It's a 33.6 modem. One input from your phone line, one output to your phone, 2.5mm jacks for making voice calls, and a set of mysterious dip switches.

Googling the model number on the PCB brought up this page and a bunch of eBay listings.

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-29, 22:50:

[...]

The blue sticker at the bottom translates to "ministry of traffic and water management", but that's so odd. The computer I picked up is a Vobis Highscreen mid-tower PC. I can't imagine a system like that being used in a corporate setting, much less government related.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s the Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat was among other things responsible for the certification of telecommunications equipment. If you wanted to purchase a modem in NL that was legal for use there, it had to be approved by VWS.

So no, this machine probably hadn't been used in government, it was simply bought in NL and complied with legislation at the time.

Also, as a side note... I actually picked this computer up because I had one as a child, in fact it's the first computer I remember having at our home. But I seem to remember it came with Windows 95, which seems appropriate for the hardware. But when the guy sold it to me he turned it on briefly and it had Windows ME on it. Do you suppose they upgraded, or would there have been versions of this PC sold with Windows ME? It's hard to believe they were selling computers like this by the year 2000. Seems more like an early-mid '90s kinda system.

Given you only post a pic of a babyAT minitower and an ISA modem from inside it, there's not much to go on. Generally speaking, by the time WinME was released, newly sold systems would have been ATX, not babyAT - but there were still a few AT systems being sold then. Without the rest of the specs of the PC we can't definitively answer this. It's likely that this system was sold with Win98 or even Win95 (the youngest chip on that modem with visible date code is from 1996...) and was later upgraded to WinME (hopefully after RAM was similarly upgraded), but to be sure we'd need to know what its internals are.

The 33K6 int Voice is a big clue that it's a modem and internal digital phone. And from the label, it was made for the Dutch market

dionb wrote on 2025-01-29, 23:11:

Back in the 1980s and 1990s the Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat was among other things responsible for the certification of […]
Show full quote

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-29, 22:50:

[...]

The blue sticker at the bottom translates to "ministry of traffic and water management", but that's so odd. The computer I picked up is a Vobis Highscreen mid-tower PC. I can't imagine a system like that being used in a corporate setting, much less government related.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s the Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat was among other things responsible for the certification of telecommunications equipment. If you wanted to purchase a modem in NL that was legal for use there, it had to be approved by VWS.

So no, this machine probably hadn't been used in government, it was simply bought in NL and complied with legislation at the time.

Also, as a side note... I actually picked this computer up because I had one as a child, in fact it's the first computer I remember having at our home. But I seem to remember it came with Windows 95, which seems appropriate for the hardware. But when the guy sold it to me he turned it on briefly and it had Windows ME on it. Do you suppose they upgraded, or would there have been versions of this PC sold with Windows ME? It's hard to believe they were selling computers like this by the year 2000. Seems more like an early-mid '90s kinda system.

Given you only post a pic of a babyAT minitower and an ISA modem from inside it, there's not much to go on. Generally speaking, by the time WinME was released, newly sold systems would have been ATX, not babyAT - but there were still a few AT systems being sold then. Without the rest of the specs of the PC we can't definitively answer this. It's likely that this system was sold with Win98 or even Win95 (the youngest chip on that modem with visible date code is from 1996...) and was later upgraded to WinME (hopefully after RAM was similarly upgraded), but to be sure we'd need to know what its internals are.

Motherboard is a PA-2005. I think it might be 1997? What sticks out to me is that there’s actually a 10-pin header labelled as USB1 and USB2, but this motherboard has no USB ports otherwise, nor are there any in the front panel.

CPU is a Pentium MMX. And there’s four RAM sticks in there, but idk what they are. It isn’t clear from what’s printed on it. Two different types, two of each. Guess I won’t know until I put it back together.

I actually wanted a computer like this as close as possible to how it was sold in stores, but it's seemingly impossible to find exact details on how these machines were sold. Once I get done cleaning it and rebuilding I guess I'll just stick Windows 95 on there.

Nothing out of the ordinary about this at all.

The ram looks like 72pin edo dram, but not sure the size.

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-29, 23:59:

What sticks out to me is that there’s actually a 10-pin header labelled as USB1 and USB2, but this motherboard has no USB ports otherwise, nor are there any in the front panel.

They're probably buggy, if they even work at all. Early USB was very unreliable which is why it didn't really gain traction until USB2.0/EHCI came along.

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-29, 23:59:

[...]

Motherboard is a PA-2005. I think it might be 1997? What sticks out to me is that there’s actually a 10-pin header labelled as USB1 and USB2, but this motherboard has no USB ports otherwise, nor are there any in the front panel.

PA-2005 is a late 1996 design which could well have been sold new in early 1997. USB was a thing back then but a rarely-used thing, so no surprise it wasn't hooked up.

CPU is a Pentium MMX. And there’s four RAM sticks in there, but idk what they are. It isn’t clear from what’s printed on it. Two different types, two of each. Guess I won’t know until I put it back together.

Yes it is. Those memory chips are 1Mx16 (google the datasheet of the clearly legible TMS418169A for example). That means 16Mbit=2MB per chip and either 2 (single-sided) or 4 (double sided) chips per DIMM for either 4 or 8MB each.

I actually wanted a computer like this as close as possible to how it was sold in stores, but it's seemingly impossible to find exact details on how these machines were sold. Once I get done cleaning it and rebuilding I guess I'll just stick Windows 95 on there.

If this was a late 1996, early 1997 PC it would have been sold with Windows 95 on it. Quite likely it originally had 2x 8MB RAM, which is on the low side for Win95 (and much too low for WinME) and that was upgraded to either 24MB or 32MB depending on the SIMMs in there. I would recommend against undoing this upgrade unless you're a masochist.

The memory sticks are 4 MB if single sided and 8 MB if double sided.
Check win device manager or BIOS settings if there is a USB hub mentioned somewhere, if yes grab a cheap USB slot bracket.
If there is none the pin header usually did not get populated.
And as mentioned before:
Universal USB storage support is availiable from win 98 onwards.

dionb wrote on 2025-01-30, 08:33:

PA-2005 is a late 1996 design which could well have been sold new in early 1997. USB was a thing back then but a rarely-used thi […]
Show full quote

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-29, 23:59:

[...]

Motherboard is a PA-2005. I think it might be 1997? What sticks out to me is that there’s actually a 10-pin header labelled as USB1 and USB2, but this motherboard has no USB ports otherwise, nor are there any in the front panel.

PA-2005 is a late 1996 design which could well have been sold new in early 1997. USB was a thing back then but a rarely-used thing, so no surprise it wasn't hooked up.

CPU is a Pentium MMX. And there’s four RAM sticks in there, but idk what they are. It isn’t clear from what’s printed on it. Two different types, two of each. Guess I won’t know until I put it back together.

Yes it is. Those memory chips are 1Mx16 (google the datasheet of the clearly legible TMS418169A for example). That means 16Mbit=2MB per chip and either 2 (single-sided) or 4 (double sided) chips per DIMM for either 4 or 8MB each.

I actually wanted a computer like this as close as possible to how it was sold in stores, but it's seemingly impossible to find exact details on how these machines were sold. Once I get done cleaning it and rebuilding I guess I'll just stick Windows 95 on there.

If this was a late 1996, early 1997 PC it would have been sold with Windows 95 on it. Quite likely it originally had 2x 8MB RAM, which is on the low side for Win95 (and much too low for WinME) and that was upgraded to either 24MB or 32MB depending on the SIMMs in there. I would recommend against undoing this upgrade unless you're a masochist.

I’ll probably leave the RAM in there and just change it to Win 95. Maybe change the IDE HDD to either a IDE to SD module, or try SCSI2SD. Don’t really trust those old hard drives. I’ll also try looking for a stock install disk, but I’m not sure it even came with anything custom installed.

From what I could see all RAM sticks had chips on both sides.

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-30, 09:53:

[...]

I’ll probably leave the RAM in there and just change it to Win 95. Maybe change the IDE HDD to either a IDE to SD module, or try SCSI2SD. Don’t really trust those old hard drives. I’ll also try looking for a stock install disk, but I’m not sure it even came with anything custom installed.

SCSI2SD is pretty expensive and only really useful on an already SCSI system. For IDE, why not just stick with CF if you want something solid-state? CF actually communicates with a subset of PATA protocol, so no active adapters needed, making CF-IDE more foolproof and simpler than SD-IDE (and theoretically also lower latencies, although any difference there will be dwarfed by the difference between rotating and solid state in the first place).

Do be aware that a swap file severely impacts the lifespan of flash media (regardless of which you choose), so you're better off keeping that on the old drive.

From what I could see all RAM sticks had chips on both sides.

Then if all those chips are the same as the ones pictured, they are all 8MB SIMMs giving you 32MB total.

One question though: you're asking these questions as if the system wasn't able to boot and you weren't able to just read what BIOS told you. Is there a problem with the system? If one or more parts are dead, it's a pretty moot point asking about original configurations using those dead parts...

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-29, 23:59:

I actually wanted a computer like this as close as possible to how it was sold in stores, but it's seemingly impossible to find exact details on how these machines were sold. Once I get done cleaning it and rebuilding I guess I'll just stick Windows 95 on there.

Vobis did offer standardized configurations but a substantial part of their business was based on a made to order system. You could pick parts via a computerscreen on the desk in the shop and the end result was then thus a customized version.

dionb wrote on 2025-01-30, 11:18:

SCSI2SD is pretty expensive and only really useful on an already SCSI system. For IDE, why not just stick with CF if you want so […]
Show full quote

JustRob wrote on 2025-01-30, 09:53:

[...]

I’ll probably leave the RAM in there and just change it to Win 95. Maybe change the IDE HDD to either a IDE to SD module, or try SCSI2SD. Don’t really trust those old hard drives. I’ll also try looking for a stock install disk, but I’m not sure it even came with anything custom installed.

SCSI2SD is pretty expensive and only really useful on an already SCSI system. For IDE, why not just stick with CF if you want something solid-state? CF actually communicates with a subset of PATA protocol, so no active adapters needed, making CF-IDE more foolproof and simpler than SD-IDE (and theoretically also lower latencies, although any difference there will be dwarfed by the difference between rotating and solid state in the first place).

Do be aware that a swap file severely impacts the lifespan of flash media (regardless of which you choose), so you're better off keeping that on the old drive.

From what I could see all RAM sticks had chips on both sides.

Then if all those chips are the same as the ones pictured, they are all 8MB SIMMs giving you 32MB total.

One question though: you're asking these questions as if the system wasn't able to boot and you weren't able to just read what BIOS told you. Is there a problem with the system? If one or more parts are dead, it's a pretty moot point asking about original configurations using those dead parts...

I don’t really like CompactFlash, those cards are pretty pricey. Plus with a regular SD I can transfer stuff easily between it and my modern PC.

It was able to boot, I just didn’t. I got impatient and tore the thing apart in order to clean it before booting it up, since the previous owner had let it collect dust for a good while.

But then I started working on another PC and now this is taking longer than I wanted.