Thursday, March 09, 2006 

Hooray for Gateway Tech Support!

If you believe what you read in the online forums, Gateway technical support is terrible. But I have had to experiences that have been just fine. The down side is... I've needed tech support twice. Both were because of problems with the stylus on my CX2618 Tablet PC.

I noticed that I was having difficulty writing on the screen. (Apparently, this is where some techs have said, "You mean you were trying to write on the screen with a pen?" or some such...) I had to press very hard in InkArt to get any lines to appear, and I thought, "This can't be right." Then I noticed the pen skipping when trying to write notes in Journal or OneNote. Namely, the first part of a stroke would not appear. For example, a "d" might appear as as "a," or an "h" as an "n." Finally, I discovered that if I held the stylus with the right-click button facing the screen, it worked fine, but if I rotated the barrel of the stylus 180 degrees, the skipping would occur.

I was at a conference and staying in a hotel with wi-fi, and I chose to use Gateway's real-time tech support chat. I explained the situation to the tech, and indicated that yes, I did clean the screen. I really only had to say just about what I have said here, and the tech ordered a replacement stylus. Unfortunately, that is when the wi-fi dropped out. I was able to reconnect with tech support, and when I got a new connection, the tech I got the second time was able to reconnect me immediately with the original tech. I did lose the log of the session, though, so I don't remember the tech's name. If I did, I would report it. He was very helpful.

I recieved the stylus in about 3 days via UPS. However, it was worse than the original. It skipped in all orientations. This time I chose to use email for support. Here is the message I sent:

I requested a replacement stylus - the one that came with my PC worked well in some orientations but not others. I received the replacement, but it was worse (I tried them side-by-side.) You had to press REALLY hard to make it ink. And I did clean the screen and calibrate... I sent back the REPLACEMENT. Please send a new replacement.

The quality control on these must not be very good. Please send a NEW stylus, not a refurbished one. I don't just want one that barely works-- I want one that works WELL.

Thanks!

And this is the response I received from Art (Badge GWPE226, Online Customer Support Team, Gateway)

Hello Michael,

Thank you for your e-mail. I know how you must feel right now. I can replace the pen under the limited warranty included with your computer.

In order to process your order, you will need to provide a method of payment... [etc.]

And this time, I got a good one. I think they really are having quality control problems with these styli. But I also know of people who have been using them for a while with no problems. I plan to purchase a spare--I notice Best Buy is now selling these also, so I'll have to decide if I want to buy from them or Gateway.

I am even happier with my Tablet now. Look what I did with Ink Art and my new stylus! My three-year-old would be proud.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 

Tracy Hooten's Review of the Gateway M280/CX200X

review. Shame on me for not putting the link here sooner. I'll be posting the next installment in my review soon.

Monday, March 06, 2006 

Gateway CX2618 Review: OOBE

I don't know why the "OOBE" acronym comes to mind, but the "out of box experience" was pretty darn good. There isn't much in the box: (By the way, it's a pretty nice box, and one that I might expect to see some people carrying onto their international flights to take home to somewhere you can't get a Gateway....) There's the PC, battery, and power cable and brick. There is the Gateway-branded 3M microfiber cleaning cloth, "Getting Started" and "Setting Up" guides, Warranty Agreement and Registration card (directs you to the website), EULA (didn't read it), Trial license key for Microsoft Office Student&Teacher Edition (With Works 8/Money 2005/MSN Encarta Standard/Digital Image Starter Edition Trial), AOL installation CD with 50 free days, System Recovery DVD, and Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 CD and product key.

I was happy to find out that the power supply from my old Compaq 1800 will work with the Gateway! It is 19 volts/3.42 amps/65 watts, and is manufactured by LiteOn. The brick doesn't have a power light to let you know it's connected. My no-name power supply that I bought as a second one for the Compaq is rated at 50 watts, and it seems to work fine.

The initial Windows XP setup (OOBE :-) and activation was quick, and the machine found my D-Link 802.11g wi-fi router. It was using Windows to manage wireless connections by default, and I had to enable the (included and installed) Intel Pro/Set Wireless manager to enter my WPA key and get the network connected.

Then it was time to see what software was preinstalled. In addition to the software listed above, there is:
  • Agilix GoBinder Lite
  • BigFix (notifies about and downloads Gateway updates)
  • CyberLink Power DVD
  • McAfee Internet Security Suite 90-day Trial
  • Microsoft Education Pack for TabletPC
  • Microsoft Experience Pack for TabletPC
  • Napster Light 3.0
  • Nero 6 Suite
The McAfee Suite ran a configuration/install dialog at startup. I ignored it, went to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and got rid of it before it was even fully installed. I can't recall for sure, but I think I had to end its task from Task Manager a time or two. I then proceeded to install Kerio Personal Firewall and AVG Antivirus (Free Edition). I love Kerio, and as for AVG, perhaps there are better free solutions, and I'll investigate sometime.

Then I removed the Office trial edition and installed Office 2003 Professional (my campus has a license). Other software I have installed: Acrobat 7.0 (full version), Cambridge Soft's ChemOffice 9.0, Google Desktop, Kensington MouseWorks (for my trackball), Mozilla Firefox 1.5, Microsoft Anti-Spyware beta, Novell Groupwise 6.5, MusicMatch Jukebox 10.0, WeatherBug , Zinio Reader, SmartSync Pro, and some Windows XP Powertoys and TabletPC Powertoys.

I was having some issued with the wireless dropping connections, and I highly recommend installing updated drivers from the Intel website (I'm using version 10.1.0.3, and it's great). Also, updated touchpad drivers from Synaptics (also recommended) allowed me to use the touchpad scrolling feature in Firefox.

Following a tip on Tablet PC Buzz, I flashed the BIOS. The Gateway support site doesn't list the CX2618 as a choice for this BIOS, so it doesn't appear on your support page if you enter your serial number, but it does say it supports the 2600 series. I installed it because it is reported to solve an issue where the fan runs much too often and too long, which might be distracting in a quiet classroom. I can't compare, as I installed it right away, but my fan rarely comes on, and when it does, it doesn't stay on long.

I also installed Notebook Hardware Control, which allows me to undervolt the CPU and gain battery life. I'm being conservative here, as I am not interested in losing data or causing crashes; my settings are, for example, 1.068 V at a 13 multiplier. If this means nothing to you, it didn't to me either until I read the documentation, and I'm using recommended settings. If you're happy with the battery life, then you can skip this. It does give you a tray icon showing the CPU temperature, which is nice to know. I'm getting 5 hours (supposedly), though I haven't run the battery down all the way to test this. Well, I did run the BIOS battery calibration, which runs down the battery to calibrate the time showing in the taskbar, but I was sleeping at the time :). If anyone undervolts more without problems, I'd be interested to hear about it.

I took the tablet to a meeting, and tried taking notes by inking in Windows Journal (I hadn't installed OneNote yet). It seemed to work fine, though I seemed to have to press awfully hard with the stylus to get ink to "flow."

Back at home, I tried InkArt in the included Experience Pack, and again, seemed to have to press really hard to get anything to draw. I installed OneNote, and it was the same. It turns out that I had some issues with the stylus--but that will have to wait for my next post! (Preview: the issues are all resolved, in case you were worried!)

 

CX2618 On Sale!

I don't think anyone is actually reading this, but in case you are... The CX2618 that I own is on sale this week at Best Buy (and bestbuy.com) for $1349 (after the $150 instant rebate). If you are thinking about it, now is a good time to buy.

Friday, March 03, 2006 

Temptation

I'm not sure what originally piqued my interest in getting a tablet. Could be, I just figured that if I'm going to get a new notebook, it might as well be a tablet. But we had a guest presentation at my university by two people from another university who were using tablets in the classroom. One application was using them to replace the digital whiteboards that are becoming so common. You can hook the tablet up to a projector, and ink on your presentation while showing it to the class. Then you can save the inked-up presentation They had Gateway Tablets. I looked online and Gateway had a decent tablet for $999, so my interest level was definitely up. After several weeks of thinking about a new "toy," I justified my thought process by thinking of all the useful things I could do with a tablet, such as the example above...

