Intel SpeedStep could be the cause.
it worked for me (with a gateway 7322):
Plan A
1. remove the battery
2. unplug your pc
3. connect the power
4. turn on your pc
5. on the gateway boot screen, press F2 or whatever it is to enter bios setup
6. get to the following screen and disable "Intel SpeedStep"
7. Exit WITH changes.
8. Are you sure you saved the changed (Intel SpeedStep disabled)?
9. As soon as you save the config, your computer will start again, you shoudl see the windows screen, and if it doesnt start normally, give it 5 minutes. if nothing proceed to plan B
Plan B
1. remove the battery
2. unplug your pc
3. connect the power
4. turn on your pc
5. on the gateway boot screen, press F2 or whatever it is to enter bios setup
6. get to the following screen and disable EVERYTHING on the Advanced Tab. (check out the img below)
7. Exit WITH changes.
8. Are you sure you saved the changes (the advanced tab just like the img below)
9. As soon as you save the config, your computer will start again, you shoudl see the windows screen, and if it doesnt start normally, give it 5 minutes. if nothing proceed to plan C.
PLAN C.
1. start the computer.
2. on the second screen, after the gateway logo, press F11, or whatever key it is to enter gateway recovery partition.
3. choose DESTRUCTIVE option (if you want to try backup mode, its up to you, but dont blame me if it doesnt work, try it anyway, doesnt do any harm)
4. follow all the instructions for recovery.
5. after like 1 reboot, the windows setup will detect all the hardware. you will notice the blue progress bar freezes at about half way. if it does, its ok, just disconnect the power.
6. start the computer and enter bios setup.
7. disable EVERYTHING in advanced, just like you did onplan B.
[primary]
[disabled]
[disabled]
[disabled]
[disabled]
[disabled]
[off]
[max]
8. save and exit with changes.
9. let the computer run. now it should go throughj the hardware detection screen. if it doesnt, run again gateway recovery. just make sure you got everythong disabled in advanced before you recover again, this time, it shouldn't freeze.
That's it!!!
now after you setup windows and get it running smooth, you may re-enable EVERYTHING you disabled in the advanced tab in the bios setup. there is an option to restore all the defaults for the bios, i recommend that. if the problem rises again, try to disable everything again ad work your way up until you find whats causing it.
if it doesn't work, hey, its not my fault, but it worked for me!!
the folllwing screenshots are from my bios setup. if you have a gateway 7322 it should look like this: