Computer Page
Computer Page
My Weekend Installing
Windows Vista Home Basic
COMPUTER TOOLS.... Here are the computer tools I use to stay informed and
keep my computer running smoothly.
Belarc
Advisor tells me all the hardware and software in my computer and where each
program is located on my hard drive. It is free.
RegScrubXP
cleans the registry and removes registry problems. It is free.
Norton WinDoctor to check for Window's errors. It is Norton Systemworks Pro software and not free.
I am currently using the Version 7.00.22.
cpuz.exe tells me
about my computer's CPU speed settings, memory timing, and more. It is free.
CCleaner deletes all the junk files that accumulate and slow
down my computer. It has many other good features. It is free.
Speed Disk is better, in my opinion, in defragmenting the hard drive than the
Windows defrag tool. It is Norton Systemworks Pro software and is not free. I am
currently using the Version 7.00.22.
XPInfo tells me how
many hardware changes have been made to my computer since I last went through
the Windows Authentication process/hassle. It is free.
Registry
Mechanic cleans the registry and compacts the registry. It is not free.
Norton Ghost
I use the 2002 & 2003 versions and made boot floppies to save the complete C drive partition over
to an image file on the H drive partition about once a month. Not only does it work well,
but it is very easy to restore the C drive if I need to. At times I have
installed software that I don't like and that tries to take over my computer. I have
restored the C drive to an earlier version a number of times. The Norton Ghost Editor
also allows me to extract a file or folder from the image file if needed. Here
is a link on how Ghost works.
This is GREAT software! CCleaner is freeware. It cleaned out >450Mb of old log files and other junk files that had been
accumulating on my computer for two years. It really works great. It worked so well, I donated $20 to
them to show my appreciation. I had been trying for months to figure out
what log files were necessary and which ones were junk. CCleaner did the job
correctly in a few seconds. CCleaner also has an Issues option the works very
well. I have "fixed" all issues and my computers are running very
smoothly. Be sure and click on the Issues, Tools, and Options buttons and see
all of the useful tasks that CCleaner does.
ONLY A SHORTCUT.... When I install CCleaner, I uncheck all the options
except putting a Desktop Shortcut.
CCleaner also includes an option to remove unnecessary programs in the
startup folder. I dumped all the useless stuff that is not absolutely necessary.
Here is a link to all or most all of the possible startup programs and what they do.
http://www.fairnet.org/Agencies/startup_list/startups_all.htm
I saved the page as a file and use it with CCleaner to view what each startup program does and if I should remove it from
startup folder.
Also CCleaner will allow you to save "good" cookies so you wont have to keep giving your password on sites where you want them to remember you. It is really great software.
When I install CCleaner,
I uncheck all of the automatic features except for putting an Icon on the
desktop. I like to do the cleanup manually.
I have talked 3 friends into installing CCleaner and it cleaned out 2.5Gb, 2.1Gb and 2.0Gb in the three computers. Also a number of unnecessary programs were removed from the Startup Folder. Each of the computers ran much faster. Now if I can get them to run the defrag program once in a while.
Defraggler
I recommend it and it is FREE. From the company that brought you CCleaner. It differs from other defrag tools on the
market. It lists the files and the number of fragments and enables you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it,
analyze the drive and then select the file or files you want to defragment. It
does its work in seconds instead of hours like the Windows tool does. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation
tool and having it tie up your computer for hours.
Autoruns for Windows v9.5 shows you what programs are configured to run during system boot up or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. No installation involved. Merely unzip the 4 files to a blank folder and double click on autoruns.exe. Also there are many other good utilities available at the site.
EXCELLENT FREE SOFTWARE.... Excellent FREE software for about everything
you need on your computer. I was impressed with the quality of the software and
how well it runs on my new computer. The WRITER software can even read and write
.doc files so you can use your old documents made with Word. The download is a .iso
file which is a CD disk image file. You can't view the file until you burn it
onto a CD using the "Burn Image to Disk" option in Nero or similar
options on other CD burning software. There are a number of great programs on
the CD once you make it. Currently the file you download is: OpenDisc 07.10
Released! ~545 Mb. It will take a while to download. It took me about 47 minutes with
my DSL connection. It is well worth getting.
