dell optiplex gx1 - how do you get into the bios menu?

[Ben Myers]

The GX110 has an Intel 810e chipset... Ben Myers

Depending on the amount of system RAM, those machines will run WinXP
perfectly fine - after stripping the startup items and setting custom
adjustments under the system properties/advanced tab/performance menus.

With much of the XP fluff minimized, they should do just fine provided they
can run with 512mb of RAM. Not sure which chipset is in the GX110...815
maybe?

Stew

 

[Mad Scientist Jr]

Okay, I finally got it running with Win 2000.

The damned thing gave me a lot of headaches, it wouldn't boot off a
floppy, also it seemed to hang on Win 2k install (disabling the LAN and
setting the CPU to 500 mhz seemed to get past this).

It seems to be working with the 80 pin cable but if the controller is
only ATA33, I may want to buy an ATA133 card - does anyone know if I'll
be able to boot from such a card?

Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

 

[Luddite]

Okay, I finally got it running with Win 2000.

The damned thing gave me a lot of headaches, it wouldn't boot off a
floppy, also it seemed to hang on Win 2k install (disabling the LAN and
setting the CPU to 500 mhz seemed to get past this).


It seems to be working with the 80 pin cable but if the controller is
only ATA33, I may want to buy an ATA133 card - does anyone know if I'll
be able to boot from such a card?

The CMD ultra ata100 with siig controller chip does,if you need more vram
look for a compaq/ati 8mb agp card with the optional 4 mb upgrade slot.
remove the 4mb card from it and install in the gx1

 

[Paul Knudsen]

I recently prepped a gx110 866mhz with XP and I'm not happy with the
performance on it, although its not bad. I was thinking of putting
Windows 2000 on it. i also have a pair of gx1's and put win2k on them
and they are perfectly usable for office work.

My other computer (which I am probably on more than this one!) is a
GX110 and it hums along just fine with Win 2000.

 

[Mad Scientist Jr]

You actually need more video RAM to boot from the ATA100? That's just
odd!

Thanks for the tip, I actually may have an old Compaq PCI video card,
will that work?

 

[kony]

You actually need more video RAM to boot from the ATA100? That's just
odd!

Thanks for the tip, I actually may have an old Compaq PCI video card,
will that work?

No, his post was worded oddly. You definitely do not need
more memory to boot or to run windows. The lone reason you
would need more is to display a higher resolution or color
depth, which are both very good reasons to do it- but not
technically "required" for windows itself nor any ATA100 or
other HDD config.

 

[Mad Scientist Jr]

That makes more sense.

I need to look at the Compaq PCI vid card I have - I wonder if that RAM
is compatable.

Course I could just plug in an old GEforce card I have if I want better
video res, but there are only 2 PCI slots in this thing, and I am
saving them for ATA100 and USB2 cards.

 

[peterfelgate]

That makes more sense.

I need to look at the Compaq PCI vid card I have - I wonder if that RAM
is compatable.

Course I could just plug in an old GEforce card I have if I want better
video res, but there are only 2 PCI slots in this thing, and I am
saving them for ATA100 and USB2 cards.

....which means you have the SFF case I suspect; be therefore very wary
of the number of expansion cards, extra disks etc as the SFF case has
only an 85W power supply; even the slimline desktop only has 145W....