I miss my old Presario Pentium II. I dreamed of owning one for a long time drooling over them in Best Buy during the late 1990's. When I finally began making real money I immediately went out and got one with a few games. My favorite memories are playing Aliens Vs. Predator and Incoming!
As someone who worked on a few of these exact Compaq models back in my teenage years, I'm sorry to say it, but I got a good laugh out of you trying to open up the case. Also you might as well just grab yourself a good working 4:3 or 5:4 VGA LCD monitor for this machine, because unless it's a simple brightness setting on the monitor, it's gonna be a bugger to diagnose, and repair.
My aunt had one of these growing up, I don't believe these had a hard drive mount since hers had a quantum bigfoot drive mounted right to the 4 holes in the chassis above the cd-rom.
Big fan of this format of video! You have a gift for keeping the dialog/narration going in an interesting and often funny way. I think my uncle bought this computer one Christmas, and I mercilessly mocked him for getting such a crappy computer!
Thanks Don, I appreciate the kind words! This system was a lot of fun to play with. We had a similar aged eMachines PC growing up and it also had a bunch of silly stickers on it. It wasn't the best, but we certainly pushed that machine beyond what it was supposed to do!
Had one of these in the mid 2000s as a poor kid. Found it in a scrap heap at my local dump, my father took it home and fixed it up. Didn't have any internet at the time but I didn't care, I absolutely loved it. One of these days I'm 100% going to get one for sleeper purposes.
Absolutely 100% agree with you on the sticker thing. I have never removed any of the stickers on any of the machines I've owned, and I've even gone through some trouble to restore/recreate stickers on the few machines I have restored. I agree that they serve as a sort of "time capsule" that shows what was popular / what people were thinking about at the time in terms of desired features, capabilities, etc. Plus I also consider them as part of the machine's patina.
It's interesting that you chose this PC to fiddle with as this was almost my first computer I ever bought when I started college in 2001. I believed I ordered it online at the beginning of the semester. I was a graphic design major and when I told my professor that I bought a PC, he said if I'd gotten a Mac, he could have given me "free" copies of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for Mac as that is what we used in class. Luckily, my friend was in need of a new PC and paid for the Compaq Presario and I got myself a Graphite iMac G3 700 SE instead. I've been a Mac user ever since.
I may have had this exact model as our family computer in 1998, with the zip drive and all. I think ours was a slightly different number than 5030, but it looked exactly identical. Mine had a 350mhz cpu and some rage graphics card. This was our main computer, as a teenage from July 1998 until early 2000 when I got an upgrade.
My aunt had the Compaq, and the Packard Bell was leftover from a client of mine who upgraded. Both were given to a then friend of mine's family after a reinstall. Intriguing that you have both!
I would be one those 5 people that you mentioned that would like this PC. It's in great shape and I wouldn't mind adding it to my collection. My first memories of the internet were on one of these exact machines doing projects in middle school lol
I grew up with a Presario 5000 series machine back in the day. (Not this exact model, but very similar.) This video has been a rather amusing trip down memory lane for me, seeing all the pitfalls and gotchas of this machine that got you. I had very similar experiences when I tried working on mine. Compaqs of this vintage are notorious for being nonstandard, especially by PC standards. The board has a proprietary layout, and the power supply is a nonstandard size and pinout that only works with these machines. I actually couldn't get a replacement power supply for mine when one of the caps inside decided to short and pop, so I ended up parting it out. Oh, and just so you know, these machines came stock with Quantum Fireball 5.25" hard drives that were notoriously slow, noisy and unreliable. That Western Digital drive you picked out is actually an upgrade, lol. You need a couple of 5.25" to 3.5" brackets to properly mount the drive.
Side note, my family had the 5240 model, which had an LS120 for the floppy drive and also had the proprietary LCD screen connector. Its processor was in the AMD K6 family, because my dad had sworn off Intel after our 486 Packard Bell literally died in a puff of smoke.
wow , actually use those speakers for my setup, attached to an old mini stereo with aux input , love the sound on them . Pits thats not one of the amd compaqs , lots of memories of using those ( second hand not new) what a lovely machine , and for that price they are a steal . Some of the people in the retro machines groups would be mad for those , especially in that condition. Way nicer than macs.