The PC Decrapifier
DUMP the JUNK.... Your brand spanking new PC boots up only to greet you with a plethora of pop up advertisements pestering you to pay for anti-virus software or sign up for a music service.
It allows you to selectively dump the junk and it is free.
FIREFOX IS NOW MY BROWSER.... Here is a screen shot. I bit
the bullet, so to speak, and tried the Mozilla Firefox freeware
browser. I have been using it for about 18 months. My opinion of Firefox
is that it works very well. It allowed me to import my favorites
when it installed. It also uses my Outlook 2000 mail service with
a link at the top. My wife, Mary Ann, is using it too and she
doesn't understand computers very well and is fine with it. I
even took the Microsoft Internet Explorer Icon off my desktop and put it in the
"Seldom Used" folder. I
see no need to go back to IE. The only time IE is used is when I do a search for
critical updates and the search automatically runs IE. Here is a small screen shot of
Firefox with the "personal links bar" on the top. I made the
picture small to save picture size. Note the GV link is this Go
Go Varmint Go message forum. Firefox seems to be faster than
IE and is very easy to setup. Note the Cookie Button and NoScript button in the
lower right of the screen shot. The Cookie Button allows me to accept or reject
cookies on the fly. The NoScript allows me to accept or reject Java Script on
the fly.
MOZILLA FIREFOX IS FREE.... 
is free software for better computer security. Good people have worked hard perfecting it.
FIREFOX EXTENSIONS.... Here are the FireFox extensions I am currently using. You can easily
install/uninstall extensions by
going to Tools and clicking on Extensions. There are numerous extensions
available and
these seven I find very useful. I especially like the Image Zoom, NoScript, and
Cookie Button. The Cookie Button and NoScript allow accepting or rejecting scripts and/or cookies,
on the fly, right from the status bar. The
status bar icons also indicates if scripts and/or cookies are being blocked with
little red symbols.
VIEWING LARGE/SMALL PICTURES.... It is very annoying to view a large picture on a web page where one has to scroll right/left to view it. If you load the Image Zoom extension, it handles it very nicely. You can make any picture fill the screen. It shrinks large pictures and expands small pictures. Here is how it works.
Voila! The picture fills the screen.
No more scrolling right or left to see part of a large picture! If you want the picture back to the original size you can Refresh the page or Right Click on the picture and let it up and the menu will appear. Left Click and select Zoom from the menu and take view 100%.
PREVENT COOKIES WITH FIREFOX.... The View Cookies allows me to prevent certain cookies from ever being written to my computer. To use View Cookies, you will need to go to Tools, then Page Info, then the Cookies Tab at the top. You will get a list of the cookies that particular page has written on your computer. You can then Remove Forever each cookie. It really works very well. If you prevent a cookie from ever being written and it is one you really need. You can go to Tools, Options, Privacy, and Click on the word Cookies. Then click the View Cookies tab. You can remove the blocked cookie from the list. For example, I blocked msn.com from writing cookies, and then I could no longer read my Hotmail. It was easy to delete msn.com from my blocked cookie list.
WINNING THE COOKIE WAR.... To PREVENT COOKIES WITH FIREBOX
uncheck the Allow Sites to set Cookies. The Cookie Button down at the lower
right corner of the task bar will include good cookies in the Exceptions
automatically.
BROWSER TRAFFIC.... Here is a plot showing the percent of page views for
each of the three main browsers. The data are taken from the >2,000,000 page views for
my www.varmintal.com site over the 22 month period. FireFox is on
the rise. Internet Explorer and Netscape are losing ground. What is that saying
and it could be applied to FireFox?
"If you build it, they will come."
SPYBOT FINDS NOTHING.... FireFox stops pop-ups and spyware. Here is a screen shot of
Spybot freeware checking my system for new spyware. None!
I used to get a few hits a day that Spybot needed to remove. I
have not had a single one since using Firefox. Also Firefox
blocks those pesky pop-ups when you are surfing. After not finding any spyware
for 6 months, I have uninstalled Spybot.
AD-AWARE FINDS NOTHING.... Ad-aware is still finding NO adware. Here is a screen shot of Ad-aware
freeware after a run. No data mining software was found. The 41 Objects Ignored
are most recent used lists on some of my programs, for example, Word and
FrontPage 2000. I put them in the ignore list because these lists are handy for
me to open recently updated files.
