Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-03-16, 14:07

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

After much digging and much reading online...getting the compaq 386 to output anything from the RGBi port ...I drew nothing but blanks. Either folk dont share this information or simply dont know ? Anyhoo...I finally achieved my goal getting the compaq to output RGBi (CGA) after reading this >>>> …

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Re: Compaq Portable III modded BIOS / XTIDE

Posted on 2023-03-12, 15:10

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well fwiw I flashed your xtide bin files xeven.bin and xodd.bin to 2x 27C256 eproms and popped these into the 2x vacant positions U32 and U40... The 386 still booted of course as these were not mapped in presumably. I then looked at what jumpers were available and relevant ? Only 1 seemed relevant …

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Re: Compaq Portable III modded BIOS / XTIDE

Posted on 2023-03-12, 12:14

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A lot more complicated than I first thought then.. but for what it's worth I pulled both of the chips one at a time and got lucky in that the chip type was printed on the underside.. 27C256 Read them both with the TL866 and zipped the binaries up.. If nothing else you might find them interesting... …

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Re: Compaq Portable III modded BIOS / XTIDE

Posted on 2023-03-12, 11:36

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the reply LeFlash.. I'd be happy to try ...ie ... I can dump the 2 chips contents for upload...and write a couple of eproms with any mods you made. I assume I would then just swap the original bios chips out for the modified ones ? or would the new contents we supplementary in that these …

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Re: Compaq Portable III modded BIOS / XTIDE

Posted on 2023-03-12, 09:05

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Having spent quite a lot of time on the compaq portable III I was gifted a few months ago ...Model 2670 Replaced keyboard cable...cloned hard drive contents (win 3.1) ..(a 214 mb seagate...though only half used Type35 100mb ?)....fitted a new cmos battery and a 1.44mb floppy ..and increased base …

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-03-02, 20:33

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thankyou Pentiumspeed... That is much appreciated. It does sadly bring into sharp focus ones own mortality...especially an old fart like myself. One of the reasons I attempt these projects is to give the old grey matter a good workout. rgds VS

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-03-02, 14:03

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am simply not happy after reading this snippet from the Compaq 386 manual.. >>> Chapter 8.12 Memory Upgrade Kit Each 1 megabyte memory upgrade kit consists of two 512 Kbyte memory modules, which are surface mounted with four 256K x 4, 80 ns RAM chips and two 256K x 1, 80 ns RAM chips. The memory …

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-03-01, 09:38

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently had to deal with my mums passing.. obviously this made it impossible to continue working on this project at that time. Dementia finally claimed her at 88 ...RIP mum. anyway ..back to the Compaq. I managed to obtain another 2 x proprietory simms so the on board slots are now fully …

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-13, 21:07

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanx Coffee...I suspected as much... Do you think 25% overclocking will damage the 387 ? I will of course keep my eyes open for a 20mhz version but they do tend to be a bit expensive. rgds

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-13, 20:53

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Took a chance and fitted my 80387 co pro in socket U69 Set jumper E20 unlinked 2-3 linked 1-2 ...and applied power allowing to boot the setup floppy. It did boot to the disk in A: and the 387 was recognised. I guess this at least verifies the chip as working....which up to now was an unknown …

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-13, 16:19

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just got very lucky on fleabay... Found a listing for these ... 2 MB RAM (4 x 512k) memory for Compaq Portable 386 SIMMs - Assy no. 000576-001 ...and put in an offer which was accepted.. I only have 2 simm slots free ...but at least I can upgrade to 2mb now.

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-13, 13:11

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I made a new ..shorter...IDC floppy cable this morning to fit a 1.44 3.5 inch floppy drive... This lends itself to better cable management and of course means it can now read the 720k compaq image on a 3.5 floppy disk. ..after changing the drive type in bios of course. This means I no longer have to …

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-12, 19:17

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

New keyboard coiled cable constructed... cut the ends off a ps2 extension cable ...which was a little thicker having 6 cores.. only 4 needed. the coil loops were wider so wound it tight around a long drill bit....and popped in the oven for 20 minutes.. This fixed the coil loops a bit tighter. Needed …

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-08, 20:38

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm calling that a win.. Now remembering todays date and time....also remembers the hard drive type...following the replacement of the cmos battery ... I managed to force open the plastic case and swap out the AA size lithium battery inside.... This made for a perfect fit.. rgds

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Rare ? Interesting ? an ISA oscilloscope card ?

Posted on 2023-02-08, 10:48

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So ..a curious aquisition indeed.. Sadly No drivers or software.. Maybe it exists out there somewhere on the www Supplied by Computer Solutions Addlestone Surrey UK 8 bit ISA with a proprietory ? 20 pin IDC connector and what looks like A dual probe input (BNC) Yes I would like to try it...but …

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Storing Vintage CPUs

Posted on 2023-02-07, 10:52

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got a bit fed up of rummaging and bent pins on my small vintage cpu collection.. but found some A4 sized printer paper storage boxes on t'interweb which looked promising...and were deep enough to line the bottoms with black anti static foam...soft enough for pin insertion with gentle pressure. Sadly …

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Re: Original Voodoo 5 6000 prototype for sale on eBay

Posted on 2023-02-06, 12:29

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can't afford a second mortgage so will have to make to with my Voodoo 5 5500 pci

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-06, 09:48

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Certainly not designed for quick battery change/easy access.. The mobo has to be removed and the battery is on the underside of the metal mobo carrier plate.. 🤣 buried well deep in its guts.. Looks like the £8 battery I have on order will be perfect for this.

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-06, 09:29

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Murugan wrote on 2023-02-06, 09:20: Did you have a peek already on the other side of the board? https://www.retropaq.com/booting-up-opening-up/ On my to do list.. cheers

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Re: A new (old) Toy - Compaq portable III

Posted on 2023-02-06, 09:27

by

by Vipersan

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Compaq/Compaq%20Portable%20III%20-%20CMOS%20battery%20-%20options.htm Thanks for the link buddy.. Sadly it doesnt seem to apply to this version... ie no low profile flat battery on the mobo....nor a dallas RTC chip... I'm really confused now...as to how the cmos …

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