Now that the awesomeness of having a new computer has worn off a bit, I figured I would do a follow-up review of the Gateway NV53A. It’s still running fast and is stable, but I have found some more flaws that could be Windows settings but I thought they were worth mentioning. The first one is that it doesn’t stay asleep when the lid is closed. It sleeps for maybe a half hour or an hour (I haven’t timed it), and then it tries to wake up but it can’t because the lid is closed. It keeps trying to wake up though, so the hard drive spins up and shuts off every few seconds until you open the lid which is bad for the hard drive. My solution to that problem was to set it to hibernate when the lid is closed, which is less convenient but it works. The only problem with that is that sometimes it takes forever to wake from hibernation. It will sit with a blinking white line on the screen for a couple minutes and then go to the login screen, but you can’t type or move the mouse for another minute or two. Then, once you finally log in, you can’t really do anything because WiFi is disabled and everything is incredibly slow. Eventually I get impatient and just do a hard reboot. Again, this could be a Windows problem but I think it’s worth mentioning. Another problem is with the Gateway recovery management software. I ended up making 3 coasters trying to burn my recovery discs because each one failed to burn or verify. It will burn the first disc but not the other two. You can buy a recovery disc from Gateway, or just buy a retail copy of Windows (I don’t understand why it doesn’t come with them, it’s not like it would cost them that much more to include them.) Aside from those problems, it’s still a good laptop for the price in my opinion.
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I just gpt my Gateway NV53A two days ago and will be returning it tomorrow. It is soooooo slow. I was very hesitant when I bought it because it was between a HP and the Gateway. Bad choice. I have alway had HPs and should have stuck with what I know. Hopefully BestBuys will not require me to make a swap with another Gateway. I want the HP.
This laptop sucks,plain and simple.It’s super slow,takes forever to come out of sleep,the cpu lags on everything and i mean everything!Try opening up 2 applications back to back(mozilla and itunes),it will lag for at least a minute.It’s lightweight sure because they use such cheap materials!This laptop was $500 when i bought it,its $449 as I type this,both prices are way too much.Please avoid this laptop!
I have had my Nv5332u since last Nov and I haven’t had any problems that weren’t my own doing. I like it.
I have had my NV53A for a couple of months now. I love it. Super fast, no problems what so ever. I shut the lid and it goes to sleep, I open the lid and it perks right up. Nothing fancy, mind you, but for social networking, online college courses (which I bought it for), and video (you tube and my own) it’s fantastic.
How do you feel about the battery life? Mine only gets about 2 hours unplugged and I’m not sure if I’ve been abusing it but I don’t think so.
The battery life is decent, I also get about 2 hours, maybe 2 and a half just doing basic stuff.
mine has the same sleep problem….
it does it after 6+ hours…the orange light begins to blink blue and orange and the CD drive tries to open.
I called gateway and was told to reinstall the OS….which I did
(after the hard drive surprisingly failed)
and I still have the same problem.
has any found a way to solve this.
At first I had it set to hibernate when the lid was closed, but now I changed how long it takes to hibernate after it goes to sleep. Or you could probably just disable hibernation entirely.
I hate this laptop. It freeze at random time (for at least 30 secs) even if i do almost nothing, like writing a text with only Word open!
Thank You Adam. I have had my nv53a gateway since christmas2010 & have had consistent problems with the freeze. ‘have used 3 non-gateway techs to try & fix it, but they were unable to determine the causes for the seizing. ‘Spoke w/ gateway again this a.m. & they suggested to do a recovery which I am in process of right now. Already had 2 “not responding” white outs & i’m not even hooked up to internet or any programs yet. Gateway said I’ll need to send it back….wait…wait & see if they can fix it. Why can’t they just send me a new one first & I’ll send them back their broken one………I promise.
I have the same problem!!! I hate it! I loved this computer when I first got it but now it just freezes for like 2-3 minutes at a time when I do almost nothing! I don’t know what to do! I wish I could just return the stupid thing and get a different one but I bought it in December 2010 and it’s now April 2011 so now I’m stuck with it….uggghh
You could try reinstalling Windows if you have the recovery discs, it might help.
I have the same whiteout problem…Has anyone figured out a solution to it? It is interrupting my work day and I am ready to take a hammer to it…Don’t know if it is because the hard-drive is slower than the rest of the computer or if the computer is just a defect…ANYBODY HAVE INSIGHT FOR THIS PROBLEM…PLEASE.
I have this laptop. I recieved it as a birthday present. It’s been pretty good so far – I haven’t had many problems with it.
For those who are saying it sucks, what do you run on it, and how well do you maintain it? computers only run as well as you maintain and treat them.
I have had the NV53A for about a month now. I have had none of the problems people were complaining about. When I first got it I made the backup disks with no problems. Then I wiped the hard drive and installed Ubuntu Linux. It worked for about a week then it had a kernel panic (Linux’s version of Windows XP’s infamous “Blue Screen of Death”). The kernal panic was some sort of software problem that I fixed. Other than that one crash, I have had no other problems at all. The bootup takes 15-20 seconds and login is 3-5 seconds, which is a vast improvement over my last computer. The battery time is about 3 hours 45 minutes. All in all it’s a great laptop!
