He said Gateway might have to ship me a new CD-ROM, but such a decision would have to come from a hardware specialist. Then I got lucky. Another rep suggested I try reformatting the hard drive, after all. I did, and everything finally ran perfectly. Meanwhile, Gateway is working on diagnostic tools to be shipped with future systems to intercept potential conflicts before they cause damage.
Many companies provide premium support for a price.
New Packard Bell PCs come with software to diagnose problems and prevent users from accidently deleting files. Intel Answer-Express provides help for leading software titles. But snafus remain an unfortunate part of the PC experience. This device is complicated. I found out the hard way.