Compaq Presario 4540 First look

[@vstk87]

This was my very first computer in the late 1990s. My life changed after that moment, thanks to this Compaq Presario. Therefore, this video has been of great impact and interest to me. My computer config was a Pentium 166Mhz MMX with 32MB of RAM and a 2GB HDD. I installed my first games on it, like of course Age of Empires 2 and used it for school work. With this computer I discovered the Internet on year 2000, my first mail adress, icq, msn.... and programmed my first websites using Frontpage. I even upgraded it with a CD-RW and burned my first CD on it. All this stuff running Windows 95. What a wonderful life.

[@mynameisAirport]

That’s the computer of my childhood. I had that exact model growing up. My parents bought it at Sears for close to $2k with a copy of windows 95 installed and an optional Zip drive. The Zip drive was neat but I only ever used it to download game demos from CNET at the local library since they had t1 and we were using 28.8k dial up. Thank you for the nostalgia, I wish I still had this machine.

[@Artictoc]

This was the first computer my family owned when I was a kid, and I still have it sitting in my closet, almost 25 years later. I believe we bought it in 1997, it came with Windows 95 and a full copy of Moto Racer. I haven't booted it up in 2-3 years but I think it should still work. I haven't ever bothered opening it up though so I can't compare the detailed specs to the machine in this video.

[@lozenmczapor4771]

Those were a fortune in 1997!

[@chipsanddipswitches]

"Really nice looking computer (according to me!)" - Best review ever.

[@shouptech]

Thank you so much for this video. Growing up I had a Compaq Presario 4505. Nearly identical to this PC you have here. The only real difference I remember is it had a Pentium-MMX 166 in it instead of this K6. I have a lot of fond memories tearing that thing apart and tinkering around inside. Good work.

[@JonGallon]

Those JBL speakers sounds really good. A friend of mine keeps them from it's Compaq pc of that era in use on his current pc today. It really sounds very good.

[@CommodoreFan64]

That's the thing about speakers(good wired headphones/in ears as well) if you treat them well they can keep sounding good for life.

[@JonGallon]

@@CommodoreFan64 I used to own a pair of those JBL-Compaq ones myself but they were stolen in the past. They hadn't built in amplifier just like the one in the video but my then Soundblaster awe32 was able to feed them just fine. My friends JBL Compaq speakers are a bit different since they have built in amplifier and are powered by a external small power brick.

[@WarthogRacer]

My 2004 Presario laptop had JBL speakers in it. SimCity 4's music sounded pretty good.

[@christhompson6010]

The 4550 was sold as a unit that came with monitor and speakers as part of an all in one. Fist PC Bought for work in 97 right as dial up internet was becoming available for consumers. Server companies like Compaq, and Dell were making the big push into the consumer market. CD rom was the latest tech and the time.

[@32KOFDATA]

Back then I would have probably loved the weird shape and accents of the case... now the more rectangular the case, the more calm my brain is.

[@tinfoilcat]

The first PC my family bought! Our 4540 came without the networking card but included a 28.8K modem which was underpowered by the time we bought it (early 1998). In hindsight it was a bad time to pay around $2600 (adjusted for inflation) for a new PC with fairly limited expansion potential when Pentium II and Windows 98 was being around the corner. But hey! My first computer!! We used it as our only PC until the PSU died in 2003. It served us well for exploring the internet, gaming (somewhat older things like GTA, SC2000, Monkey Island III, Red alert, etc), me learning to do web pages, doing tons of school work, using Napster (boy that was slow), and just appreciating computers. It almost got converted to running Red Hat in the late 90's after a lot of convincing my dad that the entire family would be able to understand Linux and me backing up everything to a ton of floppies. I owe a lot to that humble Presario!

[@MegaManNeo]

Omg, you really showcase this machine. Thanks a million! This PC was my childhood and early teenage. I played so many games on it that I still enjoy and now I finally understand why it has 48MB of RAM. The differences with my system were however that I had a MMX200 as CPU, a 10X CD-ROM drive, a regular 3.5" Seagate harddrive and another 3com network card which my teacher gave me at some point. Can't wait for the next video regarding this machine, now that I know the exact model number again, I might as well hunt down eBay for one.

