Trashpicked "Treasure": Dell Dimension 3000

[@WOSArchives]

"Contains lots of rambling" Bill, I CAME HERE for the rambling. XD

[@uxwbill]

My commentary about the number of lines on the display is probably in error. I was confusing rows and columns. (It's very likely 132 column character mode video with 60 rows.)

[@qrailways1591]

Maybe one day a roadside computer discovery will blow up! I'll be sitting back with popcorn for the moment.

[@mr.smash698]

If that ever happened, I wouldn't even be surprised.

[@robochao1]

Dell Dimension 3000 getting the uxwbill treatment loved this computer and I still mess with it

[@TWCJaden]

They must've known XP was going out of service if they used that one computer last on April 7, 2014.

[@joemiller947]

No matter how many more computers I buy, I know that I will never be crazy enough to put a Mobo in a dishwasher. Love this channel

[@S0REN_]

>"I love my little sister!" >on an old PC dumped at the side of the road in the rain I never asked for these feels.

[@joohop]

the heart of my recording studio is a dell optiplex 755 which i paid £0 for i call her big momma she was thrown out of an aerospace engineering company here in birmingham england all i had to do was install windows 7 and trim her moustache what a lovely machine she is !

[@JunkTardis]

I love my Optiplex 755. When I was overseas in the US, I picked up one of these for $10 (£6). Packed it in my suitcase and flew back to the UK with it. I put my old Corsair 60GB SSD in it, and a 2TB Seagate drive and upgraded the CPU to a quad core, and put in 8GB DDR2 memory and it's the main family PC now. Works amazingly fast. It's our media PC since I have Plex installed on it to transcode HD media through to the HD TV over LAN. It chomps up the work and runs SILENTLY. It's a real workhorse. The HDD it came with had seen better days though, but it was an ex university PC and Missouri S&T. I run Windows 10 Pro x64 on ours

[@joohop]

nice one bro yeah big momma also runs silent i also am gonna install an ssd drive when funds arise , to be honest i dont think i'll ever need another machine for the studio ! i hope to do a video tour soon showing the setup . your big momma sounds like a beautiful beast ! ATB buddy

[@Gadgetman1989]

this video earned a subscription man, I like seeing kinda classic computers and getting computers for dirt cheap or free :)

[@hs_doubbing]

I still use XP on a semi-regular basis, but for some reason, nostalgia really hit me hard when you opened the control panel... You know, I've been surprised by the performance of the hardware scaler in some older TN-based monitors, specifically my Lenovo L215wA from late 2009 (native 1920x1080 by that time). You can throw it something as low as 320x240 and it'll handle it without a hitch, despite being stretched. Obviously, I don't actively use it on anything older than my beloved Phenom II, but I ran a Dimension 4100 with a RIVA TNT2 into it once. -The F isn't what's blue :P-

[@EgoShredder]

I use XP Pro on a few of my machines, most of which are older IBM Thinkpads but there would be little gained if I used my other more powerful desktops. For whatever reason these old Thinkpads run XP brilliantly, really quick and fast even on an old G41 laptop, which weirdly was designed by IBM but assembled by Acer! I do however have SSD drives in just about all my laptops and desktops ,plus they all have maximum CPU and RAM etc.

[@notsocc]

'Pc with a moustache' you made me LOL on London public transport Bill. Very embarrassing. Just got one of these and may put xp pos edition on to give it a bit more life. Love your videos!

[@eman59461]

me too

[@cleanycloth]

11:50 I've found the same thing for Dell's LCD panels. Absolutely outstanding picture and everything on them. My dad's 19" Dell monitor is still as bright as the day it left the factory back in 2007 (same for its speakers, tower, keyboard. The mouse...I don't know where that went but the last time I used it, it worked fine). It's got DVI and VGA input and it's a stunner of a monitor. What does make me chuckle though is that you can hear it change resolution, I can't remember what the unit is called that does it but you can hear a sort of whistling sound come from it (goes from a high pitch, sweeps to a medium pitch when the screen's blank, then goes back up when restoring the picture and then goes away until it loses signal or readjusts again). Eventually I'd like to pick up a new Ultrasharp monitor from them but they're expensive. Most likely for a good reason.

[@chriskalkman3815]

c0d3r3d // cleanycloth yes. I have one from 2006. I got it in 2012. Awesome monitor.

[@theimaginator16]

The Men In Black reference near the end did not go unnoticed! "Old and busted, new hotness."

[@uxwbill]

I've never seen more than the last few minutes of the film.

