All back together. Nothing damaged and running like the tramp it is. Remember folks if you are going to play around with a computer by removing/fitting parts and connector for goodness sake do disconnect power/power off and make sure you earth yourself out in some way. By either an earthing strap or touching the metal surround/casing. It'll save you a lot of grief in the long run.

Hello, excellent post for the Presario CDS 524. A friend of mine gave me one of these last week. The PC was full of dust so before I check if it was working I cleaned up just a little.
After that, I connect the power chord and it started but without image (CRT was off). The PC boot normally but no image was on the CRT. (after it boots I heard two long beeps and two short beeps)

If some one can help me with some experience so I can start digging this problem and try to fix it.
Thanks!!!

My CDS 524 has finally died. Nothing I tried revived it so I've removed what can be reused and placed the rest in the shed. I'll put the P75 in the same form factor in service in a couple of months.

erniman wrote on 2020-05-26, 00:16:

The PC boot normally but no image was on the CRT. (after it boots I heard two long beeps and two short beeps)

Could be RAM problems or some cable that is not seated correctly. You should try re-seating the RAM and all the cables.

Not sure how accurate this page is but may be worth checking: http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/compaqbeep.htm

Hi

Ive recently configured this computer (CDS524) with a IDE to CF card adapter. Ive mounted a 4GB card to it and struggle to configure it. Ive managed to setup the BIOS, so I can now load into Win95 or DOS, but everytime i start the computer I get this anoying message:

"The following configuration options were automatically updated:
Disk 65 Type:65
If you are running UNIX, you need to configure your system using the Compaq User Diagnostics diskette."

F1 Save Changes -> soft reboot happens and the disk error message. I then need to pull out CF card, reboot save changes, boot with diagnostics floppy and manually setup CF card.
F2 Ignore Changes -> leads me into loading OS and everything works smoothly, 2 partitions with 2GB each.
F10 Comupter Setup -> leads me back to bios setup with a message that storage has been configured

The anoying thing here is if I accidently push F1 at startup I'll have to open the case and resetup CF card.

Wow long message 😀 Hope somone has time and knowledge.
Regard Walter

Just to add:

I've check with another old Pentium computer what the disk geometry is , and also verifyed this on my Compaq with programs like "WHATIDE.EXE".

They read out:
Cylinders 8146
Head 16
Sectors 63
MB 4204

But in my Compaq Bios - Inspect function says:
Cylinders 1018
Head 128
Sectors 63
MB 4203

Still I manually override this in Bios setup and the disk works perfectly (except the startup-message).

I have now fixed this issue. I just reconfigured the BIOS setup one more time and it's sorted out. I wonder if this Bios can't handle multiple reconfigurations at one save iteration.

pampilhoso wrote on 2019-06-10, 12:01:

By the way, as anyone ever noticed the WB/WT missing jumpers (P3)? I just bought an evergreen 5x86 133mhz that as a configurabl […]
Show full quote

By the way, as anyone ever noticed the WB/WT missing jumpers (P3)? I just bought an evergreen 5x86 133mhz that as a configurable cache mode, WT / WB, but when I set to WB I cannot boot into the OS, totally expected since this motherboard only supports (officialy) the SX2/DX2 cpus. But this missing jumper opens the possibility that after all the motherboard may support WB L1 cache.

Can anyone confirm this?

Hi I recently bought a Kingston Turbochip 5x86 133Mhz. I've tried to boot but after counting RAM system stops. Did you manage to fix this somehow? With WB/WT?

NORTHERN WALLY wrote on 2020-11-19, 22:11:

pampilhoso wrote on 2019-06-10, 12:01:

By the way, as anyone ever noticed the WB/WT missing jumpers (P3)? I just bought an evergreen 5x86 133mhz that as a configurabl […]
Show full quote

By the way, as anyone ever noticed the WB/WT missing jumpers (P3)? I just bought an evergreen 5x86 133mhz that as a configurable cache mode, WT / WB, but when I set to WB I cannot boot into the OS, totally expected since this motherboard only supports (officialy) the SX2/DX2 cpus. But this missing jumper opens the possibility that after all the motherboard may support WB L1 cache.

Can anyone confirm this?

Hi I recently bought a Kingston Turbochip 5x86 133Mhz. I've tried to boot but after counting RAM system stops. Did you manage to fix this somehow? With WB/WT?

I just tried soldering 3 pins on MB, tried several positions for a jumper with no luck. I mean I tried with 25/33Mhz + SX/noSX and WB/WT 😢

NORTHERN WALLY wrote on 2020-11-20, 17:03:

NORTHERN WALLY wrote on 2020-11-19, 22:11:

pampilhoso wrote on 2019-06-10, 12:01:

By the way, as anyone ever noticed the WB/WT missing jumpers (P3)? I just bought an evergreen 5x86 133mhz that as a configurabl […]
Show full quote

By the way, as anyone ever noticed the WB/WT missing jumpers (P3)? I just bought an evergreen 5x86 133mhz that as a configurable cache mode, WT / WB, but when I set to WB I cannot boot into the OS, totally expected since this motherboard only supports (officialy) the SX2/DX2 cpus. But this missing jumper opens the possibility that after all the motherboard may support WB L1 cache.

Can anyone confirm this?

Hi I recently bought a Kingston Turbochip 5x86 133Mhz. I've tried to boot but after counting RAM system stops. Did you manage to fix this somehow? With WB/WT?

I just tried soldering 3 pins on MB, tried several positions for a jumper with no luck. I mean I tried with 25/33Mhz + SX/noSX and WB/WT 😢

Sorry for the reply! No luck aswell...does your kingston chip have a jumper to select between wb/wt cache mode?

BTW, I have just created a FB group for the Compaq Presario CDS 500 series, if anyone is interested feel free to join 😀

https://www.facebook.com/groups/compaqpresariocds500series/

Shivers, this thread brings back fond memorys. I had my CDS524 for a very long time.

Just wanted to share an amazing mod that i saw for the compaq cds 500 series model.

As you may or may not know, you cannot use the intel pentium overdrive since it's only compatible with socket 2 and 3. The Compaq has a cpu socket 1, but what I never noticed is that it actually has the missing socket 2/3 holes in the mainboard.

So this user "FabFr" @ vcfed.org described his mod, where he was able to remove the original socket 1 and solder a socket 3 into the mainboard and managed to get a CDS 524 working propertly with a PODP5V83 cpu.
Not only that, he also managed to solder the missing pins into jumper P3 that is related with WT/WB cache selection. Would be really interesting knowing if L1 WB cache is really working. Maybe someone here can analyze the speedsys graph below.

This is an awesome mod that allows any compaq presario cds 500 series model to be pushed to its limits.

I have also a PODP5V83 and a working spare CDS 524, so whenever I'm able to get my hands on a faulty socket 2/3 board I might end up executing this mod aswell.

Check it out:
https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/genres/late … at-do-you-think

Hello there..

Did someone ever try to update the graphic memory from 512KB to 1MB?

There is no way to upgrade the graphics memory unfortunately. Not that it would make much difference anyway to the type of software you can run on it.

I have used a 486SocketBlaster and installed an AMD 486 DX4-100, and set the jumper to 4x on the 486SocketBlaster and its now registering as a 5x86 134Mhz. Not bad upgrade.

Quite happy with the speed I am getting.
In SuperScape Benchmark 1.0c i got from 37 to 57
In SpeedSys I got from 24.71 to 49.76
In Doom i get 37 FPS

486SocketBlaster: https://youtu.be/YV4V_aUYyPI