Giving P-172X-FX another shot

All,

As I've mentioned in another post, I ordered a P-172X-FX from Gateway and it was received essentially DOA. After a lengthy ordeal of troubleshooting attempts with Gateway tech support, I decided to send it back for a refund despite their offer for an exchange (which was going to take a month taking me past the 15 day return period). I really wanted it to work as the laptop seemed very nice (for what I could see of it without a working OS) and it doesn't seem like anyone else here was having any issues, especially as bad as mine was.

In a nutshell, the machine arrived with what was determined likely to be a faulty SATA controller. It was blue screening and wouldn't take a Vista re-installation with RAID. There were a couple of other minor issues as well.

Anyway, it was suggested that I contact Rico Baeza with Gateway Sales. Now that was customer service. He seemed genuinely interested in making things right and after a bit of a conversation and some hard work on his part, he did just that.

So, I went ahead and ordered a second machine. With any luck, I'll be as happy with this one as they rest of you seem to be with yours!

I'll keep everyone posted on the progress. If you have any questions on my experience, feel free to post them here.

As for anyone else considering a machine from Gateway, I HIGHLY recommend Rico Baeza. You can contact him via e-mail at [email protected]. He is quick to respond and really seems to care about the customer. Honestly, he was probably the biggest factor in deciding to give Gateway a second chance.

And thanks to Flynnaz for pointing me in the right direction!

 

Hey Rix. I'm sure you will be happy with it when it comes, I'm in love with my XL-FX. I had a little hiccup with my RAID when my came too, it wasn't DOA but wasn't configured for RAID from the factory, and had to do it myself. I anticipated an ordeal with that, but it was pretty easy, and now it runs smooth as butter. Rico was my sales rep, and yeah, he's the man. Very helpful throughout the purchase process and beyond. He's definitely an asset to Gateway.

 

I asgree, Rico is a great guy, he seems to like his job. I used hime to get my P-171x fx, I love all of my gateways, and my Gameing rig

 

It doesn't seem like there should be any real trick to it. It should be the typical "turn on RAID in bios" + "ctrl+I to configure RAID" + "Boot with Vista DVD and install". I'm hoping to see that process run nice and smooth and not get any of those blue screens and lockups during installation this time!

And yeah, Gateway did confirm that despite the fact they adverstise the machine being RAID configured, it doesn't ship that way. You have to set it up for it.

I would assume that if you wanted to, you could use the restore DVD you create with the loaded OS build and apply that to the RAID'd drive. Has anyone tried this?

 

You can use the Gateway system disk or the system restore disk, just setup raid like you stated first.

 

That's what I figured. I got a conflicting answer between two tech support reps when I was troubleshooting my original machine but since the restore DVD is really just a scripted Vista install, I expected that if one would blue screen, the other would too. And they did!

It's good to know that both options "should" work.

 

how do i do all of what what was just said?

 

which part? To make backup dvds just read your booklet that came with your lappy. It is quik and easy.

 

see when i got it i went through with tech support to enable the SATA raid and tried installing after reseting memory and harddrives
and no it just sits a a screen that says please wait while windows sets up your computer

this is to after reinstalling form the cd

 

Hmmm, enable raid, reboot with the gateway system disk (Vista), and nothing? did you give it a few mins?

 

sure did i am gonna try agian just for good measure
they even had me pull the memory out and the hard drives and reinstall and still nothing

 

wow, maybe try non raid just to trouble shot

 

yep still nothing just gonna send it back