First post, by Caluser2000
- Rank
- l33t
Back in 2013 I picked up my new to me Compaq Pesario 5522. A nice 100km evening drive with Bella the mooch riding gunshot. It's in very clean condition and came with all the original setup CDs and disks to set it back to factory defaults if the need arises. Of everything currently on it will be wiped. My model came out in October 1995, 2 months after the Windows 95 release. Indications are the original install software included Dos/ Wfw/Tabworks/MS Works. Also came with a few dos shareware games CD compilations(Wolf brand) and a Windows 95 upgrade CD. I haven't come across a product review as yet apart from my vcfed.org post when I purchased it and though it'd be a good idea to record it here as well.
Same form factor as my CDS 524 but sports a P75 as opposed to a 486DX2/66. Fired it up and it counts up to 24megs of ram, has a 605meg hdd. Looks like it has a built in modem but unsure of its speed as yet. The keyboard LH Ctl & Alt keys seem to be non functioning or disabled but the RH ones are fine which appears to be the only issue with it.
It was set up to run originally a Compaq branded trial version of "Buttons", a Dos based graphical menu system I haven't seen before. The Windows 95 button pops up with a nice dialoque box stating Windows 95 will take 60-90sec(only that long) to start up.
Anyway, another nice compact Compaq system to play with. Anyone else own one of these or others in the 5500 range in another life?
Ran the upgrade cd and Windows 95 is displayed on startup in glorious 600x800 16-bit colour. Can go to a bigger screen size but there's noticable flicker. Now to party like it's 1995 baby!!
The screen the display doesn't reach out to the edge of the CRT and there is no way to adjust that without taking the back of a fiddling with some pots. Its one thing I adjusted on the CDS524 and should've been done before they left the factory. Sound is crisp with the 3 speaker function buttons on the rhs all working. One is mute the other two raise or lower the speaker volumes.
Some curious software is on it. Including what I listed above there's Compaq Operater which appears to be a fax/phone assistant, Print Artist and a lot more. Most is registerware though so will be biffed. Having a gander at whats on the hdd it looks like it was mainly just used for running Dos games, a Warcraft cd was still in the cdrom drive. $NZ30 well sent.
Below is a quote from the vcfed.org by user wesleyfurr's
I
I worked for a local computer repair type place for 4 years right out of high school. I remember working on one similar to this […]
I worked for a local computer repair type place for 4 years right out of high school. I remember working on one similar to this once upon a time. Never did much care for those all-in-one jobbies...but that's a personal preference. I remember that one specifically...I forget exactly what the problem was, but I remember the older guy looking at the properties on the C: drive and seeing it count up thousands and thousands of files and complaining about how many files there were and how that was probably causing problems to have that many, etc, etc. From what I gather, the guy went WAY back in computer days...when a few files on a disk were a lot! I don't recall it being any speed demon either...but likely just a pokey hard drive as much as anything...
On the desk behind me still sits my wife's college computer a Presario 4112 - P120. I think it's got 4 or 8Mb on board and I added something like 32 or 64Mb to it at one point. Hasn't been turned on in years...but makes a cute monitor stand. It actually was her brother's (2 years older) when he started college. But...my wife's computer for college was one of those crappy MediaGX Presario's (2200 series or something like that) and had no expansion slots, so she couldn't add a NIC. Ended up swapping with her brother who was no longer on campus and didn't need the NIC. I think she ended up with the better machine...
At that job, I was sent to training class and worked as a Compaq certified repair tech, and we did warranty repairs for Compaq. Should still have some old copies of the Maintenance & Service guides around here somewhere if you ever need detailed info of any sort...
Wesley
Having two ISA slots at least there's an option for a NIC. That was one of first things I did with my CDS 524 after I got it. Windows 95 is quite snappy without the IE garbage. According to the software installed it'll take a max of 72megs with 8megs on the slide in mobo. I think I've still got two 32meg 72 pin Simms floating around somewhere. Tried cleaning the Ctl and Alt contacts but no joy. I've got plenty of spare ps/2 keyboards if needed but I'll keep an eye out for a Compaq branded one when browsing about the thrift stores. Usually I don't bother but would look neat on display.
I found the component upgrade ref.
Link to Compaq Presario CDS500(486) series systems with the same form factor. Re: Compaq Presario 500 series HD replacement. (All-in-one).
As usual you are welcome to add your experiences to this thread. It could be a good resource for others 5500 series Presarios.
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
