Dell Dimension 4300, what to do with it?

[datamonger128]

So yeah, a friend of mine just got this computer for free and we have no idea what we should do with it.

It's got an old Willamette Pentium 4 inside of it as well as 768MB PC-133 RAM, ATi RAGE Pro II 16MB VRAM AGP card, 80GB HDD, and Windows XP Professional installed.  We were thinking of trying to install Windows 98 on it just to play old games like Mechwarrior 2 and Star Wars Dark Forces.

[EverythingIBM]

So yeah, a friend of mine just got this computer for free and we have no idea what we should do with it.

It's got an old Willamette Pentium 4 inside of it as well as 768MB PC-133 RAM, ATi RAGE Pro II 16MB VRAM AGP card, 80GB HDD, and Windows XP Professional installed.  We were thinking of trying to install Windows 98 on it just to play old games like Mechwarrior 2 and Star Wars Dark Forces.

Windows 98 can only support 512 MB of RAM (supposedly 1 GB if you do some fancy tricks). Also, it's limited on what hardware it can support, luckily the driver standard by microsoft allows compatibility between 95/98/XP drivers (if you're lucky, you can get it to work, perhaps not at the full potential).

Some of the older games require voodo 3Dfx (old games are very picky about having voodoo and soundblaster; neither of which I have, and want).

Just scrap it and buy a good IBM like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Windows-98-Computer-2-4-GHz-IBM-Pentium-4-Win98-SE-DOS_W0QQitemZ170459421104QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDesktop_PCs?hash=item27b02c59b0

EDIT: dells have VERY bad capacitors, and dell computers often catch on fire (I've been in situations where that happened far too often). And, they have an ugly logo. Where's the stripes?

[datamonger128]

Well, I would buy an old Windows 98 machine, but I'm kind of broke right now.  Slowly digging one's self out of debt takes a toll on the wallet.

As for Dells having bad capacitors and often catching fire, I've not encountered a Dell with bad capacitors yet nor experienced one catching fire.  However, oddly enough, the computers that I have worked on that had bad capacitors were usually made by IBM.  The problem I seem to keep on encountering with Dells is bad hard drives.  Damn near every single Dell I have worked on since my old Latitude XPi has needed a new hard drive.

[EverythingIBM]

Well, I would buy an old Windows 98 machine, but I'm kind of broke right now.  Slowly digging one's self out of debt takes a toll on the wallet.

As for Dells having bad capacitors and often catching fire, I've not encountered a Dell with bad capacitors yet nor experienced one catching fire.  However, oddly enough, the computers that I have worked on that had bad capacitors were usually made by IBM.  The problem I seem to keep on encountering with Dells is bad hard drives.  Damn near every single Dell I have worked on since my old Latitude XPi has needed a new hard drive.

Well, all of my IBM computers have been running for years now, no bad capacitors. Either the IBMs you used were abused, or something else was the cause. The only problem I'm aware of in IBMs are the CMOS batteries dying: because of their longevity.

Yeah, dell was being sued back in the 1994 days when their laptops were a fire hazard (I experienced the "catching on fire" first hand with their desktops). I was looking inside a few dells today; all of the ribbon cables were being pinched, circuit boards were being rubbed against; it was a terrible cable management and design. The weirdest thing was the power supply; it was elongated FLAT at the bottom with the fan being vented under the hard drive.... then the PCI slots were on top of the power supply.

I can just see why that thing would be a fire hazard. I gutted the hard drives (IDE & AT) and CD drives from them though.

In any case, just sell the darn thing THEN buy a "dos" computer.

EDIT: It would be amusing to use one of those dells as a test subject for making an XT keyboard compatible with PS/2.

[microsoft windows]

Windows 98 can only support 512 MB of RAM (supposedly 1 GB if you do some fancy tricks). Also, it's limited on what hardware it can support, luckily the driver standard by microsoft allows compatibility between 95/98/XP drivers (if you're lucky, you can get it to work, perhaps not at the full potential).

Some of the older games require voodo 3Dfx (old games are very picky about having voodoo and soundblaster; neither of which I have, and want).

