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Hi all,
Just wanted to share some info. I just installed xp home on my moms old compaq 7598. Upgraded ram to 512mb (10 dollars from craigslist) and processor to 1ghz (% dollars from craigslist). this thing is FAST. perfect for 2nd computer...
i also did this for my friends mom. she has a 5010us but i had to leave a partition on the harddrive to load xp properly... i am not sure why??? can someone explain why i had to do this with 5010us but not with 7598??
I would say that it could be that it is old enough that it has part of the BIOS on the partition and if you format the hard drive and wipe out that BIOS information the computer will not work until you go to the manufactures web site and download and install the BIOS information when you first startup the computer.
The only other possibility would be that it has a larger hard drive that some one installed a drive overlay program on it to be able to use all of the harddrive.
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"she has a 5010us but i had to leave a partition on the harddrive to load xp properly... i am not sure why??? "
Clear as mud.
More details needed.
......."I would say that it could be that it is old enough that it has part of the BIOS on the partition and if you format the hard drive and wipe out that BIOS information the computer will not work until you go to the manufactures web site and download and install the BIOS information when you first startup the computer."
HUH????
I've never encountered any personal computer that has any part of the bios on the hard drive, other than possibly a logo screen file that is on it that it uses.
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"I've never encountered any personal computer that has any part of the bios on the hard drive, other than possibly a logo screen file that is on it that it uses. "
You have never worked on older compaq computers, they all use to be that way!!
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I've worked on lots of desktop computers XT and up, mostly generic, but a few IBM, Dell, Pbell, and others, all of which I had no problems installing an operating system on, and I've never encountered the bios being on the hard drive, but I'll admit I haven't tried installing an operating system on a really ancient Compaq.
However, what you say doesn't apply to Presario 5010US.
I used to answers posts on Lanyon Computers's Constructor's Corner and they had no problems installing an operating system on the mboard it uses.(Compaq part number and name)
207613-004 Motherboard (system board), BMW 2This board has been identified as the OEM version of the Mitac 6513WU motherboard
First manual here:
http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/m...The OEM version in this case is probably identical to the Mitac 6513WU except it has a Compaq bios version.
If the USB header pinouts or front panel pinouts are not in the manual, I have them.
The USB pinouts are odd ball and you can't use commonly wired patterns of 4 in a row or 5 in a row or double row connectors on them, but the header will work with individual connectors on each wire, or the Compaq double row connector for it.There used to be a manual and QRG for the Presario 5000 series on the Compaq ftp sites, and a manual for the BMW2, but HP has deleted much of it's contents in the last couple of years.
I have the Compaq BMW2 manual on my hard drives - if you want it, personal message me - it has info in it the Mitac version doesn't, but it doesn't have the pinout information the 6513wu manual might have.
Mitac no longer has any support info or downloads for the 6513WU, since about 3 years ago.Socket-370 - 66/100/133 MHz system bus
2 DIMM slots (256MB total memory maximum using 128MB DIMMs)
Direct AGP 3D graphics (up to 11MB shared memory)
Integrated ESS Allegro (sound)
4 PCI slotsThe max memory specs may be wrong - lots of mboards around this age actually support using 256mb modules, but you often have to use certain 16 chip (double sided) ones.
Presario 5010US
Intel Pentium III processor - 866 MHz
Microsoft® Windows ® Millennium Edition
Intel 815 chipset
Original hard drive size: 40gbLast Compaq bios update:
Release Date: 2001-11-30Going by that, if it has an older bios version it might be limited to recognizing a 64gb drive max because of bugs in the Award based bios version, and the chipset may be limited to recognizing no more than a 128gb drive even if all the bugs have been fixed in the bios version it has.
If it still has the 40gb drive, or a drive 64gb or less, it probably does not have a drive overlay on it.
If it has the last bios version, or one not much older, it could have up to a 128gb drive and still not need a drive overlay.
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Tubes and wires is right on ....I reinstall operating systems on a lot of older compaq and Pbells as well as the older IBM's and have never ran across a part of the bios on any harddrive.
More than likely the poster saw an unallocated 8MB partition that is sometimes shown on older computer. All this is the buffer that all drive makers install on their drives. I believe that they are all 8MB except some versions of Western Digital which have a 2MB buffer. This is also refered to as the lead in on a drive.
