songoffall wrote on 2023-07-27, 21:51:

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2023-07-27, 00:51:

Yeah the systems SCSI hard disk and its associated cable isnt what Im talking about. They were standard fit items, and Compaq bu […]
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Yeah the systems SCSI hard disk and its associated cable isnt what Im talking about. They were standard fit items, and Compaq build quality was second to none at the time so things like cable management were expected.
The single drive IDE cable was also a common thing on OEM systems like this. IDE channels are always dual channel, but the system was bought with one IDE device so you get only what you paid for, the extra cable and connector are just that, extras that you didnt pay for so you dont get them.

Yes the card is an Adaptec one, AHA-2940U2W they usually had a custom ROM, but not always, some of them simply put a Compaq OEM sticker onto the card, be it a white label or a PCB green coloured sticker with the Compaq logo on it.
Its an unremarkable card in its own right, theres nothing special about it per say, its just back then it was a top performing HBA, and an expensive one too, so I wonder what it was controlling...
Something external certainly, but most tape streamers at the time didnt use a SCSI Wide bus.

I would just be interested to know what it was thats all.

Knowing it was used as an office PC, might have been a scanner. If the HDD wasn't most definitely dead I could have said more. But you are right, there is wear on the external connector.

Yeah.
Not many Ultra2 scanners about though are there.
Dont foget there is a 50 pin HD SCSI Ultra connector on the rear IO panel.
That would have been enough for most scanners, printers, hard drives, back up drives etc etc of the time, even the early CD-RW, DVD-RAM drives were SCSI Ultra not Ultra2 Wide.

That card was enpensive, I had one, I remember how much it cost.
It would have been somewhere in the region of plus 20% of the original cost of the computer.

So does anyone know if it's fine to use Deschutes core P2 on a Klamath core mobo?

songoffall wrote on 2023-08-04, 13:52:

So does anyone know if it's fine to use Deschutes core P2 on a Klamath core mobo?

Yes. looking at specs, shouldn't be problem.

weedeewee wrote on 2023-08-04, 14:35:

songoffall wrote on 2023-08-04, 13:52:

So does anyone know if it's fine to use Deschutes core P2 on a Klamath core mobo?

Yes. looking at specs, shouldn't be problem.

Thanks. I'll move ahead with the upgrade then.

A small update: 3 sticks of 128Mb Micron CL2 PC100 memory are on their way. I guess that much should be enough for Win98 and I would expect ECC to make the system more stable, except it is quite stable as of now.

songoffall wrote on 2023-04-10, 20:10:

Matrox MGA graphics

Mystique aka Mistake https://vintage3d.org/mga1.php Excellent 2D, bad D3D, no OpenGL.

Babasha wrote on 2023-04-29, 20:30:

Here the photo of video-ram upgrade module from Compaq.
I have one 😀

https://www.recycledgoods.com/compaq-007213-0 … video-card-2mb/
Looks very easy to clone. One could also experiment with swapping 1MB chips on board with 2MB ones (km4132g512q) sourced from sacrificial G100/200. Then again Voodoo1 will be 100x better than build in card.

rasz_pl wrote on 2023-09-01, 15:07:

Babasha wrote on 2023-04-29, 20:30:

Here the photo of video-ram upgrade module from Compaq.
I have one 😀

https://www.recycledgoods.com/compaq-007213-0 … video-card-2mb/
Looks very easy to clone. One could also experiment with swapping 1MB chips on board with 2MB ones (km4132g512q) sourced from sacrificial G100/200. Then again Voodoo1 will be 100x better than build in card.

Maybe if do not like original parts and condition 😀

Progress so far:

1. I decided not to go the external battery route, but I can confirm that the CD audio connector and cable fit the connector on the motherboard and are usable in this regard. Eventually I just desoldered the old battery and added a battery holder from a dead LGA775 motherboard I had laying around. Worked like a charm!
2. I replaced the old Klamath 233MHz cpu with a new Deschutes 300MHz Pentium II. I can confirm that the passive heatsinks for a horizontal Slot 1 and a vertical one are not interchangeable.
3. I upgraded the 66MHz SDRAM DIMMs with Micron CL2 100MHz ECC DIMMs. 64Mb became 384Mb, the maximum for this system.

