VOGONS


First post, by Dragon-Sight

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Howdy, new member here.
Poked in because this is the only zone in web search where I'd been able to find anything halfway relevant related to a 486 laptop I picked up the other day: a Gateway2000 ColorBook. Backlight on the LCD is dead, but I did manage to fumble through the BIOS enough to set the VGA output.
Still, I have not for the life of me been able to find an archive of the user manual for info on such things as where the CMOS battery is, or if one can toggle Turbo mode on and off via the keyboard or if it's only a BIOS option.

I was also wondering if there'd be any issue in using a CF to IDE adapter since the hard drive is positively cooked (loud clunking/head slapping noise when attempting to check the directory on it)

If anyone has any info on helpful hotkeys or drivers for one of these laptops, it'd be much appreciated!

Reply 1 of 1, by PC Hoarder Patrol

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Dragon-Sight wrote on 2025-11-02, 15:33:
Howdy, new member here. Poked in because this is the only zone in web search where I'd been able to find anything halfway releva […]
Show full quote

Howdy, new member here.
Poked in because this is the only zone in web search where I'd been able to find anything halfway relevant related to a 486 laptop I picked up the other day: a Gateway2000 ColorBook. Backlight on the LCD is dead, but I did manage to fumble through the BIOS enough to set the VGA output.
Still, I have not for the life of me been able to find an archive of the user manual for info on such things as where the CMOS battery is, or if one can toggle Turbo mode on and off via the keyboard or if it's only a BIOS option.

I was also wondering if there'd be any issue in using a CF to IDE adapter since the hard drive is positively cooked (loud clunking/head slapping noise when attempting to check the directory on it)

If anyone has any info on helpful hotkeys or drivers for one of these laptops, it'd be much appreciated!

Welcome to Vogons 😀

I'm not aware of an online manual ever having been available for the ColorBook. Far as the CMOS battery goes you could use this old user-produced write-up as a guide... https://web.archive.org/web/20010502081545id_ … lewis/cmos.html

Can't find anything specific on turbo mode or hdd replacement atm and although there are driver file lists, not all the files are still available to download - may depend on the exact model (processor) you have.