RUNNING A FIREWALL/ROUTER.... I am using a Linksys WRT54G wireless/router
and it works great. To control it, I connect to it as if it were a web page. If
you are running a Linksys router click on http://192.168.1.1 or type it into the address window on your browser and connect to
your router. If you didn't give it a name, then leave the name blank and if you
didn't give it a password, use admin (all lower
case) for a password. I
have setup the security to block probes as shown. I ran BlackIce for a week
after I had the Linksys running and nothing got past the Linksys for BlackIce
to block.
DISABLE SSID BROADCAST.... I am running Wireless to my other computers. I disable the Wireless SSID
Broadcast to make unauthorized use much more difficult and someone in the area
will not know the name of my wireless router. With the SSID Broadcast enabled,
anyone in the area could connect through my wireless and were doing so. Once I
changed the name and stopped the broadcast, the unauthorized usage stopped. I do
have to enable Wireless SSID Broadcast when I connect a new computer to the
wireless network, but once connected, I then turn off the broadcast.
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CURRENT COMPUTER.... My current online computer (I-Machine) is an AthlonXP
3200+ on an EPoX 8RDA3+ Pro motherboard with a 250 Gb Maxtor HD and 1Gb of DDR3200 Ram. The video
card is a Chaintech FX 5200 with 256Mb DDR Ram. My monitor is a Samsung
SyncMaster 213T and viewing is a pleasure. The computer has a DVD-Drive and a
Lite-On DVD-Writer. The operating system is Windows XP Pro. This computer was built
from parts and it was an interesting and educational experience. It is getting
easier to build each new computer. I was able to move my operating system over
to the new computer and retire the old AthlonXP 2700+ to a FEA computer running
Windows 98SE. I can't run my
old DOS versions of FEA software on a Windows XP computer and have a couple of
Windows 98SE autonomous
computers setup for those FEA calculations. On those computers I configure
MSDOS.SYS so they boot up in DOS.
DESK TOP SCREEN SHOT.... Here is a picture of my Desk
Top. I like a lot of icon shortcuts on the desktop as you can see. These are
very useful tools. I have even more shortcuts in the Seldom Used folder.
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional It can
be very helpful, but... Info that could also really get you in trouble.
Information
on BIOS Parameters. Very useful when you are into the BIOS and want to know
what each parameter means and does.
| A golf course is a sad misuse of a perfectly good rifle range. Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars. “Hold my beer while I run the calculation.” Redneck Engineer The critical thinking required for engineering analysis is hard work and like weight lifting for the brain. An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible. "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Barry Goldwater "It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you." Dick Cheney "The only people who have quick answers don't have the responsibility of making the decisions." Justice Clarence Thomas |
HOW MY COMPUTERS COMPARE.... I have a number of computers as backup and FEA platforms and here is how they compare to each other for speed:
