Gateway 6400 FAQ-UUUUUUUU

[NucEm]

I'm still here but I haven't got back to the 6400 yet, other than to check the SCSI configuration. The configuration was fine but just by checking it things seemed to improve a little. (The system seemed more responsive.)

 

[purpledemon]

Originally posted by: ClearToLand

Originally posted by: purpledemon
Hey ClearToLand ...

i dont know much about scsi either ... but i did a search on google and came up with following link ....
looks like a lot of good info

scsi faq

GOOD SCSI FAQ! But now they're introducing NEW terms (SPI, SPI-2, SPI-3, EPI) and making my head spin!

So, SCSI-3 is the WHOLE category, of which Ultra160 is one flavor. But I still don't see the differences between 68-pin Ultra160 and 68-pin Ultra160 LVD and 68-pin Ultra160 LVD SE - more reading... :disgust:

So, what about all the other EASY questions regarding SLow Explorer, DOS lockups, CPU Temps, the LSI dropping back to No-Sync by itself?????????????

And NucEm - yo! you still there?

See if your 6400 has the same "quirks" as mine, especially with the CPU Temps.

TIA to all...

I have a Geforce 2 mx in mine and I'm also running linux on it .... so I havent really seen the "+" explorer issue ... but I do remember someone talkin about general subpar performance with that in the original 6400 thread

with regard to the LSI dropping back to Non-sync ... do you have the BIOS reset problem ? is your battery dead ? there was some talk in this thread about the batteries being dead in a bunch of 6400's and the BIOS resetting itself ... i have that issue too ...
not sure if thats related to what your seeing

 

[ClearToLand]

I have a Geforce 2 mx in mine and I'm also running linux on it .... so I havent really seen the "+" explorer issue ... but I do remember someone talkin about general subpar performance with that in the original 6400 thread

with regard to the LSI dropping back to Non-sync ... do you have the BIOS reset problem ? is your battery dead ? there was some talk in this thread about the batteries being dead in a bunch of 6400's and the BIOS resetting itself ... i have that issue too ...
not sure if thats related to what your seeing[/quote]

No, I don't have the battery problem. I shut it off plenty of times and it doesn't lose anything. This has happened about twice in the ~2 since we all got them.

What flavor and version of linux are you running? What do you use it for?

I installed Red Hat 5.2 on an old 486 with the purpose of learning linux (I use unix at work as an apps programmer) and doing mods to my TiVo. I recently found that the TiVo linux partition isn't "standard" (geez...), but, someone already wrote a patch. Except the patch is for a specific 2.4.x kernel and 5.2 has a 2.1.x kernel - so I d/l'd the ISO images for RH 6, 7, 8 (took a few days) and am going to try 6 next...

 

[purpledemon]

im running gentoo linux on mine ....
i'm a complete linux newbie and was doing it just to learn more about it (primary reason)... and also try to make it my primary workstation for java development...

i havent done too much with it since i started messing around with gentoo on my sun sparc machine ...

i guess if i figure out a pressing need for my 6400 ...i'll put it to good use .... you have any ideas ?

 

[ClearToLand]

Originally posted by: purpledemon
i guess if i figure out a pressing need for my 6400 ...i'll put it to good use .... you have any ideas ?

Do you have a TiVo (or RePlay)? TMPGENC recognizes dual-processors...

 

[Pinkpig]

All this scsi stuff is making my head spin also hehe.....

but would older scsi HD"s work in the 6400?? like Ultra-SCSI Wide HD's(Seagate ST19171WC, SCA 80 Pin Ultra SCSI Hard Drive_. i was looking on the internet and some were pretty cheap. But im not sure if it would fit the 6400

anyone know??

thanks

 

[amgine]

I have a 22GB full size 68 pin scsi 2 drive that works great in my 6400's. I have 2, one at dual 933 and one at dual 1.0. They both run great. I only lose the bios settings if I pull the power cord. Both are running 32MB geforce 2 cards that get the job done. both have 1 ghz of ecc RAM and I have no problems....except...
rails...

How the heck did you get some for free?????
They used to charge 30 bucks a set.

 

[amgine]

I called the accessory store and they still wanted 30 bucks for a set of rails.

 

[Braid11]

Originally posted by: Pinkpig
All this scsi stuff is making my head spin also hehe.....

but would older scsi HD"s work in the 6400?? like Ultra-SCSI Wide HD's(Seagate ST19171WC, SCA 80 Pin Ultra SCSI Hard Drive_. i was looking on the internet and some were pretty cheap. But im not sure if it would fit the 6400



I run two scsi 2 seagate ST318436LW Barracuda 18XL 18 gig HDs off a Mylex extremeraid 1100 ultra 2 scsi to PCI raid controller. Works perfect.

