Desperate for Compaq Info !

Hi, everyone

I am desperately seeking help with a Compaq which belongs to a good friend of my daughter's.

It's a Presario 4410ca

I need to be able to do something with the jumper settings!

I have been near this machine a few times in the last year or two and just assumed it was a lame processor/RAM combo.

It's at my place now for a modem issue and I ran Belarc through it. This thing is an AMD 1.3 Gig with 128 RAM! I kid you not when I tell you that it runs like a P2 266.

The whole thing is, and has been, in good shape since new but always this lame. In BIOS, I cannot find any way of checking anything to do with clocking. This thing has got to be seriously underclocked, right out of the box! I've seen it run since day 1.

BIG QUESTION: Where are any jumper settings that allow me to view this in BIOS???

I have pulled almost all my hair out on the Compaq site for 2 hours already!

PLEASE???????

 

Bigger Question - How far is your drive to a qualified technician?

 

Hey, come on!

Cut me some slack here, guy!

I posted the thread in the hope that someone would help me out with the issue of whether or not the settings for the processor are correct or not.

If I needed a disrespectful response Iwould have posted as much. There are rules of conduct on this board. I suggest you review them.

As for the jumper question:

I recently worked on an ASUS P3B-F board that was grossly underclocked and the only way to get at the settings in BIOS was to move a jumper.

Granted, this is not an ASUS board. I was just taking a guess at what it might be.

Also granted is the fact that you, Rockster, are not playing nice today at all.

Would someone here with something helpful and constructive please help me out so that I could check out the setting for the CPU in this machine???

In the hope that, as usual, help will come my way on this forum,

Randy

 

Christer!

Thanx so much for popping in and adding some sanity to this fiasco.

Okay.....all it says there is that it's a 1.29 Celeron with 128 RAM.

What I really need is the how-to of getting into BIOS in a manner so that I can see the settings for the processor and adjust them as necessary. I swear to God that this thing has, from brand new, ran like a 266. I know the PC well enough to know that much. I haven't really looked into the machine until now. To my surprise, it's a 1.3!

Now.....just to get it to run like one. I have been in BIOS on a few machines now. In the BIOS on this machine, no info at all about the clock settings. VERY watered down stuff in BIOS here.

No, I am not a certified PC technician but last I checked, one didn't need to be, or aspire to be, one just to post here.

Too bad that it's a Compaq and hard to find info or help on. I am only going to have it for a short while here and then, as you can imagine, it will be far more difficult to work with once the girl has it back.

Oh! BTW.....XP Home is what it runs, Christer. Almost forgot.

Help???????

Randy

Edit I forgot to mention that there is no array of multiplier jumpers on the board. Two jumpers that can be seen.......both with 3 pins each. (much like the aforementioned ASUS I worked on where one had to be moved to allow access to the settings within BIOS) Sorry for not mentioning this earlier in.

 

Hi Chameleon- I think that your problem may have to do with a shortage of RAM instead of the processor (AMD, Celeron?)having an incorrect clocking issue. Running XP takes much more memory than 98, for example and 128MB probably doesn't cut it especially if she has an active desktop and a lot of things loading on startup. If you can, add another 128MB and make a trip to msconfig to uncheck what is unnecessary and see what happens before messing around with clock speed in the BIOS. Hope this helps, Clydeo22.

 

Christer!

Yep, you're trying, all right!

Okay, so I ran the program you recommended and it points to the existence of a Celeron 1300 (13 X 100) processor.

So now what? If someone, heaven forbid, was to fry this processor and install a 1.2 or something, then what??? No way to clock it corectly? Could it be that there is only 1 setting for this model? Is that it or what?

I'm just so upset with the way it runs. Had I have known what this thing was when she first bought it, it would have been back on the PC store's counter and quickly! I feel responsible a bit for not paying attention to her complaints early in. At the time, she didn't have a clue what it was and could barely afford it so she bought it.

Anyone else have any ideas on this????? Have some of these things, like Christer alluded to, been no good from the get-go?

Thanx in advance,
Randy

P.S. I have just fired off an email to Compaq about this. If no posts after this one, I will be back with their response to:

(after having filled in all manner of model#, etc.)

I am working on this machine for a girl I know who bought it new. She has complained, from day 1, how slow it runs. Not realizing it was a Celeron 1.3, I assumed she got what she paid for. Now, I see what it is and it runs like an old P2 266. I mean VERY badly. QUESTION is how do I access clock settings in BIOS for this thing as now, in BIOS, no access can be had to it at all. No multiplier or bus speed settings at all. I've searched the Compaq site over thoroughly. Cannot find so much as a jumper setting to make "jumperless" adjustments. I feel this unit may very well have been grossly UNDER-clocked from the factory.

