From news@piglet.cc.uic.edu Fri Nov 1 11:05:43 1996 Received: from MIT.EDU (PACIFIC-CARRIER-ANNEX.MIT.EDU [18.69.0.28]) by bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU (8.7.6/2.3JIK) with SMTP id LAA02900; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 11:05:42 -0500 Received: from relay4.UU.NET by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA24062; Fri, 1 Nov 96 11:01:18 EST Received: from piglet.cc.uic.edu by relay4.UU.NET with ESMTP (peer crosschecked as: PIGLET.CC.UIC.EDU [128.248.100.54]) id QQbnyu17367; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 11:00:54 -0500 (EST) Received: (from news@localhost) by piglet.cc.uic.edu (8.7.5/8.7.5) id JAA26122; Fri, 1 Nov 1996 09:58:15 -0600 To: alt-answers@uunet.uu.net Path: usenet From: tbrann1@uic.edu (Timothy S. Brannan) Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ Part 2 of 3 Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 15:57:25 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago Lines: 680 Distribution: World Message-Id: <55d6mm$1so2@piglet.cc.uic.edu> Nntp-Posting-Host: d027.ed.uic.edu X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 From: tbrann1@uic.edu (Timothy S. Brannan) Followup-To: tbrann1@uic.edu (Timothy S. Brannan) Newsgroups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ Part 2 of 3 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Summary: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ Keywords: FAQ Archive-name: pc-hardware-faq/gateway2000/part2 Last-modified: November 1, 1996 Last-Posted: October 1, 1996 Next-Posting: December 1, 1996 Posting-Frequency: the first of every month ========================================================================= alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Section 2: Hardware Information 2.1) General Hardware Questions _ 2.1.1) Why can't I use a modem at COM4:? _ 2.1.2) How do I get into the CMOS setup? _ 2.1.3) Why does my P5-60/P5-66/PCI486 machine lock up? (UART fi _ 2.1.4) How can I get my WD 540 hard drive to work correctly? _ 2.1.5) Why do I have a long delay when exiting Windows? _ 2.1.6) How do I get my Bernoulli to work on the parallel port ( _ 2.1.7) My system doesn't recognize more than 16M of RAM _ 2.1.8) Why is there a 20-second delay during booting? _ 2.1.9) How can I upgrade my 486 to a Pentium? _ 2.1.9.1) I bought my 486 when it was advertised as Pentium ready. _ 2.1.9.2) How can I upgrade my Pentium to a Pentium Pro? 2.2) CD-ROM Questions _ 2.2.1) Why does my system "pause" when playing CDs? _ 2.2.2) How do I get Windows 95 to access all drives on the Sany _ 2.2.2.1) Is there support for the Sanyo 3-CD CD-ROM in Windows NT _ 2.2.3) My CD-ROM light blinks every few seconds under Windows 9 _ 2.2.4) Why does the Mitsumi FX-400 CD-ROM make grinding noises? _ 2.2.4.1) Where can I get Mitsumi CD-ROM drivers? _ 2.2.5) What can I do about the Wearnes CD-ROM pauses? _ 2.2.5.1) What other information is there about the Wearnes CD-ROM _ 2.2.6) Will my NEC 260 CD-ROM run with Windows NT? _ 2.2.7) Other CD Rom questions 2.3) Keyboard and Mice Questions _ 2.3.1) How can I disable the programmibility of the Anykey keyb _ 2.3.2) My Anykey keyboard produces incorrect characters. How ca 2.4) Modem Questions _ 2.4.1) Why can't I connect with my (older) Telepath modem? _ 2.4.2) Why won't the 28.8 Telepath work with Delrina's Commsuit _ 2.4.3) Why does my 28.8 Telepath insist on always answering? _ 2.4.9) Where can I learn more about modems and their problems? 2.5) Monitor and Video Questions _ 2.5.1) What about the missing 3 pixels on the left of my screen _ 2.5.2) What is the bright line on the left of my monitor? What _ 2.5.3) Who makes the CrystalScan monitors? _ 2.5.4) What are the custom settings for the CS1572FS monitor? _ 2.5.5) Where can I get the latest drivers for the ATI Video car _ 2.5.6) Who makes the Vivitron monitors? _ 2.5.6.1) What are the specs for the SONY Vivitron monitor made by _ 2.5.6.2) What's the right way to set up a Vivitron 21 under Windo _ 2.5.7) Where can I get drivers for the Diamond Viper cards? _ 2.5.7.1) Can I use the regular Matrox drivers with Gateway's Matr _ 2.5.7.2) Where can I get Matrox BIOS and driver updates? _ 2.5.8) Why do I have video problems with my tower system and no _ 2.5.9) What are those horizontal black lines on my monitor? _ 2.5.9.9) Are there any monitor repair FAQs? 2.6) Soundcard and Speaker Questions _ 2.6.1) Why won't my SoundBlaster card work? _ 2.6.2) Why won't my Ensoniq card work with DOS games? _ 2.6.8) Why do my Altec Lansing 450 speakers hiss so much? Section 2: Hardware Questions 2.1) General Hardware Questions 2.1.1) Why can't I use a modem at COM4:? Most video boards, including the ATI, use the address space for COM4:. You can't get around it, sorry. 