[@RetroSpector78]

Glad you enjoyed it !

[@eddiehimself]

This is another interesting example you've shown us of implementing the types of things we see in ATX motherboards, but still using the older AT-style power connector. It would be interesting to have a closer look at that PCB with the buttons on it and how it manages to implement standby power.

[@AmEv7fam]

Yeah. It's clear it isn't standard AT because of the soft power.

[@mystical4442]

Suprised about the Trio64V2/DX, pretty good 2D adapter to pair with a Voodoo 1/2.

[@Jonen560ti]

My grandpa had a presario 5030. I have a certain fondness of that iconic presario case design from that era. I even took a Presario 5686 and turned it into a sleeper pc a few years ago

[@Ju4n.n1]

This was my first computer, my mom gifted and i never could find another for the nostalgia.

[@Aomicplane]

Damn i actually used to own one of these found in a dumpster like +-10 years ago. I had a whole collection of old dumpster found pc's but when we moved i threw them all away. If i'd still had it it'd give it to you for free

[@Ju4n.n1]

@@Aomicplane thank you man, someday i hope i will find one

[@gnerakles]

I have one (just the tower, not the monitor and stuff). Lmk if you're interested

[@ohareport]

i love that this is “first look”! would be interesting to see how it performs with and without cache

[@thepirategamerboy12]

I wouldn't say the integrated video on here is bad. S3 is pretty solid as far as 2D is concerned.

[@RetroSpector78]

True ... but in 1997 there would have been some pressure to have a 3D card, so looking forward to installing a voodoo card and seeing how the AMD will perform with that. No doubt this system is pretty good for some dos gaming, but we all wanna see quake run on this AMD system :)

[@wiselark40]

@@RetroSpector78 With the onboard S3 a Voodoo would be a brilliant match. I'd like to see what power draw it has with that 75w supply.

[@offrails]

We got my brother a machine that was very similar to this around 1997 from Circuit City - same CPU, 32mb RAM (16mb onboard + 16mb DIMM) and a 20x CD-ROM drive from the factory. It also had two serial ports, and IIRC, it had a standard form factor hard drive and somewhat beefier graphics. Unfortunately the power supply fan died, causing the CPU to overheat and the system becoming unstable. Since the PSU was not of the standard AT/ATX type, we just ended up building a new ATX system from its parts. The only thing left over from the machine is the MotoRacer CD that was included (and possibly the Win95 recovery disc somewhere too)

[@robd6090]

I love that monitor and speakers. I had them when I was in high school.

[@derschraubenkopf8923]

I'd love to see a Voodoo graphics in here

[@RetroSpector78]

Pushing the limits of the 75watt PSU :)

[@MrTJG01]

We still have one of those old mechanical Compaq keyboards hooked up to a modern PC at work. They’re a dream to type on!

[@gregorymcmahon876]

I really love hearing about Compaq Presario 4540 .Awesome video.

[@tommytufguy3432]

Holy shit, my first computer. This takes me back. Thanks

[@fhwolthuis]

A family member bought a similar Compaq back then, nice computer, I hope you can also show some details about the monitor and its buttons and speakers 👍

[@MagnumForce51]

Nice machine! I also have a vintage Compaq Presario. Mine's a Presario 4112. A desktop model instead of a tower. Found it for $25 on local Facebook garage sale group. Came complete with it's original monitor (with side mounted speakers), keyboard, and mouse! There was no yellowing at all on any of the plastics except for 2 random keys on the keyboard being yellowed so it was in pretty good condition. The factory void sticker on mine was still intact so it had never been serviced either. The monitor it came with is identical to the one shown in this video. (a Compaq 1525) Interestingly it's got that same little bit of sag in the top right corner that mine has. I guess that flaw in the CRT geometry may be a common issue with this model and probably came off the factory like that. Since you have this monitor and some old Presarios, I have a question regarding the volume knob on the monitor. Does it still work as a volume knob if you upgrade the video card? Mine like the one here has an integrated video card. I could put in a new ISA or PCI one as it too has a single PCI slot (I think it has 2 more ISA slots then what this machine has though) but I don't really want to do that if I lose the functionality of the knob. I also want to upgrade the CPU to a faster version of the Pentium 1. But I'm unsure if this particular machine supported any faster Pentiums. I can't seem to find the original manual for this PC online either. :(

