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40GB: Gateway Solo 9500 Notebook
Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2003 10:00 pm
by resurgam
Hello,
This is my first posting on this forum and I hope it will be fruitful. I have a Gateway Solo 9500 Notebook that had an IBM 20GB hard drive. I have purchased a Fujitsu 40GB hard drive as an upgrade (model MHT2040AT). I have inserted the hard drive correctly and it is receiving power, etc - so hardware set-up is fine.
The drive is not recognised by the system and when accessing the BIOS set-up utility it actually shows no HD at IDE Adapter 0. I have been told that there is a problem with hard drives over 32GB and that an upgrade to my BIOS maybe needed.
The current BIOS displays as being PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0 and there appears to be a gateway BIOS version 23.05.11. This appears to be the latest BIOS available on their website. I can bring the machine up on an emergency boot disk, but the hard drive is still not accessible to format.
Can someone please help me or will I have to return the 40GB hard drive to the shop. Is this just another limitation of having a notebook - not being to upgrade to the larger hard drives.
Steven 
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 12:33 am
by edwin
If the latest Gateway bios does not solve the problem you might get away by using the 32GB limit jumper on the harddisk to get it recognized.
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:03 am
by resurgam
Edwin, thanks very much for your reply. I am unfamiliar with the method you are suggesting - there are jumpers on the notebook hard drive ??
What setting should they be set at ???
Could you please submit some more details for the novice.
Steven
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2003 10:34 pm
by edwin
The harddisk should have come with a settings sheet or booklet where the jumper settings on the drive itself are explained. Yes, talking about jumpers on the harddrive.
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 6:56 am
by resurgam
Hi again Edwin,
Unfortunately the hard drive didn't come with any instructions. It was in an antistatic bag.
Steven
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 11:18 am
by edwin
post make and model of the harddrive, we'll hunt down the settings.
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 7:35 pm
by resurgam
Fujitsu 40GB hard drive as an upgrade (model MHT2040AT)
Steven
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 8:24 pm
by soupy
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 9:17 pm
by resurgam
Thanks Guys for the help, but this ain't getting me nowhere. I bought the drive from a DIY market here in Australia. The drive came in a sealed antistatic bag no thing else was with it, not even the little plastic jumper fittings.
It is just this "bloody' Gateway heap of electronic crap I have. The machine is only 2 years and 9 months old. There is no way of determining the motherboard manufacturer to see if I can flash the BIOS I have the current BIOS from Gateway which in itself is at least 18 months old. No support from Gateway except to say that I should flash the BIOS that I already have installed.
I have just loaded and run a product called AIDA32 on my notebook and it tells me that the Motherboard is <DMI> and the motherboard name is Gateway Solo 9500 - that helps a lot !!
It also tells me that the BIOS type is Phoenix and that it is over two years old and should be updated. The motherboard chipset is an Intel Solano i815EM. I have the following web address and maybe you guys to tell me what I should be looking for or doing.
http://www.phoenix.com/en/products/default.htm
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 10:00 pm
by soupy
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 10:15 pm
by resurgam
Thanks again I used Seagate's disk utilities, but the computer couldn't even see that there was a drive there. As far as the machine is concerned it doesn't have a hard drive installed. However, there is power to the drive and during POST it does light up the little drive active light.
Steven.
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 10:43 pm
by soupy
Seagate's? I thought you had a Fujitsu drive. It's common for one manufacturer's software not to recognize other manufacturer's drives.
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 11:22 pm
by resurgam
That is true. I noticed though in reading the page you sent me that it has a dynamic overlay for drives up to 33GB. That won't help me too much will it.
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 11:32 pm
by edwin
Nope, no 32GB jumper there. Either find one that does or sell off the laptop...
Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 11:51 pm
by resurgam
Hey guys I thank you for the info. I have just paid $US60.00 for the software are you telling me that it ain't going to work.
What the hell is 32GB jumper you keep talking about ??
Steven.
