This is my second Gateway computer. The first I had for 3 years and my experiences taught me that Gateway was the company to business with. I had excellent results and tech service could not have been better. Soooo, then about 3 years ago I bought my 300S and also the in home warranty(?). I bought the computer in October, 2001. It was very easy to set up and all was fine till Jan., 2002 when the power supply became very noisy. Tech. service was as I had come to expect 100% and they sent out a new power supply and then a technician to install it!!! In Feb., 2002 one key on the keyboard went out and again I was satisfied with the shipment of a new keyboard. Then in March 2002, the fun began! I got a dreaded "blue" screen with the message: "hardware malfunction-call your hardware vendor-the system was halted." Tech. service thought it might be the new power supply, so sent a new one and a tech to install it? The problem didn't occur again until Nov. 2002 at which time I was told to run a scan disk, then write 0's to the hard drive(I was given time to save precious files) and reload all the software. The computer worked fine for 9 days the once again the dreaded blue screen. Just by shutting down the computer and rebooting seemed to solve the problem until next time, which was once more in 02, 11 times in 03, and 8 times so far this year. I only called tech support a couple of times during this time frame because the only solution they could come up with was to ship the computer back with permission to erase the hard drive!! I asked about my IN-HOME warranty and was told that it didn't apply to trouble shooting??? They sure didn't explain this when selling it!!! Back in June, when the problem occurred for the 23rd time, I wrote down all of the dates and noticed the frequency of occurrence was about triple during the summer. I should also mention that since day one that after using a CD in the CD drive they were coming out of the computer case almost to hot to handle??? I took a 10 inch fan, set it about 3' in front of the computer, and anytime the computer is on the fan is on. Voila, no more dreaded blue screens. I just got off the phone with Gateway Customer Support who shunted me to Technical Support who said send the computer in. I asked if they were going to redesign the case as the problem is one of poor design.--not enough cooling, especially in such a small case.. Needless to say I have had my last dealings with Gateway!!!! And, caution all who venture there to beware. OH, and finally, the technician suggested that I keep my house at 68F?? I asked if she or Gateway were going to subsidize my electric bill(haha)? But I did ask if they shouldn't alert customers to the fact that their small case computers shouldn't come with that warning?? Be careful, be very careful!

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 1021.72
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: Under 200
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20