Weird OS's specific issue with Compaq Presario pc

[cobalt_shoutter]

Tried posting this on the reddit TechSupport but a bot automatically took it down and a mod later answered with "old hardware and software go cope somewhere else, byebye xoxo"

Also tried on PCMR, also got removed but with no explanation this time.

 

So I came here with the hope of finally being heard.

 

Some months ago I acquired a Compaq desktop pc for dirt cheap due to it having issues, I had the idea to have it as somewhat of a light/retro gaming machine and maybe throw in something like a GT710/30, to natively run some old OS's and games, it came with some version of Windows XP.

 

First issue was it wouldn't turn on, replaced the CMOS battery and it started working again, then when booting it took as much as an hour to get to the desktop.

 

Took almost just as much time booting from a usb to a linux distro (after ram change it works perfectly with anything linux related).

 

It just was a defective ram stick (DDR2 1.8V), and a few days ago I got to buy a few sticks to upgrade my mother's pc which has similar specs and got two extra sticks for this project.

Now is where the issue comes, at first I tried installing some distros, I already knew the MoBo mounted gpu is barely compatible with anything modern since my mother pc has the same, so I tried the ones I already knew to be working with it, no issues there, but then I tried to install Windows Vista, since I have both keys for home prem and basic, and was welcomed by an extremely slow loading speed, about 20 minutes to get to the "select language" page, tried both 64 and 32 bit images, tried Windows 7 64 and 32 bit images, Windows XP SP2/3, even Windows 10 64 and 32 bits images, tried multiple usb ports, tried disconnecting everything, even the the motherboard from the case, even disconnected the PS/2 keyboard, same result.

 

Searching through some forums I got a few answers about the bios where having "Floppy A" as enabled could make the pc run at floppy disk speed and some stuff about AMD K8 energy management, but none of those worked.

 

Already checked the SATA cables, tested the HDD on another pc with almost identical hardware, and even tried a different HDD on this machine, the issue only seems to be happening to this machine.

 

Also tried installing Windows vista on the other machine, got it done in about 30 minutes total, got the HDD to the troubled machine and it spent about as much time just in the loading bar screen.

 

I already ran out of ideas so that's why I came here to ask.

 

This are the specs of the troubled computer:

Motherboard MCP61PM-HM Rev 1.0b (Bios Rev 5.25)

AMD Athlon X2 4050e Dual-Core @ 2111MHz

2 sticks of DDR2 2GB 1.8V PC2-5300 ram

Nvidia GeForce 6150 SE

SATA WesternDigital 160Gb WD1600AAJS

SATA Lightscribe DVD-R

Noganet 550W PSU

 

Specs of the properly working machine

 

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-M61PME-S2

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Dual-Core @ 2400MHz

2 sticks of DDR2 2GB 1.8V PC2-5300 ram

Nvidia GeForce 6150 SE

SATA Samsung 250Gb HD251HJ

SATA LG DVD-R

Biswal 400W PSU

 

Thanks in advance for anyone checking!

[Bombastinator]

You payed money?  Folding money?  They didn’t pay you to take it?  Things need to be pretty old for anything of a particular age to be cool.  Older than computers.  There are things from the 1930’s that are worthless.  You realize having a compaq desktop is a bit like having an amc station wagon. You’re one of a very very few people on earth who think it is cool. Sleepers are a different thing, but that’s not a sleeper.  Might make a decent shell for one I guess.  There were a few very early compaq luggables that are actually pretty cool, but afaik no desktops.  Linux isn’t as good at old hardware as it used to be.  I’m not sure that thing is even strong enough for vista. Or it might be.  I dunno. The hard drive may be ready to go too.  That might want to be checked. Also computers of that age get to the point that things start to real on them that might not break on a newer machine.  It might have to be recapped soon, which is a hellacious job. 

[emosun]

If a machine is taking a ridiculously long time to do something that shouldn't even take 60 seconds don't bother waiting for it. If it's taking 5 minutes just to load a simple screen when it should be 5 seconds don't wait for 20 minutes to see if it does something , it's already not working as is.

As for your actual issue , when a machine can't load or boot simple screens or installation programs it more than likely is "waiting" for something to respond and isn't smart enough with the program it's running to know that that part of the machine should not take this long to respond.

MY GUESS , is the usb controller may not actually be working very well which is expected in the usb 2.0 cheapo office pc era.

1 hour ago, cobalt_shoutter said:

Also tried installing Windows vista on the other machine, got it done in about 30 minutes total, got the HDD to the troubled machine and it spent about as much time just in the loading bar screen.

This was a good idea however , xp/vista/7 need to be installed on the machine thats using it so the chipset drivers are correct otherwise they don't boot. It's not like windows 10 which is capable of jumping motherboards.

My recomendation would be to bypass using the usb controller , and see if you can use an actual cd instead

[cobalt_shoutter]

49 minutes ago, emosun said:

My recomendation would be to bypass using the usb controller , and see if you can use an actual cd instead

Had a W7 Started disc laying around, tested it on the other machine first, worked, tested on the troubled machine and no luck, checked the dvd reader on the other machine, same results as before.

The only thing I could try now is the cpu in the other machine, if it's compatible on first place, if either the cpu or the motherboard is damaged I'll just scrap the project though.

Thanks for answering so quickly!

[cobalt_shoutter]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

You payed money?  Folding money?

About the 7 bucks I had in pocket change lol, I mostly bought it because I liked the case

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, cobalt_shoutter said:

About the 7 bucks I had in pocket change lol, I mostly bought it because I liked the case

Fair enough.  Lunch off the value menu at a fast food restaurant.  Me I would have eaten lunch. That’s me though.  It won’t game, but it’s fast enough to browse the internet.  If the case cores out well you could build a sleeper out of it.  Some of em just emphatically don’t though.  Weird sideways-clamshell internals which are surprisingly nice to work in, but generally don’t fit anything but what they were designed for.  Compaq did not do atx. Any mods, if even possible, will involve cutting and drilling.  Also extreme care must be taken with replacement parts. Replacing non-atx stuff with atx stuff usually involves modding the atx stuff, if it can even be done.  One thing to remember about that clock speed is it got old IPC, so 2ghz on that machine is probably more like 1ghz on a modern one. If the modern one had a half speed or less motherboard and memory with tiny tiny bandwidth. It’s about as fast as a pi 0.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Bombastinator