My PC Is Dying

I am currently using a **** gateway 4805 series desktop.  I'm contemplating getting a Mac and boot camp and upgrade to X3.  I  started out with Sonar 8.0 and progressed up to X2. I truly am a fan of the product.  I have had technical difficulties with all my computers that ever ran Sonar.  Version 8.0 & 8.5 ran with many crashed sessions on my Toshiba laptop with 4 gigs of ram and 500g hd using windows 7.  It often crashed on an Dell dimension 8400 pc destop.   My current Gateway is dying.  It's the dx4805 series with 8 gigs of ram and I5 dual core processor.  I'm using Mbox usb 3rd gen audio interface which often loses the drivers with my computer.  This the most stable interface I've used.  I'm sick of the crashing, blue screens, and calling tech support.    Im debating on getting a mac mini and upgrading the ram and running Sonar X 3. The PC experience for me has been too frustrating.   All my friends had the same experience on PC and now use Macs and don't  have any of the issues I have.  Truly more stable.  I really like Sonar and it's workflow since that's all I know, but I'm really tired of the bugs and crashing and instability.  I will be purchasing a new computer for Christmas.  I'm tired of the technical difficulties.  Any feed back?

CakeAlexS
...I don't rate built quality of Gateways myself, cheap and nasty. They die early, I only know one person still using one...

I had to check by searching Gateway Computers. I can't believe they're still in business! I actually had a 386 Gateway that had several problems when I powered it up. Customer Service was great and overnighted me any replacement boards (i.e. modem, etc.). I eventually found out from some sales guys that supplied components to Gateway that they would alway buy the cheapest components, and I believe had no quality control department. So, the customer was the quality control. "No problem, we'll overnight a new (whatever) to you."
 
Walt
 
 

Using a Gateway here....

Or buy a Dell desktop with a long warranty ;)

My 3 year old Dell XPS runs remarkably well considering how much use it's gotten...and I still rarely experience CPU overload, even when working on projects with 30+ tracks each with up to 10 plugs and many VSTi's loaded. It surprises me every day. The only problem being is that the system drive has started to get a little noisy and I'm worried that it's on its way out (hard drive failure becomes a lot more probable after 3 years and especially after 5 years). I think I will be speaking to Mr. Roseberry in due course, perhaps a Xmas present to myself....

Like most here are recommending,try everything fixing your box or get a new one.
But if you really get a mac,which makes no sense imo,
go for apple software (sorry cakewalk !).............
Don´t want to mention a business competition on the cakewalk forum.
 

Mac usually uses decent hardware. That said, if you're not going to use OSX, you could get the same hardware for less money. Running Windows on it destroys the point, to me. My previous Windows PC ran OSX from a separate drive. Both were equally stable. It really boils down to either hardware failure/incompatibility or improper maintenance. Or Vista :p 

Which was my point as well....
 
If you are running Windows on an Apple Mac expect all the issues you would normally have with Windows, no different than if I was to run OSX on my PC.
 
So we all agree, buy a Mac if you want a Mac, not because you think it's Disneyland for PC's. Enjoy the learning curve.

jscomposer
...and everything on the Mac "just works"...right out of the box. No fartin' around with Windows settings, etc, you can just focus on your music with no worries; knowing that all of your computer components are 100% compatible.

I've sometimes wondered why some Windows users (like myself) have had the same results, while others just never do...   Maybe I've just been lucky, because for me Windows has always "just worked" too.  
 
Now please excuse me while I gently tap on some nearby wooden object... 
 

CakeAlexS
Or buy a Dell desktop with a long warranty ;)

I have had three dells and they have been nothing but trouble for me. About 3 years is all I got out of two lap tops I bought. I purchased a desktop and in the course of a little over 2 years the graphics card went out and I had ram issues. This happened right after the warranty expired.
 
I have had Toshiba computers that worked great with no issues. I had a few computers Using ASUS mother boards and they worked really well.
 
