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Re: Compaq Deskpro!

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Reply 40 of 83, by Radical Vision

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TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:
Paid 80 for this on eBay. It's supposedly working and passed a system stress test. The IO is untested but the fact it passed a s […]
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Paid 80 for this on eBay. It's supposedly working and passed a system stress test. The IO is untested but the fact it passed a stress test tells me they keyboard and mouse ports are at least ok and I have a Compaq USB PCI card I can use for USB if its USB bad. It's a Deskpro 6266. I've been wanting a Pentium II AGP system for a while now for 1997 to 1998 games that I feel are too new for the S7 MMX machine and too old for the Pentium III. He was asking 88 total shipping included but I talked him down to 80 even citing the minor case damage and the IO ports being untested and the work it would take to bring it back to factory condition. Not a bad deal considering there was already a wealth of information available about these machines and Deskpros are my preferred model of vintage computer.

Pentium II 266 MMX (Kalmath?)
256MB SDR (Maxed out)
10GB HDD (Not stock. Not in a 1998 system no way)
ESS 1869F Integrated Audio (No clue if that's any good. Will be replaced by my SB Live)
CD ROM Drive (unknown speed)
3.5 Inch Floppy
Unknown AGP 2x Video Card (Should be either a Rage Pro Turbo, a Matrox Millinium II, or a Matrox G200)

It should have 4 PCI and 2 ISA. There combo slots so only 4 cards may be installed at once. The AGP is nice but the caveat is that it uses a non-standard mounting bracket so only cards with top mounted VGA can work. I'll have to swap the bracket but that's not hard to do. It will either get my RiVA 128 or the card I just bought as era correct AGP video unless it has the G200 option. If it has the G200 I'll leave it configured as is. It will also get my half functional Voodoo2 (only works in GLIDE and with one texture unit disabled. So it runs like a 8MB Voodoo Graphics). This will be the base for my Windows 95 build. I'll likely use 2.1 OSR since that has the USB and AGP drivers built in if I remember correctly. I'll also install my second gen (non-gold ports) Soundblaster LIVE although the onboard audio has a rather beefy speaker backed a by Phillips amp). Since it's been brought up here before let me go into detail on what the deal with those half bracket Compaq video cards are just to dispel any standing mis-understandings. (Note: Picture from UXWBIlls video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhlYV836tUE)

Basically, they are normal AGP video cards with half height brackets missing the bottom portion that are dual width in reverse. Shown here is the Rage Pro Turbo option. It's a normal PCB. It just lacks the metal bracket like seen on my Rage IIc that I just bought shown in the second picture.

In theory any card that:

1.) Has a VGA port that is mounted on the top 33 percentish of the board
2.) Can have its bracket swapped out
3.) Does not extend lower than the AGP slot (it would hit the IO port below if it did)

could be retro-fitted into this system. Vice versa the Compaq cards could probably be fitted into any normal ATX machine. The bottom half of the bracket slot however would be blank unless you swap in a compatible full height bracket. Overall if you have basic computer knowledge and aren't trying to fit unreasonably newer cards with DVI ports on the bottom into it its not that restrictive as most 90s video cards fit the above 3 criteria.

The hell did you really pay 80$ for that thing ? Lol i get surprised every single time how much money people give for parts, while i will not spend much at all...
There was times long ago like 7 years where i was new in the old PC hardware, and i did pay so much money for one single part, for example 40$ for just kit of G. Skills 2GB DDR400 with red heatsink, or 20$ for EPoX 8RDA+ Pro, or 50$ for 3Dfx Voodoo 2... But no more that was back then, from quite some time i pay from little to nothing for hardware, im just tired to pay people much money for old hardware, simply because i did found a way to pay from small, to get even free old stuff just like that. Or even trades for things that i don`t need, for the old hardware/PC that other people don`t need...

But i guess things are just like that some people pay, others like me don`t.... I even know a guy that works in IBM and he buys all the time hardware for insane amount of money, wile i find similar hardware free, or for 5-10 euros....

Here now i did get that great dual slot 1 PIII machine for free, the PSU is damaged, but no problem i will find replacement, and better case as well and GPU and will be good to go. It was from braked deal i did sell IBM Model M, one guy did got interested to buy it, but he offered me lower price then i did desire, it was used Razer Black widow 2013 Ultimate and this machine, or 50 euros and the machine, but i did want at least 70 euros and the machine, he did not want, and i did brake the deal, later on he did donated me this machine, he did not need it, this is how i did get it, not a single penny...
https://imgur.com/a/rqkBh

Here have the great Gigabyte BX2000 and the Quantum Fireball 10GB, they was from trade whole slot 1 machine whit that board and Quantum, and some surprise brand new PII new in original box, i did sell it for 25 euros, the Riva Pro is for free from a donation guy, the CPU Pentium II 450MHz from some filthy gypsy for 2 euros, the case, memory, compaq PSU and others are from trade or donation..
https://imgur.com/a/jUmfz

I say all that because i can`t understand how people pay so much money for parts that i will not even consider to take for way cheaper, or trade or other, but who know different people different minds...

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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 41 of 83, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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Radical Vision wrote:
The hell did you really pay 80$ for that thing ? Lol i get surprised every single time how much money people give for parts, whi […]
Show full quote
TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:
Paid 80 for this on eBay. It's supposedly working and passed a system stress test. The IO is untested but the fact it passed a s […]
Show full quote

Paid 80 for this on eBay. It's supposedly working and passed a system stress test. The IO is untested but the fact it passed a stress test tells me they keyboard and mouse ports are at least ok and I have a Compaq USB PCI card I can use for USB if its USB bad. It's a Deskpro 6266. I've been wanting a Pentium II AGP system for a while now for 1997 to 1998 games that I feel are too new for the S7 MMX machine and too old for the Pentium III. He was asking 88 total shipping included but I talked him down to 80 even citing the minor case damage and the IO ports being untested and the work it would take to bring it back to factory condition. Not a bad deal considering there was already a wealth of information available about these machines and Deskpros are my preferred model of vintage computer.

Pentium II 266 MMX (Kalmath?)
256MB SDR (Maxed out)
10GB HDD (Not stock. Not in a 1998 system no way)
ESS 1869F Integrated Audio (No clue if that's any good. Will be replaced by my SB Live)
CD ROM Drive (unknown speed)
3.5 Inch Floppy
Unknown AGP 2x Video Card (Should be either a Rage Pro Turbo, a Matrox Millinium II, or a Matrox G200)

It should have 4 PCI and 2 ISA. There combo slots so only 4 cards may be installed at once. The AGP is nice but the caveat is that it uses a non-standard mounting bracket so only cards with top mounted VGA can work. I'll have to swap the bracket but that's not hard to do. It will either get my RiVA 128 or the card I just bought as era correct AGP video unless it has the G200 option. If it has the G200 I'll leave it configured as is. It will also get my half functional Voodoo2 (only works in GLIDE and with one texture unit disabled. So it runs like a 8MB Voodoo Graphics). This will be the base for my Windows 95 build. I'll likely use 2.1 OSR since that has the USB and AGP drivers built in if I remember correctly. I'll also install my second gen (non-gold ports) Soundblaster LIVE although the onboard audio has a rather beefy speaker backed a by Phillips amp). Since it's been brought up here before let me go into detail on what the deal with those half bracket Compaq video cards are just to dispel any standing mis-understandings. (Note: Picture from UXWBIlls video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhlYV836tUE)

Basically, they are normal AGP video cards with half height brackets missing the bottom portion that are dual width in reverse. Shown here is the Rage Pro Turbo option. It's a normal PCB. It just lacks the metal bracket like seen on my Rage IIc that I just bought shown in the second picture.

In theory any card that:

1.) Has a VGA port that is mounted on the top 33 percentish of the board
2.) Can have its bracket swapped out
3.) Does not extend lower than the AGP slot (it would hit the IO port below if it did)

could be retro-fitted into this system. Vice versa the Compaq cards could probably be fitted into any normal ATX machine. The bottom half of the bracket slot however would be blank unless you swap in a compatible full height bracket. Overall if you have basic computer knowledge and aren't trying to fit unreasonably newer cards with DVI ports on the bottom into it its not that restrictive as most 90s video cards fit the above 3 criteria.

