Official Gateway SX2840-01 (i3-530 H57 Slim Desktop) Owners Thread - Page 5

I just found out first hand.....the customer support is a joke. Did an online chat to see if i could get info on the dvd drive. I was told i would have to pay for support. So lame......

Does anyone know how to get HD audio that comes with Blu-ray movies from this gateway PC. Do I need to add an extra card, can it be done via software, or do I need a new stereo? Right now, I am getting DD 5.1 by feeding the fiber output from this PC to my stereo. This PC also supports 7.1 audio, however my stereo doesn't have 7.1 input or HDMI input.

System has only 2 sata connectors on it. You can disconnect dvd drive and connect another hard drive. thats one of the limitations of the system is the lack of sata ports. you can also connect external esata hard drive and it will be as fast as the internal one. You can also buy PCIE low profile sata card and that should allow you to add extra disks. there is nothing stopping you from opening the system. there are no warranty void stickers on the system.

z_zk_z - the only way to get HD audio from blue ray disks is via bitstreaming over HDMI. Optical output doesn't have enough bandwidth to out put HD audio over it. You will need to get HDMI receiver and connect your PC to it via HDMI. this way you will be able to send HD audio to your speakers. intel i3 GPU is capable of bitstreaming HD audio and True HD audio so the only thing you would need is a receiver that is capable of decoding it. check the forum to see which receivers work. There are a lot of people who are having problems with it because receivers are not fully compatible with HDMI drivers and vice versa.

New receivers are just coming out now. They typically have HDMI 1.4 to handle 3D and Ethernet. Even the $200 models have HD audio decoding (Pioneer VSX-520-K).

Here is some info on the Gateway DX4831-01e.

1) The unit comes with a 300 watt power supply. I connected a watt meter to its power cord and it shows ~55 watts under normal use and about few watts in sleep mode. I have added a 2TB WD green hard drive and a Pioneer 12x Blu-ray burner to it. The watt meter shows ~75 watts when ripping/saving Blu-ray to hard drive. The ripping using AnyDVD HD into an ISO file takes ~25 minutes. It appears the power supply is large enough for additional add-ons. The power supply has two extra un-used SATA power connectors, so I just had to purchase two SATA data cables (~18 long) for the 2TB hard drive and the Blu-ray drive. I am using total of four SATA ports from the motherboard and there are few more un-used SATA ports on the motherboard, however if you need to use them, you have to do something about the power, since there are a total of four SATA power connectors. There are few other power connectors, which probably you could get adapter to convert them to SATA.

2) Attached picture shows the available PCI-express ports

3) I have both TMT3 and PowerDVD9 for playing Blu-ray, however I need to figure out why PowerDVD9 doesn't play some Blu-ray movies correctly like CARS or Up in the air.

4) I purchased the following keyboard/remote combination and I must say that I LOVE the form factor and the location of the trackball and other keys, however it appears that you have to hold the keyboard (flat or vertical) at certain angles for the trackball to work perfectly. I just sent it back for a replacement and if the replacement behaves the same, then I will keep it since I love the key locations. I can put the PC into sleep and wake it up without any issue with the remote. You could also just use the remote with the WIN7 on-screen keyboard instead of the keyboard or you could use the keyboard and give the remote to your girlfriend, so two people can control the PC. The remote has short cuts for the WMC and its sections. http://www.amazon.com/nMediapc-HTPCK...8318069&sr=8-8 (search for nMediapc on Amazon)

5) I ran the test under the WMC to find out if the PC is compatible with CableCard tuners and it passed that test. I will be adding a Ceton CableCard when it comes out and a DVB-S2 card in few weeks.

6) I am feeding the fiber out from this PC to my fiber input on my receiver and that is how I am getting DD 5.1 audio. I guess I will be buying something like Pioneer VSX-520-K receiver soon in order to get HD audio.

The HD material can be acquired either by download or, like you say, the addition of a BR player (only about $100, perhaps a little more).

But, I'm not sure what you mean by the fact that you need "playback software"? Are you talking about stuff like Power DVD or TMT? Can you explain and give an example of the software you are referring to? Thanks.