Thank You

 

clydeo22,

Thanx for popping in!

Bare bones in startup. Absolutely bare bones. I made sure of that, months ago. Just checked again today.

Sorry, but it IS a Celeron, not AMD as previously posted.

No active desktop, either.

Let's see what the Compaq Gods have to say about this faux pas they call a new PC. (thing is quite new, just off warrantee by a few months or so) I just left the girl a phone message to get back with me as to its purchase date.

Meanwhile, keep on digging, folks!

Randy

 

For what it's worth I have to agree with clydeo22. 128 megs not enough for XP. Should have at least 256 and 512 would be better. I think I'd try to convice her to add more ram first. Might save you a lot of trouble.

 

Zander,

You wrote "For what it's worth" ......

Just so you know something.....it's worth a lot. It really is. If she needs more RAM, so be it! I'll check into it. No harm done.

Let's see if we can get this thing to be able to muster the strenght to load Norton AV AutoProtect at the startup. That's how sadly it runs. The desktop appears and then don't even think of clicking on anything for about a minute or so, maybe more. That's how hard it struggles loading Norton AV with the bare bones at startup in MSCONFIG. If you try to rush into the browser or Windows Explorer when it's doing this, you'll almost stall the machine right out.

Just letting you know, Zander, that constructive posts to any thread are appreciated. We all can do without posts like the first reply to this topic.

Thanx, man!

Randy

 

You didn't like my response but you are ready to start moving jumpers on someone else's motherboard with no idea of what you are doing? You incorrectly identified the processor and by your own admission, had not a clue on what the clock speed or multiplier was - just that it "had" to be seriously under-clocked.

I'm not trying to give you grief. You are probably a well intentioned individual. However, one of the worst things for any computer is "the friend who knows a lot about computers ".

Had you asked your question in a manner that indicated you had the knowledge to start arbitrarily changing things around or the wisdom to admit that you don't know what you are doing, that would be one thing and I would have responded differently. Unfortunately, chances are good that you could make a bad situation worse if you aren't careful.

Your "good intentions" need to be tempered with a more conservative approach based upon your own level of experience and you need to be honest with yourself, your friend and the friend's daughter. No one said you had to have an advanced degree from MIT, Georgia Tech, RPI or Cal PolyTech. My advice is "slow down" and quit "shooting from the hip ".

For starters, here's the link to download the manual for that MB. You can also access FAQ's about the board, join a forum of other users, read about common problmes, get a printout of the board including those jumper settings you want to change on an auto-detect board.
http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/any/na...&lc=en&sw_lang=en&docparent=manual&cat=manual


Your time would be better spent by reading this than it would by criticizing me for telling you that you don't have any business changing a bunch of stuff you know nothing about, especially on someone else's machine. There's no malice intended. I've met you before and when the poor girl's machine has been totally trashed, the bigger question will still be, "How far is your drive to the nearest technician? "

 

Rockster,

You are giving me grief. I believe your original post was malicious in nature because it fell far short of anything constructive.

I accidentally quoted the wrong processor brand and not incorrectly identified it. I believe I cleared that up later. We should not be so hasty with assumptions, should we?

No computers have been trashed in this home thus far. Everyone seems to be very happy with their respective results. When I don't know something, I ask someone or post it to a board with the hope of a reply which doesn't border on, if not is, snide. If I were to break it, I would fix it. Everyone knows that. Everyone but you I guess. Another incorrect assumption.

When you wrote "I've met you before ", should I take this in the most literal and most sinister form of the phrase like you took anything I had to say? Perhaps I should. That being the case, I can safely say that we have not met and that I "know" (don't take this too literally.....it means "think I know ") what the outcome of that meeting would be.

Your link to the manual was found by me early in the afternoon, long before starting this thread. Had you checked it out, you would have seen it contains instructions on how to put the thing up on something and hook it up. This much, most of us already know.

To summize, I take everything you just posted last to be either the lamest excuse for an apology I have ever read or, more realistically, a great shot at back-peddling and saving face over a hasty decision of words earlier in the day. It's a shame it doesn't wash, isn't it?

Oh......if only we were all as perfect as some others.

If anyone looks into any of my posts here, they will find that I am not here to cause anyone trouble. When confronted by it, however, I will not lay down and take it.

