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Only advice is upgrade the soundcard. That crystal soundcard , way it was implemented is pretty bad for dos gaming. The built in ATI Rage isnt too bad for the era, just dont go beyond Win98se with it. Also replace any thermal paste and lube the fan bearing if there is a fan installed.
 
this is the seller info....
"It's a 1997 PC with Monitor from 1998, so >24 years old (nearly quarter of a century)! Keyboard in very good condition, Mouse is new (Aopen brand). Monitor is very good condition, only the odd scuff. All devices same white shade and not much discolouration which is rare for age. The whole system is fully working and thoroughly tested including the memory and hard disk! PC has been fully FACTORY RESTORED from IBM Recovery and has Windows 95 OSR2 all original IBM Software. Even the CDROM drive is linked up internally to the sound card!"
It is for my good lady to work with (brings back memories for her) happy days! it leaves me to move on with the PCW9512 refurb...🙂 either that or wood work!
Specs here
Not particularly interesting.
thanks Chuck, nothing for me to play with then.
Only advice is upgrade the soundcard. That crystal soundcard , way it was implemented is pretty bad for dos gaming. The built in ATI Rage isnt too bad for the era, just dont go beyond Win98se with it. Also replace any thermal paste and lube the fan bearing if there is a fan installed.
I will look at the thermal paste/lube situation with the fan if I can get near it with a screw driver! the boss likes it the way it is and it works fine for her, (End of!) maybes-l500.jpgIMG_7270.JPG
 
I have a very rough example of a 2137 sitting on my desk here. It works,. They were never anything fancy. I did have to replace the CPU cooler fan for the sake of my ears.
 
not had it switched on yet as it is with my good lady, so not heard it run, was the CPU fan faulty and needed replacement or did you replace with a different model?
 
It was just old noisy fan, screeching away. I replaced it with whatever Amazon had in stock for next day delivery. I misspoke, I do not have a 2137, I have a 2153 Aptiva. Same case but with an Intel PII and motherboard to match.
 
I have that same model. Best thing I did was replace the aging IDE drive with an IDE2CF card and now the machine is silent (and faster).
 
If those printers are Parallel port, yes. If they're USB you will likely need a USB card.
 
I have similar model Aptiva. I installed Win2K and OS/2 Warp 4 and Linux. Just because. It looks like you have a couple of USB ports on the back. But those are probably only USB 1. The printers, if USB, may like USB 2.0 better. If so, you can install a USB expansion card to add USB 2.0 ports. It may not matter though. Try the USB ports you have - if your printers are using USB. If they are using parallel then you should be able to use the LPT1 port on the back of the computer.

Seaken
 
True, but we don't even know what his printers use yet. OP, what interface do your printers support? I had some early USB printers that also had a parallel/centronics connnector.

Seaken
 
I bought a random USB 2.0 PCI card off amazon and both 98 and XP detected and loaded drivers.
 
I got a few usb cards this year, all VIA based ones, and they work on the machines I threw them in. A pentium pro with Intel PR440FX mobo and a k6-2 with a ECS board, think Intel 430TX chipset. No probs no fuss. Not sure if they will work on 5v 486 boards with PCI bus tho. The Pentium pro is running win95 osr2 and NT 4 , and the k6-2 win98se.
 
I have similar model Aptiva. I installed Win2K and OS/2 Warp 4 and Linux. Just because. It looks like you have a couple of USB ports on the back. But those are probably only USB 1. The printers, if USB, may like USB 2.0 better. If so, you can install a USB expansion card to add USB 2.0 ports. It may not matter though. Try the USB ports you have - if your printers are using USB. If they are using parallel then you should be able to use the LPT1 port on the back of the computer.

Seaken
both the printers use USB so I will look for a USB card, I am running win 95 and considering installing win 98,
 
In 1995 a printer selling with USB would be a gimmick given how nobody would yet have USB and the spec was still REALLY primitive and was mostly for keyboards, mice and specialty HID's because Plug and Play was still living up to the "Plug and Pray" name. By Windows 98 there was some printers and scanners and gamepads on the market (notable from Epson HP and Microsoft) that would have USB functionality but even most digital cameras were still serial port ordeals. Printers without a parallel port didn't happen until the early mid-2000's. Once that was dropped 9x support dropped pretty quickly after.
 
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