Just scrap it and buy a good IBM like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Windows-98-Computer-2-4-GHz-IBM-Pentium-4-Win98-SE-DOS_W0QQitemZ170459421104QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDesktop_PCs?hash=item27b02c59b0

EDIT: dells have VERY bad capacitors, and dell computers often catch on fire (I've been in situations where that happened far too often). And, they have an ugly logo. Where's the stripes?

In my Gateway2000, I've got an Intense 3D Voodooo video card. The things a foot long.

[ch_123]

EDIT: dells have VERY bad capacitors, and dell computers often catch on fire (I've been in situations where that happened far too often). And, they have an ugly logo. Where's the stripes?

When you say computers, do you mean only their laptops?

Oh, and turn it into a Linux machine.

[microsoft windows]

Nah. I'd spend the $30 and put a 3.06 Ghz northwood in there and 1GB of RAM. Windows XP will run beautifully on that.

Oh, and it won't really hurt to soup up the video card too.

[kishy]

When you say computers, do you mean only their laptops?

Oh, and turn it into a Linux machine.

It might have been a reference to what happens if you put a normal ATX power supply in...well, the generation of Dell computer being discussed in this thread.

Long story short: don't do it, it'll catch fire. Same goes for putting the Dell PSU in a normal computer. ATX connector but sure isn't ATX.

MW, gotta be careful with CPU upgrades. OEM systems in particular can be very specific about what'll go in, starting around the age of P3s and newer.

[EverythingIBM]

In my Gateway2000, I've got an Intense 3D Voodooo video card. The things a foot long.

Awww man! That gateway you salvaged has a 3D voodoo? Try running Mask of Eternity on that thing (I have the patch somewhere to fix the stupid feather and jewel issue; but only works on 98, XP messes things up).

When you say computers, do you mean only their laptops?

Their laptops and desktops are BOTH known to catch on fire. Total crap, cheap parts. That's why they're bought so much, for the cheapo price. Good strategy I guess though (saturate the market with cheap temporary computers that everyone will buy, and no one will buy the expensive "higher end" quality stuff).

[microsoft windows]

The gateway2000's from '96 though. It has Windows 95, so I'm not sure whether or not that game will work.

This is a picture of that same video card off some web site. It's got a whopping 4MB of video memory!

[kishy]

EverythingIBM, why oh why do you have a PC 300-series in your avatar? Those things are a nightmare in every way imaginable.

The Voodoo card in question here is an actual video card, not a passthrough 3D accelerator, correct?

[EverythingIBM]

EverythingIBM, why oh why do you have a PC 300-series in your avatar? Those things are a nightmare in every way imaginable.

The Voodoo card in question here is an actual video card, not a passthrough 3D accelerator, correct?

:jaw:

The IBM 300PL is my absolute FAVOURITE computer! Sure the case and its metal tabs can be a bit tricky when putting on, but that computer was a dream. It was my first one. It ran with years of abuse, until it was thrown out without my permission. So, I'm getting a replacement.



That's one cool case! I think it's the best computer case ever -- I love the stripes too.

I like to call it... THE computer. I loved how the pentium 233 never needed its own fan either (the little holes at the bottom would suck air to cool the whole board). I think mine was a 233 Mhz.

I was referring to THIS voodoo card:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo3

EDIT: nevermind, they did make that series in PCI. And I was just using an older 300PL; which I hope to get that specific model, but can't be too picky I guess.

[kishy]

Well geez, shoulda came around when I had one I was giving away.

300PL came with Celerons of varying speeds, 333MHz being the most common I know of.

They're miserably, nasty machines (sorry to hurt your nostalgia, lol). Least efficient space management I've seen in any case design and with really poor cooling. The CPU did actually need its own fan but they managed to just barely prevent it catching fire with the case fan nearby.

[EverythingIBM]

Well geez, shoulda came around when I had one I was giving away.

300PL came with Celerons of varying speeds, 333MHz being the most common I know of.

They're miserably, nasty machines (sorry to hurt your nostalgia, lol). Least efficient space management I've seen in any case design and with really poor cooling. The CPU did actually need its own fan but they managed to just barely prevent it catching fire with the case fan nearby.

