Friday I received my Gateway CX210S, clean install of Vista Home
Premium. Very good value, EXCEPT....

The cursor shows okay (i.e. a dot) when the screen orientation is set
as if in use as a laptop, but it goes nuts in the other three
orientations. In tablet, it starts off as a big black box, sometimes
with white dots. Change orientations, and it might be a large, thick
black line, or a blue line, or a pixillated line.

Spent maybe an hour-plus on the phone with Gateway support; very nice
guy, but had no idea how to resolve, and has escalated it. We tried a
System Restore. I've rebooted several times. A Gateway email sugg'd
installing the pen driver, but Vista reported it already has the right
version. It isn't an issue of selecting cursor tip or line width; this
is not one of the provided displays.

Ever hear of this? Any suggestions?

In article <1174331165.759244.178750@y66g2000hsf.googlegroups .com>,
filops******.com says...
> The cursor shows okay (i.e. a dot) when the screen orientation is set
> as if in use as a laptop, but it goes nuts in the other three
> orientations. In tablet, it starts off as a big black box, sometimes
> with white dots. Change orientations, and it might be a large, thick
> black line, or a blue line, or a pixillated line.

Sounds like a video driver problem to me. Every time one of my users has
had trouble with whacky looking pointers it has been the video driver.

You may be right, Grant. Just got a message from Gateway that they're
working on a graphics driver to address this, should be online soon. I
hope so!

I wonder how this blindsided them? Perhaps it was another one of those
MS Patch #19573-Hoses-Unrelated-Application-Zed-Who-Knew? situations.

And it could be they wrote a faulty driver. 8-)
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
http://forums.mobilepcworld.net
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

"filops" <filops******.com> wrote in message
news:1174395832.949685.144740@d57g2000hsg.googlegr oups.com...
> You may be right, Grant. Just got a message from Gateway that they're
> working on a graphics driver to address this, should be online soon. I
> hope so!
>
> I wonder how this blindsided them? Perhaps it was another one of those
> MS Patch #19573-Hoses-Unrelated-Application-Zed-Who-Knew? situations.
>

In article <1174395832.949685.144740@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups .com>,
filops******.com says...
> I wonder how this blindsided them?
>
In my long years of experience, Gateway is one of the worst of the major
companies for this kind of problem. They never seem to get all of their
drivers quite right. Plus, they include all kinds of junk (that no one
needs but that they get money to include) without making sure it is all
compatible and works well together. I like the physical construction of
the Gateway tablet hinge but I still don't trust any of the rest of the
machine from the motherboard right down to the drivers. Just a gut
feeling built up over years of working on hundreds of different
computers. The kinds of problems I usually have with Gateways always
seems to boil down to poor design on their part.

P.S. I have had almost exactly the opposite problem with Acer products.
Decent design and software but poor quality of the physical product.
Hinges, switches, and connectors go bad like you wouldn't believe.

To update everyone:

It's getting close to two weeks since I first reported the incident to
Gateway by telephone, and then by email.

A Gateway tech named Mike has twice LM on my voicemail at homeleaving
his direct number. He said he was emailing me a beta driver.

I have now called him at that number more than twelve times. I have
left messages at least five times, possibly more. I told Mike that
Yahoo! had evidently blocked his email as spam. I asked him to use two
other email addresses. Evidently he has used neither.

I asked him to send me a link to the driver instead of the driver
itself. I have received nothing.

I asked him to call my on my cell. I have received no call in the
three days since I first made that request.

I don't like ragging on support, since I do it myself and know there
can be a lot of variables. But I'm getting convcerned. It is simply
not acceptable that a tablet can't function as a tablet. Gateway needs
to escalate it and get it resolved, and I don't see that they are.

I would call their general support number and ask to speak with a
supervisor, then explain all that you've gone through so far. BTW - Gateway
does have several "Vista" updates available on their support area within the
web site. One you might try, if you haven't already, is the 98.08 BIOS
update.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
http://forums.mobilepcworld.net
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