Tom

 

[YoungFart]

My GW6400 started going into a "Standby" mode at will. Spent all weekend trying to fix it.
I did all the things I could think of to narrow it down to a driver, device, setting, PCI slot, memory, etc. It was working fine for about a year. Reinstalled Win2K several times (ACPI and non-ACPI), restored from a backup, .............
To make a long story short - it looks like if you disable USB (the one on the top) in Device Manager, it will invoke a Standby mode in Windows. The only way out of that "standby" is to reboot into a Safe mode and enable USB.

Can anybody try to duplicate it? I'm using Win2K Pro with a single PIII. My keyboard and mouse are PS2. I do not have any USB devices attached.

 

[NucEm]

My 6400 hangs quite frequently. I have no IDE hard drives but I do have 3 SCSI 160 drives installed. The unit has 2 cpu's (933's) and 1.4 gig of ECC RAM. It also has the ATI AIW PCI 32 card, SantaCruz sound card, USB 2.0 and runs Windows XP Pro. I have a 75 MHZ laptop that runs faster and more stable than this 6400. The bios and SCSI is configured correctly. The 6400 has a DVD drive and a CDRW. I suspect the motherboard. Any one have any thoughts?

 

[amgine]

I went to install my Small Business Server 2000 from my action Pack(Great Deal) and the darn cd drive stopped working right in the middle of the load. Thought it was the OS, but I can't get any bootable cd's to work either. Did we have a 3 year warantee on these suckers?

 

[Santa]

NucEm

I would try to switch the power supply to see if it is a problem with supplying enough power to your system with all that gear in there.

 

[idgaf13]

what BIOS chip would I order to replace the Gateway chip ?

I have heard that this board is similar to an Asus CUR-DLS is that correct ?
Can anybody help with specifics ?
Has this been done succesfully ?
I can find nothing ,but I am a novice in this area.

All help is greatly appreciatted.

 

[NucEm]

Thanks Santa. I've replaced the power supply with a 450 watt supply. I haven't seen any real change in performance yet. One of the CPU's seems to run a little hotter than the other. I wonder if perhaps its bad?

 

[cleek]

I am upgrading to a send CPU and need some fan/heatsink suggestions suggestions. Any recomendations?

 

[ClearToLand]

Originally posted by: amgine
Did we have a 3 year warantee on these suckers?

YEP!

3 Year Parts & Labor Limited Warranty with 1 Year Onsite Service, Limited Hardware Tech Support as long as you own your system. [subtracted: US$99]

is what I have printed...

 

[ClearToLand]

Originally posted by: idgaf13
what BIOS chip would I order to replace the Gateway chip ?

I have heard that this board is similar to an Asus CUR-DLS is that correct ? YES
Can anybody help with specifics ? E-Mail camara120
Has this been done succesfully ? Seems like it has...
I can find nothing ,but I am a novice in this area. Did you read through the OLD messages???

All help is greatly appreciatted. You're welcome!

Originally posted by: camara120

camara120,
that's really cool! I didn't think about such a simple trick! Let us know how it goes...

I just got a bios chip with the latest Asus BIOS from badflash.com and it works great! No more AMI Gateway BIOS! =)

I bet it would fix a lot of issues for some people out there too. I think it was only $20.

Let everyone know how it works out for you if you try it...

 

[ClearToLand]

Originally posted by: cleek
I am upgrading to a send CPU and need some fan/heatsink suggestions suggestions. Any recomendations?

The "stock" Gateway fan is nothing to write home about *and* with the "stock" Gateway BIOS, you're not going to be doing any OVERCLOCKING, so, just about ANY Pentium III Socket 370 fan should do.

Since there is MUCH more room for the second CPU, I picked up a Galaxy MONSTER Cooler (80mm, 2700RPM/29dBa, GC118 @ $5.99 from NexFan). Josh is a nice guy - ask him what he recommends...

 

[ClearToLand]

Originally posted by: NucEm
My 6400 hangs quite frequently. I have no IDE hard drives but I do have 3 SCSI 160 drives installed. The unit has 2 cpu's (933's) and 1.4 gig of ECC RAM. It also has the ATI AIW PCI 32 card, SantaCruz sound card, USB 2.0 and runs Windows XP Pro. I have a 75 MHZ laptop that runs faster and more stable than this 6400. The bios and SCSI is configured correctly. The 6400 has a DVD drive and a CDRW. I suspect the motherboard. Any one have any thoughts?

