I'm amazed you don't had to wash the memory slots to make the new Ram work. Every time I have to rub some alcohol to make it work ... I'm not really worried about the bad caps, I have a lot of computers in even worst condition than this one, and they are working great. I have replaced them on one computer a short time ago (after postponing for 4 years ...), no difference. By the way, I'm always happy to ear you talk about computers, even if it's for something as basic as a RAM upgrade.
I didn't even know 1 gig PC133 RAM modules exist! And what do you use to get a black mouse pointer in Windows? p.s. This camcorder boosts the color saturation a lot more than any of your other ones.
Not a bad little box, i rescued a 2400, reformatted the drive to remove all the crap, installed a fresh windows and gave it to a friend that could not afford a computer. Still working good 3 years later.
Very interesting. I still have a Dell 2400 that I bought new in 2003, and currently use as my file server and printer host for several computers in the house. The thing is built like a battle tank, and apart from a few power outages has been running continuously for several years without incident. Your video inspired me to open the case and check out the capacitors. They seemed all right, so I cleaned out the cobwebs and dust bunnies and we're good to go for several more years!
Hey Bill I just wanted to give you a quick update on the Dell Inspiron 1501, 3 weeks ago I went ahead and washed the motherboard as well as some of the case plastics, then after drying for a week I put everything back together. Some of the hardware that wasn't being detected properly is now somewhat working, most notably the optical drive. The ethernet controller still isn't working at all, but I'm happy enough with the results.
Not desperately, but have been trying without luck to lay my hands on a 3.5" floppy drive: my answer to those who wonder why the floppy. Your vid is always interesting, Bill. Keep warm.
Nice machine in that it was free, and it's given you yeoman's service all this time with little done to it, other than a good cleaning initially. I have a 2005 era eMachines (T3985) that was originally a Celeron D that belonged to my late mother, and it now serves as my media machine in the living room. Began life as a Celeron D based box with 512MB of RAM, now it runs a P4 processor and 1G of memory, running XP still and it runs just fine.
Ah, I see. I'm still not sure whether I should wash the motherboard or not. I'm just stumped as to what could be causing some of the hardware not to work properly. Thanks Bill.
Nice update :-) I just got a P3 1000mhz machine from my uncle i cleaned it and rebuild it into a high end retro gaming rig! It has 512mb of mem and windows 2000 and the performance is good for a 13 year old system. Its fun to play with old hardware. My plan is to build several system and go to events and festivals so everyone can play old 3d games in a network! I have a videos on my channel about my Pentium3 builds.
Award and Phoenix merged in 1998. The "Medallion" BIOS is the old gray screen Phoenix style setup (Asus seemed to love using it) with the "Modular" BIOS is the classic blue screen Award style setup. Whats interesting is how close that setup looked like the AMIBIOS setup being used at the time on OEM boards, (since no one in their right mind would use their WinBIOS!).
The HP Pavilion 7975 I had before it died when trying to install a linux distro (ReactOS) also had PC133 RAM. I took it out of my machine to keep for another computer, but it had 512MB RAM. "SMOKE TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". That never gets old!
dell dimension 2300 series are bulletproof, i had a 2350 with a celeron 1.7Ghz cpu with 128MB and i upgraded to a P4 2.0Ghz and 1GB of ram , this machine never died
I think I will try it, just have to find a brush with nice soft bristles. The laptop hasn't had its CMOS battery in it for about 2 weeks now, and it's only been on when I've wanted to test it.
Heh, I have an even older HP Pavilion 7955 desktop that is a tank to say atleast. It has a first gen P4 that runs at 1.5 GHz. Everything original excluding optical drives has survived 11 years when it was in service. Right before retiring it I looked at the board and found about 6-8 unhappy capacitors by the CPU socket. I have no idea on how it survived that. I hold no doubt that it still works if I were to switch it on today. These older OEM's had thicker cases that we don't see anymore.
Sir, you are my hero for saving that fellows life by notifying him of his mistake. If more people like you existed, my knuckles would hurt, and many folks would have fattened lips. good day.
It certainly fared better than my old Athlon XP setup. The power supply didn't fail, but all ten caps next to the CPU heatsink failed. It would've been a bear to change those out, so I ended up junking it, not without considerable regret. :(
Yeah. I figured the surge caused an overvoltage in the 5V circuit. Those blown caps all looked like 5V caps. Was that a Delta by chance? Some of the Delta units they used in some Dells didn't have the best protection, which is very unusual for Delta since they usually build really good power supplies.
On SDRAM DIMMs, I've noticed that the spacing of the RAM chips is a pretty reliable indicator of whether the module is made by a major brand or not. It sounds strange, but I've noticed that name brands always have the chips spaced to allow for a 9th chip to be populated, so that an ECC version can be manufactured. Generics have their PCB laid out for only 8 chips, probably because nobody would buy ECC from them even if they offered it. Starting with DDR2 even name brands have 8 chip PCBs though.
Another great video uxwbill. Keep up with the computer related content as I find it most enjoyable, when sitting upgrading/repairing my own or others systems. I have just taken in a RM ecoquiet 2 computer with a A-open i845GMm-HL motherboard that I intend on upgrading to a SFF gaming system for my other half. I'm sure I will get around to uploading a video of it on my own channel. I would be interested to see you do some videos on any 'workstation' systems you have, hint hint...
A bad cap can eventually short. When that happens, it can kill mosfets and sometimes a chipset, which would make the board completely unrepairable. If a board is going to be recapped, the best time to do it is while it still works, so the chance of a successful repair is still near 100%. Recapping boards after they've died is hit and miss.
Willamette P4's were Socket 423. Northwoods started at socket 478. This machine will definitely support something faster. I believe the fastest thing he can put in it is a 3.06HT but I believe the 845 doesn't support HT. 2.8 it is.
Excellent! I was wondering if you could detail how you hand washed it because I'm having an issue with a Dell Inspiron 1501 that won't detect some hardware properly.
Picked one of these up from a garage sale. And..my god. I have seen destroyed computers. But dear lord, this was bad. Now, I did pick this up with 2 other working desktops for about 10. Anyway, the VGA connector had been broke clean off the board, the cover plate was bent off, power supply was caked with dust. AMAZINGLY, the hinge still seemed to power up and run
Wasn't able to, not only was the case rusted so badly that it was horribly hard to open, but the motherboard had about 8 leaking caps. I salvaged what I could and chucked it.
Good old AwardBIOS! Of course it's not a true version of it but I'll never forget the startup of my first computer, counting all 32MBs of RAM twice and hearing the floppy drive make a noise and then loading Windows 98. Good times! :D For some reason, I hate how they cheaped out on the Energy Star logo for a few years like they did on this one sadly. It's not complete until it has the EPA Pollution Preventer text under the energy star logo. XD Call me crazy but I'm just picky about it.
i have my very own model m and i love how it has that vintage clikey sound and please give me a link to where you got that memory because as i said in a link below if i can make the memory 1 gb with 2 512 sticks then i will be an optimist as well and hope that those are a good choice :)
The memtest86 numbers are very interesting. It definitely shows how much of a bottleneck SDR memory is on a P4 system. My old P-III/PC133 machine can do 455MB/s in memtest. I would've thought that a P4 system--equipped with a newer memory controller and quad pumped FSB--would do much better than 491MB/s. Then again, who knows how accurate those numbers really are. PC133 should be able to push 1GB/s.
Ive had that brand of memory chip in my machines, never a problem :-) Oh yes, capacitor death, well you could write the values and number of required down and stick a note to the machine to remind you in the future :-) It is such a shame that machines become useless due to the constant changes to hardware and software :-(, that seems a reliable pc, and i like a reliable machine over a speed demon thats a pain. Smashing, your methods are fine bill, dont put yourself down.
I would be curious to see if that would support a faster CPU, from my experience with socket 478 boards that only support PC133 ram they have all been limited to supporting the first generation "Willamette" P4 processors which maxed out at 2.0GHz before the Northwood was introduced.
My Grandpa has a dell demension 2300 that he just retired after my brother built him a computer. He used it until late 2012 which seems almost amazing to use such outdated tech. Grandpa might give me the computer. Not sure though. Bill if I were you I would but a backdrop on the wall or atleast move some of the unnecessary stuff like the microwave to behind the computer monitors or on the desk. Just my opinion.
aha a dimension 2300 ive repaired those for my church they come to me for anything electronic at church ive done VHS players dvd players and you name it ive done it and we are suposed to start doing a live video stream of the services soon and i was wondering if you thought one of these dimensions would be good for doing so if thats the case then i can let the pastor know and save the church quite a bit of cash thanks
man seeing one of these computers just makes my blood boil and my skin start to crawl because we still got our dimension 2300 and had nothing but problems with that thing and ever since I have had a real hatred for those things....okkkk I got off on a rant oops my bad good video
Here is the specs of the dell dimension 2300: Dell Dimension 2300 - P4 2.4 GHz - 256 MB - 40 GB - CRT 17" Part Number: A-D0904 GENERAL Desktop type Budget desktop system Packaged Quantity 1 Recommended Use home use, small business Product Form Factor Micro tower Color midnight gray Manufacturer Dell, Inc. PROCESSOR / CHIPSET CPU Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz Data Bus Speed 400 MHz Chipset Type Intel 845GL Processor Socket Socket 478 CACHE MEMORY Installed Size L2 cache - 512 KB Advanced Transfer Cache Cache Per Processor 512 KB RAM Technology SDRAM Memory Speed 133 MHz Memory Specification Compliance PC133 STORAGE Interface Type ATA-100 Type none Read Speed 32x (CD) / 8x (DVD) Write Speed 8x Rewrite Speed 4x MEMORY Max Supported Size 512 MB Form Factor DIMM 168-pin HARD DRIVE Interface Type ATA-100 Spindle Speed 5400 rpm AUDIO & VIDEO Memory Allocation Technology shared video memory (UMA) Supported Display Graphics 1800x1440, QXGA (2048x1536) INPUT Type keyboard, mouse STORAGE CONTROLLER Interface Type ATA-100 PROCESSOR Installed Qty 1 Max Supported Qty 1 Upgradability upgradable FLOPPY DRIVE Type 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy MONITOR Monitor Type CRT Native Resolution 1024 x 768 ( XGA ) Diagonal Size 17 in Viewable Size 16 in Pixel Pitch 0.28 mm NETWORKING Max Transfer Rate 56 Kbps MISCELLANEOUS Color midnight gray Compliant Standards APM GRAPHICS CONTROLLER Form Factor integrated Interface Type AGP Graphics Processor Intel Extreme Graphics shared video memory (UMA) Video Interfaces VGA DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT Width 7.2 in Depth 16.8 in Height 14.5 in MANUFACTURER WARRANTY Type 3 years warranty AUDIO OUTPUT Form Factor integrated Signal Processor Intel 845GL Sound Output Mode stereo Compliant Standards AC '97 PRINTER Type none TELECOM Modem Fax / modem - PCI - plug-in card PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Form Factor micro tower Weight 22.93 lbs CLUSTER Cluster Hard Drive none Dell Dimension 2300 - P4 2.4 GHz - 256 MB - 40 GB - CRT 17" Part Number: A-D0904 GENERAL Desktop type Budget desktop system Packaged Quantity 1 Recommended Use home use, small business Product Form Factor Micro tower Color midnight gray ManufacturerDell, Inc. PROCESSOR / CHIPSET CPU Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz Data Bus Speed 400 MHz Chipset Type Intel 845GL Processor Socket Socket 478 CACHE MEMORY Installed Size L2 cache - 512 KB Advanced Transfer Cache Cache Per Processor 512 KB RAM Technology SDRAM Memory Speed 133 MHz Memory Specification Compliance PC133 STORAGE Interface Type ATA-100 Type none Read Speed 32x (CD) / 8x (DVD) Write Speed 8x Rewrite Speed 4x MEMORY Max Supported Size 512 MB Form Factor DIMM 168-pin HARD DRIVE Interface Type ATA-100 Spindle Speed 5400 rpm AUDIO & VIDEO Memory Allocation Technology shared video memory (UMA) Supported Display Graphics 1800x1440, QXGA (2048x1536) INPUT Type keyboard, mouse STORAGE CONTROLLER Interface Type ATA-100 PROCESSOR Installed Qty 1 Max Supported Qty 1 Upgradability upgradable FLOPPY DRIVE Type 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy MONITOR Monitor Type CRT Native Resolution 1024 x 768 ( XGA ) Diagonal Size 17 in Viewable Size 16 in Pixel Pitch 0.28 mm NETWORKING Max Transfer Rate 56 Kbps MISCELLANEOUS Color midnight gray Compliant Standards APM GRAPHICS CONTROLLER Form Factor integrated Interface Type AGP Graphics Processor Intel Extreme Graphics shared video memory (UMA) Video Interfaces VGA DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT Width 7.2 in Depth 16.8 in Height 14.5 in MANUFACTURER WARRANTY Type 3 years warranty AUDIO OUTPUT Form Factor integrated Signal Processor Intel 845GL Sound Output Mode stereo Compliant Standards AC '97 PRINTER Type none TELECOM Modem Fax / modem - PCI - plug-in card PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Form Factor micro tower Weight 22.93 lbs CLUSTER Cluster Hard Drive none POWER Type power supply Nominal Voltage AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz ) OPERATING SYSTEM / SOFTWARE OS Provided: Type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition OS Provided Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Type Drivers & Utilities, Microsoft Works 6.0 GENERAL ManufacturerDell, Inc.POWER Type power supply Nominal Voltage AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz ) OPERATING SYSTEM / SOFTWARE OS Provided: Type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition OS Provided Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Type Drivers & Utilities, Microsoft Works 6.0
did you know you can play video on that if you convert it to mpeg 2 out put and they will play just fine i put my dvd usb movies on it and found out it would play in that format
I wish we would go back to this time, we had amazing computers up until 2009ish, been mostly junk since then, even Dell has come down to using laptop bricks for desktops
here here. Have to this day a working dell inspiron 1300, 10 or 11 years old and still kicking. That includes the original 80gb EIDE hard drive. no surprise the drive is a WD "blue" hdd.
I agree. I'm keeping all my old machines and will continue to use them for day to day activities until said activities no longer support them. Then, I'll find ways to keep using them for nostalgia value.
ThatGuyYouKnow Yup. Until the day it stops working my Inspiron 1300 has work to do, and when that day does come if I can I'll fix it until I can't. Even then it's not over I have made a virtual clone of the drive that'll run o MS virtual pc. So the machines "soul" well live on no matter what.
Plain Memtest86 (sans +)? Now that's a little long in the tooth. Anyway, I happen to maintain a few HP Vectras similar to this machine (but even older @1.5 to 1.7 GHz) @work, for noncritical surfing/office. They used to be pretty much unbearable with 256 megs (as they say, the biggest virus is the antivirus). Got a bunch of 512 meggers, and they've been much happier since. Still not sure why Firefox display updates make the mouse cursor lag, AGP seems to work fine though TNT2 Vantas are antique.
Good, enjoyable video as allways, Oh starlite2991 a mess for one person is organised chaos for someone else. I think my computer room is a mess but my friends think that it is super tidy,,,
i enjoy watching videos about old computers i happen to have an old compaq its got a Celaron D single core at 2.5Ghz with 256Mb or ram i use it as an emulation machine i also have a slightly newish Dell xps 410 that been upgraded from a pentium 4 for to a core 2 Daul core honestly note sure the clock but its got 3Gb of ram and an ATI 5500 Card a 150Gb WD drive i run linux on all of my older pcs and they all handle it great just a random comment i do enjoy your videos though kinda ironic that im watching this on a pc with an i5 at 4Ghz water cooled 16Gb of Ram and 2 AMD 7870s on a 1200w power supply XD
I have done a few cap mods prob more than 200 . Its not a matter of when it may fail to boot it will fail to boot or just stop working and die a horrible death. Sod I bet that machine has less than 6 months to live.
Nah, it'll be okay with 2000. If you can get, say, 512MB RAM or more in it, XP would probably be okay too. As for the display, I'd bet it's the video. Either replace the video card or add one in if it's using the video built into the board.
Hi Will, I have a Gateway windows 2000 pro tower with some issiues. I am repairing it for a someone and I am stuned by it. It seems it has some graphics problems I think that makes it display bars. I shall upload a video of it for you. Also it seems like it has been starting up with no video at all sometimes, nor is starting up properly. Before I upload the video, do you know the issuie?
Hey uxwbill, I have a question about the HP monitor you where using at 9:55. I recently got one from a electronic recycling and it seems to have some kind of unique connector. Is it just a straight up plug or does it have a power brick like a laptop?
Hynix = cheap RAM. Used to see those modules at computer shows all the time. It'll work, just don't attempt to overclock it! Bad capacitors, a hallmark of the era of crap hardware! PC133 in a i845 Pentium 4... yikes! I'm actually surprised to see an Award Medallion BIOS POST screen with Energy Star logo on a Dell, Intel usually opted for the traditional text only Phoenix style screens on their boards. I wonder if they made that motherboard?
I put ads on all my videos because if people don't like it they can easily block it, and it gives me a little money incentive to make more videos and help me pay to do new ones.
I have a 2300 and would like extra memory. Right now just a 256 card. The 2300 was hardly used and very clean. My tech helper is having trouble finding the cards. Any ideas? Thanks, Leo
After making over 1,000 videos, I don't remember the exact details of every one. Some of the capacitors in this system were certainly difficult to get at, and it's not worth it. Remember -- free computer. I got more than my money's worth out of it!
Great sayings of uxwbill:
Smoke test!
But I digress
Try to do this one handedly
Candyham
Real computers have floppy drives
Also: "Real computers have PS/2 ports"
"Weeny modern computer"
And 'Intel extreeeeeeeeme graphics'
“But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself”
“Bobs your uncle, or in my case my great grandfather”
I'm amazed you don't had to wash the memory slots to make the new Ram work.
Every time I have to rub some alcohol to make it work ...
I'm not really worried about the bad caps, I have a lot of computers in even worst condition than this one, and they are working great. I have replaced them on one computer a short time ago (after postponing for 4 years ...), no difference.
By the way, I'm always happy to ear you talk about computers, even if it's for something as basic as a RAM upgrade.
I remember, these era dells are absolutely bulletproof
I didn't even know 1 gig PC133 RAM modules exist! And what do you use to get a black mouse pointer in Windows?
p.s. This camcorder boosts the color saturation a lot more than any of your other ones.
Not a bad little box, i rescued a 2400, reformatted the drive to remove all the crap, installed a fresh windows and gave it to a friend that could not afford a computer. Still working good 3 years later.
great job and long may the dell live
The Dell computers of this era are some of the most reliable ever built. I have a Dimension 3000 I got for free and it works absolutely fantastic!
Very interesting. I still have a Dell 2400 that I bought new in 2003, and currently use as my file server and printer host for several computers in the house. The thing is built like a battle tank, and apart from a few power outages has been running continuously for several years without incident. Your video inspired me to open the case and check out the capacitors. They seemed all right, so I cleaned out the cobwebs and dust bunnies and we're good to go for several more years!
Awesome little machine! i remember my old school using a bunch of these and they probably still do! i love all the videos!
subbed because all of these videos are so entertaining and interesting!
Hey Bill I just wanted to give you a quick update on the Dell Inspiron 1501, 3 weeks ago I went ahead and washed the motherboard as well as some of the case plastics, then after drying for a week I put everything back together.
Some of the hardware that wasn't being detected properly is now somewhat working, most notably the optical drive. The ethernet controller still isn't working at all, but I'm happy enough with the results.
I love almost every computer in the Dimension line.
Not desperately, but have been trying without luck to lay my hands on a 3.5" floppy drive: my answer to those who wonder why the floppy.
Your vid is always interesting, Bill. Keep warm.
Nice machine in that it was free, and it's given you yeoman's service all this time with little done to it, other than a good cleaning initially.
I have a 2005 era eMachines (T3985) that was originally a Celeron D that belonged to my late mother, and it now serves as my media machine in the living room. Began life as a Celeron D based box with 512MB of RAM, now it runs a P4 processor and 1G of memory, running XP still and it runs just fine.
I JUST found out about your channel and god damn, you're such an interesting guy. Subbed.
Ah, I see. I'm still not sure whether I should wash the motherboard or not. I'm just stumped as to what could be causing some of the hardware not to work properly. Thanks Bill.
Nice update :-) I just got a P3 1000mhz machine from my uncle i cleaned it and rebuild it into a high end retro gaming rig! It has 512mb of mem and windows 2000 and the performance is good for a 13 year old system. Its fun to play with old hardware. My plan is to build several system and go to events and festivals so everyone can play old 3d games in a network! I have a videos on my channel about my Pentium3 builds.
Award and Phoenix merged in 1998. The "Medallion" BIOS is the old gray screen Phoenix style setup (Asus seemed to love using it) with the "Modular" BIOS is the classic blue screen Award style setup. Whats interesting is how close that setup looked like the AMIBIOS setup being used at the time on OEM boards, (since no one in their right mind would use their WinBIOS!).
The HP Pavilion 7975 I had before it died when trying to install a linux distro (ReactOS) also had PC133 RAM. I took it out of my machine to keep for another computer, but it had 512MB RAM.
"SMOKE TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". That never gets old!
+MilenniumEdition 56 I have to agree on the smoke test being timeless.
ReactOS isn't a Linux distribution － it's an alpha Windows NT clone!
When listing legendary keyboards, you can't forget the DEC LK201! (which has now been forgotten outside of niche hobbyist circles)
dell dimension 2300 series are bulletproof, i had a 2350 with a celeron 1.7Ghz cpu with 128MB and i upgraded to a P4 2.0Ghz and 1GB of ram , this machine never died
"in my traditional style ,however, I have managed to get essentially nothing done" I know that feeling :) keep up the great vids :)
I think I will try it, just have to find a brush with nice soft bristles. The laptop hasn't had its CMOS battery in it for about 2 weeks now, and it's only been on when I've wanted to test it.
Heh, I have an even older HP Pavilion 7955 desktop that is a tank to say atleast. It has a first gen P4 that runs at 1.5 GHz. Everything original excluding optical drives has survived 11 years when it was in service. Right before retiring it I looked at the board and found about 6-8 unhappy capacitors by the CPU socket. I have no idea on how it survived that.
I hold no doubt that it still works if I were to switch it on today.
These older OEM's had thicker cases that we don't see anymore.
Sir, you are my hero for saving that fellows life by notifying him of his mistake.
If more people like you existed, my knuckles would hurt, and many folks would have fattened lips.
good day.
It certainly fared better than my old Athlon XP setup. The power supply didn't fail, but all ten caps next to the CPU heatsink failed. It would've been a bear to change those out, so I ended up junking it, not without considerable regret. :(
Yeah. I figured the surge caused an overvoltage in the 5V circuit. Those blown caps all looked like 5V caps. Was that a Delta by chance? Some of the Delta units they used in some Dells didn't have the best protection, which is very unusual for Delta since they usually build really good power supplies.
On SDRAM DIMMs, I've noticed that the spacing of the RAM chips is a pretty reliable indicator of whether the module is made by a major brand or not.
It sounds strange, but I've noticed that name brands always have the chips spaced to allow for a 9th chip to be populated, so that an ECC version can be manufactured.
Generics have their PCB laid out for only 8 chips, probably because nobody would buy ECC from them even if they offered it.
Starting with DDR2 even name brands have 8 chip PCBs though.
Another great video uxwbill. Keep up with the computer related content as I find it most enjoyable, when sitting upgrading/repairing my own or others systems. I have just taken in a RM ecoquiet 2 computer with a A-open i845GMm-HL motherboard that I intend on upgrading to a SFF gaming system for my other half. I'm sure I will get around to uploading a video of it on my own channel. I would be interested to see you do some videos on any 'workstation' systems you have, hint hint...
A bad cap can eventually short. When that happens, it can kill mosfets and sometimes a chipset, which would make the board completely unrepairable. If a board is going to be recapped, the best time to do it is while it still works, so the chance of a successful repair is still near 100%. Recapping boards after they've died is hit and miss.
Willamette P4's were Socket 423. Northwoods started at socket 478. This machine will definitely support something faster. I believe the fastest thing he can put in it is a 3.06HT but I believe the 845 doesn't support HT. 2.8 it is.
Excellent! I was wondering if you could detail how you hand washed it because I'm having an issue with a Dell Inspiron 1501 that won't detect some hardware properly.
My old LGA 775 PC doesn't have an integrated Ethernet port. I bought it in 2005 and it came with a RealTek LAN card.
I had a 2400 I upgraded the CPU chip and both memory to the max. It works great as a good all around computer.
I'd guess the 5-volt standby rail on the old power supply caused that. That's the one that blew up, right?
Oh ok thanks for the help! If i can find one this monitor would make a great test bench monitor.
Picked one of these up from a garage sale. And..my god. I have seen destroyed computers. But dear lord, this was bad. Now, I did pick this up with 2 other working desktops for about 10. Anyway, the VGA connector had been broke clean off the board, the cover plate was bent off, power supply was caked with dust. AMAZINGLY, the hinge still seemed to power up and run
+Len Kagamine, The yandere (VintagePCsalike) the thing*
+Len Kagamine, The yandere (VintagePCsalike) The bottom of it was also rusted to hell and back.
+VintagePC's alike wow
Did you install a PCI graphics card?
Wasn't able to, not only was the case rusted so badly that it was horribly hard to open, but the motherboard had about 8 leaking caps. I salvaged what I could and chucked it.
there were 2gb pc 133 modules as well, but they were ecc registered.
SMOKE TEST!!!! I Love it.. That sound like something i would do.
Good old AwardBIOS! Of course it's not a true version of it but I'll never forget the startup of my first computer, counting all 32MBs of RAM twice and hearing the floppy drive make a noise and then loading Windows 98. Good times! :D
For some reason, I hate how they cheaped out on the Energy Star logo for a few years like they did on this one sadly. It's not complete until it has the EPA Pollution Preventer text under the energy star logo. XD Call me crazy but I'm just picky about it.
If you're a retro computer collector and user you need floppies. I use 720k and 1.44MB ones mainly
I have floppies, some are bootable and have hard drive utilities on them etc. I find them useful when working on older Pc''s such as this.
I tried to solder a mini jack with 2 speakers. But the soldering iron keeps not getting tinned.
Removing capacitors is tough.
on some dell diemensions the bios is A14
Depends on the model.
i have my very own model m and i love how it has that vintage clikey sound and please give me a link to where you got that memory because as i said in a link below if i can make the memory 1 gb with 2 512 sticks then i will be an optimist as well and hope that those are a good choice :)
To be or not to be... a future episode of Kitchen Table Electronics Repair: DELL Dimension 2300 "Music Player" Computer Capacitor Replacement.
The memtest86 numbers are very interesting. It definitely shows how much of a bottleneck SDR memory is on a P4 system. My old P-III/PC133 machine can do 455MB/s in memtest. I would've thought that a P4 system--equipped with a newer memory controller and quad pumped FSB--would do much better than 491MB/s.
Then again, who knows how accurate those numbers really are. PC133 should be able to push 1GB/s.
Ive had that brand of memory chip in my machines, never a problem :-)
Oh yes, capacitor death, well you could write the values and number of required down and stick a note to the machine to remind you in the future :-)
It is such a shame that machines become useless due to the constant changes to hardware and software :-(, that seems a reliable pc, and i like a reliable machine over a speed demon thats a pain.
Smashing, your methods are fine bill, dont put yourself down.
And the Floppy drive mount was missing so I had to work up a decent fix with some screws and some bread bag twist ties.
I would be curious to see if that would support a faster CPU, from my experience with socket 478 boards that only support PC133 ram they have all been limited to supporting the first generation "Willamette" P4 processors which maxed out at 2.0GHz before the Northwood was introduced.
I have had great experiences with Hynix ram!
I have one, a 1GB PC133 ECC quite possibly for a IBM server of a type.
My Grandpa has a dell demension 2300 that he just retired after my brother built him a computer. He used it until late 2012 which seems almost amazing to use such outdated tech. Grandpa might give me the computer. Not sure though.
Bill if I were you I would but a backdrop on the wall or atleast move some of the unnecessary stuff like the microwave to behind the computer monitors or on the desk. Just my opinion.
aha a dimension 2300 ive repaired those for my church they come to me for anything electronic at church ive done VHS players dvd players and you name it ive done it and we are suposed to start doing a live video stream of the services soon and i was wondering if you thought one of these dimensions would be good for doing so if thats the case then i can let the pastor know and save the church quite a bit of cash thanks
man seeing one of these computers just makes my blood boil and my skin start to crawl because we still got our dimension 2300 and had nothing but problems with that thing and ever since I have had a real hatred for those things....okkkk I got off on a rant oops my bad good video
Here is the specs of the dell dimension 2300:
Dell Dimension 2300 - P4 2.4 GHz - 256 MB - 40 GB - CRT 17"
Part Number: A-D0904
GENERAL
Desktop type Budget desktop system
Packaged Quantity 1
Recommended Use home use, small business
Product Form Factor Micro tower
Color midnight gray
Manufacturer Dell, Inc.