Well mine I pushed to its limits with all of its dust; never caught on fire.
It's not necessarily nostalgia, I never had a computer that worked better, but then again, my intellistation works like a dream as well (but it can't run DOS apps).
And that really is a cool case!

If you get another 300PL (or know where to get good ones), let me know. It must have that specific case though (IBM made so many different cases for the 300PL/GL; and models too, so many had different internals).

Mine wasn't a celeron, it was pentium 1, 233 mhz with MMX. Yeah, and Matrox Mystique (which would have been cool to upgrade to that "rainbow runner" thing).

[Half-Saint]

I'm pretty sure I can find a used 300PL around here but shipping would kill ya even if I gave it away for free

[EverythingIBM]

I'm pretty sure I can find a used 300PL around here but shipping would kill ya even if I gave it away for free

Shipping things from the states usually costs around 80 - 100 dollars in shipping (I've ordered two computers from the states so far). The cheapest would probably be 50 -- but then you have the customs and all of that.

Still, I would sacrifice an arm and a leg for one of these. I might be able to get one locally; but this may not turn out as planned.

[kishy]

300PL had a slot-1 motherboard...

Unless the same model had 100% different guts from submodel to submodel, it had to be a Celeron, P2 or P3 lol.

The case is the worst part. It's the only reason I didn't keep the thing, I could have dealt with cooling with proper fans where they belong. The case design (as with about 75% of desktop-horizontal-style cases) is just garbage.

But...to each his own.

[ch_123]

I found an MMX one of those things many moons ago. The case was nice and small, but I had no use for it, so I tossed it.

After the PS/2, IBM's x86 desktops were as boring as the next company's.

And I really want to see some proof that Dell desktops explode - other than the ATX incompatibility thing.

[EverythingIBM]

300PL had a slot-1 motherboard...

Unless the same model had 100% different guts from submodel to submodel, it had to be a Celeron, P2 or P3 lol.

The case is the worst part. It's the only reason I didn't keep the thing, I could have dealt with cooling with proper fans where they belong. The case design (as with about 75% of desktop-horizontal-style cases) is just garbage.

But...to each his own.

Mine was a 1997 model. i'll send you the schematics of it.

I don't like ALL of the 300PLs I should add, just that specific one i had.

[EverythingIBM]

Okay, here's the schematics:
(types 6562 & 6592)

HardwareFeatures

The major features of PC 300PL computers are:
Ÿ Intel Pentium processor with MMX technology
Ÿ Single bank, pipeline burst, synchronous L2 cache soldered on the system board
Ÿ Support for up to 384 MB of system memory
Ÿ Busmaster IDE controller
Ÿ EIDE or Ultra Wide SCSI hard disk drive
Ÿ CD-ROM drive (some models only)
Ÿ 3.5-inch, 1.44 MB diskette drive
Ÿ Integrated Matrox MGA-1164SG1 3D video controller with 2 MB SGRAM soldered to the system board
–Support for additional 2 MB of SGRAM
–Upgrade connectors for VESA interface and Matrox multimedia options
Ÿ Integrated 16-bit, stereo audio controller (supports Sound Blaster Pro applications)
–Built-in, high-quality speaker
Ÿ Integrated Intel 10/100 Mbit, PCI Ethernet controller
  Ÿ SystemManagement
–RPL (Remote Program Load) and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
–Integrated Wake on LAN controller
–Automatic power-on startup sequence
–POST/BIOS update from network
–DMI (Desktop Management Interface) BIOS and DMI software
–Integrated system management controller
  Ÿ Input/OutputFeatures
–Two serial ports
–One ECP/EPP parallel port
–One monitor port
–Four 3.5 mm audio jacks (line out, line in, headphone, and microphone)
–One Ethernet RJ-45 port
–Two USB (universal serial bus) ports
–One keyboard port (Windows 95-compatible)
–One mouse port
–One infrared port (optional)
–One multimedia port (optional)

I believe mine was a 6592 (because I had the front audio dial; which, the port is on the expanded riser card not found in 6562). Unless I'm wrong.
EDIT: I'm wrong! Both 6592 and 6562 can support the front audio dial which is on the blue ribbon which says "personal computer"

[Half-Saint]

How about this one?
http://www.bolha.com/oglas383837445/ibm-300gl-600mhz

it's a GL tho...

