Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:6513 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:7493 Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!rpi!uupsi!sunic!ugle.unit.no!ugle.runit.sintef.no!thoger From: thoger@solan.unit.no (Terje Th|gersen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: IBM Portable PC - Tall Tree Memory card - need tech info Message-ID: Date: 15 Mar 91 05:45:18 GMT Sender: news@ugle.unit.no Organization: Institute of Physical Chemistry, NTH Lines: 54 Hi! I've been offered an IBM portable PC for a nominal sum and I need your help in deciding if worth trying to turn this baby into a usable machine.. Anybody know if this is just a PC-2 (it's got a 256k motherboard) in a strange case? In other words, is the thing "IBM-PC compatible", or did IBM put in some strange doo-dads like on the Convertible / Jr? I'm pretty sure the BIOS was dated in -81, and I've always heard that October -82 was the D-day for the extensible BIOS. Am I wrong? Can I add extra BIOS-equipped devices? Does anybody know if I make the thing run a Hard-disk? (I have a suitable (11MB :-)) drive in an external cabinet lying around here..) How about a 1.2 MB drive? (I've got a spare high-density floppy-controller, too :-)) Upgrade to DOS ver => 3.2, add driver.sys and then ? About that so-called monitor.. It claimed to be a CGA when i tried Nortons SI on it. It had a serious problem displaying reverse and some high intensity "colors" (almost unreadable) Has IBM done some fancy things with the display-system, or is it what it looked like, a regular CGA adapter connected internally to that monitor? Can I throw out the CGA adapter, put in a EGA (which i have lying around..), and connect this to a mono monitor (yup, got one of those, too..) and run mono-EGA / Herc emulation? About the switches.. A cursory glance revealed only one bank of DIP-switches. Are the switch-settings the same as for a XT? There's a "Tall Tree" memory card installed in the thing. This card carries 768k RAM in a full-length design, with a ser / par adapter + a clock on a daughter-card. Anybody have one of these? The RAM is *not* "hardwired" in, you can select how much of the card you want to put in the DOS-area by a loading a driver in config.sys (jboot?). The rest appears to be available as a RAM-disk. I'm not sure i like the thought of having the some of the RAM loaded through a driver like this. Does anybody know if a PC supports additional memory on the bus, like an AT? Can this card be hardwired to give 640k DOS memory? I think that's about it.. I'll be grateful for any help you can offer.. Regards, -Terje -- ____________________________________________________________________________ thoger@solan.unit.no | Institute of Physical Chemistry THOGER AT NORUNIT.BITNET | Div. of Computer Assisted Instrumental Analysis | Norwegian Institute of Technology