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May 1st, 2004
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Help with Gateway Solo P3C

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I feel pretty silly posting this message, as I've been a firmware engineer since 1984! I have plenty of experience going inside a desktop PC. My laptop experience is quite limited though.

I've got an old laptop, a Gateway Solo P3C, 133 MHZ, that I am putting into a condition that it can be used to get online, very basically. It would be nice to put in a NIC card to allow for high speed Internet, but that's in a day or two. The hard drive is incredibly small, and FULL, so I'll get it a new hard drive and do the BIOS upgrade.

It was purchased used. I do not know the details. It was obviously used to get online in a work environment. It is in very good condition for its age.

It has a modem card installed, connected to COM3. I've looked and looked at the case, and opened everything I can find to open, looking for an RJ-11 connector. I cannot find it! Can someone tell me how to hook the phone cable to this PC even to test it?

Thanks,
Beth Harper
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BethHarper is offline Offline
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May 6th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

The Gateway P3C is an old one - so I'm speaking from memory since I have not come into contact with one of these in years. As I remembered it, this system does not have a built-in modem, so when you say it has a modem card installed, I'm assuming that you're talking about a PCMCIA modem, which is probably missing a dongle (the dongle is the part that contains a phone jack connector on one end, with the other end having a flat connector that plugs into the opening on the pcmcia card) and hence, no phone jack :o

A pcmcia modem without a dongle - and lots and lots of people will lose their "dongles" over time - is functionally useless. Although there are many sources for replacement dongles (look on eBay), it is probably just as cheap to buy a new pcmcia modem to replace your dongleless one. If you're looking to network the machine, you might even look at a combo pcmcia 56k/ethernet card - they'll come with two dongles: one for the phone line, the other for your ethernet cable. There are also pcmcia 56k/ethernet cards that have built-in phone jacks and ethernet connectors, albeit they're buikier because of the built-in connectors...
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bobchang is offline Offline
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May 6th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

Thank you.

It's up and running, just as the person who wanted it to work had in mind. Sure, it's quite old. It's serving this person's needs, after some basic "system administration" housekeeping tasks. Why spend $1500 for something you can spend $90 for?

I eventually got a technician who owns and operates the used hardware "junk store" locally to figure out what was what with it. It took him about 2 minutes. The dongle is pretty flimsy, and the person who has the Solo has bought a "like new" modem for it on E-bay, but this one is working okay for now.

Beth
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May 26th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

i forget my password,how i can remove the password to get in the laptop. gateway solo 2000 p3c
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moral is offline Offline
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May 26th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

moral, please start a new topic for separate questions.
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Jun 3rd, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

how i can remove the password to get in the laptop. gateway solo 2000 p3c
i don't remember my password
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moral is offline Offline
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Jul 20th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

Beth
The RJ11 connector should be right on the edge of the PCMCIA modem card. Usually you have to push it IN slightly for it to release and pop out. Connectors like this are very fragile. I've seen many PCMCIA card modems tossed out because the user inadvertently broke the RJ11 connector.

Cheers
George

PS I'm looking for an operating manual for that machine. Have you seen a pdf version of one?

Quote originally posted by BethHarper ...
I feel pretty silly posting this message, as I've been a firmware engineer since 1984! I have plenty of experience going inside a desktop PC. My laptop experience is quite limited though.

I've got an old laptop, a Gateway Solo P3C, 133 MHZ, that I am putting into a condition that it can be used to get online, very basically. It would be nice to put in a NIC card to allow for high speed Internet, but that's in a day or two. The hard drive is incredibly small, and FULL, so I'll get it a new hard drive and do the BIOS upgrade.

It was purchased used. I do not know the details. It was obviously used to get online in a work environment. It is in very good condition for its age.

It has a modem card installed, connected to COM3. I've looked and looked at the case, and opened everything I can find to open, looking for an RJ-11 connector. I cannot find it! Can someone tell me how to hook the phone cable to this PC even to test it?

Thanks,
Beth Harper
Reputation Points: 10
Solved Threads: 1
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capt2duck is offline Offline
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Jul 20th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

Quote originally posted by moral ...
how i can remove the password to get in the laptop. gateway solo 2000 p3c
i don't remember my password
moral, start a new thread for this topic. Piggybacking on someone else's thread diverts attention from the original poster's topic, and it keeps your question from getting the attention it deserves.
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alc6379 is offline Offline
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Jul 20th, 2004
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

Quote originally posted by moral ...
how i can remove the password to get in the laptop. gateway solo 2000 p3c
i don't remember my password
Look up above where you come into this thread ,click where it says new thread ,and tell us what password you forgot,bios/or windows
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I hate 20 Questions
caperjack is offline Offline
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Oct 25th, 2006
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Re: Help with Gateway Solo P3C

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by capt2duck ...
Beth
The RJ11 connector should be right on the edge of the PCMCIA modem card. Usually you have to push it IN slightly for it to release and pop out. Connectors like this are very fragile. I've seen many PCMCIA card modems tossed out because the user inadvertently broke the RJ11 connector.

Cheers
George

PS I'm looking for an operating manual for that machine. Have you seen a pdf version of one?
DID YOU EVER FIND A USERS MANUAL?
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LOTTTO3856 is offline Offline
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This thread is solved

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