Holy moly! I never thought I'd ever hear/see about another one. That's the same exact model as my family and my first computer. My mother worked at Unisys in the eighties and we got one at an employee discount.

About the PC, it's a slim line desktop case similar to a Packard bell legend/force/packmate. If I recall correctly, it only had three ISA slots, an AT style keyboard connector, one serial, and one parallel port. RAM had to be added by adding individual DRAM DIP chips to the motherboard.

Ours came with a VGA card, but only 640k of ram. We added the DRAM to get it to 1MB. We added a single port serial card to it so I could use an external modem without giving up use of the mouse on the first serial port. I would remove the serial card and add a SB1.5 when I wanted to play games. The last slot had a quantum hard card xl with 70mb HDD onboard. We had a 14" Unisys (OEM'ed I'm sure) VGA monitor and a Unisys AP1327 dot matrix printer (which I believe was itself a Panasonic OEM).

You are taking me back brostenen.

The mouse was a pain. It was similar to early Sun mice. It always worked, but it required an optical sheet metal mouse pad that had a grid of red and blue lines that the optical mouse tracked. It was a pain because that pad never had enough resolution for my taste... Especially in games.

Edit: link I found on the web from google books with a reprint from a 1987 edition info world magazine article talking about the launch of this line of computers.
https://books.google.com/books?id=_z4EAAAAMBA … 2%20300&f=false

Thanks. It was the computer I grew up with. I just can't remember anything about it, as I had to buy my own before I learned to tinker and take computers apart. So I only remember the games from that time.
So. This computers spec's are not known to me at at all.

All right QBiN.... Ready for a heavy load of photo's???? 😁 🤣

Got that Unisys from my parents. It is working, even though it has been un-powered for like 20 years.
The HDD works and without any error's.... Yeah... It's a Miniscribe (MFM or RLL, don't know)
Colours on the photo's look better in real life and up front person. Just a shitty camera and bad light.
It is only the monitor wich have no yellowing, the case and the keyboard are partially yellow.
Not really that bad. Could be worse for a 1988 machine.

That's all.... Hope it's not too much... 🤣

Too many photos is better than no photos... Actually, can you have too many photos? I don't think so.

Very nice looking system, I have never owned an EGA board (Owned everything but) so I'm jelly. Nice to see the battery is one of those types, I have no idea what they call them but they don't seem to leak as often as the barrel ones do, plus they are easy to replace with a regular battery holder.

HighTreason wrote:

Too many photos is better than no photos... Actually, can you have too many photos? I don't think so.

Very nice looking system, I have never owned an EGA board (Owned everything but) so I'm jelly. Nice to see the battery is one of those types, I have no idea what they call them but they don't seem to leak as often as the barrel ones do, plus they are easy to replace with a regular battery holder.

True. And the battery comes with Velcro on it. 🤣
Now I need to refurbish this baby. Install a soundcard and change the hard drive for a SCSI one.
If I can get a hold on some memory chips, then it will be upgraded with more memory too.
First things first. It need to be cleaned as good as it can be.

That system looks so good it is not even fair!!!
Btw, if your Lumia is anything like mine you can change the white balance manually and somewhat improve colors. Nothing beats good old dayight though.

Very very cool. Takes me way back. I vividly remember that angled power-button extension rod. I guess they sold the Series 300 in different configurations. I recall my parent's came with a 5.25" floppy yet had a Paradise WD90C30 VGA card and matching monitor. The HDD was different too. Ours had a Seagate ST-125 MFM.

With only 3 slots, it's a challenge to get everything you want in it. In the one free slot, I remember swapping out a SB 1.5, a two-port serial card (for modem/BBS use), or a Quantum Hard Card that had a 50MB drive and onboard bios to get it recognized by the system. It was a real pain because the monitor sat on the case, and swapping the cards was a real effort.

Thanks man. Great pics.

Oh, just remembered... We did eventually install one of those dual floppy drives that had both 3.5" and 5.25" drives in a single drive.

BTW, what version of DOS does your have? I recall ours came with OEM MS-DOS 4.01.

It's a pretty damn sweet looking system alright. You might even still be able to get those Tadiran batteries new- MODEL TL-5242/W, yip still available. Quite a common replacement back in the day when barrel batteries went dead. Velcro is standard fair. Folk usually mounted them against the psu or externally.

Link to the spec sheet http://www.tadiran.com/index.php/standard-bat … thium-batteries

Caluser2000 wrote:

It's a pretty damn sweet looking system alright. You might even still be able to get those Tadiran batteries new- MODEL TL-5242/W, yip still available. Quite a common replacement back in the day when barrel batteries went dead. Velcro is standard fair. Folk usually mounted them against the psu or externally.

Link to the spec sheet http://www.tadiran.com/index.php/standard-bat … thium-batteries

Thanks for the link. The site states 40 years of operating life. Eighter the battery was disconnected at some point or it is dead.
Have to see in a few days or something.

QBiN wrote:

Oh, just remembered... We did eventually install one of those dual floppy drives that had both 3.5" and 5.25" drives in a single drive.

BTW, what version of DOS does your have? I recall ours came with OEM MS-DOS 4.01.

This came with MS-Dos-3.3, yeah.... It did bring back memories here too.
Just listening to the way this baby is operating, is like having aprox 6 years of childhood thrown in my face again. 🤣

Why did they suddenly let you have it? Did they upgrade to a 486 last week or something?

