Vista compatability causing major issues

[Guest]

My new computer (July07) with Vista suffered a "mountable boot volume" about
1 month into owning it. Vista, along with everything else, had to be
reinstalled. Now my computer has no sound. Gateway blames me for having
printer (HP Officejet Pro L7680), wireless keyboard and mouse (Microsoft
desktop 3000) router, etc that aren't on the "list" of compatabiles which are
Vista certified. Although I didn't know of such a list when I purchased the
computer, I bought all new new (which I was told I had to do since the OS
was Vista) and all had "Vista" certified printed on the graphics of the
boxes. I did install my son's iPod on my computer though, - apparently that
was also a BIG mistake.

Gateway has offered to replace the mother board and sound card, BUT does
anyone think I own a lemon???? This will actually be the 2nd time, I've
had to start from scratch with a computer that is 3 months old. I'm ready to
throw this new thing away and buy a Mac. I am prepared to send my CPU to
Gateway and have them repair it. If what they tell me is true about only
buying and using items from the "list" of vista certified vs relying on each
company's claim that their product is compliant; is there anyway I can
salvage the items which I spent hundreds of dollars on? Is this a problem
that anyone has heard of?

 

[Adam Albright]

My new computer (July07) with Vista suffered a "mountable boot volume" about
1 month into owning it. Vista, along with everything else, had to be
reinstalled. Now my computer has no sound. Gateway blames me for having
printer (HP Officejet Pro L7680), wireless keyboard and mouse (Microsoft
desktop 3000) router, etc that aren't on the "list" of compatabiles which are
Vista certified. Although I didn't know of such a list when I purchased the
computer, I bought all new new (which I was told I had to do since the OS
was Vista) and all had "Vista" certified printed on the graphics of the
boxes. I did install my son's iPod on my computer though, - apparently that
was also a BIG mistake.

Gateway has offered to replace the mother board and sound card, BUT does
anyone think I own a lemon???? This will actually be the 2nd time, I've
had to start from scratch with a computer that is 3 months old. I'm ready to
throw this new thing away and buy a Mac. I am prepared to send my CPU to
Gateway and have them repair it. If what they tell me is true about only
buying and using items from the "list" of vista certified vs relying on each
company's claim that their product is compliant; is there anyway I can
salvage the items which I spent hundreds of dollars on? Is this a problem
that anyone has heard of?

If there was a problem with the CPU, likely you computer wouldn't even
boot. There is no practical way to "repair" a CPU. Replacing won't do
any good either, since I know of no box maker that would let a
customer attempt that. Too easy to bend or break off some of the tiny
pins on the chip when re installing.

The problem is you're not getting good service. Likely because you
haven't penetrated the level you need to get past to talk to some REAL
tech, not wonder of the bozos that first answers the phone that likely
following a script and often will have you do all kinds of things that
have absolutely nothing to do with your particular problem. All box
makers are guilty of this shameful practice. Dell, Gateway, HP, etc..

Vista Certified is pure marketing BS. Little more. If your only
problem now is 'no sound' that should be easy to fix. Many problems
are caused by IRQ conflicts. A IRQ (interruption Request) is how some
hardware tries to get the attention of the CPU so it can do something.
These get assigned priorities. Lowers IRQ numbers get faster attention
which is why things like your keyboard have a low IRQ number.
Sometimes devices share a IRQ line, this can cause problems.

Quickly check by clicking on the Start button, then type in 'system'
then click on 'System Information when it comes up. Now scroll down to
where you see Hardware Resources, expand, then check if you see the
sound card if it is sharing a IRQ with something else and if it's
status is OK.

If things appear OK, go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, then
Computer Management, then Device Manager. Expand each line in turn
Look everywhere for red and yellow flags. This is Windows way of
saying something may be wrong. Go to Sound and Video Games
Controllers. Expand, there should be at least one line listing some
device. Highlight. Right click, and select uninstall. This should just
delink the device, not remove it's driver. Reboot. Windows should say
it found new hardware and attempt to reinstall.

You may need to follow similar steps for other devices you installed
then try to install the sound card again. That's probably as far as
you can take it without help.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Check the Gateway support web site for availability
of the the latest BIOS and hardware driver updates.
http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/dlcenter.asp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

My new computer (July07) with Vista suffered a "mountable boot volume" about
1 month into owning it. Vista, along with everything else, had to be
reinstalled. Now my computer has no sound. Gateway blames me for having
printer (HP Officejet Pro L7680), wireless keyboard and mouse (Microsoft
desktop 3000) router, etc that aren't on the "list" of compatabiles which are
Vista certified. Although I didn't know of such a list when I purchased the
computer, I bought all new new (which I was told I had to do since the OS
was Vista) and all had "Vista" certified printed on the graphics of the
boxes. I did install my son's iPod on my computer though, - apparently that
was also a BIG mistake.

Gateway has offered to replace the mother board and sound card, BUT does
anyone think I own a lemon???? This will actually be the 2nd time, I've
had to start from scratch with a computer that is 3 months old. I'm ready to
throw this new thing away and buy a Mac. I am prepared to send my CPU to
Gateway and have them repair it. If what they tell me is true about only
buying and using items from the "list" of vista certified vs relying on each
company's claim that their product is compliant; is there anyway I can
salvage the items which I spent hundreds of dollars on? Is this a problem
that anyone has heard of?