Compaq 486 PC exploration, restoration and upgrade - Part 1

[@ModernClassic]

Hey there - one quick thing that it looks like I forgot to mention in the video, and that's that the system will not start without the case fan connected to the header on the motherboard. I appreciate the suggestions I'm getting but most of them aren't workable just because of that. The only option I think I have is to cut the connector off and re-solder it to a new PWM fan. What I'm trying to figure out is what fan I can do that with and what pins do what... which I'm not sure how to figure out on my own since the fan needs to be connected for the system to power up. If anyone has some knowledge specifically of how this fan works, or any documentation from Compaq, I'd be super-appreciative of that. Thanks!

[@tylerkunz5490]

Doesn't power up with fan disconnected? I guess I never noticed on the 1 ive got....need to grab the others from the business and test them all and put them up for parts after building 1 from all the systems

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

They're nice machines. I use this machine's predecessor, the Prolinea 4/50, for my DOS slacking needs. It came as a DX2/50+8Mb+250Mb disk, but I upgraded it to a DX4/100+100Mb+40Gb disk. I put an XT-IDE BIOS (configured for 386 mode) on a network card (to get large disk support), but there was no way to stop the builtin BIOS from autoprobing the hard drive and complaining on every boot, so I had to disable it and install a generic 16 bit ISA IDE card. Also a Soundblaster Pro 2.0. It makes for a really sweet FreeDOS machine, and also runs Slackware 12 passably (although it takes forever to boot). However!! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!!! If your Deskpro is like my Prolinea (and I am pretty sure they are), the BIOS configuration utility is actually stored on a tiny partition at the beginning of the *hard drive*, not in ROM. So when you disconnect that hard drive, you will no longer be able to get into the BIOS config. It's just a regular FAT16 partition as far as I can tell, but the partition type is set to something weird, and the ROM swaps around the partition type and bootable flag when you enter the bios setup. My solution was to mount it readonly in Linux by forcing the partition type to fat16 and copy everything off of it onto the new 40Gb drive. It's entirely possible to just boot DOS and run the bios setup program iirc. I dunno what to think about that fan issue. I'd probe around the connector with a continuity tester and figure out which pins are v+ and ground. Then I'd probably remove the fan from the shroud so I could plug it into the header without the cover on, and then probe the remaining pins with an oscilloscope while the power is on. Hopefully it's just pulling something to ground or something to tell the machine that the fan is plugged in, rather than something complicated, so you could cut the connector off the old fan and hot wire it to make the system think it's plugged in even when it's not, and then just use some kind of modern quiet always-on case fan in its place? Re: CMOS battery. I like to desolder the old one, solder in pin headers, and then stick a 3x AA holder on the *outside* of the case on the back somewhere and run wires in somewhere. Then if I get mauled by a bear or something and it sits in storage for 15 or 20 years and dragged out again in 2050 to be sold on ebay as a genuine antique for $1,000,000 (I am assuming we'll have our coming hyperinflation well implemented and be a fully dystopian failed state by then), the batteries will have leaked on the outside, rather than inside on the mainboard. D:

[@uraoshi]

just measure the pins while it's working. easy. also a cheapo oscilloscope helps.

[@TheMicro4]

My local school district has a few of these that they got for free from a Federal Government office when they changed over to Win9X machines. They had these running Windows 3.1. But mainly my district used Epson computes. I always found this amusing considering that went nowhere for the district and they ended up with Gateway computers running XP as the next upgrade. These Compaq systems were for the teachers only! No students! Ah. Good times

[@ModernClassic]

@belly tripper Not sure if serious.

[@eg1885]

Wish I'd kept all those old computers I used to throw out. It would've paid off nicely in the long run.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Same here, like my Voodoo Banshee, and Riva TNT2 cards, but I am in the process of rebuilding a Dell Pentium 4 I got from the local recycle drop off(case was trash) for free in 2019 before pandemic, and while looking for parts on eBay for the build I was able to find an early ULTRA 500 watt modular PSU from that era sealed in it's original box at a great price, but it's shiny silver, so do to pandemic I've yet find the last pieces of the puzzle of a case that fits such a cool PSU, and a CPU cooler as the stock Dell one is so boring as well. lastly if I can get it to work I'll be dual booting Win98 SE, and XP SP3 with 4GB RAM(yes i know about 3.5GB 32bit limit, but 4 was easier to find, and board does post), on dual SATA SSD's, with an IDE DVD-RW drive, a Visiontek ATI Radeon X1600XT XGE 256MB AGP GPU, and a Creative Sound Blaster Live! PCI (CT4830) sound card, as that's the sound card I had back in the day.

[@eg1885]

​@@CommodoreFan64 Sounds like it's going to be a good classic gaming rig. Voodoo Banshee was my first 3D Accelerator card. My old PC today is a Core 2 Duo Q6600 with 4GB of DDR2, Nvidia 7800GT and SB Audigy. It has a dual boot setup of WinXP and Windows 7-32bit.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@eg1885 Thanks and Very nice setup you have. lastly speaking of DD2 at work(i work for a small non profit for seniors so we have to make thing work at times on tight budgets) I still use an AMD Athlon II X4 635 @2.9 Ghz all core with 8GB of DDR2 800Mhz ram, an XFX AMD R7 240 2GB GPU(best that would post), on an MSI AM2+ Micro ATX board with a 120GB boot SSD, 500GB HDD, IDE DVD-RW, 450 watt Rosewill PSU, with a Sony SDM-HS95P 19" LCD Monitor @ 1280X1024 75hz with a 5:4 aspect ratio(the PC use to be my old gaming build) running Manjaro Mate Linux, and it still flies through all my office work, watching YT/Hulu/Odysee/etc.. at 720p 60hz, and even some light STEAM games when I have downtime due to Pandemic having us partly shutdown, but the gov. calling us essential workers.

