PC archeology: Upgrading the Compaq Presario 425 All-In-One (Part 2)

[@frogz]

channel name: adrian's digital attic, the place for all of the ideas floating around in your head that never made it down to the basement

[@uiopuiop3472]

pimped

[@HeffeJeffe78]

Oh Second Reality... brings back such great memories.

[@esseferio]

I for one would be interested in the scratch removal technique, because the windshield repair stuff route was actually on my mind also :) Nice job, Adrian! Merci !

[@Inject0r]

I was thinking about that too, but you’ll probably need to completely remove the anti glare coating on the tube (if there is any present). So that’s what’s actually keeping me from repairing my CRT display.

[@compu85]

The internal modem in that system also has Voice functions, and can work as an answering machine. That's why the BIOS has some audio I/O port settings. It plays through the big PC speaker on the front of the machine! I got one of these a couple years ago - it had Windows 95, but I was able to uninstall it and get back to the original Compaq Windows 3.1!

[@CDP-1802]

I remember playing 25th Anniversary Star Trek on my generic 486-66 with that exact same sound card and those exact same labtec speakers! The Star Trek game has a learning curve it it's a really good game!

[@endykun]

If you can find it, there's a CD-ROM version of Star Trek 25th anniversary that has full voice from the original cast. It's pretty great; I've got a copy around here somewhere.

[@uiopuiop3472]

@@endykun where can you find it. i would be interested too

[@joe--cool]

@@uiopuiop3472 It's on Steam. And on GOG. The sequel: Judgement Rites is also pretty great.

[@cyphi474]

@@joe--cool I was playing Judgement Rites back in days. Tough game if you dont speak english. :)

[@masterkamen371]

I installed it on my PowerBook G3 and got the manual for it online, pretty fun game once you know the controls.

[@IJaggedl]

2nd reality is one of my favorite demo's from the 90's :)

[@countzero1136]

I still have it on a floppy disc (the original version, with the Dolby Surround logo message screen - before the legal parasites forced Future Crew to remove it) - I really must fire up my old 486 laptop to see if it still reads today :)

[@MrLurchsThings]

This is the model I really REALLY wanted when I got my Pentium AIO. Such a beautiful machine.

[@resspls10k]

This brings me back to when I was age 7-11. My dad used to work at a garbage recycling facility, where there would be crates full of PCs dropped off every week. Every now and then he'd take some stuff which was within reach home with him. Old IBMs, HP Vectra, Compaq Presario, Tulip computers (Dutch brand), Laser computers, Digital, some brands I forgot. At one point I had a PC full of HDDs, I had filled every slot with sound cards which had IDE connectors on them. I had a power supply of an HP Vectra (long shaped, non-AT) next to it for extra Molex power to the drives of which I had bridged the "turn on" lines with a paperclip. Complete machine sounded like an aeroplane taking off, and I can still recall the symphony of all HDDs having their turn-on sequence together. I needed all those 200 - 800 MB drives to fit all the games I had collected from (again) all those salvaged PCs. Quantum Fireball, Seagate ST ... like in the video, Western Digital Caviar. Trying out every video card, eventually being happy to run 1280x1024 BUT interlaced, haha. CRT monitors which only supported certain resolutions, and didn't have a protection circuitry to switch off when unsupported resolutions were fed. Whoops, let's quickly turn it off and wait 15 seconds for settings to reverse. Great days. Unfortunately all PCs and CRT monitors were thrown away many years ago when they cleaned up my room, only have an HP Vectra 486/66 DX2 left.

[@chrisbrooks6697]

I used to work at a Compaq authorized service center, so this brings back memories. I think I even still have my Compaq certificates from 1997 somewhere!

[@PavelUrusov]

At 12:14, there seems to be a "Custom Drive Definition" menu item in the BIOS. I guess it can be used to define HDD geometry manually.

[@Hidyman]

I thought the same thing.

[@jabbawok944]

I spotted that too..

[@vincentferrari]

Yep that’s what it’s for. Used to be type 47 on a lot of older Bioses.

[@BrianMartin2007]

@@vincentferrari you are correct!

[@Hairy_Lee]

There's something really charming about the appearance of this computer, it's proportions feel right somehow

[@JFCOAREZA]

The old Compaqs are legendary machines

[@countzero1136]

Yep - built like tanks and very reliable (Makes you weep for the garbage that they became after being acquired by HP :( )

[@KellyMurphy]

One of the first things I'd do on an older hdd is create a "dd" image. That way you have a bit for bit copy of what was there to begin with. You can make copies of the image to work on and even dump it back to the original hdd and start over.

[@homeFall1]

Was thinking this when he ran that chdsk in the last episode... I wouldn't have touched it till I had a good image of the thing.

[@pezz38]

I had this machine, and i seem to remember i upgraded it with a Kingston cpu of some kind , i also doubled the ram up to 8 mb and all that cost almost as much as the computer, that upgrade was the reason i quit smoking to afford the purchase 😄 Tnx for the trip down memory lane Mr Black 👍👍

[@Microang]

This was my first Windows PC. I've wanted to find another one ever since. As for the glass on the monitor, I used Farecla G3 Advanced Liquid Compound to remove a deepish scratch on the screen of my old HTC phone. It didn't go away completely, but was barely visible after polishing it with the compound and a microfiber. I tried all the other methods on the internet and nothing worked, saw this on the side that worked wonders on my car and thought why not try. It amazed me that it actually worked. If it's available in the states you have nothing to lose by trying...

[@EnergyWell]

Thanks for the memory refresh, Adrian. So many good times with gear like this.

[@Walczyk]

This is such a cool little pc! Compaq was an awesome company in the early 90s, that label underneath is pure class.

[@linushyky476]

Et voila !! super ça fait des années que je regarde vos vidéos et j'ai enfin entendu un mot en français 🤩 I've been watching your videos for a long time and I finally listened one word in French

[@FaSMaN]

For the hard drive you might find it slowly corrupts or has unreadable files due to the cylinders not matching up, you can use a Dynamic drive overlay software to get past that , even use bigger HDDs, you will need to format the drive and reinstall dos, but directly afterwords you can copy the files back over again :) Phil's computer labs website has Ontrack Disk manager that you can download (he has permission from Ontrack to distribute it) Edit: this comment is no 104 doubt you'll see it but here is hoping :)

[@thepirategamerboy12]

I use EZ-Drive, myself. Not that it matters with MS-DOS 6.2, but contrary to popular belief it does support FAT32. I was able to use the full size of a 40GB hard drive on my 486 with no issues.

[@joe--cool]

Older hard disks really don't like being upside down. I hope that bump while spinning upside down didn't kill it. Sideways on either side is usually not a problem. Some even had warnings to not mount them upside down.

[@AureliusR]

@@joe--cool Why would being upside down matter at all?

[@joe--cool]

@@AureliusR The parking zone outside of the platter wouldn't properly protect the heads. I'll check if I can find the manual I read that in somewhere.

[@denispgakelly]

Hi Adrian, this was a real trip down memory lane(pun not intended) I made all of the same upgrades on my 486DX 33 back in the day. Oh and played that same Star Trek game, it really is great craic when you get into it. Thanks for the great content man. Denis in Ireland

[@ComandanteJ]

I remember when my parents got that exact same Sound Blaster 16 model for our home computer, a 486 DX-50 with 8MB RAM. I still have that sucker around, recently played Warcraft on it.

[@MyDailyUpload]

I had a job interview at Compaq's high performance server division in the 90s. Compaq was coming out with the all-in-one Presario, and a couple of the engineers I was interviewing with had picked up some of these to give to their kids. That's about all I remember about it, except that I didn't get the job. Maybe just as well. I never wanted to move to Houston anyway, it was hotter than hell that August when I visited.

[@bitoxic]

24:30 Adrian! You can never bored us with details! 😉👍

[@uiopuiop3472]

!bored!

[@woko-ly7mm]

for the scratch in the screen glas,you can go to an car windshield repair shop(carglas),they have a special epoxy to fill the cratch with it ,the epoxy is absolute transparent.

[@SkyCharger001]

and if the epoxy doesn't take, you could ask them to dupe the screen glass. (I've seen this done for some antique cars with unique wind-shields that weren't manufactured anymore so it should be easy for them to do this)

[@brianargo4595]

​@@SkyCharger001 how does one replace the glass on a CRT?

