Gateway Celeron 366 MHz power supply? SFX?

Kwiet · Post by **Kwiet** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 11:29 pm

Was troubleshooting a friends computer (Gateway Celeron 366 -- no kidding)

Very odd little microATX box with the large, passive Slot 1 heat sink and a power supply sitting in front of it. Appears to be something from 1998 or 1999 vintage and it was "upgraded" and refused to boot past WinXP into the desktop. WinXP on a Celeron 366 with 256MB of SDRAM? It also has a wireless networking card to make it more amusing (I did not do the upgrades)

Noticed it had a nVidia 6200 128MB PCI card that bypassed the onboard video so I pondered if the 12V power supply rail was overloading. Here are the specs on the power supply

Newton Power Ltd.
Model NPS-90AB-1B Rev 00
+5V 10A
+3.3V 6.0A
+12V 1.5A (yes One Point Five Amps! No joke!)

Rating on power supply 90 Watts

Once I removed the video card, the system booted and operated fine. The point of the video card is so my friend's daughter and play one of the Sims games. It is obvious that the power supply needs to be replaced with something about 600% stronger on the 12 volt rail to support the video card and other upgrades (I will add another fan)

The odd-ball power supply is my problem. Is it an SFX or some proprietary Gateway craziness? I do know the 90W of DC muscle is very loud and pulls air across the Slot 1 passive heat sink so I want to quiet it down.

Anyone know about 1998/1999 Gateway microATX cases and the tiny power supplies they use? The little thing does not say MATX/AT/SFX or anything to identify if it uses a standard. Any help would be appreciated.

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 3:17 am

lol, a 1.5A 12v rail?

all i can say, is good luck

would it not be easyest just to replace the whole thing with a very low end sempron based system with everything built into the mobo so that it keeps costs at a minimum, and so you could use the 6200?

Kwiet · Post by **Kwiet** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 3:49 am

Krazy,
Yes it would, but it is a basic computer for her daughter to play around on. Maybe a cheapo something to throw together. I am not sure about her XP install though... this could get expensive quickly for the OS, memory, CPU, power supply and case.
Maybe I can force a $25 Fortron 180W SFX if I can re-configure the wiring or something.

I can't understand why a person would add XP, 256MB of SDRAM, wireless networking card, nVidia 6200 128MB PCI card, wireless keyboard, wireless mouse and a new 17" Sony LCD monitor to a 7 year old 366MHz Celeron Gateway... this is the weird world in which I live...

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:33 am

The only problem I forsee is that that motherboard probably uses an AT standard power supply. Anything you buy new, even if it fits physically, is going to be ATX.

I think your best bet would be to hunt around on eBay for a similar AT power supply with a stronger +12V rail.

Kwiet · Post by **Kwiet** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 8:37 am

Frosted,
Thanks for the tip, I'll check to motherboard connector to see if it is AT. Newegg sells a 230W AT power supply for $25 and it uses a 9A 12V rail so it would work with some modifications.
I could mount the power supply in the front of the case with the fan blowing out the front. Strap a 60mm fan to the passive heat sink and put a 5V fan in the back blowing in. It would reverse the flow of the case but it would work and cool the box better. I'll give it a shot and see what happens