Possible Dell Dimension XPS

[LCGuy]

So I had a job this morning with a friend from uni. Their PC had been, well, totally anhillated by trojans, more fake antivirus/antispyware programs than I have ever even dreamt of. Words can't quite describe just how bad this PC was. It was too far gone, I just had to do a reformat/reinstall.

While I was waiting for the machine to format the 250GB HD (which took bloody ages), she told me that she had another older machine she wanted me to look at, that she hadn't set up, as it was having issues. Its an old Dell Dimension XPS, a Pentium II. Pretty decked out for a machine of its day. It had I think 128MB of RAM (PC100), i think about a 10GB HDD, a DVD drive, an AGP graphics card of unknown type, Sound Blaster Live PCI, Winmodem, and the best part - a TV tuner card of some sort! Anyway, I tried reseating everything, and I tried starting the machine up with only the basic parts connected (PSU, mobo, CPU, RAM, GFX card), and I still couldn't get it to go. I told her this, and she told me not to worry about it, and that I can have it for parts! I'm spending the weekend in town, and I have no car, nor do I have anywhere to put it at the hostel, so hopefully, allowing for PAF approval, I'll be getting it tomorrow. She's more than happy to let me have the machine - it'd just be thrown out otherwise. I just need my parents to agree, and drop me off so I can collect the box.

 

[Cory5412]

Now you can play Quake 1, really really fast.

Congrats on the XPS slash potential XPS! All you need to do is run 'round telling people "I've got an XPS" and they'll be impressed because the XPS is a gaming computer. [] ]'>

 

[Quadraman]

Even if you have to source a new mobo, an XPS is a good find. An XPS loaded with upgrade cards is an even better find. The only thing that could be better is if you found that something stupidly easy to fix was all that was wrong and that it didn't cost you anything to get it running again.

 

[Scott Baret]

What model number is it? My folks used to have a Pentium II Dell Dimension XPS R450 (I think that was the number). Very capable machine. It was 450MHz, hence the number.

Mine had 128MB RAM and a 20GB hard drive, though I think there was an STB card on it for video and the sound card was a Turtle Beach Montego of some sort (which I think I pulled from the machine). It came with a Trinitron 17" monitor that was really nice. Mine also had a DVD player and two USB ports (pretty good for a 1998 non-Apple computer).

Very expandable machines indeed, I remember the computer having a ton of open slots. And if you want to play games on it you should be good--I purchased Triple Play Baseball for the computer (since there wasn't a Mac version available) and it ran very well.

When my mom got into Macs she gave the computer to me. I sold the computer to a buddy for $25.

 

[LCGuy]

Basically, the machine doens't even POST. You turn it on, the power LED comes on, and thats it. Its an R400, so it has a P2/400.

I have the machine, and I had another look at it today, sadly I won't get a chance to play with it until next weekend, but i think it only has 32 MB of RAM. It does, however, have a nice 40GB HDD. As I said, the sound card is a Creative SBLive! which is going into my Dell P4. Just like yours, Scott, it has a DVD drive and 2 USB ports. (i assume yours probably had the same mobo as mine)

Speaking of the DVD drive - I just discovered today that that "TV Tuner" card is actually not a TV tuner card - its actually a DVD Decoder card. I'll probably put it in the K6...all my other machines are more than capable of decoding a DVD in software.

Oh and one more thing - the "WinModem" turned out to be a 10/100 ethernet card. Score!

 

[John8520]

My GX1 did that too. Turns out it was bad RAM.

 

[Scott Baret]

Does your DVD decoder card have what looks like an RCA jack on the back of it? I think mine had the same one...

 

[LCGuy]

its got a yellow RCA jack for Composite video out, it has a standard S-Video out port, as well as another RCA jack for coaxial SP/DIF out.

 

[LCGuy]

If anyone's curious, you may be interested to know that the XPS is aliive!!!! Turns out the problem was a bung video card. Tried putting in my GeForce 4 Ti 4800 SE, and it booted into XP. Gave it a complete stripdown and rebuild this morning. All I will say is this - whoever designed that bloody case is just lucky that i'm not armed!!!! I swear - the very next time I get a PC with a decent case to strip, its going in there! You guys might complain about the Quadra 800/PM8x00/9500 series cases, but I tell you - I'd rather strip one of those than that bugger any day of the week!

Anyway, bit of good news - it supports both Coppermine chips (via my Slocket adaptor) and my GeForce! Pulled all the good bits out of the BritPC (a Viglen HomePro P3/450, if anyone is curious) this morning and i'm currently in the process of sticking 'em all in the XPS - at the moment its sitting downstairs with the drives disconnected, as I've been out on a couple of jobs today and haven't had time to finish it off yet.

Only thing is that I think I'm going to have to flash the BIOS, as the P3/1 Ghz chip I've put in it is only running at 754 Mhz - apparently from what I've read online, updating the BIOS to A13 is supposed to resolve this.

Still, it'll be pretty nice to have a fast P3 with a very decent graphics card, I must admit!