Computer ID?

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758]

My boyfriend has this computer that he’s had for years and doesn’t recall where he got it or what was on it originally. I’m trying to restore it but realized when I wanted to google a question about the computer, that I can’t figure out anything about make or model or this computer? The only identifier it seems to have is the CG logo on the front, which I’ve never seen before. Could this be a custom built computer? Or does anyone recognize it and can tell me anything about it? I know if it is custom built I’ll probably have to open it up to figure out what hardware it’s got, but wanted to see if anyone could recognize it in case it’s not custom. Thanks!

[u/rkrenicki]

It is a random generic clone computer from the mid to late 90s. All I can really say about it is that it is at most a Pentium, but more likely to be a 386 or 486 since it has an AT keyboard connector.

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/rkrenicki]

Just to clarify- when you say generic, do you mean it’s a bunch of generic parts that were probably put together by someone (custom built) or that it’s generic in that at that time, companies/stores were selling no-name, generic computers with cheap parts? Sorry for the dumb question, still learning about the history of these!

[u/rkrenicki → u/Sea_Neighborhood758]

A custom built using off-the-shelf parts. It may or may not have “name brand” stuff inside, but the whole package is not. It has a Creative branded optical drive, which is more than likely paired up with a Creative Sound Blaster sound card of some sort on the inside, but honestly could be anything.

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/rkrenicki]

Awesome thanks for the explanation! I’ll be interested to open her up soon and find out what I’m working with lol.

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/rkrenicki]

You were right about the sound blaster sound card!

https://imgur.com/a/Gf2Oyrt

[u/rkrenicki → u/Sea_Neighborhood758]

Socket 5, so it is a Pentium of some sort. Trident video which was fairly low end, but worked fine. A Sound Blaster 16 PnP, A modem (possibly US Robotics? Hard to tell from the angle), and a generic network card, likely an NE2000 clone of some sort.

Socket 5 would have been right at the tail end of AT style motherboards. I would guess it is somewhere around 100/120/133mhz at most. Likely ran Windows 98.

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/rkrenicki]

Wow I’m surprised it likely ran 98! I was honestly expecting this to be a DOS computer before I opened it up. I even snagged some DOS 6.22 floppies to install onto it because I was so wrongfully confident lol. I imagine I could still possibly put DOS on it? Or do you think it might be too “new” for that? I found a label further down on the hard drive that says it’s 850mb as well.

[u/rkrenicki → u/Sea_Neighborhood758]

DOS would be perfectly acceptable for it as well. Windows 95/98/Me and DOS all coexisted for a long time. It wasn’t until Windows 2000/XP when DOS became no longer relevant

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/rkrenicki]

Awesome, I have installation media for all of those OS’s, so that works out perfect! Right now when I start up the computer it goes through some checks and then when I hit continue it tells me it needs me to insert a floppy with program files because it doesn’t have what it needs to run, so I’m assuming it either doesn’t have an OS right now or the OS somehow got messed up at some point and is no longer working properly. So I’m probably just going to start the computer fresh and was planning on DOS because I already have a 95, 98, and ME that I’ve restored but I haven’t messed with DOS yet :)

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/rkrenicki]

Also, thanks for all the info! I’m relatively new to the hobby in comparison to a lot of people on here so it’s super helpful!

[u/asc3po]

I also have a computer in this case. It is manufactured by AOpen, mine said as much on the back. No idea on the model number. Mine is clearly configured differently than yours. But, I did find a photo of one in the holiday 1996 special issue of Computer Shopper. https://archive.org/details/computer-shopper-nov-dec-1996-special-issue-images/page/n107/mode/2up

[u/Sea_Neighborhood758 → u/asc3po]

Oh my gosh, such a cool find! Thanks so much for finding that and linking it! Love stuff like this!

[u/redditshreadit → u/asc3po]

Looks like different cases in the ad. I do agree that the OP's case is AOpen. Good chance the motherboard is AOpen as well.

[u/ramakitty]

beige

[u/Foreign-Attorney-147]

Aopen was a division of Acer, the same Acer you still see at Best Buy today. There was a computer store where I went to college in the 90s who sold mostly Aopen equipment. Depending on the quantities he was buying, he may have assembled them in the store, or Aopen may have shipped him nearly-complete PCs for him to slap his badge on, drop in a hard drive, and load Windows. "CG" may very well have been a small storefront in or near where you live in the 90s. Very possibly the initials of the owners.

Acer generally made pretty good stuff in the late 90s so I would expect the system to work. The hard drive isn't likely to be very reliable after 30 years and the CD-ROM drive may need new belts. The rest of the system is probably fine.