What remains to be done:
1. The ESS sound card is very good for DOS, but for a system like this, I think an Aureal Vortex 2 would be more appropriate, so I'll be hunting for a Diamond Monster Sound MX300.
2. Guess it's finally time to upgrade the Matrox memory.
3. I had no success tracking down a 3dfx Voodoo 2 for a reasonable price. So I'll bide my time hoping something shows up.
4. The BIOS setup program and the OEM partition need to be restored on the storage device and the BIOS needs to be updated. Sadly, tracking down FDDs in my country was harder than expected. Likely will get a call today and buy a box or two.

Another progress update.

1. Finally tracked down some working floppy disks and installed the diagnostic/setup partition on the Seagate HDD. No more SD cards. Also upgraded the BIOS, so the Deskpro now supports HDDs up to 32Gb.
2. As a stop-gap measure before upgrading the Matrox Mystique SGRAM, I installed a Matrox Millennium II PCI with 4Mbs of memory.
3. I actually tracked down a Diamond Monster 3D II 8Mb (3dfx Voodoo2) for a reasonable price, not the current Ebay madness. I'll have it by December 6th.

Final steps before we're done:
1. Diamond Monster Sound MX300 (Aureal Vortex 2) for A3D and Windows audio.
2. That Matrox Mystique SGRAM module.
3. Maybe will do a Voodoo2 SLI if I get lucky. Better not get greedy now, though.

Hey,

not sure if you are still playing with your trusty old Deskpro. I have 4 of those (but the 4000 and 6000) at home and i mostly love them!

Regarding the RAM, as you figured, you can indeed use 100 or 133 MHz Modules, but as per Intel the chipset supports 512 MB (Compaq does not mention this). At least in my boxes 512 MB work just fine. The CPU on the PII Deskpro 4000 / 6000 will officially max out at 300 MHz when listed on the board, newer revisions of the board supported 333MHz and the technical handbook mentions 366MHz. With i both can confirm on the 4000 / 6000 Series, one only lists 300MHz on the board and still accepts the 333 and 366.
If yours has AGP you might even use a Geforce 😀

Running my current DP6000 with a PIII at 366MHz, 512MB RAM, CF to IDE and SCSI2SD, Gotek and a nice Geforce 2 MX 400.

If you need any SPs let me know, i have a copy of the FTP before it was shut down, or try here:

https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.compaq. … om/pub/softpaq/

jbb_bloody wrote on 2024-01-12, 00:43:

Hey, […]
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Hey,

not sure if you are still playing with your trusty old Deskpro. I have 4 of those (but the 4000 and 6000) at home and i mostly love them!

Regarding the RAM, as you figured, you can indeed use 100 or 133 MHz Modules, but as per Intel the chipset supports 512 MB (Compaq does not mention this). At least in my boxes 512 MB work just fine. The CPU on the PII Deskpro 4000 / 6000 will officially max out at 300 MHz when listed on the board, newer revisions of the board supported 333MHz and the technical handbook mentions 366MHz. With i both can confirm on the 4000 / 6000 Series, one only lists 300MHz on the board and still accepts the 333 and 366.
If yours has AGP you might even use a Geforce 😀

Running my current DP6000 with a PIII at 366MHz, 512MB RAM, CF to IDE and SCSI2SD, Gotek and a nice Geforce 2 MX 400.

If you need any SPs let me know, i have a copy of the FTP before it was shut down, or try here:

https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/archive/ftp.compaq. … om/pub/softpaq/

Hey; thanks for the post. As the Deskpro is finally operational, I've opened a topic to the "Builds" sub.

Compaq Deskpro 2000 PII build "Pequod"

At this point the Deskpro 2000 is one of my primary Win98 gaming systems, at least for 2D stuff like Fallout 1&2. It sadly doesn't have AGP, unlike 440*X based 4000/6000 Deskpros. So I'll put a Voodoo2 or maybe even two as SLI if I can get some for a reasonable price.

As the FSB is hardwired to 66MHz and the chipset is 440LX, I guess the top CPU available on it would be a PII 333MHz.

I absolutely love the Compaqs of the era; the advanced setup and diagnostics, the awesome responsiveness when compared to other systems of the time, and the build quality.

I used a Compaq Deskpro 430C with 486DX4 and 8 megs of RAM until 2002 - it carried me through high school and it was way more responsive and usable with Win95 than our school computers with PII 333MHz and 32 megs of RAM. Sadly I don't have it anymore - my parents gave it away during my army service. It only had two huge shortcomings - no sound card and a passive STN display, which made DOS gaming on the system problematic. But I did play games like Dangerous Dave, lines.exe, moana.exe (it's NSFW, even though tame by modern standards), Prehistorik, and there was a game where you could assimilate parts of the field by assuming their color, the aim being to end up with a larger field of the game than the opponent. And Liero.

