Digital decpc LPv series

[Caluser2000]

Just won an auction for one of these. The 486sx25 by the looks though wont know for sure till I have it in my hot little hands. Located the Bios setup disks. Started the search at http://www.compaq.com/legacysupport/digital/ Have also located at www.compaq.com/legacysupport/digital/pdf/sd_pclpv.pdf

Feel like a kiddy at a candy store i do. I plan to keep this thread updated on progress on what I do with it.

 

[k2x4b524[]

I have one of those, see this thread
http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...28-The-Digital-DECpc-425sx-LP&highlight=Decpc
I have learned that the machine is a PAIN IN THE A** to bring online.
It is VERY VERY picky about the ram you install into it, but it will run a 486-DX-50 @ 50mhz, every jumper is clearly labelled on the motherboard, you can upgrade the video ram provided you have the ZIP chips to do it with, and i haven't been able to get a hdd larger than 540 to work with it.. If you have better luck with yours, let me know

 

[Caluser2000]

Certainly will. The docs in the archieve mention overlay software for anything over 540megs. I've got an ISA adapter I can put in if need be though that should bypass the boards bios limitation. Do intend to fit a DX2/66 cpu. Yeah the Service Guide is very specific on what ram goes were. Max is 64megs, 4 x 16meg simms. Only 4meg and 16megs simms can be used. What OS are you using?

 

[k2x4b524[]

I was going to stuff dos 7 on it for a gaming system, can you shoot me a copy of the docs you acquired? That might help me revive mine from the dead. My DX-50 is faster than your DX2-66

 

[Caluser2000]

Just click on the pdf link in my OP for the manual. The rest is retreivable from the other link. Select x86 based Systems from the drop down box. Scroll down to "DECpc Family" The bios/setup disk images are under" DECpc (All)". Drivers for dos proggies, os2, win 3.x and other docs etc are under "DECpc LPV+".

Race ya to see who can get theirs up and running reliably Might take a week for mine to turn up though.

 

[Caluser2000]

It finally turned up. Lots of dust inside but booted up fine. Dos 6.2 and Windows 3.1 installed. I was certainly surprised how quickly it booted up. Been a while since I used win 3.x. Has an ISA SB16 with IDE interface that is attached to the cd drive.

 

[k2x4b524[]

Awesome, looking at the manual for yours, i will try and get mine working, if it works, i will find a benchmarking program for it. Out of curiousity, what kind of ram do you use in yours, as it is UTTERLY ANAL about ram

 

[Caluser2000]

It's Digital branded, on the ram pcb itself, 4meg Simm. Manual states 36bit 70ns. Has 8 chips on one side and 2 on the other. Like the way the hdd holder just slips out to access the sticks. I'll take some pics when the cameras batteries are charged.

I've got some 32 and 8 meg 72 pin simms but no 4 or 16 so it will have to stay 4megs till I source some.

The thing has already been fitted with a 2/66 overdrive processor. This would account for how quickly it boot ups. Looks like a mouse has used it as a home at one stage too.

 

[Caluser2000]

Just installed New Deal Office 3.X(aka GeoWorks 3) on it. Had and issue with disk 6 doing a full install, dos disk error. This disk has templates for some apps, so not essentual. Also had a "not enough memory to install error but memmaker sorted out that wee issue. Ended up doing a minimal install which bypasses most of these files. Loaded the NDO 3.2a Update and Extras disks. Runs ok, but to be quite honest Windows 3.1 seems to be as quick and as I mentioned in the Geos thread GeoWorks Pro 1.2 seems less error prone- the occassional "press E on exit error" when exiting NDO to dos. Interesting enough I never needed to enter the s/n. This is usually the first thing NDO does after the first boot up.

I don't think it will take long to fill the 170meg hdd up . Will put Quick Menu 3 on, then Neopaint and some Dos games. Will be close to my new first PC experiance.

Limited right click functionality on both Win 3.1 and NDO using the mouse takes a bit to get use to. Hopefully in the near future I'll get NDO online using Skipper and I'm after a dailer for win3.x if anyone has a link.

Edit- Found a link to IE3 with dailer. Netscape had a similar offering too IIRC cause I can remember using the NS dailer and dumping NS in favour of IE at one point. Of course that was well before MS integrated IE into it's OSs. Link http://www.fortis-group.com/down.shtml

 

[Caluser2000]

Wahoooo!!! My first GPF in 10 years. Dr Watson to the rescue lol.

Tried the 350meg hdd with Warp Connect but got trap errors, could just format it and install dos/win/wfw if needed and the 435meg out of the presario could not be detected in the bios which is pity. Sitting in storage was obviously not kind to it. Just out of curiously I tried an 8gig without overlay software and that was recognised as a 62meg drive. The quad speed cd drive isn't multi-session compatable but have a few spares.

