*Pics* I found an old PC! *EDIT* She's dead, Jim! (see orig post)

[Dogsbody]

Gee, this is better than television. Maybe you can make a series out of it! It brings back memories of my 386/486 days! I think I'd be tempted to try to make this into a Linux box.

Can't wait to see how this turns out! Lite it up and tell us what happens!

 

[MichaelD]

Good morning everyone,

After a 90+ hour workweek, I finally got to sleep...I haven't had more then 4 hours sleep per night in two weeks. Ahhhhh, I feel refreshed! 😀

Anyway, thanks VERY MUCH for all the information and advice. I will try to reassemble it properly (shouldn't be hard at all) and boot it up. There must be some reason why it was left behind other than it being a dog, you know?

Well, I happen to have a legit copies of Win98 SE and W2K Pro. I'll give 98 a shot. I really would not rather go back to Win 3.1, as entertaining as it would be, MSantiago! 😉 Remember that yellow file cabinet icon instead of "My Computer?" Man, what memories.

This would be an ideal opportunity to try to learn a little about Linux. We'll see what happens. We'll see if it even fires up!

Thanks again. 🙂

 

[Tanked]

I've worked a lot with older stuff, so I'll pitch in my knowledge.

The CPU you have a is 486 DX4-100 with a 33 MHz bus. The "DX4" was a marketing ploy - it only has a 3x multiplier. There is no 486 DX-100, all 100 MHz 486's had multipliers.

You could easily run Win95 or Win98 on there (haven't tried anything NT based). I've got a 486 DX2-80 system crunching away at SETI right now 🙂

On SETI, you'll probably run into about 250 hours per WU, if it's anything like my 486. All 486-type chips have unpipelined FPU's, which make them about half as fast as a Pentium at similar clock at floating point math. Integer preformance is similar to a Pentium.

I tried running Quake 3 on my 486 (64 MB ram, Voodoo Rush) - an average of 2 FPS. Not bad, eh? 🙂

You could load up that thing with memory, it's dirt cheap on eBay - look for "72 Pin FPM" memory.

EDIT: Forgot two things to mention.

The PCI slot is probably PCI Rev 2.0, which can have compatiiblity issues with newer cards. A safer bet would be an ISA NIC, although they'll be slower.

Conner was the previous name of the company we all know and love as Seagate.

That huge ISA card you have looks like an IDE controller / sound card / modem or NIC. / floppy controller. Good stuff!

 

[MWink]

The CPU you have a is 486 DX4-100 with a 33 MHz bus. The "DX4" was a marketing ploy - it only has a 3x multiplier. There is no 486 DX-100, all 100 MHz 486's had multipliers.

I just remembered that before reading your post.

Conner was the previous name of the company we all know and love as Seagate.

Umm... I don't think that is right. I'm pretty sure Seagate BOUGHT Conner.

 

[MichaelD]

If I tried a newer NIC in the PCI slot, could it get damaged in any way? Thanks guys.

 

[CTho9305]

hehe, i came here expecting something old, not a 486! 🙂

http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~cst/pics/ all the "alcohol" pics are of my 486... and I have some 486's and 386's opened up too 🙂

 

[MichaelD]

TTT. See orig post. She's dead, Jim.

 

[CrazySaint]

Could be that you plugged the IDE cables in upside down. In a PC that old, they aren't keyed, and if you plug them in upside down, you won't get a video signal...though I think it should at least beep...hmmm.

 

[ObiDon]

Remember that yellow file cabinet icon instead of "My Computer?"

I remember that on the Atari 1040ST. 😀

I have a Conner hard drive that still worked when I packed it into my parts box somewhere. 121MB of storage goodness!

 

[sleefer]

Best thing for you to do at this point would be eliminate possible problems. Strip it down to the and try to power it up. CPU, memory, video only connected. See what happens then. If it still doesn't post then it's one of these three or the motherboard that causing the problem.

 

[Tanked]

Quote

Umm... I don't think that is right. I'm pretty sure Seagate BOUGHT Conner.

You're probably right - I only said that because I tried going to the Conner site and it directed me to Seagate.

 

[RemyCanad]

I have an old AT powersupply out of a acer (pentium 90! fast man fast) and it has the switch actually connected to the PSU and the whole thins has a protectie sheld around it. No I can plug random things into it and power them up. 🙂