I might as well do a separate thread on games I grew up with.

I have used a PCI Geforce 2 MX 400 and a FX5600 somewhere as well 😀, that is probably as good as it gets in the PCI Slot.

If you can find a Pentium III 550 MHz Slot 1, give it a try. As it has a fixed Multiplier of 5.5 it should be 366 when running at 66MHz.

jbb_bloody wrote on 2024-01-12, 09:11:

I have used a PCI Geforce 2 MX 400 and a FX5600 somewhere as well 😀, that is probably as good as it gets in the PCI Slot.

If you can find a Pentium III 550 MHz Slot 1, give it a try. As it has a fixed Multiplier of 5.5 it should be 366 when running at 66MHz.

I'm not sure it will work on a 440LX motherboard and I've heard horror stories of people killing their motherboards, even though Deschutes P2 and Kati P3 are very similar, even use the same 2.0v voltage.

CPU-Upgrade.com says the chipset doesn't support any P3 processors and it may cause damage to the computer:
https://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel/AL440LX.html

Well i figured, that the early PII have higher TDP than the PIII i tested and that the only real difference is the dieshrink therefore lower TDP and the additional SSE it could not hurt. And it did not hurt in my case… i tested a few Celerons (slot 1) as well but it refused to boot with a 366 Celeron.

I tested with 500MHz Katmai P3, it did not boot, but there was no permanent damage to the motherboard or the CPU, both seem to be fine.

Thats a pitty, so i guess there is a bigger difference inbetween the 4000/6000 and 2000 series.

jbb_bloody wrote on 2024-01-13, 18:28:

Thats a pitty, so i guess there is a bigger difference inbetween the 4000/6000 and 2000 series.

The difference might be the BIOS itself. Yeah, it's a pity. Extra 66MHz wouldn't hurt.

A quick update on the status of the Compaq Deskpro 2000.

Today I learned a valuable lesson.

Since I got this PC, I had a build in mind - fast 66MHz FSB Pentium II, Voodoo graphics, 90s 3D games etc., so I kept adding parts to the computer without actually using it.

I had another build in mind - a Pentium I or 486DX4 for late 80s/early to mid 90s DOS games. I'm yet to get started on that one.

So in the meantime I started installing games on the Compaq. And playing them. Games like Tyrian 2000, Jazz Jackrabbit, Vinyl Goddess from Mars, Duke Nukem 3D. They don't need fancy stuff like Voodoo graphics.

I found out two things. This Compaq isn't my fastest computer by far, or the fanciest computer, or the most customizable or expandable - although a single AGP slot would go a long way on it.

Still, it's one of the most pleasant computers I own. With ECC memory, its reliability is rock solid compared to any of my Win98SE builds. I'm yet to see this computer crash.

The BIOS Setup and Diagnostics might seem simplified, but they are extremely usable, and you don't have to guess about where your features are, and you see which card is connected to which slot and you can manually assign IRQs to your cards - no more Plug&Pray.

I'm not saying the build didn't give me trouble; but it hasn't given me trouble I wasn't able to fix in 10 minutes or so, like Duke Nukem 3D sounding weird on AWE32 was fixed by running the AWE32 as a GM device and that was it.

And most importantly - the build doesn't have to be exactly what I want it to be for it to be fun. This Compaq is a hell of a lot of fun.

And after writing this, I tried to play System Shock and it would give me a black screen and the Install app was acting all weird - I thought, what an irony, I immediately found a problem I couldn't fix, then fixed it in 5 minutes (manually edited the cyb.cfg file and set the CD files directory to my install directory, and that was it - and it wasn't even the Compaq's fault).

It's why I have fond memories of the Deskpro 2000's/4000's at my first job.
They were built solid and caused less problems then the later P3 era Compaq's that replaced them.

Even now people complain about old OEM machines about nonstandard or incompatibility with generic parts, lack of tweaking/overclocking options, etc.
But they are missing that's the point of OEM business machines, at least from this era. They were built to have as little downtime as possible and quickly get going again if they are down.
The same era of home market Compaq's were cheaper and it showed, but then downtime isn't as important.
Sadly it was just after this time that the business range also started sacrificing quality for price.