Hi S,
Nice of you to drop by and share your experiences.

I picked up one of the last Gateway boxes with XP media edition and double AMD 64x2 processors. Two days after I purchased it, it was unavailable anywhere. They were literally eliminating the back stock of XP machines everywhere they are sold.

The local Fry's said they had no XP boxes, but their website OUTPOST-dot-com still listed some, but they pulled the stock out from under me,when I had selected an XP box with Intel double processors and after I placed an order, after having keying in everything except my shoe size, they informed me it wasn''t available.

So the hunt was on for a similar quality XP box.

I checked out Circuit City, Computer City, Staples, a dozen or more various online computer merchants and no one had any intel dual chip XP anymore - anywhere! Some giant monster gobbled them all up. I knew such was obviously bogus and that Microsoft was playing hardball with Vista, by compensating manufacturers and getting manufacturers to pull any unsold boxes that had XP licenses.

I'm starting to get worried now, because I have to catch a merchant that hasn't obliged with the almighty MICROSOFT Vista Mandate!

So I now hunted for the AMD 64X2 and it was equally impossible...almost...I found it at one place: Amazon-dot-com and they said they had 3 left in stock. I think about it for ten minutes and then order it once I realize it's the only game in town.

But then the Amazon merchant's confirmation invoice tries to pull a bait and switch on me with a similarly equipped Vista machine, a house model refurb Gateway, but stripped down from what I ordered with only 1000 mb DDR ram instead of 2048 mb DDR and with a 200gb HD instead of a 320gb.

I do the cartoon version of Bugs with the steam coming out from the ears, the face turning red and the eyes bulging. ;-)

So, I get on the horn, send e-mails and raise a stink within minutes of getting the confirmation invoice. I politely tell Amazon, I'm very disappointed in who they do business with and I'm informed that if a mistake has been made, I can return it, unopened, for a full refund after the shipping period is passed. They also inform me that they are investigating some of their merchants, because this sort of complaint is not new (imagine my surprise;-).

So I wait several days and I'm ticked off. I know that I'm going to be stuck with a Vista box no matter what I do, unless I buy a used box.

The UPS guy, doing his best Jim Carrey Pet Detective UPS guy impersonation throws the box down in front of the door and I sign for it on those jim dandy touch sensitive, electronic receipt pads. It's corner is entirely torn off, the packing receipt is holding on only by two corners to the top of the box, and the whole thing looks like its been decorated with black ash from a fireplace.

I look at the box closer and the model number is the right one, even though the invoice still has the other stripped down model on it - some sort of Gateway housebrand refurb. I wonder, did they just repack their refurb model in the right box? Do I open it, take the chance and void the return?

So I go for it, tear it open and it is the one I ordered. HALLELUJAH! I was amazed at how happy I was just to get what I ordered.

I know if I hadn't made such a big stink before they shipped it out, I'd have missed the time window for getting this XP Gateway and be experiencing the same problems you're having with a Vista box.

However, YOUR solution is finding some parts retailer online selling XP restoration discs with a piece of plastic that they can call the remains of a computer, deleting all the Vista stuff from your box and letting your Gateway perform the way it should.

So far this Gateway has performed great and is amazingly quiet too. I would heartily recommend it - if it were still available!

;-)