[@Jallge]

About the picture flashing up briefly before the welcome screen. I believe that is a bug, perhaps existent only in XP Home Edition. That picture is likely a previous wallpaper. I noticed the same thing on my Inspiron 1100 back in the day.

[@JoshuaFawcett]

Great video, I have just 1 question. Will you be getting a 1080p camera at some point? I really enjoy the videos but it's sometimes hard to see whats on screen.

[@AiOinc1]

This question has been answered many a time, and last I knew (no offense), but the computer used to edit these videos has trouble with even 720p. I can read everything on the screen fine at 360p, and 480p is really unnecessary. This monitor is 1280x1024 (5:3) if that contributes somehow.

[@colincampbell7120]

Making a sleeper would be sweet! I've got a few those old cases, too bad without metal working I can't fit a 120mm rad in the front where the hhd mount is. going to look around to see if I can easily remove that bracket out of the way to for a 120 rad in the front.

[@colincampbell7120]

Update: yes the hard drive mounting bracket is removable. However, there is one rivet holding it in place. Also It will take a small amount of metal work to cut the front away and a new mount fabricated.

[@presario4255]

The Dell E772c and E773c monitors (the model shown in the video) were produced by TPV Electronics of China, which happens to be the same company that produces AOC and Envision monitors. Edit: After doing a bit more research, it appears TPV had at least something to do with Inventa Computer of Taiwan. Information on this is scarce, but I believe it was a joint venture between the two companies which produced OEM systems.

[@pdacore]

Maybe I misunderstood, but if you want to find the date when Windows was installed, just open a command prompt and type systeminfo | find "Install Date". This usually will result in the following type response: Original Install Date: 11/23/2012, 12:16:48 AM

[@uxwbill]

There is more than one way to accomplish the same thing. I have my doubts that the install date would have been accurate, since this system shipped with a "recovery image" in a hidden partition as opposed to proper, standalone Windows installation media.

[@pdacore]

True enough. That command was just always my favorite. :)

[@keithbrown7685]

I like the command, just because it worked. ; ) I have aug.5, 2011, but that was a day this thing got some repairs done on it. Original install was.... god knows when. : )

[@andrewmarshall1142]

My daily driver is still a 2.93 GHz E7500 Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GT240 in the form of a Dell Vostro 220. It runs Windows 10 Home 64 bit perfectly well. I do a little bit of light gaming, and it handles it fine. I've never really seen the need to get anything better, however I might need to in the near future. A Core 2 Duo is still pretty good in today's age of technology.

[@andrewmarshall1142]

Not very good if you do 'actual' gaming :). When I say light gaming, I mean like really light. The most graphics intense game I play is Next Car Game (now Wreckfest). It actually gets great frames. It's super smooth on high settings, and the graphics look great. That's probably the most intense (graphically anyways) that it can handle without dropping frames.

[@bronzechicken4437]

I actually have a couple of the Datech fans, they all work, at least for now, I did get one recently in a B110 I made a makeshift file server that had come to pieces literally, the case was full of bushings, and a complete set of PC fan blades, I took it and put a fan in it, and replaced the board, both hard drives and it got put to work, because for $8, why not, I just put a Gigabit card in it, it works well, made a nice heater for cold weather too. Hands down the best hard drive I've ever seen was a WD400 Enhanced with 104K hours, when I got it, it had run non stop in a Dimension 4550 since 2002. I've found you can't hardly sell C2D systems on Craigslist or eBay anymore, I part most all of them on eBay, the parts turn a decent profit though

[@bronzechicken4437]

I've found getting more than $60 out of a C2D system is progressively getting harder, I part out on eBay for a reason, that reason is, I can put a board on there for generally within $10 of what it's worth on CL, and the time to handle it is less than a third. I don't make a cent on a front panel that's broken, and the HPs are worth something if they aren't. Dells bring around $10, last HP I bought for was $35

[@jturner718]

Two new uxwbill videos! My morning has been made.

[@AiOinc1]

Make it 3, I guess.

[@danielhedger5904]

You might own all of your town's old Dell computers.

[@counterstrikehexen2608]

I love the cricket sounds, it reminds me of summers here. I don't get to hear them in the winter. You should make an ASMR video with the crickets.

[@UserOfTheUnknown]

I just purchased a Dell Dimension 3000. I love old pcs.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

same

[@basherzman1471]

Nice vid, Bill! Love your channel!

