GX1 drivers

I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is worth
keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a hard drive
from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website, a
major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers
"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

Any ideas?

In article om,
, bud-- says...

I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is worth
keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a hard drive
from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website, a
major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers
"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

Any ideas?

Works fine for me, downloaded BIOS update, IDE driver - didn't try more
(for Windows XP)

What browser are you using? I used IE11, I'm sure Chrome would be fine
too.

--
Duncan.

bud-- wrote:
I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is worth
keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a hard drive
from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website, a
major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers

"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

Any ideas?

It looks like a Slot 1 board.
Maybe the 600 refers to 600MHz, and a Celeron
instead of a Pentium processor ? I think I have
a Celeron 300 that would fit the slot in the center
of this photo.

http://www.recycledgoods.com/media/c...141e-21.18.jpg

That's probably around 15 years old.

And from before the "Capacitor Plague" era, so it probably
isn't leaking.

The power connector may be non-standard, if you go to replace
the ATX supply some day. Check the main cable colors if doing so,
to see whether the cabling is standard or Dell-specific. Dell
stopped doing stupid stuff, eventually.

*******

The driver page did give me something, but it's basically
a total write-off. No help at all. You'd be better off
staring at that picture of the motherboard, noting the
ATI Rage graphics chip onboard, selecting a driver for
that, and so on.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...ers?DCP=DndTag

You could always try archive.org, visit the Dell.com site
in the year 2000, and see what shows up there.

Maybe the box would be useful for some specialized purpose
(like a home router or a NAS), but for general usage
it would be more trouble than it's worth.

Paul

On 21 Feb 2015, bud-- wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is
worth keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a
hard drive from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website,
a major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I don't think that's true. I'm using Firefox and the site seems to
display correctly and all options appear to be available. I can see
a full list of drivers for that particular Service Tag number.

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers
"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

If you go to the URL you mention above, you've already specified the
Service Tag. You don't need to push that button after that.

On 2/21/2015 6:32 PM, Paul wrote:
bud-- wrote:
I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is worth
keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a hard drive
from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website, a
major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers

"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

Any ideas?

It looks like a Slot 1 board.
Maybe the 600 refers to 600MHz, and a Celeron
instead of a Pentium processor ? I think I have
a Celeron 300 that would fit the slot in the center
of this photo.

http://www.recycledgoods.com/media/c...141e-21.18.jpg


That's probably around 15 years old.

And from before the "Capacitor Plague" era, so it probably
isn't leaking.

The power connector may be non-standard, if you go to replace
the ATX supply some day. Check the main cable colors if doing so,
to see whether the cabling is standard or Dell-specific. Dell
stopped doing stupid stuff, eventually.


I intended to post this in the usenet Dell group. That one and this one
are among several that I have watched for a long time.

Your Ouija board is working pretty well.
Pentium III 600MHz
Manufactured 12/21/1999

The thing runs fine.

It is real easy to take it apart and make hardware changes. Maybe other
manufacturers do that now too (but my 4 year old computer doesn't).

The power supply is part of the easy-to-take-apart, and a garden power
supply probably wouldn't fit (or be a cost-effective fix for this old a
computer).

Interesting comment about "capacitor plague".

On 2/21/2015 6:33 PM, Nil wrote:
On 21 Feb 2015, bud-- wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is
worth keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a
hard drive from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website,
a major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I don't think that's true. I'm using Firefox and the site seems to
display correctly and all options appear to be available. I can see
a full list of drivers for that particular Service Tag number.

If you connect the Dell computer to the Dell internet site, the site can
read the service tag, also the current configuration. My recollection
from the past is that required Internet Explorer, and my guess was that
it required ActiveX components that didn't run on Firefox.

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers
"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

If you go to the URL you mention above, you've already specified the
Service Tag. You don't need to push that button after that.

I used Firefox 31.4.0 (current). To make sure add-ons weren't blocking I
also ran Firefox in its safe-mode (which I believe runs it with none of
the add-ons). Neither worked yesterday.

Today Firefox worked with features like cookies enabled. That should
have worked with FF safe-mode.

Yesterday Internet Explorer 8 should have worked (also ran with no
add-ons, but I think that disables ActiveX).
I think IE8 is the latest for XP.

Thanks for the responses. Knowing the info is actually there and the
button doesn't need to be pushed helps a lot.

On 02/21/2015 06:33 PM, Nil wrote:
On 21 Feb 2015, bud-- wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is
worth keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a
hard drive from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website,
a major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I don't think that's true. I'm using Firefox and the site seems to
display correctly and all options appear to be available. I can see
a full list of drivers for that particular Service Tag number.

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers
"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

If you go to the URL you mention above, you've already specified the
Service Tag. You don't need to push that button after that.




Op said he is using a win98 drive so it may simply be that the site will
not work with the old version of IE ...probably has IE5


If the hardware for the machine is good enough, I'd certainly not use Win98

Machine may be a candidate for Linux or XP

On 2/24/2015 6:02 AM, philo wrote:
On 02/21/2015 06:33 PM, Nil wrote:
On 21 Feb 2015, bud-- wrote in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general:

I got a discarded computer and am trying to figure out if it is
worth keeping. It had no hard drive, thus no drivers. I put in a
hard drive from an older machine with W98.

The computer I am looking at is
Dell OptiPlex GX1 600MTbr+
service tag BUWMN

It appears you have to use Internet Explorer on the Dell website,
a major annoyance. I am using IE 8 (on a different XP machine).

I don't think that's true. I'm using Firefox and the site seems to
display correctly and all options appear to be available. I can see
a full list of drivers for that particular Service Tag number.

I can get to the appropriate page:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/BUWMN/drivers

"drivers & downloads" on the left side
"get updates for your specific system" in the middle
pushing the "Service Tag" button does not work ("Error on page" is
displayed in the lower left corner")

If you go to the URL you mention above, you've already specified the
Service Tag. You don't need to push that button after that.




Op said he is using a win98 drive so it may simply be that the site will
not work with the old version of IE ...probably has IE5

All internet connections were with an XP computer. Not so sure I want to
connect a W98 computer to the internet.


If the hardware for the machine is good enough, I'd certainly not use Win98

Machine may be a candidate for Linux or XP

That is one question. It should work OK with XP.

But it has one application (and files it created) for which I have the
upgrade disks but haven't yet found the original install disks
(required), so I can't move it to XP.