This is the behavior of a machine with a dead battery. Some machines insist on sending the charger through the battery first and don't like operating with no battery or a dead one. Sometimes you can figure out how to get them to go directly off the charger. Not a definitive answer, but my $0.02. John A. -----Original Message----- From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 2:04 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: zenith minisport hd problems went on a thrift store run today and thought i was going to get skunked, but at the last store i found a zenith minisport laptop with power supply for $5. its dirty and yellowed and didnt get the floppy drive either. seems to be a turbo xt with cga graphics. anyway, when i power it on, it stays on momentarily then goes off. no post beep and lcd doesnt light either. any ideas? i downloaded some archived minisport archives but havent looked at it yet.

The "MiniSport" doesn't have a hard drive. The "SuperSport" does. The MiniSport is the one with a 2.5" floppy drive (the SuperSport has a 3.5"). I don't have my MiniSport right at hand, but I don't think the battery goes on the back like the SuperSport's - I think it's internal. The MiniSport has DOS in ROM and battery-backed RAM set up as a virtual C: drive. It's actually a pretty neat little machine. Using another PC with only standard DOS commands and a null-modem cable, it can install a "LapLink" type program and then use the hard drive on host machine over that. No floppies required; it's built into the MiniSport. I've got some pictures and descriptions on my web site under "Classic Computers/Computing Oddities". If you need details on how to get it going, I'll be happy to try to help. On Thu, 27 Jul 2000 14:03:35 EDT, SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com wrote: Bill Richman bill_r(a)inetnebr.com http://incolor.inetnebr.com Home of Fun with Molten Metal, technological oddities, and the original COSMAC Elf computer simulator!