28 Sep
2006
28 Sep
'06
11:23 p.m.
Jay West wrote:
First question - going into system config lets me set
the memory split
between main memory and edisk. All choices add up to 896k. How does
that square with 128k + 512k?
It doesn't. I suspect your RAM drawer has more than 128KB.
Second info - The PAM menu shows the following
application choices -
DOS CMDS, HP reflection, VT reflection, Memo Maker, Time Management,
and BASIC. However, opening up the software drawer shows the following
chips in the following locations 82863K-Reflection1 (0L),
45504K-MemoMaker/TimeMgt (1L), 82862K-BASIC (4L),
45555K-1/2-ExecutiveCardMgr (5H), 45555K-2/2-ExecutiveCardMgr (5L),
45548K-1/2-Lotus123 (6H), 45548K-2/2-Lotus123 (6L).
Second question - I assume the PAM menu selections for HP reflection
and VT reflection are handled by the single 82863K rom. I am curious
why the Executive Card Manager and Lotus123 don't show up in the PAM
menu?
It's all very weird. The ROMs are a mix of boot code, ROM disc data
that gets merged into the B: drive, and executable code.
I believe mine is similarly configured to yours. I have PAM menu
selections for DOS Commands, MemoMaker, Time Managemt, HP Reflection,
VT Reflection, Basic, and 123 Rel. 2.01. If I look at B: with "dir b:"
I see:
Volume in drive B has no label
Directory of B:\
BIN <DIR>
WSS <DIR> 3-05-92 10:09a
MEMO-TM <DIR> 1-23-86 12:02p
HP82863K <DIR> 11-01-85 10:03a
BASIC32K <DIR> 3-18-85 12:00p
RFN <DIR> 1-29-92 3:06p
45539K <DIR> 5-05-87 3:07p
HELP <DIR> 5-06-87 11:07a
8 File(s) 2097152 bytes free
BIN is from the Portable Plus ROM. MEMO-TM is MemoMaker and Time
Management. HP82863K is Reflection. BASIC32K is BASIC. 45539K is
1-2-3 and HELP is 1-2-3's help file.
WSS and RFN are, I believe, HP-internal applications. Some of the
programs in RFN claim to be "Remote FIREMAN", and I remember FIREMAN
being a thing that the HP CEs used to dial into in the 1980s to log
completion of a service call.
Directories that want to present stuff in PAM have a PAM.MNU file
that instruct PAM.
Misc. questions - The built in battery is obviously
dead and won't
hold a charge, as the unit won't run at all without the AC
adapter. Every time I boot up though, it asks to reformat the A drive
due to memory loss. More importantly, it has lost the date/time and
system config settings (memory/edisk split for example). I'm curious
if the date/time and config settings are kept by a different battery I
may need to replace, or if all of the above is maintained by the
single battery. I will have to hunt up a new battery.
No, there is only the one battery. What do you mean by "boot up"?
If you're unplugging it and the battery is dead, yeah, it's probably
losing RAM. I'm thinking that if you leave it plugged in you should
be able to turn it off and back on.
There are several ways to reset the Portable Plus. Shift+CTRL+Break
is supposed to reboot from A: (i.e. read CONFIG.SYS from the RAM disk).
Shift+CTRL+Extend char+Break is supposed to reboot from B: (i.e.
ignore the CONFIG.SYS on the RAM disk). If these don't work,
holding down the contrast key (the half-light half-dark circle to the
right of the right shift key) will reset and reboot from A:.
If none of these work, you can pull the battery cover off and push
a little button there, but that's The Reset Button and will wipe your
RAM disk too.
None of these are the same as turning it off (by pressing f8 in PAM)
and turning it back on (by pressing a key on the keyboard). These are
really more like putting it to sleep and waking it up.
This 110+ is a really nice box! I'm quite
fascinated by the
built-into-rom HP terminal emulator (dumb terminal emulation won't do)
as well as VT terminal emulator and serial port, all in a small
package! Sweet!
And with a good battery and a full charge, it will keep up with your
typing all day.
-Frank McConnell