[@romanrm1]

13:23 *DIMM module 13:50 also it appears it already has a couple of similar-looking chips on-board, so possibly it's 256+256 with the module inserted?

[@JenniferinIllinois]

75 watt power supply. 🤣🤣🤣 I miss those days.

[@claudelorey6505]

This was *my* first computer! My parents had an older one that ran windows 3.1 but this one was specifically mine!

[@roger.monitor]

Thanks Davy for mention our club and workgroup. Yes I did like those Quantum BIGFoot hard drives, I stil have a stack of them. The Acer drive I put after the other one failed also the 3COM and the stick of 32MB. The BIGFoot was in the Compaq. So yes I am using computers for a long time now, starting with Windows 95 for real after I tasted Win 3.11. In 1998 I started with BeOS as an alternative to Windows. Used GNU/Linux and Windows next to eachother for some 12 years and now it's only Linux Mint Mate some times testing other Distro's. There are still Win PC's, two Win 2000 Pro Sp4, one Win7 64bit and one Win10. Only to keep up for when one of the members has a problem. The one Win2K is for an old game namely Settlers III from BlueByte, the other one is a Dell Precision workstation in my workhouse for old files and so on. Windows 2000 is my all time best Windows that ever excisted.

[@RetroSpector78]

Well the bigfoot hard drive just failed about half an hour ago :(

[@thomasburns1846]

Excellent video! I have a few of those Big Foot Quantum drives, and they all still work.

[@RetroSpector78]

This one just died ... like literally 15 mins ago. Was doing a WinBench98 session, saw a BSOD with a Disk Write C: error, and after reboot hard drive is recognised by bios but bios also flags it as failed and cannot be accessed.

[@thomasburns1846]

@@RetroSpector78 If I lived in Europe I would send you mine. Working on these old computers can be frustrating. Last summer I did an AMD K7 system. It took some time to track down period correct hardware and drivers.

[@ConstantineJoseph]

I remember they used to be the most premium computers around. Compaq was a really established brand. Dell up ended a lot of PC companies in the end

[@garyharrison4915]

I remember my friend having one of these when I was stuck with an Amiga 500 I was so jealous.

[@jorgealainr]

You deserve so much more subscribes to your channel. This kind of content is amazing

[@RetroSpector78]

Hehe ... thx ... feel free to help spread the word ! KZbin is brutal. Sharing, liking, commenting always helps. Glad you like the content.

[@maikmerten]

48 Megabytes is a pretty reasonable amount of memory for this system - the 430VX chipset can cache up to 64 Megs. If someone had stuck a 64 Megs memory module (80 Megs of total system memory) in that system, performance may actually suffer... (thank you, Intel, for crippling the 430VX and 430TX chipsets #stillAngryWithIntel #neverForget64MegsMaxCacheableArea)

[@cossasomi]

I'm still angry about the i815 and its 512MBs. Too bad the 830 was mobile only

[@eronpj]

I have an old Pentium MMX 200 Mhz with 168 MB RAM (128 MB SIM EDO [4x32] + 32 MB DIM SDRAM) with Windows XP SP3. The motherboard has 512 KB cache, but runs fine for retro games with an TNT2 M64 PCI.

