Okay, here's the one Versa I have not gone into yet - the NEC Versa P/75

The last Versa I bought, which was back in September, was a 1995 NEC Versa P/75 HD - meaning the 800x600 model. It was bought off E-bay BIN for around $30 AS/IS, untested, and well, it works. This was the last version of the NEC Versa PC-4xx series laptops, and was the only Pentium version of this laptop (the rest were all 486 based). This is also the only one I'm aware of to have full SoundBlaster audio.

CURRENT SPECS
CASE: NEC Verrsa P/75 PC-490 Series Chassis
PSU: 1 or 2 NEC OP-570-4701 7.2V 3800MAh "Smart Batteries", NIMH, or NEC Power Supply
CPU: Intel Pentium 75, really weird version
RAM: 40MB of RAM, 32MB on Card, 8MB on Board
FDD: 1.44MB 3.5" NEC M/P/V75 Floppy
HDD: Seagate Momentous 80GB w/ Seagate DDO
GFX: C&T 1MB SVGA, NEC NL8060 800x600 9.4" LCD
SND: ESS688 AudioDrive SoundBlaster compatible Audio, OPL3
NET: Docking Station Ethernet, or Cisco Aironet LMC-352, or Lucent WaveLan Silver (Orinoco Silver) PCMCIA Type-II Cards

Currently It's running my install of FreeDOS 2.1 from the M/75 as the M/75's case crumbled away so badly I had to stop using it. I'm seriously thinking about doing one of three things for the M/75....

1.) Build my own enclosure for it - like a clear smoke gray plastic case based on the original Versa design
2.) Find a dead M/75 or the case of an M/75 and transfer the guts into a new case (I kept the original label)
3.) Save the guts for spares and use as needed (also possible)

Also as such, the 16MB card was put back into the 40EC, so the 40EC is maxxed out again.

PERFORMANCE

The P/75 was the least laborous machine to work with because it has SoundBlaster audio already, and because the only things wrong off the bat were the CMOS Battery and later I found out the original Versa Trak Trackball was having issues, in particular, it was failing to track properly on the frequent due to a jammed/goofey mechanism, so I swapped it with the one from the M/75 (direct parts swap). The battery and floppy from the M/75 also went back in. I found the best tape for holding the cracked bottom chassis together was Manco packing tape as it is almost invisible. Also, the hinge, top cover, bezel, and other plastics are ALL in 100% perfect condition on this Versa - unlike the other two. The bottom case is the problem,. but there's so much support structure it holds together despite crumbling/cracking all across the bottom.

Performance Wise, it's obviously the best. This is less obvious under Windows 95, it behaves a lot like the M/75 under 95, but under FreeDOS is where this machine REALLY blows the M/75 out of the water. FLMAIL runs at full speed, and the 800x600 screen is nice for using Links, making it a comfortable potential vintage daily driver. It also has SoundBlaster compatible audio so no now more silence or messing around with WSS in DOS or hoping the game supports it - which allows the machine to behave as intended. Also MPXPlay runs MP3s at full speed, and SNES Emulation is comfortable if a hair slow. Now I need to mess with HX Dos Extender a bit so I can see about running Win16 and Win32 apps from the command line (if I can get that working). Battery life is almost 2 hours and seems a little longer than the M/75 (must have made some APM improvements, meaning maybe PC MAG just lost some freebies from NEC when they reviewed the P/75, 🤣), and this thing gets surprisingly loud off OPL. It also appears there were 2 versions of the P/75 - an earlier version where the power and standby buttons were in the same spot as the M/75 (the one seen in the ad for the P/75), and another version where they are in the moved location closer to the edge of the board - which means the monitor-off button is no longer a separate circuit board like the other models.

So currently, this has taken over as my main machine. Very likely I'll buy up some more Versa laptops in the future as time/space/money allows. Would be cool to nab an older Ultralite Versa 486 model, and possibly an M/100 to see if the WSS on that has OPL on it (the DX4-100 is still my favorite PC Processor).

Today's post, plans for 2021......ie, what to expect in this thread, my youtube channel, and whatnot this year - with regards to my hardware.

First off - Repair Projects
- Repair the PC Chips M919 board I have, I may even put this in the 486 Desktop with a 3D card setup and USB added if I get it working
- Repair the second NEC Versa 40EC planar and Power Board when I get a CPU card for it
- Either buy a dead Versa M/75 or make an ACrylic Case for my M/75's 100% functional guts...the second might lead to some neato experiments

Next Up - Planning a PC Purge possibly, I have too many bloody computers...here's the list of EVERYTHING, new and old I have ATM
1985 Tandy 1000A
1989 GEM 286
1989 Apple Macintosh SE FDHD
1994 NEC Versa 40EC Laptop
1994 NEC Versa M/75 Laptop w/o Case
1995 NEC Versa P/75 Laptop
1995 486 DX4-100 in an XT clone Case (looks like Dave Just Dave's 486 actually, I think we got our cases from the same place)
1995 NEC Ready 9522 Pentium 100
2012 IBM Thinkpad T61 (Linux)
2014 Dell Inspiron 15 (Win10)
2014 Dell 7010 (Linux)
2014 Dell PowerEdge Server (my Plex Media Server and future File/Print SErver)
2015 iMac (Mac OS)

My plan would be this....

On the retro side - just keep the Versas, 286, and 486 Desktop. Here's the reasoning...

- GEM 286 is a beast of a 286. When Turbo is Off, it emulates an XT class machine almost perfectly, and when Turbo is on it can run games into the 386 era really well. I just want to put a TNDY sound card in it to route through the SoundBlaster 16. It's got CD-ROM (SCSI), 3GB HDD (also SCSI), and it boots like my 486 DX4 does as a result. It's also sentimental because at this point I've had that vintage computer the longest. I bought it in the summer of 2005 off E-bay. Might be fun to do a "Build POst" around it when I add the TNDY.