The compaq presario was my familys first pc. As a young kid it was pretty cool. But i realize how Quick it got outdated in terms of gaming. I remember we had to install a pci port and get a new graphics card for me to play Fifa 2003 lol
Another time, one of my coworkers had someone who said her computer was eating all the her CDs. Someway, somehow she managed to shove 20+ discs into that small gap between her floppy drive and her CD drive! I'm sure Dave Murray (8-bit Guy) has similar stories from his AST days!
Judging by you wanting to keep the stickers on it, I'm sure you'd be looking for a copy or image of the 'Compaq QuickRestore' CD-ROM disc for it instead of installing Windows 98 SE from a retail or system integrator install CD.
Yep, this is what I was asking in the video. If anyone has the original discs, I’d love a disc image to see what type of bloatware was on here… and for the proper drivers etc.
@@Mac84 Oh. I didn't notice as I was skipping through most of the video since I was distracted and was supposed to be doing something else other than watching TH-cam. My bad.
Tomorrow’s technology! Be sure to set the clock back to 12/31/99 to prevent the Y2K bug from destroying the system! Awesome to see these older towers, Compaq made some interesting machines and this is classic late 90’s design! Since the CRT has been sitting unused, you should try leaving it on for a while to see if the tube will wake up a little. Hopefully it’s nothing serious since it is an awesome monitor with the stickers and the side speakers. Awesome video as always and stickers should always be kept, they are super cool!
Wow, in its current form that setup would be great for later DOS games. if there isn't a jumper/setting to disable the onboard graphics, I'd skip Windows Direct3D games. Unless you can find an early Voodoo card, you'll have a headache getting a dedicated PCI GPU to work right - LGR ran into the same issue with his Packard Bell with that weak Rage 3D chip. 90s Compaq doesn't represent the standard so it's always a headache trying to upgrade these machines, I assume this was their attempt at making a Micro ATX before that became the norm. A3D was Aureal's standard (they made the best sounding cards IMO), from the scans online I can't see an Aureal chip but it should be a chip with 'Vortex' on it, if not it might be a software solution. On the bright side, it does have an ESS Solo chip that is great for Sound Blaster compatibility, a lot of the time having better quality than the original Creative cards.
@@Mac84 Either should be fine, it's best paired up with a machine that can't be easily upgraded. If you leave the Compaq, it would still be a great setup for Tomb Raider, Descent, POD, i76, etc. Maybe we can have it face off a G3 as a sort of (pre-Apple) Tim Cook Vs Steve Jobs battle :) Keep up the great work!
I used to do tech support for Compaq. Especially the Presarios. I once had a guy who had no sound. The previous "tech" had him reformat and reinstall Windows. All he had to do was... Wait for it... Plug in his speakers! I don't know who was worse: the people calling in, or the people I worked with. The flowchart they had us follow made absolutely no sense. Most of the time I ended up going off script. Also one time Compaq had owners of 2 particular Presario models call long distance for tech support. Let's just say that wasn't very popular. The proprietary nature of these systems was the bane of our existence. I didn't like that either.
This is going to sound absurdly stupid, but as someone who understands but ultimately does not have a use for vintage Apple machines, I would have given you the Lisa for those Compaq's if I had one haha.
The harddrive was probably a Quantum BigFoot 5.1/4 HDD... so that's why the HDD screw holes dont line up... That machine would be 100% deserving of more RAM and a VooDoo / VooDoo 2
Yep! A lot of comments have brought this to light. I’ll try to get a hold of one (just for fun). And yes, upgrading this would be kinda fun, although I have a 400 MHz tower that may be more ideal.
@@Mac84 I'm your oposite, I'm a PC guy! The thing is that I enjoy all computer content, and got myself a few old G3/G4 Macs to mess with (my Intel Macs are runnning Windows, sorry not sorry)! What is the chipset of that motherboard in the Compaq? if its a 440LX, 440EX or 440ZX-66, it can only use 66MHz FSB CPU's, if its a 440BX, it can use 100MHz CPU's! the later machines are oviously better, but that generation has something the later ones dont have... its a cool computer... :) Best regards from Portugal!!
Compaq's consumer models in this era were just complete junk, as the bottom was falling out of the PC market and competition was causing a race for the bottom in terms of quality. That being said it was pretty funny watching you struggle with what is essentially a beige box commodity PC. Interesting thing about the torx/slotted screws. Compaq has used them since their earliest machines in the 1980's and, after being purchased by HP, HP has continued to use them. I rather like them, as it lets me know when I am working on a Compaq machine if someone has been in there.
