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  • #16
    Quoth Chromatix View Post
    My clearest memories of that Compaq were that it was the first time I'd seen:

    1) a duct from the PSU fan to the CPU heatsink, instead of an actual fan on the CPU. I think it was a Pentium-3 based Celeron, so it was thermally acceptable, but still...
    Compaq did some strange things to their computers. Some of it was because a few designs were really Digital (Compaq had taken over DEC by then) items that they'd "re-engineered." Things like slapping a new plastic front panel over the old metal frame, or using spacers to get the hard drive to fit into a 5.25-inch bay...for example.

    The best though, was when I was working on a former DEC machine shortly after the takeover. That piece of crap had a square motherboard...that consisted of two halves that plugged into each other. Naturally, one of the halves failed, and the replacement they sent...didn't fit. Seems they'd changed the plug design, and didn't bother telling anyone. So we then had to replace the other half--at our cost. Bastards.
    Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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    • #17
      Quoth protege View Post
      Compaq did some strange things to their computers. Some of it was because a few designs were really Digital (Compaq had taken over DEC by then) items that they'd "re-engineered." Things like slapping a new plastic front panel over the old metal frame, or using spacers to get the hard drive to fit into a 5.25-inch bay...for example.
      I still have 5.25 inch hard disk drives in some of my computers. Spacers were only need for the newfangled 3.5 inch hard disk drives.
      "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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      • #18
        That reminds me - another "interesting" feature of the machine was the Quantum Bigfoot hard disk. Yes - the 5.25" model. Long stroke, slow RPM (something like 4200rpm), horrible performance. This was at a time when 3.5" disks were ubiquitous, and the choice was then between 5400 and 7200 rpm, or 10krpm for the serious high end.

        Just about the only concrete advice I could give to upgrade the machine, at the time, was to replace that hard disk with a 3.5" 7200rpm model. It made a huge difference.

        Even upgrading the graphics card was likely to be difficult; there was no AGP slot.

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        • #19
          could be worse, you could have to deal with this beast.
          I AM the evil bastard!
          A+ Certified IT Technician

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          • #20
            Quoth Chromatix View Post
            My clearest memories of that Compaq were that it was the first time I'd seen:

            1) a duct from the PSU fan to the CPU heatsink, instead of an actual fan on the CPU. I think it was a Pentium-3 based Celeron, so it was thermally acceptable, but still...

            2) *one* RAM slot, in anything that wasn't a laptop. There was plenty of space for a second or even a third one, but they just hadn't been designed in.
            You are bringing up some painful memories. I had forgotten about those plastic "air flow guides" inside some of the machines. Inevitably they would have to be removed to get at anything on the mainboard. I had forgotten I once had about 60 of those things. At least they were...er... compact...Q....

            And now that I think about it the original "down and arrow" comment of this thread could be some person who's gone to all the trouble of SHOW HIDDEN CHARACTERS and is seeing carriage return symbols... though still would not be acceptable in a password in most cases (there's probably a long method where one could use the symbol but not have it bound to a key... and probably breaks a bunch of code that doesn't expect it).
            Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart!

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            • #21
              Quoth protege View Post
              Uh, are you sure he didn't mean "expendable?"
              You know, as when it has issues...you get out the 40-pound fence maul and "hit any key to continue?"
              We had this poster in our computer lab in HS many moons ago:
              Attached Files
              Human Resources - the adult version of "I'm telling Mom." - Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (NCIS)

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