Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Compaq DOA, Microsoft NT setup cruel and unusual punishment

Author:Hannes Wallnöfer
Posted:8/25/1999; 4:17:09 PM
Topic:Next clonemaker, Compaq
Msg #:9889 (In response to 9880)
Prev/Next:9888 / 9890

I had the same or at least a very similar problem some weeks ago while setting up two Compaq Deskpros with Windows NT. The version of NT that came with the boxes simply did not have a driver for the Intel PRO/100 ethernet card (a standard option for the model). After trying for some time to get the (wrong) driver working, I had to pull out the network card to see what model it was and download the driver (fortunately ~1MB) from Intel. The NT setup also crashed once, so all in all it took several hours to set up the two machines.

I then installed SuSE Linux on both PCs in about half an hour. It took one reboot per installation, and I could set up the network driver by simply choosing the driver from a list in the setup tool. (Already knowing the model was a bonus here.)

Of course the tip of the iceberg is Compaq's wacky installation splash screen illustration. Obviously the need to distinguish themselves from other PC makers bears some strange fruits :)




This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:52:05 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.