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Help on a NEC 286 Laptop — Parallax Forums

Help on a NEC 286 Laptop

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2000-03-13 23:27 in General Discussion
I just came across the deal of the century. A 286 laptop computer for a mere
$10. This actually works. I already have it up and programming both
versions of the basic stamps, and pic microcontrollers. It has a massive 20
Mbyte hard drive, and a whopping 640 kbytes of RAM. The floppy drive and
the serial and parallel ports work! The LCD display is black and white.
All working just fine.

The only draw back is that the screen background is white and the text is
black. Not a big deal, but when using EDIT for writing programs, the
alt-key characters are black and don't show up on the screen when the menu
background is black also.

Does anyone know if the is a DOS command that will make the background be
black, and the characters you type show up as white. On my regular Pentium
60 computer the background is black and the characters are white.

It has been a long time since I had to deal with congifuration files for DOS
mode applications.

This computer is running DOS 5.0

Any info would be appreciated.

Also, anyone have any idea where I could find manuals for this computer. I
have checked out the NEC web site, and there is nothing about this computer
on there web site. Their web site doesn't even recognise the serial number
of the computer.

Pete Miles
petem@w...

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-13 17:56
    Well, one way to fix it would be to add "DEVICE=ANSI.SYS" in your CONFIG.SYS
    and then use ANSI codes in your PROMPT enviroment variable. I think it
    would be something like this:

    PROMPT $E[noparse][[/noparse]7h$E[noparse][[/noparse]0m$P$G

    Put that in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and it should make your background black and
    foreground white. I may be mistaken on the syntax, it has been a long time
    since I messed with ANSI and prompts.

    This fix is kind of hokey, but should do what you need.

    Original Message
    From: Pete Miles [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=-875542FIjMK5MF8X8m7E5yk2PnjR0TShQJZvcF5VmLQ_dR-1-D9Dg0ODP6_obQ-u-A9PITjIzwVKyY5iA]PeteM@W...[/url
    Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 9:35 AM
    To: 'basicstamps@egroups.com'
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] [noparse][[/noparse]OT] Help on a NEC 286 Laptop


    I just came across the deal of the century. A 286 laptop computer for a mere
    $10. This actually works. I already have it up and programming both
    versions of the basic stamps, and pic microcontrollers. It has a massive 20
    Mbyte hard drive, and a whopping 640 kbytes of RAM. The floppy drive and
    the serial and parallel ports work! The LCD display is black and white.
    All working just fine.

    The only draw back is that the screen background is white and the text is
    black. Not a big deal, but when using EDIT for writing programs, the
    alt-key characters are black and don't show up on the screen when the menu
    background is black also.

    Does anyone know if the is a DOS command that will make the background be
    black, and the characters you type show up as white. On my regular Pentium
    60 computer the background is black and the characters are white.

    It has been a long time since I had to deal with congifuration files for DOS
    mode applications.

    This computer is running DOS 5.0

    Any info would be appreciated.

    Also, anyone have any idea where I could find manuals for this computer. I
    have checked out the NEC web site, and there is nothing about this computer
    on there web site. Their web site doesn't even recognise the serial number
    of the computer.

    Pete Miles
    petem@w...



    -- 20 megs of disk space in your group's Document Vault
    -- http://www.egroups.com/docvault/basicstamps/?m=1
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-13 18:07
    You also have to add the path to wherever the file ansi.sys resides as in.
    It is usually the dos directory as in:
    DEVICE=C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS.

    Dan
    Dan Sherman Dsherman@r...
    Computer Technician NWCCD - Sheridan College
    3059 Coffeen Ave. Sheridan, WY. 82801
    307-674-6446 x6225 http://www.sc.whecn.edu/~dsherman


    Original Message
    From: Levi Ruiz [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=wzXaFbQtHasU5KLLg-Vzne5ClUub78XXguLyEQqkjne1iHvVqDSbh18h4MH2Sg0c4xUNtx0LEWUgmEA]Levi@P...[/url
    Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 10:56 AM
    To: 'basicstamps@egroups.com'
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Re: [noparse][[/noparse]OT] Help on a NEC 286 Laptop

    Well, one way to fix it would be to add "DEVICE=ANSI.SYS" in your CONFIG.SYS
    and then use ANSI codes in your PROMPT enviroment variable. I think it
    would be something like this:

    PROMPT $E[noparse][[/noparse]7h$E[noparse][[/noparse]0m$P$G

    Put that in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and it should make your background black and
    foreground white. I may be mistaken on the syntax, it has been a long time
    since I messed with ANSI and prompts.

    This fix is kind of hokey, but should do what you need.

    Original Message
    From: Pete Miles [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=W9YP0hQuxzsTeSwSj_ajmp7sso9fnhN5PwxeuH3MphiXu083w7dmUiK6w6054Rv0vSczlgx8UkfoWlWL8yf0-w]PeteM@W...[/url
    Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 9:35 AM
    To: 'basicstamps@egroups.com'
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] [noparse][[/noparse]OT] Help on a NEC 286 Laptop


    I just came across the deal of the century. A 286 laptop computer for a mere
    $10. This actually works. I already have it up and programming both
    versions of the basic stamps, and pic microcontrollers. It has a massive 20
    Mbyte hard drive, and a whopping 640 kbytes of RAM. The floppy drive and
    the serial and parallel ports work! The LCD display is black and white.
    All working just fine.

