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Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

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    Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

    About a month ago I rescued two HP Kayak systems from a recycle bin, one is a XA (D6723T single slot-1) the other is a XAs (D5765T dual slot-1)....I finally got around to messing with one of them. Anyone that knows can figure which one went first!! The dually of course! I've never seen one of these systems before, I didn't even know they existed.

    This thing was an absolute basket case. No CPU's, no RAM, no HDD's. GPU was a Matrox Millennium 2....That won't fly either....

    Here we go!! It was filthy inside, so start stripping it!





    Empty shell.


    Keys were there atleast...


    Motherboard....




    Parts piling up...


    Hotwashed & dried...








    Now for CPU's & RAM... This is a BX Chipset, it boggles my mind why they left that one RAM slot unpopulated....which gyps the system out of 256mb RAM, maxing @ 768mb. Then onto CPU's.... Even with the latest firmware, the newest core supported is Katmai. It will not run coppermines. I have a pair of 550's on hand, the fastest would be 600.


    Getting ready to go back together....shiny zinc plated heavy steel. This thing is a tank!




    ...and now the glory of graphics, 3DFX no less! It's a Voodoo 3500 I picked up on ebay a while back.


    Now to utilize one of my NOS HP branded Pioneer SCSI slot-load DVD drives, in HP gray!! The original IDE cdrom worked, but was struggling to read....so this was a nice upgrade, and SCSI.




    Added an Adaptec 131U2 and a pair of Fujitsu 10k RPM HDD's.


    Getting closer!!


    Air guides all reinstalled.




    Super Cool POST screen!


    It's so happy it smiles!


    Case back together installing Win2k.


    Lousy web browser....but still super cool!


    ...and the GL Quake test!!


    I've still got some tweaking to do....but this was a fun one! It's been a while since I've done one of these.
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    #2
    Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

    lol i thought it was gonna be about you really kayaking LOL, nice build what os you gonna run?
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      #3
      Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

      Originally posted by Topcat View Post
      it boggles my mind why they left that one RAM slot unpopulated....
      yea me too. i've been thinking about it and the only explanation that makes sense is that they left it out due to a ram limitation issue of some kind due to whatever software setup they were using, so they couldnt have more than 512mb of ram installed and visible.

      not sure what os they used in it originally since the original hard drives were stripped from it. im guessing win nt 4 was the os of choice for multi-cpu systems back then. not sure what usable ram limitation win nt 4 had.
      Originally posted by BigTroll View Post
      what os you gonna run?
      topcat said he was installing win2k in it. tho i think win nt 4 might be a more period specific os to install in a p3 system for a multi-cpu system. win98/me doesnt support multiple cpus, tho he could try that for the other single cpu kayak system.

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        #4
        Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

        These originally had Win98 & NT4 on them, but were officially supported by win2k before HP EOL'd them (from what I read anyway). NT4 can handle the usual 3.5gb/4gb RAM like any other 32 bit OS. No way I'm putting 9x on a dual system. The other one, maybe..... I never liked win9x....Odds are if it could run on Win9x, I could get it to run on NT4 or Win2k.
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          #5
          Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

          would probably be a fun machine to run vice city and GTA 3 on. Burnout Championship drag racing allthough this game although older is one of my favorite drag racing games and 3DFX compatible you can set your own bore and stroke, valve sizes compression ratios everything. https://www.myabandonware.com/game/b...rag-racing-cnr

          scroll down and find the version that says dos and it should be a 160MB ISO you can burn, love this game even the opening video has some good GASH I always remember my dad talking about the GASH growing up.
          My Computer: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, Asrock X370 Killer SLI/AC, 32GB G.SKILL TRIDENT Z RGB DDR4 3200, 500GB WD Black NVME and 2TB Toshiba HD,Geforce RTX 3080 FOUNDERS Edition, In-Win 303 White, EVGA SuperNova 750 G3, Windows 10 Pro

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            #6
            Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

            ^
            I've never heard of the game, but I DL'd it and the patches for it. Anything with Glide support tends to be cool to tinker with.
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              #7
              Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

              I love it! Great rescue, TC.

