A few years ago at a Chicago 2600 meeting there was a Color Classic on the “take me” (garbage) table at the Neighborhood Boys and Girls Club. Naturally, 0v3rk1ll and I took it along with some other items and a PowerMacintosh. The Color Classic would boot to the dreaded Missing OS icon (question mark on a floppy disk). I assumed that it was a normal Color Classic, so I purchased an awesome new-old-stock IBM USB floppy drive off of eBay to hook up to a MacBook so I could put System 7.5.3 on floppies to reload the OS. I ended up trying out the Network Access Disc, with it in the floppy drive, the machine booted up with the Happy Mac (found OS) icon and made its way into Mac OS 9.1. I’m pretty sure the reason it was showing the Missing OS icon is because the PRAM battery is dead.

I checked the system profile, and it turns out that the Color Classic chassis actually has a PowerMacintosh 5400 in it with a 200 MHz PPC 603ev and 32 MB of physical memory. With a grin from ear to ear, I realized that one of the previous owners must have done a logic board swap on it. Score! Although OS 9.1 is “The Best Internet Operating System Ever”, it runs a little slow on this Mac so I’m considering making a backup image of the hard drive and then installing Mac OS 7.5.3 to speed things up – plus then it would be more believable that it’s a Color Classic.

Between working on this CC and digging up my collection of floppy disks (3½” AND 5¼”) I’m going through a blast from the past that I really needed. Maybe I’ll post more updates on old stuff soon. The screenshot is of the CC logged into my server with MacSSH.

0v3rk1ll’s new Eee PC looks funny when compared to my 17″ Gateway P-6831FX.

The screen height on the Eee PC is less than the diameter of a CD. It makes other laptops, especially mine, look like desktop replacements. I’m fine with having my full keyboard and NVIDIA 8800M GTS though :]

RC Car

We drove to our old junior high to drive 0v3rk1ll’s RC car around.

He disguised himself as Gizmo from the movie Gremlins.

0v3rk1ll’s RC car.

Click for the YouTube video of 0v3rk1ll’s RC Car.

Before Installing XP

Of course you should back up all your files and use the Gateway recovery software to create a backup of your Windows Vista drivers before doing anything else. Installing Windows XP will void your warranty, I know this is ridiculous, but I have even called Gateway’s “Customer Care” to confirm it, so think that over before you continue.

1. Download this guide as a .txt document.
2. Download the auto installation program for the laptop’s LAN drivers.
3. Download the Wireless networking drivers for the laptop from Gateway’s website.
4. Put these files on a USB Drive or burn them to a disc so you will be able to install them on the laptop and then have internet access.
5. Start or restart the computer.
6. At the Gateway boot-up screen press F10 to enter the BIOS setup, then use the arrow keys to navigate to the “Advanced” tab and set “SATA Controller Mode Option” to “Compatibility”. This disables AHCI mode, which isn’t needed if you don’t have a hard drive RAID set up, it also allows the Windows XP Setup to detect the SATA hard drive without needing to install any drivers for it.
7. Once you have set it to Compatibility press F10 to Save and Exit. The computer will reboot.

Install XP

1. Insert your Windows XP installation CD in the DVD tray and press F2 at the Gateway Boot-up screen to enter the boot menu, then choose to boot from the DVD drive.
2. Install Windows XP.
3. Once you are at the desktop you can fix the desktop resolution for now by right clicking on the desktop, opening “Properties“, going to the “Settings” tab, and setting the resolution to “1440 x 900 pixels“.

Install Network Drivers

1. Copy the files from Before Installing XP’s Step 4 to your desktop from whatever media type you stored them on.
2. Extract the files from PCIE_Install_5686(installshield 12_1.16)_0219.zip
3. Open the PCIE_Install_5686(installshield 12_1.16)_0219 directory and run Setup.exe to install the Realtek LAN Driver.
4. Run D00734-001-001.exe
5. Navigate to C:\cabs\D00734-001-001\XP\Drivers\ and run DPInst32.exe to install the Intel Wireless Driver

Install Intel Chipset Drivers

1. Download Intel Chipset Drivers.
2. Extract the files from infinst_autol.zip
3. Run Setup.exe
4. Reboot the laptop.

Install .NET Framework 3.5

1. Download Windows Installer 3.1
2. Run WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe
3. Download .NET Framework 3.5
4. Run dotNetFx35setup.exe