2.1.2) How do I get into the CMOS Setup? After the system is booted to DOS, typing CTRL-ALT-ESC will bring up the CMOS screens. On Anigma motherboards (some mini-desktops) try CTRL-ALT-S. What you see on the screens varies with the motherboard you have but most of the general settings are on the first page. You can use the "page up" and "page down" keys to move between CMOS pages. (Thanks to Albert Crosby!) One common problem with the CMOS setup is that if you are using the "highscan" option to emm386, you will not be able to enter the CMOS setup (you will lock up the system). If this happens, you should boot clean (i.e. hit F5 after you see the "starting MS-DOS" prompt). Then you can enter the CMOS setup normally. If you have a newer Phoenix or Microfirmware BIOS then pressing F2 will bring up the CMOS setup screens, but only prior to booting into the operating system. On Microfirmware BIOS, pressing F3 will also bring up extra information. 2.1.3) Why does my P5-60/P5-66/PCI486 machine lock up? (UART fix) Several people have reported this condition when using communications programs on their P5-60 or P5-66 machines (I have also received reports that this has happened on PCI bus 486 machines). This problem is caused by a defective chip provided by Intel on their motherboards. There is a software "fix" that works with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (available from Microsoft and Gateway 2000 on their BBS), but this works only with WfWG. Bob Nick (bnick@HiWAAY.NET) has written a program (uart.com) which will prevent the machine from locking up under DOS, Windows, and OS/2, but it must be run between each communications session to be effective. This program is available from the Gateway BBS as uartfix.exe or by FTP on ftp.sei.cmu.edu along with an accompanying text file. Intel and SMC have admitted the problem exists and that it is generic to many P5 machines. Recent machines (after August, 1994) probably will not exhibit the problem. 2.1.4) How can I get my WD 540 hard drive to work correctly? (This section mainly refers to people who have older (i.e., 486) systems with a BIOS that does not allow for disks with more than 1023 cylinders. If you have a later system (i.e. Pentium) you probably want to look into the section on setting up 32-bit disk access.) Many people with the new WD 540 Meg hard drives are experiencing problems when configuring their drives. The basic problem is that almost all pre-1994 BIOSs do not allow drives with a number of cylinders >= 1024. If you use the auto configure BIOS settings for a WD 540 drive, it will autoconfigure to a value > 1023 cylinders, which will cause format and other DOS programs to fail. The "solution" is to manually configure your drive as follows: Cyl = 1023 Hd = 16 Sec = 63 You will not be able to use the entire 540 meg capacity of your drive, but it will be usable under DOS and Windows. Note that OS/2 versions before Warp probably ARE affected by this problem as well. Also, you probably won't run into this problem if your drive is preformatted and pre-configured (i.e., you don't need to run fdisk or format on the drive). You will, however, not be able to have 32bit disk and file access enabled in Windows if your drive is > 1023 Cylinders. Thanks to Richard Leonetti of Micro Firmware for pointing out that the problematic limitation is in the older BIOSs, not DOS itself! 