"filops" <filops******.com> wrote in message
news:1175179486.070614.238700@y80g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com...
> To update everyone:
>
> It's getting close to two weeks since I first reported the incident to
> Gateway by telephone, and then by email.
>
> A Gateway tech named Mike has twice LM on my voicemail at homeleaving
> his direct number. He said he was emailing me a beta driver.
>
> I have now called him at that number more than twelve times. I have
> left messages at least five times, possibly more. I told Mike that
> Yahoo! had evidently blocked his email as spam. I asked him to use two
> other email addresses. Evidently he has used neither.
>
> I asked him to send me a link to the driver instead of the driver
> itself. I have received nothing.
>
> I asked him to call my on my cell. I have received no call in the
> three days since I first made that request.
>
> I don't like ragging on support, since I do it myself and know there
> can be a lot of variables. But I'm getting convcerned. It is simply
> not acceptable that a tablet can't function as a tablet. Gateway needs
> to escalate it and get it resolved, and I don't see that they are.
>

Not sure if this helps, but my employer upgraded my desktop with a GW
tablet, CX 210 or something like that. So I have been playing around with
the handwriting stuff and it is very nice as I do not keyboard well. One
thing that I discovered was that the stylus is a little "fragile." What
happened is that when using the tablet, I was writing in journal, and
casually tossed the pen about 6" to desk. Next time I went to use it, it was
off kilter, so I tried to calibrate it, and it wouldn't do it very well. So
after messing with calibration screen awhile and not getting anywhere, I
tapped the eraser end of the pen on my desk, and wham, it worked again. So
every now and then, when it doesn't seem to respond well. I just tap the
eraser end lightly on a hard surface and it works fine. Hope this helps.


"Chris H" <VistaMobilePC********.com> wrote in message
news:2B356163-0AD8-4972-876E-F0E13EBA5B3A@microsoft.com...
>I would call their general support number and ask to speak with a
>supervisor, then explain all that you've gone through so far. BTW -
>Gateway does have several "Vista" updates available on their support area
>within the web site. One you might try, if you haven't already, is the
>98.08 BIOS update.
> --
> Chris H.
> Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
> Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
> http://forums.mobilepcworld.net
> Associate Expert
> Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
>
> "filops" <filops******.com> wrote in message
> news:1175179486.070614.238700@y80g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com...
>> To update everyone:
>>
>> It's getting close to two weeks since I first reported the incident to
>> Gateway by telephone, and then by email.
>>
>> A Gateway tech named Mike has twice LM on my voicemail at homeleaving
>> his direct number. He said he was emailing me a beta driver.
>>
>> I have now called him at that number more than twelve times. I have
>> left messages at least five times, possibly more. I told Mike that
>> Yahoo! had evidently blocked his email as spam. I asked him to use two
>> other email addresses. Evidently he has used neither.
>>
>> I asked him to send me a link to the driver instead of the driver
>> itself. I have received nothing.
>>
>> I asked him to call my on my cell. I have received no call in the
>> three days since I first made that request.
>>
>> I don't like ragging on support, since I do it myself and know there
>> can be a lot of variables. But I'm getting convcerned. It is simply
>> not acceptable that a tablet can't function as a tablet. Gateway needs
>> to escalate it and get it resolved, and I don't see that they are.
>>
>

UPDATE

Thanks all. The tech did finally call my cell, and pointed me to a
beta ATI driver. I installed it, it did fix the problem thus far
(yayy!).

He says it should be up on the Gateway site within a week or so.

My best advice to any with the same issue in the meanwhile would be to
call or email Gateway and maybe refer to this thread, or specifically
tell them it requires an ATI driver that is currently in beta.
Hopefully that'll streamline for you what was close to a two-week
process for me.

By the way,...the ATI driver that provides the fix we all need is available
on the ATI website. Here's the link to the Vista x32 version. I installed it
yesterday, and it works flawlessly!

It's up! Here:
http://support.gateway.com/support/d...&param=1008807

Under Video Downloads. Just went up!

Thanks for posting the information. It should be noted the new driver
applies only to the following Gateway systems:
Gateway M285-E Convertible Notebook [Part #1008804]
Gateway M285-G Convertible Notebook [Part #1008805]
Gateway CX210S Convertible Notebook [Part #1008807]
Gateway CX210X Convertible Notebook [Part #1008808]
Gateway M285-E SB Convertible Notebook [Part #1008990]
[Part #1009202]
[Part #1014305R]
[Part #1014306R]
[Part #1014307R]
[Part #1014308R]
[Part #1014309R]
945PM Chipset Motherboard with ATI 64MB Video (FRU) [Part #QND10MBZZZ20M7]
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
http://forums.mobilepcworld.net
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

"filops" <filops******.com> wrote in message
news:1175822617.614322.179080@y80g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com...
> It's up! Here:
> http://support.gateway.com/support/d...&param=1008807
>
> Under Video Downloads. Just went up!
>