    The only draw back is that the screen background is white and the text is
    black. Not a big deal, but when using EDIT for writing programs, the
    alt-key characters are black and don't show up on the screen when the menu
    background is black also.

    Does anyone know if the is a DOS command that will make the background be
    black, and the characters you type show up as white. On my regular Pentium
    60 computer the background is black and the characters are white.

    It has been a long time since I had to deal with congifuration files for DOS
    mode applications.

    This computer is running DOS 5.0

    Any info would be appreciated.

    Also, anyone have any idea where I could find manuals for this computer. I
    have checked out the NEC web site, and there is nothing about this computer
    on there web site. Their web site doesn't even recognise the serial number
    of the computer.

    Pete Miles
    petem@w...



    -- 20 megs of disk space in your group's Document Vault
    -- http://www.egroups.com/docvault/basicstamps/?m=1



    eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/basicstamps
    http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-13 18:40
    Find the program DOSSHELL.EXE and run it. It has lots of neat stuff including
    the ability to show reverse video, is on the options-color or options-video
    menu.

    Larry Nielsen

    Pete Miles wrote:

    > I just came across the deal of the century. A 286 laptop computer for a mere
    > $10. This actually works. I already have it up and programming both
    > versions of the basic stamps, and pic microcontrollers. It has a massive 20
    > Mbyte hard drive, and a whopping 640 kbytes of RAM. The floppy drive and
    > the serial and parallel ports work! The LCD display is black and white.
    > All working just fine.
    >
    > The only draw back is that the screen background is white and the text is
    > black. Not a big deal, but when using EDIT for writing programs, the
    > alt-key characters are black and don't show up on the screen when the menu
    > background is black also.
    >
    > Does anyone know if the is a DOS command that will make the background be
    > black, and the characters you type show up as white. On my regular Pentium
    > 60 computer the background is black and the characters are white.
    >
    > It has been a long time since I had to deal with congifuration files for DOS
    > mode applications.
    >
    > This computer is running DOS 5.0
    >
    > Any info would be appreciated.
    >
    > Also, anyone have any idea where I could find manuals for this computer. I
    > have checked out the NEC web site, and there is nothing about this computer
    > on there web site. Their web site doesn't even recognise the serial number
    > of the computer.
    >
    > Pete Miles
    > petem@w...
    >
    >
    > -- 20 megs of disk space in your group's Document Vault
    > -- http://www.egroups.com/docvault/basicstamps/?m=1
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-13 22:31
    this is usualy a hardware thing. try looking for a function key that will
    reverse the colours.


    Original Message
    From: Pete Miles <PeteM@W...>
    To: <basicstamps@egroups.com>
    Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 4:04 AM
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] [noparse][[/noparse]OT] Help on a NEC 286 Laptop


    > I just came across the deal of the century. A 286 laptop computer for a
    mere
    > $10. This actually works. I already have it up and programming both
    > versions of the basic stamps, and pic microcontrollers. It has a massive
    20
    > Mbyte hard drive, and a whopping 640 kbytes of RAM. The floppy drive and
    > the serial and parallel ports work! The LCD display is black and white.
    > All working just fine.
    >
    > The only draw back is that the screen background is white and the text is
    > black. Not a big deal, but when using EDIT for writing programs, the
    > alt-key characters are black and don't show up on the screen when the menu
    > background is black also.
    >
    > Does anyone know if the is a DOS command that will make the background be
    > black, and the characters you type show up as white. On my regular
    Pentium
    > 60 computer the background is black and the characters are white.
    >
    > It has been a long time since I had to deal with congifuration files for
    DOS
    > mode applications.
    >
    > This computer is running DOS 5.0
    >
    > Any info would be appreciated.
    >
    > Also, anyone have any idea where I could find manuals for this computer.
    I
    > have checked out the NEC web site, and there is nothing about this
    computer
    > on there web site. Their web site doesn't even recognise the serial
    number
    > of the computer.
    >
    > Pete Miles
    > petem@w...
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > -- 20 megs of disk space in your group's Document Vault
    > -- http://www.egroups.com/docvault/basicstamps/?m=1
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-03-13 23:27
    You also may want to try the monochrome option when running EDIT from DOS.

    C:\WINDOWS>edit /?
    EDIT [noparse][[/noparse]/B] [noparse][[/noparse]/H] [noparse][[/noparse]/R] [noparse][[/noparse]/S] [noparse][[/noparse]/<nnn>] [noparse][[/noparse]/?] [noparse][[/noparse]file(s)]

    /B - Forces monochrome mode.
    /H - Displays the maximum number of lines possible for your hardware.
    /R - Load file(s) in read-only mode.
    /S - Forces the use of short filenames.
    /<nnn> - Load binary file(s), wrapping lines to <nnn> characters wide.
    /? - Displays this help screen.
    [noparse][[/noparse]file] - Specifies initial files(s) to load. Wildcards and multiple
    filespecs can be given.
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