I purchased this laptop from Wal-Mart -but had exactly the same issues as rjhouse describes in his review. After a half hour or so of useless troubleshooting with Gateway support, I resolved to return it to the store and get a roughly-equivalent laptop from HP for $20 more.But before doing so, I used Device Manager to "Update Driver" on the "Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter." which swapped out the Broadcom driver for one supplied by Microsoft. I have not had a problem since -it has been working 100% great, not a single drop, and network performance has been fine.
I kept the laptop and haven't looked back. This laptop is pretty decent for the money. Performs well, good amount of storage, reasonably low price. Knowing what I know now about how to get the networking to work properly, I'd buy one again if I were in the market again.
I won't give it 5 stars though -it's not all roses -there are a few things I find annoying or unsatisfactory:
Audio isn't loud enough
The touchpad button is one long bar that acts as 2 buttons, depending on which end of it you press -but this renders the center of the button unusable and the button is progressively harder to press the closer to the center you get. So you pretty much have to press the very ends of the bar.
The touchpad is offset to the left. I guess this makes sense as it's more like a full-size keyboard since they fit a full numeric pad onto this one -but since it isn't centered with the screen, it takes some getting used to.
No caps-lock/numlock/scroll-lock lights (somewhat resolved using keyboard-leds.com app). But I think many laptops are like this nowadays.
This is my first gateway computer and a replacement for a Toshiba satellite that i purchased with no research whatsoever bedsides being inexpensive and having a number keypad.
First impressionsNot a bad computer at all! 3 USB slots and a HDMI so thats an upgrade for me. Windows 8 is kind of funky and I don't like it one bit but that has nothing to do with the computer itself. the screen is clear and large enough and the camera works good enough for video chat
bad stuffspeakers suck,
great buy for the price!
edit*** a few weeks later
speakers are stil low quality but you get used to it. I wish there was a caps lock and number lock indicator light but I guess I can use my eyes as i type.
I am happy with the battery life and I think this computer s a keeper.
No as far as Microsoft goes..........grrrrrr making Office super expensive and a horrible interface.
But the computer is good once chrome takes over :)I know this is a cheap laptop, but it would have been nice to use it for more than three months (light business and very little web use) before it crapped out. Just a few weeks after I bought it, I had to restore it. Then it worked decent for a month or so before I started getting hard drive failure warnings, and now it's kaput. Luckily, they're replacing the hard drive and all I have to pay is shipping, but I shouldn't be sending off this item so soon.
I don't recommend buying this.
UPDATE: I spent twenty-five bucks for shipping with insurance to have the hard drive replaced. The laptop arrived in the mail today, and after spending hours moving my files back to the laptop & reinstalling programs, I'm getting a blue screen telling me the PC ran into a problem and has to restart. I've contacted Gateway support and requested a refund.Bought this in a store, not from Amazon, but feel obligated to warn others about this laptop. First of all I was really bothered that this didn't come with Microsoft Office or the like, as did the last laptop I bought. I guess that is the way now, making you pay for the additional software...lame. Upon attempting to use the disk drive for the first time it was not properly installed....spent a good chunk of time with tech support, which we were able to fix it, but not off to a good start. Now after only a couple months, the mouse is freezing up all the time; I've had at least one occasion where it wouldn't start without removing the battery and returning it before it would power up. Couple times it's frozen completely and I need to manually shut down. Also, as most people find, Windows 8 is a disaster to navigate, so confusing, impossible to find basic stuff, open two folders at the same time, etc... not a good operating system.This is a very nice laptop. Still learning windows 8 so not able to give 5 stars.. Laptop does get hot fast but this has not been a problem with the workings of the computer. nice job
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