Doesn't power up with fan disconnected? I guess I never noticed on the 1 ive got....need to grab the others from the business and test them all and put them up for parts after building 1 from all the systems

They're nice machines. I use this machine's predecessor, the Prolinea 4/50, for my DOS slacking needs. It came as a DX2/50+8Mb+250Mb disk, but I upgraded it to a DX4/100+100Mb+40Gb disk. I put an XT-IDE BIOS (configured for 386 mode) on a network card (to get large disk support), but there was no way to stop the builtin BIOS from autoprobing the hard drive and complaining on every boot, so I had to disable it and install a generic 16 bit ISA IDE card. Also a Soundblaster Pro 2.0. It makes for a really sweet FreeDOS machine, and also runs Slackware 12 passably (although it takes forever to boot). However!! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!!! If your Deskpro is like my Prolinea (and I am pretty sure they are), the BIOS configuration utility is actually stored on a tiny partition at the beginning of the *hard drive*, not in ROM. So when you disconnect that hard drive, you will no longer be able to get into the BIOS config. It's just a regular FAT16 partition as far as I can tell, but the partition type is set to something weird, and the ROM swaps around the partition type and bootable flag when you enter the bios setup. My solution was to mount it readonly in Linux by forcing the partition type to fat16 and copy everything off of it onto the new 40Gb drive. It's entirely possible to just boot DOS and run the bios setup program iirc. I dunno what to think about that fan issue. I'd probe around the connector with a continuity tester and figure out which pins are v+ and ground. Then I'd probably remove the fan from the shroud so I could plug it into the header without the cover on, and then probe the remaining pins with an oscilloscope while the power is on. Hopefully it's just pulling something to ground or something to tell the machine that the fan is plugged in, rather than something complicated, so you could cut the connector off the old fan and hot wire it to make the system think it's plugged in even when it's not, and then just use some kind of modern quiet always-on case fan in its place? Re: CMOS battery. I like to desolder the old one, solder in pin headers, and then stick a 3x AA holder on the *outside* of the case on the back somewhere and run wires in somewhere. Then if I get mauled by a bear or something and it sits in storage for 15 or 20 years and dragged out again in 2050 to be sold on ebay as a genuine antique for $1,000,000 (I am assuming we'll have our coming hyperinflation well implemented and be a fully dystopian failed state by then), the batteries will have leaked on the outside, rather than inside on the mainboard. D:

just measure the pins while it's working. easy. also a cheapo oscilloscope helps.

My local school district has a few of these that they got for free from a Federal Government office when they changed over to Win9X machines. They had these running Windows 3.1. But mainly my district used Epson computes. I always found this amusing considering that went nowhere for the district and they ended up with Gateway computers running XP as the next upgrade. These Compaq systems were for the teachers only! No students! Ah. Good times

@belly tripper Not sure if serious.

my CRT arrived, but united package smashers decided to ruin the plastic a bit, but the screen does work.

My wife's Fujitsu was an early "ultrabook", but it had some kind of detachable "dock" included with it that was in itself also portable. I haven't seen another laptop like that, although maybe more exist. Most docks I've seen are intended to be used on a desk, and they'd be awkward to carry around attached to the laptop. But this one is itself really slim and you can use the computer either way. It is a Japanese laptop, so it has some other oddities too. She stopped using the system because the hinges completely wore out. The screen just flops around. That's also why I haven't made a video about it yet; I'd like to fix that as part of the video but haven't had time to really look into how.

I'd love to see that video when you find the time to make it. My dad had a laptop like that years ago. Though it wasn't the thin model. I do remember that it had the best keyboard, with at least some key rollover, as my brother and I finally found a pc that we could play split screen need for speed games together

I can tell you that it turned out great. Not a 100% color match to the original (and I'll talk about the original colors of these machines) but it still looks almost like it just came out of the factory at this point. I can't wait to start really putting part 2 together; I have most of the footage for it shot. Should be quicker to get done since it'll all just be my own video this time. Just gotta get the CD-ROM drive to cooperate...

Same here, like my Voodoo Banshee, and Riva TNT2 cards, but I am in the process of rebuilding a Dell Pentium 4 I got from the local recycle drop off(case was trash) for free in 2019 before pandemic, and while looking for parts on eBay for the build I was able to find an early ULTRA 500 watt modular PSU from that era sealed in it's original box at a great price, but it's shiny silver, so do to pandemic I've yet find the last pieces of the puzzle of a case that fits such a cool PSU, and a CPU cooler as the stock Dell one is so boring as well. lastly if I can get it to work I'll be dual booting Win98 SE, and XP SP3 with 4GB RAM(yes i know about 3.5GB 32bit limit, but 4 was easier to find, and board does post), on dual SATA SSD's, with an IDE DVD-RW drive, a Visiontek ATI Radeon X1600XT XGE 256MB AGP GPU, and a Creative Sound Blaster Live! PCI (CT4830) sound card, as that's the sound card I had back in the day.

