Presario 7598 new motherboard {moved by PL}

[plainolguy]

I`m trying to find a motherboard for a Presario 7598. The specs. on the HP site tell me this is a socket 370 system. I don`t want a proprietary motherboard and was wondering if anyone could suggest an alternative. I will keep the 256 ram and install windows 98se. I was going to buy a used computer for about 100 bucks but since I know this one is okay except for the hard drive, I am just going to get a new hard drive, and MB and go that way. I won`t be using it for gaming or much internet so speed won`t be a big problem. Any suggestions?, and is it truly a socket 370 processor that I can get a generic MB to work with it?

Thanks All for your replies............Plain

[photolady]

About the only place you'll find a socket 370 is on ebay. These boards are no longer being manufacturered by any motherboard company. Btw, there is no such things as generic motherboards. They are all made by specific manufacturers but made specifically for HP/Compaq or Dell, or Gateway or etc. But you can usually use a standard socket 370 motherboard in these computers as long as you have a front panel pinout and they match the front panel wires on that Compaq case.
Ok, you may have a problem finding a motherboard to fit inside. Most motherboards are standard ATX and quite a bit larger than the one in that computer. And according to HP/Compaq yes, it's a socket 370.

Okay. One place I used to frequent for older parts has changed its name to pacificgeek.com (http://www.pacificgeek.com/showcategory.asp?c=211&s=1040)and they seem to have some socket 370 boards. You might try them.

[plainolguy]

Thanks photolady for replying:

Finally! Someone who might be able to advise me. My computer is fine except for the hard drive. I wanted to replace the HD and install 98SE as the computer had ME on it to start with and I only have 98SE upgrade. (yeah, I`ll have to install 95A first). If I post in the Windows 98 section would you be willing to help me figure out what to do with this situation? I really don`t want to just throw the computer away but I`ve burned up a lot of hours trying to get the thing to recognize a new HD....I`m mad at it. I will post my details in the 98 Forum. Thanks again for the help you have given me. Plain

[photolady]

If you haven't posted in win98 yet, wait, I can move this one over there.

[photolady]

Ok, you're here. Now, what size harddrive were you planing on installing?

[plainolguy]

I would like to replace the defective HD with a 40 gig or bigger. I can`t get Compaq to allow me to get past the "operating system not found" (or similar). I know the MB sees different drives as I have several small ones it does recognize during my looking through BIOS but after the splash screen nothing. I want to learn how to and what to enter as far as instructions so that I can put my 95A on and upgrade to 98SE so that in the end I can have DOS 7.1 and 98. I do appreciate any suggestions or web sites you might direct me to that I might learn how to do this. I have tried HP and of course they want me to take the box to an "authorized" service center. NNNaw! I just want the retail stuff I own installed on it now. Thanks again for your help.

Plain

[photolady]

It just might be the computer's bios is too old to see a 40gb or higher drive. You might try a 20gb or lower. Back when those computers were built there was no such thing as a 40GB harddrive.

[plainolguy]

Okay, this is what I have done so far today. First I received the computer with a working 40gig drive. It didn`t last but a couple of weeks. Next I`ve tried a 8gig Segate, 630MB Seagate, and 830MB WD. The BIOS sees all three of these drives. I boot. I get a message..."Unable to access hard drive. Operating system not found on any devices. Press any key to retry."

I tried booting with a Win 95 setup floppy and got the non system disk error. I tried booting with Win 95A CD and get the long message about no operating system. I tried booting with Win 98SE upgrade and got the same.

I try booting the bad 40 gig and if a cd is installed with it the system hangs
Without the CD I am informed of "imminent hard drive failure, with the option at the bottom of the screen to F1 boot to system or F10 boot to BIOS. This is a perpetual loop. Any suggestions? It seems the bad hard drive has enough info (maybe in the boot sector?) to inform the MB or whatever that it is failing but anyother non Compaqed hard drive gets the cold shoulder.

I also ran BartPE ( I know XP only but what the heck, nothing else has worked either), UBCD4win (same comments) and UBCD which does let me get to disk diagnostics before it hangs the sys. with the hard drive hooked up.

Maybe the main prob is the MB.. I don`t know. Before it broke completely it ran painfully slow. I tried several times to use Windows defrag utility but it didn`t help. I did some other things but that has been several months ago and now I don`t remember all the avenues I took.

If it is the MB, is there on the market a MB that will work? ATX micro...I saw some on Newegg so maybe somewhere there is one non proprietary, otherwise I search for the holy grail of installing a new hard drive on the Presario 7598.

Any suggestions?

Plain

[Complex]

Hey!!! :D

Your Compaq is larger than what I'm using to surf the net and, I've just added a third hard drive in mine.


