Compaq Prolinea 575e Overview

Here is an excavation and exploration of a long forgotten Compaq Prolinea 575e computer.
Later in this video it becomes readily apparent that AVS Video Editor isn't keeping the audio and video synchronized (informally, the error looks to be around 3.5 seconds by the end of the video). This didn't happen until the video was exported. It played perfectly on the editing/timeline view.
(I will ask Online Media Technologies if they have any suggestions. Out of all the Windows compatible video editors I have tried, their AVS Video Editor is what I've liked the best. I really hope this can be worked out.)
Aaaaaand...apparently, KZbin fixed the audio sync issues that I witnessed in VLC and Windows Media Player alike while quality checking the final result. How's that for a first, KZbin making something better?
Movie film reel image sourced from cliparts.co (cliparts.co/cli...)

[@Kenny-bw2cz]

Your commentary dialog while you are doing your videos is top notch.

[@burtobm]

your choice of words and phrases bring a smile to my face. Good video Mr. Bill.

[@Poebat]

Yeah I love the way he words everything :)

[@HamburgerExplosion]

Person coming out of the woodwork here, in regards to your speech about old computers not using more power to do the same job at 25 minutes in. Just to play devil's advocate, have you considered modern non-tower style computers? For example the raspberry pi which runs off just 5 watts and, despite lacking PCI slots, have capabilities that surpass most computers from before 2006. For your specific example of NAS, fancy expensive modern routers have USB ports on the back which allow you to have a NAS for the power cost of just running the hard drive (or an even lower power usb stick, which by the way, should have more capacity than any IDE hard drive that could attach to an older system). I share your love for old computers, and it makes me happy to see an old computer doing the job that it was built for decades after it was manufactured, but saying that they don't use more power isn't really accurate. Love your videos, love you, sincerely, HamburgerExplosion

[@Biostorm7]

I do appreciate that you take the time to explain a bit about the components in the older computers. I myself am starting as an apprentice in IT so i do know a fair bit about computers, however i am not that familiar with older computer hardware that went into these computers. Keep up the good work :)

[@SimplyChem32]

I lost it at 38:38. Like... Milk out the nose lost it. "Remember this screen? Didn't shut down your computer properly?" "So ScanDisk was going to corrupt whatever was left of your files!"

[@Cruiseomatic380]

I know many people have commented on how your place looks, To hell with them. Its your place. Keep it how you want. There is much worse out there and it is most likely the ones complaining about yours. Don't let them get to you or annoy you. I love your videos and the enthusiasm you put into them. And the Radio Shack bomb line was priceless. My entire place looks like that. I have 5 tvs in the front room alone. 4 are antique, and they all work. I also have 4 tvs in the bedroom, 2 of those are mid-late '70s models. Lightbars, cables, etc... I've got more crap than the electronics section at walmart.

[@saxman112]

Wow! That was a blast to the past! As cheesey as those Windows '98 Plus! themes looked, I have to say that they have some cool backgrounds, and I especially love that Jungle background it had on there with the black panther, snake, and whatever other animals that were in that wallpaper.

[@Terrum]

The 575E is such a nice machine. I used to have a 4/33 but it got chucked out back in childhood, so I recently acquired my own 575E back in March and have been working on it as a little side-project of my own since. Thanks for this video!

[@i80386sx]

The Prolinea 575e was my first computer. It was barely used when I got it.

[@AiOinc1]

Always love the story about the wind up clock. Miss these old videos!

[@dr.leonardhofstadter5866]

Been watching your videos for couple days now, they are awesome. I really like that you give an indepth description of the computer electronics, and the selection of old computers you are awesome to look at. You have some great stuff, awesome. 👍👍👍👍

[@jimdayton8837]

Thanks for posting a new computer video! I was surprised to see Windows 98 running on that machine. I was also surprised to see Windows 98 running so fast on only 32MB RAM!

[@tough213]

wow you do have lots of great computer gear and I enjoy tearing down and building new towers as well and to me like you it is fun to build them and fix and troubleshoot them . great video as always thank you for posting this video

[@MarkTheMorose]

Interesting and entertaining, like so many of your videos. Brings back lots of memories of building/fixing computers of that era. 50 minutes enjoyably spent, thanks.

[@ColonelPenguin]

"Relax,chill out, enjoy life a little bit." - UXWBill, 2015

[@LachambredeNico]

Awesome video ! I remember the ddo software, and i almost cry when you speak about all the forgotten video card manufacturers, like WD, Tseng Labs, Chips & Technology, Trident, S3, Cirrus Logic, 3dfx and many other one ...

