new toy while i wait for parts

[Shi]

ok i'm back with more q's. while i waqit for my parts to get here, i bought a compaq CDS 850 to play with. but noone lists this on a site that i can find. all the search engines turn up is mem and selling classifieds, and compaq's site is all newer models(at least thats all i could find). anyone know where to get info on this machine? my specs are limited to what i could pull off the crappy 3.1(ok it may be alright, but i'm not very familiar with it) this is what i can pull out of system info on the machine itself.

its a 486(currently running Win3.1-386 enhanced, whatever that means)
it has 5 ISA slots and 4 mem slots(4MB on board and a 4MB stick)with 8 MB RAM
its a slot2 intel chip...didn't dissasemble it yet so no chip #'s
there's a diagram of jumper settings(no mob #'s)inside the case which says its an "ODPR 486DX or DX2"(will also support a 486SX, 486SX Overdrive[TM], or Pentium[TM]ODP or Pentium[TM]Overdrive[TM])
clock speed is 33MHz(66MHz)
its a ZIF socket
has a 380MB HDD
7-pin and 5-pin power connector on the board(both used)
back of case says its Series 3410, although that may be system or case

thats about all i know so far about it....anybody out there have any ideas?
any links would be helpful/appreciated
if more info is needed then ask...i will do the best i can to find out(takes shoes and socks off to do some figgerin')
TIA

[Paleo Pete]

This is all I can find, found it in the Home and Home Office section. 800 Series. Looks like it's close to your model. It's obsolete, of course, and it's not easy to find anything for older models on the Compaq site. I had an idea where to look, since I looked up info for my Deskpro 386 a while back.

If you go through Compaq's site, find the Software & Drivers page, you can look through the FTP site, it takes you to the pub folder, which means public, scroll down to the bottom and you'll find allfiles.txt. Double click it and it's a long text file with all the files listed, and a description of each. It might be a good idea to copy & paste it into wordpad since it scrolls waaaayyy off to the right, I guess they don't know how to use word wrap...it's a 7.8 MB or so file, takes a few minutes to load, but some digging might turn up some files for that computer.

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[Shi]

thx pete...will go have a look.

[Shi]

yup...thx again..i think thats it. some #'s a bit off(board is listed as 003422,mine has 003423 stamped on it)but i think they match...jumpers all the same and modes listed too. took it all the way apart today, so i'm sure i will ask more q's that i can't find answers to...like is it true that there is no CMOS BIOS in this thing? read that they(Compaq) use a file on HDD to boot machine. and if so does that mean that it has to be done with a restore disc from compaq(meaning if it crashes i have a giant paperweight cuz i have no disc)? and is this stuff all compaq which means only upgradable with compaq stuff? does it not follow a form factor of any kind?(resembles ATX....except the deceiving pwr sply conns)but made in '93 so it can't really be now can it? case weighs a ton too!
well it looks like i have a lot of researching to do so i should end this.
again, thx for the starting point, pete!

[This message has been edited by Shi (edited 01-29-2001).]

[Paleo Pete]

Not sure about the form factor, I don't think ATX existed at that time, my 386 is about the same, I think it's AT, but can't be sure, due to the strange power supply connection.

You should be able to use non-Compaq hard drives and floppy drives, I think, and most cards should be replaceable with generic cards, but again I'm not sure. They might have set up the BIOS so it only recognises certain ones, only way to know is try it and see. One thing I do know, you'll need the same size and type floppy drive to use the setup disk, more about that below.

The BIOS is set or changed by using a setup disk, some digging through the Compaq site and FTP site might turn one up, I found one for my 386 Deskpro, but it refuses to read the disk no matter what I try. I junked it...too much trouble for a 386-16 when I have 2 working 386-25's here.

To use it you put it on floppy and boot the machine, then type the filename or setup, they have documentation to tell you which. The CMOS chip is there, but you need the setup disk to access it instead of a key combination. I would put it on a bootable floppy.

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[Shi]

so how about changing it all-together into something else? is putting another board into it any kind of possibility?

[Paleo Pete]

I seriously doubt it. That's why Compaq went proprietary, with the different power supply plugs, and often different bolt patterns on the motherboard, the only thing that will fit is a Compaq board. Bring your neighbor's wallet and your mothers Master Charge too...

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