[@21Trainman]

Man, that startup sound immediately took me back! I’m going to start up my old HP at the first opportunity I get, just to hear that again.

[@smada36]

Really looking forward to part two. I wish that I could have a 386/486, but I don't have the space or the money to spare. Watching others is the only way that I can enjoy and share in the fun.

[@msthalamus2172]

Before I'd seen this video, ironically enough, I'd bought that Tandy 3100 Model 10 you show at 4:13. (That actual listing!) Overpriced, to be sure, but I had this exact model when I was in college and I'd always really liked it. It was the first computer I'd acquired exclusively through my own hard work. I gave it away when I upgraded to a P133 because I didn't have the space to store a machine I wasn't using, but I'd always regretted it. Now I have it back again! Nostalgia is expensive.... :D

[@agy234]

That machine really takes me back. In the late 90s my dad used to buy PCs for me to mess with from a local government auction. Had 2 of these machines and never did get them to even post The next year I got a desk pro pentium machine

[@carrollentinc]

Glad to see another legacy Compaq fan! I own (all bought new as original owner and all still in like new mint working condition) Compaq Deskpro 286e, Compaq Deskpro M 486/66 (now DX2 100mhz), Compaq Deskpro XL 6200 (Pentium Pro 200mhz), Compaq Deskpro 6000 tower (Pentium II 333mhz) and Compaq Deskpro EN 850 tower (Pentium III-850mhz).. 286, M and XL all still with Connor hard drives, none of which has yet to fail! All have various Soundblaster cards along with a few Roland Lapc-1's. Over time, the 286e needed a conversion from the Dallas 1287 cmos battery (filing down to pins) to a CR2032. Deskpro M needed a new power supply, battery still original!) , Deskpro XL needed new fan and battery), Deskpro 6000 needed new power supply and the Deskpro EN has needed nothing. Those were the days (1989 to 1999)when the Compaq Deskpro"s were built like tanks as well as the boxes!

[@cleffei]

Yours is one of the best channels I've happened to find recently, keep up the great stuff :)

[@KJohansson]

Nodding my way through the video, cant agree more on the agony on finding a good priced 486 today.. :P

[@blackomega2526]

I got nostalgic vibes and chills with the startup. the quivilanr of pulling the plastic off a new screen.

[@brianhaines]

I spent a lot of time with these early in my career at a 'Desk' company with 'Auto' in its name. They bought them by the dozens to write solid modeling software. Deskpro XL's were workstations, not PCs. Their price, longevity, flexibility, and speed reflected that. They were upgradable from 486 to Pentium Pro with an unbelievable RAM ceiling and a SCSI storage system. I'm convinced the Deskpro XL's one of the best workstation's ever made.

[@E5rael]

I love the addition of old commercials from the era; helps in feeding the nostalgia vein (though we didn't run the same commercials here in Finland, ofc). I also chuckled at the GPU scalping joke, good one! xD Personally, a CRT is a must for me for a retro experience. That's the one peripheral that I mostly looked at growing up, after all. I accidentally came across a fine specimen in a recycling centre last year, and actually do my daily office work with it! It did take me a little moment to reacquaintance myself with CRT flicker, and after the first day or two of use, it gave me a little bit of headache. Overall, a really enjoyable video that had my attention 100 %. You have a knack for telling compelling stories, with a pleasing voice to boot! Looking forward to part 2!

[@pentiummmx2294]

my CRT arrived, but united package smashers decided to ruin the plastic a bit, but the screen does work.

[@cfabz2023]

Awesome channel. I love these old nostalgia repair videos. I have a Compaq Prolinea 486 that had the same CMOS battery issue. It was soldered to the board so I did a botched job of soldering on a new one. However, after doing some research for something else, I discovered that there is a pinheader for a standard CMOS battery (for that era). It probably exists on your computer as well.

[@anewlife4joe]

I really enjoyed this video! Really looking forward to the 2nd part! My first PC was a 486SX 25 in 1993 (excluding a couple months tinkering with an old 8088 and realizing it was nearly useless in 1993) brings back fond memories. Thanks for sharing!

[@OzzFan1000]

What a coincidence? My wife's family's first computer was a Packard Bell Legend 200 with the exact same style case and specs you were showing in the video! I've been trying to source out an exact replica to rebuild for nostalgia, but you're right, finding these parts is hard, let alone at a reasonable price. That Compaq looks like a really nice machine. Certainly an upgraded version of my bother's Compaq 486 I played on in around the same timeframe as the above mentioned Packard Bell. I have many fond memories of playing the Shadows of Yserbius on The Sierra Network online. Met lots of fascinating people too. Anyway, thanks for the video!

[@retr0type]

A couple of years ago I went down a similar rabbit-hole to build a late 90's Windows 98 SE Pentium III machine, similar to the one I gamed on in high school. I was unpleasantly surprised to find the prices of 3dfx Voodoo 3's nowadays, but was still able to find one and complete the build. No regrets!

