I plan on keeping it as stock as I can. It's a very cool time capsule in great condition. I managed to get it open today and it has a creative sb pro 2 and an ati Mach 32. The CD drive had the caddy inside it, which had a copy of Grolier encyclopedia, licensed by Creative for use in bundles... So chances are good this might have even been a disc that came with the sound card/CD drive kit.

I still haven't gotten the disk drives working, they are quiet dusty inside so I'll keep my fingers crossed they might start working if I blow some of the dust out. Hopefully the pc will work with a drive or CF I've configured on a different system so I can start using it right away even if the disk drives aren't working.

Looks like I've also got 16MB ram and some l2 cache. Should be a pretty nice machine when I get a storage device going.

The video card has an empty socket, I wonder what it's for?

This micronics motherboard doesn't have an on board cmos battery btw, only a connection for an external battery pack, which is good by me. I think most of their earlier ones, including for gateways had barrel batteries soldered on, so this is a relief.

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-07-07, 00:57:

The video card has an empty socket, I wonder what it's for?

Here this is the very same card on the Ebay, but with the missing chip installed: https://www.ebay.com/itm/135486482467 - but the chip right below is missing.
Here is the one just like yours: https://www.ebay.com/itm/386485658664
Hahaha, here the guys discuss this issue in detail: ATi Mach32 VLB VGA card, quick test
Looks like you can either use the "below" chip or the "upper/missing" chip, which are RAMDAC variants. Somebody had both of them installed and had issues because of that)))

Anyways, a very cool authentic system you have there) Reminds me of the IBM300GL, that was my dream PC around 1994)) I wish I had space for these awesome desktop cases - would be fun running some DOS software like that) Do you even have a key to THE LOCK?

It didn't come with a key, however I have a key of a similar design that I got with another gateway computer from 2 years later and I wonder if it might work... Probably won't test it though in case it works enough to lock but not unlock 😅

Dusty McDustface

Anyway, I doubt just cleaning the dust would make the floppy drives work if they don't produce any sound whatsoever now.

Hehe well the 5.25 drive makes some noises and lights up, but it doesn't read my boot disk, which works in other machines.

I don't think the 3.5 drive had any mechanical signs of life or access light going when I tried that out. It's all plugged in correctly though.

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-06, 16:28:

Driver : https://mega.nz/file/E3AVEIqA#0KGRatoQ1DPwWzV … 3wayY80ArfMtRaE Config.sys : DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\CDMKE410.SYS /D:LASERWA […]
Show full quote

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-07-06, 02:34:

Got this beast today. It posts though the drives didn't recognize my boot disks. The case screws started stripping when I tried to loosen them to get the top off so I'll come back to it later.

I think the CD drive is an mke/Panasonic drive connected to some kind of creative sound blaster. I read these drives were sold in kits. I haven't located the software for one of these kits, if anyone has any experience with these and knows what driver I'll need to install, that'll be good to know for the future. The caddy came with it and contained a creative licensed version of Grolier encyclopedia circa 1995, which might have even come with such a multimedia kit.

Driver :
https://mega.nz/file/E3AVEIqA#0KGRatoQ1DPwWzV … 3wayY80ArfMtRaE
Config.sys :
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\CDMKE410.SYS /D:LASERWAV
Autoexec.bat :
LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:LASERWAV

Drive : 2x speed (300Kb/s max).

Hard level. I wrote the set, driver included, and I didn't even get a thank you or anything...
It's not worth posting any help here anyway...
I won't...

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-08, 22:27:

Hard level. I wrote the set, driver included, and I didn't even get a thank you or anything... It's not worth posting any help h […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-06, 16:28:

Driver : https://mega.nz/file/E3AVEIqA#0KGRatoQ1DPwWzV … 3wayY80ArfMtRaE Config.sys : DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\CDMKE410.SYS /D:LASERWA […]
Show full quote

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-07-06, 02:34:

Got this beast today. It posts though the drives didn't recognize my boot disks. The case screws started stripping when I tried to loosen them to get the top off so I'll come back to it later.

I think the CD drive is an mke/Panasonic drive connected to some kind of creative sound blaster. I read these drives were sold in kits. I haven't located the software for one of these kits, if anyone has any experience with these and knows what driver I'll need to install, that'll be good to know for the future. The caddy came with it and contained a creative licensed version of Grolier encyclopedia circa 1995, which might have even come with such a multimedia kit.

Driver :
https://mega.nz/file/E3AVEIqA#0KGRatoQ1DPwWzV … 3wayY80ArfMtRaE
Config.sys :
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\CDMKE410.SYS /D:LASERWAV
Autoexec.bat :
LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:LASERWAV

Drive : 2x speed (300Kb/s max).

Hard level. I wrote the set, driver included, and I didn't even get a thank you or anything...
It's not worth posting any help here anyway...
I won't...

I'm sorry, I hadn't checked out this driver yet because I'm waiting for my CF adapter to come in the mail so I can hopefully install dos on the machine and then get to the point of installing the driver, but I'm quite thankful for your help and getting me pointed in the right direction!

I'm actually really curious to see if the drive still works. The Panasonic 3do FZ-1 game console uses a Panasonic drive of this vintage and the plastic gears inside have often become brittle, crack and become inoperable due to age.

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-07-09, 01:06:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-08, 22:27:

Hard level. I wrote the set, driver included, and I didn't even get a thank you or anything... It's not worth posting any help h […]
Show full quote

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-06, 16:28:

Driver : https://mega.nz/file/E3AVEIqA#0KGRatoQ1DPwWzV … 3wayY80ArfMtRaE Config.sys : DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\CDMKE410.SYS /D:LASERWA […]
Show full quote

Driver :
https://mega.nz/file/E3AVEIqA#0KGRatoQ1DPwWzV … 3wayY80ArfMtRaE
Config.sys :
DEVICEHIGH=C:\UTIL\CDMKE410.SYS /D:LASERWAV
Autoexec.bat :
LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:LASERWAV

Drive : 2x speed (300Kb/s max).