Edit-managed it get online. The IE dialer works a treat. Lots of disk thrashing which is to be expected considering the amount of ram. Ended up locking it up with a 386 exception error, needing a reboot. I'll try a text browser next time. Giving old gal a bit of a rest for a bit. It's been fun tinkering.

 

[Caluser2000]

Ok I had to do it. This post is from the 486 using IE in win3.1. Interesting experiance. Tried Skipper on NDO but kept getting a socket 37 error. The dailer seemed to function ok though. Damn this is addictive.

 

[k2x4b524[]

LOL, i've got 2 of the digital ram sticks. I would HATE to leave it with 8mb ram, the speed of the cpu would be crippled, specially on mine, being pure 50mhz, i would feel bad feeding it less than 32mb, of and the hdd can goto 520mb, not sure of higher, but i think they had a bios update for that one

 

[Caluser2000]

I hear ya. Closed down IE to try and get the screenshot of the above post into Paintbrush. Was taking a while to shutdown so went outside to do a little job. When I came back was presented with the dos prompt .

Edit- Hopefully I'll have some 16meg simms turn up thanks to drcspy, swivel and biggal @ trademe.co.nz next week. Then some real testing can be done to see what this baby can do. Have 4 x 4megs at the moment.

 

[Caluser2000]

The obligatory screen shot of Win 3.1 running. Nothing fancy. Intend to track down some alternate shells like Workplace Shell and Calmira. From memory though a lot of programs look for Program Manager during installation. Will go though and clear out short cuts and references to programs not installed. Mainly multi-media stuff.

For some reason the NDO screen capture utility isn't saving to tiff or bmp to the hdd. Initization error. Thought maybe the extra ram, has 16megs now, might sort it. No luck, saves to the clipboard and can import that into NDO docs ok.

I'll see if I can find my GeoWorks Pro disks next and install that.

Link for WPS for Windows at the bottem of this page- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_Shell
Calmira- http://www.calmira.de/downloads/index.htm

Swapped out the dos drive for OS/2 Connect. It booted up fine and dandy this time. Got it networked to my XP box both ping each other ok but no internet connection via the proxy using web explorer. Settings are all ok might try another browser. CD reader sorted.

 

[k2x4b524[]

wow, yours is still further than mine is, i think the cpu logic on mine is shot, jumpers are correct but it keeps reporting my dx-50 as a dx-16

 

[Caluser2000]

wow, yours is still further than mine is, i think the cpu logic on mine is shot, jumpers are correct but it keeps reporting my dx-50 as a dx-16

Are you sure its the not the CPU?

 

[k2x4b524[]

it is, the dx-50 works in my standard boards as a dx-50

 

[Caluser2000]

Hmmm. Not good at all. Got any other chips you can use like a H-Hmmm dx2/66 .

More progress. Installed the S3 divers ok. Now 800 x 600 at 256 colours. I'd forgotten the you could set individual windows with different wall papers. It also saves current desktop state, something I'm use to running Window Maker in Linux.

Works and Hyperterminal installed the next step is to track down the updated dailer, as the current one is slip only. IBM released an updated dailer which is obviously included in v4. Installed FileFreedom, a PM file manager, is now installed and PCCamera is the screen capture utility I'm using. Not the most feature rich utility but is low on resources.

Just added the Print and file client from Warp Server v4 along with the updated MPTS.

 

[k2x4b524[]

i'll check to see if my other chips works, i have a dx2-80 i can feed it, if that works, i'm going to cobble it together and put freedos on it and see what happens

 

[Caluser2000]

Installed Netscape Navigator 2.02 and managaged to access the internet proving the network TCPIP connections between pcs was indeed ok. Navigator seemed to have locked up fullscreen so a reset was required. I may have been a little impatient though, never mind. Not sure why Web Explorer didn't do its thing though. I'll need to install some fixpacks and more ram if I'm to go any further though I guess. I the meantime I'll troll though the archives for more usefull applications. I'm after a good native PM image veiwer- settled on pmsheet for the interim.

Managed to find the cd I made some time back with OS/2 goodies on it and have been going through that. Lots of usefull stuff like Buster.exe, which is a process manager, a program which operates similar to xkill plus heaps more. Made a disk image of it. Not in perfect condition but most files transfer and run ok. Updated the desktop background too. Ran the OS/2 hardware info utility and it reports the video memory as being 1meg. NSN 2.02 is just too resource hungry, hung again, so am going to give lynx a shot.

Gave the inside of the machine a good clean using the air duster to get rid of the rest of the mouse doo doos. It came up real well. A bit of corrosion here and there but that can be treated ok.