VOGONS


First post, by smokeycockatiel

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Hello

I'am new here 😀 Hello 😀

I Just bought a Compaq 4/25S Prolinea on "an online auction site"

It has a 304 keyboard error code.

It has yet to be delivered to me BUT

If i could Know what i need to do to get it working it will put me ahead of the game.

I purchased it to play games from the very early 1990's 😀

It has a 486 25 SX cpu and an empty socket next door

It also has a 3 isa riser card.

That is all i know about it thus far.

I am buying a new 3.6v battery for the bios and i have a varible temperature solder iron

Any advice or help is very welcome

James

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

Reply 1 of 14, by Caluser2000

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Welcome. Replace the keyboard for another one PS/2 keyboard and see what happens.

304 is the keyboard has crapped itself.

Download the service manual pdf and read it before your system turns up...

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 2 of 14, by smokeycockatiel

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Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-03, 20:05:

Welcome. Replace the keyboard for another one PS/2 keyboard and see what happens.

304 is the keyboard has crapped itself.

Download the service manual pdf and read it before your system turns up...

Thankyou For Your replay Caluser2000.

Do you recommend a specific brand/model ?

I Do not yet know if the Original Bios Battery has become incontinent and leaked its contents all over the keyboard circuits.

As i dont yet own it i do not yet know which subcode it is.

I have downloaded a Manual of sorts and there are 5 maybe 6 versions of the 304 code 🤣 😀

Thanks again

James

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

Reply 3 of 14, by Caluser2000

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Any PS/2 keyboard will do.

There is a proper service manual if you do a proper search for your model..

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 4 of 14, by smokeycockatiel

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Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-01-03, 20:55:

Any PS/2 keyboard will do.

There is a proper service manual if you do a proper search for your model..

Im sorry but i cant find one 🙁

James

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

Reply 7 of 14, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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smokeycockatiel wrote on 2021-01-04, 19:42:

Please Can anyone help me 🙁

I'am new here

James

It could be a problem with the keyboard or the system board. Here's a copy of the Service & Maintenance Guide

Filename
pdf_28095.pdf
File size
863.25 KiB
Downloads
48 downloads
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 8 of 14, by chinny22

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Wait till the PC arrives, Plug in a PS2 keyboard and see whats what.
No point trouble shooting something that's not turned up yet! but once it has we'll be happy to help

Reply 9 of 14, by smokeycockatiel

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LewisRaz wrote on 2021-01-04, 22:37:

If it ended for £64 I am sorry for bidding against you 😜

That's ok 😀 😀

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

Reply 10 of 14, by smokeycockatiel

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Hello 😀

So i have it now.

The battery has leaked near the keyboard port.

I have ordered some "concentrated vinegar" i will clean the whole board with it with a toothbrush.

It turns on and the hdd and floppy post. but it gets stuck on kb error.

I have found a replacement board on ebay if i cannot get this working from "solentspares" they seem to have loads of compaq parts of this era.

I have also bought 2 16mb memory modules. a windows 95cd and boot disk. though im thinking i might get windows 3.11 and try that first.

There is no cd rom drive 🤣, should i use something of the time (4x ? or 8x speed)

Thanks

James

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

Reply 11 of 14, by chinny22

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If you take photo's of the motherboard members here will be able to tell how bad the motherboard is should you want to attempt to fix it.
I've purchased a number of things off solentspares number of times. I'd say they ask good honest price, not the cheapest but its a proper business with overheads so I'm ok with that.

Problem with 4x or 8x CD drive is reliability as they will be 20+ years old. Your probably better off getting a newer drive. DVD , burner doesn't matter as long s its IDE.
If you want to keep period correct that's fine. Majority of 486 games don't make have use of the CD drive, Redbook audio mostly and that's just a case of slow and steady 1x

Win95 will be pretty slow on 25Mhz, although on a 486 Windows is mainly for file management and 95 is easier to work with then 3.x
Dos/Windows 3x is a better match IMHO but again you'll be spending most the time in dos. It's just nice to have a GUI to copy files around the hard drive

Reply 12 of 14, by tour86rocker

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smokeycockatiel wrote on 2021-01-11, 13:55:

I have found a replacement board on ebay if i cannot get this working from "solentspares" they seem to have loads of compaq parts of this era.

I'm parting out a Prolinea of this model, could you link me to that page? I'm curious what this goes for.

Reply 13 of 14, by smokeycockatiel

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tour86rocker wrote on 2021-01-11, 16:42:
smokeycockatiel wrote on 2021-01-11, 13:55:

I have found a replacement board on ebay if i cannot get this working from "solentspares" they seem to have loads of compaq parts of this era.

I'm parting out a Prolinea of this model, could you link me to that page? I'm curious what this goes for.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/solentspares

Iam interested in the parts you may have

James

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,

Reply 14 of 14, by smokeycockatiel

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-01-11, 14:56:
If you take photo's of the motherboard members here will be able to tell how bad the motherboard is should you want to attempt t […]
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If you take photo's of the motherboard members here will be able to tell how bad the motherboard is should you want to attempt to fix it.
I've purchased a number of things off solentspares number of times. I'd say they ask good honest price, not the cheapest but its a proper business with overheads so I'm ok with that.

Problem with 4x or 8x CD drive is reliability as they will be 20+ years old. Your probably better off getting a newer drive. DVD , burner doesn't matter as long s its IDE.
If you want to keep period correct that's fine. Majority of 486 games don't make have use of the CD drive, Redbook audio mostly and that's just a case of slow and steady 1x

Win95 will be pretty slow on 25Mhz, although on a 486 Windows is mainly for file management and 95 is easier to work with then 3.x
Dos/Windows 3x is a better match IMHO but again you'll be spending most the time in dos. It's just nice to have a GUI to copy files around the hard drive

I Quite agree with you. 95 will be slow. I have found an overdrive processor that iam going to purchase to boost it.

I will take some pictures tomorrow please keep an eye out for my reply.

James

35, From Worcestershire England, Autistic, Hobbies, Steam Engine's-Briggs And Stratton Engines, Dell Laptops,Record Collector,