[ch_123]

It's funny to think that my phone has more processing power than these things...

[HaaTa]

Okay, here's the schematics:
(types 6562 & 6592)

Show Image

Show Image

I believe mine was a 6592 (because I had the front audio dial; which, the port is on the expanded riser card not found in 6562). Unless I'm wrong.

I had a bunch of these in high school (managed to salvage about 17 computers (2-3 were IBM), even had my own room to set them up in.
An interesting thing though, was that this IBM computer had one of the fastest CD-ROM drives for installing Windows XP I've tested. Dunno how it compares to modern drives though, as I can't remember what machine I installed it in (which I probably gave away).

[datamonger128]

I remember using these when I was in 7th grade.  We had just gotten them over the summer and the school was overly protective of them.  They would get all pissy if they saw you using Internet Explorer instead of Netscape even.  And God forbid you put a floppy disk in the thing.  Just merely inserting the disk would infect the entire school's network with a virus.

[EverythingIBM]

It's funny to think that my phone has more processing power than these things...

The frequency on a phone, such as "800Mhz" (like my phone) does not refer to the processor's clock speed.
Your phone cannot run DOS games, support a voodoo 3Dfx, PCI soundblaster, or any of the sort.

I had a bunch of these in high school (managed to salvage about 17 computers (2-3 were IBM), even had my own room to set them up in.
An interesting thing though, was that this IBM computer had one of the fastest CD-ROM drives for installing Windows XP I've tested. Dunno how it compares to modern drives though, as I can't remember what machine I installed it in (which I probably gave away).

I still have the CD drive from mine; it's a 10x sony... not very fast. It *does* however, open really fast. It shoots out instantly (you don't have to wait for the sickly gears to slowly open it, like in so many CD drives).

[EverythingIBM]

How about this one?
http://www.bolha.com/oglas383837445/ibm-300gl-600mhz

it's a GL tho...

No it's the wrong case.



The one I was looking for is variant A (due to hardware qualities; 300GLs were never made in that kind of casing as far as I am aware). Version B is completely different.

EDIT: you'll notice variant A has the stripes that go to the back, as well as dip on the side. It also has little holes at the bottom to suck air through. Variant B is completely boxed, and the whole front acts as a vent.
The funny thing I remember about mine (variant A), is the plastic siding on the bottom, it liked to come loose.

And I already have a 300GL. Someone on ebay sent me the wrong one. I got a good mousepad though. AND, I think they used retrobrite on it, it looks like someone smeared toothpaste on it.

[ch_123]

The frequency on a phone, such as "800Mhz" (like my phone) does not refer to the processor's clock speed.

My phone has a 500MHz ARM CPU and 128MB of RAM which, even when taking efficiency into account, make it as fast if not faster than any Pentium I or Pentium 2.

Your phone cannot run DOS games

I could run Bochs so yes I could.

support a voodoo 3Dfx, PCI soundblaster, or any of the sort.

So? How does that affect anything?

[kishy]

Original spec drive for the Celeron 333-equipped model was a 40x LG CD-ROM drive. VERY nice CD-ROM drive. LG/GoldStar knew what they were doing.

Interesting, though, that the 300PL was more of a model series than a model...stupid IBM.

[EverythingIBM]

Original spec drive for the Celeron 333-equipped model was a 40x LG CD-ROM drive. VERY nice CD-ROM drive. LG/GoldStar knew what they were doing.

Interesting, though, that the 300PL was more of a model series than a model...stupid IBM.

Yeah no kidding, I've been having a headache to find the "right model". One thing is for sure, I'll never be able to get the exact one I had. There is a 6562 on ebay, but, it's not the right one. I'd have to do some major modding on it.

IBM always creates thousands of different variants under the same family. Oh well.

So? How does that affect anything?

DOS games require specific hardware... or old windows ones anways. Some of them ONLY work with a 3Dfx voodoo card. The same for soundblaster (I like creative;one of my favourite companies).

[pfink]

And I really want to see some proof that Dell desktops explode - other than the ATX incompatibility thing.

