spburke wrote:

I just thought I set some things straight. I was the Product Manager for this product and it is actually not a DESKPRO 386s/20. This PC has the wrong logo on it. This is a Compaq Deskpro/M chassis and the processor inside is either a 386DX 25 or 33MHz. The Deskpro 386s/20 had a 386SX processor and the chassis was totally different. Note the processor board picture with the Intel processor clearly stating "DX". This Deskpro/M system has a separate Processor board, Memory board, Video board, and slide out I/O board. It was introduced in 1991. Pardon my nostalgia!

Welcome to this awesome forum! 😀

spburke wrote:

I just thought I set some things straight. I was the Product Manager for this product and it is actually not a DESKPRO 386s/20. This PC has the wrong logo on it. This is a Compaq Deskpro/M chassis and the processor inside is either a 386DX 25 or 33MHz. The Deskpro 386s/20 had a 386SX processor and the chassis was totally different. Note the processor board picture with the Intel processor clearly stating "DX". This Deskpro/M system has a separate Processor board, Memory board, Video board, and slide out I/O board. It was introduced in 1991. Pardon my nostalgia!

Hi,
Can you tell us more about these systems? I like reading about the internals of these early high-end systems - with both wide memory and I/O buses, using high-end Intel cache controllers. I've sold recently my Deskpro XL, with this custom Compaq TriFlex providing both EISA and PCI, very nice machine. I assume the system was positioned directly against the IBM PS/2 line?

Hmm... I have a Compaq DeskPro 386/20e machine, ut it looks a little bit different -
http://hardware-museum.livejournal.com/172940.html

Nice system foey! I like Compaq systems. I have a Deskpro EN (Pentium iii 933mhz) which is a solid beast. Congrats!

Hey GL1zdA
If you want to see the training video, here it is. I'm the guy 42 seconds in (when I had hair). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKLRCmARqok

spburke wrote:

Hey GL1zdA
If you want to see the training video, here it is. I'm the guy 42 seconds in (when I had hair). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKLRCmARqok

Holy cow, you're a movie star! 😁

Never had any experience with these particular machines or 386 in general, so I wonder — is there any particular reason ISA slot 5 is marked with a display icon on the back of the case? You can still put VGA card in any other slot, right?

spburke wrote:

I just thought I set some things straight. I was the Product Manager for this product and it is actually not a DESKPRO 386s/20. This PC has the wrong logo on it. This is a Compaq Deskpro/M chassis and the processor inside is either a 386DX 25 or 33MHz. The Deskpro 386s/20 had a 386SX processor and the chassis was totally different. Note the processor board picture with the Intel processor clearly stating "DX". This Deskpro/M system has a separate Processor board, Memory board, Video board, and slide out I/O board. It was introduced in 1991. Pardon my nostalgia!

Yup... this is what I was saying, wrong insides to the configuration disks he was trying. From research I figured out the system was actually a "386 25/M", not the "386 S/20" as stated on the case... I also provided the proper links to the required and correct configuration files to utilize the EISA bus.

I love these systems so it's really interesting to meet someone part of the team developing the Deskpro's etc.

I also have to go one further and say that you held yourselves back a little (possibly because of contracts with Intel I suspect) limiting the 386 class systems to 33MHz, and not up'ing them to 40MHz by utilizing AMD. Most of my Deskpro's / Systempro I have modded up the FSB from 33MHz to 40MHz... crystal and solid state, all the chipset's are fine with it. My Systempro even has two of TI's SXL2 50's running at a 40MHz FSB, I can up this to 50MHz with a 100MHz crystal but intensive cooling is required for this excercise and I would not advise it for longer term usage... but 40MHz is fine. The Deskpro's can be pushed further than you may think. 😁

I'm getting it out the loft tonight for a little play 😀

So this evening I dug the Compaq machine from the loft. I switched it on and something didn't sound right - the hard drive was making a deep seeking noise. It sounded like the disk was not spinning. I left the machine on for 30 minutes or so then removed the cover and gave the hard drive a hard punch. It then sprang back into live! Phew...!

I made the disks as suggested by 386_junkie and they work perfectly!

I'm able to setup the BIOS and change the disk type. I'm currently looking at a number of Conner replacement drives on ebay to keep it authentic.

The 60mb is so small. I'm currently running DOS 6.21 with Windows 3.11 and a couple of small DOS games and I've run out of space!

So any ideas why the badge or case is wrong? spburke?

* Small update *

The other week I replaced the 60mb hard drive for an 850mb Conner drive. It's a much quicker drive than the failing 60mb! Windows 3.11 feels much more responsive on it now.

24/11 OK to epic update time and a small Christmas gift to myself on Christmas Eve 😀

The other day I was searching for ISA Cards when I stumbled across a small little bundle full of various ISA card. I spotted a couple straight away to be a few Compaq cards, the ones I was looking for.

It was up for £35 inc delivery. I dropped a quick message to the seller and managed to get him down to £25 delivered.

First up was a Kingston memory board which had the exact same connectors. One of the slots was filled with a module (No markings to verify) I had no idea if this would work or be the right model but the connectors looked the same.

The cards are very firm, requiring a lot of effort to match up the rear as well as the many sockets below.

Once the card was in, the machine booted up but still counted the 4mb of RAM. It then beeps and told me that I needed to run the Compaq setup utility as it found an Expansion board... oooh 😀

It then configured the board for me and rebooted... I was over the moon. The module was 8mb, coupled with the 4mb it totalled 12mb!

Very happy. Windows 3.11 now runs effortlessly thanks to hardly any swapping with bigger applications.

The next board in the bundle is a 486/50 (I think*) processor board. These are selling for over £30 for the card alone, very lucky to get this. Again, have no idea if this will work and what effort will be required in getting it working.

(486 Above, 386DX 25 below)

It boots! However gives me a number of errors. It tries to boot from the floppy disk then stops "Booting MS Dos" and gets no further.
I've set jumper "4" to "Override EISA Boot Configuration, Diskette boot control" but no joy - exactly the same.

I'm tempted to use jumper "6" Erase EISA Configuration" but a little scared 😀

If I place the 386 back in it boots perfectly. Any ideas? Happy Christmas 😀

So that memory card theoretically allows to add up to 64MB of RAM (8x 8mb)? Cool.

I guess the stored settings for the 386 card are not compatible with the 486 card. You could erase them, but not without making a back-up of them or noting them down first, so you can restore the original 386 settings if the 486 card still fails to work.

Sorted it!

I noticed that when it failed, it came up with "Disk 0 Failure" indicating the hard drive. When I swapped everything back, booting back into the BIOS it wanted to change my HD from Type 87 (850mb) to Custom.

So I pulled the hard drive cable, booted, I got the errors without "Disk 0 Failure" It then would let me boot from the floppy into the BIOS.

It then picked up my new board...

Once saved it rebooted and worked perfectly. It is a 486DX2/50 and has 8mb of RAM on board, totaling up 16mb with my memory expansion.

Very impressed. As you can imagine the machine runs much quicker. I may end up putting a small fan on the 486 heatsink as it gets quite hot.

I also swapped out the Graphics card, It came with the bundle and is a EISA card. it's the same brand (Compaq Q-Vision) but has 1mb of memory onboard instead of the standard 256/512kb one I had previously. Using the same driver in Windows 3.11 I'm able to display 1024x768 @ 256 colours.

yawetaG
So that memory card theoretically allows to add up to 64MB of RAM (8x 8mb)? Cool.

Yes, apparently the board can take a maximum of 64mb of RAM! 😀

Merry Christmas indeed!

Excellent to see it up and running... with the additional HD, mem board modifications.

That bundle was a great find esp with the VGA card too! What you have there is the Compaq Q-vision, Compaq's most powerful EISA graphics card.

... AND, you managed to get Speedsys working!!! This I have been trying to achieve on Compaq EISA systems for a while now (albeit not recently) which I suspect has been unsuccesful due to the mem boards I am using, there are two types. Once I get the time, I will single out and unpack the Deskpro I have similar to this one. Thanks for sharing this.

yawetaG wrote:

I guess the stored settings for the 386 card are not compatible with the 486 card. You could erase them, but not without making a back-up of them or noting them down first, so you can restore the original 386 settings if the 486 card still fails to work.

All the Compaq machines of this era were the same in using NVRAM for storing system configuraions by ways of Dallas RTC's. Any change at all on the EISA bus required a running of the configuration for the system to recognize the change.

It can be quite a finicky and time consuming task, especially with the HD's as there is an order which each hardware should be added... otherwise changes will not be accepted.

Below is an insight to the task it can be: -

The Systempro Project; The Bios

386_junkie, speedsys did keep locking up the system so I had to get around it by turning off a couple of switches. Use the command...

1speedsys /SM /DSPDR

SM - Skip Memory Benchmark
DSPDR - Disable reading SPD (Memory type detection)

The bundle came with a Sound Blaster Pro 2, CT1600 - Do you think I should swap it out for my Sound Blaster 16? Which is better?

Great find! It often requires great patience to find all these old OEM CPU cards.

Very nice indeed! cool to see it getting all optioned out 😀
and very keen eye to pick up the items in the ebay pic

foey wrote:

386_junkie, speedsys did keep locking up the system so I had to get around it by turning off a couple of switches. Use the comma […]
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386_junkie, speedsys did keep locking up the system so I had to get around it by turning off a couple of switches. Use the command...

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1speedsys /SM /DSPDR

SM - Skip Memory Benchmark
DSPDR - Disable reading SPD (Memory type detection)

The bundle came with a Sound Blaster Pro 2, CT1600 - Do you think I should swap it out for my Sound Blaster 16? Which is better?

Brilliant! I'll be sure to try those switches. It's a strange bug, since I wasn't the only one having the Speedsys issue, it comes down to the Compaq systems and possibly their memory architecture possibly even the proprietary nature of. Did Speedsys recognise cache?

Regards to the soundcards i'm not much help... I would say SB 16 possibly for compatibility, though I'm not a massive fan of the creative cards so I can't say for sure... normally i'm more oriented toward a piggybacking Yamaha DB50XG, or Roland LAPC-I.

If you try them both, let me know how they go.