Gateway 6400 FAQ-UUUUUUUU

[purpledemon]

amgine ... thanks for your hard work ...

please keep us posted ... im sure a lot of us are interested

 

[ClearToLand]

Kostya17:

First of all, THANKS for trying to re-generate interest in the wonderful Gateway 6400 Server.

I have to agree with badbilly27, though; there were THOUSANDS of posts when we were all buying this server "a long time ago, in a galaxy... yadda, yadda, yadda", but now [May 2002], you can't find anything useful via Google *or* [based on the number of participants in the original thread(s)] HERE on AT.

neuralfx:

Go back to sleep - These are not the droids you are looking for...

...it was like 100+...

IT WAS THOUSANDS!!!

That leaves us relics with the following options:

• Everyone else SOLD their Gateway 6400 Server on eBay, and made TONS of $money$!!!
• Everyone else got their Gateway 6400 Server to do *whatever* they needed WITHOUT asking anyone else for assistance???
• We are all idiots... :disgust::frown:

Now me, I'm stubborn... I'm *really* impressed with the construction of this server. I've been building my own computers since 1977 (hence the term relic ). I bought an eMachine eTower 400IX "refurbished" in Jan 2000, because I felt I couldn't build one for less than the $300 I paid *AND it's stilll working perfectly, since the only thing I changed was the HD (upgraded the 6.4GB to 13GB - the eMachines have marginal PSs, so, adding additional components is risky). I broke down and bought a Dell 4100 P3/933 in Dec 2000, because I was tired of fighting with the AMD K6-III/400 / FIC503A that was my last project (I'll tell you about the VIA chipset if you *really* want to know!). I bought this Gateway 6400 because it just seemed like a great deal for the money.

I bought this Gateway to be a:

• FileServer
• Proxy Server
• PVR
• Server Training Tool

So, here we all are, ~ a year later, comparing notes... I had no trouble at all installing my ATI AIW 128 32MB PCI video card - it worked perfectly the first time (as a video card, that is... capturing without GPFs is another story). On the other hand, I had TONS of problems with my Maxtor (aka Promise) Ultra ATA/100 controller (tried two!; then tried my old ATA/33 - no improvement!). So, the problem must be the SLOTS, since you had the exactly OPPOSITE response!

I had a problem copying large files (i.e. TiVo images; ~650MG and ~1.2GB) from one logical drive to another (it would hang and just sit there). This problem also showed up in Defrag - it would reach 10% and then hang (for hours! aka forever...) After reading this thread, I swapped cards around. My SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) was to put the video card on top [Slot 1], the sound card on the bottom [Slot 7], any disk controllers (SCSI, Promise) under the video card, then the nic, then the modem, etc... I had tried the Maxtor Ultra ATA/100 in both Slot 2 and 3 to no avail... So, now I moved the ATI AIW to Slot 5 (the first 64-bit slot), and the Maxtor Ultra ATA/100 to Slot 1 and after having to re-install the software for both, the 2 Maxtor 45GB IDE 7200rpm drives seem to be working better (Defrags now finish - HDTach261 reports 31693kps @ 4.4% CPU - never bothered to check it before.)

BTW Kostya17, thanks for reminding me about the Sync160. You know, I have this problem about doing things over - if I do something ONCE, I have a very hard time thinking that I have to do it AGAIN. HDTach261 reported 11920kps before I changed the Sync160 - 26812kps after! In my little "kingdom" here, I'm currently maintaining 7 machines - the old Workstation, the old Server, the new Workstation, the new Server, the backup Workstation, the "parallel test" Workstation, the laptop. Except for the laptop, all the other machines are "multi-boot" - consisting of a combination of Win98, Win98SE, WinNT Workstation, WinNT Server, Wink2K Server (IF I would have known that Dell's Win2KPro Install disks checked the BIOS before installing, I would have NEVER paid the extra ~$300 for Win2KPro with my Dell 4100!!!) [Does anyone know how to defeat this?!?]

So, back to configuring my Gateway 6400 as a PVR - I don't really know if this is a problem or not, but, under Win98SE, I cannot move IRQs around. IRQ11 is overloaded, with Symbios Ultra3 PCI SCSI Adapter, Sound Blaster AudioPCI, All-In-Wonder 128 PCI (and IRQ Holder for PCI Steering), while IRQ5 is FREE, since I disabled the Symbios Ultra# PCI SCSI Adapter (2nd occurance). BUT, I cannot move the SoundBlaster to IRQ5 since when I clear "Use automatic settings", the only choice is "Basic configuration 0000", which DOESN'T allowing changing ANYTHING (same goes for changing the Symbios or the All-In-Wonder). On my FIC503A, in the BIOS, I could "reserve" an IRQ for a Legacy device - this would "bump" a Windows device OFF that IRQ. BUT, the CUR-DLS BIOS has no such choices... :frown:

Thus, I'm getting closer, but, no cigar yet... Currently, I have the Maxtor Ultra ATA/100 in Slot 1 [was originally in Slot 3, then Slot 2], the ATI AIW 128 PCI in Slot 5 (the top 64-bit Slot) [was in Slot 1], and the Sound Blaster 16 PCI in Slot 7. My next "move" is to move the SB16 around and see what IRQs it acquires in the multiple OS's...