I-Machine EPoX 8RDA3+ Pro Motherboard WindowsXP AthlonXP 3200+ (0.13) 2200 MHz L1 Cache 128K 13497 MB/s L2 Cache 512K 4296 MB/s Memory 1024M 1364MB/s Chipset: nVidia nForce2 SPP / FSB:200MHz Settings RAM: 200MHz (DDR400) CAS: 2.5-3-3-7 /Dual Channel 128 bits C-Machine EPoX 8RDA+ Pro Motherboard WindowsXP Pro AthlonXP 3200+ (0.13) 2200 MHz L1 Cache 128K 13497 MB/s L2 Cache 512K 4296 MB/s Memory 1024M 1364 MB/2 Chipset: nVidia nForce2 SPP / FSB:200MHz Settings RAM: 200MHz (DDR400) / CAS: 2-3-3-7 / Dual Channel 128 bits X-Machine EPoX 8RDA3+ Motherboard Windows 98SE AthlonXP 2700+ (0.13) 2175 MHz L1 Cache 128K 13342 MB/s L2 Cache 256K 4247 MB/s Memory 1024M 1213 MB/2 Chipset: nVidia nForce2 SPP / FSB:167MHz Settings RAM: 167MHz (DDR333) / CAS: 2-2-2-6 / Dual Channel 128 bits A-Machine EPoX 8RDA+ Pro Motherboard Windows 98SE AthlonXP 2700+ (0.13) 2167 MHz L1 Cache 128K 13292 MB/s L2 Cache 256K 4231 MB/s Memory 383M 1226 MB/2 Chipset: nVidia nForce2 SPP / FSB:166MHz Settings RAM: 166MHz (DDR333) / CAS: 2-2-2-6 / Dual Channel 128 bits B-Machine XFX KT-40A-ANH Motherboard Windows 98SE AthlonXP 3000+ (0.13) 2156 MHz L1 Cache 128K 13227 MB/s L2 Cache 512K 4211 MB/s Memory 383M 619 MB/s Chipset: VIA KT400(A)/600 Mary Ann's computer H-Machine Athlon 64 (0.09) 2203 MHz ASUS Motherboard A8V L1 Cache 128K 18056 MB/s L2 Cache 1024K 4486 MB/s Memory 1024M 1323 MB/s Chipset VIA K8T800PRO 200MHz Settings RAM: (DDR400)CAS: 3-3-3-8 / Single Channel 64 bits Dan's P4M800PRO-M V1.0A
Pentium 4 (0.09) 2662 MHz
L1 Cache 16K 18612 MB/s
L2 Cache 1024K 16328 MB/s
Memory 512M 1299MB/s
Bill-Machine Soyo SY-P4VTE Motherboard WindowsXP Pro
Pentium 4 2800MHz
Preformance Test 4.0
FEA Mem Math Video2D Video3D All MFPS
C-Machine 344.0 385.4 468.6 348.4 316.3 738.3
X-Machine 64.05 339.0 378.3 415.5 345.3 334.5 724.5
I-Machine 61.08 346.5 384.1 441.0 340.0 345.5 739.0
A-Machine 63.77 237.5 311.5 330.2 212.5 236.5 697.6
B-Machine 97.27 234.2 286.3 244.1 61.8 202.8 708.4
Bill-Mach 149.62 335.1 262.8 216.7 186.4 193.7 562.6
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OLD INFO.... I have an even faster computer. It is an Athlon 1.4GHz with 256 Mb SDRAM, 40 Gb HD, CD-ROM DVD, HP CD- writer. It came running Win ME and I now have my old Win 98SE operating system loaded on it. It seems to be a very solid system. I have Norton SystemWorks 2001 installed and have my complete system backed up with the Ghost software. It is very comforting to have it all on CD-R CD's ready to load incase the HD dies or I foul up with Partition Magic or some such foolishness.
Some time ago, I had a very fast new computer. It was faster than the old 200 MMX. Here are the specifications on the old computer. It is a TIGER TS3-M-3D $1469.99
Pentium II 450 MHz MMX System with a 100 MHz bus 128 MB PC100 SDRAM 32X CD-ROM HP 8100i 4X Write 6X Read CD Writer 10.2 GB Ultra DMA/33 Hard Drive 3D AGP Video w/8MB SGRAM Intel 440BX Chipset 56K Faxmodem w/Speakerphone & Voice Yamaha 128-Voice WaveTable 3D Sound Amplified Stereo Altec Speakers PS/2 IntelliMouse
With all this speed, I still can't run my Finite Element Calculations any faster than the old 486/33C because there is a DOS emulator in Win98 that is very slow. I am still investigating ways to add a second operating system so I can boot to Win98 or DOS 6.22. I have given up on the dual boot system. I have been able to run DOS 6.22 on the Pentium II 450 MHz MMX computer with no increase in speed. It appears that the heavy use of the FPU and the 8bit memory manager uses the CPU in very inefficient ways that brute force speed will not overcome. I still have the P5- 200 MHz MMX to run the software when needed.
