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A few years ago,
A few years ago,
while browsing Facebook Marketplace, I saw a rather strange looking computer. It looked kind of like a smaller and even more strangely bloated Power Macintosh G3 AIO that had been left out in the sun a bit too long. It was made by Gateway, (My favorite computer company. Don't judge me.) shortly after they had dropped the "2000" suffix from their name. It had a model name that sounded like it should be a spacecraft. It was a Gateway Astro!
That Marketplace listing
That Marketplace listing
would fall through. (If I remember correctly, the seller left it up even after it had been sold.) However, I had fallen in love with the strange PC, and kept looking for one, on and off, until about a month ago, I saw another listing, this time on the Goodwill website.
After the PC was
After the PC was
picked up from Goodwill, it was now time to open it up and check for any visible damage to the components, case, or boards. The case just needed a quick wipe-down, and there was quite a bit of dust inside, but nothing some computer duster couldn't fix. Luckily, despite being manufactured during prime capacitor plague years, it appears to be unaffected, with no leaking, bulging, or other symptoms.
A view of the bottom part of the PC.
A close shot of the motherboard. Note the Card-edge connector on the left.
A close-up of the video connector. Notice how the wires feeding the card-edge connector use a standard VGA signal and connection.
With the RAM stick in the angled slot, you may not be able to see the RTC battery. Temporary removal makes it much easier to replace.
Unfortunately, yet understandably,
Unfortunately, yet understandably,
this particular Astro PC had its hard drive removed before I picked it up, so a replacement was needed. Luckily, a quick Google (Or Bing, Yahoo, whatever) search for an IDE-to-CF adapter (CF cards are generally compatible with the IDE protocol), as well as a CF-to-SD card adapter (Small-capacity SD cards are generally cheaper and easier to find for sale. In addition, I've always found CF cards to be rather finicky and delicate, but that's just my personal experience.) All of the items in the photo are available new (not used) on eBay for a combined total of under $15 USD
The IDE-to-CF adapter, the CF-to-SD adapter, and a low-capacity (In this case, 2GB) SD card.
This concludes Part One of the Astro PC repair.
This concludes Part One of the Astro PC repair.
Check this website regularly for updates and new posts.
Thank you for reading.
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