I have an old Gateway 486 33mHz. It was working fine until a little while ago. The first thing that went wrong is the monitor. It has these lines at the top and the picture is totally distorted above a certain point. It is pretty old, and does anyone think it is an easy fix (not too expensive)? And second, the floppy drive was a dual 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 floppy (each had their own opening). It was working fine until a little while ago it stopped reading. The power is fine and it won't read in DOS either. Do those ever just die? It seems as though a lot of bad things are happening at once to this poor computer. Any suggestions on a monitor or floppy fix, or should I just get new? Thanks everybody.

Yeph throw it in nearest river and hope it don't hurt the fish

Dan, The problem with the display could be your monitor or the video card. Fix would be a new monitor ($5 to $40 used monitor or $130.00 for a new 15" SVGA monitor.) If your video card is dead or on the way out-$5 for a used video card, $35 for a new one. The problem with your floppy drive(s) could be a dead floppy drive or floppy drive controller. A new 3 1/2" floppy drive will cost you $15 and a new controller card will run about the same if you look around.

Thanks DR. I'll check it out right away. Thanks!

I think old gateways used a 65 watt power supply. A 486-33 is really old. If Monitor is bad, dispose of it by calling local epa people and finding a collection site. Best bet is new Monitor. Check prices for a new mother board with an up to date processor (500 mhz). Most of the Gateways I've seen have an essentially AT Form Factor. You will never be happy with a 486-33 unless you are running DOS based programs.