[@SkyCharger001]

@@brianargo4595 from what I understand the glass on a CRT is separate from the phosphor layer, but I'll admit, it will require revacuming the tube afterwards.

[@nikmilosevic1696]

These also worked with the old Kingston TurboChip 133. I remember updating a whole bunch of 425s for the engineering faculty back in the 90s to give them a longer working life, along with a RAM upgrade.

[@Grassy20]

Oh my gosh! I was doing something and I looked up and saw the Adlib Jukebox! What a blast from the past!

[@thegreene3]

oh man what a treat! Its my birthday and i get to watch your video! I love it! :D Thank you for all the hard work you put into your videos. It really makes my day when a new one gets posted. Thank you thankyou!

[@snakepopcorns]

I just love this channel. Thank you for putting time and effort for this channel

[@6581punk]

Ade is very easy to listen to.

[@IbySabu]

❤❤compaq.

[@Vermilicious]

Thanks for showing off this thing, it seems like a nice machine! You mentioned the CRT was in good shape, but you didn't show any of the insides of the monitor part. I wouldn't be surprised if it could use some cleaning in there, and maybe a fan replacement.

[@Inadvisablescience]

Future Crew. That song is still a banger even today. "Get down!"

[@markcentral]

Hey Adrian. The hanging note is a known bug on creative's CT1741 Chip with DSP versions 4.11, 4.12, and 4.13.

[@mauriciofranco3492]

AFAIK, that bug was for the MIDI Output, not the Adlib FM synth.

[@artstrutzenberg7197]

DAMN......and you had to use one of my absolute favorite demos to see how this behaved after updates :D

[@Eireman_on_Twitch]

I had a Compaq Presario 433 back in the day that was given to me. Same exact configuration except the soldered on CPU was a 486SX/33Mhz. It readily took an AMD DX4/100Mhz and a 16MB RAM update. I added a sound card, a better video card (with a bodge to eliminate the on board), and a parallel CD-ROM. Decent Windows 95 machine my parents used, and my younger sibs gamed on, for several years! I wish I still had it!

[@AmadeuszKlodawski]

Turrican II is fantastic, really love its music and hearing and seeing it on a good old Compaq is so sweet.

[@DaT0nkee]

A demo? THE BEST Demo of all times!!!

[@countzero1136]

Definitely up there in the top 5 of PC demos ever released - the 90s was such a great time for this stuff

[@ColdSphinX]

Regarding the scratch in the glass I guess there would be a way filling it with some acrylic like they do with car windshields on small rock damages.

[@FoxyVulpes]

5:56 - the HDD shows in Windows as "not initialised" ... - that happens, when the disk does not support LBA. Such USB Adaptors REQUIRE LBA support for the harddrive.

[@fagear]

Exactly. That hard drive is too old to support LBA, it only does old CHS addressing. If HDD is less than 1 GB you can be pretty sure that it does not support LBA. 10+ GB HDD will support LBA. And those ATA - USB adapters usually require Master setting on the drive.

[@freednighthawk]

For the scratch in the monitor, I recommend 3M Rubbing Compound (Available at Walmart or any auto parts store) and a 3 inch buffing wheel from Harbor Freight. You wont be able to get the scratch completely out, but it should help diminish the appearance. Just make sure you mask up everything you don't want compound on, and keep the area slightly damp as you polish it. If you really want to get that scratch out, it will take days worth of wet sanding followed by compounds.

[@jayminer]

Turrican II on the Amiga actually supports two buttons, you're still stuck with jumping on up but you can do the wheel and special attack with a second button!

[@KaldekBoch]

Oh man, Star Treak 25th anniversary was a GREAT game. Such fond memories.

[@coxyofnewp]

Hi Adrian - I did see a friend use cerium oxide polish to take a scratch out of his vintage car screen ( from a windscreen wiper ) It wasn't a quick thing to do, but it worked ! maybe look into it. Great content as always !!

[@mrvellu]

that's one happy 486! I usually pair compact flash adapters with the original harddrive because i like their sound

[@CooChewGames]

I remember changing a 33SX to a 66DX and it was an amazing change; using applications like Visio was like night and day. Those were the days when we looked at 100% increases from upgrades as opposed to now when DF report on a 5% increase between generations...

