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Compaq Portable III (Model 2660) with External Expansion Chassis

Compaq Portable III (Model 2660)

Autopsy:

from Wikipedia:

The Compaq Portable III is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987. It was advertised as being much smaller and lighter than the previous portable x86-PCs, however it was still quite large by today’s standards.

Its street price upon its release was 4999 USD for a model equipped with an 12 MHz Intel 80286 CPU, 640 kB RAM, 1.2 MB 5.25″ floppy, 20 MB hard disk (type 2), and a 10″ amber colored gas-plasma display or 5799 USD with the upgraded 40 MB hard disk. There was also an optional ISA Expansion chassis allowed for 2 full length 16-bit ISA add-in cards for 199 USD. Power is supplied using a mains electricity outlet, no battery exist.

source: wikipedia

  1. Lucas
    October 28th, 2013 at 00:52 | #1

    Very important..The display isnt LCD but one of firsts very rare plasma tecnology monitor

  2. Norm
    May 4th, 2017 at 02:14 | #2

    Very informative dissection. I’ll have to implement your fix for the keyboard connector to mine. Fyi, the clock, backup battery and 64 bytes of non-volatile RAM to store boot settings are all in the DS1287 chip. Fyi, if a replacement is ever needed, a DS12887 is a 100% drop-in replacement, and can still be purchased for about $8.

  3. August 27th, 2017 at 21:13 | #3

    Nice job. Just fixing up this model as well. I miss the user manual though. Do you know how I get display on an external RGB-L (CGA) monitor?

  4. September 1st, 2017 at 02:13 | #4

    My Portable III had different mechanism for splitting the keyboard. It was very difficult clamps (broke 3 of them), and no screws at all. Keyboard is looking identical though.

  5. September 22nd, 2018 at 12:50 | #5

    @Remi
    You just have to press CTRL+ALT+> and CTRL+ALT+< to switch between the internal Plasma and external RGB display.
    In reality you need to press 4 keys at once on an English keyboard: CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+

  6. September 22nd, 2018 at 12:51 | #6

    dunno why, but the symbols > and < were removed after posting…they should have followed SHIFT+

  7. December 3rd, 2018 at 02:59 | #7

    Does anyone know how to take the cover off of a Compaq portable III power supply? Thank you!

  8. Mirco
    October 14th, 2019 at 23:42 | #8

    Hi, you can tell me the pinout scheme voltage of the 4-pin red molex connector that powers the LCD screen. please.

  9. Tim
    February 28th, 2020 at 19:01 | #9

    I’ve got one of these in storage somewhere. Gotta dig it out soon. I can’t remember if they had an RS-232 port on them or not or if one was available if not. Does anyone know? I’d like to use it as a portable terminal with a WiModem232 to call BBS’s.

  10. Greg
    April 21st, 2021 at 15:36 | #10

    @Tim
    Yes, the Portable IIIs have an RS-232 (9-pin serial) port as standard equipment on the back. Compaq also offered an authentic Hayes-manufactured modem in Compaq’s proprietary form factor that fits under the disk drives. Came with a replacement trim piece (plastic cover) for access to the phone jack. Snap out the old cover and snap in the new. The modem was Compaq part 2661; 1200 and 2400 bps models were available. Same modems worked with Portable 386s, which was physically identical. Let me know if you want one; I have a working modem for sale.

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