First post, by steevf
- Rank
- Newbie
So, I have this "portable" computer that has been my daily driver from 1993 until around 1995.
And in 2020 it still works and on occasion I pull it out to do a bit of tinkering.
Both expansion ports are populated.
One with a VGA card so can use an external VGA monitor (the internal output is only EGA and the built in display is 4 shades of orange plasma).
The other one is a data acquisition/GPIO card in it for controlling external electronic projects.
I upgraded it with a 80287 FPU and maxed out the memory to 4 MB back in 1994.
I was able to play The Catacomb Abyss 3D on this. I think the frame rate was about 6fps but it was 3D!
Anyway, some issues I would like to deal with. If anyone has some advice or resources I could check out please let me know.
Problem 1:
The HD. It's old and its only 40 MB and it's full. I installed WordPerfect 6.0 and it pretty much filled it up. (5.1 was much smaller) I would like to replace that old drive with some sort of SSD or CF. But finding a way to do that has been a challenge. I can't get any clear info on what the HD controller is. It's not IDE. But it also doesn't look like the MFM style. But I don't have as much experience with that.
Problem 2:
I want to find a more permanent solution to the CMOS battery. I've replaced it twice already and it's a real pain to get at it. And it needs a special 3.6v battery with leads soldered to a resister. (yeah I don't get it either, but that was what was in it. so I replaced it with the exact battery type every time. )
But the worst part about that battery is it will only last a few years and it's dead again.