[@Ts6451]

Not that odd considering the DX2 66MHz operates at twice the clock speed of the SX 33. Of course, Today processors don't operate at a single clock speed like that anymore, so even lower clocked versions of a processor might still boost high enough that you would not really notice it much in day to day use. Still, the DX2 was 699 and the SX less than 300, even if we don't account for inflation, that sort of difference in CPU price probably could get you a bit of extra performance(at least if there wasn't a shortage, scalpers everywhere and Intel launching a generation that was weak on the higher end. )

[@GarthBeagle]

34:26 hahaa, absolutely need to clarify the architecture for this dance party, can't be imprecise!

[@RambozoClown]

Cerium Oxide Polishing compound to polish out scratches out of glass. It does take some skill to prevent creating optical distortions in the glass. The same technique is used to polish lenses like prescription eyeglasses, and telescope mirrors. If the scratches are really deep you may have to start with silicon carbide to get it close.

[@j-fharbec379]

I came here to suggest the same product. Cerium Oxide should work

[@cbw56]

loved these two videos!!

[@Walczyk]

"quake?" my man! I knew adrian had great taste in pc games

[@Jake-23]

Another great video! Excellent work and I love the additional segmentation in the video!!! Thank you Adrian!

[@MartinWolves]

Another excellent tape related t-shirt!

[@polariss0i]

That tab works brings me back. Only ever encountered 1 laptop with that on it in my youth.

[@gorber81]

NOW you're glad you have that big box o' rams! :D

[@Nr7]

Great video! Thanks for showing the PC port of Turrican II. I don't think many people know that there is a PC port of it and that it's so good. As an old Amiga fan it almost pains me to admit that it's probably the best version of the game. :D

[@ProlificInvention]

Ha! My son and I have this identical make and model computer we recently found in the basement and installed in his room. It works flawlessly and plays Diablo 2 quite well.

[@ProlificInvention]

Just noticed this is a 486, ours is a Pentium 75mhz

[@kamildudek2961]

We had those computers in my school. I have a lot fond memories. I really like how they look like and will try to get myself one :)

[@andrew1977au]

Wow that demo from future crew brings back memories.

[@sandmanxo]

In my first tech job I worked at a small isp and they had a few of these(both 425 and 433 models) to log tickets. I eventually ended up with one and upgraded the cpu from a sx 25 to a dx 33 which really helped with making Doom tolerable in low res mode. I eventually ended up giving it to my girlfriend at the time brother when he went to college and never saw it again. I wish I had kept now as it made a pretty good mame machine and was easy to move around.

[@countzero1136]

Great restoration there buddy! I love those old Compaq machines from the days when Compaq was very user (and techie) friendly (before they went down the toilet after HP bought them out :( ) You should absolutely try playing Quake on this PC - I had a 486DX-2/66 with 4Mb RAM and a 512Kb vga card back in the 90s and Quake was very playable on it (Noticeably slower than the 120MHz pentium I got a few years later of course, but definitely fast enough to play the original (software rendered) Quake)

[@Edman_79]

Yay, DX2 66 and SB16, my teens :D Good times! Lovely setup!

[@patrickfindeis6754]

Awesome video! Thanks, Adrian!

[@86smoke]

Adrian, I can confirm that plugging old ATA drives to Win10 machine via USB adapter can sometimes screw up MBR or even partition table (probably down to kind of adapter chip). It was unpleasant experience to set up whole machine and have it ruined by plugging it to Win10 machine.

[@ExStaticBass]

An old but good trick for repairing scratched screens is clear nail polish. Apply it to the scratch and immediately wipe away the excess. This should make an almost invisible repair. It works for LCD screens too.

[@einokeskitalo3217]

Interesting.. I've changed the HD in mine back in the day, but I don't remember taking the riser out or dealing with Torx screws. Anyhow, really satisfying to watch these videos as a fellow 425 owner! Mine lacks the modem, and also the original CPU isn't directly on the board, it's in the (upgrade?) socket. I plan to check the jumper settings and also see if I can spot some more differences.

[@Niak38240]

Hello Adrian here''s a tip to polisk glass you have to use cerium oxyde it's a powder you can find it on ebay you mix it with water and with help of a felt wheel you will polish the glass. Another trick if the scratch are deep you may have to use fine wet sand paper 280 400 600 800 1200 2000 and 3000 and then the cerium oxyde. It's what we do to save watches glasses. Thanks for your interesting videos !

