOT OF INFO ON IT. I'm not a computer wiz, but it makes your computer start/shut down faster, and use less ram. you cant hurt your computer if you watch what you you disable (things like AOL, itunes, quicktime, windows defender, napster, adobe) Programs like those set themselves to start at startup, and theres no point in having them run unless you need them to.

 

My laptop, which I bought at Best Buy, also came with PC2 5300s made by Samsung. I just upgraded it to 2GB of PC2 5300 from Crucial, and it runs really well.

 

OK you guys, what type of bag are you using for your Gateway MT3707/08 ?

I went to CompUSA and bought a Targus bag designed to hold 15" notebooks. Plenty of room, I thought. But when I put my laptop in it, boy is it tight. It looks like we have to use bags designed for 15.4" notebooks.

I really love this bag, although it's a little out of my price range right now:
http://www.brenthaven.com/catalog-prolite-ii.html

Maybe I can talk my gf into getting it for my birthday.