Here's your specs :greedy:

Compaq 7568 (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?docname=c00034141&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN)

What exactly are you doing?? :confused:

Are you;

A. Cloning your old drive's data to your new Hard Drive?

B. Installing a new Hard Drive where the old one was connected?

C. Installing Windows on your new Hard Drive?

Operating system not found means............................ There's no Windows on your Hard Drive.

If the Hard Drive is used, the errors could be because the drive is formated to NTFS. Windows 98 cannot read NTFS only FAT 32.

Really need more info on what you are doing. :cry2:

[plainolguy]

I can no longer find the current thread................

[plainolguy]

I don`t understand why this thread keeps getting me lost but anyway,,,,I finally did get the 830MB to take the Windows 95 floppies. It is installing them now. Now I have to figure out how to clone this to another drive so I can keep 95, then use the clone to update to 98SE. I don`t know how I figured out what to do but I do know the only way I could tell what was going on so I could get started was to run Seagate`s Seatools. It is the only thing besides BIOS that would see the drive. I then reformatted to FAT16 with a 98SE EBD and am now installing 95. Boy! what a ride! Thanks for sticking with me photolady. Your posts helped me a lot. Now if I can figure out how to clone the 95 to another disk....Plain

[photolady]

If you can't get that computer to recognize any larger drive, cloning isn't going to work either. But there are several cloning softwares, Ghost and Acronis True Image. I've used both.

And just so you know. If add this page as either a Bookmark or add to Favorites, you can find your post easily.

[Murf]

That system should have no problems with a 40gb hard drive.
If you just want to get Windows 98 loaded use the 8GB drive.

Go here and download the file: Windows 98 (http://files.frashii.com/~bootdisk/newjersey/boot98c.exe) Custom, No Ramdrive, download it to your desktop. Put in a clean floppy disk (hope you have a floppy drive), double click on the file you downloaded and a window will come up. It will now extract the files (boot) to the floppy disk you have in.

Now take this floppy disk and put into the "Sick Computer", boot, immediately enter (SETUP) - screen tells you which key to use, usually F2 or a Del key. Once in SETUP find where you can change the boot order and make the Floppy as the first boot device. Now find where you can SAVE & EXIT. It will now boot from the floppy and you will end up at the A:/> prompt.

Now at the A:/> prompt type the following:

fdisk (hit<enter>)

Say YES to large disk support

You will then see a screen similiar to this:

Rather then type it I have a page on Partitioning and formatting a drive: Partitioning (http://murfsgarage.cybertechhelp.com/partition.htm) Formatting (http://murfsgarage.cybertechhelp.com/format.htm)

Use FAT 32 not FAT 16 Windows 98 will perform better.

Now once the drive is partitioned and formatted your ready to install Windows.

[plainolguy]

I am at a loss. I installed 95 from my CD last night and today, when I started the machine up I get this message..."Unable to access hard drive. Operating system not found on any devices. Press any key to try again." Of course when I do press any key, I get the same message. I mean I installed and rebooted a complete system less than 24 hrs ago! BIOS sees hd. Evidently some level above BIOS sees it cause it tells me it can`t access it. .... I tried booting with the emergency boot disk I made last night and I get "invalid drive specification" I don`t get it. This is what I`ve been getting for a looong time. I ran scandisk in 95 last night and no errors were found. I`m going to try the 98SE upgrade tonight but Im running out of things to try. Plain

[plainolguy]

An update....

I thought I`d try UBCD and see if I could access the hard drive and guess what????? Windows 95 in the flesh! This is very very challenging. I wonder why UBCD succeed when Compaq is unable to ? Anyway I am going to install the latest download HP had for this machine and see what happens tomorrow when I try to start up. Night All..........

[plainolguy]

Well, I guess I`ve worn out my welcome....oh well, there is an answer somewhere.......................

[photolady]

I thought someone else was helping you. And that you had figured this all out. Did you try to update the BIOS like you said you were going to do in your last post?

[jtdoom]

Hi
if you ran seatools drive diagnostics on a drive, its data gets wiped.
Most hard disk maker drive diagnostics do that, and warn you about it.
Now, UBCD4Win has such tools, and you told us you used seagate tools at some point.

a Seatools ISO can ready a drive for win 95.
(choose FAT32)
if you haven't got one, get a 98SE bootdisk, the drive manager may ask for one so as to put files on Hard drive.
(and it will be used to setup 98se too.. because 95 and upgrade CDroms do NOT boot by themselves.)
You do NOT have to install windows 95 to UPGRADE to 98SE.
You boot with that floppy, and access the win98SE CD and start setup.
Once setup runs, it will at one stage ask for win95, and all you do is show it the 95cdrom. Then proceed with 98 setup.

[jtdoom]

Hi
make that, a CD burned from seatools ISO.
What it also does is tell you wether the drive it checks is good or not.

If it is bad, remove it.
You can get similar tools from Maxtor, IBM, Western Digital and so on.