Fixing a Old Dell to play a classic 2000's Game

[@andresbravo2003]

Well, the Rare game are still up for download which is free and I won’t bother it, this is just to preserve history. Monolith would be proud of even he was still part of WB Games today.

[@exorzzzism2489]

Nice video 😊 hope you make more vids, specially to pimp the old dell machine 😉

[@KeritechElectronics]

Lovely work, dear!

[@techdept]

I really need to sort out a good Win 98 machine. Oh what fun that era was. I can’t remember if sorting IRQ settings were still a thing, but I have a feeling they were, especially if I was still playing old dos games. :)

[@buckyt1000]

Always been very happy with my Dell laptop! Interested to learn why you are not so keen on Dell.. Nice video 👍

[@techdept]

Actually this Dell has been fairly reliable, but unremarkable. The desktop line has been slowly locked down with proprietary parts over the last few years, making swapping bits more difficult. Even this old Inspirion came with a Dell exclusive Soundblaster card. But it was still upgradable and easy to repair. As for the laptop line, I’ve no experience of them, but I’m sure they’re fine since locked down tech is useful when designing laptops.

[@herdarkshadow834]

I have my original copy of that game in my PC collection. First time I’ve seen someone else play it. As for a paint job, you can always consider doing a vinyl wrap if you want to do something psychedelic. 🙂

[@techdept]

I love this game. I grew up watching a mix of Star Trek and lots of terrible 60s era spy shows. So when I spotted NOLF back around 2000, I had to have it. It’s the right mix of silly nonsense and cool level design. I also have the sequel and the terrible follow up ‘Contract: J.A.C.K’. It’s really great to have this old game back again. Next up, Crimson Skies. As for the case, I’ve been wondering about vinyl wrap. It could work. :)

[@PileOfEmptyTapes]

In a system of this generation it's generally a good idea to replace the thermal paste on the northbridge as well, which may very well be just as crusty. As mentioned, it's pretty generic for a Dell, their higher-end models would have been BTX. It would have been similar for Fujitsu-Siemens at the time.

[@techdept]

Thanks. I’ll do that. :)

[@DavidStahlOLDHAPPyMACs]

You need to Retro bright it the case should clean up good

[@BilisNegra]

This is not a vintage system yet, in fact is the kind of stuff more likely to show up in a dumpster. And the white plastic part that yellows is not even on the front, why bother?

[@FlyboyHelosim]

There's nothing wrong with Dell computers today. In fact it's all I buy.

[@SeminarioMAE]

dude you got a dell

[@techdept]

🤣

[@jocelynbiologicalage4893]

Yellow, Good job on this old Dell but not as complex as the one I made lol :) BTW, like you I don’t like summer with heat and humidity and winter neiiiiiiiiither! Fall is the best season not too hot, not too cold, like August September and October are the best months of the year!!! That said, I had work on a similar project myself = somebody gave me and old Dell Vostro 200 and, I thought, why not make a retro gaming PC out of it?! I replace the PSU + I put and e8500 core 2 duo in it (core 2 quad not supported for this board) + 6gb of ddr2 ram and a Asus GTS 450 old gaming GPU and 2 x SSD 240 gb in place of one of the DVD drive slot + 1 7200 rpm HDD and… I put 3 OS on those drives: Windows XP 32 bit on the HDD + Windows 10 32 bit (the last Windows OS to be on 32 bit) and Linux 64 bit on one SSD as dual-boot. So… with XP and 10 (Steam + GOG working on 10) you could play retro games and with Linux you could surf the web (more secure than cro$oft) and do some ``limited`` modern stuff on that old PC. Best way to dual boot Windows + Linux for a legacy bios (Not a modern UEFI) with a soft called ``easy bcd`` to install first on Windows : kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKDJfmyqqr-IqZY Can I also recommend: Get Windows Update Working on Old Windows Versions! Legacy update program that I have use on my XP = just after a fresh install of XP SP3 use it and you could also install all the updates of Windows XP Embedded (which was supported until 2019) = seems stable for me on my XP pro sp3 kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5fEcmemnZl5pZo` en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_editions#Editions_for_embedded_systems and you should also take a look at ``PhilsComputerLab`` channel dedicated mostly to retro gaming and old hardware. He has a website also; I intend to sell that Dell Vostro 200 soon. I have already for retro-gaming a HP 6000 pro MT with a q9650 c2q + 8 gb ddr3 + radeon hd 5870 gpu who also happen to have 4 OS on it! Lol = Windows 11 64 bit (ya, I bypassed the minimal requirements for install like the TPM and secure boot, etc) + Windows 7 32 bit + XP 32 bit + Linux From French Quebec-Canada :)))

[@BilisNegra]

Only well into the video I realized how few views this has. Really unfair. By the way, why 8 gigs for a 32-bit system? Of course, you might end up using (again) this machine for something else than the purpose mentioned in the video, but I expected some clarification about it.

[@techdept]

Firstly, thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. As for the 8gb issue, that’s an easy explanation. I’m an idiot! Truthfully I’ve been working with modern 64-bit systems for so long I completely forgot about the 4gb limit. 🤣 so I’ll pop out half of the ram and save it for another system.

[@BilisNegra]

@@techdept Haha... Actually, I suppose it's not like it matters that much since you got that stash of memory for really cheap, but you know, the little spark of OCD even in people not diagnosed as such 😝