[@defaultroute]

I spat my tea out when u said “film production “. For an Englishman to lose a drop of the Queens nectar, it was a sad moment. Great video, loved it.

[@MegaManNeo]

We had a bunch of these in school when I was in 5th to 7th grade. Back then of course kids like me wanted the new hot stuff but I have to admit that even back then, I really enjoyed that design and the rocker switch because it's the type of computer case design that grew on me the most.

[@matthewplehn4271]

good to see you still making content for your channel. I hope your flight training and or pilot career are doing well. keep up putting out content! love your channel

[@KrunchyTheClown78]

Long live vintage computers!

[@Hugobros3]

Really like these old business fujitsu laptops, they're typically built like bricks, had quite a few of them as handmedowns/bargain basement buys when I was a teenager. I still have an core2duo elitebook to run some automotive diagnostic software, and the battery still holds its charge !

[@ModernClassic]

My wife's Fujitsu was an early "ultrabook", but it had some kind of detachable "dock" included with it that was in itself also portable. I haven't seen another laptop like that, although maybe more exist. Most docks I've seen are intended to be used on a desk, and they'd be awkward to carry around attached to the laptop. But this one is itself really slim and you can use the computer either way. It is a Japanese laptop, so it has some other oddities too. She stopped using the system because the hinges completely wore out. The screen just flops around. That's also why I haven't made a video about it yet; I'd like to fix that as part of the video but haven't had time to really look into how.

[@speedyjon28292829]

I'd love to see that video when you find the time to make it. My dad had a laptop like that years ago. Though it wasn't the thin model. I do remember that it had the best keyboard, with at least some key rollover, as my brother and I finally found a pc that we could play split screen need for speed games together

[@MikeStavola]

A few years back, I built a 486 using entirely new and new old stock parts. I made my own RAM. It's a pretty awesome system. Also, I have piles of new 486 parts that I'm going to be listing on eBay in the next few months.

[@taliakuznetsova7092]

Made your own ram?

[@frankowalker4662]

It's starting to look good, can't wait to see the paint job.

[@ModernClassic]

I can tell you that it turned out great. Not a 100% color match to the original (and I'll talk about the original colors of these machines) but it still looks almost like it just came out of the factory at this point. I can't wait to start really putting part 2 together; I have most of the footage for it shot. Should be quicker to get done since it'll all just be my own video this time. Just gotta get the CD-ROM drive to cooperate...

[@overdriver99]

nice... I love 'plane taking off' sound with 'UFO flying' sound on old machine LOL! old connor drive never fails to impress me.

[@huleeyaxerssius7]

Got a couple of 486 machines myself, though they are some laptops, two Compaq Contura 430c's both running Windows 95, and do own quite a few other laptops too, mainly from the late 90's to the early 2000's, with a few up to the late 2000's, my primary PC & laptop being from almost a decade ago, but still run just fine. Have a few older desktop machines as well, oldest of them being a Compaq Deskpro 4000 from 1997 running Windows 98SE, and is also set up to run DOS programs, games & the like good too. And have seen 486's getting even more expsensive, good luck trying to get them here in australia, that goes for any older PC's like that really, but have got a nice & decent sized collection myself. And a good little series on doing this Compaq 486 here as well, as usual always good to see these older machines being given this attention too.

[@TheSulross]

that startup sounds like industrial tools at a construction site - just glorious!

[@ajax700]

The sound of old hard drives was terribly annoying more than glorious. Even in the 2000s.

[@CrystallisedEntertainment]

I remember seeing this PC (or a variant of it) on multiple episodes of the Computer Chronicles! It started off as a 386 machine if I remember correctly, then was upgraded to a 486, then again to a original Pentium when that became available... The last episode I remember seeing of the DeskPro was actually the "Pentium PCs" episode when a Compaq representive did a performance VS between the 486 variant and the Pentium variant. He also talked about a upgrade Pentium upgrade card that you could just slot into place of the old one; which to this day is still a cool feature, and the fact these DeskPro's whole shtick was upgradability and modularity! =) Admittedly, this is the only time I've seen such a machine out in the wild, and I really like the fact this is the first video (that I've seen anyways) that features this machine; seeing it in all of the HD glory and crispness is really refreshing to see! =) Been enjoying the series (watched parts 1 and 2), and I cannot wait to see part 3 of this series! ^^

[@Dr.Drax.]

I to collect old pc hardware,and your right prices are going up.. damn.. great video,did your research. I wanna get in my garage and fix up a random dos pc after seeing this 👍

[@2dfx]

I too have an affinity for the Compaq desktops of old. I've got a Prolinea 4/25 collecting dust somewhere in my attic that I need to dig out and restore to its proper glory!

[@frankc1430]

I remember using a 486 back when I was doing AutoCAD. Thanks for the Memories.

[@ceesmouthaan4748]

I worked for a company in the 90s that took end of lease equipment from large corporations, refurbished them, then donated or sold it all. I have personally refurbished many thousands of those Compaqs , Both 386 and 486 machines.

[@TheRetroNobody]

I had a Compaq Deskpro that looked exactly like this. I remember the SCSI hard drive and believe the other specs were similar. I had gotten the computer used in 1999 for about $100. Windows 95. I used it to play music, browse the web, and go on AIM. The sounds of the start up were very familiar.

