Several years ago I had one of these, but I don't know if the motherboard would have been the same as yours. Mine came with a Mendocino Celeron, but it worked with a Coppermine. With a Coppermine Celeron it only drew something like 15W from the wall, so it was a better fit for the nature of the machine and how I wanted to use it.
I never used it for games, I used it as a low power machine for non-interactive 24/7 stuff that didn't need a fast CPU. MagicJack (voip phone) mainly, but I think I ran 1 or 2 very slow/polite scrapes with httrack on it also.

The nuisance with mine was that yes, unfortunately it required a "Compaq" hard drive. I was lucky that I had a 10GB drive from a Compaq Deskpro which the iPaq accepted. The Deskpro worked with anything, but the iPaq only worked with that Compaq drive.
I don't know exactly what the iPaq is looking at when it decides whether to work with a hard drive. I tried cloning the "Compaq" drive using 'dd' under linux, but that didn't fool it. It's looking at something else, maybe it's something in the basic drive information fields that would require modifying the drive's firmware.

But maybe yours is different than mine. I don't have it anymore so I can't compare the BIOS details with yours.

Well, I've ordered an IDE/SATA adapter, going to try using an SSD. Will be messing with it Thursday.

If I get it up and running I can do some testing and see what it's good for. 😀

Wish me luck!

Well, I think this system is indeed locked to Compaq approved drives only. It locks, can't even get in BIOS, with all 4 drives I tried. Two real IDE drives (WD and Maxtor), and two SATA via IDE to SATA adapter. Unplug them, starts working fine.

That sucks... I wanted to get this thing up and going. Yes, I could strip it and toss the board, but that's a last resort. This model is on the "higher" end of the line and would be fun to keep around I think.

Any suggestions welcome. 😀

EDIT: Dug up an old forum post that said these shipped with 4-8GB HDD's and had a hard limit of 10GB on HDD's. So, I partitioned and formatted (FAT32) a drive to 8GB, same problem.

I have one of these in storage. It came with a Coppermine. The problem is that apparently the proprietary PSU is faulty (red LED blinks intermittently).

Here's some crazy ideas:

Can you boot from a USB drive?
Can you boot from a floppy drive?
Are you familiar with GRUB4DOS?

Maybe you could start GRUB4DOS from a USB drive or a floppy drive, or even the CD drive, and then chainload a non-COMPAQ HDD, or a USB flashdrive.

In case the computer doesn't boot, maybe you could fool the motherboard if you plug the molex connector to the HDD after the boot test is done... It could be tricky but it could work.

Otherwise you could get a COMPAQ HDD and check out its firmware and copy the ID string and edit your non-COMPAQ HDD with something like SeaDOSTools or similar low level HDD software.

Keep us posted.

tauro wrote on 2025-01-23, 08:45:

Can you boot from a USB drive?

Yes, it can, but only with no HDD connected.

tauro wrote on 2025-01-23, 08:45:

Can you boot from a floppy drive?

Don't have one, CD-ROM and LS120 only, and same as USB. Can boot from the "MultiBay" no problem, but only with no HDD installed.

tauro wrote on 2025-01-23, 08:45:

Are you familiar with GRUB4DOS? […]
Show full quote

Are you familiar with GRUB4DOS?

Maybe you could start GRUB4DOS from a USB drive or a floppy drive, or even the CD drive, and then chainload a non-COMPAQ HDD, or a USB flashdrive.

In case the computer doesn't boot, maybe you could fool the motherboard if you plug the molex connector to the HDD after the boot test is done... It could be tricky but it could work.

Otherwise you could get a COMPAQ HDD and check out its firmware and copy the ID string and edit your non-COMPAQ HDD with something like SeaDOSTools or similar low level HDD software.

Keep us posted.

I am not familiar with GRUB4DOS , but I will defiantly look into it!

I've tried fooling it by doing that, sadly, no luck. The system locks and does not allow you in the BIOS. It doesn't even generate errors or a warning, it just locks up. It will count the RAM, wait for F10 to enter BIOS, hit F10, lock. Try to let it boot, lock. It's quite annoying.

