On Tuesday 23 March 2004 10:03 am, William Warren wrote:
> just from this post..it works with windows and not with Linux..Bioses
> can be tied to windows and as part of the MS OEM license that is what
> most large computer vendors do to get the rock bottom pricing on
> windows. Gateway only supports windows and they do not and will not
> support Linux on that machine. The warranty states no third party
> software or hardware is not supported and will not be supported by
> gateway. Dell and most other vendors have similar clauses in their
> warranty agreements...they will not and do not have to replace anything
> if it will run under windows. the court case will go nowhere if the
> case is based on the machines inability to run Linux.
>
> Marc wrote:
>
My views are based on the fact that the Maxtor diagnostic software says
that the hard drive suppled by Gateway is not properly supported by the BIOS
on the mother board suppled BY gateway. Upgrading a operating system is a
routine thing that most computer owners due themselves or hire a tech to due
at one time or another. After all we all know plenty of people who have
upgraded from win 95 to 98 or from win 98 to ME or XP. Upgrading is a
routine thing that almost everyone expects to be able to due when purchasing
a PC.
Once again using the auto analogy parallel parking is something that most
people would assume that any car they purchased would be able to due weather
or not the manufacturer stated in their warranty that the car was capable of
parallel parking or not. One would assume the manufacturer would be held
responsible if a car was unable to to due such a routine function even with a
skilled driver. One would also assume that if the problem with the car being
impossible to parallel park was caused by a mismatch of the tires and rims
that was not recommended by the maker of the tires. Would the auto maker not
be responsible for using components that were designed to work together to
preform basic routine functions? The BIOS in the gateway computer does NOT
properly support the hard drive that Gateway installed with it. The software
supplied by the maker of the HDD says so in so many words. Because of this
parts mismatch the computer is unable to preform a basic routine function, a
upgrade. If the HDD was able to preform as the manufacturer intended it to a
simple routine upgrade would not be a issue but this machine was supplied
with BIOS that is NOT able to control the hard drive properly so a routine
function like a upgrade may be impossible even to the next OS that windoze
comes out with. If this was a matter of the MOBO having a chipset that was
not supported by linux that would be one thing but this is much more basic.
One piece of gateway hardware doe's not properly support another piece of
Gateway hardware supplied in the same system by Gateway.
Furthermore win or loose the guy that owns the GW is retired and has
nothing better to do with his spare time. He feels that it is not to much to
ask gateway to supply BIOS that will work properly with the hard drive that
they supplied. If they would rather waste a amount of time and effort that
far exceeds the value of the computer and perhaps suffer from similar
customer dissatisfaction and PR in the future he feels that would be all
right also. The folks at gateway have already spent at least 4 hours of tech
support time debating this issue. That had to cost a few bucks. If they want
to continue to supply mismatched hardware let them also put up with the
consequences that go with it. For that matter let them at least hire tech
support people that the average English speaking public can understand. 2 of
their tech support people had such bad English you would need a translator to
understand more than half of what they said!!! I have doubts if they could
understand all of what we told them.
The whole situation with gateway failing to admit that they could have a
hardware mismatch is nothing short of ridiculous
.
Marc
--
Composed on a 100% Microsoft and
windows free computer using
Mandrake Linux 10.0
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