I built my old computer from parts: CPU Pentium 200 MMX with a 66MHz bus PA-2006 motherboard, 4 PCI, 4 ISA, 2/72SIMM, 2/168DIMM, VIA 580VP chip set, 2 serial, 1 parallel, PS/2 mouse, 512K Burst Cache, Award Flash BIOS, Tiger Direct mid tower case, 230W power supply, 3 5" bays, 2 3" bays, 4 internal bays. 64Mb SDRAM consists of 2 ea. 32 Mb DIMMS 12 ns 2.7 Gb Maxtor Hard Drive Q-80 2120 tape drive 1.44 Teac floppy drive 8x CD-ROM CRD-168P drive NewCom Sound Card 1853 NewCom 33.6K Modem 336ifxv Data/Fax/Voice NewCom PCI Video Card Stealth 3D 2400XL 4Mb EDO DRAM SONY 200SF 17" monitor AnyKey KBD (programmable) Microsoft Intellimouse PS/2 mouse ---------- I have tried over-clocking the bus to 75 MHz and everything worked fine but the heat sink over the CPU seemed to be quite a bit hotter than with the 66 MHz bus, so I set it back to 66 MHz. I have the Livermore Software Technology Corporation finite element software for performing engineering analysis and have used the bolt stress calculation for a benchmark. This benchmark primarily tests the speed of the FPU. Most other benchmark programs test the graphics speed. If you are interested in testing your computer, let me know by email. Here are the results for a number of computers that I have tested and estimated. A smaller number is better. I used my old Gateway 2000 P5-100XL for a standard. My B440T Benchmark with Bench.exe disk......... CPU Seconds Relative Rating ----------------------------------------------------- P5-250MHz MMX PA2013 100MHz Bus 54.56 0.527 AthlonXP 2700 EPoX 8RDA-Pro 333 Bus 64.10 0.619 AthlonXP 3000+ EPoX 8RDA-Pro 333 Bus 69.59 0.672 P5-200MHz MMX PA2011 66MHz Bus 75.25 0.727 P5-200MHz MMX PA2006 66MHz Bus 76.30 0.736 P5-166MHz MMX 81.800 0.790 P5-133 (75MHzBus) 81.891 0.791 P5-133 (66MHzBus) 91.890 0.887 P5-100XL 103.539 1.000 Standard Duron 1.8GHz XFX KT-40A-ANH 166 Bus 111.773 1.080 Athlon 1.4Ghz MS 6330 intlaced mem 121.488 1.173 6x86 P150+ 126.550 1.222 Athlon 1.4GHz MS 6330 266MHz FSB 131.710 1.272 Athlon 850MHz ASUS A7V 200MHz FSB 158.350 1.529 Pent 4 Dell 8100 1.5GHz 400/Bus 170.711 1.649 Celeron 1.0GHz 184.100 1.778 Pent III 550MHz 100MHz Bus 189. 1.825 Pent 4 Dell 8100 1.5GHz 400/Bus 196.221 1.895 GW G6-450 Pent II 133 349.770 3.378 Pent II 450MHz 100MHz Bus 351.301 3.393 486/33C 353.070 3.410 HP Pavil Celeron 500MHz 6633C 368.111 3.555 486/33C Lee's 373.820 3.610 486/66V 393.050 3.796 Celeron 466MHz 100MHz Bus 393.59 3.801 486/66 NoteBk 741.381 7.180 386/25 w/mathc 757.593 7.316 ----------------------------------------------------- Trials and Tribulations. I had the system all put together and could boot it from a floppy and run the bench mark test. I purchased Win95 on a CD and the CD-Drive manual assumed that Win95 was already installed! Catch 22! All that came with the NewCom CD-Drive for installing it was a CD. I fired up the old P5- 100XL and went to newcom.com on the internet and found their DOS CD-Drive driver and downloaded it, unzipped it to a floppy and installed the DOS CD-Rom drivers on the new computer. Then I was able to install Win95. What would have taken a week of phone calls and waiting for floppies in the mail took 15 minutes! The great computer age is here!
MY FIRST PC.... I got my first PC in the late 70's. It was a SOL Computer based on an Intel 8080 CPU with 8K of 8 bit memory and a cassette tape for storage. For software, I had one basic program loaded on the tape plus TREK. My boy played TREK 2 days straight, that's 48 hours! He learned all the commands by trial and error, except one about the photon torpedoes. To program in BASIC, I had to load the program plus BASIC and delete each line, then write a new program and save it back on tape. I finally got smart and saved a BASIC file with a one line program. I bought the SOL Computer as a kit for about $2000 and paid another $150 to have the kit assembled. The whole thing was about the size of a big IBM typewriter. The monitor was an 8 in. black/white. By the early 80's, I went to a computer fair over in SF and bought a 64K memory card for $599 and didn't know how I could possibly use all that much memory. I was running CP/M and finally bought a hard sectored 5-1/4 in. disk drive kit and punched extra holes in the paper jackets so I could use both sides of the disk. Not only do I still have the old SOL saved, but I bought a complete duplicate system in case it ever crashed! (Stupid move).
