Setting up a Gateway GT5220

Well, I bought a refurbished Gateway GT5220 computer from Tiger Direct. I had the computer delivered and the very first thing I did was insert my Acronis True Image CD to make an image of the hard drive even before I booted the machine. I wanted to have a perfect recovery for down the road. I noticed when True Image was booting from the CD that I got several "hdc: lost interrupt" messages before the application screen presented itself. Initially I thought it sort of odd, but True Image was working and allowed me to make a backup image.

After the backup was made I booted Windows XP Media Center for the first time. I went through the initial boot process and made my way to the Windows desktop. The first thing I did, because I despise the Windows XP desktop design, was to change the theme to Windows Classic. Ah, much better.

The next step was to eliminate the proliferance of "crapware" that comes preloaded on these types of computers. Good thing it was cheap. So, I removed all of:

• AOL (ugh!)
  
• BigFix
• Google Desktop
• Google Toolbar
• MS Money
• MS Office demo
• MS Works
• Napster
• Real Player (ewwww!)
• McAfee Antivirus

There will probably be more to go later, but that was a start. Following that I ran through Windows Update to get all the latest patches.

Next I wanted to install a bit of software. I attempted to insert a CD into the DVD drive and that's when the fun began. The drive tray would not open. Wha??? I went to Windows Explorer and noticed that the DVD drive was not listed.

I experienced some rather odd behaviour of this drive. The BIOS was able to see the drive and identify it correctly and I was able to boot from it. However, when the computer had loaded an operating system, the DVD drive either failed to operate or was not recognized.

I spent a few hours at a time (so I wouldn't go insane) over the span of a week trying to figure out what was wrong. I checked:

• BIOS settings
• Windows settings
• editing the registry per a Microsoft tech note
• disabling devices (eg. SATA, parallel port, serial ports)
  
• removing the modem
  
• exchanging the power supply
• exchanging the DVD drive
• exchanging the IDE cable... AHA!!!

Evidently the IDE cable shipped with this Gateway computer was borfed. I cabbaged one out of a dead server I had and lo and behold I had a working DVD drive!

During this time I also enlisted the help of Gateway support since I was entitled. They were insistent that I needed to return a faulty DVD drive. Considering I could actually boot from the CD, I couldn't believe that it was the drive causing the issue. So, the final score is:

• Brian 1 : Gateway 0

I'm feeling much better about the situation now.