Celeron 566MHz ATX Tower

In the era of Pentium II processors, Celeron CPUs were used for less power-demanding purposes. Being cheaper than Pentiums, Celerons had smaller cache and slower bus than Pentium line. They were extensively used in office computers, in education labs or just cheaper home machines. Celerons were also liked by overclockers, as with good RAM, system bus can be ran at higher speed giving better performance for less money.
This computer is a typical general-purpose machine from ca. 2000. It has a second-generation Celeron running at 566MHz, network adapter and Prolink PixelView PlayTV TV Tuner. Such computers were used mostly as home computers as their performance was good for the price.

Notice the "Celeron" sticker in front. It is transparent, but harder and with coarse surface, it means that CPU is a second-generation Celeron. First generation (up to ca. 500MHz, Covington and Mendocino core) had sticker like Pentium I-s, but printed on foil instead of metal. Newer Celerons were equipped with transparent sticker printed on thinner, more smooth foil.


Approx. year 2000

Class ATX
CPU Intel Celeron 566MHz
Speed 566MHz
RAM 256MB,
PC-66 DIMM modules
ROM Phoenix
Mainboard Intel CA810
Graphics Onboard Intel 82810
Sound Onboard Creative ES1373
Ports I/O Onboard.
1xCOM, 1xLPT, 2x USB, PS/2, gameport,
2 IDE channels,  Floppy drive
Network Realtek RTL8139 PCI
RJ45, 100MBit
System expansion bus 4x PCI slot
Floppy/removable media drives 1x 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk drive
 
 
 
Hard disks/ATA devices: Seagate ST310212A, 10GB IDE

48x CD-ROM drive

Peripherals in collection:
 - None

Other boards:

 

Prolink PixelView PlayTV PRO TV Tuner (PCI).
Casing ATX tower
Non-standard expansions: None
Operating system(s): Windows ME


Contents: Starting, usage Drivers  

Starting

A very simple BIOS, shows a logo and boots OS. Setup can be accessed by pressing F2.
Intel CA810 is a very popular and very simple mainboard designed for a low-end computers. Its BIOS Setup allows to set simple options, but don't expect advanced settings or overclocking.

If you install jumper to CONFIGURE MODE (BIOS jumper near the edge, move 1-2 to 2-3), it shows additional menu, and it is possible to clear passwords from there.

Up

 

 


Drivers

For mainboard drivers and manual, Intel still supports it. Go to https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/50309/Intel-Desktop-Board-CA810 and get manuals, BIOS and drivers! Alternative driver package: Archived. In 2019 Intel did the Intel thing and removed all these boards from their support.

Pay attention for TV tuner board drivers. My TV tuner board is marked as PV-BT878P+ Rev. 4C. Compatibility of drivers even between revisions is not guaranteed as different components like signal switchers or RF modules may be used. If you have different revision, try to find driver for it.

PixelView PlayTV PRO drivers: Win9x and Win2000/XP
RTL8139 driver for Windows 98SE

 

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