[@Trev0r98]

I have the same basic system, but it has an onboard 1MB Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 VLB chip (maybe a later motherboard / chipset Rev. / Version?). Like yours, it has no provision or socket for any L2 cache. I also installed an AMD 5x86-133 MHz CPU in it (with 16KB write-thru cache - hey, even that extra 8KB helps, vs the DX2-66). It came with a 3.45V voltage regulator, heat sink and fan, all integrated. I jumpered the board exactly as you did (for the DX-2 66 - 33 Mhz bus speed). I am 100% sure that your system will run the AMD 5x86-133 just like mine. Good for an overall 40 - 65% speed boost over your DX-2 66, I guarantee. I also installed 2 x 8MB 70ns RAM, for a total of 20 MB RAM. The system plays both Doom and Doom II at 1024x768x256 blazing fast (i'm guessing easily around 60 fps). There is also no perceptible lag dragging around window screens (even while showing window contents), in both Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 OSR2. Both run equally fast, and some native Win95 benchmarks show results superior to those I get in Win 3.11.

[@tubeDude48]

3M makes a Tape product that WILL make a tight fit for the processor. It holds like JB Weld, and transfers heat very well.

[@MagnaRyuuDesigns]

I wasn't looking at the screen when the star trek music started and was like "ah yes the 25th Anniversary Star Trek game" I know that sound anywhere. I played that game, both the dos version and the NES version, soooo much as a kid. And you are correct. The UI for the game is a bit hard to get use to at first.

[@davel8116]

A lot of these big manufacturers use non-standard partition tables which might explain why you couldn’t mount the drive on windows 10. You might look at the drive in Linux with a hex editor to see what is going on. A couple MB of custom partition space is enough for your modem bios to live.

[@brianbivins7371]

Pimp my retro computer episode 1. Seriously you should do a Pimp my Retro PC series.

[@helmargesel3972]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge 👍 👏 🤖

[@AB-Prince]

there's a service by autoglass repair in england, where they place a device onto a chip in windshield glass that pushes some sort of fast hardening material int the hole and is indestinguishable when done.

[@briangoldberg4439]

The only way to get deep scratches out of the glass is with Cerium Oxide powder and grinding wheels. It's super messy and a huge pain in the ass. It requires a lot of prep, work, various polishing compounds, time and clean-up. People have had some success with those clear epoxy kits that fill in the crack with clear goo, but you have to get lucky for them to work (like the crack is at just the right angle.)

[@woldemunster9244]

There was "custom drive definition"-option in the bios. :D

[@GeFeldz]

This!

[@chadhartsees]

Wasn't that 'Type 47'?

[@thesolderman861]

@12:13 you can see custom drive type just on option below the drive type selection.

[@crashmatrix]

Got my hands on a Presario 460, ran into the same issue with the drive selection in the bios, but if you pause the video at 12:14 you can see the option that lets you custom define CHS for both primary and secondary IDE devices.

[@vjscorreia]

Great video! I was watching it and at the same looking at my own new parts for my dx4 machine upgrade! More RAM (64 total), new video card (an MGA), floppy drive B (adding one) and a new cooler for the CPU... It's a great DOS and win311 machine!

[@MrToast64]

Most PC retro stuff doesn't hold my interest-but this was great! One minor correction-The Amiga version of Turrican 2 supported button 0 and 1 with the super zapper function on button 1.

[@countzero1136]

Well at least Adrian really knows what a retro PC is (Unlike Linus Tech Tips that thinks a "retro PC" is a Core i7 with 32Gb RAM :) )

[@ksln]

Love the drive you posess, man. I'm drowningin projects that I seem incapable of getting started on. One day... One day.

[@Vile-Flesh]

I know that feeling. I have mountains of hardware that I never get to tinker with. I can't even remember what all I have.

