How reliable are the Gateways?

I have friends that swear that their Gateway is as good or generally better and more reliable than other brands. Like Thinkpads, Dell, HP?



I really would like to hear from some owners, because Gateway is not rated up their with Lenovo or Hp Or Toshiba?

I looked at one at Best Buy and loved it


any comments?
Thx

 

Hey,

Not really. In fact I wouldn't recommend you at all.

Let me show you why. My first laptop is an HP. Cheapest among same configs. But it's TOO hot. And almost blew up. My aunt bought a similar config of HP, same Pavilion Dv2000 series, blew up the motherboard & dead.

After that, we both bought ThinkPad SLs, 14 inchers. She bought hers with T3100 low config,, just around 550 bucks with holiday + epp savings. I bought my SL in end of 08 and it's still replying you with an impressing core temp of 25 celcius. Gateway's fan doesn't even run at this temp.. ThinkPad's is controllable with TPFanControl Software! I'm just disappointed at Gateway.

Well.. why I dont like Gateway? Well, I do own a T-6836u, or W350I. It's my grandma's techinically, but I do all service works for my family computers. It has been one of the hottest laptop I've used, Same award to HP Pavilion "consumer-level" Laptop. The temps are absolutely ridiculous, RMClock even doesn't help much. Why? IF FAN DOESN'T TURN ON, IT'S LIKE RUNNING LATITUDE X1 (It doesn't even have a fan!) But if you have a fan that only runs until system temp reaches 45-50 Celcius, it's HOT. Your body is 37 max without fever! It is also one of the most terrible-constructed machine. Absolutely no heating control over HDD, except the caddy; All bottom air-in ducts are sealed with tape?! And it's absolutely a terrible ruin for the chips, except they can be retired easily as SLs.... except they're much more worn out by that time.

I also own a dell 12 incher. a refurbished laptop from 2007, bought it around this past new year. Its temperature is about 50-60. But comparing to Gateway, Dell has software fan control.... And Dell has a way smaller fan that gives no feelings outside about 3 inches. Yet Dell is only a little hotter than Gateway... while spreading the heat to the lower body to prevent sealing hotness inside.

Conclusion: Not recommended.

 

Lots of people seem to be having problems with their fx laptops (including me). Personally wouldn't recommend a gateway to anyone.

 

The 68xx is subjuct to the nVidia 8xxx series solder issue. It isn't one specific to Gateway but all laptops using the nVidia cards. Personally I love my P7805-u but can't speak for Gateway in general.............

 

my p7811fx had been running strong for quite awhile now... I purchased in in August of 2008 and with the exception of having to take the whole thing apart and clean the GPU fan it's been pretty good.

However in the last two months or so I've noticed major graphic errors when using any app that requires graphics acceleration....

So less than 3 years in and it's not useless as a gaming machine. I'm babying it at the moment but I don't believe i'll purchase another gateway.

 

that should read is useless as a gaming machine...

So 2 years and 6 months is all i got out of it at full potential.

If it died completely this month i would have had it for around 912 days....

at a $1500 price tage that's about $1.64 cents a day.

 

on a side note my cheap 2006 blackfriday compaq C700 ran me $350 and is still going as strong as it ever did.. coming up on 5 years this thanksgiving.

my macbook was purchased in jan. of 2006 which puts over the 5 year mark with the only problem being the TFT controller burnt out and had to be replaced an $11 part.

 

I responded to your other thread but you did not answer..........

 

I wouldn't recommend a gateway to any one. I bought a custom maxed out gateway fx back in 2009. I even bought a complete 3 year accidental warranty. First of all, gateway lost the laptop on the repair depot. Then they sent me a refurbished one with lower resolution and packed with bugs, gpu issues and overheating and more. I spent almost 6 months back and forth on repairs until finally i decided to sell it. I moved on to alienware, which are far more reliable than gateway.

 

My 6860-fx GPU died after 2 years , and light gaming. However, you should know that that particular model was one of the last series of Gateways before the company was aquired by Acer. So basically today, they are Acers, but with the Gateway brand name still there.

 

I saw that thanks. Aero didn't make a difference. I discovered it had to do with graphic acceleration in the GPU unit.

 

I would personally recommend the Gateway p7805u gaming laptop to anyone interested in a very decent, portable gaming powerhouse. After tweaking, upgrading to win7, upgrading the cpu @ about 200 bucks, you get a machine capable of running all of the latest games on the market, and I was lucky enough to get the 1920x1200 screen so I won't be buying another laptop with a lower resolution, especially since every game I own runs very smoothly. It's been running great for 2 and a half years now, and except for the occasional need to clean out dust and replace TIM paste I have had absolutely no hassles.

 

And I agree.

 

Agreed.

10char