Kevin - Re: "how did you know that was the Microstar motherboard Gateway is using?"
This was rather simple, Kevin - no mystery at all.
I just READ the article from PC Week, which I re-post for your edification.
"The anomaly was tracked to the PCI bus on the motherboard, which is manufactured by Microstar International. It wasn't seen in 100 percent of the machines, so some Gateway Select PCs using K6-2 have shipped. Ritter could not say how many. "
Paul
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zdnet.com
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Gateway delays K6-2 PCs
By John G. Spooner and Lisa DiCarlo,
PC Week March 22, 1999 7:42 AM PT URL: zdnet.com
Gateway Inc. has delayed the shipment of some of its new Select PCs, based on Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s K6-2 chip, less than a month after announcing a deal to use AMD's processors.
The company is instead offering customers the option of receiving an Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) Celeron-based system for the same price, Gateway (NYSE:GTW) officials said.
The delay is the result of several minor hardware glitches, such as prolonged boot-up time, that Gateway discovered during quality-control testing on an early run of the new PCs, according to company officials in North Sioux City, S.D.
"In a quality-control check, we noticed an anomaly, so we put [production] on hold for a bit. We wanted to make sure that if we saw an anomaly that we didn't ship a bunch of them out there," said Mike Ritter, a director of product marketing in Gateway's Home Division. However, "this is not an AMD-specific problem."
The anomaly was tracked to the PCI bus on the motherboard, which is manufactured by Microstar International. It wasn't seen in 100 percent of the machines, so some Gateway Select PCs using K6-2 have shipped. Ritter could not say how many.
While the delay may have affected only a few customers, it has provoked the ire of some.
Wayne Freeze, a technical writer and author of several books on Visual Basic who lives in Beltsville, Md., ordered a 450MHz Gateway Select PC on March 2 and was given a ship date of March 5. So far, he has yet to receive the machine or a call from Gateway. Only after several calls did he find out his machine was delayed because of a technical problem. He has not yet received a ship date.
Calling the customers Gateway may not have gotten around to Freeze yet, but the company has been contacting customers whose ship dates have been approaching, Ritter said, to offer them a Celeron-based PC. "We're trying to be more proactive in our approach to these situations," he said.
"I love Gateway," Freeze said. "Their customer support has always been excellent. I'm not annoyed by them holding [the PC] up as much as I am with them not telling me what the heck is going on."
At least he has options. The Intel alternative "solves my immediate problem, but I'm not sure it solves my long-range problems. The difference between a 450MHz machine and a 400MHz [the current fastest Celeron chip] machine translates into about six extra months of usable life," he estimated.
While the AMD K6-2 450MHz chip did have a clock speed advantage, Intel on Monday will announce a 433MHz Celeron chip, which closes that gap.
Freeze said he'll think about it.
AMD (NYSE:AMD) officials said they are aware of the problem and are working with Gateway to resolve it.
"Whenever someone [builds] a new motherboard and plugs everything in, it doesn't always work perfectly right away,'' said Scott Allen, an AMD spokesman.
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