Hard level. I wrote the set, driver included, and I didn't even get a thank you or anything...
It's not worth posting any help here anyway...
I won't...

I'm sorry, I hadn't checked out this driver yet because I'm waiting for my CF adapter to come in the mail so I can hopefully install dos on the machine and then get to the point of installing the driver, but I'm quite thankful for your help and getting me pointed in the right direction!

I'm actually really curious to see if the drive still works. The Panasonic 3do FZ-1 game console uses a Panasonic drive of this vintage and the plastic gears inside have often become brittle, crack and become inoperable due to age.

I hope it will work, I have 3 of them, they still work.

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-09, 05:29:

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-07-09, 01:06:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-08, 22:27:

Hard level. I wrote the set, driver included, and I didn't even get a thank you or anything...
It's not worth posting any help here anyway...
I won't...

I'm sorry, I hadn't checked out this driver yet because I'm waiting for my CF adapter to come in the mail so I can hopefully install dos on the machine and then get to the point of installing the driver, but I'm quite thankful for your help and getting me pointed in the right direction!

I'm actually really curious to see if the drive still works. The Panasonic 3do FZ-1 game console uses a Panasonic drive of this vintage and the plastic gears inside have often become brittle, crack and become inoperable due to age.

I hope it will work, I have 3 of them, they still work.

Well, mostly good news. Everything is set up and working, including both floppy drives that I was having trouble with earlier, however the CD drive isn't set up correctly yet. The driver fails to recognize it when booting up, telling me the interface board or drive isn't ready, check power cables, etc. The drive lights up when I insert the caddy, so that's promising that its getting power. I'll try to hunt down whatever install/configuration software there might have been for the sbpro 2 and see if that makes a difference. Come to think of it, there's probably a jumper on the card itself related to the Matsushita interface, should probably check that out too.

Regarding the sbpro, it was very interesting to see that when selecting the sbpro option in various epic games like epic pinball and jazz jackrabbit, the sound quality was extremely low. I had encountered this with the sb16 before, and apparently it's known that there were bugs in epics sound code in a few of their games (community patches exist to get the sb16 working correctly and not defaulting to the lowest sound quality). Anyways, I found that I could get higher sound quality in these games by selecting the "sound blaster clone" option in lieu of the sbpro option, so that was interesting.

dukeofurl wrote on Today, 02:40:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-07-09, 05:29:

dukeofurl wrote on 2025-07-09, 01:06:

I'm sorry, I hadn't checked out this driver yet because I'm waiting for my CF adapter to come in the mail so I can hopefully install dos on the machine and then get to the point of installing the driver, but I'm quite thankful for your help and getting me pointed in the right direction!

I'm actually really curious to see if the drive still works. The Panasonic 3do FZ-1 game console uses a Panasonic drive of this vintage and the plastic gears inside have often become brittle, crack and become inoperable due to age.

I hope it will work, I have 3 of them, they still work.

Well, mostly good news. Everything is set up and working, including both floppy drives that I was having trouble with earlier, however the CD drive isn't set up correctly yet. The driver fails to recognize it when booting up, telling me the interface board or drive isn't ready, check power cables, etc. The drive lights up when I insert the caddy, so that's promising that its getting power. I'll try to hunt down whatever install/configuration software there might have been for the sbpro 2 and see if that makes a difference. Come to think of it, there's probably a jumper on the card itself related to the Matsushita interface, should probably check that out too.

Regarding the sbpro, it was very interesting to see that when selecting the sbpro option in various epic games like epic pinball and jazz jackrabbit, the sound quality was extremely low. I had encountered this with the sb16 before, and apparently it's known that there were bugs in epics sound code in a few of their games (community patches exist to get the sb16 working correctly and not defaulting to the lowest sound quality). Anyways, I found that I could get higher sound quality in these games by selecting the "sound blaster clone" option in lieu of the sbpro option, so that was interesting.

The config looks good, and you're making progress with the settings.
Mine is now packed, and there's a different machine on the test bench. So I can't look. The settings in the driver can change, depending on whether it's plugged into the sound card or the small control card. There's also a jumper on the driver to see which one is connected. For example, if there are two, you have to jumper them and indicate to the driver, say N:2...
I only know exactly when I have the machine in front of me.

This is my main retro PC.

Specs:
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Intel Pentium 4 3.4
Quadro FX3000 256MB
512MB DDR400
120GB Lexar SATA SSD (in the black drive bay connected with a Startech SATA to IDE adapter)
Promise Ultra 133TX2
Soundblaster Audigy
LG DVD-RW
Panasonic DVD-ROM
Corsair VS650
Enlight case

oh and Windows ME for the OS. 😁

The only change I've made to this PC in a while was the addition of the Startech swappable SATA bay. That thing is very handy for whenever I want to mess around with overclocking or testing something. I just pop in the backup copy of this OS I have and mess around without having to worry about corrupting the current install.

pete8475 wrote on Today, 03:56:

The only change I've made to this PC in a while was the addition of the Startech swappable SATA bay. That thing is very handy for whenever I want to mess around with overclocking or testing something. I just pop in the backup copy of this OS I have and mess around without having to worry about corrupting the current install.

Yes! I have one on my P4 build too. I have discs with different OSs on it, Win98’s my main OS but I have ME and 2000 on separate discs just because I can… have also done the backup OS thing to test new configs. Super handy.