[@charlesdorval394]

Very interesting machine, glad you found it ! :) I still find it funny that the 3D glasses thing seem to creep up every 10 years or so hehehe

[@silliepaulie640]

I miss those boot up sounds

[@tylerkunz5490]

Hey man ive got this exact same computer..... And have access to nearly a dozen more at an industrial site. The scsi interface and eisa bus makes it very "exotic" in my collection

[@lorensims4846]

Wow! You're reminding me why I completely avoided PCs as much as possible. I initially got an Atari 800 for its superior graphics. I moved up to a 'Jackintosh' to get my hands on that 68000 chip. In summer of '93 I moved to California to live with a woman I met online (Genie). Together we started a home desktop publishing and graphic design business with the Macintosh IIsi, Apple LaserWriter NTR and Apple OneScanner she bought with her education discount from the local junior college. I've alway appreciated how the Mac 'just works,' especially the case in the mid-'90s when PC users were trying to reconfigure for 'multimedia' and Apple was Doomed.

[@MrLurchsThings]

The premium (read: nostalgia tax) on 486’s has gotten a little out of hand. Now, I do love a good 486, but in the end (primarily due to money) I ended up getting an early Pentium (the Compaq AIO I featured for DOScember) to do a similar job. A 486 is still on my wish list, but it’ll have to wait until something comes up at a reasonable price.

[@lttbriantheelectrician]

If possible ask around at any local recyclers, I've had good luck and have acquired a few 486 systems this way, for no more than a case of beer or bottle of crown royal.

[@thepirategamerboy12]

Tbh, while I definitely like my 486 PC, I prefer my Pentium 233 MMX machine. It can do much of what my 486 can do and a lot more. I'd say that if you're just getting into old computers, a Pentium 1 like that is one of the best options. They're great for a lot of DOS and 90s Windows games.

[@konstantinlozev2272]

Oh, the floppy disk self-check sound on startup 😇😇😇

[@TheMhannah100]

Brings back kinda fond memory's

[@darrenjkendall]

Reminds me of when I used my Desk Pro XL 590, ah nostalgic days, don't own it anymore, left it in the house I moved from in 2014, if only I knew then what I know now, hindsight is a wonderful thing, still have the Qvision 2000 video card plus the pair of Artists Graphics cards one EISA the other ISA and the OPL 3 sound card. It was a Pentium P90 but I upgraded to a Pentium P200 just because the cache ran at 200 MHz, the same speed as the processor clock. Nice video, I hope you enjoy the system.

[@youp1tralala]

Very nice and well documented! I still have in the attic my dx2/66 from 1994 which saw a lot of Doom multiplayer and early Quake until I upgraded to a much faster Pentium 90. That dx2 is a mini tower that has not booted from probably 25 years now. One day I will resurrect it for the same reasons that you did, paired with a very nice 17" iiyama crt that I got circa 1996 or 97. I remember that stunts game playing it quite a bit! Had almost forgotten its existance

[@georgemaragos2378]

Hi, this was pretty good to watch - and as very similar to some of my own pc issues - things i threw out or gave away are now selling for crazy money. Re the painting - i did rattle can a few cases in the last 5 years, but came to 3 conclusions 1. my rattle cans skills are not great even though there are no runs 2. my best self / skills are to disassemble, vacuum, wash , dry and reassemble and clean with windex or baking soda only 3. if the metal case needs painting i take it to a local car panel shop, i just place a post it not with * try and match similar colour * any similar beige * black flat * black metal flake * any dark grey I have been doing this for about 5 years and the price is reasonable typically $20-$30 or whatever beer or Kentucky fried chicken lunch meal they ask for The PC cases are great and they even do a rough undercoat spray on the inside of the case itself At this stage XT-486 are very expensive, i find Pentium 4's the cheapest as almost are all under $20 ( All Australian prices ) , next are core2 and core2duo all under $50 - i try to do a spot check on internals and see what drivers are available as i may specifically want a Win95/98 machine HP is good with older drivers, IBM/ Lenovo is hit and miss, Oddly enough for laptops Toshiba is great ( oddly enough modern HP I5-2400 HP8200 machine still have Winxp drivers ) The only older machine that i still have from new ( actually it was 2 years old when i bought it for my daughter it is a generic machine from a local computer shop Pentium 1-100 ) Hope you release part 2 soon Regards George

[@ModernClassic]

My painting skills are not the best either but I'm actually really happy with how this turned out - I think you will be too when you see it in part 2. (It would have been hard to make it worse.) It's basically impossible to color match these old systems, especially because they've all shifted in color over the years regardless. But I got pretty close. I'll talk about all that in part 2.

[@Nabeelco]

18:17 The Citizen Promaster Navihawk A-T, a solar powered radio-controlled atomic time keeping watch. Beautiful... I'm jealous... even though I have one too. 🤣 You've got good taste. 😉

[@ModernClassic]

Thanks - yeah I love that watch. I have another watch that's automatic/mechanical but I wear them both about equally. I didn't like the original strap that Navihawk came with, but I really like it with the NATO strap I currently have.

[@Nabeelco]

​@@ModernClassic Yeah, I noticed the strap and it compliments it really well! I think way better than the original. I really loved the color of the orange one like yours, and the other blue one, but I was worried that they would draw too much attention so I got the silver one instead. It makes me really uncomfortable when people comment on my stuff... which I'm now realizing I'm doing to you... Oops... 😅 Sorry...