[@JessycaLunawoona]

I got one of these from my aunt about 2 months ago with all the original accessories even the dell printer that was bought with it when it was new back in 2005. It presently has 768 mb of ram that will be upgraded to the full 2 gigs it can support and has a 80 gig Seagate drive. Only reason I decided to take it was because it was going to be recycled since she had no use for it anymore and I just couldn't bare to see it go since I have fond memories of playing on this computer when I was a child. I put a new install of xp on it using the system discs and am now using it as a little time capsule.

[@KaidoFujimi]

I gotta say, there were some dell branded CRT's that were a real win! I am fortunate enough to say that the ones i have come across, only one of them was completely dead to the world. Great video. Thanks Bill.

[@Fuzy2K]

Funny enough, the only Dell CRT monitor I ever owned had a weird problem where every once in a blue moon, it would make an awful snapping noise. (although to be fair, it only did it twice that I know of...) IIRC, it was a rebadged Samsung SyncMaster (heh, Samsung) from 1997.

[@ericcindycrowder7482]

Your basement cricket offers perfectly timed comedic relief!

[@uxwbill]

Garage cricket.

[@samdavidh]

surprisingly that computer's younger than me. from the sticker i thought it'd be at least 1 year older. my first pc was an optiplex with the next gen design and a p4 ht and it was from 2006... hugely more modern

[@PinguimFU]

that odd moment when you are also whatching this at 0:34 AM

[@beastlygota]

2:31 I recently picked up a Dimension 2300, it only has a CDRW drive, no DVD-ROM.

[@MarkTheMorose]

Were the dislikes to this video from insulted crickets?

[@uxwbill]

Either that or the ones I managed to step on. :-)

[@johnrickard8512]

On the note of CRTs running outside their "maximum" spec, I've actually found that some higher-end CRTs can actually be overclocked to produce resolutions higher than they say they can produce.

[@ponysoftonline4533]

thats true my 1600x1200 17" Trinitron can actually do 2048x1536 and my 15" Gateway EV500 1280x1024 and actually do 1920x1080 just fine

[@CobsTech]

I to watch you VWestLife and Maxxarcade, though I haven't seen much of Maxxarcade in a while! I could also listen to you talking about computers and stuff for hours because computing/technology all that stuff is a big interest of mine. Can't wait for the next hour long video :D

[@zennthesir1067]

hello bill, first I would like to say great find on the monitor, it actually did not surprise me that it turned right on, we have the same model. My family revolved around Dell, and through the vigorous movements between multiple trips to new houses with it and numorous droppings, it still continues to run to this day, mom uses it on a day to day basis and currently use a screenless dell inspiron 1521 on it. I would also game on it as a kid and needless to say I beat the crap out of it when getting killed in Halo. the computer on the other hand, sucks to hear that it has the oder of cigarettes, we had a dell dimension 2400 that the monitor originally came with that in 2010 became questionable whether it wanted to boot up, so we retired it and bought the laptop used without the lid. Quite a setup and it works, the monitor in constant use for 15 years, recycled the desktop but kept the hard drive because of the taxes that are on it.

[@liammusgrove6334]

Theory: The computer was last used in April 7th, 2014. Exactly one day before the Windows XP end of support. So this thing was so old it couldn't run a more recent operating system, so they put it away and got a newer machine. Then they junked it in 2016.

[@uxwbill]

One can conjecture anything, but it doesn't matter. It most certainly could have run a newer operating system, though it'd be somewhat questionable as to how well.

[@coreybabcock2025]

​@@uxwbill win 7 would run on it with a SSD type drive and ram upgrade

[@samdavidh]

@@uxwbilli imagine the older dimension was a kid's system with the monitor that came with it, they may have moved out and so the system was trashed. this may have been the main office pc. just a theory.

[@michaeljones6256]

Thank You, Great video and I will be looking forward to the ERPXE video, possibly on a vm?

[@darkwaterblue]

I recently got one of these very machines in a job lot. There is absolutely no need for me to keep it but out of respect for it I cleaned it up and rebuilt it with a new XP install. My boss has a saying with old things that after a time they earn the right to exist, so its saved much like yours. It runs well, I even found a PCI FX5200 for it.

[@jeepguy95]

You should advertise on Craigslist that you're an electronics recycler and pick up loads of discarded electronics to see if you can fix them or just recycle them for cash. That's what my aunt's boyfriend used to do for awhile for some extra income. I remember in elementary and middle school we had some of these and some of the newer black-and-silver mini desktops, those were the days... thanks for bringing back some memories! :)

[@jelle_smid]

any chance of an upgrade in video quality in the near future? 480p is not aging very well if you ask me.... lol. or is this a choice maybe actually driven by a slow upload-speed? either way, nice content that would benefit from a 720 or 1080p upgrade.