Don't feel bad. Most of the models in this product line are that stupid. The Barbie/Hot wheels computer that LGR covered has an identical chassis, but in minitower form.
Ooof, you really managed to pick the worst possible case design to work with. I'm serious, I'd rather work on a Hotwheels/Barbie machine than this abomination.
Compaq Presario my first computer. so many good memories.
I miss my old Presario Pentium II. I dreamed of owning one for a long time drooling over them in Best Buy during the late 1990's. When I finally began making real money I immediately went out and got one with a few games. My favorite memories are playing Aliens Vs. Predator and Incoming!
As someone who worked on a few of these exact Compaq models back in my teenage years, I'm sorry to say it, but I got a good laugh out of you trying to open up the case. Also you might as well just grab yourself a good working 4:3 or 5:4 VGA LCD monitor for this machine, because unless it's a simple brightness setting on the monitor, it's gonna be a bugger to diagnose, and repair.
Oh yes, that case was stubborn! Stay tuned for part 2! 😉
The original hard drive on many of these Compaq's was a 5.25" Quantum Bigfoot, which is why your 3.5" model doesn't fit.
I still have a Quantum Bigfoot drive from an old 5140 Presario. It is a 8Gb drive.
My aunt had one of these growing up, I don't believe these had a hard drive mount since hers had a quantum bigfoot drive mounted right to the 4 holes in the chassis above the cd-rom.
yup they had 5.25" quantum bigfoots.
Can confirm, I took the Quantum Bigfoot out of a similar looking Compaq with a fried PSU years back
Big fan of this format of video! You have a gift for keeping the dialog/narration going in an interesting and often funny way. I think my uncle bought this computer one Christmas, and I mercilessly mocked him for getting such a crappy computer!
Thanks Don, I appreciate the kind words! This system was a lot of fun to play with. We had a similar aged eMachines PC growing up and it also had a bunch of silly stickers on it. It wasn't the best, but we certainly pushed that machine beyond what it was supposed to do!
Had one of these in the mid 2000s as a poor kid. Found it in a scrap heap at my local dump, my father took it home and fixed it up. Didn't have any internet at the time but I didn't care, I absolutely loved it. One of these days I'm 100% going to get one for sleeper purposes.
Absolutely 100% agree with you on the sticker thing. I have never removed any of the stickers on any of the machines I've owned, and I've even gone through some trouble to restore/recreate stickers on the few machines I have restored. I agree that they serve as a sort of "time capsule" that shows what was popular / what people were thinking about at the time in terms of desired features, capabilities, etc. Plus I also consider them as part of the machine's patina.
I cannot stand the stickers. I remove them all --usually before I even turn it on for the first time.
It's interesting that you chose this PC to fiddle with as this was almost my first computer I ever bought when I started college in 2001. I believed I ordered it online at the beginning of the semester. I was a graphic design major and when I told my professor that I bought a PC, he said if I'd gotten a Mac, he could have given me "free" copies of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for Mac as that is what we used in class. Luckily, my friend was in need of a new PC and paid for the Compaq Presario and I got myself a Graphite iMac G3 700 SE instead. I've been a Mac user ever since.
Yay! An EDITED video!
I may have had this exact model as our family computer in 1998, with the zip drive and all. I think ours was a slightly different number than 5030, but it looked exactly identical. Mine had a 350mhz cpu and some rage graphics card. This was our main computer, as a teenage from July 1998 until early 2000 when I got an upgrade.
So it's here Steve's want for a Lisa started! So many long story lines with this channel
They just miss one sticker: "Never obsolete" 😀
thats E=machines Schtick
those pcs brings back so many memories in elementary days
My aunt had the Compaq, and the Packard Bell was leftover from a client of mine who upgraded. Both were given to a then friend of mine's family after a reinstall. Intriguing that you have both!
