Hello!
Just want to say that this forum has been a godsend on my journey restoring my Compaq Portable 386. You guys rock!
I'm about mid way through restoring a Compaq 386 (technically is a 286 Compaq Portable III, but with a 386 board I got off ebay). Got a bunch of different spare parts and over the past 2 weeks have been piecing it back together. This thing is really cool - the orange plasma gas screen is very Aliens and the form factor is something out of Back to the future. Absolutely loving the aesthetics of this computer!
Here's what I have done so far (skip to questions below)
- Replaced the 5.25" floppy that was working intermittently with a 3.5" floppy from a 90's Compaq Deskpro (these fit the slot perfectly)
- Removed the keyboard and waiting to replace the dry rot cable and splice in a replacement - using a giant old AT keyboard for now that plugs in the front.
- Replaced the 40 mb hard disk with an IDE to Compact Flash (CF Card) adapter with a 512 MB card
- Downloaded and imaged the Compaq Diagnostics disk - needed each time the computer boots if you don't replace the CMOS / BIOS battery (will do this later)
- Formatted the Compact Flash drive to be able to be read from the Compaq Portable (Lots of research lead to the use FDISK /MBR in dos which allowed the CF card to be seen and then FORMAT to be run)
- Downloaded and imaged a few Compaq Dos Floppies to install Compaq Dos which has special functions such as MODE to switch between graphics modes without changing jumpers.
- Installed a mouse and Windows.
A few questions:
- Does anybody know anybody who might have the ram expansion board and some ram for the Compaq Portable 386? Ebay doesn't have them :-( willing to make a fair offer here
- Or, alternately, is it possible to add the 16bit ram expansion board (and the 16 bit ram card that comes with it) to the 32 bit 386? The 286 memory board adapter looks like it's slightly different and does quite fit, but if I could make it fit, would it work? Can 16bit ram run on the 386?
- Can I use a Cyrix 486 DLC CPU upgrade chip here? I have one but the 386 Processor CPU IC seems to be wedged in there very tight and I'm not 100% sure if it's been soldered on (looks like its not, and looks like it sits on a socket, but its really, really stuck on there. Is it simply unplug the 386 and plug in the 486 DLC?
- I also have the ISA expansion slot, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice for which type / brand / model of RAM ISA upgrade cards would work best here? I think I have to stay 16bit according to this the expansion slots support 8/16 bit only despite it being a 386 machine
- Also looking for recommendations for a good output quality and all round compatible VGA ISA card (16 bit)
Let me know what you guys think! Pictures coming tonight when I'm off work :D
Just want to say that this forum has been a godsend on my journey restoring my Compaq Portable 386. You guys rock!
I'm about mid way through restoring a Compaq 386 (technically is a 286 Compaq Portable III, but with a 386 board I got off ebay). Got a bunch of different spare parts and over the past 2 weeks have been piecing it back together. This thing is really cool - the orange plasma gas screen is very Aliens and the form factor is something out of Back to the future. Absolutely loving the aesthetics of this computer!
Here's what I have done so far (skip to questions below)
- Replaced the 5.25" floppy that was working intermittently with a 3.5" floppy from a 90's Compaq Deskpro (these fit the slot perfectly)
- Removed the keyboard and waiting to replace the dry rot cable and splice in a replacement - using a giant old AT keyboard for now that plugs in the front.
- Replaced the 40 mb hard disk with an IDE to Compact Flash (CF Card) adapter with a 512 MB card
- Downloaded and imaged the Compaq Diagnostics disk - needed each time the computer boots if you don't replace the CMOS / BIOS battery (will do this later)
- Formatted the Compact Flash drive to be able to be read from the Compaq Portable (Lots of research lead to the use FDISK /MBR in dos which allowed the CF card to be seen and then FORMAT to be run)
- Downloaded and imaged a few Compaq Dos Floppies to install Compaq Dos which has special functions such as MODE to switch between graphics modes without changing jumpers.
- Installed a mouse and Windows.
A few questions:
- Does anybody know anybody who might have the ram expansion board and some ram for the Compaq Portable 386? Ebay doesn't have them :-( willing to make a fair offer here
- Or, alternately, is it possible to add the 16bit ram expansion board (and the 16 bit ram card that comes with it) to the 32 bit 386? The 286 memory board adapter looks like it's slightly different and does quite fit, but if I could make it fit, would it work? Can 16bit ram run on the 386?
- Can I use a Cyrix 486 DLC CPU upgrade chip here? I have one but the 386 Processor CPU IC seems to be wedged in there very tight and I'm not 100% sure if it's been soldered on (looks like its not, and looks like it sits on a socket, but its really, really stuck on there. Is it simply unplug the 386 and plug in the 486 DLC?
- I also have the ISA expansion slot, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice for which type / brand / model of RAM ISA upgrade cards would work best here? I think I have to stay 16bit according to this the expansion slots support 8/16 bit only despite it being a 386 machine
- Also looking for recommendations for a good output quality and all round compatible VGA ISA card (16 bit)
Let me know what you guys think! Pictures coming tonight when I'm off work :D