Explode is probably an exaggeration, but the Dell desktop capacitor problem is definitely for real. We had quite a few Optiplex GX2xx motherboards replaced at my office:

http://news.cnet.com/PCs-plagued-by-bad-capacitors/2100-1041_3-5942647.html


We also had a PowerEdge 1650 smoke up the server room less than a year after it was installed:

http://www.crn.com/hardware/192204889;jsessionid=P0KPSK3F2QLOBQE1GHOSKHWATMY32JVN

[ch_123]

Everyone and their mother was affected by those capacitors, not just Dell.

And yeah, thought the explode thing was just bull****.

[EverythingIBM]

Everyone and their mother was affected by those capacitors, not just Dell.

And yeah, thought the explode thing was just bull****.

Well, I wouldn't go so far to say they explode (unless dell makes their capacitors out of gunpowder). But they do melt, catch on fire, and malfunction from bad capacitors.

Dell computers today are still malfunctioning from cheap capacitors. I actually got some ECC RAM pulled from a dell that suffered bad capacitors (sadly, my intellistation didn't want to take it, it was beeping like crazy; I think it knew it was from a dell).

[ch_123]

Does your Intellistation's motherboard take ECC RAM?

[EverythingIBM]

Does your Intellistation's motherboard take ECC RAM?

Yes; it ONLY accepts ECC RAM. This RAM to be specific:
http://store.memory4less.net/73p3628.html
I think I'll just buy the IBM part number instead of getting stupid dell RAM.

You can have a look at IBM's website:
http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/quickpath?quickpath=62251su&brandind=5000004&continue.x=21&continue.y=12
(although, they spelled NVIDIA wrong, and listed it having 512 L2 cache, mine actually has 1 MB).

[ch_123]

Was it a dual CPU machine?

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see one of your links... Strange to see a single-CPU x86 machine using ECC RAM, and a bit unnecessary really. Soft RAM failures aren't that big of an issue with desktop machines.

[EverythingIBM]

Was it a dual CPU machine?

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see one of your links... Strange to see a single-CPU x86 machine using ECC RAM, and a bit unnecessary really. Soft RAM failures aren't that big of an issue with desktop machines.

No, it's running windows 7 64-bit (3.4 Ghz HT with EM64T).
I just need to upgrade it with another 2 GB of RAM to keep up with the times... unless IBM starts making good computers again.

Yeah, and the hard drive it came with is a SCSI that performs ECC. I might get a SATA whenever it decides to fail (although, I think it's just noisy naturally; it always has been). It has 4 SATA connectors, and a daughter SCSI card.

It's a very high quality and stable computer though, so, I'm not complaining. Unlike my crappy HP m8100n, I know this computer will never crash or fail (don't get me started on that stupid m8100n; I lost a few music compositions, and I'm not too happy about that; even when I recreated them from memory my HP crashed again, and that is when I vowed never to use an HP again).

[kishy]

Don't count on that. ALL modern computers have component reliability issues.

Consumer electronics have an intended service life of "just longer than their warranty", which is usually what, a year? I want a service life of +10 years out of anything I own, but unfortunately they just don't seem to build with that intention.

IBM/Lenovo and in some cases Dell may be exceptions because of how many of their machines end up leased in schools and offices, so they may build them to last to reduce repair costs when the lease is up and they want to sell them.

[ch_123]

About 95% of all computer failures tend to boil down to Windows (or some other piece of software) screwing up anyway. I'm always very cynical when I hear someone say that their machine is 'broken'

[kishy]

About 95% of all computer failures tend to boil down to Windows (or some other piece of software) screwing up anyway. I'm always very cynical when I hear someone say that their machine is 'broken'

Well, when in the company of people who are at least moderately knowledgeable about technology, it's probably fair to say that the scope of "broken" never...NEVER...includes software issues, regardless of what the software may be...

Really bugs me when people (seriously, not jokingly) suggest that Windows holds back the system, or blame Microsoft for their own inadequacy with technology. When I'm getting paid to help I keep my mouth shut though.

[EverythingIBM]

About 95% of all computer failures tend to boil down to Windows (or some other piece of software) screwing up anyway. I'm always very cynical when I hear someone say that their machine is 'broken'

Software isn't usually the issue (unless you have a hardware level virus). Although, a lot of the poorly programmed software today really *taxes* the hardware, which could lead to problems.