Now can we just get on with the investigation of this Presario???

 

No apology, no back-peddling needed or intended. You've said it all and made a much better case than I could ever hope to.

With this, I bid you farewell. I'll not post to your thread again. Flame me if you want.

 

Hi again Chameleon- With RAM as cheap as it is, I really think that another stick would be well worth a try and will certainly improve her performance no matter what the root issue is. Since it hasn't worked very well since she bought it with a minimum of things installed, it is what I would try first. Give it a whirl and I think you'll be pleased with the result. Clydeo22.

 

Real quickly, because the car is running and I'm off to work....

......I'll post more tonight.

I installed another stick of 128 RAM this morning and it really gave it the kick in the rump it needed. It's still quite lame but MAJOR improvement!

Thanks, you guys! Thanks a lot! How right you were about the RAM.

I'll comment more tonight on your last post, Christer.

Later, gotta run!
Randy

 

If you add another 128 I suspect you'd see even more improvement. Guess that'll be up to you and her though.

 

Okay, folks!

The machine is on its way home tonight. She opted out of the RAM until she can afford it. I told her that it was a must and not a maybe, as I had already seen the results. Even at 256 RAM though, I have an old P3 450 right beside it that will just blow it away for speed with only 128 RAM.

A good registry cleaning program I use helped a great deal or so it seemed. There are those here who know more than we do when it comes to what we see and say.

Don't it just make you want to buy a Compaq??? If not, the copy/paste of the email I received from them might. Give this one thing to them....they were quick in responding. This is good for Compaq owners and somewhat encouraging.

Thanks to you all, clydeo22, Christer, & Zander for all your concern.

No one will ever know why Rockster felt compelled to list numerous fragments from various posts, in no chronological order whatsoever. Maybe you have to be on it to understand it, whatever "it" may have been yesterday. Beats me.

...and now for the grand finale you have all been waiting for...Compaq's email to me: ENJOY!

(the email is too long to post here so I'll try post it, in its entirety, next. If I cannot, I will post it in two parts)

 

Dear Randy,

I see that the system is running slow and you do not find the jumpers or
switches to change the clocking speed.

Let me first tell you that there is no option for the Clocking in the
system to be changed. Also, we have not received any issues from
customers stating the system is under clocked.

Compaq has not provided the option to change the clock settings as
mishandling it may cause malfunction of the system.

Moreover, you can improve the system performance following the steps
given below:

* Empty the Recycle Bin:

To empty the Recycle Bin, follow these steps:

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin on the Desktop.

NOTE: To restore any items deleted by mistake, right-click the
selected file and click Restore.

2. Click the Empty Recycle Bin button.
3. Click Yes to confirm the request. Windows will remove the contents
of the Recycle Bin from the hard disk.
4. Close the Recycle Bin.

* Delete temporary files and directories:

Deleting temporary files will increase hard disk space and reduce the
time Windows takes to access the hard drive. It can also fix problems
associated with spooling print jobs. Windows uses the C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
directory to store files temporarily. Sometimes, these files accumulate
and have to be deleted. To delete the temporary files, follow the
steps:

1. Restart Windows.
2. Click Start, select Programs, and choose Accessories.
3. Click System Tools and select Disk Cleanup.
4. Select the checkbox next to Temporary Files and click OK.

* Run Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP:

Scandisk checks the hard drive for errors. Disk Defragmenter moves all
the files of a program to an adjacent area of the hard disk to access
them more efficiently.

To run Scandisk in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and select My Computer.
2. Right-click the hard drive icon. For example, drive C:\ .
3. Click Properties and select the Tools tab.
4. Click the Check Now button.
5. In the Check disk window, select all the checkboxes.
6. Click OK. Click Yes to start a full disk scan when the computer is
restarted.
7. Restart the computer.

NOTE: The Scandisk process may take some time to complete.

To run Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP, follow these steps:

1. Close all running programs including background programs such as
scanners.
2. Click Start and select All Programs.
3. Click Accessories and select System Tools.
4. Click Disk Defragmenter.

Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

NOTE: The Disk Defragmenter may restart continuously if a
background program is still accessing the hard drive.
Restart the computer in Safe mode and follow the above
given steps. To start the system in Safe mode, press
the F8 key when the red Compaq logo appears. This will
display the Windows Startup menu. Choose Safe mode from
the Startup menu and press Enter.


