First post, by jasa1063
- Rank
- Oldbie
I wanted to try something a bit different with this HP Thin Client, which has become pretty popular as a Windows 98/DOS computer. I picked one up and did try Windows 98 and DOS. Windows 98 worked as expected, but there are issues with DOS sound support and VESA video modes that I ran into. I wiped the IDE DOM (Disk On Module) and thought I would give Windows 2000 a try. I used the following drivers:
Video - Radeon v5.13.01-6043 with the ATI Control Panel (Newer drivers with ATI Catalyst would just crash the system)
Audio - VIA Vinynl v700b
Network - VIA Rhine v384a
Chipset - Via 4in1 v443
I did the following upgrades:
512MB - PC3200 SO-DIMM
32GB - IDE DOM by KingSpec with a Silicon Motion controller rated at 70MBs read and 45MBs write
Everything has worked perfectly so far. The IDE interface on the HP t5710 maxes out to DMA Mode 1 or 16.6MBs, so even though it has a fast SSD it is held back. I have not found this to be an issue though. The video chip is a Radeon 7000m or the RV100 variant, so it lacks hardware Transform & Lighting and only has a single pixel pipeline. Gaming at 640x480 or 800x600 16-bit color seems to work best. I much prefer Windows 2000 to Windows 98 on this platform. It is much more stable and all the programs that I was using on Windows 98 work just as well on Windows 2000.
What about running DOS? I just created a DOS USB Boot stick from an 8GB flash drive using Rufus and copied all my DOS files onto that. Except for the sound and video issues I have run into with some games and programs everything runs as expected. Specifically I have found the following issues.
- FRACTINT will lock up trying any VESA video mode.
- Duke3D will not work with the Sound Blaster emulation
- Flight Simulator 5 has trouble loading files (This maybe an issue with using a DOS USB Boot Stick)
- Chris's 3D SVGA benchmark has visible shearing issues with VESA modes
There maybe others, but those are the ones that come to mind.
I just wanted to pass along that a Windows 2000 build and a DOS USB Boot Stick with this HP Thin Client is a good option in my opinion.