- My 486 Desktop is also sentimental, and it too is a beast in it's own right. The thing runs stuff that's supposed to run on a Pentium 100 almost perfectly due to gobs of memory in both the video card and the motherboard, and my careful tuning/tweaking of the O/S. Also, with the hard drive swap options I can run anything on it - it has setups for Windows 3.11 For Workgroups, FreeDOS, Windows 95 OSR 2.1, Windows 98 Se, Windows 2000 - and I can change the O/S it uses at will. I'm planning a future XP load on it as well to see if it can do it.

- The NEC Versas are my favorite vintage laptop now. AFter using them for 1.5 Years now, a 40EC, M/75, and P/75, I have got to say they are the second best thing to an IBM ThinkPad with a working battery. Having three of those plus the 486 Desktop means I could literally LAN game Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Wolfenstein 3D, and anything else, between all four machines.....just need more PCMCIA LAN cards. I plan to get a battery for the 40EC as I just fixed the battery board on it and it charges again (was just a burned jumper wire from over-charging the battery during the "rejuvination" proecess). If I do get any new "vintage" stuff in 2021, it's going to only be these because I could fill one shelf of a bookshelf with every version they ever made due to all the swappable parts (screens, hard disks, memory, etc).

My goal is by the end of 2021 or early 2022, be able to put my vintage 286 and 486 and the Versas on Display full time. I may try and get one more CRT to fill that bill too.....maybe another NEC MultiSync (Keep the Micron on the desktop, put the newer VGA Multisync on the Versa dock, and the older Multisync on the 286). Another idea is the Multisync on the Versas and then get a Zenith Data Systems 1490 VGA to put on the GEM....that's my FAVORITE VGA monitor. Heavy, Loud, small, but the experience of using a non-sony Trinitron CRT from the 80's is something very unique.

So that's kind of where I am now.

Selling off computers is always a hard call. Of course you don't really need that many of them but you don't want to regret getting rid of something down the track.
My rule is if I haven't used it for over a year its up for consideration. Although I'd probably just keep the laptops as they take so little space. Maybe just sell the docking stations though?

although full disclaimer I've never sold any of my retro machines after I did a big clear out around 2008. 2 years later I started into this hobby and had to buy back a lot of what I'd only recently sent to landfill.
Not in a hurry to repeat that

Now is the time for selling 1995 and below items as the market seems to be getting quite high prices for them. I'm keep any good old systems, mainly desktops style and not portables/laptops. We've got a ton of room here. I'm not bothered using LCDs monitors. I'm old, CRTs are damn heavy and I can pick up a damn nice 17" or 19" 4:3 LCD monitor , one with a vga out put, for $nz10. The last two I got were that much. I'll definitely keep the EGA TVM monitor for my XT Turbo or VGA in any All-in-one systems I aquire.

chinny22 wrote on 2021-01-05, 09:30:

Selling off computers is always a hard call. Of course you don't really need that many of them but you don't want to regret gett […]
Show full quote

Selling off computers is always a hard call. Of course you don't really need that many of them but you don't want to regret getting rid of something down the track.
My rule is if I haven't used it for over a year its up for consideration. Although I'd probably just keep the laptops as they take so little space. Maybe just sell the docking stations though?

although full disclaimer I've never sold any of my retro machines after I did a big clear out around 2008. 2 years later I started into this hobby and had to buy back a lot of what I'd only recently sent to landfill.
Not in a hurry to repeat that

Yeah, I still have some inner conflict of my own on it because I did do not one but two or three massive purges of vintage gear - 2005, and 2011, and some of those systems I really miss as I've had over 50 different PC's (now there would be a fun post here - every old PC I've had, something I was going to slow do in this thread actually) - I had some nice stuff like a Compaq Deskpro 286 and COmpaq Deskpro 386, many IBM PS/2s, and a flip-top XT clone. I miss a lot of those, but only when I really think about it. Sometimes wanting is more fun that having.

But in the past year, I spend most of my time with my NEC versa Laptops both used as actual portables as I have a working battery and have a docking station that's smaller than every desktop PC I have, even my Tandy 1000. Plus I seem to be running into them a lot and nobody wants them due to the cracking plastic problem (something I have just about whipped). I was thinking in the end I'd have the 286 that doubles as an XT, my 486 Desktop which is more sentimental than anything, and then collect 5 Versas - one of each type (Ultralite/E/V/M/P) - and maybe do a Youtube video on the series and the pros and cons of each model - all five fit on half my shelf.

That said I've thought heavily about buying broken, like the SERIOUSLY messed up stuff from the 80's and 90's - all the cracked apart laptops, desktops with serious corrosion, damage, were talking silicone molds for new parts and metalwork type work - then keep those in this thread to show the stuff I like doing today along with my retro-posts of machines I already had or have worked on.

This is the problem isn't it.
The project is more fun then the end result but its a nice feeling knowing you own a xyz even if you never use it. It's a waste but at the same is it if it gives you pleasure knowing you have it.
It's lucky I don't restore cars. they take up much more room!

chinny22 wrote on 2021-01-06, 11:21:

This is the problem isn't it.
The project is more fun then the end result but its a nice feeling knowing you own a xyz even if you never use it. It's a waste but at the same is it if it gives you pleasure knowing you have it.
It's lucky I don't restore cars. they take up much more room!

Yes, totally the problem, I'm also a man of too many interests (cars, computers, guitars, vintage electronics, mechanical stuff...etc..) I do have some ideas on this though.........

For the last 2 months I've been stalking e-bay auctions for the most messed up Pentium and older laptops on e-bay. I find stuff under $50 with serious chassis damage, or untested due to a weird power supply (which I can usually find through research), or a damaged screen, might be a untapped source and I could rebuild those and flip them to new owners who will get a 100% working machines.

The other problem is if I purge too much stuff, then I need some part to fix my other machines. That's one reason despite wanting to downsize I keep accumulating PC-4xx Versa models. They take up little space, lots of parts are the same across the entire product line, and I can still find parts for them because NEC Made industrial equipment that still uses some of those parts. Also, it seems they are extremely hard laptops to kill. I've done so many stupid things and made so many mistakes with these units and they all still work 100% perfectly, even if one does not have a case. I also plan to do a historical video on these going over each submodel and it's benchmarks, pros, cons, common issues, and such, as well as a bunch more repair videos on using various methods to fix and prevent future cracking of the plastic, and reinforcing the structure without hindering factory functionality or shorting something out.

