I have been looking forward to the new Gateway One line to start shipping. It just plain sounded awesome so when a friend asked for a recommendation for a desktop computer I told him to look at the Gateway One ZX6810-01.

He purchased the Gateway One ZX6810-01 from Amazon the day it started to ship. For the $1349 price tag the specifications can't be beat for the all-in-one form factor. The ZX6810-01 has a multi-touch 23" 1920x1080 screen, 2.33 GHz Intel Core2 Quad Processor, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 64GB SSD for the OS, 1TB HDD for Storage, and a built-in TV Tuner and MCE Remote.

Excited to try out the machine myself. I setup the machine for him.

Setup was fairly easy. The only confusing thing was the hidden USB receiver for the wireless mouse and keyboard. A little RTFM never hurt though. I initially had some problems booting the device. The power looked like it would turn on but, the screen would be completely blank. After a bit of fidgeting it finally powered up.

Boot time was extremely fast and applications opened almost immediately thanks to the SSD. There was plenty of crapware from Gateway but, nothing a cruise through the Control Panel couldn't fix. The touch screen functionality is very responsive. Though not very practical except for the bundled MS surface software.

The following day is when the trouble began. After firing off a few quick emails and pouring a cup of coffee for himself. My friend came back to a blank screen. He called asking for help so swung by thinking it would be as easy as a hard reboot and setting the power options to never put the computer to sleep.

I tried a hard reboot, unplugging and replugging, and trying multiple ways to reboot. The screen was completely blank - not even to show the BIOS screen. The machine appears to come on as indicated by the backlight on the Gateway power button. You can also hear the slot loading DVD make a quick noise. This being an SSD I didn't expect any hard drive spin-up noise.

Finally called Gateway tech support and they suggested I unplug and press the power button for 30 seconds to discharge the machine. Tried rebooting again and nothing. Tech support said to send it in for warranty repair and I would get it back in 7 to 10 business days. The catch is you have to ship them the mammoth box and pay for shipping. No thanks. After giving my friend a few options he decided to return the item to Amazon instead. The reason - DOA.

He ended up buying a Dell desktop and a little ticked by my recommendation. Lesson learned - never recommend a brand new untested product.

I would have loved to crack open the case and see the internals to see what went wrong and if I could fix it myself but, this would of course void the warranty and risk not getting a $1349 refund.

I was really excited for this machine. I usually build my own computers but, the form factor and specs for the price made this machine really attractive. There are very few reviews of this machine and there was one other review on Amazon at the time of this writing with the same problems I encountered. I hope it's just a few bad apples that shipped early.

Anybody else out there get the Gateway One ZX610-01? I would love to see more reviews. I hope they're not all duds. I still would like to get one for myself. Only if it worked.