              This is from back in the day when Hewlett Packard built really good stuff.
              Of course, I don't even want to imagine how much someone paid for this back when it was new. Probably dwarfs whatever any high-end system you can build today (not to mention with inflation, several thousand $$ isn't as much as it was 20 years ago.)

              Also, I bet you didn't even have to touch a single cap on the motherboard or the PSU. That Astec PSU probably has nothing but Nichicon PL caps and similar. Those old PSUs are truly indestructible.

              Originally posted by Topcat View Post
              Getting ready to go back together....shiny zinc plated heavy steel. This thing is a tank!
              https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1592020473

              Hell yeah!

              Originally posted by Topcat View Post
              ...and now the glory of graphics, 3DFX no less! It's a Voodoo 3500 I picked up on ebay a while back.
              https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1592020473
              Nice.
              You know how to spoil a build... in a good way, that is.

              Originally posted by Topcat View Post
              It's so happy it smiles!
              That actually made me smile too!

              This is so much cooler and classy than the RGB LED fad nowadays.

              Thanks for posting, it really was a pleasure seeing an old system like this come back to life.
              Last edited by momaka; 06-16-2020, 12:55 PM.

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                #8
                Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                ...about the caps.
                I'm curious about that super capacitor.
                Is it still ok after all these years, not leaking?
                I think I have never seen a desktop/laptop system use that instead of a CR2032 (or similar) battery before.
                "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

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                  #9
                  Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                  maybe it was intended to run HP Unix!!

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                    #10
                    Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                    Originally posted by Per Hansson View Post
                    ...about the caps.
                    I'm curious about that super capacitor.
                    Is it still ok after all these years, not leaking?
                    I think I have never seen a desktop/laptop system use that instead of a CR2032 (or similar) battery before.
                    i'v seen those type of supercaps on arcade gear - they dont leak
                    they do fail, but they are inside a stainless-steel crimped case - i hate to think what that cost at the time!

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                      #11
                      Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                      Originally posted by Per Hansson View Post
                      ...about the caps.
                      I'm curious about that super capacitor.
                      Is it still ok after all these years, not leaking?
                      I think I have never seen a desktop/laptop system use that instead of a CR2032 (or similar) battery before.
                      It's actually good. 1F 5.5v Panasonic cap. I didn't replace it, but I did check it.
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                        #12
                        Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                        Originally posted by momaka View Post
                        I love it! Great rescue, TC.
                        Thanks, this was an enjoyable one.

                        Originally posted by momaka View Post
                        This is from back in the day when Hewlett Packard built really good stuff.
                        Of course, I don't even want to imagine how much someone paid for this back when it was new. Probably dwarfs whatever any high-end system you can build today (not to mention with inflation, several thousand $$ isn't as much as it was 20 years ago.)
                        From everything I could dig up, they started at around $5000. There really wasn't a lot of info out there about these.

                        Originally posted by momaka View Post
                        Also, I bet you didn't even have to touch a single cap on the motherboard or the PSU. That Astec PSU probably has nothing but Nichicon PL caps and similar. Those old PSUs are truly indestructible.
                        Nope, it did not need recapping. Motherboard was all Panasonic & Sanyo WG's and indeed, the PSU was all Nichicon, mostly PL series.


                        Originally posted by momaka View Post
                        Nice.
                        You know how to spoil a build... in a good way, that is.
                        For a retro build, GPU choices are limited, but critical. I am always looking for 3DFX stuff, that always seems to be the correct choice for systems of this era. I'm fond of the Voodoo3's, they were AGP and PCI, ran retro games great...and still kept things period-specific unless it's perhaps a pentium-classic....but I've always found voodoo1 and voodoo2 cards to be a pain....

                        Originally posted by momaka View Post
                        This is so much cooler and classy than the RGB LED fad nowadays.
                        That would have been an absolute insult to this classic!! Nothin' doin'!!

