A wonderous dilema

**Niclo Iste** · May 19th, 2009, 08:40 PM

I have always told clients not to go to Gateway because of their guaranteed failure of devices by a certain time frame. Now I have a new reason. Gateway posts the wrong drivers that will not work with their devices then when you contact them they immediately refuse to help you unless you call the pay for support line so you can pay for drivers they should already be providing free. Quite the misleading and poor practice to say the least.
My dilema is not that Gateway exists or that their products are out there. My problem is my client has one of their laptops and needed windows reinstalled. She has none of the media that came with her laptop and let's just be happy she still had her license key stickered to her machine. If anyone can find me working drivers from other than gateways site I'd appreciate it. I need drivers for WinXP (though I'm sure win2k and even possibly vista drivers could work). The Model of the laptop in silk screen is MA7, the refurbishment sticker from gateway has a Model Number MX6421.
The devices I need drivers for are the Wireless Network Card, Sound Card, and the Mass Storage Device. I would really appreciate it if someone can assist on this.

P.S.
Like I said the Gateway site has the wrong drivers posted please don't flood this request with links to their pages.

**Zonie** · May 19th, 2009, 10:29 PM

Would it be possible for you to run Everst, then see what the different devices are? I have found other manufactures of PC's to have wrong drivers posred as well. In most cases, the devices are manufactured by other companies and I can go to their sites and download the correct drivers. Just a thought.

**geoscomp** · May 20th, 2009, 12:08 AM

I'm not sure why you have trouble finding the drivers you talk about..they are here:
http://support.gateway.com/support/d...=pn&param=5956
the chipset drivers usually provide the mass storage drivers

**CCT** · May 20th, 2009, 04:34 AM

The key word in your description is 'refurbishment'.

Could mean a different mobo. Use the Gateway scanner on the page Geoscomp linked.

**Niclo Iste** · May 20th, 2009, 08:34 AM

I've done that from day one. It's useless. Let's just admit gateways website isn't going to solve my problem.

I've never used everest before so when I get back from my errands today I'll get the demo and see what it can do as far as determining what is inside.

**slgrieb** · May 20th, 2009, 11:51 AM

Ah, the wonderful world of Gateway! Geoscomp, the "mass storage" device won't be included with the chipset drivers because it is a card reader. Most Gateways uses one based on a TI chipset, and the driver is most likely here. Unfortunately, since Gateway frequently fails to list all models supported by the driver, it would be difficult to be sure, even if Niclo weren't dealing with a refurb.

Just an FYI, CCT, Gateway's scanner is absolutely, totally useless. Just like using the serial number to search for drivers. Anyway, I could work up to a pretty good rant about Gateway. Fortunately, I just got that out of my system with a phone conversation.

NIclo, don't download the old, free Everest. It has major shortcomings identifying newer hardware, and virtually all onboard sound regardless of how old the machine may be. Download the Everest Ultimate Trial version here.

What you're going to find is that Gateway probably offers functional drivers for another model that will work for you, or you can find generic drivers that will work. My biggest problems with Gateways have been audio drivers, and you may have to find a driver from Gateway, HP, or whoever that supports the specific soundchip in the laptop, because newer, generic drivers might not do the job.

**NooNoo** · May 21st, 2009, 02:44 AM

The long way round is to identify the mainboard, then google the mainboard and see what else it's used in other than gateway, then go to that other support site and get the drivers.

**Niclo Iste** · May 21st, 2009, 08:48 AM

Thank you SLGrieb for helping point out the shortcomings of gateway. I also thank you for the advice on similar drivers from other systems they made. I hadn't thought of that.

Also NooNoo I just was hoping I didn't have to open that thing up but you're probably right I might have to go that far.

**NooNoo** · May 21st, 2009, 08:51 AM

Try cpuid-z - it's pretty good at the motherboards.

**slgrieb** · May 21st, 2009, 04:27 PM

I just got through with a Gateway 3610GZ laptop about 2 weeks ago that required a new hard drive. The System Restore CD contained 0 drivers for the machine. Gateway first said, "Well, it should" followed by "Oh, you need to run the second (nowhere to be found) Applications and Drivers CD. Accusations of mental malfunction all around. Serial number not found online (even though support could find the registration info), no drivers online, etc.

Running Everest Ultimate identified the 945 chipset, WNIC, etc., and most importantly, told me that the soundchip was a Conexant cx20486, and a fast google identified the M250 as having essentially identical hardware. Problem solved. The older version of Everest would have just incorrectly identified the sound as an Intel xxxxx.

**Niclo Iste** · May 25th, 2009, 12:24 PM

I remembered that Faronics System Profiler could give me the info on the hardware... I forgot about that since I don't get to do much installs anymore since I delegated them to our inhouse tech. Heh well their inhouse tech since I started my own company last week. Anyway, ironically slgrieb it seems the m250 is also the solution laptop for my problems after I researched this board with my hardware results. Furthermore it looks like gateway linked the correct drivers at least for the wireless NIC when I came back to it today out of frustration and a mild hope that I'd be lucky.

P.S.
Thank you everyone for the advice on where to look. Extra thanks to slgrieb for imparting his experience in a similar situation for my solution.

**slgrieb** · May 25th, 2009, 01:40 PM

One of the things about Gateway, HP, or Compaq is that they build lots of different model numbers on virtually the same hardware. Once I've identified the hardware, I generally use the chip manufacturer's current software. So, for an Intel 945 based board, I'd use Intel's newest chipset and graphics drivers, Broadcom's network drivers, etc. Sound is one of those gotchas where you often need a specific driver, and newer versions may not be backward compatible.