2.1.5) Why do I have a long delay when exiting Windows? This problem has been experienced by people with newer Gateway systems that have the PS/2 style mouse connectors (i.e. the round, plug in type rather than the type that looks like a small RS-232 connector). If you experience this problem, you can put this line into your SYSTEM.INI file in the [386enh] section: InitPS2MouseAtExit=False and you will see significantly faster exit time. 2.1.6) How do I get my Bernoulli to work on the parallel port (P90 Tower)? This applies to the Gateway P90 Tower and the Bernoulli 90 -- it may give clues to other systems. Go into CMOS at bootup and change the parallel address to 378 under peripherals -- then go into System and change STARTUP CPU SPEED to Low. After you are finished return both settings to the original. (This hint is from Marilyn Shea - Thanks!) 2.1.7) My system doesn't recognize more than 16M of RAM. This is probably the most frequently asked question in the newsgroup! In order to use more than 16M of RAM, you need to disable shadowing in the BIOS. Go into your CMOS setup and disable the BIOS shadowing option. When you reboot, your system should see all the RAM. Note that disabling the shadow RAM may slow down your system somewhat. You may also notice that the initial "beep" at startup sounds funny. This is normal when shadowing is disabled. 2.1.8) Why is there a 20-second delay during booting? This is caused by a conflict between your hard drive and CD-ROM drive. Check the jumpers on your CD-ROM drive - your CD-ROM drive should be configured in CS (cable select) mode, rather than Master. Changing the jumper to CS should get rid of the delay. A couple other things to try as well: Reboot the computer and press F1 to enter setup. 1.Highlight Hard Disk C (the model number should be in the box). Choose it and see if the delay options for bootup are there. It may be under "Boot Options", then "Hard Disk Pre-delay". If so, set to 5 seconds. 2.Go to boot options. Hit enter and you can now set parameters for bootup of the machine. Make sure that boot options are set to Turbo. (Thanks to Ted Northrop and Bob Mitchell!) 2.1.9) How can I upgrade my 486 to a Pentium? I think this should quallify as the second most asked question in the newsgroup. Make sure you know which motherboard you have and which Pentium upgrade, or motherboard replacement will be needed. Gateway2000 only supports the Intel Overdrive chips for their computers. These are the only ones they have tested. To get more information on the Intel Pentium Overdrives, see Intel's page, http://www.intel.com. There are 5x86 CPUs out there that provide Pentium power for 486 users. Check out these companies, _AMD: http://www.amd.com/html/products/pcd/5x86/5x86.html, _Cyrix: http://www.cyrix.com/process/prodinfo/5x86/5x-tb.htm, _Evergreen: http://www.evertech.com, _Gainbery: http://www.gainbery.com/cpumax.htm, and the _Kingston Turbo Chip: http://www.kingston.com/prod/procesor/tc133wpa.htm. Different Gateway users have also worked with this problem and have shared their results on the net. _John Navas has an information page for 5v motherboard users upgrading to a 5x86. _An article in PCWeek about two types of Cyrix 5x86s. _There are files and drivers that support the Cyrix 5x86. Courtesy of Peter Moss. _Other places to get the Cyrix driver files. _Cyrix 5x86 drivers for DOS. _Cyrix 5x86 drivers for Windows. _My Benchmarks after my Evergreen 586 upgrade. _To see some other benchmarks of 5x86 style chips click here, 486bench.txt. _Ben Myers' FAQ for upgrading 486 Gateways. 2.1.9.1) I bought my 486 when it was advertised as Pentium ready. What does/did that mean? This is also an issue with quite a few Gateway owners. I am currently investigating an answer for this one. 2.1.9.2) How can I upgrade my Pentium to a Pentium Pro? In a word or two, you can't. Niether Gateway nor Intel has ever made this claim. But don't let that stop you. Now you can upgrade your Pentium to a 6x86. This is similar to the above procedures for 486 owners, save I know less about it. Currnetly the only 6x86 on the market is by Cyrix, http://www.cyrix.com. _Gandalf's upgrading your Pentium to a 6x86 page, http://www.together.net/~gandalf/index.htm. _A report on the Cyrix 6x86 chip from PC Magazine. Will your next computer say "Cyrix Inside"? Thanks to Cyrix Guru Fuchi. Keep in mind that Gateway does support any other CPU than Intel. Cyrix, in fact, is now in direct compitition with Gateway for the home PC market. If this is something you decide on doing, you could find yourself without any tech support from Gateway. 