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Restoring a Gateway 2000 4DX2-50 80486 Desktop (Warning: Lots of images)

I have a Gateway 2000 desktop I'm trying to revive. I've had it since new: 486-33, Adaptec SCSI controller, 2 HDDs, 5 1/4 & 3 1/2 inch FDDs, CD ROM, 640K RAM. Sony monitor, all docs and lots of software. Recovered dead CMOS power with new battery pack but currently struggling with EISA configuration. Trouble is it keeps asking for a "System Configuration Diskette" to proceed and finish, but won't accept anything I give it. Please let me know if you can shed any light on this situation. I also have an extra bare 486-33 EISA mother board if your interested.
 
GIO said:
I have a Gateway 2000 desktop I'm trying to revive. I've had it since new: 486-33, Adaptec SCSI controller, 2 HDDs, 5 1/4 & 3 1/2 inch FDDs, CD ROM, 640K RAM. Sony monitor, all docs and lots of software. Recovered dead CMOS power with new battery pack but currently struggling with EISA configuration. Trouble is it keeps asking for a "System Configuration Diskette" to proceed and finish, but won't accept anything I give it. Please let me know if you can shed any light on this situation. I also have an extra bare 486-33 EISA mother board if your interested.
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Looks like a potential solution to your problem has already been discussed on the forum. Please take a look here: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-7758.html
 
I wanted to try Linux on the Gateway to see how usable it would be.

I didn't want to mess with the HDD which has a single dos partition, so I burned a puppy "wary" live cd and tried to boot. The system now has an IDE CD-ROM. Problems with the Sony CDU-33 have been covered in previous pages so those interested can determine why I gave up on that. Anyway, the Gateway BIOS doesn't recognize the IDE CD-ROM. You need a DOS IDE CD-ROM driver to get things going. Thus, boot from CD wasn't really an option.

I did a bit of googling and found plop boot manager. This is a CD/floppy/MBR bootable boot mgr which can provide CD and USB boot options on computers that don't support these functions via BIOS. I tried the latest plop via floppy, but that kept hanging. So I went back a couple of versions, and that worked. Boot from CD was a success!

Puppy wary is billed as being oriented towards old computers, and it does support 486 systems. However, the boot takes an inordinate amount of time. Configuring the system just to get xvesa to fire up took hours. The CD-ROM light comes up now and then but most of the delay seems to be CPU related. Anyway, the boot and xvesa startup did finally work. It is so slow as to be completely unusable, however. Shouldn't be the case with 40MB of ram and a DX2-50. I remember older distros flying on a 16MB 486 system, circa 1996. But I am guessing even the puppy wary kernel is a lot larger than what I was using (slackware) back then.

Here is a pic of puppy running... Slow as a dog!

WP_20150523_17_30_06_Pro.jpg

Any body else have experience with this distro on a 486? Better CD based distros for a 486?
 
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Ran Mandrake/RH 6.x on one of my 486DX2/66s with 64 megs of ram using Window Maker. I wasn't expecting stallar performance in Xwindows. Got rid of Nautilus and most of the bigger Xwindows stuff and used some of the lighter Gnome 1.2 applications.

IIRC Puppy tries to run entirely in ram, and yeah the kernels support a lot of stuff now and of course running off cd is going to be way slower than off the hdd. The fact that it runs is good to know though. You could try, though old, Damn Small Linux( I think you can install it on the hdd as well) or the Basic Linux floppy based distro or compile your own kernal to support only the hardware you have and roll your own so to speak.

What version of Plop did you use in the end?
 

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Caluser2000 said:
Ran Mandrake/RH 6.x on one of my 486DX2/66s with 64 megs of ram using Window Maker. I wasn't expecting stallar performance in Xwindows. Got rid of Nautilus and most of the bigger Xwindows stuff and used some of the lighter Gnome 1.2 applications.

IIRC Puppy tries to run entirely in ram, and yeah the kernels support a lot of stuff now and of course running off cd is going to be way slower than off the hdd. The fact that it runs is good to know though. You could try, though old, Damn Small Linux( I think you can install it on the hdd as well) or the Basic Linux floppy based distro or compile your own kernal to support only the hardware you have and roll your own so to speak.

What version of Plop did you use in the end?
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Thanks. I will try the distros you recommended. I've always liked OpenStep/WindowMaker because of the NeXT influence... I have a Cube and a Station.

The version of plop I'm using is 5.0.13
 
Booting Linux on the Gateway is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare. I've tried about a dozen distros and inevitably, they hang prior to boot. The only one I've been able to get working is Puppy (pics above). So far, I've tried:

Ubuntu 7.10
Ubuntu 8.10
Ubuntu 10.10
Damn Small Linux 3
Damn Small Linux 4
Plop Linux
Vector Linux 5
Vector Linux 7

And others, including an older Debian version.

One of two things happen a) After the kernel decompresses, I get a display mode detection error. I get asked to manually select a mode from a set of choices, which includes pretty safe looking text modes (80x25). I select these and nothing happens further. b) If I select a safe boot option (failsafe under DSL), the kernel decompresses, I get no errors and nothing happens. The system is not locked as I can still reboot via ctrl-alt-del.

I am now going to try FreeBSD. The live distro I picked is called FreeSBIE and I am trying 2.0.1-RELEASE to start with.
 
Gee-I think I would deal with the PSU (fan) FIRST!

See if you can bring it back from the dead by manual exercise (spin with a pencil) while the power is cycled on, and maybe some oil for the bearings(sleeves)...