IDT/SigmaTel Audio Driver

1. Download the IDT/SigmaTel Audio Driver from Gateway.
2. Run D20253-001-001.exe
3. Navigate to C:\cabs\D20253-001-001\HDAQFE\xpsp2\us\ and run kb888111xpsp2.exe to install the High Definition Audio Driver Package – KB888111.
4. Download 92XXM4-10DM.INI and Sthda.ini
5. Move 92XXM4-10DM.INI and Sthda.ini to C:\cabs\D20253-001-001\WDM\WinXP\, replacing the existing files.
6. Open the Device Manager by clicking Start > Run (or by pressing WinLogo+R) and typing “devmgmt.msc” in the run box and clicking “OK”.
7. Under “Unknown Devices” right-click on “Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus” and select “Update Driver“.
8. In the Update Wizard select “No, not this time,” then choose to “install from a list or specific location“.
9. Include this location in the search: C:\cabs\D20253-001-001\WDM\WinXP\ and Windows will install the drivers.

Modem Driver

1. Download the Modem Driver from Gateway.
2. Run D20185-002-001.exe
3. Navigate to C:\Cabs\D20185-002-001\ and run Setup.exe

Synaptics Device Drivers

1. Download the Synaptics Device Drivers for the Synaptics TouchPad. Make sure it’s the Windows XP one.
2. Run Synaptics_Driver_v10_1_8_XP32.exe
3. Double-click the Synaptics Pointing Device icon in the System Tray (lower right corner of screen) to configure it.

The right side of your TouchPad should scroll properly now.

NVIDIA Display Driver

At this time the NVIDIA website does not have drivers for the GeForce 8800M series, instead it tells you to check the laptop manufacturer’s website. Gateway doesn’t have these drivers on their website for XP users, so download a forceware driver and use a modified INF file.

1. Download the NVIDIA ForceWare 167.58 driver for Windows XP and the Modded INF file. The Modded INF file is to the right of the driver.
2. Run 16758.exe
3. Move nv4dispd.inf, the Modded INF file, into 171.16\167.58\. “Yes,” you would like to replace the existing one with this one.
4. Run Setup.exe
5. Reboot the laptop.

Windows Updates

Do not install “A-FOUR TECH CO.,LTD. – Input Devices – Compatible USB Port Mouse,” it is an optional hardware update and gives you a BSOD. If you accidentally do install it then your computer will restart itself, press F8 at boot for Windows boot options and then choose to boot with the last known good configuration.

Bluetooth Drivers

Download and install the latest Broadcom Bluetooth Drivers.

The installer will place a “My Bluetooth Places” icon on the desktop, I made a registry file that will delete it. Download the registry file, run it, and then refresh your desktop by clicking on it and pressing the F5 key.

Wallpapers

Wallpapers are available here: gateway_p-6831fx_wallpapers.zip

Service Pack 3

Upgrading to SP3 from SP2 may break the drivers, I have successfuly got audio working with these steps on both a SP2 and SP3 slipstream installs. SP3 users can skip the step involving the KB888111 patch.

Here they are, good for a laugh and a refined perspective on how fast the computer industry is moving.

Click Images for Full Size

1991 Computer Ad Page 1

1991 Computer Ad Page 2

1991 Computer Ad Page 3

1991 Computer Ad Page 4

1991 Computer Ad Page 5

I didn’t take pictures of the scrolling LED gift card before I transformed it into a belt clip, but here’s a set of pictures I found on Flickr of it new and then being taken apart. I thought it would make a great belt buckle so I opened it up to see what I could do with it. You may want to pop out the plastic piece that pressed the buttons so they don’t get accidentally bumped, I did this so you would have to be trying to press the buttons to actually press them. It fits the plastic shell nicely so I put it back together and just covered the front with black electrical tape. Then I set it upside-down on a cardboard box and cut off the excess electrical tape along the edges with an x-acto knife. I used a piece of cloth strap material from a small bag and folded it into a loop that would fit snugly around my belt, then I stapled it like that and melted the cut edges of the plastic-like-fabric with a lighter so it wouldn’t unravel where it was cut. I didn’t have any way to attach the belt loop to the gift card other than by taping it with thick electrical tape, so I did that. You could wrap it through the inside and screw the plastic shell shut so it would pinch the strap in place, but then the strap would be in the way of the buttons on the back of the gift card.

I like it with just “TINMAN” as the message, but I got at least three comments on it in an hour while shopping in Chicago with it displaying “Stop staring at my crotch” :]

Click below for a YouTube video of it in action: