I  helped a friend with her Compaq a couple years ago and I had the same
problem.   If no one else is able to give you more specific instructions, I can
tell you that it does open.   I can't remember exactly how, but I do remember that
it opened in a way that I didn't expect.   I think that I  pulled the case from
the front or the top rather than pulling out the back as one would do with a
"normal" computer.   I remember thinking that it looked like it would pull out
from the back but the looks were deceiving.

As for the CD drive, I seem to recall also having a problem with that.   It could
be that she didn't have a sound card or that it was broken.   I wanted to test
some of her by exchanging them with mine.   That's when I learned why people
didn't like proprietary machines.   I was so frustrated with that machine that
I've refused to work on any more of them.   Good luck on getting the case open and
I hope someone else can give you some more positive feedback.

Rosie Richter


Mary Elise Zimlich wrote:

> I brought a friends computer home from work to see if I can put a cd drive
> in it. She has a Compaq Prolinea 4/33S. It seems to have 36 MB of Ram, and
> a 202 MB hard drive, half of which is free. I can't really believe the size
> of the hard drive, but that's what it seems to be.
>
> My first question is how do I open the case? I have taken all the screws
> out of the back, expecting something to slide out, but I can't make heads
> nor tails of it. I can't find anything on their support site about how to
> open it. Does anyone know how to open a Prolinea desktop?
>
> My  next question is *if* I can get into the case
>   will I be able to put a cd drive in this computer and have it do any
> good? Or
>   to put it another way- if indeed the hard drive is 202 MB is it worth
> putting a cd drive in the computer or should she upgrade the hard drive first?
> The computer is running Windows 95. No Compaq software.
> I cannot find the processor info.
>
> Thanks,
> Mary
>
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