using non compaq keyboard/mouse on compaq pc

[Red Squirrel]

Is there a way to make it work? A jumper or hack or something?

Compaqs like to lock you in and force you to use only a compaq keyboard/mouse. People love to drop off PCs at my house for me to format and nothing agrevates me more then compaqs. Can't use my KVM, + it takes hours trying to find the drivers online on all sorts of sites, sometimes have to try over 40 drivers before one actually works.

Compaqs are nothing but air circulation units that double as a mini table to hold a coffee and keep it warm.

 

[Blain]

Don't Compaq's use regular PS/2 keyboards and mice?

 

[0roo0roo]

yea probably, compaq was douchy, but i doubt they went that far.

 

[PottedMeat]

I think IBM was the only company to do that little bit more or less engineering to make their crap work with only their products.

 

[jdkick]

How old of a Compaq are we talking about? I can't say i've had this problem with the brand... PS/2 or USB keyboards/mice have always worked for me.

 

[DSF]

Not to mention that if you're just formatting the drive you don't even really need the whole machine, unless they're also having you reinstall the OS at the same time.

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812101117

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well my keyboard is USB, and I'm not buying something from all the way in the states considering I was voluntold to do this. I spoke with the user today and just got them to try and find the Compaq keyboard/mouse. Basically, I said furrnt. Don't have to touch it for now.

This thing is rather old, it's an AMD 2600+ with 512MB of ram (probably SDRAM). Worse of all it has XP. Such machine should have win2k not XP. Takes over 30 minutes to boot up. About 10 minutes to get to the desktop, then from there HDD light just stays solid and HDD is roaring. Probably spyware and crap mind you.

 

[RebateMonger]

If your only keyboard is USB, you will encounter PCs that can't handle it. Especially for BIOS access. And not just Compaqs. It's safest and easiest to use a PS2 keyboard for any PC that allows it.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
This thing is rather old, it's an AMD 2600+ with 512MB of ram (probably SDRAM). Worse of all it has XP. Such machine should have win2k not XP. Takes over 30 minutes to boot up. About 10 minutes to get to the desktop, then from there HDD light just stays solid and HDD is roaring. Probably spyware and crap mind you.

There's no way that configuration should take that long to boot up and into the desktop.
Sounds like it's time for a fresh format and reload.

I've got a P3 1.4GHz / 512MB machine that boots up into the Windows XP desktop in about 45 seconds.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Woah how did you manage to get a P3 to 1.4Ghz? Had no idea those things overclocked so well. liquid cooling I'm guessing?

I recently performed an upgrade at a travel agency they were using XP on P3s. Fairly clean PCs (well I would not gall Galileo clean, but it's not really a heavy app). They took about 10-15 minutes to boot up. You hit start menu, go to Tim Hortons drive thru, pickup coffee for the whole office, come back, wait a bit longer, then finally start menu comes up. Brutal.

Come to think of it when XP came out it was the same story as Vista today. Too bloated for the hardware at the time. XP is great on today's hardware but when it first came out manufacturers squeezed it on PCs not really capable, just like they're doing with Vista now.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Woah how did you manage to get a P3 to 1.4Ghz? Had no idea those things overclocked so well. liquid cooling I'm guessing?

The P3 isn't OC'd, it's a 1.4GHz Tualatin

Did you have the XP set to "Adjust for best performance"?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Hmm intersting. Figured P3s were pretty much maxed out at 900Mhz then they went to P4.

As for best performance setting, for the one I'm working on, no mouse/keyboard so cant do anything. For travel agency never checked. (that would have taken about 45 minutes lol)

I honestly don't even know how they worked with those machines. When I gave them their new ones they were so happy lol. They never realized how bad it was.

