Need help with old Compaq Presario 5304 "Restore" disk

[MechanizedDeath]

Got an old Presario 5304 that I'm dusting off and shipping up to my apartment. Decided to drop the Restore disk in and do a full restore. Not sure if I can just clean install Win98 or 2000 on it since old Compaqs tend to lock me out of everything. Anyway, I get through the install and reboot, but don't have the product key. Called Compaq and got one from them after 10 minutes of talking to one of the mumbling idiots they hired. The damn key is invalid (this is Win98 btw). I know I got it right from her b/c I double-checked it with her before I hung up.

Fine, strike one. I go on IRC and have a friend give me his Win98 product key, and that's invalid too. Anyone know just what I can do here? I can't imagine this computer is completely useless now. It's not like I can strip it for parts either. A cheap CD-ROM and 4GB HDD aren't gonna do me any good. I only want the box for minor word processing, music and coding tasks while I look to put something new together.

Anyone with some advice gimme a hand here. It's got 64MB of RAM, so I'm not exactly hyped to install my copy of Win2K Pro on there. It's also a Cyrix 366, which runs at like 250MHz IIRC. A real POS by any standards, and not up to any modern OS. I can probably find a copy of Win98 to put on there in a few weeks if that's possible. Can I toss this stupid restore disk and just do a clean install of Win98/2K/etc myself, or am I up the proverbial creek? Any help is welcome. PEACE.

 

[Zepper]

I wish I had a code to send you, but I don't. On some Cpqs they have the prod no. on a label on the outside of the case. Try every number you can find on a Cpq label. You can use any Win 98 OEM CD to put Win back on the hard drive - just boot from a floppy formatted by Win 98 w/ FDISK on it to wipe and repartition. If it has one of those "Non DOS" special partitions on it, you can DL a service pack to put that back on (or just leave it there if it's not damaged).Good luck.
.bh.

 

[copyfixer]

Borrow someone's 98 and just use that. Just format and reload. You have the software rights because you have the restore cd. You can't help it that tech support gave you the wrong #'s . I would guess in this case Bill's lawyers wouldn't bother. You can download the compaq side of the restore disk off of their site. This will allow you to get into and change bios etc. Good luck