Gateway Warranties: Success/Horror Stories

Hi,

I was looking into buying a Gateway notebook in the near future - I have had two Dells die on me over the last three years. Via word of mouth I've heard good things about Gateway notebooks, however, I heard the same things about Dell - who basically continued to replace the motherboard on two different computers until the warranty expired rather than just give me a replacement. That said, does anyone know how good/bad Gateway's laptop warranty is? Is it a case where I should spend the extra 150 bucks to get the Best Buy extended warranty trough Geek Squad? Just wondering, I can't find too much out there on this. Thanks.

 

Bro get the 7805U with ADH and you will be set for life (2-3years)
So when u dislike ur laptop throw it down the stairs and they will replace it with the same one (for the same price you paid)

 

I was looking at the MD7818u for $699 - I really don't do any gaming so I don't really care about the graphics but I am looking for a something with as much storage as possible - I do a lot with movies and music so I need the space - I am close to filling up a 250 gb external HD right now and wanted a to be able to keep a lot of that on my internal HD for easier access. I also wanted the 4 gigs of RAM for the multitasking. It seems that I would end up paying more for laptops with similar specs because they have a dedicated graphics card - which, as I said, I really don't have a need for. But any input is really appreciated - Thanks

 

Well, if you are looking for storage then 17 inch is the way to go. I don't know of any 15's that take 2 HD's. Probably are some but I can't think of any.

 

Geek Squad is a joke, sadly most warranty companies are about the same, for example I have a few refurbished computers and they have warranties through square trade. Problem with geek squad is if they can't fix it your probably screwed. Square trade however believes if they can't fix it - they will return the money you paid for the warranty. I had one bad experience with Geek Squad when I was going to college and didn't have time to fix my laptop - they simply looked at my computer, figured it was a virus so they formatted it and returned it to me.

My best advice honestly is pick up a windows book, and learn to fix yourself - simply because you want the warranty for replacements. However 2 of 3 times I taken my laptops to best buy to be repaired, first was formatted and returned, second they figured laptop was dead and offered me to trade it in for a newer one. Which by the way I got a model not equal to one I bought but pretty less value and specs, and a nice shinny Best buy card to go along with it.

As for storage, check and buy yourself a few external drives, I have 2 500GB Western Digitals and 2 750GB western digital external drives around my network, I think i paid around $50 for the 500's and 100 for $750's at the time, I know they are much cheaper now. Even more you have an SD drive, nothing wrong with throwing an 8GB in there, I do for my med documents. I also have 32/16GB USB Flash drive for external documents and backup.