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Building another system. Need help DESPERATELY!!!

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  • #1

    Building another system. Need help DESPERATELY!!!

    I'm rebuilding my grandma's old computer (she just got my old one) for my dad for him to do some excel work with (I don't know why he doesn't want to use his p3 600 for it, but anyway....). It's a POS socket 3 (p1?) 133 I think with a POS mobo. I can't even figure out what it is or who makes it. It's got 6 isa slots and a couple of something elses (not sure what). The drives plug into an ISA card and I think I need to install that without an os, but I don't know how. It will boot up until right after it checks the BIOS and says "wait..." and then it freezes. What do I do? I've never built a POS this old before....

    Thanks for the help.

    Dimitri
    "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
    --- Albert Einstein


    "Drag racing is for people that don't know how to brake and downshift at the same time."
    Tags: None
  • #2
    The last time I installed an OS on a machine like that, I had to install CD-ROM drivers after installing DOS. Windows 98, of course, has CD-ROM drivers, but maybe nothing that old.

    I'm just guessing. It was a long time ago.

    I installed Windows 3.11 on the machine I mentioned. You might want to consider installing Windows 95 instead of Windows 98. And if you can find the driver disks for that machine, all the better.

    See if you can determine the make of the CD-ROM and do a search for the drivers. If you find them, install DOS, install the drivers, and then try installing Windows.

    Paul
    paulcs@flashcom.net

    Comment

    • #3
      Sounds like a 133 MHz 486 to me, with ISA and Vesa Local Bus slots. You probably need to set the BIOS to the cylinders/heads/sectors setting that is on the hard drive. Then you need DOS or win95 boot diskettes. I'm pretty certain that the machine can't be set to boot from the CD, and even if you could win98 would tell you to "f-*ff and don't dishonour me by trying to install me on this POS"
      [size=1]D3/\/7YCR4CK3R
      Ryzen: Asrock B450M Pro4, Ryzen 5 2600, 16GB G-Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600 RAM, 1TB Seagate SATA HD, 256GB myDigital PCIEx4 M.2 SSD, Samsung LI24T350FHNXZA 24" HDMI LED monitor, Klipsch Promedia 4.2 400, Win11
      Home: M1 Mac Mini 8GB 256GB
      Surgery: HP Stream 200-010 Mini Desktop,Intel Celeron 2957U Processor, 6 GB RAM, ADATA 128 GB SSD, Win 10 home ver 22H2
      Frontdesk: Beelink T4 8GB

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      • #4
        Dimitri,
        If your Dad wants it for Excel stuff, watch out for Y2K problems from the mobo bios. Excel uses the system clock to get dates and it might be a problem. But you have to ask yourself if its really worth fooling with. Afterall, that 100 meg hard drive in there won't even hold Win 95.

        RAB
        AMD K6III-450; Epox EP-MVP3G5; G400DH32; Maxtor 10gig UDMA66; 128meg PC100; Aureal SQ2500 sound; PCI Modem Blaster; Linksys 10/100 NIC; Mag 800V 19"; AL ACS54 4 speaker sound; Logitech wireless mouse; Logitech Wingman Extreme (great for lefties)

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        • #5
          I seem to be following you around this morning RAB

          D'Mitri:

          Check this thread http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001634.html

          It is possible to load W98 in UNDER 60MB with this little utility, and if you start from a clean install, you should have NO problems. It's donation ware available at www.98lite.net. I Have a 70MB W98 install that includes DX7 on my machine.

          RE: installing on the old machine, you'll need to begin your install from a W98 boot diskette to get the CDRom drivers loaded in memory, and you should be OK from there. Your old ISA HDD controller should be recognized and loaded from the boot disk.

          Good Luck!
          Greebe's juiced up Athlon @750 on an MSI Irongate Based M/B Marvel G200 TV with HW/DVD Daughtercard,
          CDBurner, Creative DVD, two big WD Hdds, Outboard 56K modem
          Parallel Port Scanner, Creative S/B AWE 64 (ISA), and a new Logitech WebCam (My first USB device)

          Comment

          • #6
            Thanks I'll try that. In my somewhat delusional state of mind (I'm tired, not drunk....), I don't see anywhere that I have mentioned I have a 100 meg drive. I actually have a 500 (or somewhere there abouts) and a slave drive of 1.5 gigs (or there abouts). Will this cause troubles do you think?

            Dimitri
            "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
            --- Albert Einstein


            "Drag racing is for people that don't know how to brake and downshift at the same time."

            Comment

            • #7
              Drop the 500MB and keep the 1,5 gb.
              1,5 GB hdd's is physicaly faster than 500MB's!


              ------------------
              INTEL PIII550 MSI 6163
              G400Mill 32MB SGRAM + RRG
              SBlive
              192 MB RAM CAS2
              43GB HDD Space!(Actual 40GB) (13+30 Quantum drives)
              Pioneer 104S DVD 10x CD 40x SLOT IN
              SONY CRX100E 4/2/24 CDRW
              If there's artificial intelligence, there's bound to be some artificial stupidity.

              Jeremy Clarkson "806 brake horsepower..and that on that limp wrist faerie liquid the Americans call petrol, if you run it on the more explosive jungle juice we have in Europe you'd be getting 850 brake horsepower..."

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              • #8
                At work I have a 486 with Windows98 installed in 16Mb RAM, and I tell you that although it works, with it's 1.5Gb hdd, but it's very sloooooooooooooooooooooow!! Win95B (OSR/2.1) is way better for such a machine.

