VOGONS


First post, by tikoellner

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I was lucky yesterday. Saw this beauty listed locally. I offered the seller around 60$ and he agreed. The unit looked tired, but as I picked it up it turned be just dirty - not a single scratch or scuff! Within the price it came with a CRT and, as it later turned out, an original set of documentation!

It's Compaq Deskpro - the *first* Compaq's PC compatible ever. It sports 8088 @ 8mhz, 640kb of RAM and a great amber CRT. I happen to have an original keyboard for it.

tCMFnVq.jpg?1

Reply 2 of 22, by tikoellner

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Sorry, my mistake. You're right.

I am going now to install:

- a sound card - I guess I'll go with Soundblaster CT 1320A I owe, for SB and CMS copatibility;
- High density floppy controler (8bit) I found recentyl;
- ATI 8 bit EGA wonder card;
-Digital joyastick controller;
- Microsoft InPort adapter (I have a great mouse which will fit very well;
- 1.44 FDD in black bay adapter
- Maybe NEC V30;
- 1.2 black floppy salvaged from my non-working IBM 5162;
- Seagate 80mb MFM drive I found.

Reply 4 of 22, by Anonymous Coward

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You salvaged a 5162? That's also a pretty uncommon machine. If possible, put it back together and get it working again.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 6 of 22, by Jo22

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I agree, too. Upgrading to HD drives makes little sense anymore, since 1.2 and 1.44 media are about as dead now.
Unless you've got plenty of old disks already, of course. Or if you do the upgrade as a personal challenge.
That's why I opted to install a Gotek drive (w/ Flashfloppy) in my XT clone system a while ago.
Even though it doesn't look fully period-correct (except for the red 7-segment display).

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 7 of 22, by tikoellner

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about 5162 - I could not reapair this machine, but maybe salvaging it for parts is not a good idea indeed.

As to the HD drives, I've got about 170 big box games on floppy and I found some little 8 bit HD card with it's own ROM which I want to use. I don't really like GOTEK thingies.

Reply 8 of 22, by tikoellner

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Update:

I finally got the computer fully operational. Again, I'm impressed with it's pristine state - It's as old as I am and I have aged slightly worse 😉
As planned, I fitted it with 1.2 and 1.44 drives and SB CT-1320A (CMS + adlib compatible card). I have also fixed the MFM drive which had some issues. There is also XT IDE card inside for now, just as a backup.
CRT works like a charm and is sharp as hell!
I fitted it with original Compaq Enhanced Keyboard I found some time ago. It works perfectly with IBM SDL cable.
For an OS, I went with Dr-Dos 3.0. Not an informed decission, I might as well migrate to some other system soon.

I just love the quality and features ot this machine. The compatibility mode works just all right and 8mhz turbo gives it much more power than my IBM 5160 has to offer, so the choice of classic games extends significantly. The turbo is engaged by hitting CTRL-ALT-Backslash and is notified by LED colour going green (red for compatibility 4,77mhz mode).

Take a look:
FiJINXU.jpg

3ZBdsMs.jpg

Ki9Hbid.jpg

4KR1nZd.jpg

Last edited by tikoellner on 2018-06-17, 21:28. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 10 of 22, by JidaiGeki

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A beautiful system, it's always nice to see these old units in pristine working condition, and yours is a gem. I'm also a big fan of the later Deskpro 386/486 range, very hard to come by them here though!

Also loving the photo filter, takes me back to 1984! 😀

Reply 11 of 22, by ibmapc

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tikoellner wrote:

... I have also fixed the MFM drive which had some issues. There is also XT IDE card inside for now, just as a backup.
...]

Nice looking Machine!
I would recommend using the XT IDE as your primary and parking the heads on the MFM drive then disconnecting it completely, after turning the machine off, that is! You can leave the drive in the bay to fill the hole. I just don't recommend putting a lot of hours on those old drives. Run it for a few hours every year or so then park it and leave it parked 'till next Christmas.

Greg

Reply 13 of 22, by Jo22

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ibmapc wrote:

and parking the heads on the MFM drive then disconnecting it completely, after turning the machine off[..]

I could be wrong, but not all park programs are the same. Some were intended for a specifc fixed disk model.
However, I recall that PC-Tools Deluxe included a park program, too. Maybe that one is universal and parks the heads on a safe spot ? 😕

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 14 of 22, by BSA Starfire

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What a wonderful machine, glad it is in safe hands and being enjoyed as it's meant to be 😀

286 20MHz,1MB RAM,Trident 8900B 1MB, Conner CFA-170A.SB 1350B
386SX 33MHz,ULSI 387,4MB Ram,OAK OTI077 1MB. Seagate ST1144A, MS WSS audio
Amstrad PC 9486i, DX/2 66, 16 MB RAM, Cirrus SVGA,Win 95,SB 16
Cyrix MII 333,128MB,SiS 6326 H0 rev,ESS 1869,Win ME

Reply 15 of 22, by ibmapc

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tikoellner wrote:

Greg, thanks for your advice!

I tried doing so - but I found it difficult to configure XT IDE as a primary drive. I will try harder.

You might need to remove the MFM controller, then configure XT IDE as primary.

Greg

Reply 16 of 22, by chinny22

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I agree, amazing PC. Although first thing I thought was it must sound great starting up with the authentic floppy and HDD sounds on boot.

Although I think its better using/enjoying hardware rather then letting it sit unused and it will still fail eventually.
You could always boot off the HDD and run Programs/Games off the XT IDE. the game will drown out the HDD sounds and loading screens aren't really that fun.

Besides, I doubt the PC will get more then 1hr a week usage if you average out how much its used over a year.

Reply 18 of 22, by OldCat

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tikoellner wrote:
I finally got the computer fully operational. Again, I'm impressed with it's pristine state - It's as old as I am and I have age […]
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I finally got the computer fully operational. Again, I'm impressed with it's pristine state - It's as old as I am and I have aged slightly worse 😉
As planned, I fitted it with 1.2 and 1.44 drives and SB CT-1320A (CMS + adlib compatible card). I have also fixed the MFM drive which had some issues. There is also XT IDE card inside for now, just as a backup.
CRT works like a charm and is sharp as hell!
[...]

Take a look:
FiJINXU.jpg

Logged in just to say it's absolutely gorgeous! I have a soft spot for amber monitors, but this thing is both very pretty and screams eighties AND you run EGA on it. I would have probably gone with Hercules, but that's just my fetish.

Also, you score bonus points for using dwarf from Heartlight PC.