The hell did you really pay 80$ for that thing ? Lol i get surprised every single time how much money people give for parts, while i will not spend much at all...
There was times long ago like 7 years where i was new in the old PC hardware, and i did pay so much money for one single part, for example 40$ for just kit of G. Skills 2GB DDR400 with red heatsink, or 20$ for EPoX 8RDA+ Pro, or 50$ for 3Dfx Voodoo 2... But no more that was back then, from quite some time i pay from little to nothing for hardware, im just tired to pay people much money for old hardware, simply because i did found a way to pay from small, to get even free old stuff just like that. Or even trades for things that i don`t need, for the old hardware/PC that other people don`t need...

But i guess things are just like that some people pay, others like me don`t.... I even know a guy that works in IBM and he buys all the time hardware for insane amount of money, wile i find similar hardware free, or for 5-10 euros....

Here now i did get that great dual slot 1 PIII machine for free, the PSU is damaged, but no problem i will find replacement, and better case as well and GPU and will be good to go. It was from braked deal i did sell IBM Model M, one guy did got interested to buy it, but he offered me lower price then i did desire, it was used Razer Black widow 2013 Ultimate and this machine, or 50 euros and the machine, but i did want at least 70 euros and the machine, he did not want, and i did brake the deal, later on he did donated me this machine, he did not need it, this is how i did get it, not a single penny...
https://imgur.com/a/rqkBh

Here have the great Gigabyte BX2000 and the Quantum Fireball 10GB, they was from trade whole slot 1 machine whit that board and Quantum, and some surprise brand new PII new in original box, i did sell it for 25 euros, the Riva Pro is for free from a donation guy, the CPU Pentium II 450MHz from some filthy gypsy for 2 euros, the case, memory, compaq PSU and others are from trade or donation..
https://imgur.com/a/jUmfz

I say all that because i can`t understand how people pay so much money for parts that i will not even consider to take for way cheaper, or trade or other, but who know different people different minds...

IMG_20160321_115204.jpg
IMG_20160321_115232.jpg
IMG_20160321_115255.jpg

So far I have no regrets. I retrofitted my STB Velocity 128 (Riva 128) into it and its a great machine for very early 3D titles like Monster Truck Madness, Interstate 76, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

It also has my half working V2 and my SB Live. I intend to switch it over to Windows 95 as soon as I get some more CD Rs but for now I'm stuck with Windows 98SE which is period incorrect for a Pentium2/RIVA 128 combo. I may also drop the RAM down to 128 and up the hard drive to 20GB.

Cyb3rst0rms Retro Hardware Warzone: https://discord.gg/jK8uvR4c
I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction

Reply 42 of 83, by kazeobi

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Got this one for about 30 euro. This is Deskpro 2000 5200MMX model, but instead of S3 & ess cards, inside were Matrox PCI and Sound Blastet 16 CT2290 cards. Now I need do some serious cleaning...

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Reply 43 of 83, by Scraphoarder

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I have two Deskpro XE 433 so i figured out i could convert one to a XE 560 if getting a motherboard with a Pentium 60 CPU. Got this MB for £32 from the UK today. In pristine condition 😊

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Reply 44 of 83, by Qjimbo

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My Compaq Deskpro EN 733Mhz P3. Got the machine off ebay earlier this year, compaq keyboard and presario monitor were from craigslist.
compaq_deskpro_en_733.jpg

Neat machine, though I may end up selling this setup eventually.

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Reply 45 of 83, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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Qjimbo wrote:
My Compaq Deskpro EN 733Mhz P3. Got the machine off ebay earlier this year, compaq keyboard and presario monitor were from craig […]
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My Compaq Deskpro EN 733Mhz P3. Got the machine off ebay earlier this year, compaq keyboard and presario monitor were from craigslist.
compaq_deskpro_en_733.jpg

Neat machine, though I may end up selling this setup eventually.

Nice setup. I wish I had a period correct compaq CRT. The only one I have is a mid XP era S5500 15"

Cyb3rst0rms Retro Hardware Warzone: https://discord.gg/jK8uvR4c
I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction

Reply 46 of 83, by amadeus777999

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Scraphoarder wrote:

I have two Deskpro XE 433 so i figured out i could convert one to a XE 560 if getting a motherboard with a Pentium 60 CPU. Got this MB for £32 from the UK today. In pristine condition 😊

CPQ_Deskpro_560_XE_MB.jpg

Very nice - could you run a few benchmarks on it?