Is anyone else building a PVR???

 

[jandaman]

I need all the rails I can get ( specifically for 4 3.5" hard drives and perhaps 1 for a 5.25" drive
WTF is up with charging $30 for plastic?

 

[amgine]

Deal is coming down on rails, here's the latest.

"Our Thailand factory has smaller Box quantities (500 each), lead times are little longer and prices are FOB Thailand.

I may be able to talk the factory into a minimum buy of $100 which may give you the option of some lower quantities too"

Some other people have apparently been looking for these.
If I can get a retailer to pull this supply based the lowered cost, I will let you all know...still working on it.

 

[jandaman]

If you need a site to fund this and sell these rails, i'll offer my services
Just PM or email jandaman@shaw.ca if interested because I could use about 4 rails for HDs and 2-3 for 5.25" devices

 

[skywhr]

I just tried installing Visiontek Xtasy 64mb geforce 4 pci and it made the SCSI go bye bye. The rep @ GW said that some Videocards needed specific IRQ's and that the SCSI took up the same IRQ. So Im off to return this card to Compusa now. I tried everything.

Even reset the MVRAM? Same error everytime:

REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE OR INSERT BOOT MEDIA IN SELECTED BOOT DEVICE...

 

[ClearToLand]

skywhr:

Originally posted by: skywhr
I just tried installing Visiontek Xtasy 64mb geforce 4 pci and it made the SCSI go bye bye. The rep @ GW said that some Videocards needed specific IRQ's and that the SCSI took up the same IRQ. So Im off to return this card to Compusa now. I tried everything.

Did you try:

• moving the Xtasy to each different PCI slot
• disabling the 2nd SCSI Controller (via Cntl-C at Boot) if you're not using it
• checking the Boot Sequence in the BIOS to see if your SCSI HD is still there

I was having TONs of problems with my Maxtor/Promise Ultra ATA100 card; I have all my multi-boot OSs on the IBM and have 2 Maxtor 45GB 7200RPM IDEs, each as Master on both channels of the Ultra, for data. I couldn't copy large files to or from the IDEs, and I couldn't run DeFrag on them - the 6400 would just hang. I had the Ultra in PCI #3, then moved it to PCI #2, since the supplied 80-wire cables just barely reach the HD cage. My SOP in all my machines is to install the Video Card in PCI #1 and the Sound Card in the last slot (PCI #7 here), but after moving the Ultra to PCI #1 and the Video to PCI #5 my "large file / Defrag" problems went away.

Now, I'm trying to get ATI's MMC 7.6 and DVD 7.6 to install. Unbelievably, this P3/933 with an empty 45GB 7200RPM ATA100 drive, was dropping frames trying to record 480x480 MPEG-2 with MMC 7.1. I found MMC 7.5 and recorded 7 hours of the Babylon 5 Special yesterday without a hiccup (and without changing ANYTHING else except the MMC version). I originally didn't know if it was the on-board video giving me grief, but, it looks like it wasn't. Now, if I can get the install of DVD 7.6 to stop BSOD'ing, I might get somewhere.

BTW, do you know of any other places that discuss the 6400??? This thread is pretty dead, except for the "rail purchase" guys, and I can't find anything current going on via Google. What'd everybody else do - sell 'em on eBay???

 

[Kostya17]

ClearToLand,
Yeah, there's no much life left in "GW6400 FAQ-UUUU" :-(
I did try to install SiS PCI video card from CUSA (32 MB one), had the same "disappearing SCSI" problem, tried to fix it, gaveup and returned the card.

It looks like most of the GW6400's are used as they are supposed to be--network servers with SCSI hard drives and no additional hardware. It's damn stable in that POS configuration!

I tried to use it for video capture--no go. The best I could do was 320x240 RGB32. I tried 640x480 YUV (16-bit)--no go :-( How did you manage to do 480x480? That's not really standard video capture resolution (pretty standard SVCD though).

 

[ClearToLand]

Kostya17:

It looks like most of the GW6400's are used as they are supposed to be--network servers with SCSI hard drives and no additional hardware. It's damn stable in that POS configuration!

BUMMER! Guess that just leaves you, me and skywhr

I tried to use it for video capture--no go. The best I could do was 320x240 RGB32. I tried 640x480 YUV (16-bit)--no go :-( How did you manage to do 480x480? That's not really standard video capture resolution (pretty standard SVCD though).

The MMC 6.4 software that came on the ATI CD was pretty crappy (favored their format, but, the MMC 7.1 software currently on their site allows both MPEG-1 (ala VCD w/352x240@1150) and MPEG-2 (ala SVCD w/480x480@2300) captures, although setting the Motion Estimate above 20 on MPEG-2 was dropping frames like crazy in MMC 7.1 (captured MPEG-2 w/ME=100 yesterday with MMC 7.5!).

