I have a Gateway m520 P4 3.06gHz, 60GB@5400, 768MB and have been having some serious system issues. I've had the system since Jan 05.
It all started when I tried to install Adobe Creative Suite 2 to the notebook a couple weeks ago. That huge installation was fraught with problems that is typical of that suite (it would not install all of the programs in the suite).
Anyhow, I decided to do a system restore to make my life easier. Tabula Rasa... yet I discovered searching through all my stuff that no System Restore CDs came with the notebook (as one would typically expect). GW started using a "medialess" System Restore where all of the files reside on the system (go figure).
I attempted restoring through this method and received mannny errors along the way. Either files or dlls or cabs were not found or corrupted... yada yada yada. Then it would not even complete the system restore process. It just hung at the 75% process complete mark (I let it hang for a good hour or so for good measure). I did a cold shut off and reboot. Then I am stuck in this bizzare loop: I'm prompted to select Safe, Normal, Last Good Config, or Start Windows Normally... regardless of what I select, it will load the GW splash screen, appear that Windows is loading, and then RETURN to the "Select Safe, Normal, Last Good Config, etc" page. It loops continually.
I called GW for help... surprise, they told me to run the system restore. I brought them up to speed and told them that I already did this and the process was failing. Long story short, they gave me an RMA
I gave them explicit instructions to test the HDD and the motherboard. This was two weeks ago.
I received the notebook back within a week. System was magically restored. I called GW to see if they replaced anything as I suspected it might have either been a bad HDD or motherboard. Nothing was documented on their end except that "system was restored".
Sadly, the restored system did not have SP2, so I had to undergo that entire process of downloading all of the updates from Microsoft. As I went through the painful updatiing process I encountered many errors. Again, missing or corrupted files, cabs, etc. I was very annoyed at this point.
I did NOT want to undergo the medialess system restore process again, so I bought XP Home with SP2. I did a clean install of XP and essentially formatted the entire HDD. I also manually installed and updated all of the hardware drivers. Some bizzare snafus: I could not install using the m520's CD-ROM drive; when I would attempt to do this, I'd get many file errors, etc; BUT I was able to do a clean installation using an EXTERNAL HDD connected by USB2. Go figure. I had to install MS Office in the same manner.
Tried installing Adobe CS2 again... and again it was frought with problems. I was going to call it a night, and did a reboot of the machine... lo and behold, the infamous LOOP starts again that I mentioned above.
I called GW again today. (Luckily I have another computer) they directed me to download GWScan, make a bootable CD, and boot from there to run some HDD scans. That is what I am doing now. I ran the initial quick test, and no HDD errors were found. I am now running the Full Media Scan (takes 30+ mins). I was on the verge of just going to CompUSA and picking up a new HDD, but since the quick test said no errors were found, I'm at a loss.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?! I'm starting to lose my patience with this POS. BTW, I think that the m520 is aka 7330... that has made my search for solutions even more difficult as there are not many postings out there on either machine.
It all started when I tried to install Adobe Creative Suite 2 to the notebook a couple weeks ago. That huge installation was fraught with problems that is typical of that suite (it would not install all of the programs in the suite).
Anyhow, I decided to do a system restore to make my life easier. Tabula Rasa... yet I discovered searching through all my stuff that no System Restore CDs came with the notebook (as one would typically expect). GW started using a "medialess" System Restore where all of the files reside on the system (go figure).
I attempted restoring through this method and received mannny errors along the way. Either files or dlls or cabs were not found or corrupted... yada yada yada. Then it would not even complete the system restore process. It just hung at the 75% process complete mark (I let it hang for a good hour or so for good measure). I did a cold shut off and reboot. Then I am stuck in this bizzare loop: I'm prompted to select Safe, Normal, Last Good Config, or Start Windows Normally... regardless of what I select, it will load the GW splash screen, appear that Windows is loading, and then RETURN to the "Select Safe, Normal, Last Good Config, etc" page. It loops continually.
I called GW for help... surprise, they told me to run the system restore. I brought them up to speed and told them that I already did this and the process was failing. Long story short, they gave me an RMA
I gave them explicit instructions to test the HDD and the motherboard. This was two weeks ago.I received the notebook back within a week. System was magically restored. I called GW to see if they replaced anything as I suspected it might have either been a bad HDD or motherboard. Nothing was documented on their end except that "system was restored".
Sadly, the restored system did not have SP2, so I had to undergo that entire process of downloading all of the updates from Microsoft. As I went through the painful updatiing process I encountered many errors. Again, missing or corrupted files, cabs, etc. I was very annoyed at this point.
I did NOT want to undergo the medialess system restore process again, so I bought XP Home with SP2. I did a clean install of XP and essentially formatted the entire HDD. I also manually installed and updated all of the hardware drivers. Some bizzare snafus: I could not install using the m520's CD-ROM drive; when I would attempt to do this, I'd get many file errors, etc; BUT I was able to do a clean installation using an EXTERNAL HDD connected by USB2. Go figure. I had to install MS Office in the same manner.
Tried installing Adobe CS2 again... and again it was frought with problems. I was going to call it a night, and did a reboot of the machine... lo and behold, the infamous LOOP starts again that I mentioned above.
I called GW again today. (Luckily I have another computer) they directed me to download GWScan, make a bootable CD, and boot from there to run some HDD scans. That is what I am doing now. I ran the initial quick test, and no HDD errors were found. I am now running the Full Media Scan (takes 30+ mins). I was on the verge of just going to CompUSA and picking up a new HDD, but since the quick test said no errors were found, I'm at a loss.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?! I'm starting to lose my patience with this POS. BTW, I think that the m520 is aka 7330... that has made my search for solutions even more difficult as there are not many postings out there on either machine.
