Compaq portable questions (not laptop)

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Tue Nov 10 21:16:36 1998

It is slightly more collectible than a PCJr. Even EPAY isn't likely to
get up to your $25K asking price :-)

It's a little too heavy for the soft handle that they used, and the
length of travel of the keyboard latches was WAY too little, causing a
lot of keyboards to get knocked loose on airport escalators, etc.
But it was a reasonable early compatible, and helped define the term
"luggable". Not the first.

There was also a "Portable 286" with an almost identical case, and a
"Portable II" with a similar but slightly smaller case. Then they
started making "lunchbox"es. I'll be parting with a few of each in the next
wave.

A little known fact is that the internal monitor was EGA capable. Compaq
normally shipped them with a CGA card (recognizable by the extra
connector in the middle of the board.) But they also sold an EGA card
(with that same mid-board connector), and there was an add-on daughter
board for the ATI "Ega Wonder"? to provide Compaq capability.

Compaq was one of the first to use IDE drives - watch out for some
minor incompatibilities.

--
Fred Cisin                      cisin_at_xenosoft.com
XenoSoft                        http://www.xenosoft.com
2210 Sixth St.                  (510) 644-9366
Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
On Mon, 9 Nov 1998, Russ Blakeman wrote:
> I have recently obtained a machine that when carried resembles a sewing
> machine in a carry case, marked Compaq Portable. It has a built in CRT
> and is evidentally an 8088 or 8086 machine judging by the 8 bit slots.
> 
> Anyone have any info on it, and is there any collectability to these?
> I'm in the process of cleaning and repairing it but I will inevitably
> NOT keep it for myself due to space limits and am putting out feelers on
> the list first for possible buyers/traders. I don't expect a lot out of
> it, mostly what I have in it ($25) unless I have to put a lot of parts
> or work into it, which I doubt since it appears to be semi-working at
> the moment.
> 
> I'll probably put it on ePay around the 20th once I get it functional
> and get no apparent responses.
> 
> Any info or prospects appreciated.

Received on Tue Nov 10 1998 - 21:16:36 GMT