I would say +1 for contacting Jim Rosenberry and have him build one for you. Next time I am ready to upgrade I am gonna give him a call.

+1 on keeping my music PC off the net …I've got an older I Mac for that whole net thingamajig 
 
Kenny

Man, what a drag... I hope you get it figured out so this never happens again. Hint: Studiocat... with a custom setup.
 
So... does this mean you are going to have to change your name to 18 Grand?
 
J

> I have had three dells and they have been nothing but trouble for me.
 
I've bought three Dells myself. Also as an IT manager in the past I've also managed about 300 workstations.
They were pretty darn reliable, I think we may have had 3 hard drive failures (all within a few weeks of buying, clearly a batch issue) over two years and a couple of monitor issues.
 
Just my angle, and if you have a warranty (my machine is on 4 years I think) they just swap out the hardware for you (saves you searching around for parts).

CakeAlexS
> I have had three dells and they have been nothing but trouble for me.
 
I've bought three Dells myself. Also as an IT manager in the past I've also managed about 300 workstations.
They were pretty darn reliable, I think we may have had 3 hard drive failures (all within a few weeks of buying, clearly a batch issue) over two years and a couple of monitor issues.
 
Just my angle, and if you have a warranty (my machine is on 4 years I think) they just swap out the hardware for you (saves you searching around for parts).

i think I am done with Dell. I built my own machine a few times way back when windows 98 was around and back when XP was recently released.
 
One Dell laptop had a monitor go bad. Lines started to appear across the screen soon to be followed by a bunch of lines. It happened only a few days after the warranty expired. I got a small extended warranty and it was covered for two years. it was only a few days after the warranty expired. I found a new monitor for around 250.00 to install in the laptop. I did not spend the money on this. Now I just use the HDMI port and plug into an external monitor.
 
The other Dell laptop which was purchased close to the same time started to develop cracks in the plastic cover. This got a red neck fix and I used duck tape to cover the cracks. Still works but the plastic cover for the laptop is obviously very cheaply made.
 
The last purchase really irritated me. It is my current desktop. I got an AMD 6 core processor. I paid to upgrade to 8 megs of ram. A few days after the warranty expires the graphics card fails. Once I replaced that I got a bad stick of ram. I thought this would be the perfect time to upgrade my ram. So I bought a two 4 gig dimm sticks. When I looked at the mother board every dimm slot was filled which meant they used 2 gig dimms in every slot. This made me angry because now instead of adding 8 gigs of ram I am replacing a two dimm slots and only getting 4 gigs of ram even though I paid for 8.
 
Then to add insult to injury I discovered that the main board itself was an older model and It would not map over two gigs of ram per dimm slot. So now even though I spent the extra money for a ram upgrade I had the same amount of ram. So there was no way to upgrade and add ram to my system. What killed me was when I built this on line they offered the option to have it come with as much as 16 gigs of ram.
 
They put an older motherboard in my computer maybe in the hopes to convince me to upgrade when I wanted to add ram. Dell put inferior hardware in my New Machine which I paid big bucks to buy. I recommend the op get a new computer, But i don't recommend he gets a dell.
 
It did not help that I knew more about computers then the people at the help desk in India. These are just a few of the problems I have had. I did not list all the trouble I have had with customer support. I think Dell will find out one day that It will go the way of Packard bell and Gateway. I for one am so done with that company. Never again will I buy that brand.
 
I hope the op considers calling Jim Roseberry. I think next time if I upgrade I will call him.
 
Just a side note. A while back I was having issues with Sonar. I blamed the software. When I started to troubleshoot I discovered it was bad ram. Changing out your computer or fixing the one you have now will make a big difference. Depending how old it is it might be time to upgrade anyway.

CakeAlexS
Sounds like you were using a different company to me... I guess I was dealing with 100 times as many machines ;).

The people I work for uses Dell exclusively and they have Dell servers. The IT guys there are the ones that recommended Dell to me. for all that headache it would just be easier to build my own.
 
by the way I enjoyed song for the wicked. cool tune.