                        Originally posted by momaka View Post
                        Thanks for posting, it really was a pleasure seeing an old system like this come back to life.
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                          #13
                          Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                          I'm Kayaking again....the XA (D6732T) single CPU this time.....which was more of a basket case than the other one.... No CPU. No RAM. No GPU. No HDD. 2 of the 3 fans missing (thankfully all the shrouds & air guides were there). cdrom doesn't work. Floppy is gunked up, but repairable. Test bedding it, P2 450MHz 768mb RAM. This one is yellowed/browned bad (bromine offgas thing), which made all the pretty blue accents look babyshit brown. I'll have to see if the Yellowing Removal trick will do this any good....



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                            #14
                            Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                            nice, pii 450s snatch a premium which is why I stuck with a pii 400 on my build.
                            My Computer: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, Asrock X370 Killer SLI/AC, 32GB G.SKILL TRIDENT Z RGB DDR4 3200, 500GB WD Black NVME and 2TB Toshiba HD,Geforce RTX 3080 FOUNDERS Edition, In-Win 303 White, EVGA SuperNova 750 G3, Windows 10 Pro

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                              #15
                              Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                              Originally posted by BigTroll View Post
                              nice, pii 450s snatch a premium which is why I stuck with a pii 400 on my build.
                              Sounds just like what I would expect in 1998, LOL. No wonder some wanted to overclock in that period! Back then, you were better off getting Windows 95 OSR2 then paying for an extra 50 Mhz.
                              Last edited by RJARRRPCGP; 06-18-2020, 08:12 PM.
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                              "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

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                                #16
                                Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                                Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
                                Sounds just like what I would expect in 1998, LOL. No wonder some wanted to overclock in that period! Back then, you were better off getting Windows 95 OSR2 then paying for an extra 50 Mhz.
                                No you weren't.....the smart ones ran NT4!
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                                  #17
                                  Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                                  Originally posted by Topcat View Post
                                  No you weren't.....the smart ones ran NT4!
                                  Yes, NT4 looks like a good one, that's one I forgot about, but sadly, never got to try that version of NT. And thus, Windows 95 was tolerable at the time.

                                  At Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, looked like only a server would have NT-anything! All the clients I hopped on, had the usual 3.1x or a Windows 95-based OS. That means that their PIII 733s and PIII 866s had Windows 98 SE.

                                  Looked like I was the only one using XP, albeit I would often go back to Windows 98 SE and vice-versa on my T-bird system, LOL.

                                  Even the library wouldn't have an NT-based Windows installed there. I guess it's because of the permissions system interfering with programs.

                                  And it looks like, NT is known to use more RAM, when RAM was expensive! It was a tough time, when double-figure megabytes of RAM were the normal!
                                  Last edited by RJARRRPCGP; 06-18-2020, 09:51 PM.
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                                  "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

                                  "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

                                  "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

                                  "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

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                                    #18
                                    Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                                    Frickin' Topcat gotta go'n post something cool like these Kayak systems as if I needed ANY MORE niche-cool (meaning useless junk to others) to scrounge for on craigslist. Now, I'm going to pick up an XA600 and XM600. God DANG you, Topcat.
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                                      #19
                                      Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                                      Originally posted by Logistics View Post
                                      Frickin' Topcat gotta go'n post something cool like these Kayak systems as if I needed ANY MORE niche-cool (meaning useless junk to others) to scrounge for on craigslist. Now, I'm going to pick up an XA600 and XM600. God DANG you, Topcat.
                                      I love being the inspiration!!! ...and now I feel accomplished knowing that you rescued a couple Kayak systems! I need to get the single CPU one finished up, but I still haven't found the GPU I want for it (something 3DFX no less). I did find a Katmai 600MHz CPU for the single CPU Kayak, the fastest one of these could take (they won't run Coppermines, even with the latest firmware).
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                                        #20
                                        Re: Went Kayaking....and it's not what you're thinking! HP XAs Restoration!

                                        I'd probably op for and old Quadro, but AGP Quadros are not high in numbers. Actually, I just remembered I have a Parhelia 128 that should be right at home... I think I have a Voodoo3 AGP if you have trouble locating something.
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