Old Compaq with hard drive and video card prob

[Andrew111]

My relatives 5686 compaq started acting up (forget the exact error message) while I was visiting them so I tried helping them out. It was one of those problems where a reformat of the hard drive would fix it right up..........but compaq didn't give them a startup disk or operating system disk with their computer. All they got was a restore cd and I couldn't even use that because they had important small business records and programs on that hard drive and they didn't want to risk losing any data. I don't know if that restore cd would erase their files while it patched up windows but they definitely didn't want to risk losing any of their data.

We decided to take the old hard drive out and take it to a computer shop to get the data from it. We bought a new 60GB hard drive and Windows XP OS and we had no problem getting Windows to install....at about 85% completion I went to get something to eat and when I come back, the message "Press any key to boot from cd" is on the screen. Nothing would happen and they told me to press all the buttons to make sure I reboot and the same message appears. We got on the phone with compaq and they are saying that the motherboard can't handle anything over a 20GB hard drive. I'm a bit sceptical about that because Windows detected around 57GB on the hard drive and Windows was almost done installing before the problem happened. Would Windows be able to detect over 20GB even if the motherboard can't support it?

The second problem is that my relatives might be buying a new computer soon but they can't find any with a video card that will support their 3 year old, $1,200+ monitor that has a DFI connection. Does anyone know of a good video card that supports DFI monitors?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Andrew111]

Anyone? I've never run into a motherboard that couldn't handle over 20GB and I want to make sure compaq tech support isn't giving them BS. I've searched for the 5686 series but I couldn't find any good info about it.

 

[rb56]

I don't know if it would work but you might try partitioning it into several?

rb56

 

[Andrew111]

I could try that but it sounds kinda fishy that the 60GB was doing just fine in that system and was installing Windows and everything until that message showed up. I don't really trust their tech support because they have given them the run around quite a bit. First they told them to get more memory but I knew that was BS because I was just inside the case and they had plenty of ram for Windows XP. After I tell them that, the tech support guy goes into silence for a bit and finally tells me that the motherboard can't support over a 20GB HD.

I worked as a telephone sales representative a few years ago to earn some extra money, and I know all too well that their are many lazy people working at these places that will just make stuff up if they don't know the answer to the question. I'm not saying that the compaq guy was doing this, but you can't rule it out. Like I said, I haven't had this problem before so I don't know if this is the type of behaviour that happens if you get a hard drive that is not supported by the motherboard.........but I have a gut feeling that Windows wouldn't be able to detect over 20GB either or get very far installing if that was the case.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

What brand of harddrive? The Compaq if running Win98.. is capable of making a Win98 startup floppy. The sysrestore CDs would flatline the current running version(and the attending 'stuffs' ) of Windows and put the system back to its ' as delivered from Compaq ' state. DFI? do you mean DVI(rectangular plug dealie ..possibly white..in color) ? Compaq has a proprietary BIOS on their mobos and that is where the funny size limitation is originating from. It would have been possible to have taken a retail/OEM CD of whatever flavor Windows and proceed to overlay without losing data and there are adapters to go from DVI to regular SVGA/DB15 but not sure about going the other way. The 60GB would still be able to be installed in the Compaq but you need to use the harddrive manufacturer's utlility floppy(s)/CD(s) even tho WinXP partially installed on the drive..you will need to fdisk and restart anew. Compaq..bleh try futzing with an AST Advantage 676 good luck..

 

[Andrew111]

The video card that is in the compaq says DFI (not DVI) right next to the monitor connection so I assume that's the type of connection it is although I may be wrong, which I probably am. The monitor cable doesn't have little pins to connect to the female, it's just a strip running across the middle with grooves on each side, or something close to that. I don't have access to their computer right now but I'm pretty sure that's what it looked like.

Thanks for the help ScrapSilicon, I'll pass that along to my relatives. Unfortunately I just got done visiting them...they live in New York and I live in Iowa It's going to be hard to help them troubleshoot problems since I don't have access to their computer anymore.