[@uxwbill]

Nope, and it's not a matter of connection speed. Never has been (or at least it's never been a major deciding factor). I don't care to invest the time and disk space when I don't even *watch* KZbin in HD.

[@lordbobrules]

judging from the crap computers he picks up, he doesn't have the capability of 720...

[@gatrwrksMarshall]

I once owned a Dell Dimension 3000 once upon a time.

[@MsJinkerson]

ux could you help me with the installing windows nt there are many other vids they don't show step by step including loading the disk in the machine alot of it is vurtual machine not just the setup itself just like installing xp I just ordered the package it has 3 floppys what are they for you are more knolagable than others I like your vids because you give the history of the machine and the surface mount tech

[@uxwbill]

There are several different versions of "Windows NT". Depending upon which one you have, the process will be slightly different. For an older computer, or a version of Windows NT before version 4, you would start the computer from the first diskette and insert the others when requested. With Windows NT 4.0 you have a choice -- a newer computer could boot the CD while older ones usually have to be started from the first floppy diskette to kick off the setup process. From there it is essentially "click and go". You'd choose to prepare your hard drive by partitioning and formatting it (the primary partition is limited to 4GB in size and you should use NTFS). Setup will restart your computer after preparing the disk and copying a few files. Follow the on-screen instructions. When you have installed Windows NT, get the latest service pack and install it immediately afterwards. For Windows NT 3.5 that would SP5 and for Windows NT 4.0 it is SP6a. Only install Windows NT on a computer that doesn't have important data or programs you care about. It will replace and *destroy* all files on a computer during the setup process.

[@MsJinkerson]

nt work station it has 3 floppies plus cd

[@jefferyb304]

They recently lifted the restrictions on electronics here in West Virginia. I think their main concern was CRT's. I trashpicked what I believe is a 24 inch Sanyo CRT TV that I put in my shed for watching the around 20 channels I get on the antenna around back of the shed. I also found a working Emerson VCR that works beside it. It was serviced by Radio Shack 20 years ago.

[@sciencetestsubject]

the corrosion of the case after the dishwasher treatment is the zinc plating dissolving because of the lye inside dishwasher detergent. also some CRT monitors can be used beyond the rated resolution, the monitor I bought 16 years ago had a rated resolution of 1600*1200@75Hz however I could get a picture at 2048*1536@60Hz, not too bad for a 17" tube.

[@WaybackTECH]

I share the same sentiments about Dell monitors, very bright, sharp and I myself have never seen one of these die either. Now I have seen the larger ( 21" ) late 90's era Dell monitors blow up. I have one at work that blew it's flyback, and when I say blew, it has a large crack in it now and makes a scarey popping and sizzling noise. It was probably getting ready to go anyway as the monitor grew a bit blurry and not terribly bright before it finally went out. It's funny you mention the B110 as I just "acquired" one at work. I have developed a bit of a soft spot for this era of Dell computers and a couple generations of the P4 chip. You should try a product called Mean Green which is sold at Mendards. It works wonders with cigarette stains, just eats it right up, drips off and removes any smell. Great stuff and it is only about $4 for a gallon.

[@rackelhahn8645]

Cranking up luminance on a crt increases the intensity of the electron beam hitting the phosphor layer. The charge and also the heat it produces cause wear on the phosphor causing decreased maximum luminance output on the screen. So more luminance, more energy, faster phosphorus aging. That's actually proportional. Many late CRTs came shipped with insane default luminance levels when a proper natural image can (and should) be delivered at 140cd/m absolute max. That was often combined with extremely blueish color temperatures of 9000K which is huge burden on the eyes, especially in dark rooms. I'd say that was responsible for a lot of tubes to reach a premature end of life. As well as many migraines and people having to get prescription glasses earlier than they should have. Could've saved some dollar on that energy bill too if you ran a business with a few desks. Because most people didn't even touch the adjustment controls ever.

[@EgoShredder]

Yes I did "stick it out to the end"...........I always do! :-)

[@AndyMitchellUK26]

I was given a Shuttle PC and Shuttle put a ludicrous amount of paste on the CPU. So much so that it was all over the motherboard. I struggled to clean it off so I soaked the whole thing in bleach. Worked a treat and smells great :) I've washed all manner of electronics and it's true, as long as it's dried thoroughly it should work fine.

[@Hurileno]

well why did have to be bleach?

