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a few questions about my t-16?

By zack247 ·
ive had my gateway t-16 for a while now, and i got it used for $125, then another $47 since the guy i bought it from misinformed me about the battery.

now i want to know what some of these buttons are for, i got no manual with the laptop, and they confuse me since they are there but they dont do anything.

the first is one between the media button bar and the power button, it has an arrow pointing towards the media buttons on it, and it does nothing while the laptop is on, but it will bring it out of sleep mode. what does it do? is it configurable?

next up is two buttons in the media button bar.
one is a music symbol, and the other is the "dvd" logo.
they do absolutely nothing whether the laptop is on, off or in sleep mode.
are they configurable? is there special software that communicates wth them?

next up is the cpu, its a 1.9GHz AMD turion 64 X2, which is at 48*c as im typing this.
i have a 1.9GHz athlon 64 X2, from another laptop, would it be beneficial to the laptop in regards to the temperature? would it perform worse or better?

then the wireless, the realtek card shuts off whenever i plug in a flash drive, but only when i plug in a flash drive, if i put in a sd card, it doesnt, if i plug in a game controller, still, it doesnt.
only when i plug in a flash drive, but why? is it because its using the windows-detected drivers?

last is the bluetooth.
i contacted the people over at gateway and asked them about bluetooth and my laptop, and basically they told me there was no way my laptop would ever have internal bluetooth capability.
but, when i had my laptop apart to install a better bass speaker (yes, im sorry but i have a very bad habit for taking my laptops apart, luckily it still works)
and thats when i noticed that, on the other side of the board, about the area of the hard drive connection, there was a small (ish) white connector, and on the board right beside it, was written "bluetooth".
i contacted gateway again and basically this time they told me i wasnt seeing what i thought i was and the connector didnt exist. but i know its there.

why would gateway tell me its not there if it is? do they even know their own laptop?

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I thought this would have something to do with womp rats.

by seanferd In reply to a few questions about my ...

I was happily proven wrong.

http://support.gateway.com/support/supinfo/index.asp?pg=2&file=mo_T_1600.html
http://support.gateway.com/product/default.aspx?tab=4&modelId=2390

That button is the hotstart button which turns the system on and starts the media center thing. Or it will bring it back from sleep/suspend/hibernate.

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Reponse To Answer

by zack247 In reply to I thought this would have ...

ok now i see it, and the music symbol does the same and the dvd sumbol starts some sort of dvd reading software.

the only problem is that i dont think this laptop has drivers other than for vista, in fact im using vista drivers right now in windows 7. well, the vista drivers that i couldnt get drivers for in windows 7 that is.

as for womp rats ive honestly never heard of it, what is it?

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Reponse To Answer

by seanferd In reply to I thought this would have ...

Oh, lol. It is a <i>Star Wars</i> reference: <i>"I used to bullseye womp rats in a T-16 back home."</i> The T-16 was some form of landspeeder/airspeeder thingumie. A real Star Wars fan could probably tell you more.

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Well you can download the User Guide here

by OH Smeg Moderator In reply to a few questions about my ...

http://support.gateway.com/product/default.aspx?modelId=2390

As for the Bluetooth Connection I would hazard a guess that as it's not supposed to be there, someone has replaced the M'Board with a different one and it has the ability to have Bluetooth, or that while the connector is present the rest of the required Electronics are not.

Many times different M'Board Makers remove stuff off different models of M'Board. Thus they have the one basic M'Board which covers several different Models with different abilities. While I do not play with Off the Shelf NB often with some of the cheaper nasty Desktop M'Boards they have the connectors which are fitted by a different Robot but do not have the necessary Electronics which are fitted by a different type of Robot. The plugs are just literally stuck into the M'Board wile the Electronics get glued first and then Ultravioletly Soldered after the Assembly is complete. So if Gateway bought this M'Board from a company who had the ability to have a internal Bluetooth Module the Socket and Screen printing would be present but it wouldn't do anything if you where to plug something into it.

Or conversely if the M'Board has been changed you would need to read the Model of it off the Screen Printed Circuit Board and then go looking for it's maker if there is no makers name Screen Printed to the Circuit Board.

Incidentally Gateway is a purchaser of Components and they pay another company to build computers to their Specifications/Costs. They do not actually make the Individual Internal Components. If you looked at the Internals you should have seen Gateway Stickers but also on the HDD and other components like that the actual Makers Sticker. Gateway didn't make the M'Board at the most they would have had it made to their specifications for them by a company like ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, BENQ, Clevo or any of the other NB M'Board Makers.

Also as for the speaker you fitted I hope it was a Magnetically Shielded unit or Magnetic Fields will eventually adversely affect the correct function of the Notebook.