Uh oh..

Seem to be having a little bit of a problem here with graphics capabilty for bluray. Here's what I get when trying toplay back my backed up blurays using AnyDVD-HD and BD-Rebuilder.

I will report back later after I do additional research!

(Anyone have any good ideas for a good graphics card to give this machine the oooomph it really needs?)

Attachment 170292

Attachment 170293

Attachment 170294

with regards to ur last pic, I had the same problem with powerdvd 9 ultra outputting the same weird video with regular blu rays. problem solved using mpc, however, can only play movie, no xtras/menu. mpc will play almost anything and what mpc can't play, wmp will.

So far love this computer. installed lg blu ray player and so far loving it. installed media browser and incorporated it into wmc. media browser can point to mpc to play most files. and let me tell u about eye candy!! even wife loves it!! amazing how media browser can show movie backgrounds, posters, movie info almost instantaneusly. just absolutely beautiful!! and very easy to setup.

also, computer is virtually silent. external hdd louder, heck my lcd tv is louder.

my complaints are (and minor ones at that):

1) like others have stated, the dvd door is retarted. spring is wayyyy to strong. lg bluray will not eject on its own w/o me holding the door open.
2) have to really press the eject button really hard. that or right click dvd and eject that way or eject via wmc.
3) no wifi. no biggy as i have it hardwired to network. still would be nice to have just in case.
4) door to front ports gets in the way if i have comp on carpet. doesn't completely open all the way. again only upright on carpet.
5) imho and to my naked eyes, my wdtv and wdtv live seems to have better picture quality. could be just me though. still looks incredible whether it be bluray, mkv, mp4, etc.
6) no windows 7 disks came with comp.

now if i could only find that darn mce remote dongle...

Anyone have any luck with the ATI RadeonTM HD 5450 low-profile cards? Please list any that worked or didn't with the sx2840. I'm thinking of HIS Radeon HD 5450 Silence 512 .

Only 2 places I can find. Everyone else says "not available". Newegg (too much for shipping) and J&R. Anyone know why supply is so short?

No doubt because they are very popular.

Not sure how the SX2800 compares but it is on sale right now at Fry's for $449.

Just found a bunch of them at BJs Warehouse. Got a free membership invite in the mail so I was checking out the store and there they were. Have at least 10 more. Not listed on their web site. $499 + FL sales tax.

My Radeon HD5570 arrived via NewEgg today. But I have a problem.

Gateway support stinks. They couldn't answer my question on how to "disable the on-board graphics capability on the motherboard", which Radeon says needs to be done before installation of their card.

Can anybody help me? Thanks in advance.

I've tried to make the 4 recovery dvd disks on my new gatewaySX2840-01. I finally got it to work after several disk errors with new dvd+r disks. I was able to do it with some old dvd-rw disks I had around. Even some of those failed. With the dvd+r disks the drive would just speed up and slow down for several minutes before giving up. A few of the dvd-rw disks would finish writing, but fail during the verification stage. Does anybody know if this is bad drive? I might bring the computer back and exchange it. Anybody else have this problem?

Thanks for the help.

Charlie

Charlie I've heard of this issue but didn't experience it myself. Also a Buddy of mine purchased one after me and he had no problems burning the recovery discs on the first attempt either. Possibly related to the build date of your computer? My build date is 12-27-09.

Here's a quote from an Amazon review:

"The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is purely to do with Gateway. I haven't purchased a pre-made computer in years, and now I remember why. Gateway does not include recovery disks, instead provides software to burn them (3 DVDs of Windows 7 and bloatware). However, you can expect a dozen or so disks to fail the burning process. I called asking how to clean install, and after taking 30 minutes to register me, forwarded me to a "software help line" that wanted to charge me. I called again explaining that I could not burn recovery disks and that this was a common problem according to the internet. The tech agreed, and said they would send out physical copies, but they are not available yet. She requested i call back in a few weeks. I e-mailed Gateway asking how to do a clean install of Windows 7 without bloatware, and they responded with a form letter on how to use the recovery partition (to factory default)."

