Too Hot to Handle
Written: Oct 11 '04 (Updated Oct 13 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Light weight, easy to use
Cons: Heating problems, and a burnt leg
The Bottom Line: Given the heat problems with this notebook, I would not recommend, and keep it off your lap, or you will get burned.
|
|
|
| uffda6's Full Review: Gateway 450S PC Notebook |
I bought this notebook for my daughter for college, in Sept of 2002. The reason I chose gateway, well honestly it was the laptop computer the college was offering at a good price at the time. Gateway had a good reputation, and I felt that it was reliable. She used it for one semester, and then left school... I took over using the laptop in May of 2003. It is a pretty fast computer, it runs a pentium 4 processor,and a 20 GB hard drive. I run the Windows XP Professional version in it, and it does what I need easily. It seemed to run well, however I did notice that it seemed to get very hot. I use the notebook on my lap most of the time weather I am traveling, or even just working at home on the couch. It was a bit smaller than my other laptop and so it was easier to carry,lighter on my lap and about 2 inches smaller than my Toshiba. The screen is a 14 inch screen, and has clear definition.
As I started to get more into the summer, I found that I had this strange discoloring on my left leg, and it took a while for me to realize that the notebook had burned my leg over time. I always put a light blanket over my lap while using it because it did tend to get hot, but I never thought I was actually burning my skin. My leg is permanently discolored now. When I mentioned this to Gateway, I was advised that these are notebooks, not laptops. Nice way around what I feel is faulty over heating. Personally I feel that there should have been a clear warning in the information that came with the machine, and I did go back and look through what I had received and I found no such warning. I continued to use this notebook, mostly for it's convenience, but I put a bit thicker lap pad under neath it, making sure it had air to breath.
In May of 2004 the computer fan failed, and the monitor became jumbled, and the whole computer shut down. I called Gateway customer service, and I had bought the extended warranty so they only charge me the $48.00 for shipping and repaired the problem. Now because the notebook was bought through the college, I was not the registered owner of the notebook, it took about 40 minutes just to get that cleared up. However when I received the box for shipping it back to them the name on the address label was not mine. Before I shipped the computer I again called gateway to make sure that they had the information correct. They again took about 40 minutes to go through correcting the owner information. I then sent the notebook to them for repairs, and they did fix it rapidly and returned it, to yet another name, at my address.
The repairs they listed and tested were to repair heat unit, then still they had to ultimately replace heat sink assembly, in further testing the cable assembly was replaced along with the modem card. The modem worked when I sent it out, so it must have gone bad during repairs. They had the notebook for about 10 days and I got it back working just fine. I was happy with the service time, but still they did not have the ownership information right.
Fortunately I live in a rural area, and it got delivered to the right address in spite of the wrong name.
This Sept of 2004, again the computer fan stopped working the video became garbles, and everything shut down. Now I was a bit angry that it had only been 4 months before it was doing the same thing that they had fixed. So back on the phone with Gateway, knowing it was still under warranty, I knew they would have to fix it again, but it really stunk that I would have to pay to have it shipped back again. Well I can say that the customer service representative was very nice and talked to his supervisor and they decided that because it was only 4 months ago they were not going to charge me shipping again. I thought that was great customer service. They shipped me a new box, and I again sent the notebook in for repairs. Again they had to replace the heat sink assembly, and this time the the LCD was flickering so they replace a part related to that. The repair was done quickly, and I now have the notebook back. I still feel that this notebook gets way to hot, and I have no doubt after going through this twice, that it will happen again.
Sorry to say Gateway but I would not recommend this notebook, due to over heating problems. Computers are great, but need to be more reliable, and less harmful.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1799.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
uffda6
|
|
Location: Sunny AZ
Reviews written: 195
Trusted by: 48 members
About Me:
We moved from NY to AZ so I am getting used to my new surroundings.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.