Compaq 386 Portable

I bought it for 4,000 pta to a woman, who said its cost at the time of first bought was 3,500,000 pta.

Hardware

Computer
386DX Compatible
CPU
80386DX-20. Intel A80386DX-20, L8310500
Coprocessor
None
BUS
Compaq Expansion slot (a slot in its back).
Memory
2048Kb, in 4 Compaq 42 pin RAM modules.
Video
CGA Graphics, integrated in mainboard.
Screen
Plasma monochrome orange screen, giving 80x25 text and CGA graphics. CGA's four colours are visible in 320x200 (some patters for each color). I haven't tried 160x100x16 mode.
Disk Controller
COMPAQ? In mainboard. Allows two floppy drives and a IDE HD.
Floppy Drives
Hard Disk
Conner Peripherals CP-3024, 20Mb
Port Controller
Offers a Serial (16450) and a Parallel Port, integrated in mainboard.
Serial Ports
Address UART Speed Format IRQ
COM1 03F8 16450 2400 8N1 4
Parallel Ports
Address IRQ
LPT1 03BC
Keyboard
101 Keys Support, DIN Connector inside the computer. You can't
Power Supply
220V, 50Hz, 1A
CMOS Battery
Don't know. Under mainboard.

Mainboard configuration

There are some jumpers in its mainboard, but I don't know what are them for. I think the computer supports some kind of internal modem.

Software

BIOS
Compaq. 16/11/88
Operating System
MS-DOS 6.22 (en), and Minix 2.2.0 right now. (Look in details)
Drives
Original configuration Actual configuration

CMOS configuration

Keys for entering CMOS configuration, you need a special boot disk. This is the image of this 720Kb floppy: Image. I downloaded this disk from the web. I don't know why it's in 3.5" format, while my computer uses 5 1/4" FD.

I only used the CMOS configuration floppy once. I've never had a CMOS data loss, so the system have always booted up correctly, and I haven't ever needed that disk. I've always used snooper's CMOS configuration.

Floppy A
1.2Mb, 5 1/4" floppy drive
Floppy B
None
Hard Disk 1
Type 002 (Not sure)
Hard Disk 2
Not Present
Memory
2048K
Arithmetic Coprocessor
Not Present

FILES

These files can give more detailed information about the computer and its configuration, and also some benchmarking.

Details

When I bought it, the system didn't boot up. The HD cable was incorrectly connected; I reversed it, and all the system worked.

After a year of owning it, a bright vertical line has appeared at the center-left of the screen.

I've changed the HD to a "Quantum ProDrive ELS 127Mb A10879", and the floppy drive to a 3.5" 1.44Mb. I've been using this computer at university, as I don't own any other portable.

Althought it is portable, it doesn't wear any kind of power battery. It's been thought only to be used with 220V, 50Hz.

Started 06/08/2001 / Updated Mon Aug 6 23:11:44 2001

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Viric's Web Site / Webmaster: viric / Started 03/08/2001 / Updated Fri Aug 24 19:51:49 CEST 2001