This is my Compaq iPAQ IA-2 internet appliance. The IA-2 launched in 2000 as an internet appliance that provided an easy way to connect to the Internet to check your email and surf the web through MSN.

Back around the year 2000, I followed Internet appliance hacking guides from the i-Hacker BBS to run Windows 98 on a Netpliance i-Opener and a Virgin Webplayer. I wanted to replace the embedded OS on my iPAQ IA-2, but I couldn't find much information on the machine. So, I'm sharing my own deep dive into the Compaq iPAQ IA-2.

TL;DR

This is a long story, so here are the finer points:

• The IA-2 only boots from specific low capacity DiskOnChip NAND flash storage devices. There is onboard IDE, but the machine halts if a bootable device is attached. I couldn't access the BIOS to change boot options.
• The monitor only supports a single resolution: 800x600. Some kind of software transcoding upscales DOS text mode (720x400) to 800x600, but other DOS graphics modes are not supported.
• To get Windows 98 running, I boot into DOS installed on a 16MB DiskOnChip. Then, in DOS, I run Windows from a physical IDE device emulating an ATAPI peripheral loaded with a pre-installed Windows 98 disk. I used a different internet appliance to read from and write to the DiskOnChip.
• Yes, it runs Doom!

On the outside

The IA-2 takes very obvious design inspiration from the original Apple iMac:

• The IA-2 features a 15" CRT display like the iMac. However, the maximum resolution on the IA-2 is 800x600 compared to the iMac's 1024x768 resolution.
• Stereo speakers are in the same bottom corner locations.
• Ports are accessible on the right side of the machine, but they are not hidden by a door. Available ports are keyboard and mouse PS/2, microphone, headphones, USB, and line and telephone RJ11. There is a hole cut for an unused port, but it is covered by a sticker with nothing but metal shielding on the other side.

The IA-2 lacks media drives. There is a fold-down door with ventilation holes and a reset button between the speakers instead of a CD-ROM drive like on the iMac.

Above the display are volume buttons, a microphone, on-screen display controls, and LED indicators for power, email, and internet connection.

The IA-2 includes a custom keyboard with user-friendly "Internet Buttons" remapping standard keys for "easy access to a variety of Internet functions such as e-mail, shopping, news, and Help."

Turning on the computer drops you into an MSN-themed Windows CE. The UI is bright and easy to use, but there's not much to see beyond the login, settings, and help pages. This device was purpose-built for online MSN use and lacks any offline features. I don't have MSN dial-up to show you the rest of the OS, but I was surprised to learn that MSN dial-up is still available as of March 2026.

On the inside

The IA-2 runs a 266MHz National Semiconductor Geode GX1 processor which is x86 compatible.

The stock RAM configuration is a single 32MB PC100 DIMM. In my testing, I found that the IA-2 supports a maximum of 256MB of RAM.

Windows CE and persistent user data is stored on a 16MB M-Systems DiskOnChip (DOC) 2000 flash memory module mounted in a 32-pin socket.

In addition to the x86 compatibility, these motherboard features made me think it would be pretty straightforward to get Windows 98 running:

• a 40-pin IDE header to connect a bootable hard drive with an OS,
• a power supply connector to power the hard drive, and
• a video connector to use for an external display (if necessary).

The board is marked as I-PAD-(B). I couldn't find any supporting information from Compaq, but I wondered if this iPAQ was originally planned to be called an iPAD.

Preparing a bootable device

My first step was trying to boot from an IDE device connected to the 40-pin header. Unfortunately, the BIOS throws an "INCORRECT BOOT DEVICE !!!" message and halts whenever a bootable device is attached to the IDE header.

I tried a bunch of different bootable IDE devices such as a hard drive, SSD, CompactFlash to IDE adapter, and SD to IDE adapter, but all would trip the boot device error message. The IA-2 ignored CD-ROM drives which didn't help (yet).

I also couldn't find a way into the BIOS to change the boot sequence or enable the IDE bus. If I tried any of the usual keys (Fn keys, ESC, DEL, etc.) to get into the BIOS, I tripped a "No boot device present, halting" message. There is a Clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard, but shorting it didn't change anything for me.

