First post, by perixoto
History: My Mom bought this Gateway PC new in September 1999. She only used it for home office stuff, and she didn't have any interest in learning how computers work. So when she had to do any install or update, etc. she had zero patience, and would just start hitting keys. I witness this myself. I remember one time she was trying to do something on the computer and she would mutter "stupid" "stupid...arggh". I asked her, I says "what? is that it's nickname?"
So one day in 2005 I went to her house and she was frustrated, & angry at this PC so bad, that I think if I didn't show up when I did she would've murderd it.
The problem was the HDD had gotten corrupt files from alterations and as a result programs wouldn't open or close, extrememly slow, and the popup alert windows were just fueling the fire of rage. So I bought her a brand new Dell PC (with her money), and she's all happy again.
Then about 4 years later the same thing happend with the Dell. This time I reinstalled the OS for her. And I noticed she still had her old Gateway in the corner buried behind a pile of stuff. I told her "if you want to get rid of your Gateway I could probably take it, maybe I can do something with it". You see I really wanted it, but I knew she hated it, so I couldn't act like I liked it even though she knew I wanted to have it. After all why would you give a friend something you hate?
Well I took it home and attempted to replace the 20.5GB HDD with a 160GB HDD. I had heard about Hard Drive Limitations, but I just wanted to try it to see if it'd work. And I was still computer ignorant and short on time, but eager to learn. I flashed the BIOS with the latest revision but that didn't help. I tried a controller card but couldn't figure it out. I gave up on the 160GB. Decided I'll just use multiple HDD's. For a Windows 98 PC that will be good enough. I had just spent all the time I had available for it. Put it aside.
Present Day: Then the computer sat in the corner for 6-7 years. I wondered if I was ever going to have time to work on it again or even if I was smart enough to be able to fix it. It might have easily got tossed in the trash dump, but in 2015, I unknowingly started a long journey into the world of computers. It all began when my old 2005 Alienware Area 51 broke in June 2015. From that day every spare moment of time I had was filled with computers. By mid 2016 I was rebuilding this Gateway. The first thing I did was a clean install of Windows 98SE. I had installed Win 98 before on other working PC's, but since this is a rebuild with no plan of action, I decided to use the original HDD. It is old and used so I'll do my learning mistakes on it then switch to a new HDD. I just wanted to get the computer working with all the original components so I can be sure the MoBo and everything is in good condition. Then I will start custom modding it.
Pic of the original HDD.
This is how the Gateway looked right after I got it up & running with a fresh Win 98SE OS install on the original HDD.
That's all I am posting for now. If anybody's interested I can post the rest of the i-project Gateway.
The original components are:
Motherboard: Intel WS440BX Gateway Tabor 3
Processor: Intel Pentium III 600 Mhz, Slot 1, Katmai SL3JM
Memory: Siemens 128MB x2 = 256MB, 16Mx64 SDRAM
Hard Drive: IBM Deskstar 20.5 GB EIDE
Video Card: Creative Technology, TNT2, 32MB, CT5823
Sound Card: Creative Technology CT5803