Someone dumped this off on me yesterday; said it's been in their basement over 20yrs and wanted it gone (along with a few other older PC's, but this one was the true relic). The fella said it stopped booting back in the late 90's, and it's been in the basement since.
Two issues I found that were booting killers for it; the Dallas RTC is bad (won't hold BIOS settings, but will keep the time/date...go figure) and the 1.2gb Quantum Fireball (furball) is bad (spins up, seems ok....and then out of the blue will spin down). The floppy is flaky (struggling to read; even after cleaning), and the 4x Mitsumi cdrom has not been tested. The system is otherwise functional. It was originally a Pentium classic @ 133MHz (as per the sub-model # of 5133). Someone tossed a 233MMX in it, but its limited to a multiplier of 3x; so only runs @ 200MHz. It had 8mb onboard RAM, I added a couple 64mb modules I had on hand to give it 128mb. It's weird, it shows the onboard 8mb memory, but when you add the modules, the POST count and the testing software only sees the modules.... Not a big deal really, just kind of strange.
Despite the filth, the case is in excellent condition, but the bezel was horribly yellowed and the 2x 5,25 bay covers are missing. I didn't take any 'before pics'....as I really didn't plan to build this one.....but something kept nagging at me....this is a pretty rare old system....so I started taking pics during testing & disassembly. I have a couple paths; originality or mild upgrading.... It annoys my OCD for there to be a 233MMX in it only running @ 200....the seat of my pants says to find an actual 200mmx or an original 133MHz. Either can be had for ~$10. I did order a new RTC for it. This system would be a fantastic candidate for a Voodoo1 upgrade; keeping it period-specific, and since the games that run on that aren't dependent upon the weaksauce onboard GPU (S3 Trio32 with 1mb dedicated memory). I could also convert it to SCSI, since it needs a HDD anyway. The PCI NIC shown is mine, I added that. Otherwise for communication it had nothing but a 28.8 Rockwell modem.
Anyway, this is what we're looking at:


The case shell cleaned.

Bezel in the 'soup'...

Coming apart and playing with some things; I was actually trying to get the CPU to run at full speed....but there's just no support for the 3.5x multiplier.

Nope....that was all she'd do...

Parts....

Apart and time to wash the case...the first PC case to be washed in the new sink. I did scratch it in a couple places....but that's the beauty of porcelain covered cast iron.....a little scouring powder, scratches come right out.....good as new!

Dried out.


Bezel whitened up nicely. It was horrible before... Flash on.

Flash off

Now for the drive cage.....and some decisions. Since the exterior bay covers were missing, I have to populate these bays with something......


I have these trays leftover from a previous build that didn't need them....but the color match isn't even close.

Flash off:

Then there's a beige supermicro tray; perfect color match....but I only have one remaining, and they're impossible to find in beige....so I'd have to add a second optical or maybe a 5.25 floppy drive (I don't have one).

I'll ponder this a few days.....I can't go any further until the RTC gets here.... With the system assembled, the RTC is difficult to get to....so I'm done until then.....
Stay tuned!
Two issues I found that were booting killers for it; the Dallas RTC is bad (won't hold BIOS settings, but will keep the time/date...go figure) and the 1.2gb Quantum Fireball (furball) is bad (spins up, seems ok....and then out of the blue will spin down). The floppy is flaky (struggling to read; even after cleaning), and the 4x Mitsumi cdrom has not been tested. The system is otherwise functional. It was originally a Pentium classic @ 133MHz (as per the sub-model # of 5133). Someone tossed a 233MMX in it, but its limited to a multiplier of 3x; so only runs @ 200MHz. It had 8mb onboard RAM, I added a couple 64mb modules I had on hand to give it 128mb. It's weird, it shows the onboard 8mb memory, but when you add the modules, the POST count and the testing software only sees the modules.... Not a big deal really, just kind of strange.
Despite the filth, the case is in excellent condition, but the bezel was horribly yellowed and the 2x 5,25 bay covers are missing. I didn't take any 'before pics'....as I really didn't plan to build this one.....but something kept nagging at me....this is a pretty rare old system....so I started taking pics during testing & disassembly. I have a couple paths; originality or mild upgrading.... It annoys my OCD for there to be a 233MMX in it only running @ 200....the seat of my pants says to find an actual 200mmx or an original 133MHz. Either can be had for ~$10. I did order a new RTC for it. This system would be a fantastic candidate for a Voodoo1 upgrade; keeping it period-specific, and since the games that run on that aren't dependent upon the weaksauce onboard GPU (S3 Trio32 with 1mb dedicated memory). I could also convert it to SCSI, since it needs a HDD anyway. The PCI NIC shown is mine, I added that. Otherwise for communication it had nothing but a 28.8 Rockwell modem.
Anyway, this is what we're looking at:
The case shell cleaned.
Bezel in the 'soup'...
Coming apart and playing with some things; I was actually trying to get the CPU to run at full speed....but there's just no support for the 3.5x multiplier.
Nope....that was all she'd do...
Parts....
Apart and time to wash the case...the first PC case to be washed in the new sink. I did scratch it in a couple places....but that's the beauty of porcelain covered cast iron.....a little scouring powder, scratches come right out.....good as new!
Dried out.
Bezel whitened up nicely. It was horrible before... Flash on.
Flash off
Now for the drive cage.....and some decisions. Since the exterior bay covers were missing, I have to populate these bays with something......
I have these trays leftover from a previous build that didn't need them....but the color match isn't even close.
Flash off:
Then there's a beige supermicro tray; perfect color match....but I only have one remaining, and they're impossible to find in beige....so I'd have to add a second optical or maybe a 5.25 floppy drive (I don't have one).
I'll ponder this a few days.....I can't go any further until the RTC gets here.... With the system assembled, the RTC is difficult to get to....so I'm done until then.....
Stay tuned!
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