I ran out of ideas for booting from an IDE device, so I decided to install MS-DOS onto the existing 16MB DOC. Writing to a DOC requires specialized hardware, so I researched DiskOnChip programmers. There are original M-Systems DOC programming PCI cards on eBay, but they were way too expensive for my liking. I found a modern, cheaper ISA alternative on AliExpress, but I remembered I already had a better -- and free! -- alternative.

Remember that Virgin Webplayer internet appliance I mentioned earlier? Like the IA-2, the Webplayer has an IDE header and a DiskOnChip socket.

I pulled my Webplayer out of storage, booted it into DOS, and copied the official M-Systems DiskOnChip software utilities version 5.1.4 to its drive.

Next, I pulled the 16MB DiskOnChip from the IA-2 and installed it into the Webplayer's DOC socket. I played around with the DOC utilities, and they worked perfectly on the Webplayer to interface with the IA-2's DOC.

Just to be safe, I backed up the original MSN Companion Windows CE image using the GETIMAGE command:

GETIMAGE D:

Then, I formatted the DOC using the DiskOnChip DFORMAT command:

DFORMAT /WIN:D600 /S:DOC514.EXB

where:

• /WIN points to the DOC's memory address
• /S specifies the path to the DiskOnChip 5.1.4 firmware image

That command creates an empty, active primary DOS partition on the DOC.

Finally, I ran SYS D: in DOS on the Webplayer to transfer system files and make it bootable. I also copied Doom to the DOC for good measure.

I installed the DOC back into the IA-2 and... it booted into DOS! The interface was slow for some reason, but I was just happy that I could boot something other than Windows CE.

I tried running Doom. The CRT went black, but the intro music played over the speakers. I couldn't get the On-Screen Display controls to appear using the top control buttons, so I guessed that the CRT did not support Doom's native 320x200 resolution.

Display

I decided to build a VGA cable to see what was happening when the CRT lost signal.

This is the VGA connection on the motherboard:

I built an external VGA cable by soldering a JST-XH connector to a DE-9 cable with a DE-15 adapter. Here's the pinout: 

This is the cable wired up with the DE-15 adapter on the DE-9 end.

The video signal picks up a bit of noise on this cable. A shorter, higher quality cable with better shielding and ferrite cores on the video signals would greatly improve the picture.

Noise wasn't a problem for me since I only needed this cable for diagnostic purposes, and it worked well enough.

Now, I could use an external display with the IA-2 to see what happened when the resolution went out of range for the monitor.

On boot, the video card upscales DOS text mode from 720x400 to 800x600, so BIOS messages could be read on the CRT. This was done because the monitor only supports 800x600 and no other resolutions.

If I changed text modes by running a DOS application like Edit or QBasic, I found that DOS returned to a native 720x400 resolution and ran at a normal speed. I surmised that the upscaling might be software-based which would explain why the DOS interface was so slow in 800x600 mode.

All of this was good to know, but I needed an OS that natively supported 800x600, so I could use the CRT instead of an external monitor. I knew the next step was installing Windows 98, but I needed a lot more space than the 16MB DOC provided.

Storage, Revisited

I sourced two DiskOnChips large enough for a full OS install. I found a 192MB DOC and a 384MB DOC on eBay. I performed the same procedure to format and copy DOS to these DOCs as I did with the 16MB DOC earlier. Only this time, the IA-2 gave me the INCORRECT BOOT DEVICE !!! error for both high capacity DiskOnChips.

I thought I might have bad DOCs, so I ordered more with various capacities to confirm.

On the Webplayer, I compared the DiskOnChips using the DINFO software utility from M-Systems. I learned that these modules had two different architectures: NAND Flash Translation Layer (NFTL) and Inverse NAND Flash Translation Layer (INFTL). Older low capacity DOCs used NFTL while newer high capacity modules used INFTL.

