Gateway Support Downloads Are… Special

Posted on May 14, 2008 No Comments

My work machine is a Gateway laptop running Vista Business. While I like the laptop a lot, I’ve been thinking about “upgrading” it to XP in the near future (here’s one reason). Being wise in the ways of the world, I figured I had better make sure there are drivers available for it before I begin.

I went to the Gateway Support site to check for drivers and then “personalized my experience” by giving it my laptop’s serial number figuring that would help filter things. Next, I selected XP for the OS and…

Hmm, the only drivers offered are Bluetooth and docking station. Uh oh… that doesn’t bode well for an XP install, does it?

Out of curiosity, I checked to see what drivers were offered if I chose Vista. Oddly enough, the same ones!

This seemed strange (there’s an understatement!) so I backed up a step and started over. But instead of entering my serial number, I clicked on the option “Browse all downloads.” From there, I choose my product type, model number and OS and click the link to display results. Lots more drivers now! Eighteen, to be precise.

Now, perhaps I’m overly fussy about such things, but that support experience seems a lot more of a hassle than it needed to be.

Tags: drivers, Gateway, laptop, support