This has been an absolute RIDICULOUS sequence of events.

So I *finally* got around to fixing my Compaq Portable III... or, well, I got about halfway 👎 This system uses the classic 'trick' of a Dallas Semi battery-backed RTC+RAM -- that of course had its battery expire sometime around the beginning of BIll Clinton's first term -- to store the BIOS settings. Oh, and I didn't get any software with it, except whatever's on the hard drive... which I can't access, because the BIOS Setup isn't flipping in ROM, it's on a "Diagnostics Disk" that I don't have.

OK, easy enough, I found the download at the OldComputers entry for the machine -- http://oldcomputers.net/compaqiii.html -- all I have to do is wire in a battery to the original chip, since Dallas Semi was lazy and because they made versions of the chip with and without an internal battery -- where the "without" means it's meant to have an *external* battery and there's pins for that -- for the internal-battery version they clip those pins short inside the chip package. Turns out it's easy to expose them again, and solder a new battery on. After that, all I need to do is make a 360k floppy disk. Easy afternoon project.

Ohhh boy.

Apparently my 486 Toshiba suddenly no longer works for unknown reasons despite swapping literally everything around because I have two parts machines in a box so why not. I swear I've swapped everything that wasn't case bits and it's still freezing for no reason pre-POST-beep. I'll figure that out later.

Also, the disk imaging utility is INCREDIBLY stupid. It's actually two disks, and if you don't have a 360k drive, screw you! It won't make the disks... and neither of my two such drives actually seem to work. Maybe. I don't know any more.

I'm East Coast USA. I have $10 PayPal for anyone willing to send me two working disks, via domestic USPS. (Both FedEx and UPS are *gloriously* unreliable in my area.