With that new knowledge, I found a guide on installing Linux onto DiskOnChips from 2006 that explained that NFTL and INFTL devices used different bootloading processes. While the Webplayer supported both types, the IA-2 only supported NFTL chips. To make matters worse, the NFTL chips were all low capacity chips under 40MB.

There are minimal Linux distributions such as Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, and Tiny Core Linux that might fit in 40MB, but I really wanted to run Windows 98 for the nostalgia factor. 

I figured I could use the 16MB DOC as a boot drive and use a secondary drive with Windows 98 installed. The BIOS halted whenever I attached hard drive storage, but I remembered that it really didn't care about CD-ROM drives. So, I explored other ATAPI devices that I could use to sneak past the BIOS.

Next, I attached a ZuluIDE device to the IA-2's IDE header.

The ZuluIDE is a hardware interface between an IDE bus and an SD card. It emulates ATAPI devices using image and configuration files stored on an SD card.

I configured my ZuluIDE to emulate a 250MB Zip drive via a config file on an SD card. Then, I put a blank 250MB Zip disk image file on the SD card. Finally, I added the Iomega Guest DOS application to the 16MB DOC via the Webplayer.

I booted the IA-2 and the BIOS ignored the ZuluIDE. After DOS loaded, I ran the Iomega Guest program, and it mounted the emulated Zip drive!

I finally had enough storage to run a full operating system.

Where do you want to go today?

I copied a typical Windows 98 installation to the Zip 250 image on the SD card. I also reattached the external monitor since I'd have to set the resolution to 800x600 in Windows 98, so it would display on the IA-2's CRT monitor.

I had to make a few updates to boot Windows 98 from a secondary device. I copied IFSHLP.SYS and DBLBUFF.SYS from the Windows 98 image to the DOC and added them to the DOS CONFIG.SYS to fix an VFAT Device Initialization Failed error that appeared when Windows 98 booted from the Zip drive.

I got into Windows 98 and installed a few drivers to get started:

• VBEMP for Windows 98 architectures driver for the video card

• USB Mass Storage drivers from Phil's Computer Lab
• MediaGX drivers from Phil's Computer Lab

I set the resolution to 800x600 thanks to the new display driver. I switched the VGA connection back to the integrated CRT and...

Welcome to Windows 98 on the IA-2!

It doesn't start with the classic Windows 98 boot animation because it loads at a lower resolution than the monitor will display, so there was a bit of nervous anticipation after the screen went blank.

I added a few more Windows drivers, and I was able to use a USB CD-ROM drive with a Windows 98 CD to load the CABs.

I could not get the sound card driver to load successfully, so I attached a USB audio device to output sound.

I showed Doom running under DOS, but on an external monitor. Here it is running on the IA-2's monitor!

Sure, it's Doom 95 in windowed mode at 256 colors, but I'll take the win.

I also tried ZDoom LE 2.8.3a. It loads fullscreen to 800x600, but gameplay was choppy because I don't really have the right video drivers.

Power

The ZuluIDE needs a 5V power source. I ran the IDE cable out of the case, so I could power the ZuluIDE using a micro-USB cable. 

I intend on using the ZuluIDE with other projects, so I never mounted it inside the IA-2 with power from the computer's integrated power supply. If I wanted to pop it inside the case, it would be fairly trivial to tap one of the 5V rails.

Out of curiosity, I measured the voltages on the internal power supply's 8-pin EPS ATX connector. Here is the pinout from the male connector side:

	5) N/C	6) GND	7) GND	8) 5V
	1) N/C	2) GND	3) 5V	4) 5V

What's next?

There are a number of other side quests that I can complete for the IA-2 like:

• Fixing the Windows sound driver for integrated audio
• Finding video drivers that allow Doom to play smoothly in full-screen mode
• Figuring out how to interact with the buttons and lights above the monitor
• Signing up for MSN dial-up and connecting via 56k modem
• Building a drop-in replacement PCB to modernize the hardware

But I'm quite pleased with how things turned out so far.

If you have an IA-2, and you've done something fun with it, please let me know! I'd love to see how others have hacked their devices.