Cheap computers, I hate them. This particular unit is a Gateway 500 Series Computer, circa 2002. It was cheap. Besides the price, the next indicator of quality (or lack thereof) was that it came loaded with Windows XP Home Edition instead of XP Professional.
The owner brought it to me on Friday because it was dead. She wanted to know if I could fix it or if she needed a new computer. Now, you know I’m not a salesman since I told her I would look at; chances are it’s the power supply. (Some people buy another new PC at this point; yes, you guessed it, another cheap computer.)
Turns out, Gateway saved themselves all of about a $1.50 by configuring this model with a whopping 160 watt power supply; and this is a full tower PC. I have had units like this underpowered gem fail to boot up after adding a second hard drive for the sole purpose of upgrading the hard drive and cloning the old onto the new. 160 watts is barely enough to power the unit out of the factory door, let alone add another device. So much for expandability.
This unit I salvaged by installing a used 300 watt power supply that had the right connectors. 300 watt is the smallest output power supply I have EVER put in a PC. New I think they might have gone for about $35, retail.
The problem with finding such a cheap power supply in a cheap computer like this is that it is an indicator of just how bad the manufacturer is trying to cut costs. Where else do they skimp on quality? Answer – Everywhere. Cheap, slow (5400 rpm) Maxtor hard drives, cheap floppy drives, slow (PC2100) RAM. This unit came configured with all of 128MB of RAM. Turn it on and go do something else for a while.
Cheap is as cheap does. Avoid it, I say.
The good news is that I gave her the power supply on the condition she would buy 512MB RAM for under $50 from Crucial.com, my preferred memory source. She can probably get another year or two out of this PC with a little TLC, and enjoy using it a whole lot more.