[@mrskizzot]

Seeing these is always a nice bit of nostalgia.

[@ESDI80]

I miss the early days of computers. Things were way more diverse, challenging, interesting, and fun in the 80s and 90s.

[@SuperFIFTHGEAR]

Second video of yours that I've watched, and I must say I'm subscribed. Thoroughly enjoyed this extremely informative video. Thank you for taking the time to go into so much detail, while making it interesting at the same time. Really enjoyed it, and hope to see more videos like this in the future. Take care.

[@NikiDaDude]

You saved me from the boredom of waiting for Windows 8.1 to install 143 updates (~1.6GB download). To add insult to injury after the 95-th update it logged me off without any warning and continued installing the rest of the updates. As lacking in polish as GNU/Linux may be at least it handles updates right.

[@weisnoobs]

I really enjoy these videos about where you talk about older computers ;)

[@ibizenco]

Re Matrox - I (still) have a HP "dc5100" small form factor computer (running Linux Mint 17 and Bunsenlabs Linux, and XP), for which I once bought a PCIe x1 videocard by Matrox, but I did not get it to work. "P690 LP", it says. +uxwbill -You make entertaining, funny and fascinating videos - all such old hardware (some of which I remember from days bygone). Keep 'em coming :)

[@johnnywayne3443]

this was a fun walk down memory lane.

[@TheLazurus]

Percussive Maintenance is the best kind of maintenance.

[@capolaya]

There used to be a lot of these computers around on a former workplace, and one of them still worked (as a PBX voicemail server) up until the late 2000s. It kind of gives back memories.

[@PaulBaker85]

Wow! I remember being given three of these in around 2001 by my father from the company he worked for. I remember stripping all three and building one good one out of the parts.

[@TCGProductions03]

"Power saver mode- *WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?*" LOL That totally made my day.

[@fancysnake1]

I never thought about older PC power supplies blowing up. is that common? Great, now I'm going to have to add that to the list of things I'm scared to plug in. I can't stand unexpected loud noises :p

[@dutchboy9991]

excellent video.thanks for takeing the time.keep up the fine work.....

[@BigDaddyMacc]

I dont know why but i love that sound it makes

[@artisankatstudios7902]

Just wanted to give you a big 'thank you' for your videos :) Extremely interesting stuff.

[@imortalRooster1329]

Sir, I enjoy your extended vocabulary.

[@datashed]

I think I watch this video about four times a year.

[@scottcupp8129]

As always, Bill, I love your videos. This one is great. I had a system like this. It was one of my first systems in fact

[@EzeeLinux]

I agree. I never want to overclock anything. I did that once about 15 years ago. I blew up the computer. Never again. :)

[@vwestlife]

A perfect example of one of the low-end Pentium machines that the later 486DX4 and 5x86 chips could easily outperform. Many, if not most, 75 MHz Pentium chips were designed for 90 or even 100 MHz operation and were underrated just to have a Pentium to sell at a cheaper price point. I didn't notice the audio and video drifting too far out of synch, but you already have a solution for that... you just haven't used it yet. ;-)

[@vwestlife]

***** Use MediaInfo to check if it's doing something screwy like encoding the video with a variable frame rate.

[@Cody6210]

***** I really enjoy Sony Vegas Pro 12, for all my editing, although me and you make very different videos. Keep up the good work. :)

[@vwestlife]

***** Silly noob... you should be using Linux for video editing! :-P

[@tschuuuls486]

Stereo Dust Particles haven't you got an lamp Imac G4 still sitting in your garage? Why not edit on imovie on oldschool osx with imovie 04 or 09 :D Would make a fun video.

[@Yeen125]

vwestlife Well, there is a professional video editor called LightWorks that has a version for Linux. Except that a copy costs $500.

[@nakyer]

Just thought I'd let you know... That opening shot of the computer... I'll be having nightmares for the next week at least. Thanks. ;)

[@AlphaDangerDen]

Love your videos about old computers, keep it up! :)

[@theshroomer9825]

The good old days.... I have a Packard Bell Legend 125 system that i upgraded multiple times and its compatible with the new components and runs as fast as a jackrabbit i must say.

[@btwbrand]

When I saw that there was a CD in the CD drive I knew exactly what that Icon was for. Fun game for the time and it would have ran on that PC quite well.

[@craiggilchrist4223]

TWAIN Drivers for Scanners stands for Tool Without An Interesting Name, Straight up.