[@AndyMitchellUK26]

I didn't have anything else to hand to remove the thick paste on the board so I figured bleach would do the trick. It did :D

[@XodiumLabs]

I just gotta say... *THREE* uxwbill videos?! Did Christmas come early this year?

[@limewirepro]

Xodium yes it did

[@georgez8859]

I like these old Dell`s. The 4600`s were the best. Pentium 4`s never die, they just get Hotter

[@uxwbill]

Pentium 4 processors might not die, but the capacitors eventually do!

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

uxwbill Lol

[@Browningate]

I've actually got a circa-2013 ThinkPad Tablet 2 with a 32-bit Intel Atom, so OG x86 isn't quite out to pasture just yet. As far as the monitor goes, it is my understanding that CRTs do wear faster when the contrast is jacked up, which it often is out-of-the box, especially on televisions. This is why most of them that have had any kind of use are so tired by this point. If the contrast and whatnot had been turned down from the get go, not only would the pq have been better in its infancy, it would have continued to be more usable later in its life as well.

[@dosman01302]

Wonderful videos Bill! I have missed you sir!

[@EgoShredder]

Out of respect to Bill I have changed my mouse pointer to a nice big one. Ahhh much better now! :-)

[@jestertech3790]

It seems that some modern, cheaper, Intel Atom based PC's are locked to run 32 bit operating systems only through the boot loader, but you can get around this by installing a third party boot loader such as Grub.

[@Samspianopage]

Funny thing is Bill. Alot of game developers that had the runs best on Pentium 4 sticker and maybe something like Alienware branding who I think is still owned by Dell and I actually have kind of admired their systems in the past for their uniqueness. Funny thing is, given the heat and power they consumed, I agree most P3's felt faster and just altogether happier running than any P4 ever did though of all the P4 systems I ever used at school or otherwise over here in Glasgow, HP's, Laptops, Dell's what have ye, I never ran into one that overheated or had any serious problems, of course I was only using em for web browsing tasks nothing majorly taxing. Saying that, everybody must've ran into issues even devs with the P4 architecture, though I'm sure the instruction set capabilities as you've said before were inherited in the Core 2 and later series of CPU's, SSE3 and that sort of thing. But I always have some respect for the P4 for how mad Intel got trying to ramp up the clockspeed and just had out of control things were getting, just seemed like such a carry on and fun at the time even though ye look back on it now and think wel that was kind of mental LOL.

[@jaydoesanything7652]

Im watching this on a dell dimension 3000!

[@voca-chan7953]

I kind of want to try a PXE boot. I've never tried a network boot because it annoys me. It looks really fun to mess with though.

[@ArlenMoulton2]

check the large capacitor that is below the ram slots, it has gone bad in all of my d3000's.

[@Just_A_Toaster852]

Yep same with my two

[@simonyovino2126]

what is the purpose of your very convenient electrical adaptor?

[@uxwbill]

Initially it was constructed and used when a building lost one of its three incoming phases of power. All computers in said building were hooked to centrally located UPS units (2200 VA, 120 V) and as a result, about 1/3rd of them weren't working. The idea was to locate and connect to another circuit that still had power, and most of the outlets in said building were the 15 amp type. Since the UPS units were nothing like fully loaded, and this was only temporary, I assembled that adapter and got them up and running until the electrical utility was able to fix the problem. These days it sees the most use as a simple extension cord. (I have another such "evil adapter" for L5/30A 120 volt stuff, with much the same purpose in mind.)

[@circletech7745]

I actually quite like dells old dimension series cases. They are about as good quality as a budget PC case and since they are everyware, you can get then for free. I have even done a fewPC builds around them before because I just like them that much. Their later optiplex series cases with the BTX boards however *shutters*

[@keithbrown7685]

Personally I don't care what kind of computer we're talking about, but I just felt sad for the tower and the monitor. First, they were used and abused, subjected to cigs, and then tossed. Not fair! :(

[@bronzechicken4437]

Adding another comment, I've actually been gonna do a sleeper for a while now, I even got a Core 2 Quad board to put in, but never got around to putting it all together, it was intent on being a nice secondary, but motivation and time are separate things

[@bronzechicken4437]

I picked up an HP from a friend for $5, had a bad memory stick and the classic HP panel junk coming apart, it was a Q6600 and 6GB, plus a 9600 or something like that.

[@Willibef]

Those crickets produce a nice ambient sound. You'd keep them.

[@uxwbill]

Not even slightly.

[@petenielsen6683]

Not even for bait?

