The dinosaur in this case is a Compaq Presario 2286. It was not my first computer by any means, but it was the first computer that I bought and paid for with my own money. There was a stretch from 1998 to 2004 where it was the ONLY computer that I owned. Yes I was pretty much poor during those years and could not afford to buy a new computer so it had to do the trick for those 6 years. During that time, I believe that I did pretty much everything I could possibly do to upgrade it to make it remain a usable machine. But many times those flat little desktops are hardly upgradeable mainly since there is very little room inside to add parts. But I made this computer work for me and work for me it did.
The computer initially came with Windows 98 installed. The week that Windows ME was released, I went to Best Buy and purchased the upgrade CD. I installed it and loved that operating system even though it was the OS that everyone hated, that is...before Vista. The only thing that I did not like was that most of my computer hardware would not work with this new OS at all. So for instance, my printer, scanner, soundcard, modem, and joysticks would not work with this new OS at all and I waited nearly 6 months for updated drivers for everything to appear. But nevertheless I still liked using the OS despite the problems I had with it initially.
However, before I upgraded the OS, I started with upgrading smaller parts first. The first two upgrades came in the form of a proper soundcard with a line-in port and a Voice/Data/Fax modem. For these upgrades I chose the Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI512 (a low cost version of the SoundBlaster Live! series of soundcards) and the Creative Labs Modem Blaster 56k v.92 Voice/Data/Fax modem. With this I was able to play games and hear the sounds with much better sound as well as that I could now connect a joystick to the soundcard. So that was the next purchase, a flight stick for playing Microsoft Flight Simulator. Next came a 27 GB hard drive to add to the space that was running out on the 4 GB hard drive the computer came with. Around this same time, I also replaced the stock CD ROM with a HP CD Burner. Aside from upgrading the RAM, this was about the extent of what I could do for this little beast of a computer that worked so well for me over the years.
But alas, it was too slow and around 2004 I replaced it with a Compaq Presario S4100N which was running Windows XP. Finding that I liked XP a great deal, and having done some experimenting with the 2286 with trying to install Linux on it, I ended up being unable to reinstall the factory image. However, finding that Ubuntu was too much OS for this little PC to handle, I tried to go back to Windows, and decided on Windows XP Professional. However, it was just a version of the disc I happened to come upon over the Internet somewhere. It installed with no problems though I was unable to ever update it but that was not too big of a deal. Though my first experiments with Linux failed, I was going to once again attempt to run a Linux OS on this old machine in hopes that I could get better performance out of it. It was around 2006 that I began PROJECT XUBUNTU. However, before the project built up any steam, the computer became unusable in that the onboard video no longer worked. PROJECT XUBUNTU was put on hold indefinitely and the 2286 has sat in shambles ever since. Maybe one day I will be able to find a use for this piece of equipment. Until then, I have moved onto bigger and better projects.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
PROJECT SEED BOX (PSU)
Today's project involves a Dell Dimension 4700 that was considered a total loss and given to the King as a gift for trying to work his magic on it. That is, work his magic without investing any money into said project. However, it just could not be done. There appears to be an issue with either the Power Supply, the RAM, or possibly the Motherboard. My intuition tells me that the problem is with the Power Supply and so that is where we will start investing into this project. In searching for a proper, but hopefully cheap Power supply I came across many very cheap power supplies from makers such as GenMax, A-Power, Logisys, and Blue Star, just to name a few. I do not know from experience whether any of these are truly bad power supplies or not.
So due to my lack of experience with these sub $20 PSU's, I decided it may be best to read some reviews of some of these things because in restrospect, I recall someone saying that there are many bad power supply manufacturer's out there. So in my research I found that many people found these to be crappy and not last long at all. In fact, it soon made me worried, that if I were to put one of these cheapy PSUs into one of my computers it might end up killing the computer or possibly burning down the house.
So after some more reading I came to the conclusion that the best option for me is to get a Corsair PSU. The exact model that I am considering getting runs at about $45. It is the Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply. That sure is a mouthful isn't it? It is probably a little more PSU than I need, but it is relatively cheap and should be sufficient for powering this computer which I really only plan on using as a SEED BOX or possibly a computer for anyone else to use aside from myself.
As part of my initial project which was to fix this computer for a friend, I ended up dismantling the computer down to basically a motherboard sitting inside a case. So I am considering reassembling everything so I can dismantle it again and take pictures in the process to help show those of you who are afraid to take on a task like this. Once you know how to take everything apart, it is very easy. But when you don't know, it can take a bit of fiddling with to figure out how to remove some parts. When we return to this project I will show you how to easily take each part out with ease. You see our next step is to replace the PSU and in order to do that, the heatsink over the processor had to be removed first. So why not just take pretty much everything out and get it all clean and start over as if this machine is brand new once again!
Now mind you, if this PSU that I am considering purchasing does not fix the problems, we may need to replace the motherboard, but I am going with my gut instinct first which tells me that the source of the problems is the power supply. Next time, I will elaborate on the problems that this particular machine was having.
So due to my lack of experience with these sub $20 PSU's, I decided it may be best to read some reviews of some of these things because in restrospect, I recall someone saying that there are many bad power supply manufacturer's out there. So in my research I found that many people found these to be crappy and not last long at all. In fact, it soon made me worried, that if I were to put one of these cheapy PSUs into one of my computers it might end up killing the computer or possibly burning down the house.
So after some more reading I came to the conclusion that the best option for me is to get a Corsair PSU. The exact model that I am considering getting runs at about $45. It is the Corsair Builder Series CX430 V2 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply. That sure is a mouthful isn't it? It is probably a little more PSU than I need, but it is relatively cheap and should be sufficient for powering this computer which I really only plan on using as a SEED BOX or possibly a computer for anyone else to use aside from myself.
As part of my initial project which was to fix this computer for a friend, I ended up dismantling the computer down to basically a motherboard sitting inside a case. So I am considering reassembling everything so I can dismantle it again and take pictures in the process to help show those of you who are afraid to take on a task like this. Once you know how to take everything apart, it is very easy. But when you don't know, it can take a bit of fiddling with to figure out how to remove some parts. When we return to this project I will show you how to easily take each part out with ease. You see our next step is to replace the PSU and in order to do that, the heatsink over the processor had to be removed first. So why not just take pretty much everything out and get it all clean and start over as if this machine is brand new once again!
Now mind you, if this PSU that I am considering purchasing does not fix the problems, we may need to replace the motherboard, but I am going with my gut instinct first which tells me that the source of the problems is the power supply. Next time, I will elaborate on the problems that this particular machine was having.
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