BUILT A 3 CHIP COMPUTER.... Around 1985, I was building an 8085A dedicated, three chip, computer to keep track of the depth of a bailer used to clean the sand out of oil wells. The computer counted the spokes on the pulley at the top of the derrick as it turned. I wrote the depth calculating code in assembly language and used a single board Z80 computer with a Hex key pad to burn the software into the EPROM's. It would display the bailer depths at cable speeds of up to 500 mph (they couldn't run it that fast) and ring an alarm when the bailer was within 200 feet of the surface and coming up. The big problem was that coming out of the hole, a mile or so deep too fast, the operator would lose track of how close the bail was to the surface and the rig would try to wrap the bail around the top pulley before they could stop it.
COMPUTER FOR KINDERGARTEN.... Next I got a Vic 20 and it was like a toy. I programmed the kids names in it for wife's kindergarten class and it gave them a "hooray" if they spelled their name correctly or a "raspberry" if they spelled it incorrectly.
CONSULTING WORK BEGINS.... When I retired from the lab in 1990, I purchased a Gateway 2000 386/25MHz with 8Mb ram and a 210 Mb Hard drive. I was able to get the finite element software that was exactly the same as that used on the Cray Computers at the lab, only compiled for a PC. I started doing engineering analysis consulting work at home.
PREVIOUS COMPUTER.... Now, my P5 200 MMX with 64Mb ram and a 2.7Gb hard drive is equivalent to about 20% of a Cray 1 in computing speed. I can essentially do the very same calculations that I used to do with the XMP and YMP Cray's only it just takes a little longer and I can't run 3D calculations with more than about 2500 elements. I also use my computer and a KAM+ TNC (Terminal Node Controller) into a ICOM-281H 2 Meter FM radio for my Packet Radio Station. Computers sure have come a long way in just a very few years. I am building another 200 MMX from parts with the new Mpact! Card that contains a video card, sound card, and modem all on a single card. The latest computer is an Athlon 1.4GHz with 256 Mb RAM, a 60Gb HD and a DVD-CD ROM plus a CD-Writer. PROGRESS! Good Computing from Varmint Al
MEMORY LANE.... Some things are new, but it is fun to play around with the old computers too. In its day, I think a Toshiba T1000SE laptop cost about $1000. Now, they are not so expensive. You DOS users, take a trip down memory lane....
SHERMAN TANK OF LAPTOPS.... The Toshiba T1000SE Laptop
computer. These are the Sherman Tanks of old Laptop
computes. They are perfect for portable packet. They appear
on eBay for auction form $10 to $20+ and are well worth it! If
you grew up with DOS, it will bring back fond memories of the
Good Old Days. The Toshiba T1000SE's model number is PA8003U.
They use a 7.2 Volt battery pack PA8812U and the AC adapter is
PA8713U or the AC adapter PA8706U is a little larger, but will
also work. If you are really lucky, and can find a 2Mb memory
card PA8312U, then you can create a 3Mb Hard Ram Drive and run
just about any DOS based terminal program from the Ram Drive on
them. Here are the specifications on the Toshiba T1000SE. If anyone has more
information on the new price of a Toshiba T1000SE Laptop when
they were first introduced, I would sure like the information so
I could post it here.
Norm (NO7RM), another ham radio operator, purchased a new Toshiba T1000SE from Whole Earth Access in the San Jose, Calif. area on March 22, 1991 for $1029.29. He also purchased the three position battery charger and a spare battery for $271.78. Norm says that these may have been discount prices.