It has been sitting in their basement, since 1996 when they bought a Pentium 133.
They gave me that machine too, last year.
I am only missing their Compaq 5000/7000 (something like that) Socket 370, then I have all their old machines.
They know that I collect old hardware, and they know I have been into computers since like 1984/85.

EDIT:
Actually.... I have allways been into computers, though retro computing is something I have been into since 2013/14.
I think it is more retro than vintage for me, as I have used these, past, aproximate 2 years to build up my collection.
It is now or absolutely never in Denmark, and I am getting old, so yeah. It's all about retro feeling for me.
I guess it's about reliving my childhood and teenage memories, just as someone would get a chopper when they hit 40.
Speaking of now or never, here in Denmark. There are allmost nothing left of old hardware.
As Danes have been recycling elctronics since the mid-90's. So you can guess were old 8086's are gone to.
Danes have this odd thing about wanting the newest new all time. Pushing the use of computer's rapidly forward.
And everything, even 2 year old stuff, are going to be recycled. If the newest can't be afforded, we wear what we have
out. To the point of being non-restoreable. So yeah.... Eighter use till it breaks or buy new and recycle perfect working stuff.
Most of the times, it is about just getting the newest new stuff. Been there, done that, my self.
This Unisys might be one of the last surviving Unisys machines here in my country. Everything else is gone.

I actually have a correspondance with this guy. He has been given a great big stash of 286/386/486 boards,
and a hell of a stash of other items. All due to a death in his family. A family-member who used to own a hardware shop.
He reports that there are so much, that he have no idea what all the items are. And there are so much that he
does not even want to take pictures. Simply just too much stuff. I have asked him about some 386 class stuff.
Stuff like mobo's, vga cards, controllers and that standard stuff for making a basic machine.

If all goes to my vague plan, I can have a working standard 386 before summer next year.
A vague plan, as I have not gotten any reply about non-leaking batteries yet.
My plan is to complete a 486 system and have this Unisys upgraded first, before I begin on a 386 system.

The final plan is to have my own little museum of 286 to P3 computers, all in working order.
Perhaps even go as low as 8086's, though P-Pro's are the only one not to be included in my collection.
I have no interrest in Pro's at all. And they are simply just too expensive for me to get hold on.

brostenen wrote:

The final plan is to have my own little museum of 286 to P3 computers, all in working order.
Perhaps even go as low as 8086's, though P-Pro's are the only one not to be included in my collection.
I have no interrest in Pro's at all. And they are simply just too expensive for me to get hold on.

Same here, bro. Best of luck! It's a nice machine you've got there.

brassicGamer wrote:

brostenen wrote:

The final plan is to have my own little museum of 286 to P3 computers, all in working order.
Perhaps even go as low as 8086's, though P-Pro's are the only one not to be included in my collection.
I have no interrest in Pro's at all. And they are simply just too expensive for me to get hold on.

Same here, bro. Best of luck! It's a nice machine you've got there.

Thanks. Yeah... When I have my 486 machine and my Unisys finished.
I can begin concentrating on other stuff, like a 386.
Still have my 440BX adventure stashed away, as pre-P1 is my main focus right now.
I tend to shift focus pretty often, as I really have not found any "main-retro-rig".
They are all equally awesomme, those machine's I have build so far.

A little update on my Unisys. I started by taking it apart, 50% and cleaning it from the worst dust.
Then I tried to boot it with a VGA card, wich has some quirks. Not much. Well...
Can't expect everything from such an old machine I guess. Miracle that it survived and in this state.
Then I tried to get it to work with IDE drives. And as it turns out, this is indeed not compatible with
the 16bit ISA controller that I have. Even though it can use HDD-type-47 in the BIOS.

I mounted the (surprisingly good looking) miniscribe drive again. 100% working, 0 bad sectors.
It is starting to sound wierd and a little bit off, as why I wanted to install an IDE drive.
And finally mounted the EGA card again and stashed the machine back into the closet.
Took some pictures of the machine, that I think I want to share for all to look at.

The only thing that I can do at this moment, is to find a new BIOS battery.

brostenen wrote:

The only thing that I can do at this moment, is to find a new BIOS battery.

Let us know how you get on - the 386 I found the other dayhas exactly the same type of battery pack - not one I've seen before. Can it can just be replaced with an external AA pack of the same voltage?

I think so...
The battery is (1) an external wich usually means that it is not rechargeable, and (2) my battery-pack tells me that it will explode on recharging.
Most 386/486 and 286 boards that have external battery-header does not charge on the external header.

Perhaps 1% or close to (a bit above), external batteries, are chargeable. Yet if they were ever produced, they most likely are scrapped by now.
I have been thinking a bit about it the last couple of days, and I think that in order to get 3.6 volt, you need to build something with
resistors as "the cheapest" solution. Those non-chargeable 3.6volt batteries can be expensive, as most sold are 3.0 volt.

Other than that... An 00's era small pc-beeper can be harvested for the plus and minus connectors and be soldered to a battery-pack.
Something a bit like using these two things as a sort of "doners"....

This is all just a bsic idea. No solution is found for me yet. If I can find a cheap 3.6volt non rechargeable battery, it will be the best
though. (2x1.8volt or 3x1.2volt can do also)