I had one of those... It was nice when we got it but the 400mhz celeron that lived inside of it got passed by faster processors VERY quick. Nice part is, the motherboard was very good about upgrades. The bad part is that the modem/pci card made me want to shake babies and kick puppies. It lived a long lfe, my father used it for dialup for YEARS. when we finally got high speed I gave him a present of a 10/100 nic, 512mb of ram and a 1ghz coppermine.

I've had a case very similar to yours, made by Compaq I think. The external of the case looked different but it had the same layout inside.
As I didn't like the case (non-standard...Tetrium no likey those 😜) I pulled all components (especially the motherboard, a SiS Socket 7 with no AGP slot, I even pulled out the front USB wire thingy 🤣) and tossed the case as it was taking up room (still got 3 more gutted computer cases in the shed that I need to get rid of 🤣).

The case I had couldn't have it's measely little PSU upgraded and the case left very little room for upgrading.

Also for some reason I didn't like the case being tilted from the front, it doesn't seem to be very good for a spinning harddrive?

Thanks for the comments. I'm hoping for someone to answer this question about the replacing the eject button in the new floppy drive - B/c the eject button from the old drive would not slide into this opening, I tried to use a flat screwdriver around the edges on the front panel to force the panel off of the tower, but it wouldn't budge. I'm assuming that I'd have to remove the case cover, then the front panel, or is there another way to get this eject button onto the replacement floppy

Thanks in advance.

Long time no see, eh? Missed you guys.

Appears the hard drive is a Quantum Fireball. A good model.

The case on those models are cramped but at least all the parts are standard and can be replaced with off the shelf components if needed. If it's socket 370, try to find out if it's possible to install a coppermine core cpu in the machine as that would yield a good performance increase.

I find it amusing you mention in the same post getting a repair business started and having to have tech support identify a card for you which turned out to be a modem. I suppose I'm getting a glance at a new generation gap in the making.

i've FORGOTTEN more about computers that most people even know. I had to explain what a pentium 2 heatsink was to some pizza faced kid the other day.

now I feel old.

i'm 21 and know the slot 1 design okay

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=36169

I once had to fix a machine that sort of resembled that for one of my friends. 🤣 Good times...

cdoublejj wrote:

i'm 21 and know the slot 1 design okay

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=36169

I think, from a retro perspective, you're doing a GREAT job!
I know where you came from sorta. When I got my first computer, it was a P2-350, TNT, 128MB and Windows 98FE (yuk 😜) and only much later (in 2002 or so) did I start getting into hardware (though I had always been curious about what all the stuff was under the hood 😉 ).
I knew virtually nothing about 486's except for the 486,386,286 names because I was kinda too young to really understand.

About old, well...I'm not really THAT old (not yet anyway 😜).

AlienBZ wrote:

Thanks for the comments. I'm hoping for someone to answer this question about the replacing the eject button in the new floppy drive - B/c the eject button from the old drive would not slide into this opening, I tried to use a flat screwdriver around the edges on the front panel to force the panel off of the tower, but it wouldn't budge. I'm assuming that I'd have to remove the case cover, then the front panel, or is there another way to get this eject button onto the replacement floppy

Thanks in advance.

Long time no see, eh? Missed you guys.

I no longer have this case, but I can tell you that some cases have a...uhm..."special" method of opening them. Trick is to find out what it is.
Often theres "these large pins" that attach the front panel to the front part of the metal case that you need to 'clip together' for it to let go.
Often you'll need to access via the bottom or the top of the case.
Some cases you'll need to put your hand into the bottom part of the front bezel (there will be an opening in the plastic part of the front bezel if you hold the case upside down) and apply force toward the front of the case because they put a lever under there.

One hint:Theres almost always some logical way to open it without breaking it. Patience is key if you don't want to break anything 😉

Ok, I just got the front bezel off - now I'm trying to put the eject button from the original floppy drive into the replacement floppy drive.

Here's what the eject button looks like:

and this is the replacement 3.5 inch floppy diskette drive after I put it into the PC:

I tried to push the eject button onto this little metal tab (on the right side of the drive's front, where the rises up horizontally about an inch or so) but no go. The button's prongs would not slide in and lock in place as I hoped it would.

