I recently acquired a Compaq DesktopPro En which the bios set up states has a Pentium III which is what it was advertised to have. However, once in Windows 98, the properties under “my computer” states that it has a Pentium II. Which is correct?
You could aquire a benchmark program
That said I’m not sure if win98 would even recognize that a p3 was anything more than a real fast p2.
Might try something like belarc to see what it sees.
When all else fails, look at the chip.
We need a more precise model no. It seems that model came in both P2 and P3 varieties. See HP’s website.
The one under “properties” is the correct one; you have a Pentium II. It grabs that information from the chip itself.
How fast does it run? According to the Pentium II and Pentium III pages on Wikipedia, the clock rates of the two only overlap in the 450-500MHz range. Slower than 450 and it’s got to be a P2. Faster than 500, and it’s got to be a P3.
Windows 98 cannot always distinguish newer processors from older ones. I had an AMD Thunderbird which it confused for something else, I think a K6-3. Probably the P3 came out after Windows 98 and it can’t detect it correctly.
Go to Belarc.com and download their auditing program. It will tell you far more about your system than you realized was there. I use it a lot when upgrading.
Vlad/Igor
CPU-Z will tell you everything there is to know about your CPU and memory.
I’m gonna second CPU-Z.
Seconded. Great program. Free too.
I just checked out cpu-z on my pc. It’s a really cool program with more info than I know what to do with. I’m going to add that to my geek drive.
Vlad/Igor
If i might ask… then where does the BIOS get it?
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. I have tried both CPU-Z and Belarc and they both agree with the BIOS reading that I have a Pentium III (which is what this model had when it was born). My only question now is where do CPU_Z and Belarc get their information, from BIOS or from the chip?