My Computers - Cyborg

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Cyborg

 Cyborg is the portable box, it's a Compaq Presario 1246. After having removed some 400MB of software and unnecessary drivers and junk from windows, this little notebook rocks, even though it only has 32M RAM from the start. Another proof that win98 isn't more than just looks... So why don't I run OS/2 on it. Well, there is a little sticker on it stating it was designed for win98. So what, I thought and wiped the whole disk, installed OS/2 Warp v4.0, and found that Cyborg crashed at boot. Every time. So I installed win95 instead. Same thing. It crashed at every boot. Bugger, was my first thought, I'll try win98 again, and see, now it booted just fine. The sticker wasn't there just for the fun of it... I hate crippled hardware!

Newsflash!

During a lazy sunday, while slow-surfing the 'net, I accidentally found a supposed solution for how to install and run another OS on Compaq Presario 1200-series portables, than the original windows98SE. Compaq has for quite some time (many years in fact) stubbornly stated that the Presario 1200-series, are intended only for home-use, and thus can't run anything else than windows98SE. And if you wanted to run, say Windows 2000, you had to get the three-times (at least) more expensive Compaq Armada-series portables. This is only partly true (...).

The first pointer I got was while browsing the Compaq Forum regarding Presario 1200's and PC-Cards not being recognised.

Since I found other users complaining about the same thing as me, I kinda got spurred in my research, and finally found this link at Microsoft. Excited as I was I just had to try out the solution. Imagine my surprise after having installed windows200 pro, and that Cyborg booted normally and worked excellent!

So, since a few weeks back I run windows2000 on Cyborg, and I haven't had a problem yet, as compared to when I had windows98SE on it...

Cyborg retired from Skynet

Cyborg is retired and currently lives at my parents'. Cyborg is thus no longer part of Skynet. However I'll keep this page about the win2k/Presario 1200-issues for others that have the same problem. 8-)

Chassies A4 sized, black, "organic" design.
Hard Drives 1x 4,3GB Toshiba.
Floppy Drives 1x 1,44MB, Sony, Mitsumi, NEC or something (...).
CD Drives 1x Toshiba CD-Reader (24x).
Other One PC-Card slot, supports type I, II and III. Cardbus compatible.
Battery NiMH, approx. 3hrs normal computing, 20min gaming.
Motherboard VIA chipset based. 512k L2 cache.
CPU AMD Mobile k6-II/400 3dNow! Intel MMX-compatible.
RAM/Original 32MB, PC100-type SO-DIMM module.
RAM/Extended 128MB, PC100-type SO-DIMM module.
Graphics/Primary Trident CyberBlade i7 2MB on-board memory, combined 2D/3D card. Supports up to 8MB video memory on RAM which then activates the AGP-mode.
Graphics/Screen 12,1" HPA (Extended DSTN).
Multimedia VIA PCI Audio Controller, supports surround sound.
Speakers Built-in JBL Pro.
Pointer Synaptics Touchpad.
Modem Lucent 56kV.90 PCI DFi software modem.
Peripherals/Keyboard Anything available with a PS/2 connector, while stationary.
Peripherals/Mouse Anything available with a serial connector, while stationary.
Operating System/Primary Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, US English, with supplements and service packs.

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