A Gateway upgrade....Issues and Resolutions
Jan 05 '01
I am rewriting my last opinion on upgradeing a Gateway that is three years old and out of warranty.There are some issues that must be delt with
the major one is the propriety power connectors for the on/off switch.
This prohibits the instillation of a regular motherboard( unless you are very handy with a sodering iron).The rest of the plugs are standard so there is no problem presented.
My original computer that I ordered from Gateway was a G6 333 P2 with
a dvd player/96 megs of 66 bus ram/4 meg video card/tv tuner.
I was extremely discouraged with the video.My first jump up was to an STB 4400 Nvidia video card with 16 megs of video memory.
My motherboard went dead.I had issues all along with the board.It was a known but unadvertised(Gateway oh Gateway) issue that for no reason the date would jump 100 years.Gateway did not know why.I insisted on a different board for a replacement.It went to a level 2 tech and they sent a `Tabor 2` 4M4PBOX1
board rated to support a P3 450 processor.
I bought one and the difference was quite noticeable.
Now to the jist of this opinion.It was out of warranty and I wanted to upgrade again.The Gateway case and motherboard are propriety.
I have a P3 700 processor.The processor uses 1.7 volts off of the motherboard to run it.The P3 450 processor uses 2 volts off of the motherboard to run it.
I go to the Gateway support site and read the spechs on the board.
Here is the answer to my problem about the voltage.
`The VID pins automaticially program the voltage to the required motherboard voltage`A Gateway tech agreed that this was a possible upgrade.
It worked and for a month at least 10 hours a day its a stable system which should give me another year or so.And the difference is again quite noticeable and nice.
I realize that a new case with a motherboard could be had for a bit over $200.I don`t have it.Computing processing technology is changing so rapidily that I will wait for a year to upgrade again.
These upgrades are possible.You will run into problems with the Gateway
on/off/led connectors.Or if you have a Dell its the power supply connectors.
Just sharing some information with you all who have older equiptment and not alot of money to spend and especially can`t purchase the 1000 or 1.5
system that is top of the heap this month.
700 is a good speed at this time.Throw in a decent 32 meg video card and 128 megs of ram and you have a new computer.At least it sure feels like one.
Take Care...Peace in the new year...Harry
One final note...This can void your warranty
You will also find much information off the Intel website and Gateway tech support can give some you needed information but I suggest you do as much research as possible.Anyway it was a fun project that worked
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Epinions.com ID:
seagull5
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Member: Harry Goodman
Location: Bradenton,Fl.
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 28 members
About Me:
I live in Bradenton,FL and have spent many years an IT troubleshooter for facilities.
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