A Gateway To Disaster !!!! (Gateway Solo 2550)

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	Gateway Solo 2550
Date:	07/12/00 (550 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I Tried Very Hard To Think Of One

Disadvantages: Just About Everything

My wife was supplied with this laptop from the University where
she works.
As she isn't much of a computer hound, I was really looking
forward to getting my paws onto it, as I'd been fancying a
laptop for ages, but couldn't justify spending the money when I
already had an adequate desktop.
WHAT A LETDOWN.
I had trouble with it from day one. The speed of the operation
for starters. It has a 450mHz Intel Celeron processor. As my
desktop has an AMD 300mHz and is relatively quick, (most of
the time) I was expecting great things. Not to be. It takes
forever to carry out even the simplest of functions. It was
suggested that this was caused by only having 32 MB of RAM,
but as I haven't got dozens of applications on it, I don't see how
they can use this as an excuse. So I tried taking off some of the
Windows functions ( it runs on Windows 98) I never used to
speed it up a tad. This caused the whole system to have a
nervous breakdown, and I ended up having to format the hard
drive. NIGHTMARE time. Lots of lost files.
Also the keyboard. It is really "sticky", and also has the keys
wrongly labelled in two or three places.
The fingertip mouse is also a disaster area. It is so sensitive
that all you have to do is breathe heavily on it, and it has you
jumping allover the place.
At the moment it is back with Gateway because the internal
modem has just broken down for the second time in three
months. They have it for two weeks now, and no sign of it being
repaired any time soon.
To be totally honest, I wouldn't care too much if I never saw the
damn thing again, I'm so sick of it at this stage.
I was surprised by all of this, as generally Gateway have a good
rep, and my best friend owns one of their desktops, which is a
cracker of a machine.
Ah well, I'II just have to put this one down to experience.
Ken J.

Summary: