1999 Compaq Presario 5304 clock battery replacement

[kargaroc386]

You should edit that wallpaper to remove the word "Internet" from it

[irulethe70s]

My Compaq 5204 should of stpped at 384 or something like that, I got 486MB in it

[jmurray01]

Sweet! This has inspired me to get my 2000 DAN Windows 98 desktop running again :)

It is already running technically, but needs graphics drivers to be installed, as it is currently running with the graphics of an IBM PC, haha.

I may even hook the phone line up and set up some dial-up on it!

[KubaPSP]

Can the 4x speed CD-ROM read burned disks? Mine didn't, even with burning at 1x speed.

[vwestlife]

@KubaPSP I haven't tried. It should be able to read CD-R, but probably not CD-RW.

[vwestlife]

@RWL2011 Yes, those are Creative speakers, but they are crap. I have Altec Lansing speakers the same size which sound much better.

[Mr1p0d]

That monitor is now greenish! Maybe the tube is burned

Good video :)

[vwestlife]

@Mr1p0d No, the monitor still has a yellow tint due to a bad wire in its cable. My camera's automatic white balance altered the appearance of the colors when aimed at the screen.

[vwestlife]

@treborpoop It has the logo disabled. Add "Logo=0" to the hidden MSDOS.SYS file.

[MrKsoft]

I have one of that exact kind of CD drive in my parts drawer.  It's seriously the noisiest disc drive I have ever used. Thing sounds like it's screaming when it moves the laser assembly!

[MixerVM]

The rubber cover on the HDD is an attempt to prevent vibration, but can melt if the drive gets to hot

[lenoat702]

Why dont you Put in a new IDE hard drive so it will be quieter?

[vwestlife]

@lenoat702 At this point I'd rather just keep it as original as possible.

[MIKON8ERISBACK]

What is a CMOS clock? Ever since I was seven years old, I wondered why the f**k there was a coin type battery inside. I always knew that such a battery couldn't possibly support 120 volts of alternating current.

[vwestlife]

@MIKON8ERISBACK It doesn't. All of the circuitry inside a desktop PC runs at 12 volts DC or less.

[MIKON8ERISBACK]

@vwestlife Oh. But what is a CMOS clock?

[vwestlife]

@MIKON8ERISBACK CMOS is the name of the type of chip which stores the computer's configuration settings. The battery keeps this chip powered all the time, so that it doesn't forget the settings once you turn the computer off.

[NJRoadfan]

That ESS SOLO chip is PCI and actually has Windows 3.x drivers. This was when CPQ started using off the shelf hardware, thats a Gigabyte board in that machine. They are generally reliable based on personal experience working on them, unlike the machines that came before or after them (Quantum Bigfoot HDs anyone?)

I am also a fan of those PX engine laser printers. Got a LJ 4MP on the desk here still running strong at 4PPM, can't beat $20 HP toner refills either.

[ManiacalMichael504]

ah I remember those "pre-boot" virus checks.. haven't seen that in ages.

BTW, I'd make a point of backing up that 12 year old hard drive.

[HappyDiscoDeath]

interesting! I pulled the windows 98 startup sound off an old Compaq laptop that was just about shot, and stuck it on my Win7 Asus K60IJ laptop as the logon sound; I friggin love it! I may also copy it over for use on my Vista desktop.

[CavemanPerson]

@HappyDiscoDeath Same here! I copied the 98SE startup wav from my ancient Deskpro 4000 to the Win7-based HTPC. It sounds downright awesome through the big speakers in the living room.

[HappyDiscoDeath]

@CavemanPerson it even sounds good through laptop speakers or the stock (mediocre) Dell speakers on my desktop, and outdoes the stock sound clips on both computers. good stuff.

[spatsbear2]

Nice :)

I had my 11 year old Gateway out several months ago. Battery still going strong, though probably reaching its end of life. That computer still works great.

[SynRaine]

I really like the sound of keyboard for some reason.

[MixerVM]

What is the clock speed of the Cyrix Mll-366

[vwestlife]

@MixerVM 250 MHz (100 MHz bus x 2.5).

[MixerVM]

@vwestlife Only 250Mhz? I would have expected better in 1999! No wonder it seems so slow

[themaritimeman]

Oh yeah, that will take up to 768 MB of RAM. I know Compaq's documentation only says 384 MB, and I don't know why. 768 MB is the limit of the SiS 530. Mine's been running with 512 MB great for a few months now.

Also, surprisingly (well, surprising for the proprietary Compaq BIOS which mine has), it will accept a PCI video card. So with a good amount of RAM and a PCI video card - and a PSU upgrade for said card), it could probably be quite a capable computer still.

[Knaeckebrotsaege]

@themaritimeman the compaq documentation probably only mentions 384MB because sticks bigger than 128MB either weren't available yet or cost far more than the whole PC ..

It's the same thing for cellphones.. my (relatively old) Sony Ericcson W810i officially only supports 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo cards, but it runs fine with an 8GB card in it.

Back when that phone was released (late 2006), these cards simply weren't available in anything bigger than 2GB..

[themaritimeman]

@Knaeckebrotsaege Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

[themaritimeman]

It's funny how different our Presarios are inside, despite both being of the 5300 series. Different motherboard, of which mine is unknown, different power supply and method of power supply removal, etc. Mine also has a tiny NIC, probably the same one, but the odd thing is it isn't original!

Another coincidence, a junkyard-bound IBM PS/Valuepoint I've been playing around with at school has that same Quad Speed CD-ROM drive! Do you always have to press the eject button twice to get it to open?

[uxwbill]

I just had to do the same to a Gateway KAD Select 650 PC...its battery also managed a rather impressive eleven years worth of runtime. Seeing a Cyrix CPU in operation sure brings back some memories...the first PC ever assembled by myself was based on a "266" MHz 6x86.

Nosy question: is your father a programmer?

[vwestlife]

@uxwbill My dad is a retired college professor. He taught math, engineering, and various computer courses, including BASIC and C++ programming.

[tom611]

I forget, how does the Cyrix MII compare to the Intel Pentium of the same era? I remember the K6 was supposedly faster than the Pentium in everything except floating point.

[vwestlife]

@tom611 The Cyrix and AMD K6 chips were faster than Intel at running 16-bit software, but slower at running 32-bit software. So that makes them great for Windows 95/98, which still uses a lot of 16-bit code, but they really show their age when you try to run a fully 32-bit operating system like Windows 2000 or XP.

[ChiefLeftenant]

I had one of thoses

[cyberchecker]

1:04 Good idea! I always had the same issue with my old PC and I unscrewed the fan and mounted it with some wire in the computer housing to reduce the annoying fan noise.

[linuxlove4004]

5:30 Wait a minute... This thing has S.M.A.R.T.?

[uxwbill]

@linuxlove4004 The SMART standards came together in the mid-90s, so anything newer than that could support the standard. Although this seems to have a Gigabyte-sourced motherboard, (IIRC) Compaq was one of the member companies that helped to devise SMART as we know it today.

Even if your system's BIOS does not support SMART, it's still possible to send the appropriate ATA commands through external software and enable/get SMART data if the drive supports doing so.

[vwestlife]

@uxwbill This indeed has an off-the-shelf Gigabyte Super Socket 7 ATX motherboard, originally with a custom Compaq BIOS, but years ago I reflashed it with an updated BIOS from Gigabyte, so it no longer has the Compaq logo screen during startup, and the setup has a lot more options now.

[bamdadkhan]

those good old days.. i miss them. the floppies, the sound of the modem when connecting..

[Jallge]

nice idea about the back audio connectors, it's kinda hard to find 'the green one' when the back of the case is all dark and has crappy visibility

[029622558]

@famouswolfy HP bought Compaq in 2001, so it was made before

[hackhp]

I had one of those before! It had a cyrix CPU

[edison700]

why not put windows flp or at least 2000 on it?

[vwestlife]

@edison700 Because there is no good reason to mess with an original installation that is still working fine, and to spend hours reinstalling all of the programs on it, some of which may not even work correctly on anything newer than Windows 98.

[an65001]

@vwestlife But Modern programs require at least 2K, at least multiboot. :P

[vwestlife]

@an65001 This is not a computer for modern programs. It's not even connected to the Internet anymore.

[bigjake52]

@vwestlife atleast rinstalling windows 98se will speed the system up, its not going to kill it,

[edison700]

@an65001

i suppose, but is w98 or w98se and have you installed the "unofficial service pack" for w98. i installed that on an old pentium 1 133mhz computer with 98se in order to get the usb ports to work right and it ran fine. there are options to make it more "XP"ish when it comes to connecting to the internet and what not that helped

[an65001]

@edison700 But NT is far more superior. It supports programs that are written in NT code, such as Firefox 3. Windows 98, 98SE and ME require an NT-Compatible Kernel32.exe and dll.

[an65001]

@vwestlife And 2K installs in minutes. :P