                A socket 3 is a 486, although 133MHz? I think much more of a DX2-66MHz. Just pry it out of the socket and look at the underside, it will tell you how fast it is, if the POST screen doesn't tell you. Pentium enabled CPU's fit in socket 7's only, and then they're called Pentium Overdrives at a max of 83Mhz!! FSB is 33Mhz.

                You might want to swap drives, put Win95B onto the 1.5Gb hdd, use the 500Mb as slave. And install Office only on the masterdrive.

                It almost sounds as if the POS PC you're tackling is a Tulip or Compaq machine. Only ISA slots, huh? Not a longer one in there, like Paul said, that enables Vesa Local Bus to be installed? (This usually holds the card with the peripherals, like hdd controllers, LPT and COM ports.) Because a freezing of the PC could mean that this card is broken. Going to your PC-store wizard with this card will enable him to tell you if it's still available (highly likely) and whether or not he can test it for you (highly unlikely!).

                Just disconnect all drives from this card and boot up the machine. See what it does, and see if you can get into the BIOS.

                Pressing F2, alt+F10, delete or Escape repeatedly will in most cases get you into a BIOS. If there's so much as a BIOS. For Compaq machines use a BIOS from the harddrive.

                If you know the brand and make of the PC, why not look it up on internet (most PC Mfs. keep records of their latest BIOSes, even from this old machines, at their sites)

                Or email me

                Jorden.
                Jordâ„¢

                Comment

                • #9
                  Dimitri,
                  I was just kidding about the 100 meg hard drive. I, too, am guessing it is really a 486-something and the ones from VESA local bus days only had small drives. I guess its been upgraded since.

                  What type mobo does it have? If its an AT, a good mobo and CPU is only about $150 ($200 with 64megs PC100). That is if it has a separate video card you can salvage. If your Dad is serious about using it, he might be will to spring for that much. 2Gigs of hard drive space is enough to be useful. If the mobo is an NLX (plugs into a riser card) like the 486 HP I have, you are probably out of luck.

                  RAB
                  AMD K6III-450; Epox EP-MVP3G5; G400DH32; Maxtor 10gig UDMA66; 128meg PC100; Aureal SQ2500 sound; PCI Modem Blaster; Linksys 10/100 NIC; Mag 800V 19"; AL ACS54 4 speaker sound; Logitech wireless mouse; Logitech Wingman Extreme (great for lefties)

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    I have no idea what anything is. My cousin built it for my grandma, then I built my grandma my old K6 2 system. Now my dad says it's "necessary for" him to have this shit. It's got a bios (where you can use a mouse !?!) and if it was ever made by a manufacturer, we've long since lost the thing called a case.... Now it's just sort of sprawled across one of the benches in the garage.... The video card is a pos, the modem is a pos, the sound card is a pos, the bench is a pos.... I told him to screw it and use the old system. Although now I'm curious to put it together anyways.....

                    lol

                    Dimitri
                    "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
                    --- Albert Einstein


                    "Drag racing is for people that don't know how to brake and downshift at the same time."

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Technoid, you're wrong about all 500 meg HD's being slower than 1.5 giggers... I have a Maxtor MXT-540A IDE that'll whoop any 1.5 gig IDE HD's arse. That's because it runs at 6300 rpm!

                      I still have two MB's here like that Dimitri... and a vesa Gcard and I/O controller too
                      "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

                      "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

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                      • #12
                        Dimitri,
                        If your dad wants to run Excel of all things on a 486 DX4/133, he's going to be very disappointed.

                        Help for identifying the slots:
                        ISA: Usually black. Some short (8-bit), some longer (16-bit).

                        VESA: 16-bit ISA (black), with a separate section after it. This section is usually brown (some are white), pins in this slot are smaller than ISA.

                        P.S. Where do you live? I have a good VESA HD controller, and one of the better VESA video cards (Diamond Stealth 3200) hanging out in my closet.

                        -Wombat
                        Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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                        • #13
                          I live in Los Angeles California by the bright and sunny beach. WTF do I sound so happy for. I sound like I just got laid which I didn't for all you who are wondering. Damn, now I'm pissed!!! lol. Ok, sorry. I'm just super tired but I'm trying to figure out how to fix my schedule. Any idea how to post spreadshit like graphs so I can show you all how f'ed up it is? It's a classic as far as I'm concerned.

                          Dimitri
                          "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
                          --- Albert Einstein


                          "Drag racing is for people that don't know how to brake and downshift at the same time."

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Actually, isn't that CPU an AMD "586"... their answer to the original Pentium for 486 users? I don't think that the 486 made it up to 133 (but I could be wrong)....

                            I had a 586, the CPU was not so bad but the mobos for it were horrible... and yes, you/I certainly did need a HDD controller since the 486 mobos I knew of used those full-height drives of a type that I no longer remember the acronym for, but weren't compatible with IDE drives...

                            And I agree, that's definitely ISA and VESA... All things considered, it's hardly worth it to put that together, because you most likely don't have the horsepower to run much more than DOS and Win 3.1... though it would be a good thing if you have a lot of old DOS games you'd like to run. Or if you want to learn more than you care to know about obsolete hw, or the history of computing hw (from the ground up)..

                            ------------------
                            Holly

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              rotfl. Nice pic there Durango.

                              Thanks Rab, I'll check it out when I go home.

                              Dimitri
                              "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
                              --- Albert Einstein


                              "Drag racing is for people that don't know how to brake and downshift at the same time."

                              Comment

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