Marc wrote:
I had the same problem with a friend of mine who wanted to try Linux. I also had a spare harddrive that had linux already on it. We took his out and put mine in and it would start to boot and then just stall. Couldn't get into the BIOS at all. We put his old disk in and it was recongized just fine but had to reinstall windows. This is a 3 year old gateway. He tried to install linux on the original harddrive and all went well until reboot. Again we couldn't get into the bios. Now that I know what the problem is I can reformat his drive with partition majic and he can use the restore disk. Although it doesn't surprise me in the least, gateway and gates, both suck.
Moureen I seem to be getting close to the bottom of this. From what I have found it is NOT a problem with linux. I have spent a lot more time troubleshooting than I really should have. If I was to put any reasonable value on my time I could have purchased a couple of new motherboards by now. I guess I just don't like to be beaten by a POS hardware problem or a low life company that sells junk like this.
This is what I have found so far. I installed a old Seagate 8 geg HDD model ST38410A in the Gateway, ML 10.0 installed , rebooted and ran just fine. I then downloaded Powermax from Maxtor and did a low level format on the Maxtor HDD from Gateway to insure that any and all hidden partitions and all data that Gateway had on it was 100% removed. I then tried it again and got the same old result. After installing ML the BIOS could no longer see the HDD.
I did another low level format and again installed the drive in the gateway the BIOS could again detect the drive but this time I ran the diagnostic utility on the powermax disk and got the result of a ERROR BIOS Extension support failed.
After this I have to conclude that Gates way is selling some models of computers where the BIOS on the MOBO does not fully or correctly support the hard drives supplied with the computers.
At this moment the owner of the gateway machine is on the phone with gateway demanding a replacement MOBO or a replacement drive of the same size that is 100% supported by his MOBO or a full refund. If he meets to much resistance from gate way he is going to inform them that this matter will be taken to small claims court and that the papers will be filed in Mountain Home Arkansas the town that we live near. After doing some research into Arkansas law if we understand it correctly a representative from gateway will have to appear in court in Mountain Home AR or a automatic judgment will be made against Gateway. The closest Gateway office is in Little Rock, over a 100 mile drive so someone from gateway will have to spend at least a full day at this or they will have to hire a local lawyer. Yeah this guy is a bit Pod but he has been hung up on by Gateway tech support no less than 3 times in the last few days.
I by no means claim to understand the law but in my mind their is a valid legal point here. Gateway is selling systems built with hardware that is NOT supposed to be installed together. This would be like Ford selling a car with rims that were 15" X 8" and putting on tires that were recommended by the manufacturer to go on a rim no smaller than 15 " X 10" , I would assume that when the tires failed to preform correctly ford would be forced to rectify the parts mismatch.
Also if the system that you are talking about Moureen is about 3 years old Gateway could have a BIG problem here, possibly a class action law suit.
If they want to sell third rate hardware to customers that do not know any better they deserve it.
Any legal prows out there with any opinions?
Marc
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My "Foundation" verse:
Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
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