Compaq Presario SR5152NX

Some time ago, probably in 2019 or early 2020, I got a 2007 Compaq Presario computer from a good friend of mine who no longer wanted it. Why he didn't want it is no secret; it's an abysmal machine, which is why it sat in my basement untouched for about a year. Because I was bored, I decided to dig it out and see how it was doing.

Compaq computer, stuck underneath a desk and some of my other junk.

Getting it out was enough of a challenge, a mountain of computer related items & cardboard boxes kept it in place. After excavating it, and removing the side panel, it was clear it needed a deep cleaning. Spider webs & dust were everywhere.

Dust on the motherboard.

I also have it's matching monitor, which has a resolution of 1440x900. Truly one of the ugliest monitors I've ever seen.

The terrible looking monitor that shipped with this PC. I can't remember the exact model number.

Anyways, after booting it and looking at the BIOS, and looking around the inside of the machine more, I discovered that it had these dismal specs:

One neat thing the machine had was an old LightScribe DVD drive, which I forgot existed. If you don't know what that is, watch the video from Technology Connections on it.

BSOD from the computer.

Trying to boot to Windows first brought me to a blue screen, but after restarting & trying again, it worked. Even though it originally shipped with Vista Home Premium, it had been upgraded to 7 Ultimate. I'll probably erase that install and throw XP on it at some point. A follow-up to this about me turning this machine in to something actually useful can't be ruled out.

The messy basement setup.

I'd like to point out just how messy the basement is. The "setup" is just whatever junk computer peripheral I could find thrown together on a broken coffee table, surrounded by boxes of more equipment, not all of which I've even tested. The HP Pavilion isn't the machine running in that photo; the Presario is sitting behind the desk, because there's nowhere else to put it. Cleaning up this place is long overdue.

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