• NEC Versa 4000 Laptop!

    From Aurelius@80:774/68 to All on Tue Nov 5 16:18:08 2019
    Hey everyone!

    I came up to visit my dad, and I mentioned that I was looking for an old 386/486 era computer (for various reasons), and he mentioned he had a Pentium 1
    laptop. Close enough! So when I got here I started playing with it. It has a 520MB hard drive, with Windows 95 installed. Unfortunately the floppy drive is not working properly, so I have been trying to figure out a good way to get files on and off of it.

    At the moment, I will be taking a two-pronged approach when I get home. My main
    PC at home (running Win 10) has a dual serial/single parallel port card in it.
    I will use Hyperterminal on Win95 to hopefully transfer the entire hard drive to my modern machine so I can back up what is on it. Then I plan on getting a dual CompactFlash to 44-pin IDE replacement. That way I can very easily move files on and off, and have multiple different OSes when I want.

    I am going to use it for a few different things. Originally, I wanted it because I am learning x86 assembly, and the older processors are a bit easier to learn with/use. It also will be useful for playing DOS games. And, because it has a PCMCIA Modem/Ethernet card in it, I eventually want to be able to dial
    into some boards so I get the "real" experience for the first time. Should be a lot of fun!

    The issue with the floppy drive is that it uses a proprietary connector, and I haven't been able to find a replacement that isn't outrageously priced (the only one I saw on eBay was listed for over $200, and that is before shipping and customs). I was thinking about maybe getting an external floppy drive, not sure if they were common or not. It does have two PCMCIA slots, which is nice. This series of laptop also had a docking system that I would LOVE to get my hands on. It allowed two more IDE drives to be installed, plus more ports and a
    bunch of other features. I havne't even been able to find much info about it beyond what is in the user manual for the machine.

    Any ideas on what to do about the floppy drive replacement would be greatly appreciated!


    cb»» caAurelius
    Badass Engineer

    z0cA.z0cFz0cA------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------.z0
    z0cA|z0cD 8086, 8088, 286, 386, 486 . . . "Pentium?!"
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    --- CNet/5
    * Origin: Badass Amiga Board aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (80:774/68)
  • From Anachronist@80:774/68 to Aurelius on Wed Nov 6 11:01:42 2019

    the floppy drive is not working properly, so I have been trying to figure out a good way to get files on and off of it.

    I would just install an IDE to SD card adapter on it, you can get those for less than $20. Format the SD card as a new harddrive and you should be good to go! I'd look it up online first to see if there is anything I've missed, but should be pretty straight-forward.

    cb»» cdaNACHRONiST c1| caabsinthebbs.net:1940q1


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    --- CNet/5
    * Origin: Badass Amiga Board aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (80:774/68)
  • From Static@80:774/55 to Aurelius on Sun Nov 10 00:56:58 2019
    On 05 Nov 2019, Aurelius said the following...

    Any ideas on what to do about the floppy drive replacement would be greatly appreciated!

    It may be repairable if you haven't tried already. A lot of the time the dysfunction of old floppy drives is just the result of dried grease on moving parts, dirt on the heads or a worn out drive belt.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Subcarrier BBS (80:774/55)
  • From Static@80:774/55 to Aurelius on Sun Dec 8 23:52:37 2019
    On 05 Nov 2019, Aurelius said the following...
    Unfortunately the floppy drive is not working properly, so I have been trying to figure out a good way to get files on and off of it.

    It might be worth opening up the floppy drive. They can usually be revived
    with a new rubber belt and a clean in my experience.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/02 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Subcarrier BBS (80:774/55)
  • From Aurelius@80:774/68 to Static on Wed Dec 11 20:02:11 2019
    Yeah, I've opened in a couple times. I used white lithum grease on the head rails, didn't make any difference. The belt seems to be fine, and it is indeed spinning the drive, and the heads do move. On further testing, my dad was able to (once) get it to read a floppy from another machine (just a directory listing). Couldn't actually copy files off of it, and the files on it were just
    shortcuts as a test.

    I will put some more work into it at some point, or replace it, but I have been
    keeping an eye out for VersaBay CDROM drives, as that would be ideal. Also trying to get hold of a PCMCIA ethernet card that will actually work in this machine. It seems that cardbus cards are not supported.

    However, my newest issue is accessing the files for this machine on the NEC website. Their FTP server is down (apparently in the process of being moved?) and so all the drivers/BIOS updates for this machine are not accessbile. I emailed them a couple times, and was told that the FTP server should be back up
    at some vague point in the future. Well, it's been a month now, and no change.
    I have been trying to find copies of the BIOS update in particular, but even searching for the exact file name leads nowhere. It seems nobody bothered to backup or mirror these files. Even the Wayback Machine doesn't have copies (though it did snapshot the download page, I guess it only follows HTTP links and not FTP ones).

    The page is at https://support.necam.com/Drivers/?m=498 and the files I am interested in are L6100PHD.EXE as well as L6100TB3.EXE ... on the extreme off-chance that someone here either has the files or might know where to look. I am going to check out some other BBS's, but I doubt they would have this kind
    of software.

    The funny thing is, in the manual for this laptop, they actually list the NEC BBS as the place to go to download updates! I thought that was pretty awesome. Even in 1994 they were still using a BBS to update users. The last updates for this line of machines seems to be around 1999. I am really hoping I can get my hands on those updates!

    Thanks for all the ideas, folks :)
    Cheers


    cb»» caAurelius
    Badass Engineer

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    --- CNet/5
    * Origin: Badass Amiga Board aBSiNTHE BBS absinthebbs.net:1940 (80:774/68)
  • From Captain Obvious@80:774/22 to Static on Thu Jan 2 21:04:42 2020
    On 08 Dec 2019, Static said the following...

    It might be worth opening up the floppy drive. They can usually be
    revived with a new rubber belt and a clean in my experience.

    If he didn't want to go that route I picked up a USB floppy drive for less
    than $20 on Amazon a couple of years ago for that very reason. Wanted to recover some old BBS files from 20 years ago. Got it in, hooked it up, went
    to the basement and discovered the wife had thrown out the box they were in. Was not a happy person that day.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Black Flag <ACiD Telnet HQ> blackflagbbs.com (80:774/22)
  • From Geri Atricks@80:256/0 to Aurelius on Fri Jan 31 14:41:24 2020
    Does it have USB ports? If so then you can get external Floppy and CD-R
    drives for it.

    If no USB ports, then I would HOPE that it has an ethernet port if not wifi. Again, if niether of those are built into the laptop you might be able to
    find a PCMCIA wifi card or ethernet connector so that you would be able to transfer files that way.

    Just my $.02
    ---

    -Dallas Vinson (AKA: Geri Atricks, Lupine Furmen)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 2019/03/03 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (80:256/0)
  • From blin2011a@80:774/85 to Aurelius on Sun Jun 14 15:51:44 2020

    You can try this Dell version for PHDisk.

    https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=r24475 --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Veleno BBS -= http://www.velenobbs.net =- (80:774/85)