PROCESSOR / CHIPSET
CPU Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
Data Bus Speed 400 MHz
Chipset Type Intel 845GL
Processor Socket Socket 478
CACHE MEMORY
Installed Size L2 cache - 512 KB Advanced Transfer Cache
Cache Per Processor 512 KB
RAM
Technology SDRAM
Memory Speed 133 MHz
Memory Specification Compliance PC133
STORAGE
Interface Type ATA-100
Type none
Read Speed 32x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
Write Speed 8x
Rewrite Speed 4x
MEMORY
Max Supported Size 512 MB
Form Factor DIMM 168-pin
HARD DRIVE
Interface Type ATA-100
Spindle Speed 5400 rpm
AUDIO & VIDEO
Memory Allocation Technology shared video memory (UMA)
Supported Display Graphics 1800x1440, QXGA (2048x1536)
INPUT
Type keyboard, mouse
STORAGE CONTROLLER
Interface Type ATA-100
PROCESSOR
Installed Qty 1
Max Supported Qty 1
Upgradability upgradable
FLOPPY DRIVE
Type 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy
MONITOR
Monitor Type CRT
Native Resolution 1024 x 768 ( XGA )
Diagonal Size 17 in
Viewable Size 16 in
Pixel Pitch 0.28 mm
NETWORKING
Max Transfer Rate 56 Kbps
MISCELLANEOUS
Color midnight gray
Compliant Standards APM
GRAPHICS CONTROLLER
Form Factor integrated
Interface Type AGP
Graphics Processor Intel Extreme Graphics shared video memory (UMA)
Video Interfaces VGA
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT
Width 7.2 in
Depth 16.8 in
Height 14.5 in
MANUFACTURER WARRANTY
Type 3 years warranty
AUDIO OUTPUT
Form Factor integrated
Signal Processor Intel 845GL
Sound Output Mode stereo
Compliant Standards AC '97
PRINTER
Type none
TELECOM
Modem Fax / modem - PCI - plug-in card
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Form Factor micro tower
Weight 22.93 lbs
CLUSTER
Cluster Hard Drive none
Dell Dimension 2300 - P4 2.4 GHz - 256 MB - 40 GB - CRT 17"
Part Number: A-D0904
GENERAL
Desktop type Budget desktop system
Packaged Quantity 1
Recommended Use home use, small business
Product Form Factor Micro tower
Color midnight gray
ManufacturerDell, Inc.
PROCESSOR / CHIPSET
CPU Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
Data Bus Speed 400 MHz
Chipset Type Intel 845GL
Processor Socket Socket 478
CACHE MEMORY
Installed Size L2 cache - 512 KB Advanced Transfer Cache
Cache Per Processor 512 KB
RAM
Technology SDRAM
Memory Speed 133 MHz
Memory Specification Compliance PC133
STORAGE
Interface Type ATA-100
Type none
Read Speed 32x (CD) / 8x (DVD)
Write Speed 8x
Rewrite Speed 4x
MEMORY
Max Supported Size 512 MB
Form Factor DIMM 168-pin
HARD DRIVE
Interface Type ATA-100
Spindle Speed 5400 rpm
AUDIO & VIDEO
Memory Allocation Technology shared video memory (UMA)
Supported Display Graphics 1800x1440, QXGA (2048x1536)
INPUT
Type keyboard, mouse
STORAGE CONTROLLER
Interface Type ATA-100
PROCESSOR
Installed Qty 1
Max Supported Qty 1
Upgradability upgradable
FLOPPY DRIVE
Type 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy
MONITOR
Monitor Type CRT
Native Resolution 1024 x 768 ( XGA )
Diagonal Size 17 in
Viewable Size 16 in
Pixel Pitch 0.28 mm
NETWORKING
Max Transfer Rate 56 Kbps
MISCELLANEOUS
Color midnight gray
Compliant Standards APM
GRAPHICS CONTROLLER
Form Factor integrated
Interface Type AGP
Graphics Processor Intel Extreme Graphics shared video memory (UMA)
Video Interfaces VGA
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT
Width 7.2 in
Depth 16.8 in
Height 14.5 in
MANUFACTURER WARRANTY
Type 3 years warranty
AUDIO OUTPUT
Form Factor integrated
Signal Processor Intel 845GL
Sound Output Mode stereo
Compliant Standards AC '97
PRINTER
Type none
TELECOM
Modem Fax / modem - PCI - plug-in card
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Form Factor micro tower
Weight 22.93 lbs
CLUSTER
Cluster Hard Drive none
POWER
Type power supply
Nominal Voltage AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
OPERATING SYSTEM / SOFTWARE
OS Provided: Type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Provided Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Type Drivers & Utilities, Microsoft Works 6.0
GENERAL
ManufacturerDell, Inc.POWER
Type power supply
Nominal Voltage AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
OPERATING SYSTEM / SOFTWARE
OS Provided: Type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Provided Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Type Drivers & Utilities, Microsoft Works 6.0
Detailed specs are the best specs
It would probably run Windows 98 well.
My even older p3 dell has the same bios logo and it takes EONS to load all 756MB of SDRAM heck I could count as fast as it loads it.
you should try to put a dell dimension motherboard that would fit that might have an agp slot
Yesterday I was fixing a 1994 desktop that my dad built that refused to boot the problem was an ssci card and bad bios settings
So True About real Computers Having floppy drives
i think a06 is the latest bios for this 2300
did you know you can play video on that if you convert it to mpeg 2 out put and they will play just fine i put my dvd usb movies on it and found out it would play in that format
I wish we would go back to this time, we had amazing computers up until 2009ish, been mostly junk since then, even Dell has come down to using laptop bricks for desktops
here here. Have to this day a working dell inspiron 1300, 10 or 11 years old and still kicking.
That includes the original 80gb EIDE hard drive. no surprise the drive is a WD "blue" hdd.
I agree. I'm keeping all my old machines and will continue to use them for day to day activities until said activities no longer support them. Then, I'll find ways to keep using them for nostalgia value.
ThatGuyYouKnow Yup. Until the day it stops working my Inspiron 1300 has work to do, and when that day does come if I can I'll fix it until I can't. Even then it's not over I have made a virtual clone of the drive that'll run o MS virtual pc. So the machines "soul" well live on no matter what.
How did the test turn out?
BTW: I really think you'd need to replace the Mobo or atleast the caps :/
nice machine you have there
Plain Memtest86 (sans +)? Now that's a little long in the tooth.
Anyway, I happen to maintain a few HP Vectras similar to this machine (but even older @1.5 to 1.7 GHz) @work, for noncritical surfing/office. They used to be pretty much unbearable with 256 megs (as they say, the biggest virus is the antivirus). Got a bunch of 512 meggers, and they've been much happier since. Still not sure why Firefox display updates make the mouse cursor lag, AGP seems to work fine though TNT2 Vantas are antique.
Good, enjoyable video as allways, Oh starlite2991 a mess for one person is organised chaos for someone else.
I think my computer room is a mess but my friends think that it is super tidy,,,
I came across a gigabyte of RDRAM, I'm gonna drop it in my Dimension 8200 when I get it out of the storage unit.
i enjoy watching videos about old computers i happen to have an old compaq its got a Celaron D single core at 2.5Ghz with 256Mb or ram i use it as an emulation machine i also have a slightly newish Dell xps 410 that been upgraded from a pentium 4 for to a core 2 Daul core honestly note sure the clock but its got 3Gb of ram and an ATI 5500 Card a 150Gb WD drive i run linux on all of my older pcs and they all handle it great just a random comment i do enjoy your videos though kinda ironic that im watching this on a pc with an i5 at 4Ghz water cooled 16Gb of Ram and 2 AMD 7870s on a 1200w power supply XD
lol just noticed, high quality!
I have done a few cap mods prob more than 200 . Its not a matter of when it may fail to boot it will fail to boot or just stop working and die a horrible death.
Sod I bet that machine has less than 6 months to live.
Nah, it'll be okay with 2000. If you can get, say, 512MB RAM or more in it, XP would probably be okay too.
As for the display, I'd bet it's the video. Either replace the video card or add one in if it's using the video built into the board.
Hi Will, I have a Gateway windows 2000 pro tower with some issiues.
I am repairing it for a someone and I am stuned by it. It seems it has some graphics problems I think that makes it display bars. I shall upload a video of it for you.
Also it seems like it has been starting up with no video at all sometimes, nor is starting up properly.
Before I upload the video, do you know the issuie?
Hey uxwbill, I have a question about the HP monitor you where using at 9:55. I recently got one from a electronic recycling and it seems to have some kind of unique connector. Is it just a straight up plug or does it have a power brick like a laptop?
guess don't have to set memory timing
It oringaly had win 98 on it. Do you think that win 2000 pro is too new for it?
I am wondering what is the may issiue.
Hey, did you ever get that stereo I sent up to ya?
it originally had 256 mgs of ram
I doubt there is such a thing for PC133.
is that a IBM PS/2 Model 85 in your room? I have one of these.
when i bought my new computer i had to buy a usb floppy drive to make it as bill says "A real computer" lol
In my optiplex gx270 I have 1.3 gb of RAM. It speeds along with power
Hynix = cheap RAM. Used to see those modules at computer shows all the time. It'll work, just don't attempt to overclock it! Bad capacitors, a hallmark of the era of crap hardware! PC133 in a i845 Pentium 4... yikes! I'm actually surprised to see an Award Medallion BIOS POST screen with Energy Star logo on a Dell, Intel usually opted for the traditional text only Phoenix style screens on their boards. I wonder if they made that motherboard?
My 2400 is happily running XP Home Edition on 2GB of ram. ^_^
Awww, someone's angry!
I put ads on all my videos because if people don't like it they can easily block it, and it gives me a little money incentive to make more videos and help me pay to do new ones.
I need an eraser like that, my mistakes are always big. :D
Me too.
I still bet my PII will outlive it. ;)
arnt these dell's popular for being very dusty inside lol :P
I have a 2300 and would like extra memory. Right now just a 256 card. The 2300
was hardly used and very clean. My tech helper is having trouble finding the cards.
Any ideas? Thanks, Leo
Have you tried ebay?
Are you still on blogtv or YouNow? If not, where is your show?
Thanks...really enjoyed the Christmas Eve into Christmas show...
Caps replacement would make another nice video *lol*
Hey uxwbill.
What kind of a studio is that showing in this video? Is it some kind of a recording studio or what? :)
No Podcast/Radio
soldering is pretty easy if necessary
No need to preach to the choir. Also not entirely true of SMD parts.
@@uxwbill the caps are smd?
what
After making over 1,000 videos, I don't remember the exact details of every one. Some of the capacitors in this system were certainly difficult to get at, and it's not worth it. Remember -- free computer. I got more than my money's worth out of it!
@@uxwbill alright hope it works out
Lol I still have an external floppy for troubleshooting purposes.
Is that the computer where you hand washed the motherboard because it wouldn't boot?
i often strip wires with my teeth.
nice stuff. relly
More cowbell!
3:26 I have that eraser!