Check out PCPHOTOVIDEO. This guy seems to have put a LOT of time into the ATI hardware and software. And, he's answered TONs of questions on VCD and SVCD setup and recording HERE.

Then, check out the ATI Technology Forums here. Search on both "MMC 7.5" and "MMC 7.6" to get the complete answer on how to get your PVR running.

BTW, what video card did you settle on for your PVR?

 

[Kostya17]

ClearToLand,

thanx for the info! My quest for the perfect ViVo card is not completed yet :-( Currently I am tweaking ATI AIW Pro (8 MB version). The latest MMC from ATI available for this critter is 7.2; I will give it a try later this week.

So far the best image quality was from Leadtek TV2000 XP; however, I was able to run it in "preview" only--any attempt to save capture to disc resulted in winders error "failed to build preview graph". Isn't hardware fun?

 

[jandaman]

using my as it's intended purpose, server
Only problem is I have 5 hd's waiting for rails

 

[Windogg]

Solid Server

Nearly 3TB of data transfer in 7.29 million files across the NIC in that time in about 2.8 billion packets. Not too shabby for a home server.

Decked it out with 4 x 40GB HDDs and a Adaptec 2400A hardware RAID5 adapter w/ 128MB SDRAM. The pic was taken as I was ready to reboot after redoing the domain structure at home. Since then it's been up for about 110 days.

Windogg

 

[jandaman]

How'd you mount those extra hard drives?
I'll probably need 5 sets of rails and don't want to spend $150 on 10 pieces of plastic from Gateway.
I was thinking maybe of having to just get another case ( antec 1030 ) to handle all my devices

 

[Windogg]

I got 10 for my girlfriend's dad (actually 9 since I got one of them as a gift) and he only used them in RAID1 so he had extra drive rails he just passed on to me.

A few of them lined up

Then run great on Windows 2000, RedHat Linux 6.2, and FreeBSD 4.2. Real champs at an amazing price.

Windogg

 

[jandaman]

bump

 

[purpledemon]

i just added on an external usb2.0/firewire enclosure to my machine
put in a wd 30 gig drive and im using it as backup right now ..

goin to stick in a firewire card pretty soon

 

[jandaman]

bump
I may as well sell this POS gateway if I can't get rails
An antec sx1030 will do the job

 

[culan]

Can I upgrade the cpu to 1.2 Gig Tulatin.

 

[Kostya17]

Culan,

Tualatin will not work "out of the box"--I got 1.2G from Fry's, tried it, and returned back (thank god for their return policy!).

Some time later on I discovered this article on socket modifications to run tualatin on 440BX mobo. I'm kinda reluctant to drill holes on GW mobo, so I'm waiting for Celery 1.2G to drop below $50 (S&H+tax included). When this happens, I'll get it, cut the pins that need to be insulated, and try it. If it works--cool! If it doesn't...well...I can live with $50 paperweight on my table

Let us know if you have better idea.

 

[Perplexer]

Wow, good to see GW6400 users here

OK, I've got to be doing something wrong; I just got my hands on a second PIII-933, same voltage and stepping. So I decided to make this a dual processor box and install XP Pro. Unlike Win2K, XP automatically loads LSI Logic 53C1010 drivers during setup.

Problem is, although I can see the 9GB SCSI drive in the SCSI BIOS, XP Setup doesn't seem to see it. It only gives me the option to install XP to my 80GB IDE drive.

Any ideas?

 

[Chumster]

Got a question that I was hoping someone could help me with. I currently have my GW6400 on a KVM (was hoping to eventually move it to a closet..) and have a problem whenever the power goes out. If the KVM is switched to my main desktop, then the server just sits at POST until I switch over and press any key. It's not hung, nor does it report a "no keyboard" error. I've looked through the BIOS and the best hope I found was named "System Keyboard attached?" (or something similar). I switched it to NO, yet the problem persists.. Also verified that I had the latest BIOS.

Anyone know how I can get this thing to boot without a keyboard attached?

Chum

 

[Kostya17]

Chumster,

the easiest solution is to bury the keyboard in the closet along with your GW. C'mon, keyboards are so cheap these days I'll try to unplug the k/b from my cowbox tonight and see what happens.

 

[Kostya17]

Perplexer,

Looks like XP does not recognize the SCSI. Personally, I don't see a reason to upgrade to XP (I'm happy 2k user now), so I can only suggest 2 things:
* keep using Sux2K
* try to load drivers manually

 

[purpledemon]

Perplexer,

i have XP installed on my machine and have been running it for quite some time ...
it recognized all my drives an i installed it on my scsi drive ...

did you try booting from the cd ?
i dont think i followed any special steps to getit installed ....

 

[Perplexer]

Purpledemon:

After much troubleshooting, I've determined I've got a defective piece of hardware somewhere. Gotta call Gateway for a replacement. You're right: XP should install with no trickery...

Thanks...