Versa-Mania Continues....

Picked up and Ultralite and another M/75 - both DOA, one fixed, the other crumbled like a cookie (Ultralite). And P/75 was the guineapig for the baking-soda superglue trick, with whatever plastic NEC was using, it really works. So I'll go in depth on that one in this post and add the other stuff later.

NEC VERSA 486 & PENTIUM CASE ISSUES - BAKING SODA + SUPERGLUE vs. J.B. WELD

It's a well known issue with these laptops that they have some of the most brittle plastic. It seems to me that NEC was changing formulations on the regular, ad the oldest models are the most brittle (Ultralite/E/V) , and the newest models are a lot more solid and feel like modern laptop ABS plastic (M/75, M/100, P/75). Also this difference can be noted in the shade of plastic, the darkest is most durable and was used around mid 1994 at likely a secondary factory making the M-series - as all the molds are slightly different as well (seems a bit bigger/thicker, and designed to accomodate more common and robust components). The second most durable were the P/75 and late M-series from the regular factory, mostly due to how they are assembled - though the P/75 loses some points due to a retaining screw up front that's gone and replaced by an internal plastic standoff with a coarse thread screw to hold the power board in.

I made a two and a half hour long video of me doing all the baking-soda + superglue trick on the NEC P/75 about two weekends ago. So far it's holding up extremely well, and I even had a pleasant surprise when I pulled the gorilla tape off where a brass screw anchor popped loose and let a screw through the keyboard bezel.

Things done in that video
- crack along the bottom front filled and reinforced with this mixture from the outside and the inside, with extra density added where tolerances permit
- latch assembly reinstalled and reinforced. Now works properly and no longer interferes with the trackball
- crack in the back where the audio jacks are was also filled and reinforced
- side wall where the PCMCIA bay cover goes was reattached, then reinforced - the door is on now and it works perfectly
- screw anchor on the top left was re-molded using baking soda and superglue using aluminum tape as a mold after attaching the anchor to the remaining plastic
- screw anchor that allowed a screw to go through the top of the PC had a flood fill around it of superglue and baking soda - I'll expound on this later
- attempted to fix the one piece of plastic going along the top of the latch, that did not hold, probably should have used a Guitar String for reinforcement
- re-engineered the battery release mechanism using screw, screw anchor, and some foam
- (off camera) added foam on top of the power control board to hold it in place against the bottom of the chassis since I had the two standoff areas covered and kind of forgot while filming.

Now, on with that flood-fill screw anchor. This pretty much told me something I had been thinking about using Titebond epoxy because of BBISHOPPCM's video on the Versa V/50 (actually a 50EC) but did not know BS + Cyanoacrilate (the active ingredient) could do. In his video, he uses poster-gum to block off a region of the screen casing where it always cracks where the hinge is, and flood-fills the area with Titebond epoxy, which gets hot in temperature - basically melting the plastic and welding the epoxy to it as if it was a part of the molded assembly.

When I flood filled that area where the screw anchor came out - which is much the same scenario - I blocked it off with aluminum tape, placed the anchor in the right spot, held in place with a eyeglass screwdriver, and then flood filled the region layer by layer with superglue - when I picked it up I noticed the area I had used the mixture was surprisingly hot to touch not melted or deformed on the outside, but on the inside, it was probably hotter, like over 100 degrees. When I put the laptop back together, I pulled off the tape I had and was pleasantly surprised to find that the gray plastic had melted together and basically "healed" where it had cracked through using the Gorilla tape as a mold. So the laptop basically looks brand new again (for the most part). Nice. The only noticeable repairs are on the bottom, which I made thicker purposely to make the laptop stronger where it was originally very weak.

So far, it's been weeks, that P/75 has been all over my house running on Battery and charger and docked, and undocked, and I have yet to get another crack in the casing anywhere since, except that one weak spot above the keyboard latch. Also, since adding the foam fix - the trackball has been stable as heck.

Next up - I have the tale of the second Versa M/75, my struggles with the USPS and errant internet info, building a Versa Track out of spare parts (and it actually working - maybe I should have become a brain surgeon), and my suspicions of a second manufacturer that used better plastic and industrial panels that may or may not have been incompatible with the regular Versa line. And the first time I've ever seen a 486 laptop cook itself over night (and still funtion).

I don't really have any photos as I was filming the whole thing. It'll be going on my Youtube channel sometime soon. I had to do a ton of editing since the whole shot was about 3 hours long, and had parts where I walked out of the room, or where my wife walks into the room to give me lunch, or where I'm fixing stuff. As tempted as I am to act like Bithead1000 some days, I must refrain. Not to mention a few unflattering shots of myself. It's the first time I ever did a video with this setup.

Okay, today I'll talk about the 2nd M/75

1994 NEC VERSA M/75 #2

Bought on E-bay for embarassingly a lot for one of these old systems (under $100 at least). The system was listed as "untested" and "as/is", but is a very nice specimen. No cracked plastic (save for one tang on the screen - which those always crack off). Actually, it appears this may have been made in a different factory than my other ones were as the plastic is darker and seems not prone to cracking. Also, the keyboard has no stuck space bar. It seems whoever had this did not use it that much, everything is like brand spankin' new inside and out.

SPECS
PSU: Came with dead original NEC "Smart Battery" - works with the new one my P/75 uses, shorter battery life, but I WAS using the 540MB Original HDD
CASE: Clean, uncracked, all doors in place, no scratches
CPU: i486 DX4-75
RAM: Currently 24MB, using 12MB card from my 40EC.
FDD: 1.44MB 3.5"
HDD: Originally a 540MB IDE drive, planning to slap something bigger in there with DOS 7.1 and Windows For Workgroups
SND: Crystal CS-4231-KQ Windows SOund System Compatible Audio, no OPL
NET: Sharing the same PCMCIA Cards
O/S: Currently MS-DOS 6.22/Windows For Workgroups 3.11 on the original HDD, or the 80GB with Windows 95 on it

It also came with 2 PCMCIA cards, one NEC SCSI Controller card, and a ClipperCom V.34 Faxmodem, missing their dongles of course 😒

That said, this was not just a simple bought it, plugged it in, and it works scenario. ACtually, this is the weirdest encounter I've had with a laptop screen ever. Here's the scenario.

