Presario 425

**houseisland** · July 21st, 2006, 10:17 AM

Questions, questions, questions....... Not sure where to put this post, but since it is a comedy item of sorts, I suppose here is a good a place as any.

Smart Computing: Presario 425 Tabletop Computer

What can I do with a Presario 425?

What is the CPU upgradeable to?

Is the RAM proprietary?

What is the limit on hard drive size?

Will it accept a 2HD floppy?

"The system supports a 14-inch super VGA color monitor and a 486SX/25 microprocessor from Intel Corp. that is upgradeable. It has four megabytes (MB) of random-access memory (RAM), a 200MB hard drive."

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

**street1** · July 21st, 2006, 06:14 PM

http://www.memorystock.com/memory/Co...esario425.html

It is so hard to believe that was 13 years ago.

QuickSpecs
Compaq Presario 425

October1993

Model COMPAQ PRESARIO 425

Standard Features
Processor Intel 486SX/33MHz
Upgradable Upgradable using Intel OverDrive Processors
Memory Four MB of RAM standard on the system board, which can be increased to 20 MB of RAM using any combination of industry standard 1 MB, 2 MB, 4 MB, or 8 MB SIMM Modules.
Hard Drive 100MB (model 100) or 200MB (model 200)
Modem Integrated Fax (9600 BPS) Modem (2400BPS)
Graphics 1024x768 resolution with 512K of DRAM
Display Built-in 14-inch, high-resolution SVGA (MPRII compliant) color monitor with 0.28-mm dot pitch.
Expansion Bays Two 8/16 bit ISA expansion slots
Diskette Drive One 3.5 " 1.44MB diskette drive
Interfaces Parallel, serial, mouse, video, keyboard, game port
Cache 8 KB internal
Security MultiLock security features: Power-on password and keyboard password
Power Supply Steady state 135 watts; includes EPA Energy Star compliant low-power mode
Preinstalled Software MS-DOS 6.0

MS-Windows 3.1

PFS: WindowsWorks

Prodigy

America Online

Quicken for Windows

Symantec Game Pack

MaxFax for Windows
Pointing Device Compaq Mouse included
Warranty Compaq Care: Provides a wide range of offerings including 3-year, limited warranty; lifetimetoll-free 7 x 24 customer support; and RemotePaq allowing technical support engineers to remotely troubleshoot hardware and software configurations.

**BOB IROC** · July 21st, 2006, 06:25 PM

Did you steal that out of a museum?

Don't let apple see that because they say they invented the all-in-one PC with the iMac.

**street1** · July 21st, 2006, 06:53 PM

lifetimetoll-free 7 x 24 customer support.

What a hoot!!

You can still aggrevate them 24/7.

**CCT** · July 21st, 2006, 08:01 PM

Sadly, I think in the lexicon of the computer Geeks, that 'lifetime' is not measured in human terms but in computer terms, ie, 3 years maximum.

However, if you have $10 million to spend, you could nick them for 20 and pay the lawyers 31 and end up with, ah, well, being screwed by both systems.

Life Is Good!

**houseisland** · July 21st, 2006, 10:06 PM

It's mine... all mine..... Bwa ah ha ha ha....

My first free lifetime support call to Compaq will be to find out where I put the Vista Beta CD if I want to install it on this screamin' machine.

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

**slgrieb** · July 21st, 2006, 10:29 PM

Yeah, my first computer ran CPM/80 and had a Zilog Z80 CPU. That baby was maxed out with a full 64KB of memory, WordStar, CalcStar, the woiks. Still remember when the IBM PC was introduced and I thought WTF would anyone do with 640 MB of memory!

**houseisland** · July 21st, 2006, 11:12 PM

Man this baby's been hot rodded!

None of this 486SX 25 crap for me! I've got a 486DX2 66.

And forget the 4Mb of onboard RAM. I've got an awesome 12 Mb.

100Mb hard drive, ha! Try 3Gb on for size.

Man if I can get the 486DX4 100 processor, I found at the bottom of my box of CPUs to work in this beast, the world will be at my feet. Bwa ha ha ha ha...

I will kick butt playing Doom over a parallel link cable! Tremble in fear all!!!

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

**slgrieb** · July 21st, 2006, 11:15 PM

your kung-fu is the best.

**rgharper** · July 22nd, 2006, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by houseisland

Man if I can get the 486DX4 100 processor, I found at the bottom of my box of CPUs to work in this beast, the world will be at my feet. Bwa ha ha ha ha...

I will kick butt playing Doom over a parallel link cable! Tremble in fear all!!!

You know, there are decaffienated blends that taste just as good as the original stuff ...

**houseisland** · July 22nd, 2006, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by rgharper

You know, there are decaffienated blends that taste just as good as the original stuff ...

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

**rgharper** · July 23rd, 2006, 05:23 AM

Originally Posted by houseisland

Your honor, the Prosecution rests.

**NooNoo** · July 24th, 2006, 04:20 AM

Originally Posted by BOB IROC

Did you steal that out of a museum?

Don't let apple see that because they say they invented the all-in-one PC with the iMac.

uhhh nope...

commodore pet in 1977

**houseisland** · September 3rd, 2006, 01:15 PM

I had a few minutes to look at this box today.

All the orginal Compaq stuff is still on the hard drive. Sweet. Very strange alternative shell for W3.1 - TabWorks -- never seen it before.

Cleaned up the inside. Obviously not a Y2K compatible box -- someone has installed a Y2K Bug bios overlay card. Upgraded the RAM to an awsome 20 Mb. Installed an ISA SB16 -- no time to confire it yet, though.

The unfortunately the processor is max'd out at 66Mhz without going to some SX overdrive item. I would like to have put a heat sink and fan on the processor, but all my 486 heat sinks have been tossed, and all the fans went as replacements for failed fans on video cards and chipset heat sinks.

I used to have some "smart" Cyrix-based 486 chips that ran at 133Mhz and could be plugged into almost any 486 socket and would automatically take care of all voltage/fsb/multiplier issues, but they went in "I'll-never-need-this"-type clean-ups long ago.

This baby is a hot gaming machine -- eat your hearts out:

Bwa ha ha ha....

(edit: By the way, the screen shots had to be done in DOS Box in Ubuntu. There is also a very strange cyclops image etched into the printed circuit board -- must be some kind of internal Compaq joke about the all-in-one "one-eyed" system.)

(further edit: If the screenshots don't load try http://i5.tinypic.com/2814rxu.gif and http://i6.tinypic.com/2814too.gif

(even further edit: more Ba wah ah ha ha....)

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

**houseisland** · June 25th, 2007, 10:33 PM

Sweet! In a box of stuff for tossing, I found a DX40ODPR100.

DX40ODPR100 at Exian's CPU Museum

Five minutes with a screw driver and a chip puller, and victory is mine. A rockin' 100 MHz system.

Tremble in fear all. Tremble in fear. Especially you RGHarper!

Bwa ha ha ha!

____________________________________________

It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!