Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

Our 386s don't have PCMCIA slots.  My partner says I would not want to use
the 486 (with 2M RAM) even if I could add RAM because the screen is hard
to read (and the drive is very noisy).  His 24MB RAM 486 has a PCMCIA slot
and we once got a 14.4 KHz PCMCIA modem working in Windows, but the
external 33.6K is faster.  So I will see what I can do with 3MB RAM and
30MB hard drive.  We might have a 60MB (40?) in the other 386 laptop which 
is similar but has 1MB RAM.

 The loop BL3 would not have fit without modifying the file size but the
2-floppy to HD ought to.  I figure 5MB ought to be enough for the
baslinux.gz (or equivalent) plus a minimal set of DOS commands and 1M of
lynx and a few 100K of kermit and lxpic.  I will experiment first on
another computer with a network card and then transfer files there via
plip.

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, James Miller wrote:

> On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:
> 
> > Is RAM in 386s and 486 laptops at all standardized?  Are HDs?
> 
> My experience with older laptops says no to both - especially RAM.  I
> think RAM was strictly proprietary (i.e., peculiar to each manufacturer)
> through the 486 era.  HD's would be more exchangeable, though I think size
> varied quite a bit on those older machines.  Thus, while the cable/plug
> arrangment might be compatible, the sizing might forbid easy exchange of
> drives.  For RAM you have another option, though: they used to make memory
> expansion cards that fit into PCMCIA slots.  You're much more likely to
> find these - and at reasonable prices - than the older proprietary RAM
> chips.  If you don't need 1 or both PCMCIA slots, this is likely the
> cheapest way to upgrade memory in an old laptop.
 
> James
> _______________________________________________
> BasLinux mailing list
> BasLinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/baslinux
>