Early 1980's Compaq Portable Computer

This is the same model as the first computer I used when I was a kid. It works great and has a 10 mb hard drive with DOS.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Early
• 1980's
• Compaq
• Portable
• Computer
• DOS
• BASICA
• BASIC

[vwestlife]

It's BASIC - A... the A stands for Advanced. Usually most non-IBM machines would use GW-BASIC instead, but since Compaq was the very first legal IBM clone, I guess they wanted to copy IBM's way of doing things. 401 and 601 are errors for the monochrome display and floppy drive adapters, respectively. Somewhere I have a FAQ with specs and DIP switch settings for these Compaq Portables. Make sure you park the hard drive heads before moving the computer. Look for a PARK or SHUTDOWN program.

[retrochad]

I remember the PARK command...I'll make sure to do that before moving it again. It seems like there were also cardboard things we would put in the floppy drives to help protect them.

[09ThomasEF]

Right, it's amazing how far technology has come in 30 years!!!

I love the sound of that keyboard.

[thevideoguy555]

That thing wreaks of the 80's! Sweet.

[GuitarLeo096]

i don't even want to imagine how much electricity that asshole eats!

[98dalejr]

stupid bat thats funny

[TopShotPJ]

so thats what happen to my microwave

[kiyotewolf]

You've got the Stupid PC Tricks on that computer! I have those still, got the 5 & 1/4 disks for it copies over to 3 & 1/2's. Screen savers, time wasters, and other toys.

[mohelidude]

Clean the outer case up using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and some Simple Green. All of the black rub marks will disappear and it will look like new again.

[kt49erfan]

I actually used to use this "portable" computer back in the mid '80s. The keyboard folds up and is secure. They you can carry it with you. Of course - I remember it weighing a lot!!! But it was portable!! Very hi-tech at the time!!!!

[Gozelinis]

maybe tetris better? :D

[confusioncaption]

i want to take that to a cafe lawl

[keithealy]

the idiots wudnt let me on the bus with my one yesterday

[CqGD4Yi8fii1CYPa]

My first computer was this model, but with only two floppy drives.

One fun thing was learning how to up the memory to 640K & to replace the 8086 cpu with a Japanese clone ("V20") with a more efficient design, so it ran about 5% - 10% faster without altering any clock settings.

Learned my first database on this box, too (Rbase), later dBase, Clipper, and Paradox before moving on to server RDBSs.

Used it for grad work remote with a modem as well as discovered the pre-email wonders of FIDOnet.