Gateway FX400XL WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

djr777

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Gateway FX400XL WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

THIS IS NOT A GOOD SITUATION

who here doesn't`t really love their computer!?We all do! it is a wonderfully tool to be able to access from our fingertips virtually any subject,place or thing. i`m still awestruck at its invention and how it has evolved to be so extremely useful and entertaining.
With that in mind i decided i would would like to have a computer with more power and greater graphics ability.After looking for 6 months i felt the gateway 400xl was the best deal.(price tag close to 3,000.00).media center 2005,830 processor,2g of memory,7800 nVidia graphics,...
it arrives and i set it up. the monitor is a 21 inch flat screen 1680 x 1050.we will be using this in the front room for music, video as well as work.i added user accounts and e-mails.then i changed the appearance by making the fonts xtra large and change the dpi to custom at 150 so we could see it better. i`m prompted to restart my computer after these changes.upon restart i am no longer listed as an account and my e-mail address is now in my wife's account.after spending a lot of time with tech on the phone it is decided i have software issues and they will be sending out a new fully loaded hard drive.it is later installed and the computer is a still a little buggy.i want to return it under warranty and they said it is not under warranty.(that's another story).at this point i realize i better see what i can do with this.i am then prompted to back up the new drive to disk.the computer will not copy to a drive and after a long try with the tech to fix it the tech decides i need some more new hardware.i try to carefully deal with this mess so as not to be completely blown out of the water by these guys.so i calmly talk to this tech and he and his crew agree to send me a new tower.it arrived two days ago and i called the tech up to walk with me through the set up process.this time when i`m asked to set up the administrator password we decide it is best to fill this in(one of the earlier "not so nice" techs said this is what i should have done with the first computer).so i set up administrator password and then went to user accounts and set up the rest of the family .i skipped the e-mails this time and told the tech i was going to reboot to see that we are all listed as users.so far so good i was the administrator then my wife and two kids.we then went to the control panel,appearance and themes,change the screens resolution,settings,advanced,general,and changed the dpi to custom,150.we then went to appearance and changed the font size to xtra large.all the while i`m asking the tech if all of this is ok.he said everything is ok.after the changes are made i am prompted to reboot and this time the administrator is not listed on start up.the tech after much thought ... decides that my wife is now the administrator and that i should go through her account to set up mine.i was trying to explain that the administrator was there originally and that it should not have disappeared.so i go to my wife's account to set mine up and a screen comes up telling me that the dpi should be set to 96.i reset the dpi and reboot.still the administrator is not listed.i set myself up through my wife and the tech is telling me "that should do it".i told him something is wrong.i didn't`t want an invisible account floating around in my system that i can not monitor.he tells me this is now the computer password for the whole computer.i didn't`t believe it and told him we need to go into bios and see if it was listed. it wasn't ,there was no password set.his next course of action was to have me reinstall everything through the system recovery cd and start over. so here i am reinstalling this and wondering what to do next.

what do u think about this situation?

what would you do?

how can i fix this?

Please respond. thank you.
 
wow.a company like gatewat is pullin bs like this...yeah im surprised they wont let u return considering it was corrupt u should be able to return considered a "lemon"..did u reformat??
 
thanks Dev,
yeah i`m shocked too. i have reformated.i`m waiting for feedback before i proceed any further.i will keep you up to date.
 
This is pretty sad... from my experience, gateway is a respectable company. I've used them with far and few between problems. If you have the funds to afford a comp like that, I would just get a new harddrive and then install whatever you wanted to and not have to worry about any new crap that gateway might cause you to have. My advice would be to build my own computer, but, since you already have a good enough one (a 7800 is very nice), my advice is to ask for a refund (if you can) and, after that, build your own. You don't have your own tech support but you still have the choice of parts and the reliability of something coming clean and not full of bugs and crap, like that gateway. Would you be interested in building your own computer? It's not really hard. However, I know why you don't build your own, and I understand that. It's cool. If it really gets out of hand, ask for a full refund and see what happens. Either that, or wait for the new hard drive and then see. Post updates. Thanks.
 
hey Jac
i thought about building my own,did a little research and thought i wasn`t quite ready for that step yet (even though i believe if you want it done right do it yourself).
gateway had me run my recovery disk.now i`m just searching around for outside opinions like yours on what you would do. thanks
 
Yeah considering u spent 3 large on the computer and you have to deal with these kind of prooblems is just horrible..thats why many plp just build there own...all the big companies are falling apart take dell as an example..they moved there tech to foreign countries wat were they thinking they will do anything to save money..Yeah i agree u might want to buy a new HD...and if u dont mind wat do they say when u ask for a refund and how long ago did u purchase this computer..
 