I travel a little but not much, and I'm frugal. That is, I want this computer to last a long time (say, 5 years). So I definitely was not considering a slate, and weight is not really an issue. I started searching the web for reviews and came upon Tablet PC Review Spot.com and the Tablet PC Buzz forums. Based on features and price, I quickly narrowed my options to two manufacturers: Toshiba (likely the Tecra M4) or Gateway (CX200S or CX200X, available online). Luckily for me, I knew a former student who owned the Toshiba, and I have a current student who owns a Gateway, so I was able to try out both. Here are the comparisons on issues I found important.
  1. Cost: If you timed it right and watched for specials, etc., The M4, nicely configured was about $1700, while a similarly configured Gateway could be had online for $1300 (I had already convinced myself that the $999 Gateway CX200S was not powerful enough to last me the requisite 5 years). Winner - Gateway.
  2. Display: The M4 has a 14.1" SXGA+ (1400x1050), while the Gateway comes with a 14" widescreen format WXGA (1280x768). The extra resolution on the M4 was nice, but I hate the tiny icons and fonts that come with high resolution displays on Windows XP (I always change the dpi on my desktop from Normal to Large), so this issue for me is minimized. Yes, the higher resolution would be nice, but for me, the WXGA was enough. And yes, the M4 has GeForce video with dedicated 64MB versus the Gateway with integrated Intel video and shared memory; but I'm not going to play games on it, and the video in the Gateway is upgradeable to a 64 MB ATI Radeon if desired. Winner - neither.
  3. Other hardware: CPUs (Pentium M 740, 1.73GHz, 533MHz FSB), memory (512 MB), hard disk (60 GB 5400 rpm SATA), optical drive (8x DVD+-RW), and wireless ( Intel PRO\Wireless 2200 802.11b/g) are identical. Neither has bluetooth, though the Toshiba has it as an extra cost option; I could get a PC card add-on for the Gateway. The M4 does have GeForce Video Winner - neither.
  4. Digitizer: The M4 uses Wacom technology, which has native pressure-sensitivity support in Adobe applications (Photoshop). The gateway uses Finepoint technology, which doesn't. Since I don't even use my copy of Photoshop Elements much, this is basically a non-issue for me. Winner - neither.
  5. Stylus: The Gateway's stylus is larger and feels much more like a real pen to me. The M4's seems more like a child's toy. Winner: Gateway
  6. Keyboard: This is important to me. I am a power Windows user, and I like my Windows logo key for shortcuts like -E to open Explorer. The Toshiba's Windows logo key is strangely placed at the upper-right of the keyboard, and shrunken down like the half-height function keys. Other keys are rearranged also. Yuck! I would have to remap the slash or tilde key as the Windows logo key (that is, assuming I could find the instructions online for hacking the registry to remap keys). The Gateway has a full-size standard Windows keyboard. Winner: Gateway
  7. Local availability: This is the kicker. Before Christmas, I had looked at Toshiba and Gateway tablets at the local Best Buy. In mid-January, Best Buy had stopped carrying any Toshiba tablets, and had a new model of the Gateway: the CX2618. It has almost the same specs as the CX200X available online, with one big exception: 1 GB of RAM instead of 512 MB. And it was on sale for $1350 ("regularly" $1499.) Winner: Gateway!
So, I thought about it for a day or two, and then I left work early one afternoon and rushed to BestBuy to get it. (An aside: nothing is ever quick at Best Buy. It must have taken half an hour for the floor employee to get a manager to give him approval and a key to get me the box...). Out of box experience that night was great. Next time, I'll write about what software and driver updates I installed and what had to go immediately (so long, McAfee).

Thursday, March 02, 2006 

Dateline: December

So, it was December 2005 when I was getting fed up with my old laptop. It is a Compaq Presario 1800T, with a 700MHz processor, 14" XGA display, and it originally came with Windows ME (ugh.) I guess that means that I got it in about the year 2000, so it was 5 or 6 years old. I had upgraded it to Windows XP years ago, maxed out the memory (at a Lilliputian 320 megabytes), and even changed out the original CD/DVD combo with a CD-RW/DVD combo (kudos to Compaq for making a service manual available on the internet showing me how to disassemble and reassemble the notebook). But it was SLOW to boot, and the early Netgear 802.11g PC-card was flaky--it stopped working if after waking from standby or hibernate, which made the slow booting even more unbearable. And besides, the Tablet PC's are so cool... And half what I originally paid for the Compaq. So I started looking around for tablets. (I wonder why Dell doesn't sell one?) I searched the web for reviews, watched prices, and thought about buying myself a Christmas present. But I'm cheap, and I didn't really need a new laptop. In my next post, I'll describe how I made my decision on which tablet to buy.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006 

Here we go...

Well, I haven't been a very prolific writer at my other blog, Michael's Musings, but I am motivated to give it another try. I have had my new Tablet PC for a little over a month now, and I'm just figuring out what I can do with it. I am a chemistry professor at a small, public liberal arts college ("university"), so my posts will come from that perspective. I'll start from T minus two weeks or so, with the decision that I had to have a tablet, and I'll gradually catch up to current events. Watch this space...