I am helping a friend whose XP system was blown away by an update.  This can happen for a variety of reasons.
I went to recover the system.  The system was 3 years old and under warranty.  Recovery of the system is by OEM provided Recovery discs.  They had two of the three discs (Not sure if they ever had the third disc).  I went to the Gateway support site to get a replacement disc (purchase).  Note: This is a common practice.  Every major vendor supports the ability to purchase the recovery discs for a small fee.  The machine is fine.  The support policy is terrible!

Here is the copy of the transcript:
22 Feb 2006 04:37:40 PMpromocode set to 400021.
22 Feb 2006 04:37:40 PMSerial # set to 0031610477.
22 Feb 2006 04:37:40 PMcraig logged in.
22 Feb 2006 04:37:44 PMConnected to the server via Web Chat
22 Feb 2006 04:37:44 PMcraig has been assigned to the Sales queue.
22 Feb 2006 04:37:46 PMcraig was added to the incident named craig by Corrine_GWPS005
22 Feb 2006 04:37:46 PMCorrine_GWPS005 created an incident named craig.
22 Feb 2006 04:38:04 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Thank you for contacting Upgrade Sales. My name and badge number are Corrine_GWPS005. What upgrades were you thinking about today?
22 Feb 2006 04:38:08 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Hello Craig
22 Feb 2006 04:38:10 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: How may I help you?
22 Feb 2006 04:38:21 PMcraig says: I am trying to get the recovery discs.
22 Feb 2006 04:38:40 PMcraig says: I am helping friend and they lost the disks.
22 Feb 2006 04:38:41 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Craig, recovery discs are non-replaceable and not for sale.
22 Feb 2006 04:39:02 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: The ones sent to you are the original discs.
22 Feb 2006 04:39:07 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: So we cannot replace it.
22 Feb 2006 04:39:12 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Would there be anything else?
22 Feb 2006 04:39:24 PMcraig says: how do they recover, the system was blown away during windows update
22 Feb 2006 04:40:11 PMcraig says: they have disc red and disc yellow, not the blue one
22 Feb 2006 04:40:14 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Craig, you need a copy of Windows XP to do that.
22 Feb 2006 04:40:26 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Yes.. the blue disc is the XP CD
22 Feb 2006 04:40:38 PMcraig says: so, what do they do?
22 Feb 2006 04:40:53 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: They may purchase a copy of XP CD.
22 Feb 2006 04:41:01 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Anyway, they have all the other discs, right?
22 Feb 2006 04:41:28 PMcraig says: you have really got to be kidding? Other vendors provide replacement discs? gateways policy on this?
22 Feb 2006 04:41:59 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: That’s the policy Craig. The XP CD sent is the original copy.
22 Feb 2006 04:42:22 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: We cannot provide a new copy because it’s not our product Craig.
22 Feb 2006 04:42:31 PMcraig says: the oem recovery discs are locked to the machine bios gateway version ---> gateway motherboard bios
22 Feb 2006 04:42:53 PMcraig says: it is gateways product. you lic. the oem deployement.
22 Feb 2006 04:43:10 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Yes Craig. That’s true.
22 Feb 2006 04:43:14 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: However that is the policy.
22 Feb 2006 04:43:25 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Even if you ask the Customer service they will tell you the same thing.
22 Feb 2006 04:43:31 PMcraig says: what about a damaged disc?
22 Feb 2006 04:45:09 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: What do you mean?
22 Feb 2006 04:45:27 PMcraig says: I mean if the blue disc is damaged, what do you do?
22 Feb 2006 04:46:18 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Not really sure about the information… so I suggest you contact our customer service Craig.
22 Feb 2006 04:46:25 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: Your inquiries would best be addressed by one of our Customer Service representatives at this time. Please use the following site to contact Gateway Customer Service. Thank you. http://support.gateway.com/support/ask_gateway.asp
22 Feb 2006 04:49:02 PMcraig says: I want to you to note to supervisor, That you just lost a customer forever, I will never let anyone I know purchase a gateway. I am a tech in the field and teach tech issues to enterprise customers (around 300 CIO level /per year). I will make it a point to discuss this. I had the same issue with another friend (They had an HP unit). They paid 14$ US to get a replacement set of discs.
22 Feb 2006 04:49:48 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: My apology to that Craig.
22 Feb 2006 04:50:09 PMcraig says: I will post later today copy of transcript
22 Feb 2006 04:50:21 PMCorrine_GWPS005 says: However, in as much as I would want to help you out with the recovery cds.. I can’t process it for you.
22 Feb 2006 04:50:23 PMcraig says: good bye

Hate to see that. How important is recovering the system to where it was when they purchased it? You should easily be able to fdisk, repartition and load non OEM software - a MicroSoft version of XP and not the Gateway logo’ed version.

