Compaq Portable III

[BDW]

I just bought a Compaq Portable III for $2 today, it's a little dirty and needs tlc. It has a 3.5" floppy drive, and I have no idea what size of hard disk it has. It refuses to boot to Windows, it just barks at me that it could not connect to the server (bought from a local business), and tells me to press the space bar to go into windows and to press any key to continue. After pressing any button (including the spacebar to go into Windows), I just get a blinking cursor. Does anyone know anything that could help?

[BDW]

Got it fixed, thanks to the users who Pm'd me to help.

Edited April 25, 2010 by brandondwright

[Lendorien]

Great find! I had a original portable briefly in the mid 2000's. It was a donation to a retail company's technology recycling program that got misplaced and left in a back room.

 

We found it and I asked to have it. I reformatted the hard drive and sold it on ebay for around 80 bucks. It had the extra ram installed too. I would have kept it, but the keyboard was dying on it. A great piece of computing history there.

 

I don't know as much about the 3 except it had an amber gas plasma screen I think?

[BDW]

Great find! I had a original portable briefly in the mid 2000's. It was a donation to a retail company's technology recycling program that got misplaced and left in a back room.

 

We found it and I asked to have it. I reformatted the hard drive and sold it on ebay for around 80 bucks. It had the extra ram installed too. I would have kept it, but the keyboard was dying on it. A great piece of computing history there.

 

I don't know as much about the 3 except it had an amber gas plasma screen I think?

Yep, it had one cool screen. Turns out my unit is not a III, but a 386/20. It also had the expansion module thing installed on the back. I plan on using the computer for older DOS games, and maybe hooking a dot-matrix printer for extra retro computing goodness. It'll be definitely be neat to show to some friends who whine about the size of portable electronics all the time.

[Lendorien]

Great find! I had a original portable briefly in the mid 2000's. It was a donation to a retail company's technology recycling program that got misplaced and left in a back room.

 

We found it and I asked to have it. I reformatted the hard drive and sold it on ebay for around 80 bucks. It had the extra ram installed too. I would have kept it, but the keyboard was dying on it. A great piece of computing history there.

 

I don't know as much about the 3 except it had an amber gas plasma screen I think?

Yep, it had one cool screen. Turns out my unit is not a III, but a 386/20. It also had the expansion module thing installed on the back. I plan on using the computer for older DOS games, and maybe hooking a dot-matrix printer for extra retro computing goodness. It'll be definitely be neat to show to some friends who whine about the size of portable electronics all the time.

 

Playing DOS game? Are you using an external monitor then?

[BDW]

Great find! I had a original portable briefly in the mid 2000's. It was a donation to a retail company's technology recycling program that got misplaced and left in a back room.

 

We found it and I asked to have it. I reformatted the hard drive and sold it on ebay for around 80 bucks. It had the extra ram installed too. I would have kept it, but the keyboard was dying on it. A great piece of computing history there.

 

I don't know as much about the 3 except it had an amber gas plasma screen I think?

Yep, it had one cool screen. Turns out my unit is not a III, but a 386/20. It also had the expansion module thing installed on the back. I plan on using the computer for older DOS games, and maybe hooking a dot-matrix printer for extra retro computing goodness. It'll be definitely be neat to show to some friends who whine about the size of portable electronics all the time.

 

Playing DOS game? Are you using an external monitor then?

I will be using an external monitor.

[Lendorien]

I will be using an external monitor.

 

Figured as much. While the amber plasma screen is sorta cool, I can't imagine what playing games on it would be like. Truth be told, I first played Kings Quest 4 on a old Compaq LTE laptop. One of the big honking 386 jobbies with the terrible mono lcd screen. The first time I played it in color and with a sound card was amazing.

 

DOSbox is one of the greatest gifts to classic computer gaming that we can play them no without a dos machine. Not that DOS machines aren't a good alternative.

 

Does the Compaq you have have a sound card?

Edited May 17, 2010 by Lendorien

[BDW]

I will be using an external monitor.

 

Figured as much. While the amber plasma screen is sorta cool, I can't imagine what playing games on it would be like. Truth be told, I first played Kings Quest 4 on a old Compaq LTE laptop. One of the big honking 386 jobbies with the terrible mono lcd screen. The first time I played it in color and with a sound card was amazing.

 

DOSbox is one of the greatest gifts to classic computer gaming that we can play them no without a dos machine. Not that DOS machines aren't a good alternative.

 

Does the Compaq you have have a sound card?

Unfortunately, it did not include a sound card. However, the sound cards are relatively cheap and plentiful.

[sodde]

A couple of years ago, I was given a 386/20 portable by a guy I worked with. He had it from new, paid over $10,000 for it! It has the expansion pack that has what I think is a modem (has a large DIN plug socket)and a video card which I had to remove to make the machine boot. I guess it lost its configuration when the CMOS battery failed. It also has max'd out onboard memory at 2MB. It used to boot right up but when I dug it out recently and booted it up, it had lost its settings. I found the setup and diagnostics files on line but as this machine only has 5.25" floppy I was kinda stumped until I managed to temporarily cobble a floppy drive to it and run the files. As was expected, the CMOS battery was dead and I received a new one today which I'll be fitting soon. I'd be really interested in finding an original 3.5" floppy for this machine.

 

This thing is in outstanding condition. Its been in its original Compaq bag since new. There's not a mark on it! One thing that puzzles me is that the tailored bag for this machine is leather with 'Compaq' embroidered on the sides in silver/grey. All the ones I've seen so far have been made from a material. Was this bag an option?

 

Anyway, I'd like to hear from any other owners of this nice machine, if for nothing else just to share info.

 

Steve