I had a Gateway computer that had an Athlon AMD microprocessor. A couple of years ago it developed a virus and could not be fixed. I could have taken it to a computer expert and spent hundreds of dollars trying to fix the problem or I could get a cheap new computer and just give up. So I invested in a new computer and put the gateway in the attic. A year later I was crawling around in the attic and saw the old computer. I had by this point bought Windows XP to try and fix the new computer when its drive had to be wiped clean and restored. It seems viruses or spyware are just my family's number one enemy. I also needed a computer that I could use to write articles in a semi quiet area away from the fam.
So I wiped the gateway computer's hard drive clean, restored Windows XP to it, and proceeded to reload drivers and software that had been on it or needed it from before. I got everything loaded up and turned off the computer. I was able to load up the computer two or three times before it crashed on me and kept starting up and then crashing and starting up again. I could not get it to stop. Then it eventually asks for a boot disk to load up windows which I did not have. I erased the hard drive reloaded everything and just when I thought everything was ok it happened again. Now I thought it was a driver giving the computer a headache or maybe a bad virus. But no matter what I did the computer kept crashing. Finally in desperation I bought an even cheaper computer just for writing and threw out the Gateway.
Now I kid you not. The day after I threw out the Gateway computer Google had a news article explaining that Windows XP service pack 1 and service pack 3 had a problem loading up on AMD processor computers. So now I am out a Gateway computer and the time it took to reload everything onto the computer. I must have spent the good part of 5 weekends trying to get Windows XP to work with my computer and nowhere was I told it was a software problem and not a hardware problem. I thought maybe being stored in the attic had made the computer broken. Or maybe the computer was just not designed for Windows XP. However the symptoms were the same as the ones described in the Google article. I want to be reimbursed. I want the time I spent away from my family restored and I want to have a normal experience using computers without crashes.
I'll never get back the time spent away from the family because that was time that is just lost. I won't get back the money from buying new computers for my family because corporations don't care about the little man. I love Windows. I love Microsoft programs. They're expensive but work great. So my view on them has not changed. I just feel like the news of Windows XP having problems with AMD computers should have been made known a long time ago and shared with users instead of not saying anything and covering up the problem. Now I am in debt with two computers and always waiting for the next computer glitch or virus to happen.
