Reformatting & Re-installing on a Compaq EP/SB Series

I need to re-format a Compaq Deskpro EP/SB Series(350Mhz), and was
hoping to get advice from someone who has one and has had to install
and operating system on it.

If I reformat the hard drive(which presently has a very unstable copy
of Windows ME on it), I need to know if special disks are needed or if
there is a way to put virtually any OS on it.

I just don't want to be stuck with a giant paper weight once the drive
is erased.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Darren,

The computer has an Intel 440BX chipset on it. Chipset drivers are built into
Win ME or later, required from www.intel.com for Win 98 or NT. You'll also need
to identify the audio, network and video drivers and possibly obtain drivers for
them as well.

Try the HP web site for info about the drivers, many of which can be downloaded
there. HP did not trash the Compaq Deskpro driver downloads when it bought up
Compaq. HP and Carly have trashed up just about everything else tho in the last
3+ years... Ben Myers

On 13 Feb 2005 09:58:15 -0800, wrote:

I need to re-format a Compaq Deskpro EP/SB Series(350Mhz), and was
hoping to get advice from someone who has one and has had to install
and operating system on it.

If I reformat the hard drive(which presently has a very unstable copy
of Windows ME on it), I need to know if special disks are needed or if
there is a way to put virtually any OS on it.

I just don't want to be stuck with a giant paper weight once the drive
is erased.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Ben Myers wrote:
Darren,

The computer has an Intel 440BX chipset on it. Chipset drivers are
built into
Win ME or later, required from www.intel.com for Win 98 or NT.
You'll also need
to identify the audio, network and video drivers and possibly obtain
drivers for
them as well.

Try the HP web site for info about the drivers, many of which can be
downloaded
there. HP did not trash the Compaq Deskpro driver downloads when it
bought up
Compaq. HP and Carly have trashed up just about everything else tho
in the last
3+ years... Ben Myers

Thanks.

This will take a week, provided I have nothing else to do.

(I'll definitely not buy a PC from any of the major companys after
this).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Um, the Compaq DeskPro with 440BX motherboard chipset is no different than any
other motherboard, name brand or generic. If you install Win 98 or NT, you need
to add the 440BX chipset drivers which did not exist when the software was
released. Microsoft, as a matter of policy, never (or very rarely) adds drivers
for graphics cards, motheboard chipsets, sound cards or any other hardware sold
for the first time AFTER a major version of Windows is released.

On the other hand, you can depend on Windows 2000 or XP and maybe even butt-ugly
ME to have 440BX chipset drivers for Compaq and any other motherboard with the
chipset on it.

In short, don't blame Compaq or any brand name for the absence of drivers in a
Windows release. It is inevitable, no matter what brand or white box computer
there is. Now you can blame Carly, $21 million richer in severance pay, and the
other HP people for mucking up the ex-Compaq web pages if you can't find what
you need.

As far as decent web site support (documentation and drivers), I have to rate
IBM and Dell at the top, in a dead heat. Gateway is a distant third. The
Compaq web pages are 4th. The HP web pages are about 15th, surpassed by just
about every other brand name.

I will also claim that if you inherited a generic white box computer and had to
load it up with Windows software, you would have perhaps a worse challenge than
you will have with the Compaq. Remember, a white box computer is assembled by
resellers like myself. As a reseller, I take great pains to supply driver CDs
and documentation for everything inside a computer I build. Then the computer
gets detached from all the documentation. I have been down that road
refurbishing or repairing white box computers built by others. It's no fun.

I'm not saying all this because I am pro-Compaq. I am citing all this from the
experience of working on hundreds and hundreds of computers in the last 12
years. All brands... Ben Myers

On 14 Feb 2005 17:24:32 -0800, wrote:


Ben Myers wrote:
Darren,

The computer has an Intel 440BX chipset on it. Chipset drivers are
built into
Win ME or later, required from www.intel.com for Win 98 or NT.
You'll also need
to identify the audio, network and video drivers and possibly obtain
drivers for
them as well.

Try the HP web site for info about the drivers, many of which can be
downloaded
there. HP did not trash the Compaq Deskpro driver downloads when it
bought up
Compaq. HP and Carly have trashed up just about everything else tho
in the last
3+ years... Ben Myers

Thanks.

This will take a week, provided I have nothing else to do.

(I'll definitely not buy a PC from any of the major companys after
this).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

wrote:
Ben Myers wrote:

Darren,

The computer has an Intel 440BX chipset on it. Chipset drivers are

built into

Win ME or later, required from www.intel.com for Win 98 or NT.

You'll also need

to identify the audio, network and video drivers and possibly obtain

drivers for

them as well.

Try the HP web site for info about the drivers, many of which can be

downloaded

there. HP did not trash the Compaq Deskpro driver downloads when it

bought up

Compaq. HP and Carly have trashed up just about everything else tho

in the last

3+ years... Ben Myers


Thanks.

This will take a week, provided I have nothing else to do.

(I'll definitely not buy a PC from any of the major companys after
this).

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.


Do any of these help? (It would be easier with the complete model number.)

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/fi...ate/4_139.html
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/fi...te/20_139.html
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/20521.html

craigm