Good Luck, Ray

i also had 2-3 coasters when i was burning disks. actually what i noticed on mine is that when computer was in standing position, i had coasters. when i put if lat on my floor in horizontal orientation i had 0 coasters. not sure if its coincidence or what. I ended up loading windows 7 MSDN on it since there is no way to clean the crap from it because restore disks are loaded with "Gateway optimized software"

I had been running my system in production for about 3 weeks now and its been as stable as windows can be. actually I'm surprised. Sleeps normally, wakes up to record from my hdhomerun, goes back to sleep. Didn't miss any recordings yet. I'm using Logitech One remote with Micorsoft IR Dongle and also have Lenovo wireless htpc keyboard/trackpad when i need to use it. This combo is working great and now only thing left is ceton or hdhomerun cablecard tuner. i'm using MCE/XBMC for my viewing needs.

Alex

Hi everyone,

I'd love to get some advice about upgrading the video card in this thing. Can anyone tell me which is the most powerful passive card I can fit in there? I tried the MSI Geforce 210 passive card but it wouldn't fit because of the height of the passive cooler.

So, which card do you recommend?

(By the way it doesn't have to be Nvidia, it can be Ati, but I thought for some reason Nvidias had better playback quality for HD video. Maybe I'm wrong though).

Thanks in advance!

Hi, I just purchased the Gateway SX2840-01 - after just getting through the initial Windows 7 setup, The computer went to sleep and all of the sudden, nothing works once I wake it up.

I did enable the Norton Anti-Virus - but after just letting it sit, it went to sleep. Then upon waking it up, I can't launch any applications, Norton Antivirus doesn't load back, basically the system is hosed.

This is all without installing a single application! Anyone have any ideas?

It's got a fan, but this Radeon HD5570 rocks. BTW, almost imperceptible noise!

Cool, thanks for the advice. Any specific model that would be quiet and also fit comfortably in the Gateway case?

I bought the Sapphire from New Egg (about $100).

I had Comp USA install it for about $50. That, along with my Pioneer BluRay (which I put in myself), work great together.

I am very pleased with the video results connected to my new LG W61 23inch monitor. When I can, I'll be connecting it up to my TV via the HDMI and will report back.

Regards,
Bill

Based on the features in the Gateway SX 2840-01, and the positive member comments to this forum, I just purchased this PC.

The model is available at Fry's Electronics for $ 479., and yes, there were many in stock.

2 days running now. The usual headaches removing bloatware. AVG, Spybot, and Malware are up, loaded, and running well.

We built a new HTPC wall unit with an aluminum frame, beech wood panels, and white gloss door cabinets. The Gsx2840 fits right in on an open shelf. I added 4 x 2" silicone feet to the bottom of the case, rolling it onto it's side with the air vents open to the top. It works fine, and compared to my previous homebuilt is very quiet.

One cannot really see the PC, or know that it is there. Very minimalist. It appears to be a DVD player, at 40 " high, which is just fine. The eye is taken to a B&O 3200 stereo with BL 4000 speakers and a 42 flatscreen hanging on the wall unit.

The Gsx2840 PC is hardwire linked to the stereo & TV via a Beoport, which allows the internet radio, music, sat tv, photos, etc. to be controlled throughout the house, and other rooms with ONE Beo 4 remote.

This remote is HF and linked to a HF-IR converter which controls the PC, as a Media Centre remote would. ( It will when I connect it all back up to the new PC system again ).

First success: HD Download of " Collateral " from Movieberry.com using the standard software with the OS. So far we do not need Flashget, which we used previously with XP.

I hope this information is helpful.

Hi LeRoyK,

Thanks for the detailed walk through of the fresh install of Win7...very helpful.

My previous question arose out of user error on my part.

Thanks again!

Chris

I have the sx-2840 and trying to figure out how to fax.
can i hook up a 56k modem to the pci slot?

tech support sucks!
thanks

also forgot to create restore discs.
Is it too late to make them now after i installed a bunch of sotware?
THANKS