Also you may experience low system performance due to any of the
following causes:

* Programs currently open.
* Graphics intensive effects in Display properties.
* Virtual memory settings.
* Unessential Services loading at Startup.
* Programs running in background.
* Memory leakage and restarting Windows.

You can improve system performance through these methods:

* Close currently open programs

Open background programs use computer memory and resources. These
will usually be shown as an icon in the Systray. The Systray is usually
located in the lower-right corner of the monitor. Closing unused
programs in Systray will make these resources available for other tasks.
To close a program in the Systray, right-click the button or icon and
then click Exit or Close.

NOTE: Some programs like AntiVirus applications should not be
disabled. To identify a program, hold the mouse pointer
over each icon. The program name will be displayed as a
tool tip.

* Change the Visual effects in Display properties:

1. Click Start, select Control Panel, and choose Appearance and
Themes.
2. Select Display.
3. On the Appearance tab, click Effects.
4. In the Effects dialog box, deselect the items not required.

* Change the visual effects in System Properties:

1. Click Start, select Control Panel, and choose Performance and
Maintenance.
2. Select System and click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Settings button under Performance.
4. On the Visual Effects tab, click Custom.
5. Deselect the options that are not required.

* Change the Performance Options settings in Windows XP:

Performance options decide the amount of RAM significantly used on the
computer. You can change Virtual Memory setting by following these
steps:

1. Click Start, select Control Panel, and choose Performance and
Maintenance.
2. Select System and click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Settings button under Performance.
4. Select the Advanced Tab.
5. Click the Change button under Virtual Memory.
6. Now under Virtual Memory click Change.
7. Set the RAM value.

NOTE: To avoid the page file from being defragmented, set the same
increase to value for the Initial size and Maximum size. The
recommended paging file is found by multiplying the system
RAM by 1.5. For example, if 256MB of RAM is installed on
the machine, then 256x1.5=384MB should be the RAM value.

8. Click OK and restart the system.

Indexing service is a small program that requires a huge amount of
RAM. The indexing Service program is not necessary and can be disabled
by following these steps:

1. Click Start, select Control Panel, and choose Performance and
Maintenance.
2. Click Administrator Tools.
3. Click Services. The Services Window opens.
4. In the right pane, double-click the Indexing Service entry from the
list of available services. The Indexing Service Properties window
opens.
5. Set the Startup type drop down menu to disabled.
6. Click Apply and OK.

NOTE: The following services are unessential and can be disabled
from loading at Startup by performing the above-mentioned
steps:

Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting Service
IPSEC Services
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Registry Service
Wireless Zero Configuration

* Stop background programs from loading at Startup

Installing many programs on the computer can often clutter the registry
with unnecessary programs running when your computer starts up. This
will slow down the system and take up memory. System Configuration is a
utility which can help to reduce the programs loading at Startup.

1. Click Start and select Run.
2. Type "msconfig" and press Enter.
3. Click the Startup tab.
4. Deselect the programs you do not want to load at startup.

NOTE: To load a deselected program at Startup, repeat steps 1-3
and select the program.

* Ensure there is no memory leakage

The following troubleshooting steps help to identify if any particular
program is slowing down the system performance. Your system may
perform well when it is first started or restarted, but slows down after
several programs have been opened and closed. This issue is due to
memory leakage. Closing a program before it is fully opened also causes
memory leakage.

To resolve the memory leakage issue, follow these steps:

1. Restart the computer.
2. Press the CTRL, ALT, and DEL buttons simultaneously.
3. Click the Performance tab. Note the amount of available physical
memory.
4. Open a program that might be causing the computer to run more
slowly.
5. View the amount of physical memory again and write it down.
6. Close and open the program repeatedly after every 10 seconds.
7. View the amount of physical memory and compare the number
recorded in step 5.
8. If the system resources continue to decrease, then a memory leak is
occurring. Contact the program manufacturer for available
solutions.

If the System Resource percentage or available memory returns to the
same numbers each time, then the program is not causing a memory leak.

These procedures should improve the system performance in Windows XP.

I have provided possible solutions to solve the problem over email
support in the first hint. I can assist you in the


best possible way, if you could provide us with more information
regarding the progress in above-mentioned troubleshooting


steps. I am committed to working this issue until you are completely
satisfied.

Regards,

Sandra
HP Total Care

"Our advice is strictly limited to the question(s) asked and is based on
the information provided to us. HP does not assume any responsibility
or liability for the advice given and shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages in
connection with the use of this information. Always back up your data.
For more information, including technical information updates, please
visit our Web site at http://www.hp.com/go/support. "