2.2) CD-ROM Questions 2.2.1) Why does my system "pause"when playing CDs? Some people have noticed that when they are playing CD's there system will pause every time the HD light blinks. This is usually found on P5-90 systems with the NEC IDE CD-ROM drives. The answer is: The NEC is connected to the IDE interface and this will cause the drive light to blink. If you are doing any hard drive accesses or reads at the same time as the NEC is being accessed, this can cause the "jumps." What you can do to check this is to make sure the CD drive and the hard drive are on separate interfaces. With your system, the hard drives should be connected to the PCI IDE interface which is the farthest toward the back of the system. The CD drive should be on the ISA IDE interface which is just behind the floppy drive interface on the motherboard. Also, some people have noted that the AudioStation CD audio player that comes with the Ensoniq sound card can cause these kinds of system problems -- you can try the CD audio player from the Corel CD-ROM sampler or get one of the shareware players from one of the many anonymous FTP sites and try it. (Thanks to Seth Tisue for this additional note!) 2.2.2) How do I get Windows 95 to access all drives on the Sanyo 3-CD CD-ROM? From Lori Nagel, Gateway 2000 tech support: Here's the steps you need to get access to all three drives with the 3-disk changer under Windows 95: 1.Right click on the MY COMPUTER icon. Then on PROPERTIES. 2.Click on the DEVICE MANAGER tab. 3.Double-click on HARD DISK CONTROLLERS. 4.Then double-click on the SECOND listing for "Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller." 5.Uncheck Original Configuration (current). 6.Click OK until it closes and then restart Win 95. You should now be able to use all three of the drives. The Sanyo 3-CD Changer driver for Windows95 can be found on Frank's Driver Page, http://windows.rust.net/sanyo.zip. 2.2.2.1) Is there support for the Sanyo 3-CD CD-ROM in Windows NT? Using atapi.sys, you can use it as a single drive. Possibly NT 4.0 will support the drive, but it's not known for certain now. 2.2.3) My CD-ROM light blinks every few seconds under Windows 95 - Why? This is due to the Windows 95 automatic CD-ROM detection. This allows you to put in a CD and Windows 95 will automatically mount it (if it is a data CD) or start the music player (if it is an audio CD). If the blinking annoys you (or causes your system to pause or stutter) you can turn it off by opening the System control panel. Open the Device Manager tab and select your CD-ROM device. Click Properties and under the Settings tab turn off Auto insert notification. That will take care of it! 2.2.4) Why does the Mitsumi FX-400 CD-ROM make grinding noises? There have been reports of this drive making grinding noises while accessing CDs. Some users have also reported that several key presses were needed to eject the disks and that they sometimes came out spinning. The fix is to contact Gateway and ask for a replacement model FX-400D. There have been several postings that this replacement drive does not have these problems. (Thanks to Alan Briggs!) 2.2.4.1) Where can I get Mitsumi CD-ROM drivers? http://www.eciusa.com/support.html has drivers for Mitsumi CD-ROMs, a FAQ, jumper settings, tech support (via a form) and guidance on determining what driver you need. (Thanks to Ken Salerno!) Here are some other sites, _Mitsumi's new official site, http://www.mitsumi.com/graphics/home.htm. _Mitsumi's old official site, ECI,http://www.eciusa.com. _David Elfstrom excellent site on Mitsumi information, http://qlink.queensu.ca/%7e3dre/mitsumi.html. _The OS/2 fix at ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/gateway2000/Mitsumi/MITFIX.EXE. _and a Windows NT 3.x fix, ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/gateway2000/Mitsumi/MITSU.EXE. 2.2.5) What can I do about the Wearnes CD-ROM pauses? Many have reported irritating pauses with this CD-ROM. There have been three models vended by Gateway, AAWW, ABWW, and ACWW. The last one will show a great deal of improvement but will not eliminate the problem for everybody. Call tech support at Gateway and get a replacement and be sure to specify the ACWW. There is no ADWW -- that's just a rumor at this time, per Lori Nagel of Gateway. The whole part number for the ACWW is CDRIDE011ACWW. 2.2.5.1) What other information is there about the Wearnes CD-ROM? The Wearnes CD-ROM does not seem have to have a net presence, but rumor has it that the Philips drivers at http://www.philips.com/su/pcaddon/cdrom might work for some drives. Tere is some other information on the Wearnes drive at http://mars.asiabiz.com.sg/wtk/ Thanks to Mehul Patel. This is Gateway2000's official stance on the drive. 