Col

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Reponse To Answer

by zack247 In reply to Well you can download the ...

im going to check again around that connector, it could be possible that it does just happen to be there, but i believe there are other models in the t-series that are the same screen size, same architechture and even the same components +/- a few features, one of which is BLUETOOTH. the other is a fingerprint scanner.
is it possible that gateway cut costs by using the same board in the notebooks but just didnt include the more expensive bits like the bluetooth module or fingerprint scanner?

i also want to know about the cpu, would there be any benefits to swapping the turion for an athlon?

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The flash drive issue.

by seanferd In reply to a few questions about my ...

Check the docs on your specific model T-16, if any. But it may be a device conflict (check Device Manager), or a hardware/power issue. Make sure the realtek isn't just going to sleep - check the power management for the card itself under Device Manager.

Bluetooth: Many boards have options for parts not actually installed. I have an old Dell which has options for every kind of network or wireless connectivity, but not all are installed. In fact, it has a modem but no wireless NIC. Go figure.

CPU - as longs as you can find a better CPU that fits in the same socket, it may help. Are you running CPU-intensive apps? Usually, the first best bet is to increase your memory to the maximum usable. (32-bit OS is limited to addressing 3.5 GB of RAM without special software.)

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Reponse To Answer

by zack247 In reply to The flash drive issue.

2 firefox tabs, and foobar2000 is all thats running, 20% cpu usage, 55-60 degrees.
if its plugged in, 70 degrees.
ive got 2GB of ram in here, it originally had 1gb on vista.

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Sorry but at the moment I can not reply to anything on TR

by OH Smeg Moderator In reply to a few questions about my ...

But Gateway wouldn't have used the same M'Board and just not added the Bluetooth. They would have made it an Optional Extra if the M'Board was the complete top Model M'Board.

However if the M'Board was changed anything is possible and it may be the Top of the Range M'Board as these companies to cut down Spare Parts Costs that they have to carry only tend to carry the 1 M'Board for numerous models. It's cheaper for them to carry 20 of the 1 M'Board that covers several models than to carry 4 of each of the Complete Model Range M'Boards. That's just a ball park figure as they would have many more M'Boards once any faults started to develop in a new model.

Prior to getting in spares they would rat complete systems for parts for Warranty work so they would tend to replace the same M'Board if it failed prior to them deciding what Spares that they had to carry.

While it may be possible to change the CPU again this is one of the things that can be involved with these M'Boards it's possible that a Specific Model M'Board is limited to a certain Range or even a single CPU as that is what the buyer of bulk parts required to cut down costs.

You would have to look at what it's makers specify for that particular model M'Board if they actually supply any support information. Quite often with these Specials built for a specific Buyer the M'Board makers do not supply any Data and refer you to the Buyer for Technical Support.

But basically if your Model NB had the option for different CPU's and the CPU is in fact not soldered to the M'Board you should be able to change the CPU. But some times one model only came with one CPU or the CPU is soldered to the M'Board to make the complete unit cheaper and then you can not change it.

Col

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Reponse To Answer

by zack247 In reply to Sorry but at the moment I ...

its got an interchangeable cpu socket, socket s1 to be exact, the athlon i have came from the same socket in a travelmate 5530.
i want to know, does the athlon run at lower temperatures than the turion?
im using 20% cpu at max right now with two firefox tabs and foobar2000 playing music, the cpu is at around 55-60 degrees, when using cpu intensive apps it gets as high as 80 degrees!
this to me, is extremely hot, does the athlon run colder than the turion?
if i switch the cpu's to test, am i going to have to re-validate windows?

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That Temp is OK for any CPU

by OH Smeg Moderator In reply to a few questions about my ...

I always supply a Cool Pad like the one shown here when I sell a NB to any client

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NzI=

They do several things but the most important is to suck the air born crud away from the Air Intakes of the NB and prevent it from clogging the Airways and Heatsink of the CPU and prevent anything from blocking the air intakes of the NB.

You can get cheaper ones than the Antec devices on places like E Bay and I have yet to have any serious failure when these things are used. The worst failure that any NB that I've sold has experienced was a broken Flexible Data Lead in a Optical Drive under the Tray which required the Optical Drive to be replaced. Took about 10 minutes and was under $100.00 to completely repair.

Increasing or changing the CPU isn't the most cost effective way to speed things up the best thing you can do to increase performance is to install as Much RAM as the Unit will hold or if you are using a 32 Bit OS 4 GIG of RAM. This will improve performance dramatically with no other change.

As for the CPU all I can suggest is to Suck it and See it may work and it may not as the complete lack of Information on that Particular M'Board that I can find tells me nothing about it's capabilities or what it can use.

As for needing to do anything to the installed OS provided you have not changed more than 3 components you do not need to Reactivate Windows.

Col

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