So DJR, this could probobly just be something with the software you're installing, you know that right? I mean, you could call up the techs and request a new windows cd, and see if that works. By the way, did they send you a whole new computer?? Do you still have the old one?
 
thanks all

HRHUNTER ,here is how it played out:
on the last day of my 15 day lmbg(limited money back guarantee) i realized something was really wrong.after much tech time, a good tech (CA372)said they would send out a new drive to be installed and after it was installed i would be given my 15 days to again evaluate it.(otherwise i would have returned it)this was fair and i agreed.After the new drive was installed (1/02/06) it was still a little buggy so i decided to send it back.i was transferred to (mc077).when she heard i wanted to return it she transferred me to (mc143).this guy said he would not authorize this and stated he was as high as i could go.He even got (mc027) on the line to confirm this.(after talking to him privately first)He said no matter what anyone else told me before,he would not authorize it.I WAS SHOCKED.they would not authorize what the other tech said(even though he was doing the company a service by getting me to keep the computer).i called back later and by luck got ahold of the good tech(ca372).He and his crew agreed something was wrong and sent me out a new tower again with a 15 day evaluation period.
now what do i do? i had tech with me trying to set up this new computer (1/20/06) and i end up having to reload the os.if i want to send it back it will not be approved at the higher level((mc1430 (mc027).I WANT THIS TO WORK BUT I MAY HAVE TO SEEK LEGAL ADVICE.
 
Well, I would personally reformat that sucker. That way everything gets whiped out. Then, reinstall Windows. Then once installation is complete Windows will prompt you to set up the Administrative account. Then it will ask for a password. Set up a password. Once all that is taken care of, and you're in Windows as you should be, go into...

Start>Setting>Control Panel (Depending on what type of theme you have Settings may or may not be there, either way you'll get to the same Place).

Once in control Panel, select User Accounts.

Once you're in user accounts, click on Create Account. Type in the Account name, then establish what powers it will have. Then after that establish a password for that account. Reboot your CPU, and try logging into that account.

If you can successfully log into that account, and you can verify that it does indeed have Administrative powers, just do this by going into Control Panel>user Accounts, and right at that screne it will tell you what users have what.

Now, depending on what you want to do, if you want to have each of your children have an account, then you can create new accounts in there. Although, I wouldn't advise giving children there own accounts, when you can save disk space just by turning the Guest account on. This will make their account safe, and you can turn it on or off, works great if you want to punish the, form the computer!

Anywho, if you do want to give them each their own account, then just click on Create Account in the User Accounts in control panel. And follow the steps.

Seeing as how each time your DPI was set to 150, and your system suggested 96, I would leave it at 96. Just to be safe.

Also, should this turn out to be a failure once again. I wouldn't call gateway, we already know how good they are! Instead, go to your local PC repair shop, tell them your problems, ask for any suggestions. If they advise you to bring the computer to them, then do so. They can help you with anything. Because the guys at the PC shop are more then likly more knowledgable then Gateway's guys.

If the tech guy discovers a problem, and he more then likly will if there is, then you can take action against Gateway, claiming that they failed to issue you a new Hard Drive, although you paid for it, and then complain that they failed to give you any reliable services.

Anywho, I hope all turns out well. If you have ANY problems, come to us, screw Gateway. The people here have a LOT of knowledge about computers. Mainly the Gurus and some other members. So get back if you need to. And make a thread at any time you want to. Chances are someone will be on to answer your question. Hope eveything turns out OK! :)
 
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