Well i have one similar but it's no 486 though.....

Compaq Prolinea 5100e with an intel Pentium (i believe mine is a 100mhz model)

You might wanna view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqg90PzHu6I for more detail.

Personally i have 3 Prolinea models with a pentium board (fastest one is a 233mmx) but i am not fond of them.
They lack a "normal" bios and can only be set up using software on bootable disks... a lot of hassle to track down the right versions for your particular board.

Smid1980 wrote:

Well i have one similar but it's no 486 though..... […]
Show full quote

Well i have one similar but it's no 486 though.....

Compaq Prolinea 5100e with an intel Pentium (i believe mine is a 100mhz model)

Prolinea 5100e_small.jpg

You might wanna view https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqg90PzHu6I for more detail.

Personally i have 3 Prolinea models with a pentium board (fasted one is a 233mmx) but i am not fond of them.
They lack a "normal" bios and can only be set up using software on bootable disks... a lot of hassle to track down the right versions for your particular board.

Yeah I've seen ones like that Prolinea before. Closest I've been able to find, until I recently saw this picture in an old Consumers Distributing catalog. Different style on the lower edges and the power button is more square. Mine was definitely a Presario. The BIOS was annoying as was the lack of info on the screen during POST (and the absurdly slow memory test) but it was my first "real" computer not built with garbage components, so there's a fondness I have with it.

Lol... i think all users on this great forum can relate: nostalgia trumps all gripes.

I'm still looking for our first real computer (my dad's pc of course): a Laser branded 286 computer.
16mhz, 8mhz turbo, LED speed indicator, 2 rectangular buttons for turbo and reset, 4x 256kb simm, 40mb harddrive and a 1,44mb diskette drive all packed in a lovely beige AT desktop case with the laser logo in blue.

Never even seen a picture of one since.... but man, would i love to own that machine again..... and it would probably suck 😒

Smid1980 wrote:

Lol... i think all users on this great forum can relate: nostalgia trumps all gripes. […]
Show full quote

Lol... i think all users on this great forum can relate: nostalgia trumps all gripes.

I'm still looking for our first real computer (my dad's pc of course): a Laser branded 286 computer.
16mhz, 8mhz turbo, LED speed indicator, 2 rectangular buttons for turbo and reset, 4x 256kb simm, 40mb harddrive and a 1,44mb diskette drive all packed in a lovely beige AT desktop case with the laser logo in blue.

Never even seen a picture of one since.... but man, would i love to own that machine again..... and it would probably suck 😒

I got a 10MHz Laser branded 286 a while back, though it sounds different than the one you're describing (even the reset button looked to be added on later).

Alas, not the model i'm looking for.... 😢
Then again, it would have been unfair if i found my childhood pc in your post 🤣.

(the keyboard does look like the one i bashed on back in the day... probably generic to Laser PC's back then?)

I had a similar keyboard (different brand) years ago, but it had a home key between the arrow keys.

I found a picture of it from the early 2000s (and how I "fixed" it)

Deskpro 466?

https://www.recycledgoods.com/amp/compaq-prol … -420mb-desktop/

JidaiGeki wrote:

Deskpro 466?

https://www.recycledgoods.com/amp/compaq-prol … -420mb-desktop/

Similar specs, but no cd-rom and the case is different. This was a consumer grade PC.

Just noticed this thread in System Specs - Crawlspace Project: Compaq Presario 633 - any closer to what you seek?

JidaiGeki wrote:

Just noticed this thread in System Specs - Crawlspace Project: Compaq Presario 633 - any closer to what you seek?

Unfortunately, no. That looks like an older style. I used mspaint to modify my original image. This is exactly what it looked like (same drive config, front styling, everything). I guess it was probably not a very common model. I remember it was really high end for the time (17" version of the CRT, 8mb ram, 420mb HDD, DX2-66MHz CPU, 2x or 4x CD-ROM) and it was old enough to come with Win 3.1.

The local shop in St. Vital Mall had models like that for sale back in the day, although I think they were 486SX or DX chips onboard. I remember they were demoing with Comanche and DOTT.

I have some similar models as well, most are Pentium though. Maybe it will help you narrow it down?

Compaq Prolinea 590
Compaq Prolinea 575e
Compaq Deskpro 486/33M
Compaq Prolinea 4/50

If I’m correct, during 1994-1996 period, the first 5 stands for Pentium, a 4 for 486, and the last two numbers for the CPU speed. The desktop model with grey bottom is a later model. So a 486 with grey bottom was not high end. Deskpro and Prolinea are business class pc’s, Prosignia (earlier called System Pro) servers and high end workstations, and Presario consumer oriented.

Feel free to correct if I’m wrong 😊

I saw this one today...

http://link.marktplaats.nl/m1242833169

Cyrix200+ wrote:

I have some similar models as well, most are Pentium though. Maybe it will help you narrow it down? […]
Show full quote

I have some similar models as well, most are Pentium though. Maybe it will help you narrow it down?

Compaq Prolinea 590
Compaq Prolinea 575e
Compaq Deskpro 486/33M
Compaq Prolinea 4/50

Cyrix200+ wrote:

I saw this one today...

http://link.marktplaats.nl/m1242833169

Close, but those have the more common styling on the front. The 575e is very similar (same height) but the grey part and power button are styled differently.

SpectriaForce wrote:

If I’m correct, during 1994-1996 period, the first 5 stands for Pentium, a 4 for 486, and the last two numbers for the CPU speed. The desktop model with grey bottom is a later model. So a 486 with grey bottom was not high end. Deskpro and Prolinea are business class pc’s, Prosignia (earlier called System Pro) servers and high end workstations, and Presario consumer oriented.

Feel free to correct if I’m wrong 😊

I wonder if the styling of the one I had was the earlier design. While the other, more common style was prevalent in later models. I definitely remember the people who bought mine (friends of the family) spending a decent amount on the computer. And they got a 17" monitor (similar model to the one in my original pic) with it back in ~1994. It looked huge running 800x600 Win 3.1.

Not sure why I care so much about finding this. I think because it's proving so difficult to find.

Yeah, it's annoying that it can't be found. Maybe old magazines might shed some light on the case (hah!).

I guess this isn't it either but this thread is turning into a Compaq desktop variant register 😉

dirkmirk posted this a while back, the trim pieces are different to the 5xx series ones (ribbed vertically). Actually this one looks like the Deskpro 466 I posted earlier, so feel free to ignore...

http://s1216.photobucket.com/user/dirkmirk/me … rtvzj8.jpg.html

http://ps-2.kev009.com/ohlandl/PS2_MOST/ACROR … PAQ/2005026.PDF

Compaq Presario CDS 7xx series might be it. I have a CDS 762 and it's exterior exactly matches your picture. Note the shorter profile of a desktop on a scheme. Here's how for example Presario CDS 720 (equipped with 486 SX2/66) looks:

Presario CDS 724 (equipped with 486 DX2/66):

Some of CDS 7xx model are equipped with 486 CPUs, details can be found here: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/bpb12310.pdf

Excellent! Thanks bristlehog!