Win 2k for Compaq AP550

Hello everyone,
I've seen a Compq AP550 workstation on sale (it's real old but it's
not likely to get any bids, and starting price is next to nothing):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=310131140254

I'd like to give it a go. Only problem is, according to Compaq's
manual the AP550 seems to require some proprietary Win2k drivers that
aren't downloadable anymo

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/.../c01123932.pdf

Does anyone know if Compaq workstations often needed proprietary
drivers? Thanks for all help,

Seb

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:11:07 -0700 (PDT),
"silicono2-at-yahoo.com" wrote:

Hello everyone,
I've seen a Compq AP550 workstation on sale (it's real old but it's
not likely to get any bids, and starting price is next to nothing):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=310131140254

I'd like to give it a go. Only problem is, according to Compaq's
manual the AP550 seems to require some proprietary Win2k drivers that
aren't downloadable anymo

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/.../c01123932.pdf

Does anyone know if Compaq workstations often needed proprietary
drivers? Thanks for all help,

Seb


It is not likely it needs proprietary drivers, since it is
going to have chips made by someone other than Compaq and
these chips used by multiple manufacturers.

Why Win2k today instead of XP? It is typical that a 2k
driver works with XP, or that the newest driver supports
both... this driver coming from the respective chipset
manufacturer if not Compaq (HP).

Once you have the system write down the markings from all
chips you need functionality from, for example video, sound,
northbridge, southbridge. If you can't find any of these
drivers you might post back which you are having trouble
finding, someone may know where to get them. It is possible
that XP might even include all drivers needed.

An alternate method of finding drivers is going into device
manager and for anything unidentified, look in it's
properties for a device and subsystem ID string, which can
be put into a google search to find out what it is and from
there another lead towards finding a driver.

I wonder though, if the system is worth spending time on.
The case, if it accepts a standard atx motherboard, might be
a good value by itself but for not much money a newer board,
cpu, memory would be an upgrade.

[snip]
I wonder though, if the system is worth spending time on.
The case, if it accepts a standard atx motherboard, might be
a good value by itself but for not much money a newer board,
cpu, memory would be an upgrade. *

Well after a bit of consideration I guess not for several reasons, so
I'll pass it up (for one thing dual processors don't make a huge
difference unless you multitask a lot). Thanks for the tips anyway.

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:02:19 -0700 (PDT),
"silicono2-at-yahoo.com" wrote:

[snip]
I wonder though, if the system is worth spending time on.
The case, if it accepts a standard atx motherboard, might be
a good value by itself but for not much money a newer board,
cpu, memory would be an upgrade. *

Well after a bit of consideration I guess not for several reasons, so
I'll pass it up (for one thing dual processors don't make a huge
difference unless you multitask a lot). Thanks for the tips anyway.


After looking at the pictures again I realize it takes a
proprietary PSU format, one that's a slightly over 95mm tall
to accomodate a 92mm rearward fan. Since it's taller than
standard ATX PSU, an adapter bracket might be fabricated to
mount standard ATX psu for an upgrade, but "some" of
Compaq's 95mm tall PSU weren't as long as a std. ATX either
so there is the possiblity one wouldn't fit unless the top
optical drive bays were left empty and overall this is a
fair amount of addt'l work to refurb an old case that isn't
entirely free in cost or time to acquire.