Siemens T-Bird – from a smoker’s PC back to the year 2000

This time I got my hands on a branded Siemens T-Bird computer, a typical representative of office PCs from around the year 2000. My configuration is equipped with a Biostar motherboard and a rather interesting Intel Pentium III processor. At first glance it looked complete and reasonably well preserved, but inside it was hiding a much less pleasant surprise. The computer had evidently spent a substantial part of its life in a heavily smoke-filled environment. And it showed absolutely everywhere.

Smoker’s archaeology

After opening the case, I was greeted by a combination you really don’t want to see in an old computer. Inside was a thick layer of dust mixed with deposits from cigarette smoke. This wasn’t ordinary dry dust that you can simply blow away with compressed air. It was heavy, yellowish, stuck to components in places and, of course, everything was accompanied by the typical smell of cigarettes. The condition was simply desperate, so before making any serious attempt to get the computer running, a complete clean was essential.

A complete clean inside and out

I therefore dismantled the entire computer and began removing years of accumulated dirt. I thoroughly blew out the inside of the case and, wherever air alone wasn’t enough, manual cleaning was necessary. The case itself needed the same treatment. It was cleaned inside and out, and all surfaces, recesses and parts of the front panel had to be scrubbed properly.

The power supply was a chapter of its own. It had to be completely cleaned inside – first with compressed air and then by hand wherever the cigarette-laden dust had literally baked itself on. The 3.5″ floppy drive and CD-ROM did not escape cleaning either. After more than twenty years of use and storage, they certainly deserved it.

What’s inside the Siemens?

The computer is fitted with an Intel Pentium III 933 MHz, one of the less commonly seen variants of the Coppermine series. When introduced, it was already very close to the top of the Pentium III range at the time – above it there was essentially only the one-gigahertz threshold, which Intel had crossed with this generation shortly before.

The processor uses the Coppermine core manufactured on a 0.18µm process, runs on a 133 MHz system bus with a 7× multiplier and has 256 kB of L2 cache integrated directly into the core and running at the processor’s full speed. This was one of the important differences compared with the older Pentium III Katmai – although Katmai had 512 kB of L2 cache, it operated at only half the core frequency.

The 933 MHz frequency is also a little interesting in itself. It isn’t as iconic as a round 1 GHz and you don’t encounter it as often in ordinary systems today, yet in performance terms it was practically one of the last stops before the gigahertz Pentium III. For a branded Siemens machine, this is therefore a rather nice configuration and definitely worth preserving.

The foundation is a Biostar M6VCG rev. 1.2, a Socket 370 motherboard with the VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset, which supports the 133 MHz FSB and AGP 4×. Interestingly, the M6VCG really was also used as an OEM board in Fujitsu Siemens computers, so its presence in this machine is certainly no coincidence.

The SDRAM module is also Siemens-branded, further suggesting that at least part of the current configuration may correspond to the original factory specification.

The hard drive is a 40 GB Samsung. For Windows 98 SE this is more than enough capacity while still being a size that fits well into a computer from around the turn of the millennium.

The graphics card is currently an MVGA-NVG11A (REV. 3E) based on the NVIDIA NV11 chip. It is of course sufficient for Windows 98 itself, but given the Pentium III 933 MHz processor I would eventually like to improve the graphics side as well.

Replacing the capacitors

After the thorough cleaning came the first attempt to start it. The result wasn’t exactly encouraging. The computer did absolutely nothing. No POST, no picture, no sensible response. It was therefore clear that this restoration wasn’t going to end with cleaning alone.

Suspicion rather quickly fell on the electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard. The board comes from exactly the period when capacitor problems in computer hardware were relatively common. So I replaced approximately ten 1000 µF / 6.3 V capacitors and two 1500 µF / 6.3 V capacitors. I gradually desoldered the old capacitors and replaced them with new ones.

And it was after this repair that the situation changed dramatically. The board began to come back to life. That’s always one of the best moments of the whole repair. A moment ago you have a completely dead piece of hardware in front of you, and after several hours of work it suddenly starts responding, the speaker beeps and you know it’s worth carrying on.

The Siemens T-Bird still has something special

Once the hardware problems had been resolved, it was time for the software side of the restoration. As the operating system I naturally chose Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, which is a perfect match for a computer of this generation. The installation was successful. The next step will be the correct motherboard chipset drivers, followed by the graphics and other hardware drivers.

The aim wasn’t to create the fastest possible Pentium III system at any cost. I wanted instead to preserve the character of the original branded computer while bringing it to a state in which it would be genuinely usable for software and games from its era.

After a thorough clean, the case itself turned out to be surprisingly nice. Branded Siemens computers from this period have their own distinctive appearance, and today I think they look more interesting than the ordinary custom-built computers of the time in generic beige cases.

From a dead smoker’s PC back to a working machine

The restoration isn’t completely finished yet. I would like to put period-correct Intel Pentium III and Designed for Microsoft Windows 98 stickers back on the front, where they originally belonged, to give the overall appearance that final touch. Then, at first glance, the T-Bird will look much as it might have around the turn of the millennium.

At the beginning there was a filthy, strongly smelling computer that did absolutely nothing when the power button was pressed. After a complete clean, dismantling and cleaning the power supply, servicing the drives, replacing the motherboard capacitors and resolving the IDE cable problem, the Siemens T-Bird now starts normally again and runs Windows 98 SE.