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Compaq Portable II errors.

T

Tupin

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2009
Messages
436
Location
St. Louis, MO
I recently got one of these, and I can't seem to get it to boot correctly. It says there is a keyboard error, which is weird, because the keyboard is perfectly fine. Secondly, it says it needs a diagnostics disk. I insert an IBM PC diagnostics disk, and it says "Non-system or disk read error". Oh, and it does have a harddrive built into it, is there anyway I can get it to boot from it?
 
Hi,

The IBM AT Diagnostics/Setup disk works fine with this PC. I had the same problem on mine (sans keyboard error), and the reason why it needs the floppy disk is because the CMOS battery is empty and thus the configuration has been lost.

My HDD also had a light case of stiction so it required a little whack on the side of the HDD to be able to spin up.

When you configure the HDD type in the BIOS, mine was a type 2 20 MB drive.

After you've gotten everything configured it should boot from the harddrive.
 
I was using an original IBM PC 5150 diagnostics disk, that must be why it's not working.

If the CMOS battery is dead, will I have to use a diagnostics disk every time it boots up?
 
The battery is replaceable. Iirc it's a 3.6V lithium AA battery in a clip under the bottom cover.
 
The first battery - the 3.6V AA looks like the right one.

You can download the service manual from the HP website if you search the support section for "compaq portable". Section 7.3 shows how to take the cover off, and 7.19 covers changing the battery - looks to be quite a simple job, just a few covers to remove before you can get to the battery clip.
 
Last edited:
Yes, the 5150 disk does not work as the original IBM PC had no Setup. Everything was done with DIP switches.

I got my image from somewhere on this forum, but I can find it on my XT if you need it. I know it's there because that's the machine I used to write the image to the floppy with.
 
So, can I just use a normal AA battery or do I need the one I posted?

QuantumII, yes, I would like that image.
 
Tupin said:
Looks like I have to get a Torx screwdriver.
Click to expand...

Make sure it's not a security Torx.
I was trying to take something apart a little while ago, and it had a little dot in the center of the star, and it turned out to be a security Torx bolt.
Home Depot has a set of Torx bits ($ 15) with the security type included.
 
Hmm, what are the odds that I'd run into a thread about this computer still active? I just got my portable II today at a yard sale.

The thing has the 20mb hard drive, in addition to a HardCard 20 (it's another 20mb hard drive, cannot act as primary AFAIK). 640K ram (no expansion), battery still gives over 2 volts. No coprocessor.

So here's the deal - I don't know what's going on with the hard drive... whenever I turn it on, I get: 1701(C) -- Controller #1 error

Also, trying to boot off the hard drive (I assume the old owner left dos there) waits for a while (with minimal disk activity - a few clicks/lights), then says Bad command interpreter or so.

I couldn't see anything amazingly wrong on the inside of this thing, and it seems to be remembering bios values (it hasn't yelled at me, but I can't check for sure atm).

I had the thought of re-installing dos, but I realized after "formatting" the disk (/me wonders if that actually did anything) using fastart that my only dos disks are IBM dos 5, and that's if I could find them (have no idea where they ended up).

So, I'm stuck - how do I make this error go away?

BTW, I have the diagnostics disks - 6 disks came with this computer, the 2 diagnostics disks, the 2 program disks, the fastart disk, and one more personal disk - unlabeled and unbootable. I'd give you all these disks as images, if I had a 5+1/4" drive on a computer with a network... I'll try to fix that eventually, but no help right now (I'll need that for myself later - hope to do some 286 programming with this machine).

oh yeah, and I do also have the manuals :p
 
I guess what I could do is take one of my extra 5'1/4 drives and install it in one of my Windows 95 era computers to download the file offline, copy it to a 3.5 drive, copy it onto the computer, and send it to a 5'1/4 floppy.

How do I go about installing one?
 
Tupin said:
I guess what I could do is take one of my extra 5'1/4 drives and install it in one of my Windows 95 era computers to download the file offline, copy it to a 3.5 drive, copy it onto the computer, and send it to a 5'1/4 floppy.

How do I go about installing one?
Click to expand...
Basically, put it in the computer, plug the power connector in, make sure you have a floppy cable with the right connector (will be a socket that accepts an edge connector - fairly large), and plug in. Make it after the twist for A:, before for B:.

You'll need rawrite for writing images, assuming you're using windows. If you're on a *nix, dd or cp will do just fine.

I'll get you those images as soon as I can find a 5.25" drive for myself.
 
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