I knew they both made full cards for reference purposes, but a quick search showed that they occasionally make some for the consumer market too. So I stand corrected there, although the market is still largely handled by other companies. I still don't think a third-party solution qualifies as 'unofficial', though.
I didn't think so either, it sounds like Worf is correct though, and the BIOS is probably screaming to Microsoft that I'm cheating Gateway out of hard earned money by repairing my computer with my own parts instead of just buying a new one.
This whole computer has been a nightmare from the beginning - it worked great for about three months, and then my friend brought his over with a horrible rattling sound whenever he used his CD-Rom drive, sure enough within just a week or two my CD-rom failed, and so did the other guy who used his. I bought us some replacements and upgraded them all (including adding a second drive to everyones computer).
Then a few weeks later we all had our computers locked out and we had to activate (this apparently was some sort of gateway error, or so it was told to us when we called to complain). Then there were the issues with the various sources of the Windows 7 upgrades and the varying costs between the three of us based on where we had purchased the computer.
A few weeks after that I added a Wireless-G card to my computer (again, no activation error) but my computer stubbornly refused to acknowledge it's existence. So I rolled over to a Wireless-N card, which the computer at least recognizes, but the card (or the settings) may be bad because it won't detect any wireless networks, anywhere.
Then I added in my second graphics card, which my computer also refuses to recognize. This was so I could add a third monitor to my system. While it's now working, it's working using improper drivers and the timing and resolution are set wrong (But they are set to the only settings that will allow me to see anything at all on my third monitor). It is functional for me, so I can't really complain, but I wouldn't mind having more control over that side of things if I could.
Then just recently it started the NVRAM error, and then upgraded from the NVRAM error to the Blue Screen of Death error (which I apparently am still getting despite changing the card) and now I am starting to suspect that my motherboard might be the culprit.
Needless to say, next time I will buy the 800 machine, take out the 400 graphics card and the 400 worth of RAM, and go buy myself my own case and my own motherboard and slap the computer together my self. Anything would be better then dealing with this again.
My friends computer (Exactly the same model) have run the gauntlet from their on board networking cards no longer working to their on board video card spontaneously activating itself and turning off the PCI-EX slot. Part of this I am sure is there lack of even a fundamental understanding of computer security, and some of it is probably also linked to their collecting of less-then-legitimate software, which I keep telling them not do download or use. There's really no excuse when things like the Star Wars Best of PC pack can be had for twenty dollars, and Steam makes things available even cheaper and downloadable to boot. (Sometimes I think they are anti-establishment not because they care, but just because they want to be anti-anything that stands for anything.)
But I digress.
As for activation, does that mean you managed to get your PC working today?
I laughed when I saw how you wrote that (You managed to get it working,
today?).
Yeah it seems to be okay today, and it was okay yesterday. I had to activate initially, and then it skipped a day, and then it made me do it again. We'll see what happens in the future.
It may do it every time my hardware changes now, or perhaps my IP? I don't really know how activation works. At any rate, the second time activation occurred I had moved it to another location for a LAN Party and hooked up to a different internet connection with only one monitor (instead of my usual three).
I will keep you appraised if I run into anymore issues, the NVRAM thing is still with me, I'm, not yet sure what I am going to do about that one. For now I just continue to press F1 during boot up to fix it, though most of the time I only put my computer to sleep because I know it won't be more then a few hours before I use it again.
If my BIOS is the culprit and it's going to keep reporting to Windows that I'm doing something illegal (Even though I'm not!) do I have any options? Or a I just stuck?