Not just does the case seem to be different, but so does the screen assembly. First off, hinge cover is the same darker-stronger plastic - a bit weird because this one is OLDER than the other one I had (12/94 vs 7/94), the hinge is entirely different, instead of a clip and then a series of friction plates, it's just one friction plate riveted on, and it's still at stock tension. The screen itself uses a newer revision of the CPU connector board, the cables are longer, and the screen casing is about 1/8" thicker than any other Versa I've got to accomodate a NEC NL6448AC30-12 full Industrial LCD Panel with not one but TWO Backlights (my -06 and -10 only had one). This thing also has all of the trimpots marked, and a series of 4 dipswitches.

Now, the catch here was that the PC would not boot when I got it. It appeared as though it was dead - no problem, I put my old motherboard in there. For awhile....

Then came testing the screen. The screen blew out my old 40EC motherboard, and the old M/75 motherboard - so I put the NEW motherboard back in, and same behaviour with it's paried screen.....okay....

What I noticed was when I swapped to the 12/94 Motherboard it had an entirely different daughtercard mounted underneath the CPU. The 7/94 machine had one with 4 smaller IC's and a big IC on the bottom with no "Hi-Top"markings on it, but the 12/94 had a huge chip on top marked NEC "Hi-Top". If I pull the board completely, the machine boots with either screen installed but displays nothing - so I think I've figured out that on the M/75, that daughter card that fits between the CPU card mounts is actually an LCD controller of some kind, and it appears one version is incompatible with another.

Somewhere along the line I decided to touch up some solder joints on the -12 screen. And somewhere along the line, it began to work but the image was shifted down by about 32 or so pixels - just enough to bury the C: prompt under the bottom edge of the screen. I tried changing the dip switches and tweedling a few knobs, and while the graphics quality on this panel is amazing it's just simply unusable. It could be the daughter card - the cable setup - or all three. I Do find it odd the cable is missing a wire on the G4 line - or Green line #4.....unless this is a really special panel....or the original owner replaced the panel with an Industrial Panel that's mostly or fully incompatible....who knows. I see some canister caps on the bottom - maybe I need to replace those....either way, that panel is a long-term project.

Ultimately what I did was used the new board with the old "LCD controller" Daughter card, the old wiring harness from the utterly destroyed Ultralite Versa (I call it "Humpty Dumpty" - that's going to be a "fun" post), and the NL6448AC30-06 screen from my 40EC. Now it looks really nice.

Next plan - 80GB HDD, DOS 7.1, and Windows For Workgroups 3.11 to take full advantage of that WSS sound chip - and use SHSUCDX to run things like MYST or The 7th Guest.

Good work. I like Frankenstein builds like this.

1993 NEC ULTRALITE VERSA............PLANS, DISASTER?, HUMPTY DUMPTY?

So now I've picked up the oldest versa - well....technically - This is where that whole line began. In 1993 we had the Ultralite Versa. Prior to that, we had 286, 386, and 486 laptops under just the "Ultralite" banner. I recently read on google Books somewhere that the name "Ultralite" was dropped because it made the name too complex (not to mention this thing is not that "ultra light" at 7LBS when in one piece.

THE PROBLEM

So I got this thing very cheap - from Georgia. I was told by the auction the plastic was VERY fragile. So of course it was crammed in a box with a lot of bubble wrap but that still was not enough to save it and when it arrived, it was in pieces already. Removing the motherboard took a whole of two minutes as chunks of early Versa-eria gray plastic just flaked right off like a biscuit at a Wadley Diner.

Came with the original monster brick-size power supply, which is really not much heavier than the later version of the power supply (that I have two of), so I'm not sure what PC Mag was complaining about in their review. The PSU is dead.

THE ASSESSMENT

Well....the case is in a million pieces. I COULD put it back together, but that activity is going to be like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, or a plane crash. But I'm still considering it. I have a line on two other ultralites....but as we can see, this one too was in one piece before shipping. The only reason I did not complain was because the description DID say the plastic was brittle, but I did not think it was THIS brittle.

All the things wrong

- plastic completely cracked away, I mean ALL of it, I have a couple large chunks from the bottom and the screen but the rest will need a LOT of superglue and baking soda to put back together. My experience is it works well with this plastic, but I fear if I do fix it it's just going to crack in different spots and I'll just be back to regluing and rebuilding things.

- Power Supply is completely dead and I suspect either spill damage, or more likely, leaky caps towards the front of the power supply near the power connector. We'll at least try to revive this. Other than that, it's very clean inside and looks rather nice. Could use a retrobright - might be my time to try out retrobrighting once it's sunny outside if I can get the power supply working.

- Motherboard is completely dead - no battery indicator when a battery is installed, just ticking. It looks like it may have been spill damage, though some re-flowing of solder was getting some minor signs of life out of it. It is getting power - I tested various points, it's got 10.5V at the power switch, which is how it should be, but flipping the switch does not work. There's a canister oscillator that needs replaced - a 1.8325 Toyocom unit I believe - I MIGHT have a replacement lurking somewhere so I might be able to replace that part. The power board does not come off like my other Versa - it'll have to be desoldered, so I'll need to order a desoldering braid for that - I may also socket it while I'm at it so I can get at and test the other side of the board where the ticking noise is coming from. At one point I was heating solder and got the battery indicators to appear. If I can figure out what's up with this, I might be able to fix the other 40EC board I have as well (and keep as a spare or resell).

- The screen panel is toast but the boards are good. I'm using the good parts to rebuild my NEC NL-6448AC30-10 panel from the first M/75. Might be some modification needed but my surface-mount soldering is on A game right now. I'll be getting some new FFC connectors for the AC30-10 panel sometime next month. I'm also reusing the hinge cover because somehow - out of all the parts on this Ultralite Versa - that actual part did not crack. I did all my standard reinforcement work (BS+SG, JB Weld Steelstick), and am modifying it so I can fit the M/75 hinge through it. I'm also keeping the CFL's as spares.

- The Floppy drive and Battery are okay. The battery needs a rebuild, but the FDD is just fine. The HDD works, 100MB, but I'm not sure how desperate you have to be to put Windows 95 on a 100MB HDD on a 25MHz 486 with no pointing device. I'm thinking about putting that drive in my Tandy 1000A or another machine and putting an 80GB Seagate Momentous in the frame.

So out of this I have
- working floppy
- battery that's a good candidate for rebuild
- floppy drive that works
- bad motherboard
- cracked case
- power supply with leaky caps that does not work (yet)

THE GAMEPLAN

So I have three paths for this one......since I know of two other Ultralites (at least) that I could get.......

- Oine has a mono screen, costs a ton, but looks pretty nice, I'm waiting for the owner to let the price come down
- The other one is similar to this one just no PSU and a good screen

Both are untested......

But This one, I'm almost tempted to put the entire case back together, reinforce it, get the motherboard and PSU working, and put it back together with the M/75's touch screen for the pointing device (with a modified stylus and new digitizer), and then put DOS 7.1 and Windows For Workgroups 3.11 on it, and put my AAC software on this one and dedicate it to autotuned vocals from the AAC unit (music production).....but we'll see where this goeas. Maybe I'll get a deal on the Mono unit at some point.

Today's post is more about future planning again.....Because with only one Versa left to go for the Versathon video - I need to plan how I'm going to downsize and what other projects need done on things before I go selling/auctioning them off. I also see of it as a challenge, and an opportunity for a few other things I want to get into (some of which might be beneficial to this thread).

So this is one of those multiple project posts.

SO HOW'S THE CURRENT COLLECTION

From oldest to newest
- 1985 Tandy 1000A - 8088/4.77, 640K, 3GB HDD, XT-IDE, TGA, Tandy 3-voice, Networking, DOS 6.22
- 1989 Apple MAcintosh SE FDHD - 68000/6Mhz, 4MB RAM, 20MB SCSI, Digital Audio, 10" B&W CRT, OS 6.0.1
- 1989 GEM 286 - 80286/12, IIT 802C87, 3GB SCSIHDD, 2X CD-ROM, 1.44/1.2M, SB PRo 2.0, DOS 6.22/Win31

THE VERSA STUFF (1993-1995) - these all share ONE docking station
- *1993 NEC Versa Ultralite - 486 SL-25, 100MB HDD, 1MB SVGA, 640x480 Active Matrix w/ Touch, probably DOS 5.00 when I'm done
- 1994 NEC Versa 40EC - 486 DX2 SL-40, 540MB HDD, 1MB SVGA, 640x480 ACtive MAtrix, DOS 6.22/WFW311
- *1994 NEC Versa V/50 - 486 DX2 SL-50, ??MB HDD, 1MB SVGA, 640x480 ACtive MAtrix - not much known yet, still waiting for it
- 1994 NEC Versa M/75 - 486 DX4/75 - 80GB HDD, 1MB SVGA, 640x480 ACtive Matrix - WSS Sound - Triple Boot DOS7/WFW311/Win95
- 1995 NEC Versa P/75 - Pentium 75 - 80GB HDD, 1MB SVGA, 800x600 Active Matrix - ESS 688 Sound - FreeDOS 2.1

- 1995 era (2012 built) Creeping NEt 486 - 486 DX4-100, 64MB, 2MB S3 805, SB AWE64, runs darn near anything
- 1995 NEC Ready 9522 - Pentium 100, 128MB, 80GB HDD, 52X CD-RW, 1MB SVGA, SB Compat Audio, Win98SE
- 2003 Dell Dimension 3000 - PEntium 4 2.6GHz, 128GB SSD, DVD-RW, Intel Video, SoundMax Audio, Windows XP SP3 PRofessional

THE GOAL
The goal is to downsize to 2-3 desktop setups. The absolute keepers are at least 3 Versa and my 486 DX4-100 Desktop. Versa are inconsequential as they are laptops and take up half a shelf even with all 5.

The Ready, P4, and Macintosh are all possible units to let go of. I only use the P4 for The Sims, which I hardly play much - could probaby run it on Wine. And I kind of want to use that huge SSD in my 486DX4 desktop for FreeDOS or Windows since it's bloody fast and bloody big. The Ready is eaten alive by the Versa P/75 oddly enough, and the Macintosh spends about 90% of it's time with me laying on a high shelf in my closet.

The REAL competition is my Tandy verses my GEM.

TANDY 1000A VS GEM 286

These are the two systems I've had the longest, and I usually pull them out for several months out of the year, usually during the summer as they make less heat. Might make for a good video during the summer months.....

The Tandy 1000A I got at Value VIllage in Everett WA 2007 . It's really nicely decked out with the original keyboard and a Tandy Deluxe Mouse. And I was working on a Light Pen for it with some very minor success.

The pros are that the Tandy 1000A will only gain collectors value, is a well known system, well documented, and ties closely to the first computer I ever had (Tandy 1000 SX). It also runs all the old Sierra AGI titles and several other Tandy 1000 stuff like Thedexter and Silpheed perfectly. It's also smaller, takes up less space. It also can be run through my TV without additional hardware. It also has another cool piece of hardware in that it has one of the first XT-IDE cards in it.

The con is a major one, and that's that it is SLOW. It's only 4.77Mhz, so it's hardly usable for anything other than the older Sierra AGI titles, which is really why I have it, because I like running those on the Tandy with 3-voice. But even then, I can put them flat-out and they run about the same as on the "Fast" setting. I also have a lot of very old BASIC and DOS stuff for XT's and the original PC that runs on it. It also does not have a CMOS battery or clock calendar.

The GEM 286 I got off E-bay in 2005 when I still lived in Alabama. It's got a TSENG ET-4000 SVGA card, 4MB of RAM, a super fast Adaptec 16-bit SCSI inteface with CD-ROM drive that reads CD-Rs no problem somehow despite being dated 1994, and it has a SoundBlaster card. I was thinking I could slap one of those LoTech TNDY 3-voice cards in it and use it for the Tandy games with 3-voice, and have SoundBlaster for the later stuff that's too fast on a 486 - like Death Race.

The pro is that the GEM can run a lot of later stuff the Tandy can't. If my CRT's die, I don't need to either hook it up to a TV or buy some kind of weirdo adapter to use it with an LCD panel. It also drops to the original PC/XT speed perfectly when the turbo button is cut out. But it does need special hardware to attach to the TV. However, keyboards are standard, mice are standard, I can use my array of IDE drives with it, or change to CF or SSD easily when the time comes.

The con is that the GEM will need a likely more costly upgrade in the form of the TNDY card to have the 3-voice, and it will kind of nullify the cool factor of having the NEC MultiSync II monitor because the Tandy utilies the CGA part of that screen. IT also is still barred from current internet activities with LInks making it no more capable than the Tandy 1000 - which I can just use WGET or FTP on anyway as files are tiny.

Like I said though - it hinges on the Ultralite. If I can get that working well enough to be used as basically a gap fill between the TAndy and the other Versa boxes, then I might keep the Tandy and bump it up to a V20 with an 8087. But if I can get my hands on a TNDY card, I might just hold onto the GEM.

One part of this plan also includes maybe a new YouTube series to downsize all the DOS software I've been messing with over the years - especially from the Home of the Underdog's days - to find the best, and rate the worst, and that's some Video-Worthy material there. Basically this is me going blindly into playing DOS titles and finding out if I like them or not - then Deleting it if I don't like it, Keeping it if I do, or moving it to a slower system or faster system if it's unusable on the system it's on. There's some stuff I always like that will never go away (Ultima, Monkey Island, TIe Fighter, X-Wing, Doom, Quake, Rise of the Triad, etc....), but there's a lot of stuff that ranges between Shovelware to really good unknown Abandonware on there - and I only want to keep what is best, and offer what I can legally for download on my website, and suggest the purchase of commercial titles from GOG and the like.

POST PURGE PLAN

After this downsize is done, I won't be stopping with vintage hardware - my next part of the plan involves this - tuning up the final tiny bits of the systems I keep (if anything), and then proceeding to buy up the old, broken, cheap stuff off of E-bay, Offerup, Amibay, and elsewhere - stuff with major issues nobody wants to touch that I possess the skills to fix - and then fixing it up on my YouTube channel, and flipping it to fund the next one. This is something I've been thinking about for awhile. I don't plan to get rich at all doing this, just some fun stuff to do for channel material, and to have some fun on the side while raising awareness of some other hardware people might not have thought of.

Today is back to format a bit more......just got the one I thought I was not going to get.......the Versa V/50. Paid about $30 for it incl. shipping.

The Versa V was apparently bought from a surplus computer shop in New York as it had stickers on it that said "486 Untested" and another that looked like an Asset Tag. The Hard Drive had been removed, as had the Memory Card - no problem, I have a surplus of 4MB Memory Cards now for Versa - enough that I'd never need to buy another one, unless of course I want to top off the Memory at 20MB and 40MB depending on when the model. I also got lucky, mine has an Active Matrix screen (like all my other ones) - Beige-O-Vision's has one of the rarer Passive Matrix screens on his, and I've seen at least one V with what appeared to be Monochrome.

SPECS - CURRENT
CASE: NEC Versa E/V platform with non-removable Screen assembly (different palmwrest, latch, memory door, and general design)
PSU: No battery included (used the bad one from my 40EC), no PSU came with it, so using standard 4401 units for the Versa 40EC
CPU: Intel 486 DX2-50 SL
RAM: 4MB at first, now has 8MB as I put an official NEC 4MB Memory Card in it
FDD: 1.44MB 3.5"
HDD: 540MB in LBA Mode out of my M/75 (I think the V came a little after the E, as the E-series can't handle LBA or drives over 528MB without a DDO)
GFX: WD SVGA 1MB, NL6448AC30 LCD Panel (640x480 Active Matrix 4096 Colors)
SND: Internal Speaker....of course
PCMCIA: got 2 cards with it, a 144K MHz Modem (no dongle) and a Linksys EtherLInk III PCMCIA with of course no dongle.....my PCMCIA Card collection is growing rapidly from these things
O/S: FreeDOS 2.1

Only issues it had was of course, the cracked hinge area (as usual for anything Pre-M/xxx model), someone set the BIOS Password (easily fixed by turning Dip Switch #2 on in the Memory compartment to override), and it needed a HDD, and definatley got some help via the RAM addition. So it's now up and running as intended. Probably the fastest Versa fix of the whole lot.

creepingnet, i wanted to message you directly, but i'm still unable to pm. i've taken notice that you've written extensively about the nec versa ultralite line of laptops on this and other posts. (i also obtained driver floppies from one of your old websites...thanks!) i owned a couple of these laptops back in the day and have rediscovered a versa p model that i'm converting into a space efficient dos/win95 retro build. the ram & hdd are maxed out (40mb & 810mb) to what was originally available and it has a 800x600 color lcd that hasn't yellowed. the case is only cracked in the usual places you'd expect around the battery and fdd, but the lcd panel right hinge is practically destroyed. given this handicap, i've detached the screen to use the unit as a space saving retro desktop for the opl3 sound coupled with softmpu + null serial cable for wavetable synthesis.

i think i've met with success, but there are a number of things that still puzzle me about the hardware that i'm hoping you can answer with your extensive research.