[@Shoxpyre]

Had this also with 98, it was the full set made by a family friend that built pcs in a shop for my 11th birthday to play PC games on. I was so lucky man. I'm ashamed of myself for getting rid of it when I was a teenager, I would have loved to open it up and see what custom things he had in it. He had installed a couple cool demos to show off the 3d capabilities, that sound is exactly how I remember what a blast back into my childhood

[@spunkmire2664]

my dad back in the day got upset when i installed a voodoo 2 in our compaq 4000 series. The big volume knob stopped working since it was using the VGA port. but he was able to play his PGA gold games so he got used to it.

[@MagnumForce51]

Ahh I see. I just asked a question regarding the volume knob working if a third party video card is installed. I guess this answers that. I'm curious though if you could wire up a special VGA splitter that allowed the EDID pins on the VGA cable to connect to the original VGA port at the same time as the new video card so that the volume knob still worked. Just a guess here but I'm thinking the volume knob uses the EDID pins on the VGA port to communicate the state of the volume knob/mute button. It works even in MS-DOS mode so what ever is going on is pretty low level in the hardware.

[@Bourrin4XL]

Quite long ago, I was given a Bigfoot like this one, pretty slow but so silent compared with other 3 1/2'' disks I had at the time. I used it to take my first steps into the Linux world without taking unnecessary risks with my Windows system.

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

7:00 An AMD processor and Intel chips on the same motherboard! This generation was probably the last time OEMs could actually do that (besides Intel's own Skullcanyon NUC, of course).

[@dykodesigns]

Nice transitional era system with it’s mix of AT and ATX design. It’s quite crammed on the inside, doesn’t look much fun to work on considering the difficult to access harddisk cable at the back of the drive. Good system for late era DOS games and early windows 95 games. But the case is a bit too crammed for my taste. It reminds me of ALDI pc’s, the outside looks ok, but inside it is painfully small. I wonder if the BIOS is still Compaq’s own design or whether they used some third party AMI/Award/Phoenix bios as Compaq where legendary for reverse engineering IBM’s bios in a legally clean way.

[@Jimmy_Boy_Kalahati]

I bought a Compaq 4508 as my first computer, end of 1997. This model looks exactly like it from the exterior. I even had the same monitor setup you have. I should have kept it for the case to turn it in to a sleeper PC. That would have been a cool move.

[@wombat1238marsupial]

Look at those lovely desktops basking in the sun😊😊

[@RetroSpector78]

It was really windy that day ... tipped over my 386 tower :)

[@cuttingedgeretro9164]

I still do have my compaq presario 9232, I love this pentium 1 system. I keep it unmodified with 120Mhz Pentium, with no 3D accelerator. It has onboard S3 Trio64V+, quick 2d chip. I upraged it one day with expansion vram board from 2MB to 4MB. It has very decent sounding ESS sound chip onboard. Regards

[@appwraith]

I love the K6 line! I'm thinking about building another retro PC around the K6-2 350.

[@Leahi84]

Compaq's always stood out when I was a kid in the 90s. They definitely had a unique look to them. I never had one myself sadly. What was up with the tall computer furthest to the right under the table at the beginning? It looked like it was wobbling back and forth a lot. Was that the wind doing that?

[@RetroSpector78]

haha ... yeah it was a really really windy day but sunny so I took them out to clean them :) Funny fact : the wind actually blew so hard against the 386 it actually tipped it over that day, falling onto the ground on its side.

[@Leahi84]

@@RetroSpector78 Yikes, I hope it was okay!

[@Ramdileo_sys]

@@RetroSpector78 ... Hey!! ... this is Clint @LRG childhood crappy computer The Compaq Presario 4540...

[@borjacanobarredo3451]

I had a compaq 5170 (year 98) very similar to this (same chassis). If you think this is beautiful, 5170 was improved. It had a black glass cover in the front that you can open and two USB ports and a game port were inside, the green power button was in the center and it was like tactile with 3 light leds above. The DVD unit and zip were covered by other door in the upper part. Very beatiful, small and robust. The back was very similar too, but it had an additional port for LCD screens that i have never seen in other computer and a 56k modem instead of LAN from mitsubishi. It was a Slot1 pentium 2 so it had not the expansion slot for cpu cache, but it had an expansion slot to increase graphics card memory (Ati rage LT pro). The 2Mb module that i still have is also from mitsubishi. If i don't remember bad, the quantum hard drive was moved to the top, above the dvd drive, to make space for slot 1 cpu, that was in the place of the hard drive in the unit of this video. Its great to see and remember my first computer. My friends were very impressed by that futuristic look of it and play games like motocross madness with the MS sidewinder freestyle pro gamepad that came with the computer (and its motion sensors, like gyroscope) was magic.

