Thinkpads Forum

To me, it's recent, just bought this week. I already have 2 questions... Is this a proper place to post them? Its model no. is 6563-99U.

Most of us have been around enough to know about any desktop machine, My fist was an IBM PS/2 Model 30 286, with an unheard of 4MB RAM and a 20MB Hard drive internal High density 3.5", External Low Density 5.25"IBM PS/2 Proprinter 24pin, and a 2400baud Modem. 12" MCGA Monitor (same as VGA)

Ask your questions on your PC300, I currently own one and use it as a router and file server. I also use the power supply to run my cable modem box and wireless access point (less plugs and one bigger more efficient PS)

Thanks!

I just got this machine as a "bare bones"... no processor, memory, video, HDD, or optical drive(s). It now has a PIII733 (slot 1), 512MB PC-133 SDRAM, 40GB HDD, CD ROM, and a Matrox Millenium MGA graphics card. It's now running WIN98SE perfectly.

First question... the power supply looks really dinky, and is only rated at 145 watts. Will this be enough if I were to add a second optical drive and/or a modem and/or a more 'powerful' video card? If not, will a standard ATX supply work?

Second, I tried installing a Matrox G450 (AGP) graphics card. At low rez, it worked fine, but at 1024x768x24-bit, it crashed, with a fatal exception in module VMM. Is there something funny about the VIA Apollo Pro chip set on this machine, that might cause this problem? Reason I ask is that I am having a similar problem with a Matrox G550 AGP on a completely different desktop which has the same chip set as the IBM.

The power supply should be enough, the p3 wasn't as much of a power hog as the current chips are, even the monster machine g41 with a p4 3.66 and a 15 inch display only requires 145 watts... you'll be fine adding another drive, fill it up.

To fix the video card issues, install the via 4in1 (i think it is called the hyperon drivers now) available at http://www.via.com.tw

good luck to you

Thanks for the info about the power supply. As for the VIA drivers... it's funny... when I woke up this AM, it occured to me that this might be the problem... I got the new drivers, and it fixed the problem on the PC300GL! So I did the same on my other (ASUS) computer (with the same VIA chipset), and it fixed that too.

Then I came onto this board, saw your suggestion, and I can say 100% for sure that your advice is correct!!

Thanks again!

I have a PC 300 PL in the basement - a 6892-N4U. It came as a P3 500 Mhz machine. I put a Powerleap 1.4Ghz Celeron processor in it and it works fine running Windows 2000 and beta copies of VMware 5. It is still pretty slow compared to my recent machines, and I would not class machines of this vintage (as in the first post) as "recent". They are five years old or more. ... JD Hurst

There's a couple of PC300GL's at my school that have Pentium 100 chips in them. I think they are either 1995 or 1996 vintage. The PC300 family had a pretty long production run compared to many other machines.

There are some PC300GL's at my school and I have used some.

Mine is a P2 350, 192mb, 80gb, running server '03 just fine...
Running the most recent server package is recent enough for a file/print/router

I think IBM used the "PC300" prefix on a LOT of their desktops, over a LONG period of time. I have a PC300xx in the basement which was a Pentium 90. My "current" PC300--the GL--has a 133MHZ FSB, AGP 4x, and takes high-density PC-133 DIMMs. This machine was manufactured in June 2000, and the BIOS has a 2002 date. (To me, that is fairly "recent" )

I thought I'd never see the PC300 series of computers and the PC300 chassis go out of production. The production run was almost as long as most of those computers themselves could last. IBM just got it right on that computer, I think. If I'm not mistaken, the PC300 eventually evolved into the NetVista, which are also pretty solid machines. If you look at some of the early NetVista desktops, they use the same chassis and many of the same parts as the PC300 line.