Dustin

I have now purchased an sl4kl processor and it will not work on my computer. I have upgraded the bios to the latest version available on gateway site. It tells me that I am attempting to install a processor that exceeds 800mhz and is now stopping the process. I have also upgraded my power supply to a 145watt from a 90watt for extra power. Is there something that I am missing or am I out of the 184.00 dollars this processor cost me. Surprisingly these slot 1 one processors, while obsolete; still cost alot of dough. Please help asap.

Manny

Changing Gateway from PII to PIII. Is it ok to use 133 bus speed cpu or is it important to stay with 100 bus such as PIII 850/256/100?

All Gateway G6-400 series motherboards (with the possible exception of one G6-400 that uses a 400 MHz Celeron on a 66 MHz bus) require a bus speed of 100 MHz for proper operation. You can, in theory, overclock the chipset to 133 MHz, but you will probably experience problems with your video board and some PCI devices. Therefore, the fastest CPU your system will support is a 1,000 MHz Pentium III on a 100 MHz bus.

The CPU mounting post on the motherboard is slightly different for PII ver PIII? Any problems with that?

Various revisions of the Intel motherboards used in the Gateways were stocked with different retention mechanisms. The one in my particular computer used two non-retaining plastic posts, a cross bar, and two coarse threaded hexagonal screws. The cross bar would fit over the processor and the two posts. The screws were then used to attach the cross bar to said posts. This does a fairly good, if not at all elegant, job of retaining the processor. If your system uses a similar setup then you will most likely have no problem. However, if your system uses retaining posts then there is no guarantee an SECC 2 processor will fit into your system.

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Dustin D. Cook, A+

dcook32p@htcomp.net

If you want to upgrade your video, I suggest purchasing an ATI Radeon 7000 PCI from a local retailer with a leniant return policy. It’s one of the best PCI video boards currently on the market, but Intel motherboards with integrated video are notorious for their difficulties in accepting PCI video boards.

Also, visit Crucial.com to get this memory module that will put you up to the maximum of 256 MB.

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Dustin D. Cook, A+

dcook32p@htcomp.net

The default power supply unit (PSU) in your G6-400 will almost certainly provide enough power for your upgrades. I haven’t had to replace the one I’m using, but I did need to add a fan to the back of the unit. The 1,000 MHz processor was generating more heat than the default heatsink and PSU fan was providing. I recommend getting the retail version of the processor so it has an integrated heatsink and fan. Make the new fan blow inwards onto the processor. That air will pass over the processor and heat up, rising into the PSU’s fan. That air will then blow out of the computer and rise away from the lower fan. It works pretty good for me.

If, for some reason, your PSU can’t handle the load, you can purchase a more powerful, better cooling, and more efficient one from PC Power & Cooling. You may be tempted by the prices of generic units, but the PC Power & Cooling unit is a far more solid piece of equipment.

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Dustin D. Cook, A+
dcook32p@htcomp.net

I would like to upgrade my nephews GP-6 400. Serial Number 0012796867. I have update the AGP to ATI Radeon and 384 ram. I would like to change the Slot 1 CPU? I will update Bios from Gateway P14. Can Gateway Power Supply handle the upgrade. Thanks in advance. Appreciate your excellent exchange.

Richard Ferreira
raf49er@yahoo.com

Ser 12679867 Gateway g6-400, what could anyone really do with my serial number anyways?

Thanks
Manny

If you don’t mind my asking (and you feel comfortable posting it online), what is your serial number? If you’d rather not post it here, you can e-mail me (direct link in my profile). I’ll tell you the maximum everything that you can have and give some recommendations.

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Dustin D. Cook, A+
dcook32p@htcomp.net
Universal System Emulation Framework

If he has the 8 MB STB Velocity 128 then he has an AGP slot occupied by said card.

Pick a decent AGP video card and run with it. I personally recommend finding a used Hercules 3D Prophet FDX 8500 LE for about $20US on eBay. It’s a solid card with 32 MB of DDR SDRAM on-board.

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Dustin D. Cook, A+
dcook32p@htcomp.net
Universal System Emulation Framework

Some of the G6s had integrated video? That’s completely different from the machine I worked on way back when.

The selection of PCI video cards certainly isn’t as good as the selection of AGP cards, and it’s harder to find PCI cards at giveaway prices, but any fairly recent PCI video card will run DirectX, Direct Show, etc., and at better speed than your old integrated card and get you around that 8 meg barrier.

In the meantime, you can try going into your BIOS setup (F2 at boot if I remember right), and there’s probably an option there to set the size of your video memory. 8 megs may be your max, but it’s worth a look to see if you can do 16.