$22.95 mainboard (now $29.95) -Intel S370, MATX, up to 433Mhz, ATI Rage 128vr AGP, Creative Sound motherboard

[Lanyap]

Linked

They also have Ultra66 IDE cables for $2.95. They come in a pack with a floppy cable and several jumpers. Must be left over cable packages for their motherboards.
http://store.tekramusa.com/shop/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=5

 

[Delbert]

FWIW my $23 (got in in time) motherboard arrived in good time and works just fine. Built a PC for my niece using all new parts except the cpu (an old celeron 400 I had laying around)for close to $100 thanks to this forum.

 

[Mixxen]

You know what sucks...On Jan 6 I ordered this board along with some other stuff. I entered my credit card info...etc, submit, and I see the confirmation page with my order number and all.

Then I email them a few days later to ask the status of the order (number xxxxx). And they tell me they didn't receive my order...but they go ahead an charge me for all the other items except the MB. Does that make any sense?!?

Sucks, cause by the time they replied back to me, the mb was out of stock. And even better, overstock.com sold out of this board too. Damit!!!!

 

[geoff2k]

I attempted the Windows 98 video drivers at http://www.gateway.com/support/product/drivers/video/6000711a.shtml (7510183.exe) and they didn't recognize the built-in video adapter.

Do I need to install DirectX 7.0 before installing the video drivers?

 

[SleepyRaTT]

don't forget to get the free mouse ..when u order from star =P

top left of first page. too lazy to read the earlier threads don't know if it was mentioned =)

 

[labooboo]

HARD TO BELIEVE!!:Q

 

[Tired of the Bull]

geoff2k,

I'm having the same problem. I finally got them to install on a base 98 install but then in my great wisdom I decided to install 98SE and DirectX8 hoping it would work better (no error message when I instaled the divers) now it won't install the drivers at all. It gives me an error saying that it does not recognize the adapter.

I'm downloading some drivers from ATI which I will try but if you find out anything please pass it on.

Thanks

 

[KawLiga]

I just ordered 2 of these boards from Overstock. Used $10 off $50 coupon.

AccessMicro has a Celeron 433 PPGA OEM w/fan and heatsink for $52 + $9.95 shipping

I found the bios upgrade at Gateway, but it didn't give any details on what was updated. Before I order this processor, I want to know if I could possibly run anything faster.

Thanks

 

[geoff2k]

The video drivers from ATI's site (wme_w98_r128_4_12_6292.exe) work much better. I'm now having a problem with sound -- basic windows sound works, but sound in games doesn't, and the dxdiag.exe DirectSound test fails with a:

"Failure at step 10 (Secondary Buffer). HRESULT=8878001E (Control not available".

I hope that there are working DirectX drivers for the sound card...

 

[geoff2k]

Sound update: after installing e64w9xup.exe from here I now have audio in games and the dxdiag.exe DirectSound test passes.

 

[SimMike2]

I think these boards will work with any PPGA Celeron CPUs, up to 533. They won't work with FCPGA Celeron 2 chips. Maybe they will if the BIOS is updated, not sure...

As for sound problems, I too had the problem you describe with the games not finding a directX sound driver. This means your audio install isn't complete. Here is what I did to fix this problem. You will need the Gateway sound files, which are listed in this thread. First remove any sound devices from the Device manager. Now find the sound files you downloaded from Gateway. In the Win95 directory for the sound drivers, run the sbsetup program. This should install the proper files. It will tell you that the drivers are out of date and use newer Win98 files. This should install all the audio components. At least this is how I fixed the problem.

 

[geoff2k]

My working setup was short-lived. A couple of reboots later, I could no longer get the dxdiag test to work, and quake 3 started giving me the silent treatment again.

I went ahead and un-installed all the SoundBlaster drivers and then ran the win95/sbsetup.exe that you mentioned. That appears to have worked: dxdiag.exe passes, media player plays content, and Quake 3 is now running in a demo loop with sound.

I noticed that the win95 sbsetup.exe installs different drivers from the "setup.exe" found in the main directory (the drivers don't have a WDM at the end of their name), and that it also installs the legacy SB128 device (for DOS compatibility, I assume).

I did not get prompted to upgrade the drivers however, and quite frankly, if things keep working as well as they are, I'll just keep these ones.

Thanks for the help, SimMike2!