Yes, I have a cold. My dad uses it for word processing (Word), spreadsheets (Excel), e-mail and light web browsing (Firefox), and he also has "Band In a Box" for MIDI music composition and a program to link it to his TI graphing calculator. He also used to use it for scanning and printing photos with an HP inkjet printer/scanner, but that printer broke and the new one he got no longer supports Windows 98, so that's why the old LaserJet is there now.
AutoCad 2002? On this? The man's a God of patience. But seriously, I love that even after all this time he's still got this computer - let alone as his main system!
The fastest CPU I could put in this Compaq's motherboard is an AMD K6-III+ 500, which is about as fast as a Pentium III of equal clock speed. The motherboard can actually be set to run as fast as 733 MHz (133 MHz x 5.5), but I don't know if the K6 would tolerate that amount of overclocking!
Sadly we got aldi and they release all kinda of stuff. I think even tablets. Ofcourse screens etc. and the 1 in all pc....:/ like putting INTEL i7 8 core game pc !!!!with 8 gb of ddr 3 1866 mhz !!!. But a gtx 710 video or so.. Yep they still scam:P rather have the old q6600 quad with a gtx 285. , even a 250 a 260 or gtx 550 ti, 640 ... then a crappy useless 710:/ with an intel 8 core.
@NASIMNASIM This "obsolete crap" has gotten over 8500 views here, so I think that's more than enough proof that people are interested in it. And if you want to pay me $500 to buy an iPad, then I'd gladly do a video about it!
Funny, in 2009, a 10 year old computer was very outdated and difficult to use on the internet. In 2023, a 10 year old computer is perfectly usable and can run the newest version of windows well. I think technology has slowed way down.
@Jallge Security was simply not a big concern for non-networked home computers back in the '90s. Apple's Mac OS didn't have much security back then either. It was only when computers started being connected to the Internet full-time and spyware and malware became prevalent that home users started taking things like virus protection, passwords, and encryption seriously.
Gotta love the sounds those machines make when they start. The floppy and the hard drive grinding sounds bring back memories of my Gateway Performance from 1999.
You have to use a BIOS designed for your motherboard, or an equivalent -- sometimes the same board was made under several different manufacturer names and model numbers, but that takes some detective work to figure out. I just meant "generic" in that there is no manufacturer's logo on it anymore. I looked and Gigabyte still has the BIOS image for this model of board on their web site! The last update is from 11/27/2000.
@TheHplatop I think you mean "delete some of the desktop icons so the computer won't run so slowly"? Yes, but this is my father's computer and those are his personal documents, so I don't want to mess with that. As long as it still works, that's OK for him.
@Jallge You only have to type in the password in Windows 95/98/ME if you want to use workgroup networking. So the password is not for security; it's just to authenticate your computer on the network.
This was my family's very first computer. We bought the Compaq Presario MV500 monitor and IJ900 Inkjet printer with it too. In total it was $1,000. My dad kept wanting to get a computer and one day we decided to just get one. The monitor gave out at about 2004 or so after lots of use. I've still got parts to the computer laying around and last time I checked the 4GB hard drive still worked fine.
I think I posted in this one a long time ago. Anyway, I had an identical 5304 back in the day. I snapped the connector off the hard drive, and ended up getting a new computer. Well, I never did throw the drive away, hoping to fix it one day. Well, I desoldered the connector off another broken drive, and soldered it onto the 5304 drive just for kicks. And it worked! It was really fun to look at all my old stuff from more than ten years ago, stuff I thought was gone forever. ^_^
The power supply cooling fan on my Dad's old Pentium 75 made a sound very similar to the sound that PC is making, I think the bearings in the fan were failing in Dad's PC. It's amazing that this PC has been in use for so long, your father mustn't do demanding tasks on his computer if he still uses it after 10 years.
@LuigiFan128 My dad got a new laptop, but he still uses this old Compaq for word processing because of the better keyboard and larger screen. So for as long as it still works, I'll just leave it alone.
@Kargaroc286 If you look up the actual manufacturer and model of the motherboard, you can use their BIOS update for it. However this only works on computers which Compaq used a generic aftermarket motherboard in, instead of one of their own custom-designed boards.
I had a similar model, a 5204... but the PSU died, and it was going to cost $120 for a rare manufacturer's part to replace. The hard drive also died after three years, but that was easy to replace, so it lasted me for about 6 years. Didn't use a standard ATX PSU. I ended up being able to buy a new motherboard, PSU, and case for the CPU, hard drive, and RAM that I had in the thing for about the same price as a replacement unit would have cost. It was a shame, because the motherboard that came with it was really nice and had a half-decent video card built-in.
My God! I also had a Cyrix-366 based PC in 1999., though not a compaq.That thing could barely run Shockwave games (remember those?). I can't believe yours is still chugging along...and able to (barely) run Firefox, no less. Wow! Viva pre-911, pre-Y2K low-end computing!
Years ago I found a flash BIOS update for the Gigabyte GA-5SMM motherboard which it uses and installed it. It was the generic Award BIOS image so that removed the Compaq boot logo, but otherwise it works just the same, and unlocked more advanced settings in the setup, as you see.
I used to have that same tower till I upgraded to a small form factor XP machine. The compaq ended up being formatted, and running in straight DOS mode for some DOS gaming.
@PompousPreacher FDISK does work. There are web sites where you can download a Windows 98 boot disk with FDISK and FORMAT on it. Make sure you answer "yes" when FDISK asks if you want to enable large drive (FAT32) support.