[@connorm955]

My brother's fan is noisy, its a different brand, NMB. He runs the computer constantly. It has the 2.4 ghz Celeron, 2gb of ram and the capacitors are ok for the time being and has the same 40gb Seagate Barracuda.

[@Jallge]

Regarding the image that appears before the welcome screen; I've noticed that before, and I think it may have something to do with wallpapers which have been previously used for the account that Windows is set to logon automatically. Another way to view the system install date is through the command prompt. You can use the "systeminfo" command to display that, along with lots of other information including the time of the system's last boot.

[@hunterchartrand6646]

I have a E773 and its in mint condition and still works to this day, i have never had a problem with it

[@chriskalkman3815]

I have a 160 GB Seagate SATA drive from 2006 that has almost 70,000 hours and it has no bad sectors. It's an FDB based hard drive and it sounds like a drive with 70,000 hours. I am the original owner of that drive since it was new and it's currently in use in my 2002 Dell dimension 8200 using a SATA to IDE adapter. The computer, of which, I've owned ( or my parents owned ) since I was 6. The original hard drive was a 20 GB Western Digital and failed in 2012. Yes it has the same fan that this 3000 has, except it's brand new, as I got it from Amazon.com. I'm proud of that hard drive.

[@TCGProductions03]

That hard drive.... talk about a champion. That's just insane. Can you record an audio clip of it running?

[@themrenerd7384]

I have a Hitachi deskstar 250gb from 2007 that has 60,000 hours on it and still working 100%. No idea how its still working after 60,000+ hours, for being a DeskStar drive

[@TCGProductions03]

the mre nerd it has WD internals maybe

[@themrenerd7384]

TheComputerGeek010101001 No I don't really think so considering that that drive was made in 2007 and WD bought HGST in 2012. Just a plain old Hitachi drive that somehow has survived 60,000+ hours of runtime.

[@petenielsen6683]

I suggest catching some of the crickets. They make excellent fishing bait. In fact my mother's best friend used to run a cricket farm for precisely that purpose.

[@RetroPCUser]

I have two CRT monitors. One of which is an IBM 2115 15" CRT from August of 1995, it still runs, but turns pink while still displaying a picture due to oxidation inside the VGA port (and shakes at the lower left with another computer on as well as the monitor for the other computer itself), and another one is a Compaq 7500 from 2002 that has a burnt-in image on the tube display, which will cost an arm and a leg to repair.

[@mikeall7012]

thanks uxwbill. I always enjoy a good dell review!

[@jaywalt1311]

I scrap tens of these a year. One of my most popular recyclables... I do love the copper heatsinks =)

[@samdavidh]

Who else is on a uxwbill marathon for first time in years?

[@kopboy55]

Same here

[@PhaQ2]

Will the bios flash AO3 enable me to run an 800fsb Prescott? And could you do a video on the process of updating the bios in one of the many Dimension desktops you have?

[@uxwbill]

Always use the latest BIOS unless you have a very good reason not to. The Dimension 3000, B100 and 1100 are all the same thing, and any Socket 478, 800 MHz FSB processor will be supported. Dell's BIOS updaters are as easy to use as falling off a log. If you are running Microsoft Windows, just download the updater, run it and reboot when prompted. If you're not, you'll need to make a DOS boot disk and perform the flash from there. However, I have no plan at this time to document the process.

[@PhaQ2]

***** Thank you for a rapid reply. I've always had issues with updating through windows. Also since the CPU I have is seen and recognized, but the system doesn't allow me to load an O.S. with it. I'm left with the floppy boot disk option only. That will be a major problem for me because I have no floppy disks... Thanks again, and thanks for the intelligent content you provide us with.

[@uxwbill]

If the system refuses to let you load an operating system, it's probably not a BIOS problem. (Corrupted CMOS/NVRAM is a possibility. Try using the "CMOS clear" jumper or leaving the battery and AC power out for at least 24 hours.) If you can, check the BIOS setup utility to make sure that hardware you want to use hasn't been disabled or set to "not installed".

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

I have one of these beside me. I swapped the motherboard out for something kinda newer (AM2+), it's kind of a clever design. mine did have a floppy drive tho!

[@nilswegner2881]

paradoxdesigns real computers need to have floppy drives!!!

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

you betcha!

[@1205juergen]

Always helpful informations for vintage PC`s .... thanks

[@presario4255]

I'm pretty sure the e772p was made by Philips for Dell, but the monitor you had there doesn't look like Philips.

