And this thing is old. So first step i was going to get more ram, then upgrade OS. Currently its on ME yuck. Anywho I put my xp cd in the cd drive and it gives me the normal, press any key to boot from cd. Goes to the normal blue screen for about 5-10 seconds and then essentially reboots. Goes back to the black compaq screen like i just restarted the computer. Then again it will ask to hit any key to boot from cd. So im guessing its restarting for some odd reason. Another helpful hint on the problem, is i hold the power button to turn it off, it temporarily turns off, but as soon as i release teh button it turns back on. Now if i hold the power button for a good period(20 seconds) it eventually stays off. what do you guys think.
How old? made around 2000?. Need to know how much ram the thing has in the first place. The xp installer needs 64mb just to boot. machines of this vintage.. you are pretty much on a hiding to nothing with XP unless you are prepared to hack it to bits to get the ram usage down significantly (I restore a lot of p3 machines).. If it is a pentium2, especially a cyrix you are wasting your time.. you need to look up the hardware and make sure the cpu actually has a L2 cache, or xp will not run. Small linux is the way to go with vintage comps. Get into the bios and have a look at the system settings, if anything looks weird then ask again.
the initial thing i was going to do was upgrade her with a lot more ram. So what i was hoping to do was have it boot..........install pc wizard 2008 to get the specs on the ram and what not to see exactly which kind i needed. here are the specs from the side of the case amd duron 700 processor 64 mb ram 20 gb hd cd rom 8 mb nvidia graphics card 56 k modem and even if shes got to use 98, thats an option. I just didnt have a 98 cd designed for windows me sticker on the front compaq 5000 series.
you need 128meg of ram to install xp but will use 64meg once xp is installed. is using pc100 or pc133 sdram NOT ddr ram.
Tell your friend it is time to upgrade. you should offer to build him a new computer. the parts below will cost about $310. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116036 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128079 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811153028 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
lmac, sdram has 2 notches on the bottom to act as keys to prevent ram from being put in wrong. on the chips on the ram sticks, look for a 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5 or 8 with a dash usually in front of that number. an 8 is usually a pc100 ram whereas the others are pc133. can have both pc100 & pc133 ram working on that board.