[@malcolmvanorder5453]

The Deskpro XL 466 was my first ever PC of my own. I got a used Yellow Corp one from eBay loaded with Windows NT 4.0 workstation. It had a SB 16 in it, a 66Mhz 468 DX, and 4x4 MB SIMM cards. I mainly used it for dos games and programming with Delphi 7. I'm pretty sure I also used auto cad on it at some point.

[@ugzz]

What an awesome video, so much good info! Can't wait for part 2!

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Awesome machine, really beefy. Great work and great video

[@MegaSnow121]

My first computer around 1993/94-ish was a 486. I gave it to a friend when I upgraded. I remember the price, though, around $1,500, bought on credit that I paid off in a few months.

[@CatsGamesWhatever]

You make the best videos on KZbin imo. I always enjoy watching your content through at once as no matter the length time flies by - a sure sign of a great video. Keep up the good work.

[@theresnobodyhere5474]

Is the installer for the version of Netscape they had on there still on the drive? I've been collecting Netscape installers and plan to release them when it's finished.

[@DavidWonn]

I also used to collect several myself. The SillyDog archive used to be the best resource after Netscape's official ftp site.

[@NickOfTime99]

So glad you are covering this. I have a Deskpro XL590, pentium 90 with 98 MB RAM. It’s virtually identical to this machine. I got it free back in 1999 and still have it. These machines are a pain to configure the BIOS and make any changes to the hardware. The SCSI interface is also nice and so much faster than IDE. Definitely looking forward to your updates!

[@ModernClassic]

Yeah, from what I can tell most or maybe all of the XL's shared everything except the processor board, so your machine should be pretty much the same as mine except the P90 processor board and the case badge (and whatever options it was originally bought with in terms of graphics card, RAM, etc.). How does your fan sound? Like mine? Just curious if it's worth spending 10 bucks on another one on Ebay.

[@NickOfTime99]

@@ModernClassic I can't remember how loud the fan is; it's been a number of years since I've used it. I'll dig it out and hook it up to compare. Last time I had it powered on, the CMOS battery was dead on mine also, and it was reporting a "disk controller error". That's problematic on these as the BIOS settings have to be loaded by disk, whether it's the 3 1/4 drive or the hard disk. As far as looks, my machine is identical to yours, including the daughter board with CPU.

[@ModernClassic]

If you ever actually want them, you can download the setup disks from here (this is where I got them): drivers.eu/PC/Compaq/Deskpro%20XL%20590 I've had that same error a couple of times while trying to get my IDE devices up and running. Not sure why it's doing it in your case if you haven't changed anything, but in my case it wasn't actually a controller failure but just that I had jumpered things incorrectly. In terms of the battery, you'll see my solution in part 2 but it is actually pretty easy to replace that. Again, if you ever feel like it's worth doing; I know from experience now that it's still a bit of a weekend project.

[@NickOfTime99]

@@ModernClassic Thanks for that link! I still have the setup disks I downloaded back when I got the computer, but those disks being 21 years old at this point it's good to know I can still get the drivers. I hope to have an answer on the fan for you by the end of the week.

[@NickOfTime99]

@@ModernClassic I finally got the Deskpro out and plugged in. It sounds exactly like yours. I think this is just the nature of the factory fan. Unfortunately I can't even get it to POST now so something else is wrong with it. I took a video of it with my phone and it is listed here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJuzkIyQqKyFhrc

[@MichaelAStanhope]

Great find there. Friend of mine Mac84 grabbed one of these stripped down from an eWaste pile some time ago, the onboard SCSI piqued his interest. Thanks to you, now we want to restore it. His is a Pentium 60 model, so its likely slower than your 486, but still a neat machine!

[@ModernClassic]

Oh it's probably not slower. Pentiums have a much better floating point unit than 486's, so it's almost certainly at least a bit faster overall, and probably much faster at certain tasks. It is absolutely worth restoring these. The more I play around with this machine, the happier I am with it. It's a little finicky like any machine of that era, but everything about it just feels like quality and so far, everything I've tried to do with it (including in the upcoming part 2) has worked perfectly even if I've had to use a little trial and error first. Nothing has just proven to be incompatible or broken, which is not the experience I remember from my original 486 machine.

[@ajax700]

@@ModernClassic If it doesn't have a good expensive at the moment mainboard it could be slower than the 486. First Pentiums mainboards were famously slow+cheap. Then Intel entered the mainboard chipset market full-on.

[@malcolmvanorder5453]

It came with the keyboard which had the PC speaker located on the keyboard unlike other PCs which had it located in the case, and it had a volume nob(not something you usually had with a PC speaker). Aalso had a mouse ps/2 port on the underside which cable runs for it and headphones/mic jacks on the side. Essentially it brought the audio out of the case to you, and meant only one wire from the keyboard try to the PC which consolidated 2-4 cables.

[@ncworster]

Very nice! I hope to take on a similar project someday. My first computer was a Packard Bell as well, but a slightly newer model with a Pentium I and a 4x CDROM.