I really don't want to use a real HDD of any kind, or spend the crazy money they're asking for old HDD's, so if it was to come to that, I would probably just tare it down for parts to use elsewhere.

I've always hated these practices by companies, all it does is guarantee e-waste, but sadly the practice is still alive and well today.

You could boot a GNU/Linux distro with an SSD connected with a USB adapter. You can also boot DOS (Free,MS,DR) this way. You could use either an SSD with a USB adapter or just go with a flashdrive for slower speeds. I've done it in the past. If the computer supports USB 2.0 it's a pleasant experience. If it's USB 1.1 not so much... but for DOS stuff it's ok. Look for RMPrepUSB.

StriderTR wrote on 2025-01-23, 09:53:

I've always hated these practices by companies, all it does is guarantee e-waste, but sadly the practice is still alive and well today.

🍎

Most likely custom hdd firmware to control heat & noise (tied to the BIOS) is the issue with replacement drives. Think the 10GB mentioned is for the multibay drive option, while the internal drive was 20GB (seems to have been a mix of brands possible based on replacement part no.- Seagate Barracuda IV, WD Protege, Quantum Fireball lct15). Overall, this matches the Compaq QuickSpecs for your model no. (470018-164?) though that shows as a 1GHz P3 system.

tauro wrote on 2025-01-23, 10:21:

You could boot a GNU/Linux distro with an SSD connected with a USB adapter. You can also boot DOS (Free,MS,DR) this way. You could use either an SSD with a USB adapter or just go with a flashdrive for slower speeds. I've done it in the past. If the computer supports USB 2.0 it's a pleasant experience. If it's USB 1.1 not so much... but for DOS stuff it's ok. Look for RMPrepUSB.

I could... but USB 1.1. So, I don't want to go down that path since my end goal for this is Windows 98.

That being said ... progress is being made.

Before digging more into it today, I fired it up and walked away to make coffee. From the other room I hear a beep.... it posted and correctly detected the SSD... but it took about 3-5 minutes to do so.

After many reboots, any SSD drive using the IDE/SATA adapter takes 3-5 minutes to do anything at all. Meaning that long wait is present during boot, waiting to get into the BIOS, booting to CD. Telling it to install 98 to the drive. 3-5 minute wait. All my SSD's are 240GB or more.

So, I hooked the adapter to my DOS system, and it works fine. No delays.

Went digging and found one more IDE drive buried in a box I didn't know I had, a Seagate 160GB. Plug it in, works flawlessly. Letting 98 format it now.

I also found 2 Seagate 120GB SATA drives in that same box, going to see if that delay is present with those after the 98 format is done since they are all smaller than the 240GB SSD's I'm trying to use.

Will update on my progress.

Update:

1. The iPAQ simply does not like the IDE/SATA adapter I have. All SATA drives I have, SSD and HDD, hang the system for 3-5 minutes on any drive access. My DOS and Win95 system both work perfectly with the IDE/SATA adapter. Specifically https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GVDK2H1?ref=ppx_ … asin_title&th=1. Perhaps it may work with a 128GB or smaller SSD? I'll try that when and if I ever get one. All of mine are 240GB or more.

2. Maxtor 80GB IDE drive I tried is actually dead. WD Blue IDE drive is good, but hung the system, however it's 500GB, so that may be why.

3. The single Seagate 160GB IDE HDD I have works flawlessly. Installed Win98SE no problems, formatted to 128GB of course.

4. Pulled the IDE to SD adapter from my Mini Win95 system to test that out, it also works flawlessly. Booted right into the 32GB Win95 partition.

So, I've just ordered another SD/IDE adapter and 128GB (180MB/s for max speed headroom) SD card and will run the system off of that. 😀

Good luck!
I did support for a small company that had a few of these and always thought they were kind of cool. I liked that the the Multi-bay was compatible with laptops of the era.

👏👏👏
Excellent news! Congratulations!

Your SSD to IDE adapter is one of the best I've tried. But not all computers are compatible with SSDs. It may be the size, the brand, I don't know but I also faced problems on some computers.

For Win9x an SD to IDE is more than enough. It's enough even for an XP install.

chinny22 wrote on 2025-01-23, 23:37:

Good luck!
I did support for a small company that had a few of these and always thought they were kind of cool. I liked that the the Multi-bay was compatible with laptops of the era.

That's one reason I want to keep this thing. All I need to find is a standard 1.44MB floppy for the bay and I'd have all I need. 😀

tauro wrote on 2025-01-23, 23:39:

:clap::clap::clap: Excellent news! Congratulations! […]
Show full quote

👏👏👏
Excellent news! Congratulations!

Your SSD to IDE adapter is one of the best I've tried. But not all computers are compatible with SSDs. It may be the size, the brand, I don't know but I also faced problems on some computers.

For Win9x an SD to IDE is more than enough. It's enough even for an XP install.

Yeah, I'll just use it elsewhere. I'm just glad it doesn't seem to be a Compaq "hardware lock", just a limitation of the system. One I found a way to work around.

I really like the SD/IDE adapters, have 3 in use right now. Convenient and plenty fast for these old systems. 😀

Once I'm all done setting it up, I'm going to do a blog write-up on it to help possible future searchers. There's not much out there on these, and a lot of conflicting and/or misleading information.

Final Update - To help future searchers.

After a lot of testing and fiddling, here is what I think it going on.

The iPAQ looks like what I call a “KISS” system, “Keep It Simple Stupid”. It was designed to be as simple as possible so anyone can just hook it up and use it. This also applies to the BIOS as many of the customization features found in others is locked away and automated. One such feature is the hard drive parameters, you have no access to them.

I think what going on here is the BIOS on these machines simply has trouble identifying any drives over something like 160GB, perhaps more, but, I cannot test where the actual limit is because the smallest drives I have are 160GB, after that they jump to 500GB, and the SD cards jump to 256GB. However, I can safely say that if the drive you want to use is physically 160GB or less, it should work just fine, including IDE to SD, compact flash, and SATA adapters. Remember, not the formatted or partitioned size, but the total physical capacity needs to be 160GB or less. I assume this is simply a hardware limitation of the system, not some sort of lock put there by Compaq on purpose.

For the sake of simplicity, here are all the working configurations I’ve tested on my iPAQ 2.0 that work perfectly.

IDE to SATA: 128GB SSD works perfectly. (Bought one off Amazon just to test the adapter with the iPAQ, the IDE to SATA adapter is NOT the fault, it's the drive size.)
IDE to SD: 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB SD cards all seem to work flawlessly.
IDE to CF: 2GB, 64GB, and 128GB cards all work flawlessly.

Whatever the actual HDD size limit the iPAQ can properly use may be, it’s not really an issue considering the OS this system is best fitted to use is Windows 98, and 98 is limited to a max HDD size of 128GB anyway. However, it also appears you may not be able to partition out larger drives and use it with this system (though 160GB and under seem to work), but since 128GB SD cards (and even SSDs) are still readily available and inexpensive, it’s not going to cost much to get one of these systems up and running using these modern alternatives to hard drives.

Be warned, it takes the Win98 setup about 30 minutes to format 128GB no matter what drive config you go with, so once the process starts, you may as well grab a bite to eat or get some coffee. However, once it's complete, the rest of the setup is nice and quick.

I hope that helps someone out!

Overall, this is a cool little system. They were often used as workstations but found their way into quite a few homes as well. Even with its complete lack of expansion card connectivity, the hardware really isn’t all that bad for the Windows 98 time-frame. It's nice and responsive, and I really like the "multibay" swapping between CD-ROM and the LS120 drive. While it's not going to handle a lot in terms of "high-end" gaming, it's Intel on-board video and 4MB of expanded video cache is enough for both lower demand and older Windows games.

