Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

[Hondaman]

I got a really nice computer find today. The guy just put it out to the trash. Looks like it *_could_* be a 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium-4, Compaq Evo, with a 40-gig Maxtor hard drive. Ram is 256 MB + 128 MB + 64 MB (three PC-133 sockets). Video is AGP, probably 16 or 32 megs. (Desktop case, a riser card gives me 2 PCI slots, unused at present).

14-pin connector on the mobo (not ATX) means the PSU is proprietary (175W, but it "looked good" inside, if that means anything). No bulging caps in the PSU. There are a few bulging caps on the mobo near the CPU however.

It says on the front "Designed for Windows 98" and "Designed for Win2000 Professional". But when I hooked it up, Windows Seven Ultimate started up! (I only have XP and linux here at home.)

Two questions:

1. Would it be very difficult to recap this? Which ones, or all of them? There are about 4 places for additional capacitors near the CPU that aren't even being used. Fill those as well? I've never soldered, but I'm willing to practice on some old boards.

2. Would it be possible to find out if this was a retail copy of Windows Seven or a VLK copy? It looks like it used to belong to a school district, so it could be a VLK. Please don't ban me, but what can I *_legally_* do (image the drive before I do anything)?

(The computer came with no discs, I didn't have time to ask the man who put it out. I had to get back in my car and get to work.)

(They never had that "get your high school education over the computer at home" when I was in school!)

3. Can I start Windows Seven in "safe mode" and start requiring a password, set up admin and regular user accounts, just like XP (and Linux)?


Good heavens, it's 8 AM. I have GOT to get to bed! Looking forward to any suggestions or hints. Thanks!

[ipman]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Which capacitors (brand) we are talking about here? They maybe good qulity ones, and if it works, why "repair" it?
The capacitors around the processor do the hardest work of all - high riple, high temperature.

[Hondaman]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

This is a Compaq D5S, or an Evo D500 series. Here:

http://h1800.www1.hp.com/products/qu...l#SelectModels

is the web page for these models.

Near the CPU, I have ten Nichicon HM(M) capacitors. Six are bulging. Several have rust-colored stuff on the top (vented). They are 2200 microfarads, 6.3 volts, 105 degrees C. It looks like space for 4 more capacitors has never been used.

Other motherboard capacitors look good. There are 3 Rubycon YXG, 1000 microfarads, 25 volts DC (manufactured the second week of 2002). Also there are about a dozen nichicon VZ(M) scattered around the board, 33 and 100 microfarads, 25 volts. One or two 1000 microfarad 10-volt capacitors that I think are a different brand. This doesn't include any PSU capacitors.

Should all the capacitors be replaced because of age?

(EDIT: When I first started it up, Windows asked me if I wanted to choose safe mode, do a normal start, startup with logging, etc. You don't suppose he trashed it because of flakiness, without realizing the capacitor problem was fixable?)

According to the HP/Compaq web page for this board, it can take up to a 2.2 GHz chip, and up to 3 GB of RAM (but PC-133 memory is always very costly). Interesting.

[dood]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Replace the HM(M)'s, and you should be good to go. Win 7 ultimate is NOT going to run well with 448mb RAM. That 40gb drive is going to be slow, too... You can tell what version of Windows it is by poking around in the registry for the product code.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

PC-133? EBAY. You can find tons of it for cheap. Get rid of that Maxtor hard drive too, the 40 gigs are crap. Otherwise it's going to run XP alright. I wouldn't put 7 on it. Some kind of light linux like Puppy would also work well, the latest version of Ubuntu is too heavy.

[lti]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

That computer isn't fast enough to be useful today. Everything is designed to take advantage of hardware found in high-end gaming computers. Anyone that doesn't want to spend $10,000 on a computer won't be able to view content that is displayed using Flash or Silverlight or use software that uses visual effects. In the past, software was designed to run well on almost any computer. The graphics quality in games and the functionality in all other software haven't improved since then.

I wonder how they were able to install Windows 7 on a computer with less than half of the required amount of RAM.

[dood]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

That computer isn't fast enough to be useful today.

I have to disagree with you there. Pop a gig of RAM in and a new, faster HD and it's very usable with XP. Half of our office are right around the same specs as this, only they're GX60's, 260's, 270's... etc.

Hell, I still drop XP on PIII 1ghz machines to use out in the plant. I don't like to put nice machines out there, as they just get packed with grease and dust.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Only thing I hate about some of those old SDRAM machines is that they will only recognize up to 256mb per stick.

Max out the ram, find a decent agp card, and pop in a serial ata adapter card and it should be good to go... at least for a net box or perhaps a file server.

But all in all, pretty much anything without PCI express is obsolete nowadays.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Looks like it *_could_* be a 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium-4, Compaq Evo, with a 40-gig Maxtor hard drive. Ram is 256 MB + 128 MB + 64 MB (three PC-133 sockets).
14-pin connector on the mobo (not ATX) means the PSU is proprietary

The PSU connector sounds like it may be the original AT-style plug (pre-1998!) (Likely a socket 7!)

(Likely means it's a P1!)

(If true then Windows 98 wasn't even released when it was made, lol)

I never saw a Compaq that was as proprietary as those DeskPro 386s! Where the RAM was proprietary!

