Fwd: compaq's portable computer

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Tue May 4 08:05:19 2004

At 11:09 PM 5/3/04 -0500, you wrote:
>On Mon, 3 May 2004 19:00:01 -0500 (CDT)
>Dave Dunfield <dave04a_at_dunfield.com> wrote:
>
>> > I think the first one was the Portable (8088 w/ 256k, then the Portable
>> >II (smaller but still 8088 and 640K) then the Portable 286 (286 CPU and
>> >640k(?)), then the Portable III (the small lunchbox sized computer (I
don't
>> >remember if theese were 286s or 386SXs)) and then the Portable 386 (it had
>> >a full fledged 386DX). FWIW I have a P-II sitting about five feet from
me.
>>
>> FWIW, the Portable III is a 286 machine. I have pictures of mine posted on
>> my site if anyone wants to see one.
>>
>> If anyone has the original setup disk for the Portable III, I would love to
>> get an image of it - the "generic" AT setup disks work in that you can
configure
>> the drives and get it to boot, however Compaq apparently "rolled their own"
>> checksum algorithm, as once configured with any of the generic disks, it
gets a
>> CMOS Checksum error.
>>
>
>I'm pretty sure the Compaq Portable III that I sold in February was an
8088 machine. Orange plasma display, small lunchbox configuration, etc. I
just went back to the sales-photos for it and indeed it was badged a III.
It had the standard 640K of RAM and no expansion slots. Did they possibly
make this machine with different processor configurations? Is it possible
yours has a 3rd party processor upgrade? I definitely didn't have to run a
Setup program to get it going and it had sat idle for a long time before I
powered it up, so I'm fairly certain the one I had didn't have a setup
battery or CMOS setup storage.
>

   That is odd! I've had about 8 or 10 of the P-IIIs and they were all
286/386 type machines. They definitely used CMOs setups and batteries and
the batteries were always running down and losing the settings.

   Joe
Received on Tue May 04 2004 - 08:05:19 BST