Garbled Text issue on old K6 Computer

Post Reply New Topic

I friend of mine was looking to get a working computer for 7-Year Old. Turns out he found an old relic in his garage. A Compaq Presario 5184 from early 1999. Sporting a 380Mhz AMD K6 Processor with 220MB Ram and a 6GB Hard Drive. After loading up to a porn invested copy of Windows ME I decided of putting Xubuntu 9.04 on it. However I have a big issue. I can not get the computer to turn on with the Floppy Drive plugged in. I also get garbled text characters and misspelled words on the screen.

I tried resetting CMOS as well as airing out the tower and rewiring and reassembling everything. I know its the floppy because the HD and CD Drive work as well as the keyboard. It also won't boot from CD even if its set as the 1st boot option. Any help.

Also would replacing the floppy, cd-rom and hard drives work.

Oh and I already have the Netgear Wireless Card for when I do get Xubuntu loaded up. One of the Wi-fi Cards that work well in linux.

Note- It has the SiS 530 Video Chipset.

Oh not to mention would xubuntu be good for playing Childrens games off the wen in Firefox. The kid plays games on a E-Machine with WinXP in the house. Was wondering if xubuntu is good for gaming.

There is a distro for kids.. i forget the name.

http://www.qimo4kids.com/

thats it.

Now. The CD issue. Early computers wont boot from cd. Its not in the bios. You can attempt to update the bios, but it may still predate that.

Linux isnt as fussy about booting to specific hardware, so you can install to that hard drive and then move it to the older computer.

[edit] i dont know if it will run on that old hardware...[/quote]

Compaqs back in that era used to have some proprietary stuff in them, but floppies you should be able to pick up for a song. If you can find them... I seem to remember that was either at the dawn (or just before) of USB, so memory sticks probably aren't an option.

If they still make them, you could have a dirty floppy drive head, you might want to send some compressed air into it. It depends on what conditions you had the computer stored to begin with; high heat and/or humidity is not kind to older systems.

Now as to boot; does that mean you don't get the operating system up, or it starts working when you disconnect the power cable to the floppy? If that's the case, you have a bad floppy.

Believe it or not, the Windows 98SE CD will boot. I would look at the cabling. I would also check that the devices are showing up on start up. Best to have IDE devices set to auto, and see if you get hard drive and CD-ROM drive. Are you using an ATA-80 cable for the hard drive? You could get better results if you have them on each channel, Primary and Secondary, setting both devices to MASTER.
If you are still having problems, unplug everything that you don't need.
Needed: Keyboard, video, CPU, heatsink/fan, RAM, POWER.
Not Needed: Mouse, hard drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, add-on devices, including those that plug into the USB port, etc.

I would check the CD-ROM can be booted from, and I would check the quality of the image on the disc that you have recorded.

I presume you have the floppy plugged in the right way? Constant light on is plugged in incorrectly. Installing Windows, Linux operating systems from at least Windows98se can be installed from the CD. You can set the floppy drive to non-existent in the BIOS, too.

Could be worth checking the board isn't shorting out anywhere. Make sure the PSU is pumping out enough power, and the CPU is getting enough and not overheating. And the AMD 380MHz is the K6-2 You could probably crank it up to 400MHz if you wanted to

I tried that and it didn't work. Oh and the computer has 2 USB 1.1 Ports. USB has been on computers since 1997.

It boots up to a porn invested copy of Windows ME fine. The CD drives are also detected and are set to 1st boot priority. Should I replace the Hard Drive and CD- Drives as well as the CMOS Battery and Floppy.

I also cleaned out the PSU with a cloth, canned air and checked the wiring inside. That appears to help a bit.

IIRC -march=k6 or k6-2 may be needed, so stuff compiled as x86 may not work well, at least IME.

The K6 was expired with the 233MHz Socket 7 processor. The K6-2 began by replacing the 233, and going in tandem with the Pentium 2 (slot 1) The AMD processors above 266MHz will have the MMX technology and other basic requirements. In many tests, the K6-2 MMX outclassed the Pentium2 on 3D graphics whereas the P2 outclassed the K6-2 on 2D graphics.

The "K6" 380, WILL be the K6-2. The K6-3 (mk1 Athlon) shared the socket7 but, I can't remember when it became the super socket7. The K6-3 Was available in 400-450-500 and 550. Although in-between speeds wouldn't surprise me either. 433,466,475,480,533. Although after 300, the only logical choice was 50MHz steps.

I have to be honest. Is this computer good for a little kid to browse the web and play games. Does linux also have we filtering software to filter out inappropriate content. They have programs like that for Windows though you have to pay big for them.

I'd take it one step at a time. I think I've been in computers too long; I remember when USB was introduced, but it had been a while.. If the computer won't turn on when the floppy's plugged in, there's a hardware problem.

Not sure how Windows ME gets 'porn invested', but if it's corrupt, then that could be part of the problem. I presume it came with ME in the first place? I remember that OS was...not ready for prime time... Or you could reformat. Drives don't last forever, it's possible that it is going out.
Finding a replacement would be a problem, they don't make 'em that small any more...

It originally had Win98 (1st Edition) and was then upgraded to WinME. The problem is that the install is trashed out with personal files and programs from the previous owner. Even to the point that when the father woke up in the middle of the night to see hardcore porn on the computer screen. Thats when he unplugged the thing at that very second and put it in the garage. Was about to throw it out until he learned I could fix it.

Garbled text? Not booting when peripherals are plugged in?

Dude, buy a new stick of RAM. Your problems will be solved about 98% of the time. The other 2% is the proc or board.

EDIT: YOU STOLE MY 1000th POST!! ! Arggh... Well, I suppose the comp forum was the place for it, I'm usually here.