​@@CommodoreFan64 Sounds like it's going to be a good classic gaming rig. Voodoo Banshee was my first 3D Accelerator card. My old PC today is a Core 2 Duo Q6600 with 4GB of DDR2, Nvidia 7800GT and SB Audigy. It has a dual boot setup of WinXP and Windows 7-32bit.

@@eg1885 Thanks and Very nice setup you have. lastly speaking of DD2 at work(i work for a small non profit for seniors so we have to make thing work at times on tight budgets) I still use an AMD Athlon II X4 635 @2.9 Ghz all core with 8GB of DDR2 800Mhz ram, an XFX AMD R7 240 2GB GPU(best that would post), on an MSI AM2+ Micro ATX board with a 120GB boot SSD, 500GB HDD, IDE DVD-RW, 450 watt Rosewill PSU, with a Sony SDM-HS95P 19" LCD Monitor @ 1280X1024 75hz with a 5:4 aspect ratio(the PC use to be my old gaming build) running Manjaro Mate Linux, and it still flies through all my office work, watching YT/Hulu/Odysee/etc.. at 720p 60hz, and even some light STEAM games when I have downtime due to Pandemic having us partly shutdown, but the gov. calling us essential workers.

Made your own ram?

The sound of old hard drives was terribly annoying more than glorious. Even in the 2000s.

Thanks - yeah I love that watch. I have another watch that's automatic/mechanical but I wear them both about equally. I didn't like the original strap that Navihawk came with, but I really like it with the NATO strap I currently have.

​@@ModernClassic Yeah, I noticed the strap and it compliments it really well! I think way better than the original. I really loved the color of the orange one like yours, and the other blue one, but I was worried that they would draw too much attention so I got the silver one instead. It makes me really uncomfortable when people comment on my stuff... which I'm now realizing I'm doing to you... Oops... 😅 Sorry...

Yeah I'm surprised myself about that... that wasn't even all of them. They're just strewn around my house, not in any organized way. I keep telling myself I'm going to sell off at least a few, but I have a hard time bringing myself to do it. I don't use most of them very often. A few I've made videos of and then just stashed away, but thinking about not having them anymore still makes me sad.

If possible ask around at any local recyclers, I've had good luck and have acquired a few 486 systems this way, for no more than a case of beer or bottle of crown royal.

Tbh, while I definitely like my 486 PC, I prefer my Pentium 233 MMX machine. It can do much of what my 486 can do and a lot more. I'd say that if you're just getting into old computers, a Pentium 1 like that is one of the best options. They're great for a lot of DOS and 90s Windows games.

My painting skills are not the best either but I'm actually really happy with how this turned out - I think you will be too when you see it in part 2. (It would have been hard to make it worse.) It's basically impossible to color match these old systems, especially because they've all shifted in color over the years regardless. But I got pretty close. I'll talk about all that in part 2.

I also used to collect several myself. The SillyDog archive used to be the best resource after Netscape's official ftp site.

I remember that now that you mention it, but I don't think I could get it to happen regularly. I do remember it being one of the things that made me laugh when playing this game, though.

Oh it's probably not slower. Pentiums have a much better floating point unit than 486's, so it's almost certainly at least a bit faster overall, and probably much faster at certain tasks. It is absolutely worth restoring these. The more I play around with this machine, the happier I am with it. It's a little finicky like any machine of that era, but everything about it just feels like quality and so far, everything I've tried to do with it (including in the upcoming part 2) has worked perfectly even if I've had to use a little trial and error first. Nothing has just proven to be incompatible or broken, which is not the experience I remember from my original 486 machine.

@@ModernClassic If it doesn't have a good expensive at the moment mainboard it could be slower than the 486. First Pentiums mainboards were famously slow+cheap. Then Intel entered the mainboard chipset market full-on.

That's kind of been my goal... not every generation (286, 386, 486, etc.) but every major point where there's a noticeable difference/upgrade and/or where backward compatibility starts to break, along with something era-defining. At this point I have an original IBM PC, this Compaq 486, my silver tower that's an Athlon XP 1700+, and of course my modern PC that I keep updated. I do have other machines but those are the ones I'm meaning to be my go-to's for different IBM-compatible eras at this point.

Yeah, from what I can tell most or maybe all of the XL's shared everything except the processor board, so your machine should be pretty much the same as mine except the P90 processor board and the case badge (and whatever options it was originally bought with in terms of graphics card, RAM, etc.). How does your fan sound? Like mine? Just curious if it's worth spending 10 bucks on another one on Ebay.

@@ModernClassic I can't remember how loud the fan is; it's been a number of years since I've used it. I'll dig it out and hook it up to compare. Last time I had it powered on, the CMOS battery was dead on mine also, and it was reporting a "disk controller error". That's problematic on these as the BIOS settings have to be loaded by disk, whether it's the 3 1/4 drive or the hard disk. As far as looks, my machine is identical to yours, including the daughter board with CPU.