[@drPeidos]

Good review. Very relaxing video. Thank you. Will be waiting for the comparison with the MMX and Pentium II.

[@kemi242]

An Intel chipset working with an AMD CPU. Not the thing you'd see nowadays. :D

[@MrKillswitch88]

I had one of these turds back in the mid 2000s, the onboard ram kinda hurts it where on other systems one can willy lilly to 64mb and call it a day. The board is kinda slow but for early 9x and dos that isn't going to hurt.

[@sburton015]

I actually remember when we bought this system from Sam's Club for about $1,300 back in April of 1998. This was even before Windows 98 was released, for I remember it came with a newer version of Windows 95. I believe the 1997 version.

[@omarsis81]

I wish I could see the BIOS setup options next time! Good video overall

[@GreenAppelPie]

The primary thing I remember about these 5 .25 HDDs was the noticeably louder clicking noise they made, the 3.5HDD made a similar noise but a bit quieter. I worked at Incredible Universe at the time in the repair and I didn't even need to look at the monitor to tell you if the Compaq PCs were booting up as normal. They were reliable PCs for the time, not a gaming PC really though.

[@zaxchannel2834]

Lucky, yours has a COAST module. When I had mine the best I could do was put in a standard HDD and upgrade the CPU to a Pentium MMX

[@lactobacillusprime]

I quite like these socket 7 machines!

[@airfixer9461]

Great review of a nice little system....loved it :-)

[@noktanold]

I had a Pentium II-based system with the same case, Presario 4620. Because of the large CPU heatsink, the 5.25" Bigfoot TX was placed over the CD-ROM.

[@dave4shmups]

I used to have a Compaq Presario Windows 98 PC, with a Pentium II and ATI graphics. Unfortunately, I let a family member take it to be recycled back in 2009 or 2010. But that was before I got into retro computers and started watching KZbin channels like this one.

[@dennisp.2147]

Those quantum bigfoots are useful for adding to older machines without 3.5 inch drive mounting bays so you don't have to use an adapter. I've got a 6 GB one in one of my 286 machines. The slow speed and rotation aren't an issue there.

[@RetroSpector78]

Unfortunately the fact that it just died on me 10mins ago during a WinBench98 run is a bit of an issue :)

[@dennisp.2147]

@@RetroSpector78 Yes, sadly they aren't known for their reliability!

[@RetroSpector78]

Always hate it when that happens ... and the problem us you tend to over-think these things and end up trying different IDE cables, jumper settings, trying it another computer... takes up a lot of time and at the end of the day its just the drive that simply gave up. Heard some strange noises during winbench98 form inside the case and wasn’t really sure what it was :) guess it was the hard drive :)

[@justsumguy2u]

I've never seen an OEM from this era with a 5 1/4" drive----very interesting!

[@maxamuscrasious3047]

First home file server I built was comprised of a handful of bigfoot drives I had laying around

[@AndreiNeacsu]

In 1998 I had a 4.3 GB Bigfoot. It was slower than others, but good for secondary storage at the time. I think that by 2001 I had already given it away to someone.

