# Gateway 2000 Solo 2300 laptop



## saa (Jan 17, 2009)

I have a Gateway 2000 Solo 2300 that had Windows 95. I bought it at an auction for $45.00 and don't want to put much more money in it. It did not come with any program disks or a users manual. I have been trying for some time to figure out how to put windows 98SE on it. I have the Windows 98SE program disk with the Product Key number from a computer that went bad and I threw away. It only has a CD Rom that I can use to copy files into the computer.

Since I did not have a boot disk for this laptop or a drive on the laptop that I could copy one to I downloaded a Windows 98SE OEM boot disk to my desktop and copied it to a CD to use in the laptop.

I then formated the hard drive on the laptop. I tried to start it up on its own and with the boot disk and with the 98SE disk, but now I only get a message that keeps saying; Invalid System Disk - Replace the Disk and then press any key. I went into the CMOS and it showed that it is suppose to startup by going to the CD ROM first.

Can anybody help me to get the laptop to go and to load the Windows 98SE on it? It only has 48 megs of RAM currently so I realize it will be somewhat slow until I put more RAM into it.

Really I only want the laptop to put in my kitchen for an extra computer to connect to the internet with. I need to have Windows 98SE on it though in order to connect to my internet provider. I live in the boondocks, so I am only able to have access to dial-up networking and I don't want to pay the high price for Satelite Internet at this time (I am waiting for the prices to come down or for when they finally get high speed internet via cable to my home)

Help

Thank you

Can anybody help me


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## SDFOX 7 (Apr 29, 2007)

There seems to be a lot of extra information here , but the problem seems to be here:



> I downloaded a Windows 98SE OEM boot disk to my desktop and copied it to a CD


Most boot disk programs require you to download the file and then execute it with the floppy disk in the drive. What you need to do, using a computer connected to the internet, is

1) Download Windows 98SE boot disk
2) Insert blank and formatted floppy in A:
3) Double-click the downloaded file,
4) The program will create the boot disk for you.

Then insert the created boot floppy into the laptop.

Disclaimer: You trust and download files from the internet at your own risk and I will not be responsible if you damage your system!

You did not mention if the laptop has a floppy. If not it can be difficult to do this as I don't believe the Solo 2300 can read bootable CD-ROMs.

For more information, see

Gateway Support - 3500412 Solo 2300 w/13.3" LCD (Revision Code D4.0) The user guides for this 13.3" model can be found here.

Gateway Support - 3500371 Solo 2300 w/12.1" LCD (Revision Code D1.0 - D3.2 The user guides for this 12.1" model can be found here.


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## TheOutcaste (Aug 8, 2007)

Welcome to TSG!



saa said:


> I went into the CMOS and it showed that it is suppose to startup by going to the CD ROM first.


 This would indicate that the laptop can boot to a properly formatted CD.



saa said:


> I downloaded a Windows 98SE OEM boot disk to my desktop and copied it to a CD to use in the laptop.
> 
> I then formated the hard drive on the laptop


Does this mean that you *were* able to boot with the CD you created? If not, how did you format the drive?



saa said:


> I need to have Windows 98SE on it though in order to connect to my internet provider.


This generally means that the ISP won't support an earlier OS, not that it won't work (unless you _have_ to use USB to connect to the modem).
If you use an Ethernet connection, any OS with TCP/IP installed can access the internet, so the Win95 OS that was installed would probably have worked just fine.

That said, upgrading to Win98SE would be a better choice.

HTH

Jerry


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