[@SuperFIFTHGEAR]

Can I ask why you're so fond of Dell machines? It's just that my experience with Dell's, or at least the newer ones that they seem to be completely apart from machines made around 2005, such as the Dimension in this video - which may be why you're fond of the older machines, in which case I don't blame you at all.

[@uxwbill]

There's no doubt the quality has fallen off drastically after the Optiplex 790. Even so, I've been well served by a lot of Dell products new and old. Dell has, with few exceptions, always done right by me.

[@apreese16]

26:42 Is convergence fixable? Ive got an old Zenith console tv that i use for older games and the picture in the corners is quite horrible

[@uxwbill]

Yes. You should verify that the set's dynamic convergence circuitry is working properly, as it is responsible for maintaining convergence at the edges of the picture tube. Get a service manual -- but before you do even that much, be sure you understand the risks of servicing a TV. The high voltages used around the picture tube are dangerous, but much more so is the fact that even late model TVs often have a hot chassis design.

[@apreese16]

uxwbill ok thanks for the info

[@coreybabcock2025]

Wish I could setup a pxe boot system so when I find a old system I can boot and reformat the HD

[@uxwbill]

There are lots of ways to do that without needing a PXE server. I'm also sure ERPXE's development stopped a long time ago. Please consider going back and editing your comments if you'd like to say more, rather than posting a bunch (which might attract the spam detector).

[@MixerVM]

You can also find out the original install date on Windows 2000 or later by opening a command prompt and typing "systeminfo". It will take a while to load the statistics, but it will tell you various information about the system, the OS install date, and a glimpse of how many updates were installed.

[@VeryMildNoodles]

I do some work selling old hardware from my school, and I'm allowed to take whatever I feel like. Imagine my surprise when I found a core i7 Lenovo E73 small form factor PC with 4g of ram. About half a year later, my friend decided he wanted it, later that day we were walking past the office of the charity shop I do some work for, he found an Optiplex i5 that they couldn't use because there was no side panel. He is not asking for my Lenovo anymore.

[@VeryMildNoodles]

Also, I found an excuse for your PC collecting activities. " the best amount of computers is: the amount you have plus one."

[@tomgarside480]

how many machines do you have? could you do a tour of your collection ? it would be cool if you made a cluster of old P4 dells

[@uxwbill]

A lot and no. Clustering seems like an interesting idea on the surface, but I'd be willing to bet that getting it working is a HUGE pain in the rear and I therefore cannot be bothered.

[@TheWhiteWolfDog]

This was the model of my first computer. I was about 9 years old and I got a Dim3000 for christmas. It wasn't anything special. I ran Flight Simulator 2004 on it and it was amazing. But I had a huge anger problem, until one day I beat it to death, literally. I then got a piece of junk MSI computer with an Athlon XP 2000+ that i fried because I overclocked it without any knowledge of overclocking. Ahh those were all good times

[@TheWhiteWolfDog]

BTW I'm 25 now

[@jimdayton8837]

Why do CRT monitors click when they come on?

[@televisionandcheese]

To scare me from turning them on after watching final destination. (Someone got impaled by a CRT monitor, and I was young) so I always would hide round the corner and turn them on with a stick. :)

[@MIW_Renegade]

television and cheese same

[@RadioRabbitHole]

Thanks for posting, I needed a good computer video tonight :)

[@ClaireClown7]

Looks like these dell monitors are made by top victory. Seems like they make some of the modern Philips and AOC stuff as well as some Vizio tvs

[@ViperJay5]

Consider yourself lucky, Bill. I rescued a computer from recycle and quite honestly, the smell was terrible. The previous owner smoked those little grape cigars so it was the combination of nicotine and sweet grapes. Eww. But it was an eMachine and nothing really of value in it so I'm probably just gonna put it back to where it was originally gonna go. I also have one of those B110 machines in my basement as well. I think those could go up to 2GBs of RAM if I'm not mistaken but I don't believe it has an AGP slot on it, that's one thing I hated about computers that had onboard video from that time, they'd cheap out on those slots. Aftermarket boards don't seem to do that though thank goodness.

[@Lachlant1984]

I like the sound of crickets chirping. Why don't you like crickets?

[@hs_doubbing]

As a video producer, they can be quite obnoxious. I live in Oklahoma and get plenty of it. ;)

[@jellogaming2051]

I used to have a Dimension B110. It was my learning PC (for IT)

[@Bluethunderboom]

When will Keykeeper will get his EBGPOJ out of the garage and transport to his place after the project was done at his garage? I'm just asking.