Reply 47 of 83, by feipoa

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Nice, clean, beige - except for the mouse. Would look nice paired with this beauty, https://www.amazon.com/compaq-branded-logitec … reshbuildnet-20

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 48 of 83, by Qjimbo

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feipoa wrote:

Nice, clean, beige - except for the mouse. Would look nice paired with this beauty, https://www.amazon.com/compaq-branded-logitec … reshbuildnet-20

I actually got a Microsoft Optical mouse after that pic was taken 😀

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Reply 50 of 83, by Qjimbo

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feipoa wrote:

Care to share a photo of the new mouse?

Here, this is it with a samsung CRT monitor and the case as a tower instead of desktop. I call it the "early 2000s configuration". You can see the microsoft mouse on the right. And yes the cable management is a bit of a disaster under there.
compaq_deskpro_en_733_2000s_configuration.jpg

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Reply 51 of 83, by Scraphoarder

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amadeus777999 wrote:

Very nice - could you run a few benchmarks on it?

No im sorry. They are not up and running at the moment. This MB is for a future project, but some parts are beginning to be difficult to find so im i collect now instead of being sorry later. The UK seller Solentspares have been a goldmine for older Compaq spare parts for me in the past year. Good that their prices are ok.

Reply 52 of 83, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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Qjimbo wrote:
Here, this is it with a samsung CRT monitor and the case as a tower instead of desktop. I call it the "early 2000s configuration […]
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feipoa wrote:

Care to share a photo of the new mouse?

Here, this is it with a samsung CRT monitor and the case as a tower instead of desktop. I call it the "early 2000s configuration". You can see the microsoft mouse on the right. And yes the cable management is a bit of a disaster under there.
compaq_deskpro_en_733_2000s_configuration.jpg

What game is that?

Cyb3rst0rms Retro Hardware Warzone: https://discord.gg/jK8uvR4c
I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction

Reply 53 of 83, by Qjimbo

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TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

What game is that?

Demo version of Jedi Knight (Dark Forces 2) - used to play through the demo all the time when I was younger 😉

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Reply 54 of 83, by Scraphoarder

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I got this Deskpro XL 575 today and it seems to have survived a trip over Atlantic by ship. I have been looking for a XL like this for a long time and its a substitute for i didnt save one of two XL 6200 and five XL 5100 years back. The XL 6200 was my first pc at my current work then i started there in 1999. The cool thing with this model is all the CPU cards you can throw in them ranging from Pentium 60 to Pentium Pro 200 that i had at work. I think maybe a 486 card also will fit since its in the Compaq Flex system.
The metal housing have some scratches, but no dents and the plastic just needs some cleaning. The seller said it didnt work, but i figure it out later. Spare parts are still available cheap for this model. Its the case thats becoming rarer to find.

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Reply 55 of 83, by Deksor

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Oh I've got a similar system (mine is the XL 590). I'm pretty sure that's the CMOS battery that died and the system can't boot on the HDD anymore because the bios isn't configured anymore. Or maybe the HDD was formated or is dead

You need to get the floppy disks to configure it back, you can get them on HP's FTP (or on compaq's ftp backup that you can find on archive.org, but I doubt you'll want to download 220GB just to get that)

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 56 of 83, by chinny22

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Scraphoarder, you imported that! you really like your Compaq's, you trying to get the entire range or something?

Reply 58 of 83, by Scraphoarder

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chinny22 wrote:

Scraphoarder, you imported that! you really like your Compaq's, you trying to get the entire range or something?

Hehe 😊 No i just wanted this badly. I got that cheap and use a shipping forwarder to Norway called Jetcarrier and they send other items you buy in one lot. Very convenient if the US sellers dont ship outside their country or the shipping rates calculated by eBay cost a fortune.
The biggest item i have bought was an NOS Unisys Aquanta (ALR 6x6) last year. Took over a month to get it since i always use the sea transport option.

Reply 59 of 83, by Scraphoarder

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derSammler wrote:

Got this one for 30€

Great! A brand new Compaq Deskpro EP looking just like yours replaced my workplace Deskpro XL 6200 that i mentioned in this thread. Was in the second half of 99 and i think it was a PII 350. You could get a PIII also since Compaq offered many options, but we in IT often chosed the less costly models and upgraded more often instead.