Limited Support for Acer Licensed Product (Gateway Creator Series)

wnystarsage
wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

Tinkerer

Acer owns Gateway. In 2020 Acer licensed rebranded TongFang hardware with the Gateway name for an exclusive Walmart deal. All inquiries get referred to gatewayusa.com and yet they don't even have their own dedicated Support directory for downloads. Users are given links to files stored on DropBox. I have the GWTN156-2BK with the AMD Ryzen 4600H and am told they do not have BIOS files for AMD. AMD tells me if Gateway doesn't provide it, Acer is required to since they own the brand. A little help please?
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Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    Go to this link. Select your country. Then select support. Drivers & downloads. Select your model for available device drivers, apps & BIOS updates. BIOS updates are not recommended for functional machines that do not have serious issues.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    Tried that link and selected United States. Here's what I got when I clicked Drivers & Downloads


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    Yes, I get the same thing. Servers are temporarily down. Check back later. if it isn't fixed in a few hours, send a PM to let one of the forum moderators know. The moderators are listed be near the start of the Who's Online section below with an Acer- prefix to their forum name. 

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    I just hope the end result isn't being directed to the legacy Gateway site (pre 2012). That doesn't recognize serial numbers for the relaunched brand. And chats with current reps at gatewayusa.com end with them saying they don't have BIOS files for AMD boards
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    Serial numbes (SNIDs) usually won't be recognized for any out-of-warranty  Acer, Gateway, Packard-Bell or EMachines. You must enter the model number instead. Last time I visited the OOPs site, it was up to date for late UEFI model as well as Win7 era models. You don't want to be re-directed to anything other than the OOPs site which seems to be temporarily down. Send a PM right now to either @Acer-Jose or @Acer-Ingrid as ask them what's up with OOPs.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    Okay, but the Legacy Gateway site is not going to have a model from 2020, 8 years after being acquired by Acer
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    edited March 2022
    No. That's not correct. The Win7 era machines --- the Win8x era machines --- the Win10/11-era Gateway machines are all on the same Gateway download OOPs site that is temporarily down. You enter the model number that you're for looking for ---- doesn't matter the era ---- doeesn't matter if it's before or after Acer acquired Gateway.

    Jack E/NJ

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    As mentioned earlier, send a PM to one of the moderators to find out what's going on.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    I pm'd Ingrid and she refused to look into the server being down. She sent me to chase my tail and told me to email Gateway :(
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    edited March 2022

    Search by model number is most reliable.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    Thanks, but as I feared.. the Gateway Creator series (rebranded TongFang hardware) is not present in the support directory :(


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    Looks like they're working on it as I write this. They gave the temp link with compressed zip file that works for me. But expires tomorrow.  https://we.tl/t-0wRmRcE8Fg Expires 03/05/2022 Installation Guide: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-properly-update-device-drivers-windows-10

    I'd say give them some time to get all the drivers onto the gateway site.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    Is two years long enough? the Gateway Creator Series was released in 2020. BTW those are just the factory drivers. No BIOS, which is what I actually need
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    edited March 2022
    Is two years long enough? >>> No BIOS, which is what I actually need>>>

    What do you mean? That was posted by a gatewayusa service rep last week? Yes, they're factory OEM drivers for a proprietary OEM mainboard. Are you looking for generic drivers instead? What problem are you having with the system that you think the factory-installed BIOS firmware is causing?


    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    The BIOS predates Windows 11 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    The BIOS firmware and date does not determine whether or  not your laptop can currently run Win11. A TPM version 2 (trusted platform module) chip hardware is currently required to run Win11. Most Win10 laptops sold more than a year or so ago either do not have a TPM chip installed or only support TPM v1 chip which is currently  not supported by Win11.This might change in the future  because Win11, like Win10, is still a work in progress. And in the case of Win11, also ess than half-baked IMO.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    Regardless, the wired LAN connection with my Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller was working in Win11 as of a week ago. And, even though I have since found System Restore (and restored oldest backup...when it was working) I still get the Code 48 error in Device Manager even after uninstalling and installing the latest driver from Realtek while in Safe Mode. No steps I can find will re-enable the device. I have even turned off Digital Signatures for drivers
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,869 Trailblazer
    The latest from realtek is a generic driver, not an OEM driver. If you can still get online, try downloading &  installing DriverBooster freeware to see if it can pick up anything better on line.

    Jack E/NJ

  • wnystarsage
    wnystarsage Member Posts: 14

    Tinkerer

    I'm a big fan of Iobit's products and have the pro version. Already tried updating using Driver Booster. Code 48 error still persists