[@Hefewe1zen]

Nice purchase and restoration. I couldn't help but notice you were having trouble displaying older VGA outputs, especially with low res DOS modes etc. I had the same problem and discovered the Extron RGB-DVI 300, which can be found relatively cheap on ebay (there is also an HDMI version). This box will accept all sorts of VGA modes, clean them up, and scale them as you see fit to output to modern monitors. It also gives you tons of menu options to tweak and obsess over :)

[@ModernClassic]

The main problem is just that monitor, which I *thought* was the only VGA monitor I had, but it turns out I have a Lenovo 22" monitor with VGA that works better. I'm using that right now, but I'll probably eventually just get a 4:3 LCD. Widescreen monitors aren't my favorite for displaying 4:3 content even when they work right.

[@mtucker6784]

I loved my parents packard bell. A 386sx 15mhz, 2MB of ram, and a 40mb hard drive.

[@spiritdawound]

12:05 I kept over the years an old switch with this connector + 10 base T, and some rj45. Centrecom 3012TR.

[@helldog3105]

I have that exact Packard Bell Multi-Media machine! Mine came with a 486SX-33 though, and the multi-media label is a bit damaged. But it functions great with the SB-Pro compatible soundcard that also does Disney Sound Source and Covox as well. It's a nice little machine.

[@helldog3105]

And if your Packard Bell is anything like the Multimedia model I have here, then you had the horrendous HT216-32 graphics chip that in early releases wouldn't actually do the 16bit color like it said on the package. I have the early release. Also you get this really ugly pixel crawl /displacement when it isn't fully kitted with the 1MB of RAM. Later Multimedia models had the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424/28/29 models that could have up to 2MB of RAM. They were much better, and surprisingly, the CL-GD54XX weren't absolute junk. They did 2d in DOS fairly well. Very interested to see what you do next with this machine. I had a couple of these in the past, but I had no nostalgia for them because I had a Packard Bell, and then built all of my own, so I moved them on to other people that wanted them.

[@mima85]

20:43 - With all that noise, I did read the "Starting Windows 95" message with the missing "St" as "Farting Windows 95" xD But I actually love old computer farts :-D

[@thomassutphin7904]

Upvote solely based on playing Stunts. That game WAS my childhood.

[@anew742]

I had no idea you had such a big hoard of computers...really cool!

[@ModernClassic]

Yeah I'm surprised myself about that... that wasn't even all of them. They're just strewn around my house, not in any organized way. I keep telling myself I'm going to sell off at least a few, but I have a hard time bringing myself to do it. I don't use most of them very often. A few I've made videos of and then just stashed away, but thinking about not having them anymore still makes me sad.

[@TechMadeEasyUK]

Frontier! I spent most of my youth playing that

[@FrethKindheart]

I used to play Stunts back in the day. If you made a jump just right to where you landed at a certain angle, the car would ricochet high up into the air. I ran a BBS on my 386-DX-33 for about 5 years. Ah the good old days.

[@ModernClassic]

I remember that now that you mention it, but I don't think I could get it to happen regularly. I do remember it being one of the things that made me laugh when playing this game, though.

[@BlackDragon-xn2ww]

I picked up a compaq 25mhz desktop system and it was pretty good fast for what it was as long as you ran software rated for it's speed everything worked great

[@ypoora1]

Seeing a backplane system like this in a non-industrial application is interesting! It would definitely be nice to have the Pentium card, as then you could switch back and forth depending on what you wanted to do. Also, maybe stick a heatsink to the MGA chip! Looks like it's been running HOT!

[@djpirtu2]

I have Deskpro 486/33m with DX2/66 "upgrade processor". Pimped it with 6,4GB HDD, the old 500MB IDE-Conner was still working. SB PRO clone and GUS Classic for audio plus 3COM ISA networking card. Upgraded memory to 20MB.

[@lorensims4846]

I remember when a guy in our office got one of these. Compaq, of course. We had recently upgraded to Windows 3.1 and it almost seemed usable on our 386 machines and everyone was showing off their custom window groupings (mostly we were using PCs as terminal emulators to connect to the IBM AS/400 in the computer room). We all wanted to know if this new 486 was everything they said. The guy did a directory list that shot up the screen faster than you could possibly read it and we all said "Why would you ever need anything faster?" As crazy fast as the cards bounced at the end of a game of Solitaire it just seemed silly.

[@AlejandroRodolfoMendez]

Ironically I buy one like 10 years ago for the monitor but it was cheap and came everything but keyboard mouse and sound card yet I checked and still works, a HP vectra. So that's how ended checking 486 videos now since there is a resurgence of this machines. It has a tiny hdd working and probably open for a few upgrades.

[@TheRetroThings]

Great review. Waiting part 2

[@homelate1306]

I have the same one sporting a Pentium 100. If you have questions, please ask! Great channel, I really enjoy your content!

[@ModernClassic]

Thanks - I will have a surprise in a little while about the Pentium 100 :) (If you were watching closely, especially to the bootup sound sequence, you may know what it is already.)

[@homelate1306]

Mine is coming out of storage today after seeing your video. I’ll hook it up and I’ll have a listen to that bootup sequence 🙂

[@homelate1306]

Mine is toast. The PSU has issues. The on/off switch leads are shorted. The PC boots, but no image.

[@CommodoreFan64]

O yes the golden days of the 486, I'm currently in the process of rebuilding Dell Pentium 4 system I got from the recycle center(case was trash), so I'm in the process of trying to find a case I like as I able to find an early ULTRA 500 watt modular PSU sealed in the box on eBay for a really good price, but it's shiny silver, so just keeping my eyes open for something that matches of that era. I'm going to be dual booting it on Win 98se, and XP if possible with solid state SATA drives, and an IDE DVD-RW.