 

[Blain]

Start > Settings
> Control Panel
> System
> Advance tab
> Performance Settings button
> Adjust for best performance
- I also scroll down and check "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop"
> Apply
> Ok

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: Blain
Start > Settings
> Control Panel
> System
> Advance tab
> Performance Settings button
> Adjust for best performance
- I also scroll down and check "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop"
> Apply
> Ok

Oh I KNOW how to do it, just try that when it takes 20-30 minutes for a single menu to come up.

 

[DSF]

Timmy Ho's, I take it you're in Canada?

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Blain

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
This thing is rather old, it's an AMD 2600+ with 512MB of ram (probably SDRAM). Worse of all it has XP. Such machine should have win2k not XP. Takes over 30 minutes to boot up. About 10 minutes to get to the desktop, then from there HDD light just stays solid and HDD is roaring. Probably spyware and crap mind you.

There's no way that configuration should take that long to boot up and into the desktop.
Sounds like it's time for a fresh format and reload.

Yep there's no reason why that machine couldn't run XP just fine. It just needs a fresh install. Tell the customer to stop searching pr0n so much.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
Well my keyboard is USB, and I'm not buying something from all the way in the states considering I was voluntold to do this. I spoke with the user today and just got them to try and find the Compaq keyboard/mouse. Basically, I said furrnt. Don't have to touch it for now.

This thing is rather old, it's an AMD 2600+ with 512MB of ram (probably SDRAM). Worse of all it has XP. Such machine should have win2k not XP. Takes over 30 minutes to boot up. About 10 minutes to get to the desktop, then from there HDD light just stays solid and HDD is roaring. Probably spyware and crap mind you.

it'll run xp fine.
perhaps the harddrive is slow..and bogged down with cr@p.


and well, trouble shooting dude should have a ps2 kb just lying around in the closet somewhere

 

[Denithor]

Actually, from my years of working on old systems...yes, Compaq was lousy for doing that kind of thing. The old ones were stupid picky about actually requiring a branded Compaq keyboard/mouse just to function and were also very choosy about what memory they would use (upgrades were hell, could try 4-5 sticks before finding one that would work).

How much memory does that poor thing have? Perhaps that's your problem, either the amount or you've got a bad stick the system is having to bypass.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Also it has NO PS2 port, so a PS2 keyboard is no good here.

IT has 512MB of ram only. I would not really run XP on anything under 1Gig tbh. I will be putting win2k on it for extra breathing space.

 

[VirtualLarry]

No PS/2 port? On a machine of that Vintage? I would say check again, but I don't want to insult you. That seems strange to me. Maybe it does require a Compaq OEM USB keyboard, perhaps the BIOS is coded specifically to look for that vendor ID on the USB port. Possible, I guess, but I've never seen that before.

Btw, I worked on a Compaq machine, AMD SocketA Sempron 3000+, 512KB L2 cache, 256MB of RAM, Sloooooooow 5400 HD. Took forever to boot up. Even after a factory restore from the restore partition. Surprising, really, because the CPU isn't all that slow, it's a Barton core essentially. It was one of the last SocketA chips. I threw in another 256MB stick of DDR, and resold it for $90.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea what kind of port. there were even older ports than ps2 for kb. they were like a giant ps2

didn't mean it was proprietary


give us pics.
want to see this "port".

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
yea what kind of port. there were even older ports than ps2 for kb. they were like a giant ps2

didn't mean it was proprietary


give us pics.
want to see this "port".

I have a couple of those keyboards in my collection. The plug looks like it's for a vacuum tube :^D

 

[Red Squirrel]

Actually the one they dropped off DOES have PS2, just realized so I'll have to try that.

I have this older compaq sitting here, no PS2 though. In fact, it has 2 USB, 3 sound, 1 firewire, and 1 vga. That's it. Not even a serial or paralel port. It's one of those blue door stoppers. There's an expansion slot (just one that can be accessed) so you can either put a modem or a nic.

 

[Blain]

Their bill needs to reflect how expensive it is to keep older harware running, vs buying fresh equipment.
Treat them like the big box stores would... the older the systems, the more $$$ it costs to fix. :laugh: