Refurbishing a Gateway 2000 with Windows 98

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Maybe someone can help me with this. I purchased a Gateway 2000 desktop computer with Windows 98 off of Craig's List for $25. The files were corrupted plus there was a lot of crap on the computer so I completely formated the hard drive and wiped everything off and reinstalled an original Windows 98(which I purchased for another $23). However the resolution on the computer is only 800 * 600 pixels which is the lowest quality and I am not able to change it by dragging that little slider when I am in the control panel.

The resolution could be adjusted before so there must have been something on there that was erased when I reformatted the hard drive.

you just said you wiped the drive by reformatting, of course you deleted something its gone, look for the hardware spec for that model of Gateway on line, then download the drivers of the video card or see if the computer came with a driver disk.

Which version of 98 was it? There is 4.10.1998 and 4.10.222 both with service packs available for them. One being 4.10.1998 A and the other changing it to 4.10.2222 A

Probably best to get drivers first

Can you still find the service packs for win98, you can't get them at Microsoft

You have to get the drivers for that particular video card because the drivers that come with Windows only support the lowest quality and resolution for compatibility reasons. Also the video card might not support any higher resolution and some older video cards only go up to highest resolution with only 16bit color not 32bit color.

Can you give me the serial number so I can help. Messed with a lot of older gateways and compaqs that people threw out.

Windows 98 in software years is very old, and has not been supported by Microsoft for years. There are quite a few modern Linux distributions ( http://www.distrowatch.com ) that will work well on that old computer and that are easy to install.

With Wine ( http://www.winehq.org ) most if not all Windows 98 software that you want to run, will work well.

How much RAM does that computer have? Also even though it's not that important, how big is the hard disk?

Like others said, it's the lack of drivers--which you will need to find. It depends on whether or not you have on-board video or a secondary video card.

Open the tower and do this:

If you have a video card, look for a model number on the card and Google it.

If it is on-board video, then look for a motherboard model number and Google that instead.

Oh please, Half them Gateways out there don't even have drivers written for anything other than Windows 98. Especially the ones between 266Mhz- 450Mhz with a 440BX MoBo & either a Mpact Video Chipset or ATI Rage. I tried linux on several Gateways from the Late 90's & half the hardware such as the video card, modem, and network card don't have drivers. Making it hard to get anything other than 256 Color 640x480 Resolutions & an inability to get sound or connect to internet.

Wine is also a bit of an overload for this type of system. Gateway didn't drop the 2000 from its name until January 1, 1999. Meaning it is probably a computer from the Mid to late 1990's. Also there is nothing better than the real thing on systems like these.

On Memory I'll be guessing 32-64mb memory unless of course if its from somebody how had computer skills to know memory could be updated & too many system-clock icons slow down a computer.

Also Microsoft ended Windows 98 support on July 11, 2006. Meaning its just 2 years out of service. Also I still have a 350Mhz PII running 98SE for old games & I had yet had a problem. I am able to surf the net with Opera & Seamonkey. Protected by Avast, Spybot, Superantispyware along w/ SoftPerfect Firewall. Very fast sytem on th internet & I can even watch Youtube videos while doing homework on it. Meaning that the system is not severely antiquated like a 486 or Original Pentium.

I also have 192MB PC100 Memory on that system. Which is good for a Computer from late 1998.

Can you give me some more information on your system so I can upload files to your PM inbox that will fix your problem.

I was planning on taking two computer courses at CCRI but I decided to drop them in favor of preparing for the CPA exam since accounting is what I got my major in. I will pick up the computers at a later date.