From: pastor@prc.unisys.com (Jon Pastor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Good news on one Gateway system
Date: 23 Dec 92 17:58:56 GMT
Organization: not much...

Well, with all the complaints I've seen about Gateway, I thought I'd
contribute some good news for a change.

I got my Gateway system yesterday, after a little over 3 weeks.  As far as I
can tell, the order is complete; there are some things on the packing list
that I can't identify, but I am inferring that they're non-items that are
there for some sort of bookkeeping purpose because I'm not missing anything.

The system installed in 10 minutes.  It booted flawlessly.  The monitor stayed
dark.  I reached up and adjusted the brightness, and LO there was Windows.  We
ran about half of the (many) pre-loaded apps last night and today, and I've
installed a few more.  

The system is a 486-33DXV with the ATI Graphics Ultra Pro, and it really
flies.  I use a SUN SPARCstation 2 with 96MB of memory and a .5GB local SCSI
at work, and the 486 is *not* shamed by comparison: windows pop up and down
almost instantaneously, and they move with no noticeable lag (unlike some 386
systems I've seen).

The only problem I had was (sort of) my fault.  I couldn't resist tinkering
with the video modes using the Mach32 tool, and I foolishly tried to get
800x600; silly me.  The system could no longer boot to Windows, and I was left
without a clue what was wrong.  Gateway tech support's line was busy, so I
just hunted around for files that had changed right before the reboot.  I
finally homed in on SYSTEM.INI, in the [boot] section, where there was an
entry 

	display.drv = M32-H6.DRV

I guessed (correctly) that this was the culprit, and guessed (also correctly)
that SETUP from the WINDOWS directory would let me change it.  After some
trial and error, I determined that MACH32.DRV was the one I wanted (there was
another one for CrystalFonts that caused some complaints when I tried to run
in 1024x768, so I settled on the MACH32 driver).  I ended up editing the file
directly, once I figured out what the legal values were.

This may be "ho, hum" to experienced Windows users; if so, sorry, but there is
probably someone else out there who'll be getting his/her first Windows on a
Gateway machine, and this is an annoying glitch that could get in the way of
the fun of playing with the new system.

Summary: 

Gateway salespeople are generally helpful, some more than others.  Mine
(Gerald, 1-800-248-2042, x5648) was one of the MOREs; I never had to wait more
than about 20 minutes for a callback, and he was (I believe) able to shake my
system loose a little sooner than it might have been shaken loose (they're
running 2-3 weeks or more at this point).  If you do call Gerald, mention that
you heard about him from me; getting referrals is a nice compliment to
salespeople.

Customer service is kind of useless; nice people, if you can ever get through
to them, but without much concrete information about status of orders.  

Tech support -- I don't know yet, but I can tell that they're swamped, like
the rest of Gateway, at this point.  Gerald explained that they've been
deluged with Christmas orders, and that they're hiring more and more people
and still falling behind.  

The hardware seems top-notch, and the system packaging as well.  They even
included extension cords for the monitor and kbd, since I ordered a tower (and
thus might want to put it far enough away from the monitor and kbd that the
regular cords wouldn't reach).  No mouse extension, but the muSoft mouse has a
long tail.

I would buy from them again, and will if I ever outgrow the 33DXV (ha) or need
a second system.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware