LGR - Restoring a 1999 Gateway Essential 450 PC

That sponsorship bit was a bit jarring, haven't seen you do those before... if you must have a sponsor it would be nice if the intro wasnt quite so long. Great video otherwise!

Saybur

Good to know!

LGR

Yep that's an original Gateway quality seal sticker :)

Nice! It's oddly satisfying to bring otherwise unloved machines like that back to life. A little TLC goes a long way.

LGR

I also recommend calabrese salami.

LGR

This gave me flashbacks to an eMachine that I cleaned up in 2005. It was purchased in 1999 by a family in a dusty environment with lots of pets and three heavy indoor smokers. The poor power supply had scorch marks in it, the hard drive was completely toast (likely from dust buildup on the platters), and the CPU fan was clogged solid with a mix of tar and pet hair. One new power supply, a new CPU fan, and a lot of cleaning later, and that poor little computer ran for another four years as a "Grandma box" for a family friend before I put it out of its misery!

Bryan McIntosh

AHHH, this must be the big project thats been slowing down your uploads. i think ile grab my Dr.peper, pocket knife, home made and smoked block of cheese, and box of crackers with this one. if only i had some bear bologna to go with this episode.

Mmmmmm computer dust

Myles MAN

I have one of these machines on my work bench. Making the ultimate windows 98 gaming PC with what the shop has on hand. Going to do the CF hard drive for as it has external access.

Brandon Mingo

I cycle past an old Gateway factory on the way to work every day. Really makes me nostalgic for my teenage years when a Gateway computer was the dream machine. Factory still has the Gateway sign, and cow patterned reception building. A logistics company uses the warehouse bit now, the rest of it has been empty for years.

Brian Condron

Ian/brutalmoose has confirmed on a recent stream that this PC is on his way, and I'm super pumped for it! Maybe you can ask him do extra footage of him opening up and be amazed at how cool it is, in a cheesy renovation reality TV show style ;) But as is, an excellent video all around, always great to look at old ful retro PC builds :)

You should actually install a fighter jet simulator on it, so that you're able to shoot down the plane that flies above you all of the time (at least virtually). That would be a great way to take out some frustration!

Mark Tbom

A very relaxing video for a Friday night! Great way to just unwind after a week of work.

Mark Tbom

you could see the screw on the back of the case holding the bar in place :)

Ben O'Hara

I thoroughly enjoy these types of videos! Always satisfying to watch things come together. Also quite interesting to see Need for Speed High Stakes run at an appropriate framerate, after having always played the awkward PS1 version back then, heh. Almost makes me want to track it down some time.

Cetega

Noooo! That's what I was shouting at the screen when you thought you had to take the hard drive caddy back off. And then did :P I had a 450 as a kid and came to know that case very well. Turns out that long metal brace has a single standard screw on the end of it holding it to the case. You can unscrew it, hook it onto the hard drive caddy, and then screw it back into the case. That's okay, though. I didn't realize it the first time either. Also, shouting at the screen isn't very effective at warning "past you" while filming this video. But if I could warn past you about one thing, it'd probably be about that damn plane that's going to be flying overhead while you record.

Eric Barch

Ha! Yeah that's how it's turned out. I think this is the seventh project I've done for another YouTuber. It's fun stuff.

LGR

Left those bits in mainly for comedic effect. Things going unpredictably wrong is usually amusing, I've found ;)

LGR

I wouldn't have noticed unless you had pointed out the planes. I know you'd rather not have that messing up your audio, but it doesn't bother me! I guess because I grew up under an airplane route. I had a hundred planes a day flying over as they circled to land.

Andrew Paul

LGR, vintage tech dealer to the YouTube stars.

Cowbox-y or Cowbox-it?

Steve Lovelace

Truth. Although these days, YouTube is lucky if they ARE clean on the outside.

LGR

Those gloves do make me feel a bit like a hitman.

LGR

Now this is my kind of video sir and that's vintage dust. What are you doing? Thats ebay money right there. Dude, those black gloves are scary. Thought you were going to butcher that PC Dexter style 😁 A job well done sir. Job well done.

Deckard Games

Clean on the outside, filthy on the inside. Youtube can certainly relate.

I love these type of videos!!! <3

Akselmo

This was almost the exact same PC I was using between 1999 and 2001, except we had a 600 MHz P3 and we might've had 128 MB of RAM instead of 64 MB but I don't recall exactly. The hard drive died from one of the chips literally melting down after only nine months though and Gateway refused to replace it without us giving the old drive back... I still have the old drive in case I ever get a chance to get the data recovered as I was only two weeks away from completing an RPG I was making in MegaZeux. We ultimately gave the PC to my sister in the mid 2000s, but from that point forwards I have no idea where it ended up. :P

Kris Asick

Only had a handful made for my own projects. For now anyway, we'll see about the future :)

LGR

Woooaahhh where can I get an LGR sticker?

Cyclone

Weird indeed, all are playing fine on my end and I haven't had any other reports of errors!

LGR

Oh man, that Voodoo card looks like it's cooked too! Definitely some PCB discoloration from heat. (typed right before I hit 14:10) It's a flaw in this case design. It really, REALLY needs that 80mm fan in the spot on the back.

Carey Brown

I have a small air strip a couple of miles from my home and some jackass goes out every weekend and for a couples hours just flies back and forth, literally doing loops and rolls and stuff. We all know how it will end for him, but in the meantime I have to hear what you heard literally every weekend. Anyways I enjoyed the video and the plane sound just made me feel it's a Saturday, so that's good!

Chris Munch

Any day with a new LGR computer restoration video is a good day. Watching you make an old PC new again is ridiculously soothing, thanks!

Another great video about a computer, thanks again. The most enjoyable videos are about computers. Tech tales are pretty good too, any of those coming up?

Second time in the past couple weeks that the video won’t play for me. The nick camera video worked fine but the empire earth video never worked in Patreon (had to wait until it went public). Weird.

Joon Choi

Anyone happen to notice the dust raining down after the first boot?

Chris Marshall

ah man.. that was nostalgic back to when I worked in IT .. i opened up so many of those Gateways back in the day.. And I completely agree about the cases.. ugh! those stupid cages

Evan B

I love these restoration videos. They make me want to get off my ass and clean up my old Dimension.

Robert Launder

Suction and electronics typically do not mix, especially from that type of vacuum. Potential for unwanted static charge and all that.

LGR

Glad you enjoyed it!

LGR

Why blowy and no sucky? The brush attachment on a vacuum would have got more of that dust away. Or did you have another reason? (too fine dust for your vacuum, didn’t want to dirty the attachment, etc.)

Bastien Nocera

Great video Clint, just the thing for my day off!

Thanks!

LGR

That is intentional. A joke edit cutting off the swearing :P

LGR

In my experience it's been the opposite, at least with the modern boards. The current crop of SD interfaces have been much more stable and predictable than CF for my HDD replacement purposes. Less picky with what cards you can use, easier setup and installation, and more reliable reading/writing of files in DOS and earlier versions of Windows. Plus, the media is cheaper!

LGR

Don't think you care, but just in case you're curious, JAWS is adaptive software for the blind or Visually impaired. I went to a blind school and it was on every computer with another software called ZoomText, which is what I used for the longest time. Now I use MAGic.

Vaggumon

Maybe it’s me, but there’s a weird cut at about 19:13

Rudo de Jong

I'd be interested in a comparison between Compact Flash and SD cards as retro harddrive replacement, the former having a native IDE interface, and the latter being notoriously unreliable. Any experiences?

Alexander Gräf

Great video

Eh me too, I gave up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LGR

Yeah you'd think it would've been more standardized even back then. Though on low-mid range systems like this one I can understand them just doing whatever to cut costs

LGR

I've laughed at the part about being "tired of screwing" way too much. I'm supposed to be a mature adult now...

Frederic St-Georges

👀

LGR

"LGR Gives a Gateway a Spa Day" isn't a bad alternate title, ha. Yeah those Destinations are monsters! Talked about it briefly in this video :) <a href="https://youtu.be/rqyoO4eajXo?t=237" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/rqyoO4eajXo?t=237</a>

LGR

That is a weird case fan layout. I don't really understand why not everything uses the server/workstation full front&gt;back style to be honest...

JennaKay

I love watching guys screw... On hardware...

Alyxx the Rat

Another awesome restoration video! My wife commented on this while I was watching it, "It's like the computer is having a spa day!" haha This reminds me of the Gateway PCs we had in High School. They were pretty new at the time. Although our class unfortunately had some of the lower end models. I do have a huge Destination TV PC, that was paired with a giant CRT (which I don't have), it has a lot of video I/O and was designed to act like a VCR or do video editing too. This was similar to our teacher's PC which was higher end. I'll see if I can restore it one day. Although I doubt it'll fit on my desk!

Mac84

Thanks, happy you enjoyed!

LGR

There are two fans, yes.

LGR

are you sure there aren't two fans on that PSU? one blowing out as exhaust from the back and one on the bottom of the PSU blowing down over the CPU?

Justin Laughlin

Man so many great memories of playing NFS:HS in 99/2000, The first game I learnt how to install mods on to get different car models. Fantastic stuff! Nice job sir!

Mat Cooper

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm confident he'll make great use it of it and keep it far less dust-covered.

LGR

Oh how I wish I knew. Cuz I'd call to file a noise complaint or something, haha

LGR

What was up with that plane constantly flying overhead? I mean, I hear the occasional plane flying overhead sometimes but never to the degree that pilot was doing. Otherwise, loved the vid.

I love seeing old equipment getting restored to their former luster. And it's good to know the Moose of Brutal will have a solid Win 98 PC. That Voodoo 3 card though... so much dust. D8

The Enforcer

<a href="https://i.imgur.com/YsbKHg1.gif" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.imgur.com/YsbKHg1.gif</a>

LGR

The retro computing equivalent of manna from heaven. ಠ_ಠ

LGR

I will not name the YouTuber, but yes it's BrutalMoose :P

LGR

Clint, are you a closet magician? That trick around 1:38 with the paper really makes me think so

Tim

Oh how I miss those Gateway Country stores. So many awesome machines with so much brand spankin' new software and peripheral thingies to play with.

LGR

💖

LGR

Always wanted to try out one of those Cyrix alternatives from that era. It'll happen someday I'm sure, I've come across a bunch of their older CPUs.

LGR

I'm great at keeping things under wraps.

LGR

LGR: life restoration potion +100

LGR

Relatable, hehe. Loved scrounging computer shows for bargains on neat hardware and software that was only outdated by a couple years! I miss those days.

LGR

Loved the video! I remember these so well, but couldn't possibly afford them. Instead, I crammed together all the cheapest parts I could scrounge at computer shows in town and made my own. Good times!

Your restore videos give me life

ADesertCottontail

-boots computer -dust cascades from the 'bove

Ezra Knickelbine

Is this for brutalmoose or is that a coincidence? Anyway, looking forward to the video

Also, one of the reasons I love these videos is that we can see the cleaning process, which makes me feel better about my own processes. I was always taught that looking at an old video card wrong could damage them, but they are WAY more resilient than I gave them credit for, and really scrubbing htem down is a good thing, if done right.

Zem Hysong

My first computer (in the late '90's) was a Gateway Celeron shorty tower, Windows 98, Compuserve, Earthlink, pretty basic, but it did the job. I gave it away to my father-in-law and I believe it still runs...man Gateway had a pretty good run.

John Piscopo

That is one of the upcoming edits I'm referring to in the post. Thanks though!

LGR

I love old hardware! BTW, the name of the lady who owned the computer is visible when you open the System properties window. Perhaps you should blur that for privacy?

Antonio M Buonomo

I literally laughed so hard I almost choked when you didn't name the YouTuber.

Zem Hysong

I don't think I ever had a Pentium 3 machine. I had a Cyrix 6x86MX (Pentium 1 equivalent), a Pentium 2, and then right to a Pentium 4.

Eric Siegel

I like all LGR vids, but this... this is what I love.

I'm having flashbacks to my days working retail at Computer City and my friend Jamie that worked at the Gateway retail stores 👍

Phil Sowers