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Gateway Colorbook 2000

maelstrm

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2022
Messages
99
Location
Raleigh, NC
Anyone have a manual for a Gateway Colorbook 2000? Just looking for beep codes. I'm getting two beeps on boot, no video. The floppy does seek.
 
It looks like the Gateway 2000 Colorbook machines all used a SystemSoft BIOS, a notoriously irritating BIOS to work with. Here are the beep codes for that type of BIOS, pulled from a NEC Versa laptop's manual:

Beep Codes​

Beep Sequence
Description

Note:
S = Short beep
P = Pause
L = Long beep

S-S-S-P-S-S-L-P
DMA page register failure

S-S-S-P-S-L-S-P
Refresh failure

S-S-S-P-S-L-L-P
ROM checksum failure

S-S-S-P-L-S-S-P
CMOS RAM failure

S-S-S-P-L-S-L-P
DMA controller failure

S-S-S-P-L-L-L-P
interrupt controller failure

S-S-S-P-L-L-L-P
80C51SL (8042) keyboard controller failure

S-S-L-P-S-S-S-P
Video adapter failure

S-S-L-P-S-S-L-P
RAM failure (no message is displayed)


It doesn't seem like it's finishing its error code. On some other BIOSs, 2 beeps indicates bad RAM or a bag graphics card. If it's using a different BIOS, maybe it's trying to indicate that instead. I'd remove the RAM and see if the error changes as a start, personally.
 
Thank you for that info!

These have RAM chips soldered to the board, so if it's an error with RAM that's a problem. The keyboard works insofar as I'm able to toggle CAPS/NUM and even do a CTRL+ALT+DEL. But even removing the LCD and putting it onto a VGA monitor still doesn't help.
 
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