Well had this laptop for about two weeks now and worked the hell out of it. Put a ton of programs on it (Office 2010, Military Programs, and World of Warcraft). So yeah I know its a cheapo laptop, but so far its holding its own. It lags while I have internet pulled up and WoW, but its a cheap laptop of course its gonna lag. Anyways for everyday use, AWESOME. For gaming…meh. Hey its only 500ish bucks. You want gaming spend 1000. No crashes, no probs with hibernation, no nothin. Check it out before you buy.
i got this laptop brand new on 12-25-10 and i learned that night that the hard drive tries to start when you put it to sleep. it starts instantly for me, and i have yet to have any trouble with hibernate, and don’t bother with the my gateway backup, carbonite online backup is fine. although i have accidentally turned off the on screen notification for caps lock, number lock, and the volume. anyone know how to turn that back on? i can’t find anything helpful from microsoft support cause it’s not the exact same laptop that they give instruction for.
whats good about this laptop is that it doesn’t actually get around 4 hours of battery, it’s less than 2.
just playing. it sucks.
For those of you complaining about these minor issues, a LOT (hell, ALL) of your problems can be solved by Google searching your issues. You can go in to your startup programs by going to Start Menu> run> and type “msconfig” and press enter. Navigate to the Services and/or startup tab and choose what you want or don’t want starting up with your computer booting. Next issue, the hibernate problem. That’s with your BIOS. Enter your bios and turn off “wake if” options, your wifi, usb, and lan hardware can cause your computer to turn back on with a little bit of power coming from the constant current running through your system. People, if you own a computer and it’s NOT your first one, you should REALLY learn how to take care of them, how to navigate through them and overall customize the crap out of them. Computers aren’t burger king, it’s not your way unless you make it so.
I can’t find the “wake if” in my bios. what sub menu is it under?
I bought this computer in Nov 2010 – it has been to gateway repair 3 TIMES – they no longer take my calls, GeekSquad did what they could. OS has been changed/updated, new battery, new power cord, new hard drive, re-installation of windows 7, I’ ve re-instaled all my programs 3 times each time returned from gateway/acer repair. yes, I know how to take care of my computer – but there are times lemons are produced and gateway now no longer answers my emails or phone calls. my system will fine for a few weeks or few days, then tries to turn on and just sits there trying – last time it took 3 1/2 hours to get it up and running. It is gateways perogative on whether to repair or replace with another ‘refurbished’ computer. I jus want my money back and allow me to move forward with another brand. My former laptop, also a gateway, may be slow but it still functions FOR BASIC. eXTREMELY disappointed in Gateway’s response – now no longer under warranty and gateway actually hung up on me twice after sitting on hold for over an hour to talk to a person, then have them say sorry, and hang up. i used to recommend gateway, now I won’t. i haven’t given up yet, just disgusted.
It sounds like its the motherboard. you can buy replacement motherboard online,if you want to keep the laptop. for $250 you can get a brand new motherboard with a one year warranty. make sure the motherboard model number match. the motherboard model number and the laptop number are different. the motherboard model number for the NV53A is NEW 75 LA-5912P.
It runs awesome fast with Linux Ubuntu and good enough with Windows 7. No problem whatsoever in the last 4 months of everyday use since I bought it. Wireless range is great, never failed with anything. I wish finger prints were not as visible on it.
Catalyst video card application took some tinkering with improper scaling on HDMI 23′ external monitor with windows, ubuntu was great out of the box.
I got this in April 2011 for $350 from Best Buy. It worked fine for 2 months but once my Norton Antivirus subscription ran out, it constantly crashes on Explorer or Firefox. No spyware on my unit that I know of. I have to continually do hard shut downs. Nice that Gateway provides 60 whole days of software tech support. If I send it in to them will they do anything?
You could try but it sounds like Gateway support isn’t very helpful. Reinstalling Windows might fix it unless it’s a hardware problem.
I have the same freeze up problem with mine, I’m thinking it’s bad RAM. Every now and then it just locks up for a couple of mins, and I’ve noticed that at the same time the ram usages goes to 70% or 100% and sometimes one of the cores maxes out. I’m using a core/ram status monitor widget.
I thought the same thing so I updated from 4 to 8 gigs and I’m still having the same issues. The funny thing is that sometimes I can go weeks without the intermittent freezes and I’m truly happy with it’s overall performance then out of nowhere it comes back with a vengeance. These last three days it’s been so bad I’ve finally reached out again to see if it’s happening to other people. From the looks of it, I should be counting my blessings that this is the only issue I have with it. It also doesn’t help that I got mine refurbished.
I also got mine refurb… perhaps this is why they brought it back!
I hhave had this notebook for almos two years now, and I really havent had any problem with it at all, it have been a very good computer for the price I paid. I have never get any freezing issue and no significant lags, in fact I havent had to do any restore yet, my only complain is about the battery life, I am getting less than two hours even with light to no use, but I think it has to do with my HDD, I only have about 10gigs left!. As someone said, it all depends on the way you treat your laptop and the software you install, make sure to install a good antivirus (I recommend avast antivirus, stay away of all the norton crap) and doing full scans frecuently, as well as sheduling a montly (at least) hard drive defragmentation.
Follow up for over a year later. This laptop is great. Still gets about 3 hours of battery life (Battery is getting on in age), Runs beautifully under Ubuntu Linux, no problems that weren’t my own doing. Had to re-install windows for school, minimal problems there (the usual windows not recognizing the hardware, including wifi and cable, both of which were detected immediately by UBUNTU LINUX! Stupid Microsoft…) Still holding up great even after the abuse it has been through (falling 3 feet because the bus hit a really big bump, being kicked by accident, being stepped on, etc…) only damage is one scratch on the lid that I can’t find the source of. Still beats the hell out of my old HP. Glad I went back to Gateway. Still don’t understand why people complain about the plastic design. It may be plastic but it was built tough!
i’ve had this laptop a fair time, its a good machine, but ever since acer has taken over, the build quality of this particular unit is terrible, the chassis is fragile, the keyboard is very cheap and I’m missing keys. but the machine itself is good.
Gateway shoud’ve kept to making their own products instead of selling out to Acer.