[@brianpurdy7401]

Loved the video! Thanks! I have a Compaq Presario CDS 524 all in one a Prolinea 466 (both 486DX2 66) and I love them, I just wish there were options for replacing or dealing with their aging PSUs. I prefer a DOS and windows 3.1x setup myself. I pretty much hated Windows 95 when it came out.

[@michelvanbriemen3459]

I'm loving this, thank you for the video

[@retropcdurham]

Those Matrox cards were very underrated

[@stevenj2380]

Just to mention, some of us may have old pcs or laptops put aside. I joined in late, at end of 1984 when even at (a NYC govt worked for ) office staff was not computerized. A mgr. or two had old PC, no training for rest of us. There was some fledgling tech office. Jumped in to keep up with friends, with a Thinkpad 500 subnotebook, in NOV 1994 on sale $1k as model was getting old. 7 . x inch grayscale screen. PCMCIA slot and I have a 14.4 modem for it. External floppy. 486 SLC 25/50(?) 175mb hard drive and a few mb of ram. Has win 3.1, PC DOS 7 (upgraded to prepare for Y2K but not long before I put machine aside anyway), and I used ram doubler and hd disc compression. Boots into dos and a menu system. CMOS battery dead, it will run but I am holding on to it. Parallel port OMG.

[@MisterRorschach90]

If I had the disposable income to throw at whatever I wanted you can bet I would build a monster maxed out computer from each major generation. Ooo I can just imagine the silver lian li case with a custom acrylic side panel, cd and DVD burners and players all over, Zip disk drive, floppy, fan controller, slime green coolant and gross colored rubber tubing with hose clamps. A massive pump. Beautiful.

[@ModernClassic]

That's kind of been my goal... not every generation (286, 386, 486, etc.) but every major point where there's a noticeable difference/upgrade and/or where backward compatibility starts to break, along with something era-defining. At this point I have an original IBM PC, this Compaq 486, my silver tower that's an Athlon XP 1700+, and of course my modern PC that I keep updated. I do have other machines but those are the ones I'm meaning to be my go-to's for different IBM-compatible eras at this point.

[@raymondrynehart]

i remember the first CD recorder i bought $1000 RICOH single speed plus a $200 SCSI interface card to run it. how far we have come

MONSTER AWESOME! GAINED A SUBSCRIBER

[@dirkhoppe5892]

Threre is a early BGA Chip on this motherboard. This is unique for early 90s pcb‘s. Very Interesting.

[@RetroTechIIfx]

These EISA/PCI Compaq systems use an architecture called TriFlex, where the CPU and Memory controller are abstracted from the system planar. Compaq Proliant servers of this time also used this architecture. For example, a Pentium server could be upgraded to a dual Pentium Pro just by swapping the CPU/RAM daughter board. Compaq EISA/PCI systems were probably among the last truly custom x86 based systems with regards to system architecture.

[@joetheman74]

My first: 1988 Tandy 1000SL amazing capable machine for the day. Could record and edit digital audio at 8bit 22khz and use the samples as instruments for music creation! Next 3 built from parts. 286 12mhz and 1mb of sipp ram 20mb MFM drive. Third 386 SX 40mhz with 2mb ram and a 327mb hard disk and CD Rom w/sb2.0 and 1200 modem. 4th 486 DX2/66 with 8 megs later upgraded to 16 with a 14.4 modem and a SB16 running at the end of life WINDOWS 95. THEN THE PENTIUM 200MMX and everything changed! Ahh memories.

[@dennisp.2147]

I had the exact same Packard Bell legend, less the multimedia portion. It was a piece of junk. The onboard IDE controller couldn't handle it when I added a 2x "Reveal" CD-Rom multimedia kit. Nothing would make it work. The Compaqs of that era are in my opinion, the best machines that you could have had.

[@ModernClassic]

I remember having some big problems with the IDE interface when I upgraded my hard drive. (Luckily the CD ROM was already included in my system, so that wasn't a problem for me, but the hard drive was.) I eventually got it to work but it was a big pain. Their BIOSes were no good, in addition to just using cheap hardware.

[@cURLybOi]

for the fan connector, you can use oscilloscope to figure out the pins. even something like DSO112A will work wonders. and if it fails, you can always get a noctua na-fc1, give it just 12v power and regulate the fan manually (not to mention a modern noctua fan will pull much more air than the stock one, so you can keep it quieter)

[@misterkite]

It kind of makes sense that the 486 is on the rarer side. The jump from 286 to 386 was an architecture change. The jump from 386 to 486 was basically just a speed upgrade. If it worked on a 486, it worked on a 386, just slower (even Doom ran well on a 386/33). The 486 was doing so poorly that Intel made the 486SX in an attempt to compete with AMDs 386DX which was dominating the market. I think a lot of people went from 386 directly to Pentium. (Windows didn't even drop 386 support until Win 98).

[@infinitecanadian]

Now I want to know the stories of the previous owners...

[@ModernClassic]

One story is too sad, but I will tell you that at least one owner was a company that ended up being indicted by the SEC and put out of business.

[@infinitecanadian]

@@ModernClassic Ouch. No story is too sad for me.

[@EnjoySynthSounds]

Thats a beauty right there.