Don't count on that. ALL modern computers have component reliability issues.

Consumer electronics have an intended service life of "just longer than their warranty", which is usually what, a year? I want a service life of +10 years out of anything I own, but unfortunately they just don't seem to build with that intention.

IBM/Lenovo and in some cases Dell may be exceptions because of how many of their machines end up leased in schools and offices, so they may build them to last to reduce repair costs when the lease is up and they want to sell them.

Well, the warranty is already up lol (and that was a 3 year warranty). This computer is already 5 years old (I believe), it'll keep running.

Dells are always cheap no matter what. The dell I pulled the ECC RAM out of was a workstation like mine; but mine is still running.

A cool thing about this intellistation is that it actually has little indicator lights on the motherboard (as well as a warning LED which lights up bright orange). If there is a certain problem, the computer will light up the LED corresponding to the problem on the motherboard.
I had an issue with the CPU fan spinning at 5000 RPM once (hey, faster than the hard drives in dells and macs), but I fixed it. It actually did light up the LED near the fan ports. Although I have the back fan running on the power supply since it didn't like when I plugged it into the second fan port (if you want the whole story behind the fans, you can PM me -- it actually has 4 fans in total).
I was going to buy a 9229 intellistation and compare it with mine in a review for geekhack; but I can no longer purchase one. It's really a fascinating computer I must say.

A downside to all of these diagnostic "enhancements" is a long BIOS load. But I don't mind (even if I turn it on and off every day).

[ch_123]

Software isn't usually the issue (unless you have a hardware level virus). Although, a lot of the poorly programmed software today really *taxes* the hardware, which could lead to problems.

Badly written software will cause the OS to fail. 30% of all Windows Vista BSODs in 2007 were caused by dodgy nVidia drivers for example. Even higher level stuff will cause all sorts of ****. I've fixed countless numbers of 'broken' computers for people, and 9.5 times out of 10, the problem goes away when Windows is reinstalled.

A cool thing about this intellistation is that it actually has little indicator lights on the motherboard (as well as a warning LED which lights up bright orange). If there is a certain problem, the computer will light up the LED corresponding to the problem on the motherboard.

I found an IBM rack-mount server with an array of diagnostic LEDs on the front. When you ran the diagnostics, the first test checked if all the LEDs worked...

[kishy]

One problem with diagnostics for a computer...which run on the computer being diagnosed...is that they are dependent on the computer working properly to begin with (obviously not the whole computer, just the relevant components).

CH, yeah, there's an IBM rackmount at my former co-op placement with a similar diagnostic panel, but it's inside so the rack would need to be out and opened up. ISTR it even had a "CPU test"; I don't know what exactly that test would do, perhaps just execute a couple instructions and see what happens?

[ch_123]

A lot of machines like that will have some sort of IPMI or equivalent interface, which is an independent diagnostic unit that runs as long as there is power connected to the machine, and can be accessed via serial port or ethernet. You may recall the Itanium racks I recovered a few weeks ago that I showed pics of... They had such an arrangement. Even when the machine was off, I could access info on the machine, and write out the contents of the system's ROM to the console amongst other really low level things. I could also turn them on or off remotely. As long as they were all tied together with the appropriate cables, you could turn them all on/off together from one node with a single command.

It also had a firmware-level debugger... At one point I tried to run a version of Linux on it whose kernel did not support the machine. During the installer it did some crazy memory violation which caused the debugger to pop up in it's place, which gave me all sorts of commands to do things like write out the contents of the CPU's registers to the screen etc.

[Mr.6502]

Bad capacitors definitely go beyond Dell.  An office I worked at had 25 HP DC5000 SFF desktops.  Last I heard, 8 of them had died from bad capacitors.  Those are some horrendous odds.

@EverythingIBM - I have an IBM 300PL model 6862.  Its not the model you are looking for specifically, it has a P2 350/128MB/6.5GB, and its case is showing some wear.  I've had it on a shelf for probably 2 years now but I just fired it up and it seems to be running fine now.  If you are interested in it and are willing to deal with the shipping, you can have it.  

I have no use for it, nobody I know wants it, and I can't throw it away because it still works fine.