[@altbeetle]

wow! for the first time I see HDD of such conversation

[@holleholl3057]

In the late 90s, the PC-evolution speed was really at its top. Never before and after the late 90s, systems were outdated so quickly like in that era, plus they changed the processor technology almost after one year or two. Nice system, though. I have a Presario from 2008, looks a lot different than your 1998 model though ;)

[@UncleAwesomeRetro]

This video was very interesting :) I have very mixed feeling about this case design. I don't think it looks good, but I have very good memories of it. A friend of mine got a compaq of this design with k62 400mhz and 3d now! and we thought it was so cool. I only had a pentium 100 mhz. We connected our computers and played games over serial port, and it was a lot of fun to play games that my low end 100mhz could not. I am looking forward to part 2 :)

[@RetroSpector78]

Well hard drive just crashed so there goes my plan to finish the video today :)

[@UncleAwesomeRetro]

@@RetroSpector78 Ah, to bad but that's how it is with these old drives.

[@andrew3139]

I've been waiting for you to get to these Compaqs. My family went through a couple in the mid to late 90s and I enjoyed watching this video. Was Compaq the only one to market the sleep button on the case like that? As I recall, ours would lock the computer up and WIndows would have a difficult time waking up.

[@Dexion845]

I had a Presario, with a Pentium 133… I remember upgrading the RAM to 48MB SDRAM PC66. Mine had a 16x CD-ROM and Windows 98. I played the game called Atlantis and the OG Tombraider

[@retrocomputinggrotto]

Nice cameo role played by the Escom PC! :)

[@jjohnson71958]

id love to have one of these 4540 multimedia pcs someday

[@ramaturnes]

the 5441 was my first pc, those speakers were more thand ecent, mines started to sound odd years ago sadly

[@danielson9579]

IBM aptiva was my favourite Compaq always seemed a little slower.

[@JeordieEH]

Nostalgia-wise, yeah the case on glance does kind of bring a sort a charm and appeal. Having used and remembering how terrible compaq's are inside, design-wise and part-wise, I never had good memories beyond that. Maybe it was due to typically dealing with celerons and how abysmal they were for anything I was interested in. K5 and K6 on the other hand does intrigue me.

[@cyberjack]

looking forward to bottom , far right (the tall server style) looks different and interesting .... do like the Compaq too of course .... Certainly not missed the internal layout ...forgot how much of a nightmare they was lol

[@WarthogRacer]

In the early 00's I took one of these off a teachers hands in middle school. I tried playing a game called Nocturne on it , it was a slideshow.

[@Natures_Intentions]

Awesome Retro hardware

[@zlatkoflajpan2918]

So with Voodoo 1 or Voodoo 2 in that only one PCI in that time that was a monster.

[@RetroSpector78]

Yeah ... wonder if that would be pushing the PSU. CPU can draw a maximum of 28 watt ... voodoo1 is about 15 watt I think ... hard drive around 10 ? Would need to do some measurements :)

[@DavidWonn]

The curved shapes on some of these cases unfortunately haven’t aged well for those of us who want to stack multiple PCs, either for lack of available physical space on / near desks, or when storing them away with others on shelves or in boxes.

[@PearComputingDevices]

What I loved about the compaqs of this era was that the bios utility was actually on the hard drive, along with diagnostics. To get to it you press F10 like any other compaq, but instead of the bios being embeded, it was on the hard drive and you could very easily turn off access to it and just keep a set of floppies laying around if you wanted to. They made some really well built computers despite being mass market. After merging with HP however HP gutted the brand and left it for the low end giving the brand a bad name when in reality much of what Compaq made simply got rebranded as HP like the Ipaq personal organizer. Not a very good merger.

[@RetroSpector78]

This one is using a pretty standard Phoenix BIOS. Did use the recovery cd to install the original compaq windows 95 but the hard drive just died on me :(

[@PearComputingDevices]

@@RetroSpector78 and it's a 5 1/4 inch drive.. yikes!!!

[@gordonfreeman320]

Quantum Bigfoot drives are neat. They weren’t exactly known for their longevity / reliability though.

[@MN-gp2cu]

I have Presario 4760, and bottom from floppy disk station is damaged. It just fell out. I don't know what he should be holding inside there. Do you know where you can buy front end caps, two are missing. There are also no coasters on the bottom. What is that module you showing in 13:51, i dont have it. Regards.

