kjl@minotaur.epps.kodak.com (Ken Lebowitz) (01/24/91)
Does anyone have any information regarding a hard disk that Amstrad
*might* have produced for their PC640 laptop? If not, I'd appreciate
tips on adding some 3rd party disk to the machine.
Thanks
Ken Lebowitz
Atex Publishing Inc., Billerica, MA
A Kodak Company
INTERNET: kjl@epps.kodak.com
UUCP: ...!{uunet,kodak,sun}!atexnet!kjl
--
Ken Lebowitz
Atex Publishing Inc., Billerica, MA
A Kodak Company
INTERNET: kjl@epps.kodak.com
UUCP: ...!{uunet,kodak,sun}!atexnet!kjlles@bilby.cs.uwa.oz.au (Les Kitchen) (01/24/91)
In <KJL.91Jan23115127@minotaur.epps.kodak.com> kjl@minotaur.epps.kodak.com (Ken Lebowitz) writes: >Does anyone have any information regarding a hard disk that Amstrad >*might* have produced for their PC640 laptop? If not, I'd appreciate >tips on adding some 3rd party disk to the machine. I enquired of a local dealer here in Perth about it last year some time. They acted like it was a *real* product -- didn't have it in stock, but they could order it in no problem. But the price was $A1,400 (just under $US1,100) for only 20MB, so I decided to pass -- that was about what I paid originally for the whole machine. I've never seen it or used it, but what I did find out about it (aside from cost/MB mentioned above) is that it plugs into one of those mysterious expansion ports at the back, and that it has its own separate power supply. I got the impression that it would sit on the blank space to the right of the lcd display. That's all. I wouldn't mind hearing about 3rd-party hard disks too. It might affect whether I decide to stick with the PPC640 or move up to another machine. Seems to me the sensible thing to do would be have a hard disk that physically replaces one of the floppy drives. I'd also appreciate hearing if anybody knows about memory upgrades... *** UNSOLICITED REVIEW OF PPC640 FOLLOWS *** Just for those who don't know the machine, here's a quick review of the PPC640 from a reasonably satisfied 18-month user: Summary: A good deal for the price if you're going to be using the machine most of the time for working at home on non-demanding things or dialled in. You can cart it around, and use it as a laptop, but I wouldn't want to do it very often. You've got a full-size keyboard, which you can fold up out of the way for more desk space when you need it, and use an external monitor for your eyes' sake. First the bad news: In some respects it's a bit of a dog of a machine: just a basic PC (V20 processor I think, but the specs don't say); smallish supertwist blue-on-green lcd display (less than 20cm/8" diagonal, smallish viewing angle, tricky to adjust for good viewing); heavy (don't know the tonnage but it certainly weighs on your shoulder in the carry bag) and long (gotta accommodate that full-size keyboard). Next the good news: You get a reasonable PC, 640K RAM, two 720K floppy drives (3 1/2 inch), serial port, parallel printer port, two mysterious expansion ports (not described in the manuals), a built-in Hayes-compatible 2400-baud modem, maths coprocessor optional, *full-size* keyboard with 12 function keys, and separate screen-control keypad (cursor keys etc), and separate numeric keypad. Runs off the mains through an adaptor, or off your car cigarette lighter socket through a supplied cord/plug set, or off 10 ordinary C cells internal, which I think were claimed to last for up to 8 hours. Bundled software includes MS-DOS 3.3, a real nice communications program called MIRROR-II (kind of like a super kermit, which has many nice features and supports many protocols -- my only complaint is that it takes up around 300K of memory), and an integrated business package called Ability which includes a poor-man's spreadsheet, word processor, database, business graphics, and communications (some of it's a bit crude, but all the parts work and talk to each other nicely). Oh yeah, there was also the cord/plug to connect the modem into your phone line, and a zip-up carry-bag with lots of useful pockets. In the deal I got there was a mono monitor that fakes CGA thrown in. (Oh yeah, the PPC640 supports CGA only, as well as you could expect, either through an external monitor or the lcd screen.) The price was $A1,400 (about $US1,100). (For those in Australia that was the price without sales tax.) Other comments: It's been a reliable and useful machine. No major problems. Once I switched it on from the mains with the lid (keyboard is the lid) closed. The lid-closed-when- power-on alarm sounded, so I switched it off real fast. After that it wouldn't boot with a clock error until the batteries were taken out and put back in again (but it took a trip to the service center to find that out). Weird glitches on the external monitor screen in certain CGA modes, but I think that's the fault of the non-Amstrad monitor that came with the package, and is maybe expecting too much of a cheapo mono monitor anyway. Aside from being in plastic sleeves, the internal C cells are loose, so jolts in transit can cause the machine to lose its internal clock, so you have to reset date/time on power up. Amstrad recommends against using NiCads (I guess only marginally enough voltage from 10 NiCad C cells). But I could almost fit two of those 7.2-volt NiCad packs into the battery compartment (I reckon a litle careful filing and sawing would do the trick), and I reckon you should be able to fit in 12 sub-C NiCads into the battery compartment (2 rows of 6 -- after all, that's what you'd get of you took the packaging off the 7.2-volt packs). Of course you'd need an external charger. Oh yeah, the machine I got has a UK keyboard, so with default DOS key bindings, some of the keys don't perform as marked. But it means I get two backslash \ keys, handy with DOS, so I'm not complaining. :-) One of the mysterious expansion ports is for the external hard disk mentioned above (and who knows what else), the other is apparently for some kind of real bus expansion into a card-cage box, but the word I got from the dealer was that it was held up by some kind of utility approval. There may also be an external floppy-drive port, but it's been a while since I looked and the machine's at home now, so I won't hold up this posting to check. Anyway, the long box gives plenty of room for ports. Les Kitchen Computer Science Dept University of Western Australia les@cs.uwa.oz.au
leilabd@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Leila Burrell-Davis) (01/25/91)
kjl@minotaur.epps.kodak.com (Ken Lebowitz) writes: > > Does anyone have any information regarding a hard disk that Amstrad > *might* have produced for their PC640 laptop? If not, I'd appreciate > tips on adding some 3rd party disk to the machine. I've got a couple of UK companies you could try. I clipped the ads a while ago, so don't know if they are even still around. Stratum Technology Ltd. Tel. +44 734 441236 Fax +44 734 441257 Micro Amps Tel. +44 483 506611 Leila -- Leila Burrell-Davis, Computing Service, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK Tel: +44 273 678390 Fax: +44 273 678470 Email: leilabd@syma.sussex.ac.uk (JANET: leilabd@uk.ac.sussex.syma)
atc@waikato.ac.nz (01/25/91)
I have heard of an internal 20mb harddrive that somehow managed to use the built in floppy controller instead of a hard drive controller. Does anyone know how this could work. It was however rather expensive at about NZ$1200 (the machine at the time cost $1650) funny thing is i only saw the add twice. It mentioned no brand name and gave no details. Anyone heard of this device. I no longer own the PPC but I agree for the money it was/is an excellent portable. I loved that full size keyboard, but the display was almost totally unacceptable. Andrew Chambers Computer Consultant University of Waikato New Zealand