- what precisely is the 65545 video controller capable of? as far as i can tell 16/24bit color modes are only available in 640x480; 8bit color available for 800x600 and maybe 1024x768; 4bit only for 1280x1024.
- what video drivers are available besides the builtin win95 ones? i've only been able to find one other identified as c&t 655x5 (new)
- my samsung ln32c550 lcd doesn't have a monitor.inf. is there anything i can use better than the builtin win95 generic ddc monitor or is the vga output 60hz period?
- the last univbe doesn't support the vga controller. is there any version that does?
- which lcd panel do i have? it appears to be 800x600 256 colors only?
- what does the nec pentium.exe utility do? it asks for vbrun300.dll which i don't have.

i'm sure there's more that i can't think of right now, but this is a good start that hopefully you'll be able to provide some insight on. thanks!

stanwebber wrote on 2022-04-09, 05:59:

creepingnet, i wanted to message you directly, but i'm still unable to pm. i've taken notice that you've written extensively abo […]
Show full quote

creepingnet, i wanted to message you directly, but i'm still unable to pm. i've taken notice that you've written extensively about the nec versa ultralite line of laptops on this and other posts. (i also obtained driver floppies from one of your old websites...thanks!) i owned a couple of these laptops back in the day and have rediscovered a versa p model that i'm converting into a space efficient dos/win95 retro build. the ram & hdd are maxed out (40mb & 810mb) to what was originally available and it has a 800x600 color lcd that hasn't yellowed. the case is only cracked in the usual places you'd expect around the battery and fdd, but the lcd panel right hinge is practically destroyed. given this handicap, i've detached the screen to use the unit as a space saving retro desktop for the opl3 sound coupled with softmpu + null serial cable for wavetable synthesis.

i think i've met with success, but there are a number of things that still puzzle me about the hardware that i'm hoping you can answer with your extensive research.

- what precisely is the 65545 video controller capable of? as far as i can tell 16/24bit color modes are only available in 640x480; 8bit color available for 800x600 and maybe 1024x768; 4bit only for 1280x1024.
- what video drivers are available besides the builtin win95 ones? i've only been able to find one other identified as c&t 655x5 (new)
- my samsung ln32c550 lcd doesn't have a monitor.inf. is there anything i can use better than the builtin win95 generic ddc monitor or is the vga output 60hz period?
- the last univbe doesn't support the vga controller. is there any version that does?
- which lcd panel do i have? it appears to be 800x600 256 colors only?
- what does the nec pentium.exe utility do? it asks for vbrun300.dll which i don't have.

i'm sure there's more that i can't think of right now, but this is a good start that hopefully you'll be able to provide some insight on. thanks!

Hehe, funny, working night shift on a slow night with the M/75 next to me 🤣

- The 65545 is capable of different things depending on whether it's running as a laptop or a desktop. It has 1MB of VRAM and uses VESA Local Bus wiring standards inside the laptop. It's not 3D, but it's pretty darned fast. The Versas - when they first came out according to PC Mag, were one of the fastest graphically on the market - but by 486 standards. THe P/75 is basically a 486 with a Pentium chip grafted onto it. It works differently based on whether you are docked/wired/using the external VGA.

Docked/External VGA seems capable of up to 1024x768 at 16 colors interlaced, or 800x600p at 24-bit or at least 16-bit True color. You have way more options with an external screen because of the limitations of the internal screen(S) NEC Used. I believe your options are correct, however, I don't think 1080x1024 was possible on these to my knowledge even with a dock/wiring - but I Could be wrong.

NEC Used at least 3, if not 5 different LCD Panels on the P/75: a 9.4" Active Matrix 640x480p capable of 4096 total colors, but maxxes out at 256 colors, a 9.4" ACtive MAtrix (P/75HC) 800x600p LCD capable of 256 colors, and a larger 10.5" version of the previous one. They also had DTSN Color and possibly Monochrome availible as well. All of these could be hot-swapped/switched out as that was a major selling point on these laptops was the user-friendly upgradablility of it. When using the panel, it's limited to 256 colors. The only exception was one M/75 model.

The M/75 and P/75 use the exact same video drivers, so It may be I uploaded the M75 video drivers for both laptops. One interesting fact on the M/75 was the True Color version that used a special panel and a special LCD controller daughtercard that could be swapped (M/75TC ie the "True Color" model)- but even that one uses the same drivers. THe M/75 and P/75 were the only ones besides some early Ultralite Versa that had a C&T Chipset (the rest were WD).

For UniVBE, I use the one that is listed at the Vogons Driver site as Schitech (or is it Scitech) DisplayDoctor 6. I have used that on my NEC Versas successfully for awhile, also had good luck with 5 as well (actually, I'm using 6 right now on my M/75 with Win95/3.11FW/DOS triple boot). Scitech in 95 replaces the original graphics drivers.

Being a P/75 I would not be surprised if it was the 800x600 panel, it seems every one, including mine, that I've seen come up on e-bay has the 800x600. The full model name was Versa P/75HC (High resolution Color), and yes it tops out at 256 colors. IT also letterboxes in DOS and anything running at a 320x200/640x480 divisible resolutions will be letterboxed, however, it's not bad enough to bother me so my M/75 and P/75 both have it.

And lastly, is the mystery of the Pentium.exe utility. I just repaired my P/75 myself recently so maybe I should play with it a bit. I know those Versas had some pretty strange stuff in the drivers that I have not used yet. May have been some kind of Windows 3.1 fix, because that's what the P/75 originally came with (not 95). All the drivers I got were from NEC's FTP before it went down.