Correction: Earlier in this thread, I had mentioned wanting to find a standard 1.44 floppy drive for use in the "multibay", I had completely forgotten that LS120 drives are backwards compatible with standard 1.44MB and 720K floppy disks. So, the LS120 is all you need!

One more system saved from the garbage man!

The iPaq I had must have been different, at least in BIOS if not the whole motherboard.
I just noticed your CPU is 133FSB - so it's very likely mine had an older motherboard. Mine came with a 500/66 Mendocino so I doubt mine supported 133FSB.
It now appears to me that older iPaqs have an issue with non-Compaq hard drives, but later ones like yours apparently do not. So the later version is definitely desirable.

I found some old notes - my iPaq came with a Seagate Medalist 3.2GB, which did work. The other drive that worked was a WD AC310000 10GB that came from a Compaq Deskpro EN.

My notes list these that I tried which did not work. The boot process would freeze at "Attempting to boot from hard disk (C:)"
- A 12GB Hitachi/IBM laptop drive from a Thinkpad, even after cloning it with the contents of the original STX Medalist 3.2GB drive
Same 12GB laptop drive still didn't work after resizing it to 8GB via the Hitachi/IBM utility.
- A Maxtor 6.4GB drive (my notes don't give the model number)
- WD 6.4GB Caviar 26400 (I'm now using this on a DOS PC, definitely a good drive)
- "some other old drives" (unspecified)
Back then I had a few Seagate Barracuda ATA IV 20GB drives which were my preferred drives for random messing around. I think I would have tried one of those, but I don't know for sure.
For a while I thought there might be an 8.4GB limitation, but the 10GB drive from the other Compaq disproved that.

I also found this comment about the BIOS:
"Original BIOS was 686J5 v2.05.

6/2014, I flashed it to 686J5 v2.10. It didn't change anything that I could tell. Same problems with booting hard drives."

shamino wrote on 2025-01-29, 08:06:

The iPaq I had must have been different, at least in BIOS if not the whole motherboard. I just noticed your CPU is 133FSB - so i […]
Show full quote

The iPaq I had must have been different, at least in BIOS if not the whole motherboard.
I just noticed your CPU is 133FSB - so it's very likely mine had an older motherboard. Mine came with a 500/66 Mendocino so I doubt mine supported 133FSB.
It now appears to me that older iPaqs have an issue with non-Compaq hard drives, but later ones like yours apparently do not. So the later version is definitely desirable.

I found some old notes - my iPaq came with a Seagate Medalist 3.2GB, which did work. The other drive that worked was a WD AC310000 10GB that came from a Compaq Deskpro EN.

My notes list these that I tried which did not work. The boot process would freeze at "Attempting to boot from hard disk (C:)"
- A 12GB Hitachi/IBM laptop drive from a Thinkpad, even after cloning it with the contents of the original STX Medalist 3.2GB drive
Same 12GB laptop drive still didn't work after resizing it to 8GB via the Hitachi/IBM utility.
- A Maxtor 6.4GB drive (my notes don't give the model number)
- WD 6.4GB Caviar 26400 (I'm now using this on a DOS PC, definitely a good drive)
- "some other old drives" (unspecified)
Back then I had a few Seagate Barracuda ATA IV 20GB drives which were my preferred drives for random messing around. I think I would have tried one of those, but I don't know for sure.
For a while I thought there might be an 8.4GB limitation, but the 10GB drive from the other Compaq disproved that.

I also found this comment about the BIOS:
"Original BIOS was 686J5 v2.05.

6/2014, I flashed it to 686J5 v2.10. It didn't change anything that I could tell. Same problems with booting hard drives."

All of that makes me wonder that as well. Mine is the iPAQ 2.0 "Legacy Free", even though it has the legacy connectors adapter.

This one seems to work fine as long as the drive is 128GB or less. I wonder if that's what lead to the confusion I found online looking into this problem. Some had the issue, others did not?

So confusing... if you still had yours I would see if you could plug in a drive you know didn't work and just let it sit 3-5 minutes trying to POST and see what happens.