The Recovery Disk does exactly what you are suggesting.

They own the COA (Certificate Of Authenticity) and XP CD key.
They do not have the disk.  The Key that they own is linked to the customized
version of XP from Gateway.  SO, only a Gateway specific copy of XP CD that is keyed
to the BIOS of Gateway machine will work.  A retail CD will work (That means they buy
another copy of XP). 

I work in the field.  I will be able to get it working after some serious BIT editing tonight
and creating the slipstreamed version.  I am still shocked that Gateway will not sell them
a replacement CD.  The replacement CD can only be used on the specific Gateway model.
Other vendors do this routinely.

Don’t worry, there’s a way out:  <g>

http://www.ubuntulinux.org
http://www.debian.org
http://www.linux.org

Not only will the Ubuntu project send you a CD at no charge, they don’t even ask you for *shipping* for cryin’ out loud!  (Not that you can’t donate.)

Don’t forget

http://www.opensuse.org - Novell Owned Distro
http://www.centos.org - Direct Clone of Red Hat

I have several distros running in virtual machines.
Vmware has even release the Virtual Server product for free (http://www.vmware.com) both linux and win32

This is not my machine.  I was just helping out.

I have a disc now that should work (Xell OEM that now read Xateway OEM). I still have to adjust the BIOS read
and everything will work out.

The fact remains that an Average Home PC user would be stuck buying another copy of XP!
Short sighted company that will fail in the long run!

Let me tell you my fun story.  I got a Gateway laptop from a friend for xmas 2 years ago.  About 7 months into owning it the hard drive took a dump did what i could do get it to work no luck.  Talked to cyber warehouse up in York (very nice guys working there) they said contact Gateway.  Well i called my friend first and i was told that a 1 yr warranty was purchased.  So i called Gateway they told me i had a 3 month warranty and there was nothing they could do for me.  I argued faxed papers back and forth stating i had a 1 yr warranty.  Well long story short i went and bought a hard drive from cyber 160 bucks i think.  I then in turn called Gateway to get a start up disk and was told the same thing they dont offer a disk.  So i had to go shell out 300 bucks for XP i was pissed beyond belief.  Hope all goes well with the install.............

zort2001 - 22 February 2006 07:58 PM

The Recovery Disk does exactly what you are suggesting.

They own the COA (Certificate Of Authenticity) and XP CD key.
They do not have the disk…

A retail CD will work (That means they buy
another copy of XP).

If a retail copy of XP will work, there is no need to purchase it if you have a copy laying around. As far as Microsoft is concerned, you buy a license, not the media. So as long as you have a license and use it properly, you can make as many copies of the WinXP disk as you want.

tim_k,

Yes, The machine is licensed.  However, A retail CD is “locked” to the Retail COA and CD-KEY.  You cannot use a Retail CD with an OEM CD.  Without a Gateway version of OEM CD you cannot use the GATEWAY locked code.  What I ment by a “A retail CD will work”, is that if you buy a retail setup, you can install it.  Taking some elses retail CD key and CD is a violation of the EULA.  It will show up at MS with the activation system.  Only Volume Lic. Key structures bypass the activation requirement.

I got the machine working (without having to buy a copy of XP).

This is really just bad customer service from Gateway.  The equipment they make is fine.  The service is terrible.  BTW, the same procedure holds true for the E-machines (Gateway purchased them).

I know this is chiming in late but we’re still using our 2nd gateway as our primary machine now for about 4 years and have had no problems with it at all...after I installed a non-gateway version of XP-Pro SP2, it’s not the hardware that’s the issue, imo.

But, I will say since building a PC for my studio I don’t think I’ll ever buy a computer out of a box again.

I’m with you on that, GTA...you get much more bang for the buck by building your own…