alright ive come across 2 computers that both have windoes 98 on them...ones a dell xps and the other is made by aptiva or something...but heres the question, are both computers compatible to combine? ive already put a cd drive and a floppy drive into the aptiva, but i want to put in the hard drive, and some extra ram...im not too suer which is which, or even how to go about doing this...so i guess im just trying to learn. any help would be appreciated.
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came across 2 old computers today
- Thread starter Cuddy8616
- Start date
Some of the components, such as hard drives and CD-ROM drives should work in either machine. Without any information about the computers, there's no way we can tell if the processors, memory, etc is compatible. If I remember correctly, Aptiva was the model name for the an IBM line. Give some sstem specs on each or model info and we can find out.
Just don't do what I did when I was a noobie:
Had a P90 (upgraded from my 486) and I got a hand scanner from someone to try out. WELL it had an ISA card and the P90 had PCI slots (or something like that) and I tried wedging in the wrong card into the wrong slot. I couldn't figure out why Windows 95 (also new) wouldn't see the card.
WELL suffice to say I ended up SMOKING MY P90 after hearing a loud pop and all was fried... I was so bummed!
So don't go jamming things in anywhere is the moral of the story heh
Had a P90 (upgraded from my 486) and I got a hand scanner from someone to try out. WELL it had an ISA card and the P90 had PCI slots (or something like that) and I tried wedging in the wrong card into the wrong slot. I couldn't figure out why Windows 95 (also new) wouldn't see the card.
WELL suffice to say I ended up SMOKING MY P90 after hearing a loud pop and all was fried... I was so bummed!
So don't go jamming things in anywhere is the moral of the story heh
ne1wantaride
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2003
- Messages
- 1,413
Haha ISA Card in an AGP slot 
im not too sure about the stats or information beyond what i told you, so i took some pictures...thanks again for anyones help!
here is the site of the album http://photobucket.com/albums/v112/cuddy8616/
and here is a picture
and this one is upside down...sorry
here is the site of the album http://photobucket.com/albums/v112/cuddy8616/
and here is a picture
and this one is upside down...sorry
pentium2 or celeron of some type.
it should fit 66 mhz sdram if it is less than 400 mhz or 100 mhz sdram if it is more.
the ram gos in those slots under where all the cable mess is. there is allready one in there.
ithe ram only gos in one way around so make sure you take notice of the orientation key.
hard drive should work fine. there appears to be an extra connector on the ATA cable that gos to the cd-rom. and theres an extra power molex i see as well.
make sure the hard drive is set to "slave" if the cdrom is "master" or vice versa. cable select often does not work so dont use it.
dont expect too much, and dont buy any new parts for it
its a good computer to learn on.
it should fit 66 mhz sdram if it is less than 400 mhz or 100 mhz sdram if it is more.
the ram gos in those slots under where all the cable mess is. there is allready one in there.
ithe ram only gos in one way around so make sure you take notice of the orientation key.
hard drive should work fine. there appears to be an extra connector on the ATA cable that gos to the cd-rom. and theres an extra power molex i see as well.
make sure the hard drive is set to "slave" if the cdrom is "master" or vice versa. cable select often does not work so dont use it.
dont expect too much, and dont buy any new parts for it
its a good computer to learn on.
alright now im going to show you guys how new i really am at this. im pretty sure i understand everything that has been talked about, besides:
"make sure the hard drive is set to "slave" if the cdrom is "master" or vice versa. cable select often does not work so dont use it."
so here is my picture edited on paint just to see if i have it all right...thanks again to everyone who helped!
"make sure the hard drive is set to "slave" if the cdrom is "master" or vice versa. cable select often does not work so dont use it."
so here is my picture edited on paint just to see if i have it all right...thanks again to everyone who helped!
Nope, about the only thing right you have is the floppy.
The Hard drive is the thing that Grey cable is running to below the floppy drive
I don't know what that thing above the floppy drive is but if you took a pic of the front of the computer maybe that would tell us if it's another hard drive or maybe a Zip drive or something.
What you think is the RAM is actually the video card.
What you think is the Hard Drive is actually the Motherboard
The RAM is actually the 3 little strips with one chip in a slot in the very upper right hand of what is actually the motherboard. It has little white tabs at the end that hold the RAM in.
You might want to start doing a little more research for yourself on Google like "What does a hard drive look like".
I'm not trying to be an ass, it's just the most efficient way for you to learn this stuff.
The Hard drive is the thing that Grey cable is running to below the floppy drive
I don't know what that thing above the floppy drive is but if you took a pic of the front of the computer maybe that would tell us if it's another hard drive or maybe a Zip drive or something.
What you think is the RAM is actually the video card.
What you think is the Hard Drive is actually the Motherboard
The RAM is actually the 3 little strips with one chip in a slot in the very upper right hand of what is actually the motherboard. It has little white tabs at the end that hold the RAM in.
You might want to start doing a little more research for yourself on Google like "What does a hard drive look like".
I'm not trying to be an ass, it's just the most efficient way for you to learn this stuff.
Some of it is just plain common sense, for example, what you thought was the RAM. If it's a card in the back, and it monitor plugs into it, it's probably the video card.....things like that. If it has a phone jack, its probably the modem. Those are the easiest to figure out. Same with the drives in the front. The floppy is easy to figure out...so it the CD. That leaves the hard drive.
LOL, well you got just about everything wrong. Nothing wrong with that.
What you have labeled as the hard drive is the motherboard, aka mobo. It's called the motherboard because everything plugs into it. Technically the add-on cards (what you labeled as RAM are called daughter cards. No one uses that term though, they are all referred to by the bus type and use (the type of connector they use to connect to the mobo, which also determines how fast communication goes from the card to the mobo).
So the thing you have labeled as RAM is an AGP (bus type, only used for video cards) video card, an AGP one specifically.The other white cards/slots are PCI (32 bit), the bottom one is ISA (16bit, pretty old bus type).
The RAM is located at the top right on the mobo, it's the narrow slots, looks like you have 1/3 slots filled.
"not sure" = hard drive aka HDD.
What you have labeled as the hard drive is the motherboard, aka mobo. It's called the motherboard because everything plugs into it. Technically the add-on cards (what you labeled as RAM are called daughter cards. No one uses that term though, they are all referred to by the bus type and use (the type of connector they use to connect to the mobo, which also determines how fast communication goes from the card to the mobo).
So the thing you have labeled as RAM is an AGP (bus type, only used for video cards) video card, an AGP one specifically.The other white cards/slots are PCI (32 bit), the bottom one is ISA (16bit, pretty old bus type).
The RAM is located at the top right on the mobo, it's the narrow slots, looks like you have 1/3 slots filled.
"not sure" = hard drive aka HDD.