Yep, as you said, this is an issue I had with a vga cable to my cinema projector recently. It came out yellow due to a short in the blue connection. (I think I got my punctuations right in this comment?) ;o)
LOL, funny seeing that Mac Switcher ad hiccuping on that old computer. In my opinion, Macs are for three types of people: simpletons who never upgrade their computers and just buy a new one when it's obsolete, rich folks who can afford the $2,000 required to get the Mac Pro (all the others are all-in-ones with very limited upgradeablity), and professionals who use Macs in their jobs. I don't fall into any of those, so I'm a PC, and I'm loving it!
I had that same computer, and printer. My dad bought the computer for me when I was in high school. Still have that 4.3 gig hard drive. Had the integrated SiS 530 video card, no new drivers. Should upgrade to 98 SE, really good performance improvements and better USB support, fixed allot of issues.
pretty cool. I had a computer from 1998 for a short time about 5 years ago. It had a bad video card and a lot of missing essential software for it to work right.
My Seanix starts up almost exactly the same as this. I remember the old Compaq that my dad brought home from my aunt's, and it had Windows 98. I clearly remember that a floppy with a virus killed it around five years ago.
@Ratezable Since it is still working so well after 10 years on the original installation, I prefer just to leave it alone. It's not my computer anyway, so I'm not sure exactly which programs my dad does or does not use.
I have a Compaq Presario 7360 built in 1999 as well. Built like a freaking tank, original parts still working. I did a hard drive upgrade to 60GB and increased ram to 512MB. Running XUbuntu 10.10 (linux) and it still works well. Slow yes, but hey it works!
It's so amazing that this computer has lasted so long from when it was new until now, even when new that computer wouldn't have been anywhere near top of the line, state of the art for high end games and other similar applications at the time, so it's no wonder they call it an Internet PC.
That thing is so old!!! listen to the noises it makes! for some odd reason, it makes me really miss the '90s. Remember Orbitz drinks? Those fruity tasting drinks with the little gelatin balls floating in it? Ah the '90s were awesome lol
My friend uses to have a computer like that!! It worked great for years till one day the BSOD (blue screen of death) appears... I think he still got it somewhere...
Just got one of these complete systems last week. Box, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and all literature, disks, patch disk, recovery disk, etc. Still need to hook it up but the seller claimed it worked fine. (They installed XP, I'll put it back to 98)
This was my first computer I ever used, so nostalgic! Not sure about this specific model number, but there are others that use this exact casing (correct me if I'm wrong).
Very wicked!!!! May I ask a silly question? Are u some kind of computer whiz? It seems like it, very interesting stuff! Thanks 4 uploading all these cool vids!
Hello vwestlife, you are one of the kings among kings and queens on youtube! Is it actually possible to put in a 'real' bios in a compaq? I wonder because I have a compaq deskpro from back in fall of 1999! Hugs from sweden, Falkis...
If it has a motherboard made by a company like MSI, Gigabyte, etc. and you can find a generic BIOS image for it instead of the Compaq-specific BIOS, yes, you can flash it with the "real" BIOS.
Oh my Lord. I have an identical 5304 that I purchased in 1999 as well. Unfortunately, I snapped the IDE plug off the original hard drive. It still works, though. It's got a place of honor in my junk room. :D
@oxnardcollegegirl22 It would run XP very, very slowly. My father has since gotten a new Dell laptop, but he still uses this Compaq for word processing since the IBM keyboard is much nicer to type on.
just bought a 5420 model with the same case and its very small compared to 7954 model problems: original 64mb sdram and hdd dead. k6-2 400 upgrade to 550mhz 192mb to 256mb but i will had more maxtor 6.4gb with win me sis 530 igp (6328) shared 8mb ess solo 1 hp cdwriter dvd rom very tiny psu 95watts
I just threw away the Compaq Presario I bought in 2004 and it looks quite a bit different than that one. It had a 2.93 gigahertz Pentium 4 with 512 mb of memory and 80 gb of file storage. It was in service for 11 years and it was used a lot. Right now I'm using a 2007 Dell that I found next to the trash. It has the same XP Professional operating system with a 3.30 gigahertz Pentium 4 HT processor. 2 gigs of memory but only 37.5 gigs of storage. It was loaded with malware and viruses but Panda Cloud Cleaner did a great job disinfecting it.
ldchappell1 Your machine was from after HP bought out Compaq and turned it into their low-end consumer brand. This Deskpro EN is the last of the "real" Compaqs.
vwestlife Seems to me HP improved Compaq. I had a Compaq computer for a couple of months in 1996 or 97 and it was a piece of crap, but that's probably because the guy I got it from didn't take care of it very well. The one I bought in 2004 was much sturdier and more reliable. All steel casing instead of that 90s era beige plastic. It lasted 7 years longer than the iMac I bought in 2000.
Do U have wifi and USB support on it because I have a Windows 2000 SP4 with WPA2 WiFi support and USB 2.0 support. My Windows 2000 SP4 also has faster WiFi than my old Windows XP SP3 Compaq. If U haven't than I recommend getting w WiFi and USB 2.0 card on there.
@vwestlife To add some support to what you said, I use a Compaq Presario 5000 series which was new at the end of 2000 (back when 'Mistake Edition' came out) as a general purpose Ubuntu server with 2 SCSI hard disks, SCSI controller (not in raid), fan cooler bay, floppy drive, and a SCSI DDS-3 tape drive Eventually I want to add a SCSI floppy and CD drive to fully convert the computer from using it's IDE drives. It serves me well- wish the PS/2 keyboard still worked though :(.
I'm a bit interested in doing this myself and haven't figure it out yet. I have a Dell that you can't even view the POST results and the BIOS settings are extremely limited.
If you want to have some fun you can try running KernelEx, which is an application interface overlay that allows running newer versions of software (e.g. Firefox) on Windows 98 computers. Never tried it on "First Edition", though. I'd be afraid to install (or uninstall) anything on that computer, however.
