slot question

ISA

As Mark said, they are ISA, and they are virtually worthless today, except for any ISA cards that are currently being used. BTW, do you have the manual for that Gateway? A friend of mine had asked me to upgrade his gateway, and so I borrowed his manual to check out some specs. Then he went ahead and bought a new computer. But I am pretty sure I still have the manual, and that its for the 166. Let me know if you are interested in at least a copy. (I probably should give him back his original.)

Wow I would love to get a copy of that manual! Please E mail me at [email protected]

ISA=Industry Standard Architecture. It is indeed a "legacy" slot. You might find some things like NIC cards in ISA form but you certainly would not want to find a video card etc.

Would a ISA ethernet card need a driver to operate? I have a 486 with a existing ethernet card and wonder if I could reuse it in this pentium for networking? I THINK the card is ISA.... Gotta dig computer out of storage if its possible..

Another question. Is it possible to upgrade the processor to a fastere one? I am really into learning on this and just wonder about a lot of this.

I am going to get a free CD rom burner at comp USA if they arent sold out. Buy discs get burner N/C with rebate.

Maybe. It will need a driver, but most of those cards have built in drivers in newer versions of Windows (95 (sometimes)/98/Me/2000/XP)

Yes, any Ethernet card would require a driver to operate. But there are some possiblities if you aren't sure.

1) There were many cards from that day that used a generic driver that might work.

2) If using Windows 95/98 the driver might be included and auto detected.

3) If a recognized brand, you might be able to find it at the company web site (there are web sites that keep drivers from now defunct companies)

Due to the fact that just about everyone I know now has machines that have no ISA slots. I ended up throwing away (I tried to find a home, but would have cost me more money to unload them) several 3com (COAX and AUI media) ISA NICS, several Adaptec SCSI ISA cards, several Hayes 28.8 and 33.6 ISA modems. These were all top of the line parts in their days. I did get some good use out of them. But I figured someone could benefit from them some day. Just toook up way tooo much space in the way to filled computer parts closet.

Thanks for the response. I will dig out and try that 486 ethernet card. I having nothing to loose by trying, and I am running windows 98.

Originally posted by Bob Haller
Another question. Is it possible to upgrade the processor to a fastere one? I am really into learning on this and just wonder about a lot of this.

I am going to get a free CD rom burner at comp USA if they arent sold out. Buy discs get burner N/C with rebate.

Click to expand...

Bob, the System Board Tech manual I sent you yesterday will have information about upgrading the processor. From what the manual says, and from my own experience, your choices top out at a 200MMX processor. It will make a difference, particularly if you want to put a burner in the box. Make sure you read the specs on the burner carefully, because most want a processor faster than either a 166 or 200MMX. I went through this around the first of the year.

Bogy, don't worry about what the burner specs need. They all need the same processor power for the same burn speeds. It's just some companies are more conservative and some more liberal with the labeling. One 16X burner may say 100 required, but it means to burn at 1X without errors. Another may say 366, but it can burn at the full 16X. Also remember, if you get one with seamless linking (BURNProof, JUSTLink, etc.) you can use any processor, but burn times will increase like crazy.

Thanks EVERYONE for all your help. I look forward to getting that manual. Gateway wabnted a fortune for it, and wasnt sure it was even available.