[@DxDeksor]

I own the Pentium 90 version of this computer ! I had to swap the video card because it didn't quite cut it for DOS in my opinion. Duke 3D and Doom ran at a really bad framerate for a Pentium class machine. I swapped the card for a S3 card and it worked much better ! 320x200 is actually 4/3. Only the pixels aren't supposed to be square. Back then CRTs didn't had a fixed resolution so they could output square or rectangular pixels, which is exactly what happened there. There is a video on youtube about this topic by Displaced Gamers For the fan, looking back at the footage I made and also videos a guy named "waybakctech" made about the pentium 60 version of this computer, I'm not hearing the fan that bad so the bearings might just be really worn out ? The hdd is still loud tho. For the AUI ethernet port, there are actually dongles that can be used to plug in adapters to other standards (coax, fiber optic or just RJ-45)

[@Meton12765]

There are AUI to RJ45 media converters out there. Happy I kept mine. But, Token Ring? LOL, OK yeah. Scrapped all that crap when I happened to come across it already back in the day. Back in the day being, late 90's and early naughties. And, no. I don't regret an of it. :D

[@SparksNZeros]

files labelled 'helpme', i kind of wanna know the mystery of what you meant by 'sad ending' now.

[@UncleMikeRetro]

Nice video! Love the retro stuff (obviously!) and you cleaned up that baby nicely. Really loaded system for a 486. All but the kitchen sink really. What if you just cut off the fan plug and left it on the motherboard header? There is a chance that it is just making a connection all in itself and you won't need to have the actual fan on the other end. I know you had a lot of suggestions, but I am always about simplest to hardest first.

[@ModernClassic]

Well, I wondered that too, and I might try it if nobody out there has experience with these fans, but was just hoping to avoid doing things by trial and error, especially things that are inherently destructive. If it didn't work I know I could just resolder the wires back together, but I'd just rather not cut wires without already having an idea of what I'm doing. I do think it probably checks that the fan is actually turning; it definitely has a speed control so I have a feeling it's not just checking for the presence of something on that header but that it's actually running too.

[@UncleMikeRetro]

@@ModernClassic Well... you could stop the fan blades and see if it stops the computer too? Something makes me doubt that a desktop 486 from before most of the readers here were born would be smart enough for that. Step by step. Damn, now you have me professionally intrigued.

[@nickwallette6201]

“The question you’re wondering now is .. why?” Yeah... nobody here is wondering that. ;-)

[@ModernClassic]

You would be surprised at how many comments I get to the effect of "man, why are you running this old crap? Just use DOSBox!" whenever I post anything about old computers.

[@mrhoogles]

ive seen that port but never used it, straight from BNC to RJ45 for me

[@joetheman74]

Holy S#!% I had that Panasonic printer in the commercial. 24 pin version as stated.

[@misterkite]

You can use that AUI port with an HP 28685B Transceiver that will convert it to 10-base-t. I have one hooked up to a Tadpole Sparcbook.

[@Johnwash12]

Always a good video !

[@KolliRail]

Interesting video!

[@tarajoe07]

I got one of those gateways. Never letting it go. The motherboard is a cranky thing, though

[@bobfromsoireegames4309]

These would still work fine for most small office tasks.

[@patrickbateman3490]

Very nice machine :) just need to put oil on fans ;)

[@DavidWonn]

This sounds like a good candidate for a dual-boot setup of MS-DOS 6.22 (optionally with Win 3.x) + 95A. I have my IBM PS/2 quadruple booting those plus NT 3.51 and 4.0 (only because I have the space to spare on a secondary 2 GB SCSI drive) and it’s running a considerably slower 486SX25.

[@ModernClassic]

That's pretty much what it already does... if you install Win95 after DOS 6.22, you can hit F8 and get a "Previous version of DOS" boot option. The way this was done on the original SCSI drive is weird - I feel like it's an OEM image because there is no DOS folder, and I honestly can't figure out where the DOS 6.22 stuff is (there were also no autoexec.bat or config.sys files with "path" folders defined to help me out), but it does technically work and reports itself as 6.22. As I've been trying to add a CF card, I've installed 6.22 and then Win95 myself, and that puts everything in the right places and lets me boot to either OS. I know it's trivial to make it boot straight to a menu but I just haven't bothered yet; I'm still trying to get everything working.

[@DavidWonn]

@@ModernClassic It sounds like your original SCSI drive just had DOS SYS'd to the drive initially or was formatted with the /s switch from a DOS 6.22 boot disk before 95 was added. You’re likely missing external 6.22 files such as MODE, MORE, QBASIC, etc. when you boot into 6.22. You can detect the presence of the very few original DOS files with a dir /a from the C: root. Do this both from an F4 key boot (previous DOS version) and from a normal boot (95) to study which and how the hidden boot files are renamed. For some examples of similar scenarios, there are virtual machines you can run in a browser at pcjs.org which also have minimal boot files, notably the Windows 3.0 and 3.1 setups they have on the main page, both lacking a proper DOS directory. Their 95 machine, OTOH, has MS-DOS 5 as its previous OS (with a full installation of each OS) so you can also see the larger number of files it renames, depending on the boot selection.

[@verstrahlt1907]

the compaq @6:31 looks very nice; also the design, the border around the keys, suits nice w/ the monitor and the computer-case... but I do not like the function keys (on those old keyboards) - the "two-level-steps __|'''''''|__ keys look ugly - - what were they thinking?