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Compaq - what OS is best

I have a friend and with a Compaq Presario Presario 5834. He is buying a new machine and since this was not running right we are going to redo it. It has an Intel Celeron processor with 191 MG.

It's running Windows 98 second edition. Evidently Compaq set up with a C drive and a D drive. The D drive stores the backup info to restore when necessary. However that no longer works.

I am thinking about wiping out both partitions and installing a new operating system. My question, which one.

This machine is going to be used for getting on the Internet and for the office software.

What's the best OS I can put on the system? Win98, Win98 SE, WinME, Win2K, WinXP. I think Win2K, WinXP would be too much for it. What do you think?

well it all depends on the CPU and MeM u got

aney NT os would be better than crappy 9x

but as for XP iv ran it on a 350 K6-2 with no probs well took it time to come up but once i bump it to 256 is got faster couldent do 512 cause that MB onley has 1 dimm slot

also IIRC u half to be carefull with compaqs cause alot of them the bios is on the HDD and not on a chip, i dont know if they did that on there laptops but i know a few desk tops are like that

Can't wipe a Compaq drive. The second partition is the BIOS!

For just Word and Internet..98se is ok...but Win2k is better if you have it, and cna run on a *gag* Celeron.

You'd be better off to replace the case and get a motherboard that supports the equipment you already have, shouldn't be expensive at all for one that old. Then wipe the hard drive and put 98se fresh back on it or 2000. I'd avoid xp in those older systems, I've seen lots of problems with it. It really depends on the system, Warlock you got lucky I'd say.

Testiculese wrote:Can't wipe a Compaq drive. The second partition is the BIOS!

yup, Compaq's use the second partition as a "Chipless" BIOS

AceCombat wrote:

Testiculese wrote:Can't wipe a Compaq drive. The second partition is the BIOS!

yup, Compaq's use the second partition as a "Chipless" BIOS

Compaq uses the second partition for it's BIOS. (Keep regurgitating!)

I think XP has problems on the older systems because it doesn't have the drivers for the old stuff anymore. (Can anyone verify that? I won't run XP on my machines.)

Actually, that is the nice thing about installing XP on a older computer, the CD has decent drivers for almost everything. Not like when I install XP on my NF2 chipset, I need to tell it where the chipset drivers are.

most of the older stuff is run by generic drivers created by microsoft. i have used XP on alot of older machines and thats what i always see is ..... "MicroSoft Generic WinVoice Modem" <--EXAMPLE

That sounds like an even newer model then mine. I have a Compaq Presario 5000 and I'm running WinXP Pro on it right now.

It came with WinME though, So I'm surprised that one has win98se. I've had the default OS on this, then I reformatted (BIOS is on the mobo on this model) and installed Win98se on it, then installed Win2K and used a dualboot setup, then reformatted again and went to just Win2k and THEN upgraded to WinXP Pro. Then of course reformatted again and installed a clean version of WinXP Pro.

I'd imagine that the earlier models of Compaq desktops used the D drive as the BIOS, but I can't imagine a Presario 5834 being setup that way if a Presario 5000 wasn't. It is compaq afterall though, so *shrug*, I wish I could remember what was listed on the D drive before I repartitioned it so I could tell you what to look for.

Sounds like you have exactly what I had. Just a backup copy of the OS and all the default crap it came with so if there was any trouble with it you could just restore it to the state it was purchased in. They also give you a CD for doing that as well.

I'd do a lot of researching on the net to see if that exact model had the 2nd partition as the BIOS. If they didn't do it with that one then proceed at your own risk. Just keep in mind that you'll probably have to replace the motherboard if the BIOS was on the HD.

As for the OS, if you have atleast 256mb of RAM XP should do just fine on that I'd imagine.

Speaking as a Compaq certified technician, I can assure you with the utmost certainty that the BIOS is not on the hard drive! No Compaq ever had the BIOS on the hard drive! Feel free to completely wipe the hard drive and put whatever operating system on it that you want to. You will still be able to access the BIOS by pressing F10 when the computer starts up. Here is a page with drivers for the Presario 5834 - plan accordingly as to what is available for each O/S.

XP will choke on that RAM. Go with Win2k. It might take minutes to boot up on that system, but once you're up, things should be crisp and clean, and you shouldn't have to reboot for a while.

Flatlander, since you're a technician, is there a way to allow/acccess more advanced features in the Compaq BIOS? To be honest what is there is really gimped. I guess that is why you'd go build a PC yourself to avoid such a thing, but the things included in other BIOSes HAVE to be there in order for the computer to function properly correct?

Anyway to access these settings AT ALL? Things such as disabling BIOS Shadowing and more...?

Info:
Compaq Presario 5000
Model 5012US
Compaq BIOS
Version: 686C3

Also is there a newer version for this BIOS? Ever since the Compaq site got re-designed when HP got it it has been a pain in the arse to find what you're looking for. According to the website there isn't a new BIOS update.

Compaq often only has basic features in the BIOS setup program - guess they don't want inexperienced users screwing things up. I suppose you could try to find out what motherboard is in it and try a BIOS update from the motherboard manufacturer. There is no guarantee that this would work, though, and you might end up with a non-booting motherboard. I assume you've already checked here for BIOS updates? I'll check my resources at work later and see if I can find anything else.

Folks, IBM was the company that did the BIOS on the hard drive thing.

Anyways, since it won't be a "primary" machine anymore, I say slap Linux on it. Even with something that slow, linux would run just fine. I'd go for Mandrake first since its very newbie friendly.

I thought you might know what mobo would be in this particular model and yes, I've been to that site before, I have the latest bios update available.

SiSoftware reports the mainboard as manufactured by Compaq. Model:06C0h if that helps...

Looks like you're out of luck, I couln't find any more info. Sorry

figures. thx for trying though.

I would actually also suggest Linux. Linux is known to run really work on older systems like these, and it's definitely what I'd slap on an older machine if I happened to own one. But it depends on how tech-savvy your friend is. However, some variants of Linux have come a very long way in a short amount of time. Mepis Linux is a prime example and easily burns to a LiveCD. You just burn the image to a CD, and then plop the CD in when the computer is booting up. Mepis can run completely off the CD, so it will be slow, but it will give you a great taste of what it's like to use a Linux desktop. Since you aren't committed to installing it, just play with it and see if your friend likes it or not.