Originally posted by: Santa
NucEm

I would try to switch the power supply to see if it is a problem with supplying enough power to your system with all that gear in there.

I have 3 IDE hard drives, 1 SCSI hard drive (the IBM 9GB), 1 CPU (933), 512mb of ECC RAM, "had" an ATI AIW128 32MB PCI card in there, SB16 PCI sound card, 56K modem card, Maxtor/Promise ATA100 card, Plextor 12/10/32S, the "original" CD-ROM and multi-boot Windows 98SE, NT4 SP6a, 2000 Pro SP1, 2000 Server with no problems.

Here's an "off the wall" thought - did you load Windows XP Pro from the "original" CD or from a "copy"? I once had the "bright idea" to make a copy of my Windows NT4 Workstation CD so that I wouldn't damage the original. Heck if EZ CD Creator 4.0 Deluxe didn't HIDE from me the fact that it DID NOT create a perfect copy. After pulling out most of my hair, I found some "CD Compare" utilities and discovered a "few" errors. [No wonder no one else was reporting the errors I was having on DejaNews - I (EZCD!) created them myself!]

You also mentioned that the second CPU is running hotter than the first. Why not pull it out, create another Primary Partition (everyone has a copy of PartitionMagic, right?) and re-install XP Pro (or 2000 Pro, or 98SE - whatever you have an "original" CD for).

Another "thought" is MemTest-86 - grab the latest version (I have v3.0) and let it rip for 24 hours or more. I was getting constant Windows Explorer errors in NT4 SP6a on a previously VERY stable machine that I had to swap memory on (it had 2 64MB DIMMs, but the new case that I mounted the mb in didn't have "clearance" for one of the DIMMs, so I installed 4 "previously good" 32MB SIMMs. MemTest-86 found one of the SIMMs was bad. I removed 2 SIMMs and re-installed the "short" DIMM, re-ran MemTest-86, and now everything is "kewl" again. [Ain't this a FUN hobby???]

Let us (the 6400 Group) know what you've tried so far and where you're at now... I have a Toshiba 120 MHZ laptop (running Windows 98) and my 6400 DEFINITELY runs MULTIPLE times faster! If your 75 MHZ laptop is faster than your 6400, you need to drop back to the minimum and troubleshoot from there.

 

[ClearToLand]

Originally posted by: YoungFart
My GW6400 started going into a "Standby" mode at will. Spent all weekend trying to fix it.
I did all the things I could think of to narrow it down to a driver, device, setting, PCI slot, memory, etc. It was working fine for about a year. Reinstalled Win2K several times (ACPI and non-ACPI), restored from a backup, .............
To make a long story short - it looks like if you disable USB (the one on the top) in Device Manager, it will invoke a Standby mode in Windows. The only way out of that "standby" is to reboot into a Safe mode and enable USB.

Can anybody try to duplicate it? I'm using Win2K Pro with a single PIII. My keyboard and mouse are PS2. I do not have any USB devices attached.

I'm running Win2K Pro non-ACPI (multi-booting with 98SE, NT4 SP6a, Win2K Server) and just disabled "Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller" - nothing has "happened" in the last hour.

How long does it take to involuntarily invoke Standby mode?

Do I need to disable USB in the BIOS also? [It's currently enabled because I have a ZIP250 USB External].

My "favorite" idea right now is MemTest-86 - I got nailed by a bad SIMM - maybe one of your DIMMs failed...

I'll leave my 6400 up for 24 hours with "USB disabled" and see what happens...

Have you discovered anything new???

 

[cleek]

Originally posted by: ClearToLand

Originally posted by: cleek
I am upgrading to a send CPU and need some fan/heatsink suggestions suggestions. Any recomendations?

The "stock" Gateway fan is nothing to write home about *and* with the "stock" Gateway BIOS, you're not going to be doing any OVERCLOCKING, so, just about ANY Pentium III Socket 370 fan should do.

Since there is MUCH more room for the second CPU, I picked up a Galaxy MONSTER Cooler (80mm, 2700RPM/29dBa, GC118 @ $5.99 from NexFan). Josh is a nice guy - ask him what he recommends...

Thx CtL - I'll ping Josh

 

[Sonn]

Hi,
Just found this forum....I also have a 6400 and really like it! As I see here those dam rails are hard to find. I need some myself does anyone have any new info on getting some? I want to add >>Harddrive and another drive. Mine runs good....no problems so far

 

[NucEm]

Power supply change out made no difference. I'll try ClearToLand suggestions next. Thanks.

 

[LeeTJ]

Good news for all, the Win2k3 server now has the 6400 scsi drivers on the CD, no need for 3rd party drivers. WOOT.