2.2.6) Will my NEC 260 CD-ROM run with Windows NT? The 260 is not compatible; the 260R is. The 260, which was sold by Gateway for a while, ended up not compliant with the emerging ATAPI 1.2 standard. For a while, Gateway replaced the 260s with 260Rs for those customers using Windows NT. You can install NT from an unsupported CD (use winnt.exe from the install disk, type winnt /? for the list of options). Or you can install NT from your hard drive (see the NT installation documentation for details). (Thanks to Walter Arnold and Edmond Underwood!) 2.2.7) Other CD ROM questions Here are the drivers for the Hitachi and Sony CD-ROMs. _Hitachi Download, http://www.hitachi.com/Products/Comprod/Cdrom/download.html. _Hitachi Data Systems, http://www.hdshq.com/. _Sony's web page, http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/ccpg/drivers.html. This is the CD-ROM I have and I love it. The documentation is lacking though. 2.3) Keyboard and Mice Questions 2.3.1) How can I disable the programmability of the Anykey keyboard? Sometimes (especially if you have young children who like to play with your computer) you can get the Anykey keyboard programmed into a strange state. While you can reset the keyboard to the default configuration by pressing the Control and Alt keys and the pressing Suspend Macro, a better way to "fix" the problem is by disabling the program feature. You can do this by using the command ANYKEY T ANYKEY in your autoexec.bat, adding the path if needed. (Thanks to Dave Grabowski for this information!) 2.3.2) My Anykey keyboard produces incorrect characters. How can I fix it? It may have been accidentally remapped. First try the key combination: [Ctrl-Alt-SuspndMacro]. If that doesn't work, try this, which will destroy all macros you have stored: [Remap] - [Ctrl] - [Ctrl] - [Alt] - [Alt] - [Remap] then, as before, [Ctrl-Alt-SuspndMacro]. Note: on newer models, it may be [Ctrl-Remap] in the above sequence instead of just [Remap]. 2.4) Modem Questions 2.4.1) Why can't I connect with my (older) Telepath modem? There have been many reported problems with the older Telepath modems shipped with Gateway 2000 systems. So many, in fact, that Gateway is now shipping modems made by US Robotics which are much better than the old ones. These modems are still called Telepath (the new ones are model 550), so you have to check the exact model numbers to see if your model is a problem one. In general, the older Telepath modems have problems in connecting. Some people have few problems, while other people have lots. The problem doesn't have an easy fix, but you can often connect by fiddling with the modem init strings. One set of strings that has been successful in connecting to many systems is this: AT&FW1&C1&D2S7=60S11=55S95=3 (This string was provided by Tom Grelinger.) If this doesn't work, turn off compression using AT%C0 and if the connection still fails, turn off both error correction and compression using AT&Q6. If the modems still fail to connect, try reducing the speed of the connection by setting the N code to 0 (ATN0) and setting S37 to one of the following values: Speed S37 12000 10 9600 9 7200 12 4800 8 2400 6 1200 5 300 3 Obviously, you want to start at the highest speed and work down until you find a value that allows you to connect. If you are forced to connect at slower speeds, this indicates that you may have a noisy phone line. You may want to contact your local telephone company to have them check your line. One good hint to try when using Crosstalk for Windows (the software shipped with the modems from Gateway 2000) is to set the box to show modem commands, and also set the S95 value to 44 on the modem (ATS95=44). This will display the DCE