Author Topic: FIXED Formatting An Old Gateway (Read 2381 times)

Ediseye · « **on:** June 19, 2008, 05:50:44 PM »

Ok, so I just got around to messing with this old Gateway computer that I have. 60GB hard drive, a old 433MHz Celeron. Plain old crappy computer basically. so anyway, I want to install XP on it, as I have already done so in the past and I know it runs.

I go to put in the CD, and it tells me "CDBOOT: Memory overflow error". Which I really don't understand. I looked it up on the internet, and all that I could find was people telling others to make sure the hard drive is detected. Which I'm pretty sure it is, because if I move the jumper on the hard drive, different things come up. So, I think it's detecting it. The RAM is the same as it was a while ago, so that's not the issue.

I just want to use the comp as a mess around computer, so it's no big deal. But I've been messing with it all day, and it's really stressful, lawl. So, any help at ll with it would be appreciated.

Thanks guys!

BFM_Kiwi · « **Reply #1 on:** June 19, 2008, 06:03:07 PM »

When you power on the computer, press whatever key ( F1, Del ) gets you into the BIOS setup and look to see if the harddrive is listed as a boot device? Also might set the boot order to have the CD first to make sure it's really trying to boot from the CD.

What's currently loaded on the harddrive? Does it have an operating system at all?

carl · « **Reply #2 on:** June 19, 2008, 06:05:51 PM »

when you say memory are you referring to RAM or hard drive space. if its ram then try messing around with those. if you got 2 ram modules take one out and switch around. you might need more ram. if you are referring to hard drives then just check the connections. I'm not sure if this helped or not but ill try to give you more help tomorrow.

Ediseye · « **Reply #3 on:** June 19, 2008, 06:14:09 PM »

Quote from: kiw on June 19, 2008, 06:03:07 PM

When you power on the computer, press whatever key ( F1, Del ) gets you into the BIOS setup and look to see if the harddrive is listed as a boot device? Also might set the boot order to have the CD first to make sure it's really trying to boot from the CD.

What's currently loaded on the harddrive? Does it have an operating system at all?

Yes, the hard drive is listed as a IDE-HDD device, int he boot menu, so I'm pretty sure it knows that it's there. And yes, the CD is already set as the first boot device. If it didn't actually read from the CD drive, it does from the floppy drive and tells me that there isn't a correct boot device in drive A. That makes me think that there is nothing on the hard drive, though I thought that I had XP on it.

Quote from: carl on June 19, 2008, 06:05:51 PM

when you say memory are you referring to RAM or hard drive space. if its ram then try messing around with those. if you got 2 ram modules take one out and switch around. you might need more ram. if you are referring to hard drives then just check the connections. I'm not sure if this helped or not but ill try to give you more help tomorrow.

I don't know what it means by memory. It has 256 RAM, and it had that much when it ran XP before. So it should be fine. I also just tried switching the RAM sticks around. There are only two of them. But either way, it still didn't help. I get the same error as listed in my first post.

BFM_Kiwi · « **Reply #4 on:** June 19, 2008, 07:22:59 PM »

Grasping at straws here, but two things you could try:

1) boot from windows 98 CD if you have one, in case something wrong with XP disk
2) disconnect HD entirely, then try booting up from CD

not sure what these would tell you, but might narrow down where the problem is.

MrMxyzptlk · « **Reply #5 on:** June 19, 2008, 07:37:10 PM »

Quote from: kiw on June 19, 2008, 07:22:59 PM

Grasping at straws here, but two things you could try:

1) boot from windows 98 CD if you have one, in case something wrong with XP disk
2) disconnect HD entirely, then try booting up from CD

not sure what these would tell you, but might narrow down where the problem is.

Yes, DO try a Win98 CD if you have/can get one....

...Because I'm betting that 256MB is NOT enough memory to boot the Windows XP install CD! (Your language above is unclear/unsure as to wether that's the RAM it's ALWAYS had, and that it WAS XP....)

BFM_Kiwi · « **Reply #6 on:** June 19, 2008, 08:06:54 PM »

MS gives minimum RAM requirements for XP as 128MB. But then they say 512MB for Vista.

But that's not booting from the CD, yeah might make a difference.

What happens if you take the CD out and try to boot from HD?

Ediseye · « **Reply #7 on:** June 19, 2008, 08:48:57 PM »

Well, oddly enough, it seems like the problem was that the IDE connection to the hard drive was in backwards. After I removed the connection and plugged it in correctly, the Gateway restore CD worked for Windows 98 Second Edition. I tried to wipe it out and bring it back to factory state, but it needed to be formatted. So, before doing so, I removed the CD and let it boot from the hard disk. As it turns out, Windows XP Pro was already on it from a previous installation by me. And yes, it does run, rofl. Though it is very slow, and that's why I wanted to get rid of it. (Mxy, it used to have 64MB on it factory, and I put it to 256MB. It's had Windows XP Pro on it for about 4 years now. I operated with it on it for possibly a couple of those years just as a mess around computer.)

I'm in the process of messing with it right now to get Windows 98 Second Edition back on it. If it doesn't work, I'll just stick with Windows XP I suppose.

Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions guys. Kiw, you probably helped the most as you suggested removing the hard drive all together. And when I did, I looked at the IDE port more closely to see that it was plugged in backwards (Blue card to me, I know, rof).

Thanks again, much appreciated all of you!

BFM_Kiwi · « **Reply #8 on:** June 19, 2008, 08:59:00 PM »

suggest enough things, and something might turn out to be the right answer, lol

carl · « **Reply #9 on:** June 20, 2008, 05:55:29 AM »

Quote from: BFM_Ediseye on June 19, 2008, 08:48:57 PM

Well, oddly enough, it seems like the problem was that the IDE connection to the hard drive was in backwards. After I removed the connection and plugged it in correctly, the Gateway restore CD worked for Windows 98 Second Edition. I tried to wipe it out and bring it back to factory state, but it needed to be formatted. So, before doing so, I removed the CD and let it boot from the hard disk. As it turns out, Windows XP Pro was already on it from a previous installation by me. And yes, it does run, rofl. Though it is very slow, and that's why I wanted to get rid of it. (Mxy, it used to have 64MB on it factory, and I put it to 256MB. It's had Windows XP Pro on it for about 4 years now. I operated with it on it for possibly a couple of those years just as a mess around computer.)

I'm in the process of messing with it right now to get Windows 98 Second Edition back on it. If it doesn't work, I'll just stick with Windows XP I suppose.

Anyhow, thanks for all the suggestions guys. Kiw, you probably helped the most as you suggested removing the hard drive all together. And when I did, I looked at the IDE port more closely to see that it was plugged in backwards (Blue card to me, I know, rof).

Thanks again, much appreciated all of you!

plugged in backwards LOL.

ThE BrIcK · « **Reply #10 on:** June 20, 2008, 06:08:05 AM »

Quote from: BFM_Ediseye on June 19, 2008, 08:48:57 PM

(Blue card to me, I know, rof).

lol

Ben-BSH · « **Reply #11 on:** June 21, 2008, 01:17:09 PM »

Memory

128 MB of RAM recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)

thats requirements for XP, when reading this thread i had to look it up, because i was sure i remember putting XP on my old file server with 64MB SD RAM

Rofl

that machine failed So, So, badly.

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