sgilley@cbnewsl.att.com (The Idealistic Cynic) (05/19/91)
I recently bought a Compaq 386/20. The montior it came with doesn't work -- it is made by Compaq and I believe it is a monochrome monitor. The person I bought it from said that he had it checked out, and only problem it had was the monitor. As you read this, keep in mind that while I'm experienced with Unix software and hardware, I know next to nothing about IBM compatable systems. I've decided to upgrade the thing to a VGA monitor. Is this computer compatable enough that I can go buy brand X VGA card and monitor and have it work without problems? Are there any brands or types I should avoid? Another question I have is about the drive card -- the computer has two hard drives and a single 5.25 floppy drive. The card says "Winchester" on the top. On the back of the card is one (maybe two) ports. A 25 pin connector and maybe a nine pin connector. What are these? Is the 25 pin a serial port? (I hope.) Xenix is loaded on the machine. Since I haven't been able to really bring it up yet, I don't know what version. Being a Unix person from way back, I'd kinda like to keep it around, but I definately need space allocated to Dos. Can Xenix do this? No manuals came with this guy -- can I buy the appropriate Xenix manuals somewhere? (Again, I'm not totally sure, but one disk seems to be 100 meg, and the other I believe is 80 meg. I would think this should be enough room.) I saw that this had been asked, but I accidentally killed off the thread before reading it -- which DOS should I buy, the 3.X version or the 4.X version? The video card -- which may or may not be good -- has two outputs on the back, a nine pin and a 25 pin. They both seem to be video outputs. Assuming I get a new VGA card, is there any reason to keep this thing in a slot? Will it do me any good? Well, I'll save any other questions till later. Thanks for the help... Sean. --- Sean L. Gilley attmail!mycroft!slg attmail!sgilley 908 805 9088 (h) 908 457 5403 (w) "Too many people get their happiness from watching others suffer."
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Leonard Erickson) (05/22/91)
sgilley@cbnewsl.att.com (The Idealistic Cynic) writes:
<I recently bought a Compaq 386/20. The montior it
<came with doesn't work -- it is made by Compaq
<and I believe it is a monochrome monitor. The person
<I bought it from said that he had it checked out, and
<only problem it had was the monitor. As you read this,
<keep in mind that while I'm experienced with Unix
<software and hardware, I know next to nothing about
<IBM compatable systems.
<I've decided to upgrade the thing to a VGA monitor.
<Is this computer compatable enough that I can go
<buy brand X VGA card and monitor and have it work
<without problems? Are there any brands or types
<I should avoid?
Shouldn't be any problem with that. Though you may want to
pull the current display adapter card to avoid conflicts.
Do note that a new monitor will only cost about $50-70.
<Another question I have is about the drive card --
<the computer has two hard drives and a single 5.25
<floppy drive. The card says "Winchester" on the top.
<On the back of the card is one (maybe two) ports.
<A 25 pin connector and maybe a nine pin connector.
<What are these? Is the 25 pin a serial port? (I hope.)
The 9-pin is a serial port. The 25 pin is a parallel printer
port. "Standard" PC connector types (at the computer, not the cable):
25 pin male: serial
25 pin female: parallel
9 pin male: video
9 pin female: serial (adapters to 25-pin are cheap)
Oh yes, a warning. The hard drive controller on that card is non-standard.
It'll only work with Compaq drives. But it can be disabled.
--
Leonard Erickson leonard@qiclab.uucp
personal: CIS: [70465,203] 70465.203@compuserve.com
business: CIS: [76376,1107] 76376.1107@compuserve.com