[@retropcdurham]

Interesting that the board had MMX on the description but it had a K6 chip

[@RetroSpector78]

The K6 does come with MMX instructions like the Intel Pentium MMX. The motherboard can also hold an Intel Pentium 233MHz MMX but I think it was always shipped with an AMD.

[@lirodon]

That one looks an awful lot like the 4712 I had as my family's first computer (whose OEM software also had a funky user system called Home Base)

[@jjohnson71958]

i love the compaq persario multimedia rocket pc

[@TransitAndTeslas]

I had one with a slot loading drive!

[@TheGMOGamer]

Hi there! Loved this video! I had this growing up as a kid, was *MY* first PC, as in, not one that belonged to my dad for work and such. I recently found a perfect working one on ebay, and would love the original restore media for it. There's one on the internet archive, but it works only with a 4500 not a 4540 like mine. It has a working serial attached to it, but I would prefer my 4540 software if its around. Any help finding a copy would be awesome!

[@Fiilis1]

Damn. I remember having Quantum Bigfoot HDD. Tight 2,1 gigs of memory.

[@SpottedBullet]

In those days I didn't have a computer, so I would go to my cousins house and use his -- this one. I actually liked it to be fair, I even remember the HDD noises. It had Windows 95 though...=p

[@amelieviennot5570]

Our first computer

[@lozenmczapor4771]

I used to find these at the goodwill clearance for $8.99 from 1999 to 2003 before they got greedy and started selling them exclusively .

[@PCEngineGaijin]

I have a 4840, a PII taller black version of this form factor. I can’t for the life of me get it to detect a Compact Flash adapter hard disk. The bios has no way to manually define disks, so I have tried all types of CF card brands and sizes with no luck. Very frustrating I was never able to figure it out. The worst part is that OnTrack actually sees the CF cards at full size, but after configuring it the computer won’t detect them on boot anyway!

[@RetroSpector78]

Next video will be about the software and config of the machine ... BigFoot is just too cool of a hard drive to replace here :) I usually just copy stuff over via ethernet and try to make do with the 2.1gb I have :)

[@PCEngineGaijin]

@@RetroSpector78 They are so slow, though, lol. I want to put a bunch of games on it, but I just don’t trust a 25 year old hard disk anyhow :(

[@eddiehimself]

CompactFlash adaptors work very well for this, because the actual CF interface is just a miniaturised version of IDE. I've not tried this myself, but it might be possible to get it to work with SD cards by getting an SD to CF adaptor, then plugging it into a CF to IDE adaptor.

[@PCEngineGaijin]

@@eddiehimself i will edit my original comment. I meant i am using CF, not SD. Derp! It left me wondering if that particular bios will only look for certain bigfoot drives. I don’t have an actual ide drive to try with it, though.

[@nickwallette6201]

I don’t know if “beautiful” is the word I would use to describe those things. :-D But at least it isn’t one of those with the cobra head design, flared plastic jetting out in all directions from the drives. Oh my, those things had a face only a mother could love. I overlooked these when I was younger, so I’m curious now. As a tech-savvy kid, I wanted nothing to do with the branded PCs. Bespoke cases, PSUs, and motherboards. Onboard audio and video. Only a couple expansion slots. I pitied anyone who spent money on them and found themselves unable to upgrade them or replace failed components. But my views have moved since then. Most of the people buying these never seemed to care about upgrading. They bought it with what they wanted in it, used it for a few years, and then bought something else. I couldn’t see that market over my own sense of technical superiority. :-) With age comes wisdom and humility. And, I suppose, curiosity.

[@ah8982-de]

Nice machine, but does it run CP/M?

[@juanschroder6519]

Greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪🇦🇷🇧🇪

[@cyberp0et]

The good old days of Compaq...

[@joeMW284]

Oh man,. A friend of mine had one of these. Honestly... It was kind of a piece 🧩. It came from an era when quality was going down along with the price.

[@Alphadec]

think I did see a PS/2 mod 80 there any chance of u have a look at that. ?

[@RetroSpector78]

Yep it is on the list. It boots but floppy is bad. Had a brand new old stock replacement but that one was also dead :)

[@Alphadec]

@@RetroSpector78 look forrward to that

[@JamieBarton1984]

I had a very similar presario that looked exactly the same except it was Win95 and had a very cool slot load CD. Can't find any reference to it online whatsoever however.

[@okona1up]

Please don't use the pozi screwdriver with the phillips screws. That damages both.

[@djdjukic]

^This! Pozidrives have a double cross, both on the screw head and the driver.

[@okona1up]

@@djdjukic Yes! It hurts a little every time I see it. Computers usually only have the Phillips kind.

[@wishusknight3009]

I have this identical machine but with a slightly different configuration. Mine is a PentiumS 200 without the coast module and I got it with the 2 gig bigfoot and just the 16mb of ram. Finding ram for it was a small nightmare as it uses EDO. It is probably the worst performing machines for its paper specs that I have. For that 233, I have always hated how much they were over volted from the factory and how hot they got. Every single one I ever put together with that CPU I configured them for 200 at 2.8 volts. And that would practically half the heat production and power consumption. And they would stay stable. And with the supporting board they are even stable at 166 and 2.5 volts and don't need active cooling. With the PSU being so limited in power, it would be a good idea probably in this case to do so. That cpu is accounting for about 31 watts of power consumption and heat dissipation. I estimate the power of 200 at 2.8 volts to sit about 17 watts.

[@warrax111]

Hello, just to correct you, k6 233 was not here to compete against Pentium II. For that, AMD made K6-266 and 300, and K6-2 266-300. k6 233 was here to compete against Pentium 200 MMX, that it was mean to over perform, which applied only in ALU operations, not FPU. Intel because of that released Pentium 233 MMX, with which, provided domination of best CPU on socket 7 platform for almost a year. (k6-233 was released in april 1997, intel released Pentium 233 MMX in june 1997) As AMD was not able one year push k6 to 266 mhz, Intel didnt released originally planned 266 version of Pentium 266 MMX. They simply didn't have to. Later, when AMD finnaly got k6-266, 300 and was preparing 250nm CPUs , k6-2 , Intel rather released Celeron, instead 250 nm CPUs for socket 7. They released them only for notebooks.

[@jamesdm]

Exactly the K6 233 and 166 was meant to compete with the same speed pentium. And the K6 was much faster. I had both models from K6 and also the K6 2 models.

[@warrax111]

@@jamesdm Hello, I provide graphs for both K6 233 and Pentium MMX from Anandtech. www.anandtech.com/show/33/5 www.anandtech.com/show/33/8 Would not say "much faster". It's barely faster, usually gains are up to 5%. But definetly, it is faster (in ALU operation)

[@RetroSpector78]

Well according to Anandtech they did think about it : “A high powered yet low cost alternative to Intel's Pentium Pro and Pentium II, otherwise known as the K6.” :)

[@warrax111]

@@RetroSpector78 Thank you for reply, RetroSpector. :) Yes, it was "budget" alternative, so basicaly low-end, while Pentium II is high-end. That's not competition, because it is not same cathegory. It was for people, that didnt have money for Pentium II, and had to sub to socket 7. So they already "moved out" of Pentium II, and would choose Pentium MMX (166 or 200, or 233). So k6-233 was here, so they can choose it instead Pentium 233 MMX, so basicaly they've splitted budget buyers of socket 7. So it basicaly competed with Pentium MMX, not Pentium II. :)

[@angrydove4067]

Hard to believe they made 5 1/4" hard drives in the late 90's. I have never come across one, despite a long computer history.

[@DxDeksor]

I see an amiga 600 or 1200 in the back :D

[@RetroSpector78]

1200 :)

[@ThibaultBouvier-i3q]

Hello, compaq 4540 was my first PC, im trying to rebuild this setup, ive found CPU, MB, etc but i dont have the case so the power button IS missing and it seems that power connector on MB IS not standard. How Can i boot UP this MB without power button ? Thanks you !