If you ever actually want them, you can download the setup disks from here (this is where I got them): drivers.eu/PC/Compaq/Deskpro%20XL%20590 I've had that same error a couple of times while trying to get my IDE devices up and running. Not sure why it's doing it in your case if you haven't changed anything, but in my case it wasn't actually a controller failure but just that I had jumpered things incorrectly. In terms of the battery, you'll see my solution in part 2 but it is actually pretty easy to replace that. Again, if you ever feel like it's worth doing; I know from experience now that it's still a bit of a weekend project.

@@ModernClassic Thanks for that link! I still have the setup disks I downloaded back when I got the computer, but those disks being 21 years old at this point it's good to know I can still get the drivers. I hope to have an answer on the fan for you by the end of the week.

@@ModernClassic I finally got the Deskpro out and plugged in. It sounds exactly like yours. I think this is just the nature of the factory fan. Unfortunately I can't even get it to POST now so something else is wrong with it. I took a video of it with my phone and it is listed here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/sNCAkryL2K22gIk.html

And if your Packard Bell is anything like the Multimedia model I have here, then you had the horrendous HT216-32 graphics chip that in early releases wouldn't actually do the 16bit color like it said on the package. I have the early release. Also you get this really ugly pixel crawl /displacement when it isn't fully kitted with the 1MB of RAM. Later Multimedia models had the Cirrus Logic CL-GD5424/28/29 models that could have up to 2MB of RAM. They were much better, and surprisingly, the CL-GD54XX weren't absolute junk. They did 2d in DOS fairly well. Very interested to see what you do next with this machine. I had a couple of these in the past, but I had no nostalgia for them because I had a Packard Bell, and then built all of my own, so I moved them on to other people that wanted them.

Thanks - I will have a surprise in a little while about the Pentium 100 :) (If you were watching closely, especially to the bootup sound sequence, you may know what it is already.)

Mine is coming out of storage today after seeing your video. I’ll hook it up and I’ll have a listen to that bootup sequence 🙂

Mine is toast. The PSU has issues. The on/off switch leads are shorted. The PC boots, but no image.

The main problem is just that monitor, which I *thought* was the only VGA monitor I had, but it turns out I have a Lenovo 22" monitor with VGA that works better. I'm using that right now, but I'll probably eventually just get a 4:3 LCD. Widescreen monitors aren't my favorite for displaying 4:3 content even when they work right.

I remember having some big problems with the IDE interface when I upgraded my hard drive. (Luckily the CD ROM was already included in my system, so that wasn't a problem for me, but the hard drive was.) I eventually got it to work but it was a big pain. Their BIOSes were no good, in addition to just using cheap hardware.

Well, I wondered that too, and I might try it if nobody out there has experience with these fans, but was just hoping to avoid doing things by trial and error, especially things that are inherently destructive. If it didn't work I know I could just resolder the wires back together, but I'd just rather not cut wires without already having an idea of what I'm doing. I do think it probably checks that the fan is actually turning; it definitely has a speed control so I have a feeling it's not just checking for the presence of something on that header but that it's actually running too.

@@ModernClassic Well... you could stop the fan blades and see if it stops the computer too? Something makes me doubt that a desktop 486 from before most of the readers here were born would be smart enough for that. Step by step. Damn, now you have me professionally intrigued.

One story is too sad, but I will tell you that at least one owner was a company that ended up being indicted by the SEC and put out of business.

@@ModernClassic Ouch. No story is too sad for me.

That's pretty much what it already does... if you install Win95 after DOS 6.22, you can hit F8 and get a "Previous version of DOS" boot option. The way this was done on the original SCSI drive is weird - I feel like it's an OEM image because there is no DOS folder, and I honestly can't figure out where the DOS 6.22 stuff is (there were also no autoexec.bat or config.sys files with "path" folders defined to help me out), but it does technically work and reports itself as 6.22. As I've been trying to add a CF card, I've installed 6.22 and then Win95 myself, and that puts everything in the right places and lets me boot to either OS. I know it's trivial to make it boot straight to a menu but I just haven't bothered yet; I'm still trying to get everything working.

@@ModernClassic It sounds like your original SCSI drive just had DOS SYS'd to the drive initially or was formatted with the /s switch from a DOS 6.22 boot disk before 95 was added. You’re likely missing external 6.22 files such as MODE, MORE, QBASIC, etc. when you boot into 6.22. You can detect the presence of the very few original DOS files with a dir /a from the C: root. Do this both from an F4 key boot (previous DOS version) and from a normal boot (95) to study which and how the hidden boot files are renamed. For some examples of similar scenarios, there are virtual machines you can run in a browser at pcjs.org which also have minimal boot files, notably the Windows 3.0 and 3.1 setups they have on the main page, both lacking a proper DOS directory. Their 95 machine, OTOH, has MS-DOS 5 as its previous OS (with a full installation of each OS) so you can also see the larger number of files it renames, depending on the boot selection.