Wow This was my father's first PC back in the 90's. I remember the Beeep Beep Sound from the Compaq BIOS and the Microsoft Windows Versión 3.1 with the Compaq logo (In spanish, so I live in Arica, Chile). My memories.... I used this in late 90's to play "Aldo's Adventure" and "Raptor: Call of shadows"
I love the Aero series... first i had a contura Aero, then an Aero 2100 then the Aero 1550 then i started using the Compaq Ipaq (good decision) and when they where made by HP i started using the HP Ipaqs (bad decision as they weren't as reliable as when Compaq made them). Now last week i finally got the device i always wanted - a Compaq Aero 8000 - and i have to say this is the best choice (better than any of the newer crap) as it is the most sturdy and most reliable...
Yeah, Compaq did tend to do that. So did NEC PC's. There were actually two versions of this laptop, the second one had a color, but slightly smaller, screen. I got this one from eBay for about $25 about 3 years ago, and I remember I was so determined to get it that I didn't even care if it were the color or black and white version (the pictures on the site were unclear).
I have this exact laptop with original box cables manuals etc. The laptop is mint unused and most of the manuals are still in sealed packaging.. What is the value of one of these??
I agree, my first computer was a Compaq from 1994 and it still works great (I have a video of it, Compaq Presario CDS 520). My main computer until a few weeks ago was also a Compaq from 2004 (SR1320NX), and since I moved it's an HP from 2004 also. I was a little disappointed when Compaq merged with HP, but HP is actually a very good computer company as well.
You're right, it only has a PC Speaker. There is a special driver for Windows that allows you to play sounds (but not midi files) through the PC Speaker. The quality is not that great though, and you can't hook up a microphone.
Actually, this laptop has no sound card at all. I used a special driver that allows me to use the built in PC-Speaker as audio output. The quality's not that great and you can't play Midi files, but it's better than nothing. If you really wanted a sound card though you could probably find a PCMCIA sound card on eBay.
The same was true with our old Win 3.11 machine as well, this is a good thing as I hate the Tada sound, that decending chime sound is just so much better in my opinioin.
Not as it is now, but you may be able to get a PCMCIA modem (for Dial-Up) or a PCMCIA ethernet card (for Cable internet). I'd recommend using Arachne to browse the internet; there are no good internet browsers out for Windows 3.1.
@kbhasikevin Yes I'm sure that I could. I was never a big fan of Calmira though because I have yet to find a way to uninstall it without having to reinstall Windows 3.1 in case I ever wanted to go back. Unless they've updated it since then? I think the last time I tried it was probably around 2006
I know! I think I got this for about $30 on eBay. And nowadays nobody would even dream of spending that much on a laptop, my personal cap would be at $600.
I take it that computer doesn't even have a sound card, it just has the PC speaker, I've seen other computers without sound cards that play the tada and chime sounds through the PC speaker, but how do you do it? Is there an option that allows you to activate those sounds and play them through the PC speaker?
Well, you'd have to learn how to use MS-DOS if you don't already have Windows, which isn't that tricky if you already know a fair amount about computers.
Nah, the highest you could go on this computer would be Windows 95, but I wouldn't recommend it because you'd have to use like 20 floppy disks to install it, and it would be very slow.
