Windows 7 doesn't show the taskbar, start button or icons after waking from sleep?

Hi, I just bought a Gateway computer yesterday with Windows 7 preinstalled on it, and last night I tried to wake it from sleep but when I did, it didn't show the taskbar, icons or start button. All I could see was the background. I tried the "ctrl+shift+esc" method to fix it, but when I hit those keys nothing happened. I'm at a loss, and I don't want to return the computer! Help please?!

Lots of people --including me-- are having problems like this with Win7. In my case when I let the system turn off the display before going into standby my desktop is dead, unclickable, no keyboard, nothing... The workaround I used was to set my display off time to "Never" in power options and let it go directly into standby at 20 minutes (more like 10 for a laptop). Others have reported that disabling Hibernation also helps.

From what I can tell this is a genuine bug in Windows 7... and a rather nasty one.
Eventually (if they ever figure it out) I'm sure there'll be an update to cover it.
In the mean time try the workaround ... but no promises.

**EDIT: I just restarted my computer to get it out of safemode and now it won't even show anything then. Has that ever happened to you?

No, never that bad....

This now sounds like it has more than "THE bug" going on and without being there, I'm lost to give you definitive information.

Can you get to Gateway's site and see if there are updated video drivers for your machine?
If so download them, go into Control Panel -> Device Manager find and Uninstall your video display.
Restart the computer (which will be freaking out badly) and let it reinstall the video drivers.
Restart again and then install the new drivers.

Once again... no promises but this does fix most display problems.

If that doesn't get it, I would strongly recommend you take advantage of Gateway's warantee program. I know it's a pain to be without your "baby" for a while, but in all truth you are entitled to a computer that works, that's what you paid for, and Gateway is obligated to provide it.