Had a Gateway.  Had just about everything fail on it within 2 years.  Had three motherboards replaced, but they put different drivers on each one of them.  Computer lost it's last 5 page report and I did this:

1. Took it out to my farm
2. Set it in the field
3. Layed down a line of suppression fire
4. Too my absolute amazement, it caught on fire during the middle of the string!  Then just sat there in a melted mess, billowing smoke as I laughed my sinister @#$ off!
That was worth every dime right there!

No warranty??????????????????????

Pictures?

This is my monitor:

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/Oslow/monitor.jpg[/img]

They said the warranty didn't cover gunfire. What's the deal on that?

[img]http://www.a-human-right.com/RKBA/smg/s_kill-tv.JPG[/img]

I have a Gateway that I have never had a problem with.

Buy a Dell and save your ammo and frustration.

Dell's CEO is big time anti gun.

My family had a gateway 486dx33 for the longest time.  I finally replaced the motherboard so I could keep playing games.  It was 7 years old at that point.  I even had to update the BIOS in order to get Netscape 2.0 to work properly.

Oh yeah, had to pay for Netscape back then too.

So far, the only problem I've had with my 1 year old Gateway is that the Phillips CDRW they put into it was a piece of crap.

After they exchanged it once, I tossed it, and put a Yamaha in: Problem Solved.

All in all, I can't complain.

Jay
Arizona

Some real computer dweebs have been known to do this out of frustration, but occasionally it's fun to blast some random hardware to hell just to remind yourself that no computer can stand up to the judicious application of force.  
Example 1:
[img]http://www.ecis.com/~weasel/temp/Hard%2520Drive%2520Platters.jpg[/img]
Example 2:
[img]http://www.ecis.com/~weasel/temp/Targets%252001.jpg[/img]
There's a 1gb maxtor and a quantum hard drive, and a Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM PCI display card on and in front of the log.

A monitor would be much more satisfying, but that will have to wait until the next time I go to a freezone to shoot.  

Buckshot and 22's do no good on hard drive casings.  The platters may bend a little, but will not be penetrated.  Most of the damage to the platters was from 9mm rounds.  

The video card suffered an ignoble death after a number of years of faithful service.  .22 and up work wonders on PCB's.  

Dont build PC's... those PC companies put cheap motherboard and cheap harddrive and cheap RAM's but charge you the price of all the quality hardware (so they make money...) a good quality motherboard (asus/abit seems good, I'd avoid those nameless cheap brands like MSI and PCware (AKA Alton)), Athalons or PIII (I recommend Athalon, they seem to beat even Pentium 4's), a 30 gig IBM Deskstar (supposly the best harddrive out there), Geforce 2's, CD burners and 256 megs of ram (Muskin makes the best, Micron and Kingston is good as well) and a DVD drive shouldnt run more than about 1000 dollars... forget about those Dell/Gateway 2k 1000 dollar PC with monitors.... 9 times out of 10 they give you cheap 15 inch monitor and probably makes your eyes tired, or doesnt have much in ways of refresh rate and resolution... if you got an old PC that is ATX form factor you dont even need the case, just empty the case and put in new hardware (If you use athalons MAKE SURE you got at least 300 W powersupply or else you will get lots of crashes...) Motherboard dont sound like much but they are the most important part of your computer.... theres nothing in your comp that doesnt go through the motherboard so get a good one, your CPU comes second, memory believe it or not has A LOT to do with the stability of your system! Since crash is really a memory error you can see why crappy RAM causes alot of crash (PC companies always use cheap RAM... if not they would have to up the price) RAM's today are so cheap cost shouldnt even be an issue. Your harddrive is the biggest bottleneck in your system, since it is thee slowest, get a good one as well... For those who doesnt know how to build a system its not that hard... try asking a computer shop if you can watch them repair computers.. if you can put together an AR-15 out of spare parts you can build a system... That way you wont have to subjectigate your computers under gunfire...

I'm a network admin for a company that runs Gateway's. I take care of about 150 desktops and notebooks along with 8 servers that are all Gateway. We usually don't have a lot of problems with them with the exception of an occasional hard drive or video card. All and all I'd recommend them to anyone. Wether you go with a Dell, Micron, Compaq or Gateway there will always be a share of lemons out there. Just stay away from Packard Hell and you'll be fine.

I'm also enjoy shooting old hardware. In the last month I've blown up:

3 hard drives
4 monitors
1 complete 286 w/ printer
2 keyboards
1 UPS

I keep a chunk out of a 15 inch monitor that I show with a .223 on my desk to remind me that even when things get stressful I have the ultimate power over the technology I work with...I consider it an "occupational stress reliver"..

Hey......It's cheaper than therapy!

Just thought I'd put this picture in here one more time. [:)]

Looks like I'm not the only one out there!  
Oh, I was sent a new PC, just forgot that I had to send back the defective machine!

rahimiv is right. Build your own. You know exactly what you've put in , and no bundled crap. You get the same pleasure as when you've built your AR. Building a pc is easier than it looks, it's chasing down up to date drivers that's time-consuming.

Did you guys know it is possible to delete a post?

And repeating pictures is really a waste of space.