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Hi, I was rummaging around in my basement the other day and found our OLD computer, it's a Compaq Deskpro, which was pruchased in 1985 - 86. It has a single 5.25" floppy drive, and a hard drive (not sure how big.) The OS is DOS 3.10 Rev. B (this is what it came with originally).
I plugged it in and messed around with it for old time's sake, and I'm trying to find out the specs of this machine. However, I know very littel about DOS. I've found very little info about this machine online, I did find some info about a "portable" computer compaq made back in the day, but that is different than that, this is a regular desktop computer.
The only software I have for it is an old word processor / database program made by Symantec called Q&A, And I also found an old version of Quicken that I tried on there to see what it looked like on the amber monochrome monitor. (ha-ha)
anyway, can someone get me started on finding out the specs for this machine? Are there some commands I can type in to get this info?
Thanks!
Thanks for the reply, I wish I could use that hwinfo program, but I have no way to get it on the computer, it only has a 5.25 floppy and I don't have any other computer that I could copy the program onto a disk like that.
I looked around on the HP site, but couldn't seem to come up with much
any more ideas?
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There's only one or two ways to deal with this problem.
Either find another 5.25 drive, to put into another computer, so you can make disks for the "project box", or be willing to tear the project and the other apart so you can SWITCH the drives.
Or, can you get and install a 3 1/2 floppy drive in the thing? THAT is what I'd try and do.
And once again, for the ten millionth time WHAT MODEL number is the thing?
Using model names like "deskpro" is like saying "Ford" or "Mustang." The model name tells us NOTHING about what you are looking for.
Have you been to Comcrap/HP's support site?
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"And once again, for the ten millionth time WHAT MODEL number is the thing?"
For the ten millionth time??? you've never asked me that before. I'm sorry if I somehow upset you, I was just seeing if anyone could help me figure out what this thing is. It has no indication of a specific model anywhere on the case, on the back of the monitor it says "Compaq Deskpro DSM" The only other identifying mark on it is the serial number which is: 4625AF6B1162
on the tag on the back of the machine where the serial number is, it says... Model: Compaq Deskpro.
That's all I got.
As for putting in a 3.5 floppy I don't even know if it will accept one. There is plenty of room, but I wouldn't know what kind to buy, if one even exists that will work with this computer.
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All I wanted to find out is if there is some command I can enter in DOS to find out how much Ram, hard drive space, and processor speed this machine has.
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If it is the Original Deskpro which I
believe were beige base case with a blck
front then it should be a 8086 XT PC which
only took 360K Single Sided Floppies.DOS Commands see:
http://www.dostutor.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/tutor/frame.html
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I think you're right. I just found out that it has 640K ram (which is the max it can hold) and 20MB hard drive
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'Single sided'? I don't think so - the double sided disk format was introduced with 320K floppies, was it not?
640K? Well, yeah - that's conventional (low) memory, and pretty much all an XT could make use of (without some fiddling). The XT model was an 8 bit machine, whose main claim to fame was the innovation of the hard drive.
Archaic and interesting, but not much use.
I'm not insensitive, I just don't care.
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Yes JBoy, I am wrong again, it is HD
Diskettes it does not like.Though old these PC's can be lifelined to
Dialup/ADSL Broadband for Text Web Surfing,
as X86 has done with his Amstrad1640 which
has 1MB total memoryhttp://www.mwpms.uklinux.net/hardware.htm
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Don't take it so hard ; )
Oh, sure, they are not without function - pretty much 'state of the art' when new - but pretty limited. Anything less would barely qualify as a computer.
I'm not insensitive, I just don't care.
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In DOS 3.10 about the only commands that tell you anything are the CHKDSK, FDISK and the DIR command. And those only inform you about the disk and/or diskette sizes.
As DOS 3.00 came out in late 1984 to support the Intel 80286 based machines, and DOS 3.10 in early 1985, there is a good chance this is an Intel 80286 or "AT class" system. Compaq did not really get into the PC systems market with many systems until they came out with their AT clone.
Most of those machines do display the memory size as it powers on, not sure of that model. Some even displayed the processor model.
If you can find someone who has a version of DOS 5.00 or later running and can make you a 5 1/4in boot diskette, have them copy the MEM.com program on to it. After booting with it, run the command MEM /d to get more information on the memory configuration.
You might be able to tell more about it by opening the cover and looking for the processor chip on the system board. It could be the old long Intel 8088 or 8086, or it might be an 80286 processor in it, its square. One way to tell the difference is the size of the Bus slots. A single connector is for the 8088 (and 8086 used on some Compaq systems) processor. The bus slots having a second smaller block behind them tell you it is an AT class system with an 80286 processor.
Also look around for its Diagnostic diskette, it might still be in a box of 5 1/4in diskettes somewhere. Also look for a DIAG directory on the disk drive. If you find one, see if there is a COMMAND.com in it. If so run it and see what happens. There might also be a Setup program in there you can try.
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Thank you very much for the info JackG, I'm not really planning on using this machine, I just thought it would be fun to get the old girl running again for the heck of it. It works so perfectly for it's age it's incredible. This thing is built like a TANK compared to my more modern machine.
I cracked it open and saw that the processor chip says:
D8086-2/B
H 8608FMA
Intel 1978I also saw another chip near it that says:
1985 Compaq 8606KX
105106-1what is that?
So I guess it's the 8086, unless that -2/B after it means something.
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... oh and I almost forgot, how many mhz is that processor?
sorry this has kinda turned into something that should have gone into the hardware forum.
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An 8086 is a true 16 bit chip, otherwise very similar to its 8 bit counterpart, the 8088.
Original versions of the '88 ran at 4.77MHz, later at 8MHz (and even higher)
Yours is 'probably' 8 MHz (whew!)
I'm not insensitive, I just don't care.
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JackG thanks again for another diatribe.
Eric:The PC is a Compaq Deskpro PC-XT, with a
360K 5.25 floppy (may be compatible with
720K) and the CPU is an AMD Clone 8086
8mhz, your memory is 1MB but only 640K is
for running software, tsr's etc.The details fo your CPU are here:
http://www.cpu-world.com/info/id/AMD-x86-identification.html
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WOW 8 MHz! I could almost run Windows XP on this baby! (I wonder what they would say at Microsoft if I called up and wanted to order XP on 5.25" floppies... :)
All joking aside, thanks so much for the help everyone, now I know exactly what this beast has under the hood!
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Sure - it's historically significant and should help give you some perspective on 20 odd years of progress. My first machine was something like this one.
I'm not insensitive, I just don't care.
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