speed (the actual speed the modem connected at), the protocol (either LAPM or alt), compression (v.42bis or MNP5) and the DTE speed (speed between the modem and computer). Gateway also recommends that you check the voltage between your neutral and ground wires on the outlet you plug the system into. Apparently the older Telepath modems need a very good ground to work correctly. (If anyone has more ideas, I'll include them in the FAQ - editor) 2.4.2) Why won't the 28.8 Telepath work with Delrina's Commsuite? The 28.8 Telepath is an OEM version of the US Robotics Sportster and as such uses the TI chipset. Delrina's Commsuite supports only with the Rockwell chipset. Also, the 28.8 Telepath uses fax class 2.0 (different from just "2") and this is also not supported by WinFax 7.0. Talkworks will not work reliably with the Telepath, although there is now a patch at http://www.delrina.com/index.htm for modems manufactured by US Robotics (USR). 2.4.3) Why does my 28.8 Telepath insist on picking up the phone? Some of the earlier ones wouldn't accept an S0=0 command (two zeroes there). The workaround is to type these two lines to the modem: ATS0=255 then [Enter] (that's a zero after the "s") AT&W then [Enter] The first line tells the modem to answer on the 255th ring, the second to write the new setting to non-volatile RAM (NVRAM). 2.4.9) Where can I learn more about modems and their problems? Modem information about Gateway modems in Mike Lewis' most helpful Telepath-IIv and Windows 95 FAQ. General modem information in John Navas' excellent 28800 Modem FAQ. 2.5) Monitor and Video Questions 2.5.1) What about the missing 3 pixels on the left of my screen? (This is the Georgh Mah memorial question) Several people have reported that with certain versions of the ATI Graphics Ultra Pro video board they are experiencing a condition where 3 pixels are missing from the left side of their screen. The conditions appear to be: ATI GUP boards with 1MB of video memory and a certain BIOS Windows 640x480 video mode with 65K colors. Any applications run at full screen will be missing the three pixels from the left side of the screen. If you have this configuration and experience this problem, you can request a fix for your ATI board at no cost (regardless of the age of your system) through Gateway. The best bet is to send an e-mail message to gwjohn@gw2kbbs.com with the request - he is handling most of these reports on the Internet. ATI has admitted this condition exists on versions of their GUP board, and is providing support through Gateway 2000. 2.5.2) What is the bright line on the left of my monitor? What are other common monitor problems? This is a common problem reported with ATI boards and many different monitors. It usually shows up as a bright line or band running along the left side of the monitor -- if you have a light or white background it is most visible. This problem is often caused by the monitor overscanning on the left side of the screen. The fix is to remove the overscanning. First you should use your normal monitor controls to try to center the image on the screen as best as you can. This will often help some, but not completely remove the problem. Next, you should use the ATI setup programs to center the board's idea of the screen. To do this, exit to DOS and cd to your ATI driver directory. Now run install and select Set Power-up configuration. Select your monitor type and the resolution you normally run at. Now you should be in the monitor adjustment mode, and should notice that the screen is (apparently) shifted way to the left. Use the controls to center the screen, and save the settings. This should fix the problem. Other people have stated that the video extension cable provided with the Gateway tower systems have caused this problem. You can test this by running the monitor with just the short cable provided with the monitor. If the bright line goes away, you've found the problem. You can either get a new cable from Gateway, or just run the system on the shorter one if it reaches. There are also reports that problems with wavy displays can be caused by the power supply of the computer. In this case, the user had replaced everything in the system without correcting the problem, and replacing the power supply fixed it. One way to isolate this would be to move the monitor away from the system as far as the video cable will allow and see if the problem goes away or changes. You can also try to put some shielding between the system and monitor to see if the problem is reduced. 