If not, a new PSU FAN can't be more than 2 or 3 dollars and some soldering--they didn't leave a whole lot of temp tolerance on most of these guys!

Second, I think you've done a helluva decent job making this box look new again-GREAT SHOW!

Anyway, after you have PSU cooling back, check all of the voltages--might not have +12V within tolerance, and that would affect the HD spinup, and a whole bunch of other things...
 
sgifanatic said:
One of two things happen a) After the kernel decompresses, I get a display mode detection error. I get asked to manually select a mode from a set of choices, which includes pretty safe looking text modes (80x25). I select these and nothing happens further. b) If I select a safe boot option (failsafe under DSL), the kernel decompresses, I get no errors and nothing happens. The system is not locked as I can still reboot via ctrl-alt-del.

I am now going to try FreeBSD. The live distro I picked is called FreeSBIE and I am trying 2.0.1-RELEASE to start with.
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If Linux is running, but has a black screen, I'd go with your video adapter being broken (ie. buggy VGA BIOS or has broken VESA modes.) There were tons of video adapters in those days that barely qualified as such, and even DOS/Windows had issues with them. Many OEMs used them though because they were cheap and got stuff to show on the screen, at the cost of destroying CPU performance of course.

I'd try tossing a known video adapter brand in the machine and see if it changes anything.

It could also be that you don't have enough memory installed. Most of the distros you listed won't run properly with less than 64 MB.
 
Adventures in alternate OS installs on the Gateway continue...

I was able to get RedHat 6.1 to boot and make it into the X-based setup program. Of course, the 1GB drive has just about 120MB left, so I didn't actually go through with the install. That said, at least I've gotten farther with this than with any of the other Linux distros I've tried, with the exception of Puppy.

AdobePhotoshopExpress_5a605003e4fd4543bdda47d71fbdec2e.jpg


Also, I got Desqview/X 2.1 running. Qemm has messed up Windows, which now gives an odd display error, post installation. But, before I realized that had happened, I was able to play around with dvx for a bit. Networking wasn't working, and the display was limited to 640x480, but here's a look at what I was able to get up and running:

WP_20150725_11_03_32_Pro.jpg

All these didn't work:

WP_20150719_20_48_33_Pro.jpg

I guess I'll remove some of the software archives and installation files from the HDD and partition the drive so I can install Redhat 6.1
 
Cool.

Use the text installer when you do get around to installing RH6.2. It's far quicker than the gui install routine. Set aside at least half a day all the same ;)

Thanks for the plop hint. It works real well.
 
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Very nice restoration. I love these classic Gateway 2000 Systems! I have almost the same exact system, at least the motherboard and case look identical. My model is 4DX2-66. I loved all the pics you took.

Did you have to replace the CMOS battery? I see the battery connector in one of your pics but I couldn't see the battery. It plugs into the motherboard with two wires and a 3 pin connector. Do you know what type it is? Why they didn't use a CR-2032 like their full size AT models, I don't know.

Cheers!
 
I would seriously consider getting an XTIDE for this machine, or a NIC with the appropriate eeprom so you can use a compact flash card instead of relying on old unreliable hard drives.

Losing all that work to load your hard drive would be a pain. I switched all my old tandy's, 386's and 486's to this method to preserve their working state.

https://www.lo-tech.co.uk/product/lo-tech-isa-compactflash-pcb/
 
mojorific said:
I would seriously consider getting an XTIDE for this machine, or a NIC with the appropriate eeprom so you can use a compact flash card instead of relying on old unreliable hard drives.
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I used SD to IDE and Compact Flash to IDE adapters and they work fantastic. They plug right into the existing motherboard IDE connector and are very inexpensive. Using a cable, of course. They can also be set as slave or master...
 
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I know this is a 6 year old thread but, I just picked up a "Gateway 2000 4DX2-66" that came with a pentium overdrive processor. I am looking for documentation for this system board. I have the same as pictured. This is the first time I have seen evidence of this board existing. I want to put a slower processor in for dos gaming. The overdrive is too fast. I need to know jumper configuration for different processor setups.

Thanks.
 
JimLahey said:
I know this is a 6 year old thread but, I just picked up a "Gateway 2000 4DX2-66" that came with a pentium overdrive processor. I am looking for documentation for this system board. I have the same as pictured. This is the first time I have seen evidence of this board existing. I want to put a slower processor in for dos gaming. The overdrive is too fast. I need to know jumper configuration for different processor setups.

Thanks.
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There is no need to replace your CPU for DOS gaming. You can either disable CACHE in your BIOS to slow the system down (if you have CACHE installed) or use the myriad of software out there that slows a computer down for DOS gaming. Here is a list:

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=44

The links may not work any longer but a quick search on Google should find them.
 
According to various internet sources, WC1 needs a 386SX at 16-25 MHz to run at an acceptable speed.

You can try various "slow down" utilities, but I find those generally cause timing issues.
 
JimLahey said:
This is what I found. I have installed 486sx 25. I have disabled cache in bios? Check these images in Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hww5t7d0778nhow/AAAUQmDS4b7b9GTwGQcwwvara?dl=0

Even still it's way too fast.

Check the Wing Commander video here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hww5t7d0778nhow/AAAUQmDS4b7b9GTwGQcwwvara?dl=0

Suggestions. I don't have a way to get slowing down applications on this system yet.

Thanks.
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You need to turn off any "shadowing" of the video and BIOS as well. Typically in CMOS you can enable/disable video and system BIOS shadowing.
 
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