[@uxwbill]

Yep. I'm aware of that. :-)

[@josephmmuller]

Thanks for the upload - brings back memories! I certainly ran across many of those Compaq desktops in the late 90's. Totally agree on the desktop themes being best left in the past, as finding anything in a mess of animated cursors and random icons was never a good time. Is it a bad thing that I did a little sing-song "tada!" sound after you clicked shut down? :)

[@youtubasoarus]

It's a shame that a forgotten room such as the one you mention, we cannot see because internet dunces ruin it for us. I think we're all interested in seeing some of the older gear in there that has been, as you say, long forgotten. Always the dunces that ruin it for everyone. :( Also a nice little computer. Was funny to see that lone PCI slot hiding amongst the ISA's. Heh.

[@hartsickdisciple]

This is a really cool video. I love the knowledge you have of old hardware. I think that PC probably did come with Windows 95, and was later upgraded to 98.

[@MaximumJoy]

i love these type of videos. tinkerers of the world unite

[@darkwaterblue]

I need a T-shirt with "Shoulda been thrown away, but you know me" on

[@barovelli]

The company I worked in had a bevvy of these machines as the very first desktop computers in customer service. They were barebones machines, ran Win 3.1 and were networked to a billing system using the serial ports and category 3 cabling. The "hub" of the network in turn communicated with the mainframe someplace further north. A team of techs and myself pulled all the wires and I assembled the little RJ11 jack to serial port plugs. Even though they all were set up with Win3.1 we edited the autoexec.bat to launch the billing system software, a DOS terminal program. A few of us cheated and let Windows launch and would run the terminal in a DOS window. That was when we found out that Solitaire and Mindsweeper were loaded on them too.

[@jdtractorz7760]

Hello, Mr. UXWBill. Another great video as always! I recently came across a machine that is VERY similar, even down to the 75 mhz Pentium 1. I haven't even heard of the FPU glitch until you mentioned it. Anyways, on my machine it had Windows 95, although it was messed up. On those machines, it is common for there to be keyboard errors (And I spent a couple of days trying to figure it out!) and on mine the RAM test fails, but you can cancel and continue with boot. Because you went and showed us yours, I am now going to pull mine off the sidelines. Anyways, continue making those good videos, because it is interesting learning about these old(er) computers. (I still use a Pentium 4 as my main computer!)

[@jdtractorz7760]

***** I am using an AT Keyboard with an adapter (8 pin?) to PS/2. I did get it to work, although I would have to unplug the Keyboard and then quickly plug it back in. Anyways, would you know what could be causing the RAM check to fail? it gets to about 12MBs and then fails.

[@The_Laser_Channel]

wow....that 50 minutes went by FAST!! This was a great video and hope you do end up doing more "Basement PC" videos :)

[@ajschot]

so miss this... i had one too but did it away when i bought and build my first own pc.... :(

[@CharlesShow]

Radioshack bombed themselves... how times have changed

[@TCGProductions03]

"I wonder if the keyboard works anyway?" *BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP...* "Or... not."

[@xaer0knight]

Yes! This should be informative :D It is horrible that a lot of Motherboards I have looked at lately are removing PS/2, Floppy, and IDE connectors :(

[@cttv90108]

Wow thanks for the look back I remember those days. The hard drive patch for the bios limitations... That and Windows 95 it seemed like I was constantly crashing and reinstalling the bios patch and win 95. 98 was a big step up in stability for me. And Microsoft plus. The cool snake and cat desktop I remember that one too. Thanks for sharing again. And man 32mb of system ram. How did we survive?

[@jasmijndekkers]

Nice computer systems and content. Thankx for sharing with us. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

[@Bluethunderboom]

I remember see this Desktop at Elementary and Middle School that I used to play games two on Educational games by Edmark, and it's originally installed Windows 95. And for 98, I love that because I do enjoy play games like Freddi Fish games, Top 20 Solid Gold, etc where they have the best picture quality on PC so I really love that 98 better than 95. =)

[@billabong0693]

New Sub! That made me laugh with the cleaner lol. I like you already! Love the old PCs so a fellow 90s PC lover I will sub and watch your videos!!

[@christineayres5339]

I had that Panther Wallpaper in Windows ME but i was only a young kid in 2001 so excuse my stupidity LOL

[@WaybackTECH]

I would absolutely love to see someone call up Intel and tell them they have a FDIV bug Pentium and want it replaced. I really want to see what Intel would do, but the reaction of the person working the phone at Intel might just be priceless.