2.5.3) Who makes the CrystalScan monitors? Gateway gets the CrystalScan monitors from Samsung. Gateway did get them from Mag Innovison. Look on the back for the letters "SAM" in the part number. The CrystalScan 1572 DG model, however, is made by GoldStar and has digital controls. Some of the larger (i.e., 17") CrystalScan monitors now have tubes made by Sony. Thanks to Rich Rauch! 2.54) What are the custom settings for the CS1572FS monitor? If you want to adjust the screen position and size, you can use the following settings in the ATI setup program: _640x480.......72 Hz _800x600.......72 Hz _1024x768......60 Hz _1280x1024.....87 Hz 2.5.5) Where can I get the latest drivers for the ATI video cards? http://www.atitech.ca/drivers/drivers.html ftp://ftp.atitech.ca/pub/support/ _The very best (and most official) location for ATI drivers is ATI itself. ATI will send you floppies, but you can call their bulletin board system for drivers also. Numbers for ATI are as follows: _BBS ................... 905-764-9404 _Fax ................... 905-882-2620 _Sales ................. 905-882-2600 _Tech Support .......... 905-882-2626 _Compuserve............. 74740.667@compuserve.com 2.5.6) Who makes Vivitron monitors? MAG Innovision and Sony. MAGs are made in Taiwan by MAG Innovision (of CrystalScan fame) using Sony Trinitron tubes Sonys are assembled by Sony and tested by Sony and the back panel says "Made by Sony" . You should also find a back-panel plate with something like "Model CPD - xxxxxx", in Sony tradition. Both the MAG and Sony products use a Trinitron tube, which has horizontal curvature -- but no vertical curvature. And the damper wires are visible with some backgrounds (see 2.5.9, below). (Thanks to John Lewis and Martin Basil for making this clear!) 2.5.6.1) What are the specs for the SONY Vivitron monitor made by SONY? From the SONY Vivitron 1776 CPD-17F13 user's guide: CRT - 17-inch diagonal (16 inches visual), 0.25mm aperture grille pitch, 90 deg deflection Resolution - 1280 dots max horizontal; 1024 lines max vertical Display colors - Unlimited Scanning frequency - Horizontal 31.5 to 64 KHz; Vertical 50 to 120 Hz. Display area - 328 x 242 mm (w/h) typical Standard picture size - Approx 300 x 225 mm (w/h) Power input - 100 to 120 VAC, 50/60 Hz 1.8 A; 220 to 240 VAC, 50-60 Hz 1 A Dimensions - Approx 406 x 426.5 x 453 mm (w/h/d) Weight - Approx 19 Kg [about 42 pounds] Certifications - UL, CSA, DHHS, TUV, FCC Class B, BZT, MPR-II, VCCI Power Management - Meets Energy Star requirements. (Thanks to Bev =^.^= Parks!) 2.5.6.2) What's the right way to set up a Vivitron 21 under Windows 95? The Vivitron 21, under Windows 95, should be set up as a Mitsubishi DiamondScan Pro 21. So, under your Display, and Settings, click on Change Display Type, and then on Change under the monitor settings. Click on Show all devices and then choose Mitsubishi on the left, and DiamondScan Pro 21 on the right. (Thanks to Lori Nagel of Gateway 2000.) 2.5.7) Where can I get drivers for the Diamond Viper card? ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/display/viper/ _Generally, the best place to get the Diamond drivers is directly from Diamond itself. Numbers for them are: _Diamond ................... BBS 2400/14400 baud ... 408-325-7080 _Diamond ................... BBS 9600/28800 baud ... 408-325-7175 _Diamond ................... Main number ........... 408-325-7000 _Diamond ................... Tech Support .......... 408-325-7100 _E-mail: diamondts@aol.com or 75300.3673@compuserve.com Also, if you have Internet access, the larger FTP sites such as ftp.winsite.com (formerly CICA) and wuarchive.wustl.edu generally have current drivers for many of the popular boards. For example, on ftp.winsite.com, you can look in /pub/pc/win3/drivers/video. 2.5.7.1) Can I use the regular Matrox drivers with Gateway's Matrox? According to Eanna Lennon, GW2k Sysop, Europe: "The Drivers are Exactly the same, there is no difference whatsoever." 