And here's what the floppy diskette drive openings (with the opening for the eject button) on the front bezel look like.

How am I going to get the eject button attached to this diskette drive so I can wipe the HDD, do a clean install of Win 98, with the drivers that're important to gaming, etc, and eventually sell this PC locally as a retro gaming rig (along with some old games)?

GXL750 wrote:

I find it amusing you mention in the same post getting a repair business started and having to have tech support identify a card for you which turned out to be a modem. I suppose I'm getting a glance at a new generation gap in the making.

GXL, to be honest with you, I'm not even ready to start my repair business yet, but this is my long term goal. I've just started getting my feet wet by working on a couple of PC's - just casually checking out the innards, replacing a few components, I've completely disassembled and reassembled 2 PC's to date, plus I've got to do a lot of reading from one of my school text books that's about upgrading/repairing PC's (the 1996 edition) it's a thick book and I've just finished reading chapter 1 "history of PC's" from that book, and as of now, I'm trying to gain as much hands-on experience with modern and retro PC's as I can. I'm going to be needing a lot of help and advice from you guys here on VOGONS as I'm gaining this experience, so bear with me, please?

AlienBZ wrote:

I've decided to make this PC into a retro gaming rig, and hopefully sell it to someone after I have my computer repair business up and running.

Of course I have no idea what the market is like in your area, but generally the demand for computers running a rather outdated, insecure, and somewhat unstable 13-year-old OS is sharply limited. I guess there might be some good reasons for doing what it is you're doing, but selling the computers once you're done with them isn't a very good one. (Were you planning to include a fully licensed copy of Windows 98 with that?)

Are you sure this eject button isn't just meant to stay connected to the case and externally contact the floppy drive's normal eject button? Most cases with CD-drive eject buttons work that way.

AlienBZ wrote:

How am I going to get the eject button attached to this diskette drive so I can wipe the HDD, do a clean install of Win 98, with the drivers that're important to gaming, etc, and eventually sell this PC locally as a retro gaming rig (along with some old games)?

Why not just run the computer without the front bezel on until after you're sure everything is working? It could very well have much worse problems than the eject button on the floppy drive.

I might also suggest dealing with bootable USB drives and/or bootable CDs; I really can't stand floppies.

I tried to push the eject button onto this little metal tab (on the right side of the drive's front, where the rises up horizontally about an inch or so) but no go. The button's prongs would not slide in and lock in place as I hoped it would.

That's one of those Dell floppy drives... they're not designed to have a button attached to the drive itself, it's part of the case's front faceplate instead. If you get a generic floppy drive and take the faceplate/button off of it, you'll probably have more luck.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

...Dell...

Ugh!!!

Sorry for mentioning this, but if you want to start a commercially viable computer repair shop, it'll either take YEARS of experience and/or somekind of training program and it's advisable to have at least somekind of "feel" for the subject. Some would even call it a passion.

I'm a hobbyist computer (retro) fanatic and know my way around computers. I thought myself basically everything I know today.
10 years ago I was even afraid to pop open the side panel of my computer to install a harddrive upgrade I paid 300 Guilders for! (which is roughly €150 today, or less).

In the mean time, I've taken apart hundreds of computers, done thousands of hours of reading on the net and build 100+ machines (and the 100+ is a very conservative estimate). And I'm not even counting the computers I've only diagnosed and/or repaired.

What you want is basically to be a commercial airliner pilot while you hardly ever even touched a plane, let alone fly in a plane....let alone PILOT one.

I agree, being able to identify hardware is really basic knowledge for anyone who is computer savvy.

But anyhow, good luck, hope you don't disappoint yourself. You got a pretty long road ahead of you 😉 (though not necessarily one that takes 10 years 😜).

Jorpho wrote:

Of course I have no idea what the market is like in your area, but generally the demand for computers running a rather outdated, insecure, and somewhat unstable 13-year-old OS is sharply limited.

Frankly, you make more money selling the individual parts then you do selling complete systems.
Only a retro fanatic would probably be interested in buying a 98SE rig, and over 90% of the ones buying will be buying it for spare parts! 😜

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

That's one of those Dell floppy drives... they're not designed to have a button attached to the drive itself, it's part of the case's front faceplate instead. If you get a generic floppy drive and take the faceplate/button off of it, you'll probably have more luck.