[Hondaman]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Not fast enough to be useful today? An Athlon 1800 was my "daily driver" for a while -- ATI 9200 video, 768 RAM. Going with an older OS like Win98SE or Mandriva 2006/2008 would make sense here. It still has some decent "pop" on that hardware. Not sure what what chip is used for ethernet, though.

Okay, here's a link to the mobo that works:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/q...10946_div.HTML


I want to upgrade the video card on the Compaq. I'm not sure it's worth an SATA adapter though (I have several very, very low-hour IDE drives of various sizes).

This will probably be a learning experience in soldering and then networking. (it is not an AT PSU, it's proprietary. This is socket 462, and supposedly it can take PC-133 up to one Gig each).

Do you want me to keep you posted? Two or three months could be thread necromancy. And it could seriously take that long. Let me know.

[mariushm]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

I've bought 3 sata controllers from this seller on eBay:

http://stores.ebay.com/Safekom/SATA-...4&_sop=2&_sc=1

more exactly this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-eSata-S...item4836e0fe6e

They all arrived OK, they come with a cable and drivers on CD, they're great quality for the price (I can shoot a picture of one if you want)

For 10$ it's not a bad investment... but you'll probably find on Newegg or Amazon or somewhere else something just as cheap.

If it was my PC, I'd probably try to make it a silent one.

I'd consider buying a compact flash to IDE adapter and a 8 GB compact flash card and run Windows XP from it...

http://s.dealextreme.com/search/compact+flash+to+ide
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820139484

ps. you might want to check it... the motherboard supports up to 3 GB of memory using 1GB modules in each of those 3 slots but usually on most motherboards this was only possible with single sided memory modules. These were very expensive at the time so if you get them on eBay you'll probably get double sided memory modules...
It's a lot of if's and maybe's - personally I'd just get 512 MB modules and be done with it - 1.5 GB of memory is a reasonable amount for that hardware.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Yech, VIA controller. Garbage. Find a Silicon Image based one, I got mine for $20 off Newegg.

Is it the SFF version? If so, it would make a damn fine file server. I have a PIII Compaq Deskpro EN SFF machine that's been running as my torrent box/file server/VPN/print server for a few months now in my closet and its been great. Once you set up a mini home server like that there's no going back.

[lti]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

I should have said that it isn't fast enough for home use. There are many places where a similar computer would work fine, but it will suck for Web browsing.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Oh hell yeah.. looks like that board may support ECC ram. If so you might can find some 1gb dimms cheeeeap. Slap a fast celery CPU on it, and if it has a universal AGP slot you can pretty much stick whatever cheap card you can find in it with a DVI port. If you can find a geforce 6200 or 6600 for around $20 in theory it should enable directx video acceleratoin.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Yech, VIA controller. Garbage. Find a Silicon Image based one, I got mine for $20 off Newegg.

Funny - i have both and my experience has been the other way round... The Silicon Image kept pausing (hanging the entire system) for almost 1 minute whenever there was sustained HDD activity for a long while, like defragmenting. No problems with the VIA-based.

[Topcat]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

That computer isn't fast enough to be useful today.

I too have to disagree. While 7 isn't anything I'd want on it, XP or Linux will be fine. I'd toss a little more RAM at it and maybe upgrade the HDD to something larger and a bit snappier, but the computer itself will be just fine for use...even by today's standards. It won't be doing any high-end gaming or rendering applications, but for a web browsing, emailing and word processing machine, it will be plenty fast enough.

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

I too have to disagree. While 7 isn't anything I'd want on it, XP or Linux will be fine. I'd toss a little more RAM at it and maybe upgrade the HDD to something larger and a bit snappier, but the computer itself will be just fine for use...even by today's standards. It won't be doing any high-end gaming or rendering applications, but for a web browsing, emailing and word processing machine, it will be plenty fast enough.

Actually all the flash based advertising nowadays will totally bog such a slow system down if left unchecked.. at least if a person is anything like me. I usually keep open at least 10+ tabs at any one time so I can bounce back and forth between websites without having to constantly navigate in the same window.

To combat this I found an app called Toggle Flash that lets you turn on and off flash with one click. It has a small icon in the upper right hand corner next to the pull down menus for IE settings. The only problem is the writer of the program did not think or know how to change the icon to where it would indicate whether or not flash was turned off or on which can be a bit annoying. Now if I could just find a good antitoolbar app that automagically nukes them whenever one tries to install in addition to my antivirus and antimalware programs I should be good to go for a while.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Now if I could just find a good antitoolbar app that automagically nukes them whenever one tries to install in addition to my antivirus and antimalware programs I should be good to go for a while.

Opera...

[Evil Lurker]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?



Sadly there are not much to choose from...

[ratdude747]

Re: Compaq Evo 1.7 GHz - a nice project?

Some kind of light linux like Puppy would also work well, the latest version of Ubuntu is too heavy.

well, the latest version of ubuntu is trash anyway. Maybe debian would be a good choice- it does well on older hardware and has a lot of the perks that ubuntu has without the bloat and bull. Only beef is they are usually slow to accept new software versions... Gnome 3 is a long ways off in the debian world (hence why i use fedora for my laptop instead).

I agree- fileserver it.

it has a *cough* williamette cpu... at least it is not socket 423... but any p4 pre-northwood is junk IMHO... only marginally better than a newer pIII but uses a lot more power.