NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Gateway Notebook Forums › Gateway Notebooks › Not quite ready for the Geriatric Ward!
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Not quite ready for the Geriatric Ward! - Page 2

post #21 of 34
10/28/10 at 3:40pm
well it cant beat its little brother the XPS, but most everything else it will

and im sure it must now be confusing as hell to anyone else that sees it from here on out... Gateway logo on the back, but eMachines hinge cover/power button and an eMachines BIOS splash

think i'll run a couple CPU tests when I get home (and can get a chance to install XP back on it) to see how the Atom ranks against it
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 34
10/28/10 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sRc View Post
well it cant beat its little brother the XPS, but most everything else it will

and im sure it must now be confusing as hell to anyone else that sees it from here on out... Gateway logo on the back, but eMachines hinge cover/power button and an eMachines BIOS splash

think i'll run a couple CPU tests when I get home (and can get a chance to install XP back on it) to see how the Atom ranks against it
Well the good oldies eMachines/Gateway are still performing well in my book. And yes, it's the fun part where the parts are interchangeable

Got some spare CPUs here if you want them to try out. Just drop a note.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #23 of 34
10/28/10 at 4:02pm
"Got some parts for my TP390 (P266) and is now rockin with Win2000 SP4..bring it out every so often to update it...no room for another laptop out and about..3 out already with GS's desktop..had to replace bottom shell (for hinges) and bigger HDD from the 8GB to an old 40GB laying around"

Took the laptop out the other nite to play withit and looks like the old 40G HDD I had in there died...froze just before the windows load...so, looking for another 40G...I suppose I could try something larger and partition it to smaller segments if it wont read the full amount...Just dont want to spend any sort of half serious money on this thing,,,looking around in Kijiji etc and on ebay, but some of them guys on EBay want $30-$50 for a used 20-40G drive
Reply
Reply
post #24 of 34
10/28/10 at 4:20pm
20-40GB IDE drive are very much in demand nowadays Gene. Try a 60GB, it might be cheaper. 80GB can be incompatible with some old (good) machines.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #25 of 34
10/29/10 at 6:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by qhn View Post
20-40GB IDE drive are very much in demand nowadays Gene. Try a 60GB, it might be cheaper. 80GB can be incompatible with some old (good) machines.

cheers ...
Yeah, the 20-40s seem to be scarce as hen's teeth...wonder what the big demand is for them....have been looking up to 60Gs and they're pretty hard to find too....got a couple of feelers out..been casing a lot of computer repair shops in the area and also emailing them...so far no bites
Reply
Reply
post #26 of 34
10/29/10 at 11:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by saugen48 View Post
Yeah, the 20-40s seem to be scarce as hen's teeth...wonder what the big demand is for them....have been looking up to 60Gs and they're pretty hard to find too....got a couple of feelers out..been casing a lot of computer repair shops in the area and also emailing them...so far no bites
Let me digging up my basement this weekend Gene. I am sure I still have some 20GB hiding somewhere. If I find it you can have it for a beer

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #27 of 34
10/31/10 at 7:44am
I come by a 20GB HDD but for some reason, still cant figure out why, could not put any windows on it...I partitioned and formatted to Fat32 and could not get Win98, win2000 to load...got copies of them ....no newer OS's avail...Tried a Linux and downloaded and burned a copy of Puppy Linux 5.1 which works via CD and I have also installed in on the HDD...supposedly..apparently you still need a CD to waken it or something...Having a bitch of a time trying to figure this Puppy out..Anyone have any recommended tutorials other than the built in help (which is no big shakes)...Or, is there a better easier Linux to start out on...I could burn another variety and give that a shot..any good suggestions
Reply
Reply
post #28 of 34
10/31/10 at 8:01am
I wonder if max GB on the TP390 = 6 If you want bigger drive you might have to use the 2nd bay.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #29 of 34
10/31/10 at 12:07pm
Dont think so, as I had a 30 or 40GB in there before it crapped out and worked ok...I did a scan test of this 20GB and it checked out with not errors....downloaded and burned an old copy of Ubuntu 4.1 and going to give that a shot installed on HDD for a permanent OS and see if that is somewhat more logical than the Puppy variety...keep an eye open for those old HDDs in your basement...lol
Reply
Reply
post #30 of 34
10/31/10 at 1:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by saugen48 View Post
Dont think so, as I had a 30 or 40GB in there before it crapped out and worked ok...I did a scan test of this 20GB and it checked out with not errors....downloaded and burned an old copy of Ubuntu 4.1 and going to give that a shot installed on HDD for a permanent OS and see if that is somewhat more logical than the Puppy variety...keep an eye open for those old HDDs in your basement...lol
Found a Hitachi 30GB, old but still working fine - drop me a pm about your address. I'll shoot it over, staying away from UPS

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #31 of 34
11/2/10 at 8:27am
Thread Starter 
I have a few 40's hanging around that I have used for external drives. I also have a few older machine that I am going to retire ( although they have puppy and other test, I really am not using them for anything soooo....).

If you still need some smaller drives, let me know and I will check them to see what kind of data I have on them that I can archive and clean the drives.

Otherwise, I will leave them be.

Eunix
Reply
Reply
post #32 of 34
11/2/10 at 10:57am
Its always nice having a couple of older smaller drives on hand, especially if you play around with older machines, as you never know when they are going to crap out....as old as they are, they could last a year or more or crap out within the week...lol
Reply
Reply
post #33 of 34
1/1/11 at 9:37am
interesting thread, the Emachine 6xxx series and the equivalent Gateway models can take an 80 gig HD without any special partitioning....I popped for a 80gig 7200RPM Hitachi unit a couple of years back....I think you can go as big as 120gig (138gig partition table max, but 120gig is the size closest) before you have to partition to use the whole drive....I reused the original 40 gig 5400rpm unit as an external usb mass storage device.....the 7200RPM HD's do add some speed....

you can still find the ide 2.5" lappy drives at Newegg, and sometimes on Ebay, but they are getting scarce....and you pay a premium for them....everything is SATA and DDR2 now.....

Since my m6810 hasn't traveled much, it is as new looking as the first day I bought it, no hinge cracks (I have tightened the screws), I have had it apart numerous times to change CPU (4000+), upgrade ramski (2gig), add new hard drive, replace battery (need another one again), work on the screen flicker, and change out to thermal paste from the orginal thermal pad material on CPU heatsink, done this several times.....I have been ultra careful with the AC plugin to the unit, no problems YET.....

Still a viable machine.....had a recent problem with sudden shutdowns out of nowhere, so I backtracked and removed Avira (a very recent install, obviously no problem before install) and updated the vid with the latest Omega Mobility drivers, sudden rebootage went away....so it was either Avira or a vid driver problem (doubtful on the vid drivers, but who knows), not all problems with the Emachines/Gateway's are hardware related......

Anyway, just my rant, it has been good to me all this time....

laterzzzzz
Reply
Reply
post #34 of 34
5/14/11 at 5:16am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the post about the longevity of your machine.

I have to say that the rap that these machines got (back in the day) may have been deserved (random shutdown and hindge cracks) endend up overshadowing a good machine.
They were solidly built for the price points of the machine. Although I have been inside of both of mine (m6811 and 7422gx), I was never able to actually identify the cause of the random shutdown. All I know is that it "went away"

The screen replacement on on of the machines (GW with eMachines screen) was not a problem with the machine and I am running the latest Ubuntu 11.04 on the one that I am typing with now and (1.2G) and Windows 7 Enterprise N on the other (1.5 G).

I am in a quandry because I do want to buy a new Core i7 HP Elite book but I simply cannot justify the need. One of my work laptops is an Elitebook workstation (dual Core) and the screen is absolutely awesome and it has more power than I can use for my development work.

I truly think the laptops have hit a plateau in processing power versus the needs of most people. I see a lot of "celery" machine coming out now for consumer based machine and the atom is just a wee bit under powered for me. ( I have a HP mini 210 netbook which is good for it's name NET BOOK) but I don't see how these new CROME OS machines are going to even have a chance. Why spend 500 bucks for a browser based piece of lappy when you could get a fully functional machine for less - especially if you don't mind the minimal added weight of an older laptop.

The biggest problem that I see is the built in obsolescence that comes with the push to Windows 7. No drivers for many PCMCIA cards (some of which are still good to have , lack of support for older parallel port devices ( I don't want to throw away my old external CD burner etc etc) and the battery problem. 90% of these older machines could be road ready if they only had a reliable battery source. I have 1/2 of a mind to move these guys back into regular rotation and take them off of the desk.

Too bad the market for getting a good price has passed by. Maybe I should not be so staunch on NOT getting my money's worth out of my machines and holding on and keeping the viable. Hell, I didn't pay full price for them any way! (Sorry, I don't believe in running to the store to get the latest and greatest thing out there when it first comes out because I don't ever really NEED it. )

Eunix
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Gateway Notebooks
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Gateway Notebook Forums › Gateway Notebooks › Not quite ready for the Geriatric Ward!