[EverythingIBM]

Bad capacitors definitely go beyond Dell.  An office I worked at had 25 HP DC5000 SFF desktops.  Last I heard, 8 of them had died from bad capacitors.  Those are some horrendous odds.

@EverythingIBM - I have an IBM 300PL model 6862.  Its not the model you are looking for specifically, it has a P2 350/128MB/6.5GB, and its case is showing some wear.  I've had it on a shelf for probably 2 years now but I just fired it up and it seems to be running fine now.  If you are interested in it and are willing to deal with the shipping, you can have it.  

I have no use for it, nobody I know wants it, and I can't throw it away because it still works fine.

If it has the same case as variant A, and you can give me some pictures; I might take it.

If it's case Variant B (or a different one; there are more cases), then forget it. I don't like the variant B cases -- due to hardware reasons, I want variant A.

It's at a nice slow speed though! Probably AT HDD if it's old enough.

EDIT: 300PLs always boot up. HPs of course are cheap, that's why I wasn't pleased with my HP m8100n; just cheap trash that lasts a year. No character to it either.

[Mr.6502]

If it has the same case as variant A, and you can give me some pictures; I might take it.

If it's case Variant B (or a different one; there are more cases), then forget it. I don't like the variant B cases -- due to hardware reasons, I want variant A.

It's at a nice slow speed though! Probably AT HDD if it's old enough.

EDIT: 300PLs always boot up. HPs of course are cheap, that's why I wasn't pleased with my HP m8100n; just cheap trash that lasts a year. No character to it either.

I only have a crappy cell phone camera.  There is a pic attached to my previous post.  I'll grab a pic of the insides of it real quick too.

I apologize for the picture quality.

The audio ports are on the MOBO in the back, not on the riser in the front like in the pictures you posted.

[EverythingIBM]

I only have a crappy cell phone camera.  There is a pic attached to my previous post.  I'll grab a pic of the insides of it real quick too.

I apologize for the picture quality.

The audio ports are on the MOBO in the back, not on the riser in the front like in the pictures you posted.

Bingo! That's Variant A

Actually, your 300PL only has it on the back; the ones that had the audio ports on the front ALSO had it on the back (yeah, they were ahead for their time, especially in 1997, 2x USB, audio on front and back, cool). Although, I don't really care about that; I never used it even if it was a cool feature.

I'll PM you for shipping.

[kishy]

Uh, no, that's the variant I described. Slot-1 CPU, that is definitely not nor was it ever equipped with a Pentium MMX (nor could it be; slotkets didn't exist for Socket 7 AFAIK)

[EverythingIBM]

Uh, no, that's the variant I described. Slot-1 CPU, that is definitely not nor was it ever equipped with a Pentium MMX (nor could it be; slotkets didn't exist for Socket 7 AFAIK)

I know that's not an pentium MMX (and I know that one will run pretty hot! Might have to underclock it lol).

I doubt I'll be able to get the right one, so, I'll take any with variant A case.

There IS a 6562 for sale "as is" untested, but it lacks a CD drive slot. I could swap the cases and "build" the correct one (but I'll need to collect a hefty amount of 300PLs). So, collecting time with variant A.

My final step will be getting an old PCI soundblaster and voodoo 3Dfx. Then... it's DOS time! Obviously I can't use all of my computers at once; but having spares, backups, and the like is useful. I need to get some of old 128 MB sticks for the 300PLs though... and my school threw out a bunch of old RAM without telling me; how rude hey?

[kishy]

Heh, I managed to get my school (college) to give me everything they were going to junk.

Complete package 8-bit ISA diagnostics card,
Toughbook CF-25,
5.25" floppy drive or two,
P4 3.0GHz HT skt478 CPU
Couple CD-ROM drives
Stick or RAM or two
Hard drive or two
Never opened OEM PC-DOS 6.3 (opened it to image the disks),
IBM 5150 Guide to Operations binder,
8088 Project Book,
and uh...I know that's not all.

Oh yeah, 1394167 keyboard that ended up going to Shawn Stanford [a geekhack member whose handle is also his name]

...annnnd the InfoWindow II terminal that keyboard went with.

Hey, if they're going to trash it, why not give it a new loving home?