[@toddhagist8395]

windows 3.11 for workgroup was a great OS back in the day, a great break out over 2 or DOS and 98 wow

[@ps2jak2]

A friend of mine had one of these when I was like 9 or 10 - was an interesting machine.

[@cambridgeport90]

I chuckled at how it sounded like you were blowing off some dust right at the beginning of the video LOL.

[@1x4x9]

21:29 The old P54C Pentiums have ~3.4M transistiors. Also, FYI, The i386 has 275,000 and the 486DX has 1.2M.

[@tyttuut]

I doubt we'll reach the limits of 48 bit LBA anytime soon, because it can handle a little over 144 petabytes.

[@weasel2htm]

Just a minor correction, the Vectra *VE* 5/75 has a 133MHz CPU that has been OC'd to 150MHz.

[@antidome]

i had the model that came before this one, it was made around 1994, it came with 3.1 as the original with no CD Drive.

[@theusdollar9042]

Why do all of these youtubers that show old tech, all look like they film in a dark hole in the midwest? Love your videos btw

[@BstTat]

Omg I want it soooo bad I am a huge fan of older computers I have a 99 gateway and I love it

[@retroguy74]

If I were your neighbor I would offer to come by and go through that computer basement with you. It would be a blast!

[@scgamer2442]

I have a Compaq desk-pro Pentium 133 system that also uses EDO memory! Witch is very surprising.

[@firehawk400]

I miss the increased competition of the 90s as well. Don't forget Number Nine graphics!

[@datashed]

Elsa Gloria

[@leakyzinc]

Ah yes the Pentium floating point bug. I recall one of the many jokes that did the rounds around that time; How many Pentium engineers does is take to change a light-bulb? Three... one to hold the ladder and one to change the bulb!

[@AiOinc1]

10:20 I see a Gateway machine that looks a heck of a lot like an Essential E450 in the exact center (next to the vectra)...

[@charliemyrick]

You need to make more of these!

[@ipeters61]

35:20 - I work at a bank and it would bother me if num lock was turned off!

[@jaykay18]

If I recall correctly, these early Compaq machines beep twice to indicate they are in "turbo" mode. In the BIOS/Setup program, there should be a way to change it to "compatible" or "deturbo" mode, and, once rebooted, the POST should only produce 1 beep. I don't know if that holds true on such a "new" system like this, but it was the case on Compaq's 286 and 286 machines for sure. The NEC MultiSpin drives made that clicking sound when powered. Sounds totally normal, no surprise it worked. I've had a few of those drives over the years.

[@TCGProductions03]

"...in the name of child safety"-- *bottle opens*

[@JZB-2022]

Great video! Sadly, I got rid of most of my old 90s PC's a few years ago. The only one I have left is a late 90s IBM Thinkpad. BTW, I'm still wondering what happened to the MDD....

[@uxwbill]

Nobody's ever come up with the spec for the heatsink screws, so it sits.

[@JZB-2022]

uxwbill I see. What a shame.

[@littlemisssynth]

percussive maintenance to the rescue

[@DouglasRRenoVideoGameReviews]

I've worked on my Compaq Deskpro EN for about 6 years now. I love its 300MHz Celeron, but its Serial, PS/2, and Parallel ports don't work. No floppy drives work. I had to put in an add-in Sound Card, GPU, USB Card, and Ethernet card. So I use it with an IDE DVD-ROM drive and a 40GB hard drive on a single IDE channel, with a USB Keyboard and Mouse (it works, surprisingly). I love that machine so much that I've kept it running for this long, but it gets to be a pain after a while. It's a staple in my LAN Parties that I occasionally run across Northern Illinois. Whenever we do a DOS Gaming / 9x gaming party, that machine always gets used by somebody (I use my Gateway 2000, its one of the machines that has stayed with me over the past 10 years without problems).