You wanted to know the original market price of the computer. I got mine on 7/17/90 for $1,285.93, brand new, of course. --- Mike O'Connor
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Toshiba T1000SE Features
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Here is a list of the files that are on the T1000SE's ROM:
r> Config.sys Print.comAutoexec.bat Graphics.com
Assign.com Keyb.com
Ansi.sys Keyboard.sys
Backup.com Label.com
Biosver.com Mode.com
Chad.com More.com
Chkdsk.com Nlsfunc.exe
Command.com Now.com
EXPERIENCE WITH THE T1000SE.... I run the Setup10.com program and set aside 380K of ram for the Hard Ram Drive and then format it with the format d: command. The T1000SE allows you to copy the autoexec.bat file over to the Hard Ram Drive D:\ and customize it. When it boots up, it looks to see if there is an autoexec.bat file on the D: drive and uses it. I was able to find my old Norton Utilities 3.1 floppies (on a 5-1/4" floppy) and copy them over to a 3-1/2" floppy so I can use them on the T1000SE. They work great. One thing I have found out is that inside the computer there is a 3/8" dia by 8" long 6V Sub battery that is usually dead. Its only function is to provide power when you change batteries so you won't lose your Ram Drive. If you leave the 12V power supply plugged in and switch batteries with he computer tuned off, it seems to preserve the Ram Drive. The dead Sub battery will drain the main battery when the compute is not in use because it appear as a dead short. I just remove the Sub battery and the computer works fine and the main battery lasts much longer. I have yet to find a Toshiba T1000XE (with a 20Mb HD and no floppy) or a T1000LE (with a 20Mb HD and a 1.44Mb floppy) that works. These two models are not worth the expense or trouble in my view.
SOFTWARE TO GET STARTED ON PACKET.... If you get a Toshiba T1000SE and want to operate 2m Packet Ham Radio with it, here are four files that will get you on the air with a KPC-3 and a 2m transceiver:
pacfast.exe The smallest packet terminal program I
have found and it is very easy to use. F1 gives you all the commands.
go1.bat A batch file that starts pacfast running at 9600
baud on com 1 (default setting for the T1000SE).
ted.com The tiny editor for use on old DOS systems. It
works very well.
scan.com A tiny program <1K for reading text files. To
view a text file, merely type SCAN name and use the arrow keys and Page Up and
Page Down keys. Esc to exit.
TOSHIBA T1000.... Before I found out about the Toshiba T1000SE, I was using a Toshiba T1000 for portable packet. Here is the story of the T1000. For old time DOS users, it will bring back old DOS memories. There is a Toshiba T1000 Web Page. If you have a Toshiba T1000 it is worth checking out.
You aren't going to believe this. I bought a $10 1987 vintage
Toshiba T1000 laptop at the Livermore Ham Swap Meet. The Ni-Cad
batteries were 0 Volts and completely dead and looked like a dead
short. The first process was to hit the battery pack with 12V and
give them a good jolt. Well, then I put a 9V charger on the T1000
for about 4 hours. When I turned it on, it signed on and booted
from ROM. It is running DOS 2.11 (a very primitive DOS, not quite
stone age, but more like the bronze age).
Then I looked for some terminal program and it has none. No BASIC
either. It does have a old 720Kb floppy drive. So I got out my
QRZ CD and found the simplest and smallest packet terminal
program on the CD. It is PACFAST.EXE. I tried out the program on
my Pentium and it worked OK. Not a lot of commands, but it would
talk to my KPC-3 TNC.
I found an old style 720Kb floppy and formatted it on the T1000.
It worked and took a long time to format. Then I wrote the
PACFAST.EXE program on the floppy from my 450MHz Pentium II
using DOS commands in a DOS window. The new Win98 software is
downward compatible to correctly write the old style floppies.
Good news.
I hooked power to a spare KPC-3 I have and hooked a serial cable
from the TNC to COM1 on the T1000. Now the big test. I put the
floppy in the T1000 and did a CD A: command and got the A> prompt
and then executed the PACFAST.EXE com1 9600N81 program with the
attached commands and it worked! The KPC-3 signed on and I
entered the disp command and it listed the TNC command display
list. I have to admit that I have been working on this all day,
but it was fun to get success.
One of the big reasons for success today is that I found the
Unofficial Toshiba T1000 web page (no longer exists) on the Internet.
But you can get a view of it here: WayBackView. It had
the T1000 Quick Reference guide and many other very helpful
information files about the T1000. I also got DOS 3.30 for the Toshiba
from the web site. It was a disk image and not a boot disk, but
using VERSION and my 486 laptop running DOS 6.22 I was able
to make a boot disk for DOS 3.30 and now the Toshiba will run
my KaGOLD software for packet radio.
Last Updated: 06/11/2009
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