Suitcase with a screen

[mmshrwd]

My Dad brought home a suitcase sized "portable" IBM computer from his school. They were about to throw it out, but he saved it, and apparently it cost around $10,000 when they first bought it. The screen is red on black and about 8x6. The keyboard is full sized and is attached by a cord, the screen folds out, and next to it is a 3.5" floppy drive that also folds out. Um, what do I have?

Also, I don't have any disks with it, and whenever I start it up, it can't find a system. Can anyone help me with that? I actually have the manual, but the whole thing is at home and I am at school, so I can't really get to it.

[Erik]

That sounds like it might be an IBM PC Portable. If so it's an XT class machine from around 1984 that was similar to the original Compaq computer.

The 3.5 inch drive would have been an add-on, though, and I don't recall the screen folding out.

The other option is the IBM PC Convertible which was more of a laptop but which did have 3.5" drives. They usually came with LCD screens, though.

If you can get a model number or a picture that would help a lot.

Erik

[Terry Yager]

The model you're looking for (with the red plasma display and the pop-out disk drive) is actually an IBM model P70 portable. View one here:

http://incolor.inebraska.com/jshorney/p70.htm

...or do a google search on IBM P70 and lots of sites will turn up.

--T

[Erik]

Oh, yeah! Those are very nice machines!

They are a bit smaller then a suitcase, but I can see how they'd easily fit that description.

Thanks!

Erik

[mmshrwd]

Thanks! Any idea where I might be able to find a suitable boot disk? It would be great if I could get the thing up and running.

Also, I'll see if I can get my Dad to take some pictures of it and send them to me, so I can post them here.

[NathanAllan]

try this url:

www.windos2000.net

there are lots of operating systems there and they can be used with your machine. I prefer dos 3 for older machines. There's my $0.02. Hope it helps.

Nathan

[Terry Yager]

Thanks! Any idea where I might be able to find a suitable boot disk? It would be great if I could get the thing up and running.


First, the battery has probably gone dead, so you'll need to get that straightened out. Then, since it is a PS/2 (MicroChannel) machine, you'll need a Reference Disk (similar to a setup disk), to tell the machine what kinda hardware it's looking at. A Reference Disk can be downloaded from IBM's website.
After you have taken care of those things, you might not need a bootdisk, it'll probably boot from the hard drive. If you do need a bootdisk, Any version of Dos should work. These can be downloaded from many places on the web. Ok, I'll make it easy--try this link:

www.bootdisk.com

--T

[Terry Yager]

Oh, yeah! Those are very nice machines!

They are a bit smaller then a suitcase, but I can see how they'd easily fit that description.

Thanks!

Erik

Yeah, smaller than a suitcase, but a little too large to call it a "lunchbox".

--T

[Terry Yager]

Checked IBM website, they no longer have the reference disk available, but it can be downloaded here:

http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/p70.html#RefDisk

--T

[Terry Yager]

And here's a real nice picture displaying the tilting screen and the pop-out disk drive:

http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/ps2_p70/

--T