I would be one those 5 people that you mentioned that would like this PC. It's in great shape and I wouldn't mind adding it to my collection. My first memories of the internet were on one of these exact machines doing projects in middle school lol
I grew up with a Presario 5000 series machine back in the day. (Not this exact model, but very similar.) This video has been a rather amusing trip down memory lane for me, seeing all the pitfalls and gotchas of this machine that got you. I had very similar experiences when I tried working on mine. Compaqs of this vintage are notorious for being nonstandard, especially by PC standards. The board has a proprietary layout, and the power supply is a nonstandard size and pinout that only works with these machines. I actually couldn't get a replacement power supply for mine when one of the caps inside decided to short and pop, so I ended up parting it out.
Oh, and just so you know, these machines came stock with Quantum Fireball 5.25" hard drives that were notoriously slow, noisy and unreliable. That Western Digital drive you picked out is actually an upgrade, lol. You need a couple of 5.25" to 3.5" brackets to properly mount the drive.
Side note, my family had the 5240 model, which had an LS120 for the floppy drive and also had the proprietary LCD screen connector. Its processor was in the AMD K6 family, because my dad had sworn off Intel after our 486 Packard Bell literally died in a puff of smoke.
wow , actually use those speakers for my setup, attached to an old mini stereo with aux input , love the sound on them . Pits thats not one of the amd compaqs , lots of memories of using those ( second hand not new) what a lovely machine , and for that price they are a steal . Some of the people in the retro machines groups would be mad for those , especially in that condition. Way nicer than macs.
I was always thought the flip down window for the peripheral ports on the front was a funny thing.
I like the stickers on desktop. Is there any chance to find them in original size on internet?
is this case good for a sleeper build i found one in my uncles room
I'm looking for a restore disc for a Compaq Presario 5050, if anyone have one please advise.
Dude. Those recesses on the side. Put your forefingers in there and push back with your thumbs. As soon as it tilted up it put pressure on the lid.
Tried that, unfortunately those clips were hanging on tight!
@@Mac84 THE COMPAQ GODS WERE MAD AT YOUR SHIRT.
@@Mac84 X - Doubt
Always excellent video and work. Thanks for sharing!
The compaq presario was my familys first pc. As a young kid it was pretty cool. But i realize how Quick it got outdated in terms of gaming. I remember we had to install a pci port and get a new graphics card for me to play Fifa 2003 lol
Another time, one of my coworkers had someone who said her computer was eating all the her CDs.
Someway, somehow she managed to shove 20+ discs into that small gap between her floppy drive and her CD drive!
I'm sure Dave Murray (8-bit Guy) has similar stories from his AST days!
I miss speakers that are meant to clip onto a monitor
Judging by you wanting to keep the stickers on it, I'm sure you'd be looking for a copy or image of the 'Compaq QuickRestore' CD-ROM disc for it instead of installing Windows 98 SE from a retail or system integrator install CD.
Yep, this is what I was asking in the video. If anyone has the original discs, I’d love a disc image to see what type of bloatware was on here… and for the proper drivers etc.
@@Mac84
Oh. I didn't notice as I was skipping through most of the video since I was distracted and was supposed to be doing something else other than watching TH-cam. My bad.
Hi Steve,
Happy New Year, strong health and new interestig projects!
Cincerely. Alexander, Moscow, Russia
Thank you, Happy New year!
Tomorrow’s technology! Be sure to set the clock back to 12/31/99 to prevent the Y2K bug from destroying the system! Awesome to see these older towers, Compaq made some interesting machines and this is classic late 90’s design! Since the CRT has been sitting unused, you should try leaving it on for a while to see if the tube will wake up a little. Hopefully it’s nothing serious since it is an awesome monitor with the stickers and the side speakers. Awesome video as always and stickers should always be kept, they are super cool!
i have a very similar hp monitor to that compaq (my monitor is a pavilion v50)
Wow, in its current form that setup would be great for later DOS games. if there isn't a jumper/setting to disable the onboard graphics, I'd skip Windows Direct3D games. Unless you can find an early Voodoo card, you'll have a headache getting a dedicated PCI GPU to work right - LGR ran into the same issue with his Packard Bell with that weak Rage 3D chip.
90s Compaq doesn't represent the standard so it's always a headache trying to upgrade these machines, I assume this was their attempt at making a Micro ATX before that became the norm. A3D was Aureal's standard (they made the best sounding cards IMO), from the scans online I can't see an Aureal chip but it should be a chip with 'Vortex' on it, if not it might be a software solution. On the bright side, it does have an ESS Solo chip that is great for Sound Blaster compatibility, a lot of the time having better quality than the original Creative cards.
