Hi, folks --
Recently, I rescued (barely!) a Compaq Portable II from complete
destruction. Only a few months ago, this machine was used in my
hospital for "simple spirometries" (whatever *they* are) and was
functioning just fine. It was decided that it should be retired,
and I asked about what would become of it. When I was told that
only the spirometer and its card would be removed and sold, I
asked if I could have the old Compaq after they removed the old
medical device from it. Well... unfortunately, my wishes weren't
communicated quickly enough -- and much to my grief! -- they
RIPPED off the top of the machine and PRYED out the corner of it
to extract the card. Despite its hideous "rape", I still took
the old SurvPC home to at least salvage what was left of it.
Much to my surprise, after I started it up (actually the second
time; the CGA card wasn't properly connected), it worked just
fine! The original software for use with the spirometer is still
installed, along with MS-DOS 3.1 -- and even a copy of WordStar
2000. It has a 22MB HDD, one 5 1/2" FDD, serial/parallel card,
CGA video card, 8x6" green screen, and a keyboard that snaps
neatly over the front with a few clips. It has a 286 CPU and
1 MB of RAM.
My only request of you folks is, as follows:
The floppy disk drive appears to be disabled; although the light
comes on to it when accessed, it's unable to read or write. When
I used the format command, a message indicated that the floppy
was write protected (which is not the case), and so I'm assuming
the floppy disk drive may have been disabled to make it safe for
hospital day-to-day use.
** Does anyone know how to access the CMOS of this machine so that
I can enable the floppy disk drive? **
If I can get the floppy drive enabled, I've decided I'm going
to cover the top of the machine with a clear plastic board so
that people can actually see the inside of a working old SurvPC.
I'm also going to remove and/or repair the piece of the case that
was damaged.
If all else fails, I'll simply salvage it.
Thanks for your ideas!
* * *
P.S. -- Before I sent this message, I tried a few other things,
but without success. I found, downloaded and prepared a few
SETUP and DIAGNOSTIC disks from the Compaq website, but these
will not initiate at bootup without the floppy drive enabled.
Some Compaqs will go into CMOS settings while holding <F10> at
bootup, but not this one.
I've also made enough simple modifications to the mangled
case to replace the side panel, which has a sliding door to
neatly conceal the expansion slot area.
All that's necessary now is to determine how to reconfigure
the system and enable the floppy drive... and then I'll be
sufficiently motivated to prepare it for show... :-)
Jerry... on his IBM PC/AT 5170 Model 339 | My laptop computer's a
***** 9600kbps/30MB HD/512k RAM/8 MHz | Tandy TRS-80 Model 100
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