obrien@venus.ycc.yale.edu (10/24/90)
I'd appreciate some advice. I'm in the market for a laptop machine. I need
to be able to run Windows 3.0 with a decent amount of memory => I need a 286 or
386 machine with at least 2Mb of RAM. Also, a hard disk, at least 20Mb. My
main problem is a lack of dollars! Can someone recommend a machine that will
come in under 2k$ for such a configuration? Mail order, etc. is OK.
I did look at a Zenith SupersPort in our microcomputer store here on campus.
I'm curious about these "scan double CGA" things - do they really give you
640x400 resolution? And can anyone tell me how Windows 3.0 looks on such a
screen? Does the driver come with the standard Windows distribution, or do you
need to get one from elsewhere?
Thanks in advance. Jim.
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OBRIEN%OBRIEN@YALEVMS Jim O'Brien, Dept. of Chem. Engrg.
OBRIEN%OBRIEN@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU Yale University
OBRIEN@YALEVMS 2159 YS, New Haven CT 06520, U.S.A.
OBRIEN@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU +1 203 432 4382 (days)
>INTERNET:OBRIEN@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU (from Compuserve Easyplex)
========================================================================pollack@dendrite.cis.ohio-state.edu (Jordan B Pollack) (10/25/90)
(A vanilla supersport will not run windows; you need a 80286 chip) I fought with Zenith for an entire year over their advertising the Supersport 286 machine as 640 by 400. The resolution is NOT available in any graphics mode! Windows runs at CGA 640 by 200, with rectangular pixels and fonts as ugly as sin. The screen and the video-chip and the computer memory SHOULD allow it to be with custom machine-level register programming, but this hasn't been done, and won't be done because the way the video chip is wired into the motherboard design makes it IMPOSSIBLE. I finally "upgraded" (e.g. swapped and paid) to a 286e. Toshiba double-scan machine, the 1200XE, does have a Windows driver, and is lighter to boot, but doesnt admit a floating point chip, which might be useful for windows. I've heard that the 1200XE's are in good supply now, since the introduction of lighter machines with a VGA screens, such as the TI/Sharp/compuadd (or the Zeos that someone just recommended). If you can afford a VGA laptop, get it, since many nice programs outside of windows cannot take advantage of the non-standard screen. -- Jordan Pollack Assistant Professor CIS Dept/OSU Laboratory for AI Research 2036 Neil Ave Email: pollack@cis.ohio-state.edu Columbus, OH 43210 Fax/Phone: (614) 292-4890