VOGONS

Search

Common searches

Getting my first PC (Gateway 4DX2-66V) configured properly

Topic actions

First post, by DoctorDalek

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hey all,

I made my family keep hold of my first PC for obvious reasons and I'm putting the time in to get it running again. Specs:

  • Gateway 4DX2-66V (Intel DX2-66 obv.) full tower
  • 40MB RAM
  • 1x5.25" Floppy
  • 1x3.5" Floppy
  • 1x Tape backup drive
  • ATI Graphics Ultra Pro - Mach 32
  • 3com 3C509BC ethernet card
  • Promise EIDE Pro expansion card
  • 1.5GB WD HDD (dead)
  • 341MB WD HDD (dead)

Unfortunately both hard drives are dead to either clicking or not spinning up. Since the machine hasn't been turned on for 20+ years I am not surprised. The battery also died so all the CMOS settings got reset and I'm having to build from practically the ground up. I am able to boot from 3.5" floppy into DOS. I bought an 8GB CF card and CF/IDE adapter hoping to get DOS/Windows installed to that, however I believe the BIOS only supports 4GB drives. Is there some sort of alternate BIOS ROM out there that would support 8GB drives? Or would the Promise card (as I understand they're generally terrible) fit the bill?

I'm as old as this machine and only got into building/configuring around the P3 era so the quirks are unknown to me. Thanks in advance!

Reply 1 of 7, by chinny22

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Restoring bit of your history, nice. I guarantee you'll enjoy it.
Its probably a blessing that the HDD's died, makes the decision to upgrade or not much easier.
You have a few options.
You could try the Promise card, Seems to be drives and documentation here
Promise EIDE Pro ISA Controller Hangs on 286 Computer
I doubt performance is that much worse then the onboard IDE, and the CF card will make up for a lot of it.

You can use something like X-IDE where you use a network card boot rom socket for a chip with IDE support of larger drive.

I'm not sure if drive overlay works on CF cards? basically that's a software version of X-IDE

Or, you can do what I do and get a couple 4GB CF cards and one of these of ebay and simply swap CF cards if you run out of space.
SD-CF-IDE-BR-MAIN-500x500.jpg

Reply 2 of 7, by oeuvre

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Could also go for the SD to IDE route

also those Gateway 2000 towers were legendary! I hereby demand pictures.

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 3 of 7, by DoctorDalek

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
chinny22 wrote:
Restoring bit of your history, nice. I guarantee you'll enjoy it. Its probably a blessing that the HDD's died, makes the decisio […]
Show full quote

Restoring bit of your history, nice. I guarantee you'll enjoy it.
Its probably a blessing that the HDD's died, makes the decision to upgrade or not much easier.
You have a few options.
You could try the Promise card, Seems to be drives and documentation here
Promise EIDE Pro ISA Controller Hangs on 286 Computer
I doubt performance is that much worse then the onboard IDE, and the CF card will make up for a lot of it.

You can use something like X-IDE where you use a network card boot rom socket for a chip with IDE support of larger drive.

I'm not sure if drive overlay works on CF cards? basically that's a software version of X-IDE

Or, you can do what I do and get a couple 4GB CF cards and one of these of ebay and simply swap CF cards if you run out of space.

I'll try out the Promise card since I don't have any extra EPROMs laying around anymore from my arcade days. Thanks for the advice!

oeuvre wrote:

also those Gateway 2000 towers were legendary! I hereby demand pictures.

In its current state of "why the hell won't this work":
rQVqXpj.jpg

Reply 4 of 7, by Katmai500

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Love those old Gateway towers! Awesome that you still have your own. It looks to be in excellent condition, too.

I actually just ordered a Syba SD-CF-IDE-A IDE to Compact Flash Adapter and a 4GB Transcend 300x Industrial UDMA CF card to try in the baby brother of your tower, a 4DX2-66V Desktop. Mine doesn't have the promise IDE card, so I'll be trying it with the onboard IDE controller. I'll post an update on how it handles the 4GB card.

Attachments

  • 4DX2-66V.jpg
    Filename
    4DX2-66V.jpg
    File size
    87.64 KiB
    Views
    912 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 7 of 7, by sirlemonhead

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Cool!

I thiiink a friend of mine had one of these towers (in fact, I believe I have the tape backup drive that was in that machine).. I also love Gateway 2000s and have a few myself, including the pentium model the same as Katmai500.

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to General Old Hardware
Close window
Close window