Gateway, OK Just Don't Try to Upgrade.
Mar 15 '00
Back in 1997/98, my husband and I bought a Gateway 233 Pent. II. We were extremely excited since we would be going from an AST 75 MHz computer to this all powerful machine (compared to the AST we owned.)
For the first two years, we have been very happy with our Gateway. We have had very few problems with the computer. Until this last year when we decided to replace the Gateway video card with a Viper Video Card.
Our Gateway had a first generation DVD player in it. What we didn't know is, in order for the DVD player to work, we had to either purchase a special Gateway Video Card that will decode data that is coded into DVD Disks which allow the DVD Movies and Player to play and work, or not be able to use the DVD ROM Drive.
I have heard that Gateway computers are extremely hard to upgrade. And if you want anything to work in the computer itself, your pretty much stuck with having to upgrade through Gateway products only. We didn't believe it, until we actually tried to upgrade our video card a year ago. It seems to be that it is true.
We have installed two new CD ROM drives, added two scanners, different speakers, a read write CD ROM drive, and a digital camera; none of these items were made by Gateway, yet they work great on our computer. Actually, we didn't have problems until we tried to change the internal video card. Installing that, has only had conflicts with the DVD drive.
About two weeks ago, we were going to try to change out the mother board, and upgrade the entire speed from a 233 MHz to a 333 MHz. As to date we haven't been able to get our BIOS to upgrade from a 233 MHz to a 333 MHz. It seems to be "locked" into a 233 MHz. running system. Yet we know, that when we bought the computer itself, it said it was able to be upgraded to a 333 MHz. We sent an email to the company asking for info on how to get the BIOS to be changed from a 233 MHz to a 333 MHz. We are still awaiting a reply from Gateway.
All in all, we have been about 85% happy with our Gateway. If your planning on buying a computer, that you do not plan on ever upgrading (unless you want to specifically use ONLY Gateway hardware only) then a Gateway is for you. But if your planning on purchasing a computer, where you ARE for sure going to upgrade, and plan on wanting to be able to go to your local Best Buy and purchase hardware for your computer to upgrade, then you may want to look towards a different company for a computer, or...build your own system. :-)
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Epinions.com ID:
jlair
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Member: Jacqueline Lair
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 2 members
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