Nice model I really like the old desktop-format presarios. You can see the specs on Mobokive: http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/archive/Compaq/ … quickspecs.html

If you want more compatibility you can take out the AMD chip and put in a Socket 7 Pentium 2 in there I believe, I think the 4230ES was the same machine with a Pentium instead based on these specs. These machines are great for DOS games and older Windows games, but I'd definitely recommend upgrading the memory to get a speed boost at the very least. You could also look at replacing the hard drive with a PCI mounted compact flash IDE adapter if you have a free slot and get some fast compact flash cards, so you can hot swap the OS between DOS/Windows 95/98/XP depending on your needs.

I'm trying to find a machine like this myself, but would prefer the slightly larger Compaq Presario 7212/7222/7232/7234/7240. Quite hard to find these!

Socket 7 Pentium II? What is this witchcraft?

Haha, good point. I misread my notes, I guess the only option would be a Pentium MMX then.

Oh yeah, I've been thinking about the IDE to SD stuff. Seems convenient, and stable. Nothing moving to break. Id's on my list of things I want to do.

Installed Doom2, and Fallout...no sound. So, gonna either have to learn to tweak that, or plop in my soundcard, and ditch onboard audio. Conversely, I have not confirmed the audio driver for this board. I have them, but my modern PC is in the middle of being repaired. I don't know if the guy I got it from did more than just install the base OS.

Thoughts on 95 vs. 98? I've got the Win9x project disc, so I think 95 comes bundled with the last revision of DOS.

98SE is pretty much the best version of Windows built on top of DOS. It contains many fixes and improvements from '95 and will run pretty much any software from that era without issues, and it also has the WDM driver model which means more hardware support. You can also install the Windows 98 Revolutions Pack as well as KernelEx to update the OS a little bit so you can run even more apps on it.

That said I appreciate the charm and quality of Windows 95 - you have to install the Plus! pack though to really get the most out of it like seeing window contents while dragging and desktop themes.

So, I've been toying with this system some more. Nothing major. I am going to double check the drivers on the audio, and video after I burn off a CD with them on it. Make sure I've at least got the stock stuff going on it. I also nabbed drivers for the Voodoo, so I can hook that thing in line (had it hooked in prior, though without drivers). I never messed around a whole lot with Win98 when I was younger. At least not with the DOS part of the distro. I was going nuts trying to figure out how to get EMM386.exe into the config.sys folder. I punched in the various scripts... nothing. This was all to run one game mind you. Lol. One game that I have incredibly find memories of. Through searching the site, I find shortcuts in the system folder for DOS Mode gaming, and DOS Mode Extended Memory. Bam, done deal. Lol. I didn't recall having to do that back in the day... but I think I was using Win95, and boot disks to get stuff going.

Having issues with sound in Doom/Doom2, and Fallout. The games run, look more than fine. No audio. Not sure if a driver issue, or a hardware compatibility issue. I've got an open ISA slot, and an ISA sound card that I can dump in if I need to, though I will have to figure out exactly what model it is, and what drivers to use for it. Still, it's been pretty fun so far, and relatively few hiccups. runs pretty fast for its age, and loads the games very quickly. Haven't noticed any crazy speed issues or anything yet, so that is also a plus.

Do you get sound if you play doom inside Win98? That will confirm if its a issue in dos mode or over all.
You should also be able to confirm what your resources such as IRQ, DMA, etc are.

Are you able to confirm what the onboard sound card actually is? quick google seems to suggest its ESS based
http://www.geocities.ws/presariohelp2000/comp … vers_oct00.html

Using your ISA soundcard is the easy option but you will loose the onboard speaker, and depending on what the card is maybe not as good as what you have on board, besides where's the challenge in that!?

Sound should be ESS 1868 (Soundblaster compliant). On games loaded through DOS mode, sound is fine. The speakers aren't even half bad for integrated units.
For both Fallout and Doom (Doom95) are accessed through Win98. No sound on either.
I'm not running anything yet that pushes the need for the Voodoo, but it is nice to have in there, in case I do. I have to research which games utilize it.
I have one extra expansion slot open for ISA, and one shared ISA/PCI (separate slots, use the same slot on the back plate). I've got the Voodoo in the PCI slot, though it is tempting to jam a different GPU into the last ISA slot if I can get the sound configured for everything so far.

I did some editing to the config.sys, and it did not like the changes I made. crashed the system. Had to go in under safe mode, and reverse the edits. I tried adding the i=A000 Afff line to kick in the ability to use the generic Vesa driver for SVGA on Dawn Patrol. I might be stuck playing that in VGA unless, or until I can find a more compliant card. I tried the Scitech Display Doctor, and UniVBE, with no luck.

Really tempted to take the HDD out, and put in either an SD, or CF to replace it. Not that speed is an issue...but the adapters are cheap, and it's just insurance against future hardware failure. Also trying to keep an eye out for a period tower/mid. Would be nice to have more expansion available.

Specs that I could find online for the machine. Not a lot of additional lit out there that I could find. Not a bad form factor, but does have some limitations. Pretty fast to boot, and loading games is also fairly speedy.
https://www.cnet.com/products/compaq-presario … b-2-1-gb/specs/

Maybe this is your problem?
http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/compaq/faq/hardware.htm#ess

Also found this site, although looking a bit dodgy, is actually ok. Even includes the latest BIOS. It's just slow as you have to wait between downloads
https://driverscollection.com/?H=Compaq%20Pre … io%202240&By=HP