Oops - when I ordered it on Amazon I didn't realize it was a Dell floppy drive. But thanks for telling me, Thras. I believe I'll just disassemble this PC down to the bare case, as Tetrium advises, sell the parts and try to recycle the metal case, button, cover and bezel. But I'll keep this Dell floppy drive - should I?

Unless there is something compellingly special about the parts – and that's very unlikely, considering it's a brand-name system – you will likely have a hard time finding anyone interested in even taking the parts, much less buying them. Maybe the RAM will fetch a couple of bucks, if you're lucky.

The floppy drive, like many other things, may come in handy if you really think you're going to keep doing this.

An aside: how exactly does a floppy connector get bent pins? I've seen something similar before; I can only imagine some lunatic attacking the pins with a screwdriver in some deranged attempt to overclock the system, or something.

Item goes into storage in perfect shape, comes out looking like crap. If you're somewhat careless with storing items they get messed up. Also, the person could have inserted or removed the cable the wrong way to get those bent pins.

Back on topic now

AlienBZ wrote:

I've just started getting my feet wet by working on a couple of PC's - just casually checking out the innards, replacing a few components, I've completely disassembled and reassembled 2 PC's to date, plus I've got to do a lot of reading from one of my school text books that's about upgrading/repairing PC's (the 1996 edition) it's a thick book and I've just finished reading chapter 1 "history of PC's" from that book, and as of now, I'm trying to gain as much hands-on experience with modern and retro PC's as I can. I'm going to be needing a lot of help and advice from you guys here on VOGONS as I'm gaining this experience, so bear with me, please?

I do admire your motivation though, it's not that I'm trying to say to you that you'd better quit! 😉
For learning about computers, the thing is it's better to start with equipment that's as standard as possible.

When I was learning about computers myself, I had basically no idea what I was doing!
So I took everything home (unless it was too heavy) and tried to see how it was all sticking together.
Eventually I decided to just scrap all the non-standard systems as they were giving me LOTS of headaches (Not that the standard systems were easy, they were just a bit less of a headache! 😁) and I pulled out all useful parts (CPU, Harddrive, RAM, cables, I even pulled all the jumpers and the battery!).

The good thing about standard hardware (no proprietary cases, motherboards, PSU's etc) is that you can switch equipment out at will, which will save you a lot of time when trying to diagnose problems, for instance 😉

If you want some introductory info about hardware, be sure to check the link in my signature 😉
And feel free to start a new topic or send me a PM if you have any questions 😉

I got the bent pins on the original floppy drive straightened, put the eject button back onto this drive then attached the floppy cable,

after this, not wanting to pull off the floppy cable (and have difficulty reattaching it once the drive in back inside the drive bay) and as I was having difficulty attaching the floppy power cords, I threaded these power cords thru the empty floppy drive bay, attached the power connector, and I threaded both the power cords and the wide floppy cable back thru the still empty drive bay, and put the floppy drive back into its drive bay (with the eject button holding up firmly, snug in place)

and attached the drive bay screws with the floppy drive (with its 2 cords) firmly attached)

and I reattached the 2 front bezels, but as the clips broke off when I removed the bezels from the metal case, they (front faceplate and the little insert) keep falling off. Is there some kind of hardware attaching tape that I can somehow attach to maybe the metal case so the bezel and the little insert can be removed and put back in place easily while at the same time giving a neat, original-new-computer appearance?

Tetrium wrote:

I think, from a retro perspective, you're doing a GREAT job! I know where you came from sorta. When I got my first computer, it […]
Show full quote

cdoublejj wrote:

i'm 21 and know the slot 1 design okay

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?t=36169

I think, from a retro perspective, you're doing a GREAT job!
I know where you came from sorta. When I got my first computer, it was a P2-350, TNT, 128MB and Windows 98FE (yuk 😜) and only much later (in 2002 or so) did I start getting into hardware (though I had always been curious about what all the stuff was under the hood 😉 ).
I knew virtually nothing about 486's except for the 486,386,286 names because I was kinda too young to really understand.

About old, well...I'm not really THAT old (not yet anyway 😜).

I'm only 17, and I've actually BUILT a slot 1 system before. 🤣 I still have it too. 😁