Ask A Geek

Q: Can I replace the hard drive from my Gateway 4530GZ with the hard drive from my Gateway 4542 without losing any of the data? The 4530 is physically in much better condition except for a recent media failure (hard drive and or Ethernet Controller failure)? Also can I use other parts to upgrade the 4530 such as the RAM? I tried switching out the hard drives but the intended laptop reports “No Operating System” It seems this should be so simple being basically the same laptops?

Q: I have a Gateway laptop with Vista. I have been trying to restore it back to factory with the operating system disc. When I start it tells me it is loading files and then goes to black screen and that’s it. Could you please help?

Q: I have a Gateway mx6445 laptop, which I purchased used so I do not have any original disks to it. I had to reinstall my OS, Windows XP mce. I was able to download drivers from gateway’s support site; however, now it says it needs SM Bus controller and I cannot seem to locate a usable driver. My graphics card is integrated and is ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200M. I downloaded that driver from gateway buy why wasn’t the SM Bus driver included? Please help! Where can I get this driver?

Q: The mother board fried on my Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 laptop. Can I pull the hard drive out and insert it into my Gateway MA7 laptop to download my music, photos, and documents?

Q: I’m looking for a new flat screen monitor and I have a older tower made by Gateway. Will they work together and what do I need to buy with it? Cords, etc? Any suggestions along with my questions?

Q: I just got a Dell monitor 1707fpt and I have a gateway computer using Windows XP. The monitor won’t work. A black screen with a box with red/blue/yellow/white boxes in it comes up. What do I have to do to make is compatible?

Q: My Gateway laptop battery will not fully charge. It will run fine on AC power when plugged in, but won’t continue to charge the battery. It will charge for about a minute, then go to AC power like the battery was fully charged.

If the AC power is removed and then plugged back in, the battery will start to charge again, but only for a short time.

The battery is slowly regaining charge, but I’m not sure if the problem is the battery, the laptop, or the AC adapter.

Q: I need to reformat my computer and make it fresh and new. My computer is gateway 832GM. How do I reformat it?

Q: Will my Gateway Protable Media Drive Bay except other Media Drives made by other companies?

Q: I have a gateway e-3400 the CPU is a intel pIII EB (933MHz). The socket is a 370 fc-pga. I’m dirt poor and I trashed picked this computer from a computer stores trash. What is the fastest cpu this thing will take? Thank You.