[@mikeuk666]

keep up the entertainment Adrian 🕹 👍🏻

[@davidsmall6322]

29:17 Here for the thumbnail/Future Crew "Second Reality" pic. I found that Nooon/"Stars" was a fun benchmarking for graphics/speed/crashability. Running on a 386/33 (might have been a 25). Had to turn the mouse, and a couple other drivers off to watch the demo, to salvage memory on a 640K/538(free) system. Even the order that the drivers and paths were loaded into RAM affected the way "Second Reality" would operate. Speed of the processor negated almost all of the lags, and lag/choppiness (music always ran smooth regardless of any PC I ever ran it on). "Will it Run Second Reality"

[@neverthehero566]

Woot! Fun! Was looking forward to this!

[@frankowalker4662]

Nice upgrade.

[@hugosimoes5119]

Excellent video as always.

[@tiporari]

You can polish glass using the right compounds or 3M sandpaper. If you're uncomfortable with that, use a heavy automotive paste wax and buff gently and it will hide the scratches.

[@bradkamrath]

This could work, but it's painful to do. I recommend a Dremel tool with a cloth buffing wheel. Takes those glass scratches out in a jiffy! No compound required of any kind - just a little patience and caution.

[@DavidWonn]

I forget offhand if MS-DOS 6.0 does this, but 6.22 definitely lets you press F8 during the boot process to selectively choose which lines to execute from config.sys and autoexec so that you wouldn’t have to modify the original files (in the event that you would be concerned about additional writes to a potentially failing drive.)

[@jensrobot]

loved this, thanks!!!

[@H4zuZazu]

Do you remember DX-Ball from Longboe Digital Arts? The Concratulation screen when finishing a Game, was realy heating up the CPU.

[@frogz]

i have a port of it on my wii and still have level packs somewhere on diski!!

[@tarstarkusz]

DX2 chips absolutely do get hot and generally need a heat-sink, especially the early ones. The later ones don't get as hot, but the early ones do.

[@llamallarry]

The likely reason for the USB IDE adapter not working with the HD is that the adapter only supports LBA drives, not the older CHS-only drives (below 540MB). This is common for these adapters. I've found that these older drives need a full blown IDE controller, as found on motherboards supporting IDE.

[@Buzzygirl63]

Your channel makes me want to hit up garage sales around me to see if I can find old computers to upgrade. I've done some minor upgrades to my own PCs over the years and you make big upgrades seem like a fun hobby or side business! Also - immediate subscribe to your other channel!

[@kitchentroll5868]

Cerium oxide paste is the general goto for lens polishing, so I would guess that might eventually remove a scratch from a CRT. It's generally used for micron adjustments, so I can't imagine it would be "fast", but it would be safe.

[@ResonantBytes]

When working with an older drive that has data on it that I want to preserve, I always create an image file in Linux. Linux seems much more compatible in that regard, most hard drives that didn't work on other systems just worked there. A problem I encountered frequently is invalid or inconsistent geometry settings. The tool testdisk is really invaluable there.

[@francoisfritz198]

There s existing specific resin to fade the screen scratches like some epoxy type for windscreens. Thanks for your videos and more.

[@demenACE]

Windshield repair kit works on spots that are the size of a quarter. If you can cover it with a quarter, you can fix it.

[@besotoxicomusic]

ST 25th and Judgement Rites were two of the best. They were tough but felt good getting through.

[@joe.tiziano]

Awesome Video brings back a lot of cool happy memories oh it is my second viewing too!

[@myfarawaytales]

My first self bought PC was IBM with a dx2 66, upgraded to a dx100. Came pre-installed with OS2. That lasted about a day before I installed Wind=blows.

[@desnick2316]

It would be nice to have a device (as a part of the card adapter) that would mimic the sound of the spinning and seek of a hard drive as it was part of the charm of these old computers.

[@stonent]

Univesa / univbe used to work well to get cards working faster in DOS. It added VESA support which somehow made some games run a lot better.

[@ThePCPitChannel]

Very enjoyable video. My DEC 486 is still my Favourite PC :)

[@jeffreypomeroy6173]

Cerium oxide or aluminum oxide is used for polishing glass and to remove scratches from glass...

[@stevesether]

For the scratches on the glass, I'd try rubbing it with toothpaste. Toothpaste is a very mild abrasive, and it might be able to wear down your scratch to a smooth surface. You could also try filling in the scratches with some other clear substance (car wax, maybe some other auto detailing substances), but I'm not sure how well that'd work, since they're unlikely to have the same index of refraction as glass, and may not hide much.