Shared Knowledge
"Gateway 501S - No Recovery Disk"
28 August 2013
Summary: No matter operating system installed, problem is getting correct drivers.
Background:
Gateway 510S hard disk dead.
No Gateway recovery disk.
Installed new hard drive (SATA) but 510S also has 2 IDE channels.
Installed Windows XP professional.
After install, Control Panel, System, Device Manager, showed no drivers installed for: Ethernet; video or audio.
Using another computer, went to Gateway website.
First looked to see if I could buy recovery disk but either incorrect serial number or Gateway no longer selling recovery disk for Windows XP.
Went to download section of Gateway for 510S but found many different drivers for Ethernet, audio and video. Which one?
Looking inside Gateway, only board installed was AGP video, so audio and Ethernet must be provided by motherboard.
Removing a white sticker from motherboard, found "Intel D865GLC/D865PESO", so Intel motherboard.
Removed AGP card and found ASUS ASUS3450/DI/512M D2LP. (Note, if you have never removed an AGP card, there is a latching mechanism on the AGP slot that you must depress before you pull the board up and out of the computer.)
Drivers:
Once again, using another computer, back to Gateway website and downloaded drivers for Intel Ethernet, Intel SoundMax audio and ATI video board. (No ASUS video driver listed).
Burnt a CD of all drivers and took to Gateway 510S.
First installed Intel INF driver (tells other drivers how to install). Appeared to install completely and properly.
Installed Intel Ethernet driver. Would not install properly.
Went to Intel website and downloaded Ethernet driver for D865GLC.
Installed Intel Ethernet driver and worked.
Installed Intel Soundmax audio driver and appeared to install completely and properly.
Installed ATI driver and appeared to install completely to include an high definition audio driver.
Great!
BUT when I checked Control Panel, System, Device Manager, yellow explanation mark of "Other PCI device" with no clue as to what it might be.
Using properties of device manager and a website that decodes long list of numbers provided in properties, found that offending PCI device was from ATI? What?
Reinstalled ATI driver but did not fix problem.
Driver install order:
Thinking perhaps some problem with Windows XP install, formatted hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP.
Once again installed Ethernet driver from Intel website.
As yellow explanation mark on some sort of ATI PCI device, went to ASUS website and downloaded driver for ASUS3450.
Installed driver for ASUS AGP video and high definition audio.
When Device Manager reviewed, yellow explanation mark on a multimedia audio.
Installed audio driver downloaded from Gateway website and appeared to install correctly.
Examination of Device Manager and no longer any yellow explanation marks!!
Risky, I know, but downloaded BIOS update from Gateway website.
BIOS update would not update BIOS.
Downloaded BIOS update from Intel website, but would not update BIOS.
No idea why I can not update BIOS.
Summary:
Between Gateway and Intel, there are a lot of drivers that may or may not work for the Gateway 510S.
Try to get as much information about your system as you can: motherboard model; video board, etc.
If you get yellow explanation mark in device manager, try uninstalling video and audio and reinstalling in different order such as ATI/ASUS first and then SoundMax.