[@uxwbill]

You will have to ask him. I do not know.

[@randomrazr]

ah the good old days of intel pentium 4

[@MrKillswitch88]

Turn a few of them on in the middle of winter and you are set XD

[@gmcnewlook]

I think envision made these, I bought one that looked exactly like these dell monitors minus the badging

[@TCGProductions03]

What does "Loading PBR for descriptor 2...... done" mean? I get this on my Inspiron 1150.

[@uxwbill]

It means you have Dell's custom boot loader code resident in the master boot record (MBR) on your hard drive. There is nothing wrong with that.

[@TCGProductions03]

Is there an advantage to having Dell's custom boot loader installed on your system's HDD?

[@uxwbill]

It presence would suggest (but does not guarantee) that the hidden Dell software recovery partition is still intact.

[@connorm955]

Sounds like you have the original Windows installation! This happened on an Inspiron 9400 i bought.

[@LellePrinter82]

One good thing with these Dell cases is that they use standard micro atx. The cpu cooler standoffs is removable.

[@ExStaticBass]

Of all the nasty things I've dealt with including a dust bunny that was actually the size of an adult rabbit, tobacco tar is the worst. It makes everything sticky. It smells like the devils ass too. As for the dishwasher treatment, I've recommended that to people who are less savy about cleaning computers myself. As long as the water doesn't have any heavy mineral content whereas it would leave deposits, it works pretty well. It also has the strange propensity to rehydrate electrolytic capacitors to a small extent. Either way, I too enjoy finding machines in the wild. I go so far as to ask computer retailers and repair stores for their broken or malfunctioning throw-aways for the fun of trying to figure out what's wrong with them and seeing if I can fix it. I've gotten pretty good at making things work. Right now I have an MSI GT70, model #MS-1762, that I resurrected from what the owner thought was certain death. It's a pretty great laptop that will actually run most triple A game titles with reasonable framerates at pretty high settings. The only thing that was wrong with it was a bad SMD capacitor on the charging system. It was easy enough to solder another one in sine I found it's service manual online that someone was kind enough to upload. It works like a champ. The keyboard even has a pretty blue backlight.

[@JunkTardis]

I recently picked up one of these for free. Mine came with a 160GB Maxtor HDD and 512MB RAM. I bumped up the RAM to 2GB (Max) Updated the BIOS to AO3 and upgraded the HDD to a spare Seagate 400GB drive I had lying around. I also threw in a cheap PCI (Not PCI-E or AGP since mine lacks both) I slapped a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on it, and it works beautifully. I even have Aero transparency. I have the same Prescott P4 CPU in there though. I gave it away to my younger sibling who uses it for watching KZbin and they have no issues whatsoever. It should be noted that my model came with the LCD not the CRT though

[@CRAZYREY78]

i find it impossible trying to watch youtube on even a fast pentium 4

[@JunkTardis]

They key to doing it successfully with no stutter is to get a dedicated graphics card. Since the Dimension 3000 has no PCI-E or AGP slots you'd need to go with a PCI card. Harder to get, but dirt cheap

[@CRAZYREY78]

I was using a radeon 9800 with 256mb vram and it still couldnt handle 480p

[@MxArgent]

Ah, the Dimension 3000. I'll always feel equal parts of nostalgia and immense frustration for these things... Mostly since they were what the public schools i attended leaned on for the longest time.

[@glenecollins]

The full copper heatsink on those is great I am using one to silently cool my little Linux streaming box it used to get hot enough to smell after a few hours... now it stays about 10 degrees above ambient

[@RetroPCUser]

I decided to move my computers around a couple of days ago, and my gaming rig (Hexa-Core) froze up somehow, just like the Compaq Presario 6300US (had a Socket 370 board in it, but it now has a PCChips Athlon 64 754) did. It turned out both of my systems' PSUs had a hell of a lot of dust inside (saw a thick cloud of it). My basement was clean, but dust always gets into my PSUs, whereas a dirty room means dust-free PSUs (ironic, ain't it?) and I thought it was my heat sink compound getting gritty, but it wasn't that. Least it wasn't the memory modules either.

[@charliemyrick]

How did you manage to make the command prompt fullscreen like that? 24:02

[@charliemyrick]

Thanks!

[@uxwbill]

On Windows Vista or later, a true full screen command prompt is no longer supported. (You can enlarge the window, but doing so does *not* produce the same effect.) On systems where it is supported, ALT+ENTER will switch a console (text based) application such as the command prompt to full screen.

[@charliemyrick]

Thanks! I will have to try this out.