04ctd

i have a old Gateway MX6440.

and it got a virus.

i thought most computers came with a partition on the hard drive, making it in effect, two hard drives.

and you just had to reboot on the second partition to do a "recovery"

so i tried that, and it needs "CD's that came with the purchase...."


um, yeah, so that was in like, 2005.


so i get on Gateways site and it says "input your serial number"
so i try for 45 minutes (the SN has a straight slash up the middle)

so FINALLY, i give up, and go into customer chat.

after two of them hang up on me, the third guy tells me
"all computers bought before 2006 are NO LONGER SUPPORTED by Dell"

you have go to a third party and BUY new CD's, instead of downloading them off Dell's website.



so basically, i just got an old copy of WinXp, reloaded the pig, but now, the drivers on Gateways website DO NOT WORK.

so now, guess what, no sound board.
and we have a grandbaby, so what does the wife want to do yesterday when she is feeling sad?

watch the ~50 videos of her grandbaby
but it don't work, and i'm the bad guy because i bought a $800 laptop 5 years ago.


good grief.




we use Dell's at work, with docking stations.

so most folks never use their docking stations,
so I got one to use at home, bring my laptop home & do work

but the (*)^^%^%###@! power adapters aren't strong enough, it says:
"your AC adapter is a piece of chinese garbage, and cannot provide enough power for the Docking station and the laptop"

is there a way around this?
and of course, the Dell drivers won't reinstall the wireless card on my Dell, either, so i gotta talk to Dell/Indonesia about that today.

The server at dellchat.us.dell.com is taking too long to respond.

i really want to buy a new laptop today. but what to do?

Crobar

Buy whatever brand does not use Microsoft Windows and is not made in China.

nelrod

Bummer, sadly you already got your use of it in manufacturers' mind and they prefer you throw it away and buy a new one. I don't know why you would be the bad guy?? My advice would be to get a new one for half that price now, and realize it too will be going into dumpster in 3 or 3 years.

bansh-eman

If you can findout if the mother board is actually supported by an Nvidia chipset or something simila, you could google the chipset and mobo and probably find drivers for it on a differant site.

ramlovingvet

Load Ubuntu on the old lap top My dell is 10 and going strong with it.

Load Hauler 04

The reason the support is useless is because they don't speak good english and they are half a world away. If you do happen to get some one that speaks english there usually dumb as a box of rocks.

wyododge

x2. Then hook up a network cable or go to the apple store and have them transfer all of you files to your new computer.

Then never worry about a virus again. Or never being able to get support for an 'older' product. you will also be able to talk to someone in english if you do need support.

Sorry for the headache, that IS a real bummer.

On the other hand, you may want to try a local computer tech, they may be able to download you hard drive onto a dvd or some other storage device. Then you would have a backup copy. Just a thought.

Blake Clark

Get a Mac and get it over with....

You wont regret it.

Spooler

Mac's are what you eat, right..... Big Mac from McDonalds....LOL...
We won't get into what I think about Apple. The real deal is this, everyone's tech support is terrible when it comes to computers. I am switching over from Hughes.net to ATT dsl and boy what a pain in the but it has been. ATT wanted to charge me because I supposedly had a computer problem. I kindly told them to stuff it where the sun don't shine. I got everything fixed up myself just a few minutes ago.


As far as the docking station power supply. You have to get one from your IT person, they are different and require more wattage than just your laptop power supply due to all the extra components they run.

Blake Clark

I take it you dont like products that actually work. I have owned more Windows based computers than Id care to think about. All it took was one Macbook Pro to make me a believer. And I have had some Windows units that I thought were great....

04ctd

well, we have a girl in our math class who has a Mac or something.


we did our 10 question quiz,
and she cut & pasted from her Mac into her "windows simulator" or something.

and the C&P function in the Mac cut off,
so she only got 5 of the answers in the email.

so she failed, because of her MAC.


hhmm, that's crazy, it came with 2, and i just grabbed one and stuck it on.

no one in our office uses the docking stations, because the AC adapters can't seem to power them

would DELL be stupid enough to make the AC adapters so wimpy that only one of them can power the Docking Station?



answer:
YES!!!!


* Systems that are compatible with the 65W PA-12 AC adapter must use the PA-10 90W AC adapter when connected to a Dell D/Port or D/Dock docking solution.

klx650a2

For the record, Mac computers are "designed" in California and are made in China. Since they went to the Intel chipset, we have seen the same hardware failure rate in Macs as we do in PC's. Is the operating system better? Yes and no. In an educational environment they are great and no real virus threat yet (but its coming) and the software is more expensive, but as we all know, its mostly PC MS applications are the ones in business. I work supporting all brands of laptops at a university. The absolute best PC laptops out there are the Lenovo Thinkpad series. More money but a 3 year, 0 deductible warranty. I have froze mine many times, cooked it in the prairies in the summer (had to shake out the dust so the keyboard would work), airport security has dropped it many times, banged it and it just runs. Also, windows 7 is a MUCH improved OS, I'm running the 64 bit with 8 GB of ram and once its booted, its amazingly fast. It does take slightly longer to shut down due to so much running in ram, but its a small price to pay.
In reality, a laptop has a 3 to 4 year life expectancy.

Just my unasked for 2 cents.

Colo_River_Ram

"T" is for Toshiba add to that W7 Pro x64 or Ultimate and you will have a laptop with a good supply of available hard/software.. Their support is great both online and warranty related.. Just finished a Vista to W7 Pro x 64 upgrade on one of their laptops, they have all of the new drivers online and one download will actually create a driver disc for you..

Question on your XP reload did you do the SP-3 install afterwords?

Do a google for driver updates there is a lot of programs out there that will take care of them for you..

CamperAndy

Dell has a 65 watt and a 90 watt power supply.

Try booting the lap top without power connected to the dock then plug in the dock. Doing it this way I think the 65 watt power supply will work.

Lary Ellis (Top)

You can get the drivers you need by going to the manufacturers website support for the product.

Try this website see if it helps you http://www.drivermax.com/