Member Avatar for Prometheus12345

I have a Gateway 500MHz machine which works perfectly fine with exception to a windows GUI. Works fine in DOS mode, in DOS, it seems as functional as it was meant to be, but will not function when switched to a windows gui, despite several different versions including XP, 98SE, and even win95. This machine was an "upgrade donor" after it failed to boot, likely due to damage done by a 3DFX Voo-Doo card (god help me, I never touch anything 3DFX, gateway built it, not me). I have given up troubleshooting because it's barely worth it on this machine.

In any case, I want to attempt to recycle any use out of this machine before I condemn it to cannibalization for decorum/ornamentation, such as possibly using it for a BSD firewall. It's not like I need another firewall, I have both software and hardware firewalls in place, it is more of a project for me at this point. Everything works except interpretation of a windows GUI, regardless of what video card I put in it.

My question is, Is it worth it, or should I just get the superglue ready for ornamental parts from this machine. It has 512Mb RAM (more than this machine, sheesh!), useful only to itself, so is it worth attempting to salvage, or should I burn it along with all other Gateway machines? Any thoughts?

:icon_twisted: :icon_twisted: :icon_twisted: :icon_twisted: :icon_twisted:

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by willcomp
Member Avatar for acejames1

first question is have you exchanged any parts out of it for other parts what parts were they and what were there specification. old milestone rule get parts that are compatable. also something could have gotten damaged...... in my opinion you havent given us enough information to tell us what is wrong or what could be wrong for that matter. give us the motherboard name the videocard name stuff like that it helps a lot more.

Member Avatar for jbennet

i perrsonally reccomend debian linux

use the netinstall cd (about 180mb) to get a basic CLI system and then download whatever additional stuff you need off of the net

I did that to my thinkpad (600mhz, 256mb ram) - made it into a webserver

you can use SSH and putty (windows client) to get command line access from another pc, you can just leave the base unit (no peripherals) under the stairs or something

Member Avatar for willcomp

Test memory using Memtest86+. DOS only uses the first 1MB of memory and memory above that may be faulty.

If it's a memory issue, Linux will fail as well.

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