I'm still toying with learning to mold replacement plastic parts using Alumilite. That's the only thing messed up with these laptops is the cracking. My M/75 and P/75 have a lot of baking soda, superglue, J.B. Weld, and Packing Tape holding them together. I find it kind of hilarious my cheaper DFI MediaBook (NanTan 9200) has better plastic, but the Versas have way stronger electronics.

i was able to dig up the 65540/5 data sheet and it's somewhat explicit about the color depth limitations:

- True-color and Hi-color display capability with flat panels and CRT monitors up to 640x480 resolution

the supported video modes chart (attached) appears to bear this out. 1mb is a lot of video ram for this era...simultaneous display modes might halve that, but you can switch back and forth between single display modes with the fn-f3 key so it seems a little ridiculous to be limited to 256 colors in 800x600 on an external crt, but there we are. the (new) drivers i'm using basically follow lockstep with the chart, except there's also a 2-bit color resolution even higher than 1280x1024 available that i haven't tested. i had to have picked the worst flat-screen monitor (samsung ln32c550) for this application. the vga modes are messed up and apparently it can't handle any horizontal khz frequencies in the 40s so i'm stuck on an 800x600 desktop.

it was a monumental effort, but i did get scitech display doctor 6 installed and running. the univbe tsr config hangs up under windows, but seems to complete most times when booted to dos. i'd like to use the scitech windows display driver, but switching to it always bluescreens my system immediately (running 4.00.950).

yeah, the screen is original since it has a 'versa p' plaque attached. 800x600 is only 256 colors, but that appears to be a limitation of the controller as evidenced above. 640x480 is letterboxed as you say, but windows says it's capable of 16bit color and i can successfully switch to that mode, but i never really paid attention to whether it was actually displaying more than 256 colors. in any case should the screen display anything if the controller was actually feeding it 16bit color beyond its capability?

i fired up quake in dos and it's extremely responsive at 320x200 (13h). i was a little disappointed that it got sluggish at 360x480 (vesa)...oh well, maybe i can tweak it some more.

stanwebber wrote on 2022-04-12, 18:15:

i was able to dig up the 65540/5 data sheet and it's somewhat explicit about the color depth limitations: […]
Show full quote

i was able to dig up the 65540/5 data sheet and it's somewhat explicit about the color depth limitations:

- True-color and Hi-color display capability with flat panels and CRT monitors up to 640x480 resolution

the supported video modes chart (attached) appears to bear this out. 1mb is a lot of video ram for this era...simultaneous display modes might halve that, but you can switch back and forth between single display modes with the fn-f3 key so it seems a little ridiculous to be limited to 256 colors in 800x600 on an external crt, but there we are. the (new) drivers i'm using basically follow lockstep with the chart, except there's also a 2-bit color resolution even higher than 1280x1024 available that i haven't tested. i had to have picked the worst flat-screen monitor (samsung ln32c550) for this application. the vga modes are messed up and apparently it can't handle any horizontal khz frequencies in the 40s so i'm stuck on an 800x600 desktop.
65540_545 Data Sheet.pdf
it was a monumental effort, but i did get scitech display doctor 6 installed and running. the univbe tsr config hangs up under windows, but seems to complete most times when booted to dos. i'd like to use the scitech windows display driver, but switching to it always bluescreens my system immediately (running 4.00.950).

yeah, the screen is original since it has a 'versa p' plaque attached. 800x600 is only 256 colors, but that appears to be a limitation of the controller as evidenced above. 640x480 is letterboxed as you say, but windows says it's capable of 16bit color and i can successfully switch to that mode, but i never really paid attention to whether it was actually displaying more than 256 colors. in any case should the screen display anything if the controller was actually feeding it 16bit color beyond its capability?

i fired up quake in dos and it's extremely responsive at 320x200 (13h). i was a little disappointed that it got sluggish at 360x480 (vesa)...oh well, maybe i can tweak it some more.

To answer the screen being fed beyond itt's capability....I have to wonder about this because I still have both the P/75 and the M/75 and e are times I think I have pushed it beyond.

The 800x600 panels used by these are the NL8060AC24-01 - a 9.4" Active Matrix TFT TN industrial panel capable for up to 4096 colors, so there might be a chance they could pull off a slightly higher color depth. Maybe not 16-bit. I might have to try that with mine. Could also be I'm confusing my experiences with the M/75 which I have used more. The M/75 got REALLY weird with the detachable screens....I've read PC Mag articles of DTSN, Monochrome, I have one with a touch screen on it (M/75CP) that was like a strange unofficial option, there was a "Special" model I also have the guts from known as the M/75TC which was unique to the M-series as it had a customized daughtercard for the LCD controller to display 640x480 at 32-bit True Color on a special NL6448AC30-09 LCD panel - they had tto key the removable screen to prevent the regular screens from fitting in it and vice versa. The Versa P/75 might already have this built into it though, so who knows. I also know the later P/75's with the 10.5" screen may have been capable of more colors on the panel.

The performance of the Versa still surprises the heck out of me for such an early laptop. Even the older models like the 40EC and V/50 perform more like a machine that's at least 10MHz faster. I have to wonder if there's any electronic "secret sauce" going on in those models because they really shine at retro-gaming in a way some 486 desktops with a DX4 I've had could not touch.

one other thing, do you know what the hdd limitation of the bios is (it's not 504mb)? currently i have an 810mb hdd which the bios correctly autodetects (although there's no auto setting). it doesn't matter if i select custom or randomly select any bios type the hdd is detected correctly and the full size is available.

i'm thinking of upgrading to an 18gb hdd, but i'd consider going smaller if i don't have to deal with overlay software.

stanwebber wrote on 2022-04-14, 23:17:

one other thing, do you know what the hdd limitation of the bios is (it's not 504mb)? currently i have an 810mb hdd which the bios correctly autodetects (although there's no auto setting). it doesn't matter if i select custom or randomly select any bios type the hdd is detected correctly and the full size is available.

i'm thinking of upgrading to an 18gb hdd, but i'd consider going smaller if i don't have to deal with overlay software.

On the P75 - I think it was around 1GB. I remember the CHS (2048, 16, 63) - that's what I use on mine since I have a 80GB in there with OnTrack 9 for a DDO (wiht CD-ROM boot support when docked). I think the M/75 is the same, and the older ones top out at 528MB (Versa E/Ultralite). Actually, I know the 528 Limit is on those older ones because I had a 540MB drive that came with my P/75 and that drive had a sticker on the bottom that said "Do not install this drive in a Versa E or Ultralite Versa because it will not work" or something to that effect. I think the Versa V has the higher capacity.

do you know what 486 chipset was used in these models? i'm trying to find a compatible upper memory block manager which are chipset dependent. i looked at the versa p service manual and there is no shortage of chip numbers, but i can't expressly identify a 486 chipset.

PT86C868 & PT86C718 looks like the northbridge/southbridge combo. is this correct?