Thanks for the info! I do have a Voodoo card, but maybe that's best coupled with another PC. Maybe the Packard Bell is better... :-) We'll see!
@@Mac84 Either should be fine, it's best paired up with a machine that can't be easily upgraded. If you leave the Compaq, it would still be a great setup for Tomb Raider, Descent, POD, i76, etc.
Maybe we can have it face off a G3 as a sort of (pre-Apple) Tim Cook Vs Steve Jobs battle :)
Keep up the great work!
I used to do tech support for Compaq. Especially the Presarios. I once had a guy who had no sound. The previous "tech" had him reformat and reinstall Windows.
All he had to do was... Wait for it... Plug in his speakers!
I don't know who was worse: the people calling in, or the people I worked with.
The flowchart they had us follow made absolutely no sense. Most of the time I ended up going off script.
Also one time Compaq had owners of 2 particular Presario models call long distance for tech support. Let's just say that wasn't very popular.
The proprietary nature of these systems was the bane of our existence. I didn't like that either.
nice compaq persario
5030 desktop pc they run great and quiet
Happy New Year, man! Funny to watch you struggling with a filthy PC
Are the shirt you wear available for sale?
Yep! mac84.creator-spring.com use discount code KRAZY for a few dollars off 🤓
@@Mac84 If you check out the clone section of Tinker Different, I posted my StarMax Prototype
Awesome! Will check it out.
Unsurprising Steve had a lot of contempt for one of the many companies that nearly bankrupted Apple in the mid-90s.
try a bigfoot tx 5.25 12.7gb hdd
"It's a PC so who the hell cares"
LGR has unsubscribed
USB ports only in the front? Oh Compaq....
This is going to sound absurdly stupid, but as someone who understands but ultimately does not have a use for vintage Apple machines, I would have given you the Lisa for those Compaq's if I had one haha.
Deal! 🤣
OMG I nearly died laughing watching this. So many memories with these systems.
The harddrive was probably a Quantum BigFoot 5.1/4 HDD... so that's why the HDD screw holes dont line up... That machine would be 100% deserving of more RAM and a VooDoo / VooDoo 2
Yep! A lot of comments have brought this to light. I’ll try to get a hold of one (just for fun). And yes, upgrading this would be kinda fun, although I have a 400 MHz tower that may be more ideal.
@@Mac84 I'm your oposite, I'm a PC guy! The thing is that I enjoy all computer content, and got myself a few old G3/G4 Macs to mess with (my Intel Macs are runnning Windows, sorry not sorry)! What is the chipset of that motherboard in the Compaq? if its a 440LX, 440EX or 440ZX-66, it can only use 66MHz FSB CPU's, if its a 440BX, it can use 100MHz CPU's! the later machines are oviously better, but that generation has something the later ones dont have... its a cool computer... :) Best regards from Portugal!!
Hahaha I wonder how I would deal doing all that with a contemporary Apple.
BTW back then I kind of hated non standard PC just like these.
Another stupid thing Compaq did with this product line was store the BIOS as a Hard disk partition instead of a CMOS eeprom.
Compaq's consumer models in this era were just complete junk, as the bottom was falling out of the PC market and competition was causing a race for the bottom in terms of quality. That being said it was pretty funny watching you struggle with what is essentially a beige box commodity PC.
Interesting thing about the torx/slotted screws. Compaq has used them since their earliest machines in the 1980's and, after being purchased by HP, HP has continued to use them. I rather like them, as it lets me know when I am working on a Compaq machine if someone has been in there.
give it a smaller psu
Don't feel bad. Most of the models in this product line are that stupid. The Barbie/Hot wheels computer that LGR covered has an identical chassis, but in minitower form.
Control Alt Delete
Hahaa 13:10 can you imagine Apple putting a sticker like that on the side of a Macintosh?
Windows 95 = Mac84
DeskPro &
Presario &
Contura &
Armada &
Evo & ...
a Mac guy complaining about torx screws? really?
Ooof, you really managed to pick the worst possible case design to work with.
I'm serious, I'd rather work on a Hotwheels/Barbie machine than this abomination.
Oh don’t worry, I have an equally terrible HP machine somewhere I may need to drag out 🤣
Yeah PCs are weird, they don't have a logic board but a motherboard 😛