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thanks for all the responses...learning a lot.
when i tried to install the first time, i deleted both partions and created one. the 1st partition was something like c:/30K plus and the second one was d:/ 4K plus.
afterwards the computer did not want to load from the cd, nothing happened. so i reinstalled the recovery disc...and the same partitions came up. i left the one with d:/ 3000 plus and deleted the c:/30k plus. then no hiccups... so what does that d:/ partition do?
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Your descriptions are lacking enough detail.
"i deleted both partions and created one."
You do not need to delete anything from the hard drive beforehand - you can delete the existing partitions and their contents at the beginning of Setup.
"...the 1st partition was something like c:/30K plus and the second one was d:/ 4K plus."
I assume you should have said the C partition was 30gb plus, the D partition was 4gb or so.
If it still has the original ~40gb hard drive on it, the manufacturers always state the size as a decimal size, based on powers of 10, Windows and probably the computer's bios state the binary size, based on powers of 2. So a ~40gb manufacturer's size is about 37.25 gb binary size, and when you partition and format the drive that uses up some capacity you can't use for data, so the drive will end up with 35gb or so of usable space you can place data on."....afterwards the computer did not want to load from the cd, nothing happened."
If you were using a regular XP CD you should have had no problem installing Windows on the 5010us system if you booted from the XP CD.
" so i reinstalled the recovery disc...and the same partitions came up."
How did you manage to get XP on the system when the original Recovery disk probably has Win ME on it, not XP?If you used the original Recovery disk, this 5010us is old enough that the Recovery disk probably has Win ME on it.
If you were able to boot from that CD, you should have been able to boot from the regular XP CD, unless...
- the regular XP CD was not bootable. E.g. Upgrade XP CDs are not bootable. In that case you can download a file from the Microsoft web site and make a set of 6 XP Setup floppies, boot with the first one, load the others, then Setup will run from the CD, but you have to have a CD from a qualifying previous operating system for it to find certasin files on before you can load XP.
- the regular XP CD was dirty
- it's a copy rather than an original CD. A CD-R disk will work fine in almost all optical drives, but a CD-RW or other type of disk may not boot or read properly unless it is in the drive it was made in.
- you did not have the bios Setup boot order settings set to boot fron a CD drive before a hard drive at the time.
- the drive you had it in is defective and doesn't always detect bootable CDs
"so what does that d:/ partition do?"Brand name system software installations always make two partitions on the hard drive when the original software is installed. The second one is smaller and contains the data needed to restore the original software when you need to reload something that isn't working properly on C, or reload the entire contents of C, and there often is not much free space left on it.
Depending on how the brand name installation sets up the software, either that second partition is visible to you in Windows on C as D, often labelled Recovery partition or similar and you are strongly discouraged from accessing it when you try or prevented from doing so, or it's hidden and you don't see it at all. In any case it's always there.
If you delete the second partition or alter it's data contents, you lose the ability to recover your software or re-load it without having to use a Recovery CD or a Recovery CD set.When you use the Recovery CD or Recovery CD set for the model, if you choose a full or complete recovery, it doesn't matter whether the partitions and their contents have been deleted or not, the Recovery process will delete that if it is there before loading the software and make two partitions, or if the hard drive is blank it will make two partitions.
If your original Recovery CD has XP on it, which is possible if it was bought later rather than earlier when the model was available, that CD uses the contents of the second partition on the hard drive to restore the contents of C. There isn't room enough on a single CD to hold the contents of an XP CD (or a ME CD for that matter) AND all the other software that originally came with the system. If that second partition has been deleted, or if the contents of the second partition have been altered, that Recovery CD cannot restore all the original software. Depending on whether the single Recovery CD has enough of the full contents of an XP CD or not, you may be able to install just Windows and not much more, or the Recovery will not be able to continue and will quit. In the latter case if you want all the original software then you need to use a set of Recovery CDs for the model, either made by you in Windows using the brand name's software, or use one ordered and bought from the brand name system's web site for your model.
If you have XP on the original Recovery CD, it's the original version of XP without SP1 or SP2 updates.
You need to load SP2 updates in order to be able to load most of the Microsoft Updates, or to support the recognition of USB 2.0 controllers if they are installed.
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