2.5.7.2) Where can I get Matrox BIOS and driver updates? From the Matrox WWW site: http://www.matrox.com/mgaweb/ftp_mill.htm 2.5.8) Why do I have video problems with my tower system and not my desktop? Users have reported that the extension video cable provided by Gateway with their tower systems can sometimes cause video problems such as a wavy display. If your system is close enough to your monitor, just take out the extension cable and use the regular one provided with the monitor. If this fixes the problem, call Gateway for a new cable. 2.5.9) What are those horizontal black lines on my monitor? This is becoming a frequent question now that Gateway is using monitors with Sony tubes in them. Sony monitors (and OEM monitors that use Sony tubes) have a different way of setting up their phosphor masks. While most monitors use a metal sheet with holes in it, Sony uses a sheet with thin vertical slots. This allows Sony tubes to have a brighter and sharper picture, but this design forces them to put one (or two, depending on the size of the tube) reinforcing wires that run horizontally across the mask. The shadow from these wires are what you see as black lines across the screen. This behavior is most noticeable when you have a light background, and is totally normal for Sony monitors and tubes. 2.5.9.9) Are there any monitor repair FAQs? First, a warning: There are potentially lethal voltages inside a monitor, even after it's been turned off for sometime. So, I am certainly not recommending anyone open up their monitor. There is a monitor repair FAQ written by Chris Biow that is posted to the newsgroup from time to time and a permanent copy of which is available at ftp://ftp.crl.com/users/ds/dseitel/gateway/monitor.faq (Thanks to Chris Biow!) A more general but very thorough one is found at http://www.paranoia.com/~filipg/HTML/REPAIR/F_mon_repair.html (Thanks to Clint Winstead!) 2.6) Soundcard Questions 2.6.1) Why won't my SoundBlaster card work? The Gateway CD-ROM uses IRQ5 (interrupt 5) by default, and so does the SoundBlaster card. Thus, you need to configure your SoundBlaster card to use a different interrupt. Most people have had success using IRQ7 for their SoundBlaster card even though that is supposedly reserved for the printer. Set the jumpers on the card as shown in the SB manual, then use the sequence [Ctrl-Alt-Esc] to go into the CMOS setup and disable the LPT1 IRQ. Make sure you use interrupt 7 in your AUTOEXEC.BAT driver setup line for the SoundBlaster also. (Thanks to Mike Doel for this information!) Also note that if you are using a program such as LapLink, using IRQ7 for the SoundBlaster will force LapLink into polling mode. You can get around this problem by turning the IRQ on just before using LapLink and then turning it back off when you are done. Since you probably won't be using LapLink and the SoundBlaster at the same time, this shouldn't cause problems, but it is inconvenient. (Thanks to Chaim Frenkel for the information on disabling IRQ7 and LapLink!) Creative Labs also has an FTP site on the Internet which has information about SoundBlaster Cards and other Creative Labs products. The address is _ftp://ftp.creaf.com/ _ftp://creative.creaf.com/ There is also a WWW site. 2.6.2) Why won't my Ensoniq card work with DOS games? Win95 set up will REM the lines for the sound card in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Open the file with a text editor or Notepad and delete REM to activate them again. Thanks to Ed Pawlowski! 2.6.8) Why do my Altec Lansing 450 speakers hiss so much? There is a known defect with some of the 450s. You can call Altec Lansing at 1-800-258-3288 and make arrangements for them to add more shielding which will help some or you can call Gateway and get a downgrade to other speakers plus a small rebate or get an RMA to return the speakers. --- Timothy S. Brannan tbrann1@uic.edu Dept. of Educational Psychology College of Education University of Illinois at Chicago Listowner Educational Psychology Ph.D. List, EdPsych@Listserv.uic.edu http://icarus.uic.edu/~tbrann1/index.html -- College of Education, http://www2.uic.edu/depts/educ/oss/ossofec.html Gateway2000 Faq Page, http://icarus.uic.edu/~tbrann1/gateway.html