Post your system.......

[lti]

Re: Post your system.......

I am trying to play games that only run under Windows 95/98. Also, that computer's onboard video can not be disabled. The Compaq has the best graphics chip. The Gateway has poor 2D video performance and the HP does not display 3D graphics or resolutions below 800x600 properly.

[ratdude747]

Re: Post your system.......

I am trying to play games that only run under Windows 95/98. Also, that computer's onboard video can not be disabled.

pci video card? or did compaq only allow that on the deskpro?

[lti]

Re: Post your system.......

I did install a PCI video card and both the onboard video and the PCI card displayed an image at the same time. However, games ran slower, Windows claimed that the SiS 5598 driver files were missing, and 3D graphics caused the computer to freeze.

[ratdude747]

Re: Post your system.......

I did install a PCI video card and both the onboard video and the PCI card displayed an image at the same time. However, games ran slower, Windows claimed that the SiS 5598 driver files were missing, and 3D graphics caused the computer to freeze.

considering that it has SIS graphics, I am not surprised.

Back then, presarios were crap... some even had cardboard air ducts!

[c_hegge]

Re: Post your system.......

compaq presarios are still junk to this day.

[ratdude747]

Re: Post your system.......

compaq presarios are still junk to this day.

the Athlon and pIII systems with amd chipsets were not bad after a recap.

the 5000 (amd) had stripped down FIC boards... they still had 3 pc133 slots and AGP. used to have one, was traded for an Emachine with an intel board.

The intel based 5000? junk. no AGP (4x pci), 2 sdram slots, meh.

the 7000 was weird... the PIII version had a board of unknown OEM (Elise 2) but was reliable after a recap. In fact, one was my first successful recap. my only beef with the pIII was that they used tiny foxconn coolers... good fans, tiny heatsink. that, and the boards had no 512mb pc133 module support (bios issue, chipset could handle it).

If I only knew who made the ELISE 2 board...

pic:



its not my pic... but see what I mean about the bad caps and tiny stock cooler?

the plus was that it had 4 usb and 2 firewire by default (evenly split front and back). the minus is the usb header uses a bizzare pinout identical to the oddball FIC amd board in the 5000.

also, this board has an weird connector for what my research tells me is some kind of lcd front panel... only seen this mentioned once so i don't know about the validity of it .

edit- I also found the poorly written service manual for it...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Post your system.......

If I only knew who made the ELISE 2 board...

Mitac
http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/mo.../Mitac/6513VX/

.
Fan should be fine for P-III. - Plenty of fins there if you have a good fan.
Other than the 800 and 866 Coppermine-T all the socket 370 CPUs were 33 watts or less - including Tualatin 'S' versions.
- That's less TDP than the T7700 in your laptop.

You do want a good fan on it though.
Some cheap P-III coolers come with crap 10 CFM fans. [Junk]
.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Post your system.......

Years ago my brother gave me a way over clocked AMD/K6/2 PC. He had ditched the little CPU fan all together. He had cut a hole on the side of the case and mounted a large case fan blowing directly on the CPU heat sink. It worked great for a few months then I killed it. The large fan went bad and I kept running the PC. It lasted and hour or so then the CPU burnt out. Got to keep those fans a blowing you know.

[lti]

Re: Post your system.......

I haven't seen a Compaq that worked properly. They were always slow and unstable.

This computer originally had a Cyrix MII CPU and a big passive heatsink. I reused the heatsink and added a fan. The fan is powered by a homemade fan controller based on a Microchip TC648B IC with a temperature alarm.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Post your system.......

Mitac is the parent company of Tyan so if that board doesn't run good it's probably the POS Compaq BIOS.
.

[Ami Sapphire]

Re: Post your system.......

I haven't seen a Compaq that worked properly. They were always slow and unstable.

I had to work on one a few years ago. It was exactly as you stated. It wasn't even mine, but this is what I wanted to do to it:

[ratdude747]

Re: Post your system.......

Mitac
http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/mo.../Mitac/6513VX/

.
Fan should be fine for P-III. - Plenty of fins there if you have a good fan.
Other than the 800 and 866 Coppermine-T all the socket 370 CPUs were 33 watts or less - including Tualatin 'S' versions.
- That's less TDP than the T7700 in your laptop.

You do want a good fan on it though.
Some cheap P-III coolers come with crap 10 CFM fans. [Junk]
.

the board is cumine only... and the lin-lin is not bootable.

no bios anywhere... so it is stuck at max 768mb.

the stock cooler was gutted years ago... I put the fan on a pII cooler used on an athlon classic.

[holmes222]

Re: Post your system.......

E5300 oc'ed @3,4ghz
ASUS P5E X38 mod to RAMPAGE FORMULA bios
4x512mb DDR2 ECC PC5300
Galaxy 9800GX2
ZEUS 850W -ST85ZF
Samsung 19" LCD
2x80GB raid0 2,5" seagate momentus 5400.3
1,5TB WDC Grenn Storage

no case ..for better airflow

you realize that that motherboard has no ECC support. Your ram might have it, but its not being used

yea..doesn't matter ..no spare memory kit here

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

Here's the Pentium 3 computer at my grandmother's house in the countryside:

- 933 MHz Intel Pentium 3 Coppermine @ 133 MHz FBS
- Gigabyte GA-60XT ATX motherboard (Socket 370)
- 512 MB SDRAM @ 133 MHz (2x 128 MB and 1x 256 MB)
- ATI Radeon 7200 with 64 MB video RAM
- 1x 17 GB Seagate ST317221A, 1x 20 GB Maxtor 5T020H2 (Diamondmax VL-40)
- Yamaha DS-XG (DS1x??) PCI audio
- LG CED-8080B CD-RW (W @ 8x, RW @ 4x, R @ 32x)
- 250W Deer DR-250ATX (partially recaped, most voltages are spot-on ATX specification)
- HP A4032A 17" CRT monitor (Sony Trinitron M41KKA16X - very old, manufactured in 1994 - made to last)
- Windows XP SP2

I think this is the only computer that I don't change the hardware that often. Then again, I only go there for a few weeks every year, and that's when I usually use it.