[@crystalscan2002]

it makes me wonder old computers run faster then new ones

[@yorgle11]

This machine looks like it would be good for somebody who wanted to play MSDOS games. All those ISA slots are most useful for such a machine, and it should be fast enough for all but the latest games of the DOS era. I presume the speaker output could be redirected to the sound card. The single PCI slot could be used for an early 3Dfx accelerator, although again the CPU (even if upgraded) might be a bit underpowered for those latest DOS games. But for the pre-3D era it would be quite good. It's a bit disappointing that the jumpers offer no apparent option for a 66MHz bus mode, and as you mentioned in the video, the RAM is a bit slow. That chipset is interesting. Odd that the chips are made by VLSI instead of Intel. I hated ISA PnP. I really preferred the jumpers, jumper based ISA cards just worked as they were told. I found ISA PnP to be a constant battle and pain in the neck. PCI PnP was better, but it took some time for me to be convinced due to my terrible experience with the ISA variety. I have a couple socket-4 Pentium 60 CPUs, of which at least one if not both have the FDIV bug. I truly wonder if Intel could still replace those ancient things. I suppose they'd be more likely to offer some common socket-7 chip. It's funny how socket-4 ended up being such a dud. With all the upgrades that came available for 486 boards, they ended up surpassing any socket-4 Pentium and for much less money. The system in the video seems slightly primitive compared to most common mainstream Pentium machines, so I think it must be one of the earliest socket-5 systems. It really represents when the Pentium platform was hitting it's stride and becoming mature and practical.

[@Sethshirtless]

hey, i was wondering what the optiplex model is on your pool table next to you in the video?

[@javierperez2097]

Hey! Can you do a overview of the Compaq Deskpro EN, because my Grandfather gave me one and I think that a review of that gotta be awesome, thanks!

[@eznix]

Great to see this old computer. The first computer I ever built for myself from parts was a Pentium 120 on an ATX mobo, 64 mb of ram, and a 2 gb hard drive. I think I remember spending over $200 on my first Sony cd burner back in the late 90s. I owned a ZEOS 486 before building my own. As I remember, Windows 98, NT 4 and OS/2 Warp all ran splendidly in 64 mb of ram. I wish I still had those old beasts, but they went to the trash years before I ever thought I'd be interested in old computers.

[@stevenhobbs3032]

I used to have an old Compaq computer that has Windows 98 on it when I was in school

[@ecamormex]

Hey, Bill, a lot of times you do that "smoke test!" thing on your videos, but have you ever actually had a computer or another piece of equipment explode on you while you've been working on it? Just curious how often that happens. I like messing with stuff like that, but you have a ton of stuff that's really old and very interesting. Thanks.

[@uxwbill]

+Elías Cuevas Yes I have. It's not terribly often. The last time it happened, I had just plugged in a Dell Dimension 4600C. It put off a nice loud POP and some smoke. Before that, I foolishly plugged in a PC power supply known not to work, and the standby section went up.

[@stevew270]

+uxwbill I've never had a pc smoke but I was working on an old Cobra 89 that blew a capacitor 2' from my face, I think I hit the ceiling.

[@MixerVM]

If that was made in 1996, it would have been a pretty low-end model.

[@jeffstech7027]

You look a lot like a young Andy Hertzfeld, the guy who used to work with the original Mac team back in the day.

[@admiralalcatraz6080]

Would you consider exploring another forgotten computer in another video? Its kinda like roadkill but for computers ;P

[@uxwbill]

There might be something in a similar vein in future.

[@NJRoadfan]

For 1996, that machine was crappier than the average Packard Bell! At least they shipped machines with more than one PCI slot and a real Intel chip set (that could support 66Mhz bus speeds). Needless to say, such a machine from that era wouldn't be a keeper for me. There are better Socket 5 machines out there. I'm also curious about how messy this mess room is.

[@Qwakkeddup]

How do you keep all that stuff in your head? I have problems when I have to put a sentence or password from one page to another and copy/paste is disabled.

[@manuelgnzlz86]

+uxwbill Where can I find a similar dell keyboard? I have a similar one, but it's missing keycaps... I would appreciate a answer.

[@Rock-Forehead]

Fun trip down memory lane, I installed several hundred of these (albeit the commercial model, not these consumer model Compaqs) with the tried-and-true WFW311. You need an air compressor down in your computer lab... :D

[@Maxd11gaming]

Can you make a video talking about your core 2 duo computers, specifically the dell optiplex computers shown at parts of this video?

[@Corvette1658]

By the way what ever happened to the Volvo does your dad still have it or did he ended up selling it?

[@BavarianM]

The original pentium transistor count is 3,100,000

[@ibizenco]

At 5:20 I kind of was expecting a whole bunch of spiders jumping out and running off :) 5:30 - so, no spiders :)

[@CraftyZanTub]

For the most part, I think of thumb drives as 3.5 floppies on steroids.

[@Fuzy2K]

My ThinkPad doesn't have a floppy drive, but it *does* have a parallel port. Does that make it at least an honorary "real computer"? :P