VOGONS


Reply 21 of 34, by Fasterpast

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It's small... About 14". Otherwise it's like any of the 96's CRT monitors.
Here is mobo: http://keygen-fm.ru/cpq/cpq7.jpg
There are only 2 ISA and 1 PCI on the riser and 4 SIMMs (8mb intergrated into MB). Also S3 have only 1mb of RAM and MPEG riser for S3 Scenic, but it's kinda compaq unique pinout, so I can't find MPEG module for it =(
Old 6x CD-ROM works and sounds great =) So I don't want to change it. And same thing with HDD. I replaced all HDDs with SSDs in my modern PCs but the "noise" of Quantum thing remembers me about "old good times" etc ))) Maybe I will change my mind later.

Reply 22 of 34, by vetz

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I've been giving it some thought, but what do you guys think of putting this machine back to stock?

Yes, its fun to see what kind of speed and upgrades I can push out of this machine, but it is my childhood computer. I have other systems that can handle the games that require more CPU power. Putting it back to 1997 setup would be kind of fun, with Win95 and period software. Just for nostalgia reasons.

This would just work for 1997 and some 1998 games. I used this machine up until 2000, but by then most games were unplayable and I don't want to go back to that. For instance I played Dungeon Keeper 2 on this system back in 1999, but it was a sluggish experience. Today with the AMD K6-III it is actually playable (by my modern standards). So do I keep the upgrades so I can play _all_ the games in better, more acceptable framerate than what I used to play back in the days, or do I take it back to stock and focus on the good times of 1997 when all games ran smooth like hell?

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 23 of 34, by chinny22

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I say do it.
You have the BX pc which can do everything this pc can do, and probably do it better.
and you can get that warm happy feeling knowing that your childhood PC is also available to jump on

Reply 24 of 34, by vetz

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chinny22 wrote:

I say do it.
You have the BX pc which can do everything this pc can do, and probably do it better.
and you can get that warm happy feeling knowing that your childhood PC is also available to jump on

Yeah.

I gotta find the original CD-ROM, but that shouldn't be too hard. Finding a new Compaq PS/2 mouse I don't think should be too hard either. I got the rest of the parts laying around. Still in doubt if I should switch back to the old Quantum 5.25" harddrive. Its noisy and slow 😜

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 25 of 34, by ODwilly

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I have found the old Bigfoot's to be terrible Windows drives, but the lower capacity ones make fantastic 3.11 drives in a 486. Just make sure you have enough ram so that Windows doesnt have to swap memory from the hard drive if you are using 9x on one. That gets messy and slow as heck.

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 26 of 34, by vetz

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ODwilly wrote:

I have found the old Bigfoot's to be terrible Windows drives, but the lower capacity ones make fantastic 3.11 drives in a 486. Just make sure you have enough ram so that Windows doesnt have to swap memory from the hard drive if you are using 9x on one. That gets messy and slow as heck.

The computer was originally delivered with a 2.1GB Bigfoot, 32MB SDRAM and Win95, so going 3.11 is not an option if its going to stay original.

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 27 of 34, by ODwilly

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Pretty cool restore! sorry I just meant that is how I have found to effectively utilize spare Bigfoots. We had a compaq that shipped with 64mb of ram and either a p2 or a Celeron that used a 12gb bigfoot. It was amazing how fast that machine was when it got maxed out to 384mb and a 450 p3 found its way in there at some point. That was my sister's computer for a solid decade and ran xp just fine!

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 28 of 34, by Shyzah

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Just posted my presario 4784 sleeper. Not done with it yet but I think you presario fans might like it. Something you dont see everyday...
40567883965_9be99e28dd_b.jpgCompaq Presario Sleeper 4712 Progress! by Shyzah, on Flickr
oh and if you're willing to sell your front panel i might buy it. I need another donor computer. I need to make my cuts prettier. This was my first build ever, not so perfect underneath.

Last edited by Shyzah on 2020-03-27, 05:19. Edited 1 time in total.

What's life without a turbo?

Reply 29 of 34, by Radical Vision

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Too bad the first post miss the pictures... Yet compaq have really strange computers, the last one with the speakers looks like viper 🤣...
Too bad HP did buy Compaq...

Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088

Reply 31 of 34, by Radical Vision

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Veeeeeery nicee for the eyes and the keyboard seems from the same series so nice, the Compaq Viper series i will call it....
Only one thing missing Compaq monitor and Compaq mice...

As i can see you are very big fan of Compaq as well, me too enjoy that Compaq stuff.
I did remove most of the Compaq Deskpro EN parts, as i hate the damn PGA 370, so i installed inside way better Pentium II and Gigabyte board, with TNT Pro, AWE 64 and Quantum FireBall....

https://imgur.com/a/jUmfz

https://imgur.com/a/rqkBh

https://imgur.com/a/Y7lKP

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Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088

Reply 33 of 34, by Radical Vision

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They are very well build, specially the one from the photo, it have big steel plate and is heavy (not like IBM Model M of course), but the sound that it makes is nothing special... Im looking for mechanical Compaq keyboard, so far nothing...

Now this Compaq (Mitsumi) keyboard is special, it is rubber, but the quality of the plastic is great when you touch it, also it is build in Ireland, and when you press the keys faster and hit them harder the keyboard have unique sounding...
I like to collect hardware that is build in different places then Asia, like this Ireland Keyboard, i have also DELL Latitude made there, and some PII processors, or AMD Slot A made in USA, or ELSA video card made in France, or RAM sticks Infineon made in Italy, or IBM Model M made in UK, or Cherry Keyboard made in Germany (i was pisst off when i did found it is G83 rubber instead of mechanical G80...) ..

Compaq Mitsumi front.jpg
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Compaq Mitsumi back56474.jpg
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Mah systems retro, old, newer (Radical stuff)
W3680 4.5/ GA-x58 UD7/ R9 280x
K7 2.6/ NF7-S/ HD3850
IBM x2 P3 933/ GA-6VXD7/ Voodoo V 5.5K
Cmq P2 450/ GA-BX2000/ V2 SLI
IBM PC365
Cmq DeskPRO 486/33
IBM PS/2 Model 56
SPS IntelleXT 8088

Reply 34 of 34, by dinosword

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vetz wrote on 2012-07-31, 13:48:
Thought it was time for me to make a thread in here :) Wall of text / lots of photos incoming! […]
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Thought it was time for me to make a thread in here 😀 Wall of text / lots of photos incoming!

The background of this computer is like many other vintage computer, it has some notalgia value for me. This is the original computer I played all most of my games in the late nineties. My father was given this computer for free from his work in the beginning of 1997 and it was the main family computer all up until january of 2000. I then got myself a brand new computer, but my father kept it as his personal one all up until 2004 when it had become too slow for all the internet website cluthering. You can say that flash killed this machine. When he got a new one it stood almost unused for some years until I recently took it out, did some more upgrades and put it into use as my main DOS / early Win9x computer.

Lets take a look at the original specs. It came with:

  • Intel MMX 166mhz processor
    32MB of SDRAM (2x16MB and 16 of them being integrated in the MB)
    2MB S3 Trio64V+ (integrated)
    ESS Audiodrive 1888 (integrated)
    16X CD-ROM drive
    33.6k ISA modem
    2.1GB 5.25 inch Quantum Bigfoot harddrive (click for photo)

Eight years later and I have aquired the same computer, and my story is pretty much the same as yours. 😀 My mother got the same computer from work at around the same time. I still had my 486 DX33 and this was a monster beyond imagination! Did your father work at a national oil company by any chance?

I've been failing to set up SD/CF card hard drives, so I ended up with a 3.5 inch 8ish GB disk, and managed to install Windows 98 UBCD after a long while.
Can't seem to get music (only sound fx) when playing dos games in windows (works well in dos) and I figured I'd try disabling the sound card and add some other.. at which point I realised I cannot seem to enter bios.

I've tried pressing ESC, DELETE and all the function keys at the Compaq logo, but to no avail.
At first, when I had the original 5.25 disk in, I seemed to be able to get into some menu. Seemed like some sort of Compaq software and not bios though.

Does anyone have any tips for how to enter bios or any information on what menu I managed to reach when booting on the original HD?