One thing I absolutely love about this computer is the audio. That Yamaha audio card has a built-in amp - probably a TDA1517 or something similar because the audio output can be turned very very LOUD. At just quarter volume (half Master, half Wave), my headphones sound like speakers and I can't keep them over my years (they are old, over-the-head type, not some crappy earbuds). Not only that, but the bass output is excellent. So far, I haven't actually found any audio card that can output this kind of bass (perhaps SB cards can?). The audio quality is great as well and many times better than most integrated audio ones I've heard.
If I could find another of those Yamaha audio cards, I'd definitely buy it.

The case, on the other hand, is the most disappointing item about this computer. It actually has a good internal layout and visually looks okay, but what good is that when the steel it's made from is no thicker than a tin can. Add to that lots of sharp edges around every corner. The hardware that came with the case was also rather disappointing - lots of M3 screws for the 5.25" drives, but only a few for hard drives. Even worse, there were only 2 metal standoffs for the motherboard - the rest were all plastic stand-offs. As a result, I got some minor garbage sounds in my audio until I installed more metal stand-offs.
If you see a case like this or one from the same manufacturer (the logo looks like a yin yang symbol), definitely avoid it.

I included a few pics of the computer (taken this summer). I think this will be its final look. It hasn't changed much other than the LG CED-8080B CD-RW drive that I added this summer (along with the 20 GB Maxtor and a 128 MB stick). It probably would stay like this for a few more years if not more.

By the way, the LG CD drive is also a favorite of mine. It's very quiet and reads everything I throw at it - even stuff that other drives may not be able to read. Never got a coaster from it, either.
I got this one for free on Craigslist because the belt for the tray mechanism was missing. I found a rubber band that fit and the drive has been working fine for 2 years now.
I have another one in a different computer that I have been using for even longer. Same results, though - quiet and reliable drive.

no case ..for better airflow

Nice. Just don't sneeze or bring any drinks near it.
By the way, for the metal piece that holds the motherboard is installed in - was that part of a normal case that you cut out? If so, that's a really neat idea, especially for testing motherboards.

[ratdude747]

Re: Post your system.......

By the way, for the metal piece that holds the motherboard is installed in - was that part of a normal case that you cut out? If so, that's a really neat idea, especially for testing motherboards.

I did have one of those once...

what I did was I had the large removable mobo plate from an old atx case and I put the standoffs in backwards, securing them to the plate with screws. that way I could set the board on it quickly.

I stole the front panel I/O a long time ago... I still have the plate somewhere.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Post your system.......

- 250W Deer DR-250ATX

That's the same one I had with my Athlon 900 Mhz! (Used from 2001 to July, 2002. )

Then when I inspected it one day, a while after I stopped using it, the caps looked fine, but saw darkening around what appears to be resistors.

[momaka]

Re: Post your system.......

That's the same one I had with my Athlon 900 Mhz! (Used from 2001 to July, 2002. )
Then when I inspected it one day, a while after I stopped using it, the caps looked fine, but saw darkening around what appears to be resistors.

Those are the minimum load resistors - very common on cheap PSUs. I removed them for the very same reason. They aren't quite useless since they provide a minimum load and stabilize the outputs, but they heat up so bad, I'm sure they do more damage than good. In my case, the wires on the 3.3v rail were scorched. Not sure how the caps next to that one survived. Regardless, I changed those resistors with the following:
47 Ohm on the 3.3v rail, 150 Ohm o 5v rail, and 2x 1 kOhm in parallel on 12v rail. The rest were okay IIRC.

[holmes222]

Re: Post your system.......

Nice. Just don't sneeze or bring any drinks near it.
By the way, for the metal piece that holds the motherboard is installed in - was that part of a normal case that you cut out? If so, that's a really neat idea, especially for testing motherboards.

he2..
yup ..thats the part of normal case from old desktop ..cut it into small part only for accomodate motherboard ..inspired by expensive bench table ..whahaha

I did have one of those once...

what I did was I had the large removable mobo plate from an old atx case and I put the standoffs in backwards, securing them to the plate with screws. that way I could set the board on it quickly.

I stole the front panel I/O a long time ago... I still have the plate somewhere.

nice ..caseless cpu

[ratdude747]

Re: Post your system.......

nice ..caseless cpu

It was a test board... nothing permanent.

[ncovert]

Re: Post your system.......

You may have seen my earlier post, but you will be happy to know I have retired both of those machines. Now, here is my main pc specs:
My main PC: Intel D875PBZ desktop board, 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 HT, 2GB DDR RAM (4x 512MB Dual Channel), WDC WD2500JD SATA HD (primary), WDC WD800JD SATA HD (secondary), HP dvd640 LightScribe DVD+RW drive, ATi Radeon 9000 64MB AGP, SB Live Value, Thermaltake Purepower 350W, all housed in a beat up Antec SX1030b case (black with side window) OS: Windows XP MCE 2005
Yeah, I'm not THAT rich...