Compaq Portable III

Compaq Computer Corporation was started in 1982 by three men and a place mat. These men, Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto conceptualized a portable version of IBM's new PC (drawn out on the place mat) and formed the company around the idea.

The Compaq Portable followed the recent tradition of portable machines like the Osbornes and Kaypros of the day while shunning CP/M in favor of MS-DOS and PC compatibility. The idea was a hit and catapulted Compaq to the lead in the PC Clone market.

Over time Compaq introduced many innovations to the PC industry. Amongst these was the Compaq Portable III which weighed a mere 20 pounds but offered full IBM AT compatibility. It was a self contained unit that sported a tilt-up gas plasma display and a built-in keyboard.

My Portable III is a fully functional, clean example that came with most of the original documentation and the 2 slot expansion chassis. All it needs is the setup disk to be useful!.

This Compaq Portable III came with a 5.25" disk drive as well as the built-in hard drive.

The Compaq Portable III in my collection came with much of the original documentation.

(Submitted July 7, 2008 17:21:52 by (a href=mailto:)warmotor(/a))

I had the original Compact and this model, both castaways from the office my dad worked in. This is the first machine I set up for dual boot, UNIX/DOS. God, I miss it. The big ass LCD screen made BBSing so freaking AWESOME. Of course my wristwatch has more horsepower now, but man, back in '93...

(Submitted February 25, 2008 15:21:42 by Richard)

I have just listed an unremarkable but working example on Ebay (UK).

Regards.

(Submitted February 13, 2008 19:39:49 by Tim)

I just received one of these Portable 3's from someone who was getting rid of their old computers. It starts up and works, too! It's going on eBay tonight for a 3 day auction so bid large and fast on it!

(Submitted February 5, 2008 14:54:51 by Walden)

My Portable III has crashed!!! Will boot from the floppy drive but doesn't know it's got a hard drive. In the upper left corner of the screen is for following error message: 1790 disk 0 Does anyone know what this means? W - - -

(Submitted February 4, 2008 10:26:25 by jerry)

I got one and just plugged it in for the first time in decades, still have a box full of floppys. It lit up and fan came on but cant get anything on the screen, forogt how to use it I guess!

(Submitted February 1, 2008 09:33:02 by E)

I also have portable III, I get the same screen on one above, I'm in same boat as Dave above, I'm thinking of trying a null cable to get data onto machine, any thoughts? I would be interested in buying 51/4 disk if avialable.

(Submitted January 21, 2008 10:34:08 by (a href=mailto:)mark(/a))

Using information from this site http://oldcomputers.net/compaqiii.html I now have my Portable 111 working again.

(Submitted November 1, 2007 11:51:54 by Mike)

Hello, I have a Portable III with the small hard drive. If someone could copy down their BIOS setup and email it to me (battery long dead), I will send you $20US if I get it running. Hard drive contents should be in operable condition. Thank you.

(Submitted October 19, 2007 15:31:06 by Al)

I have a Compaq Portable III. Still works! Make an offer.

(Submitted October 3, 2007 05:05:37 by Gregg)

I bought a Compaq III back in 1988. It is a 386/20 with 387 coprocessor, 6MBytes of RAM (supposedly supports 8MB), a 100Mbyte ESDI hard disk and the optional ISA expansion chassis into which I currently have a VGA card and network adaptor. Occasionally I swap the network card for a Soundblaster. The system comes with 2Mbytes of Ram on the motherboard and can accept 2 expansion cards adding 4Mbytes each for a total of 10MB. Set me back a good $15,000. After 20 years the plasma screen is still bright (though slightly fuzzy around the edges) and it runs Dos3.33 , Windows 3.11 + Office well. It can even run Doom and Descent! It weighs a ton but is still giving me great service.

(Submitted June 24, 2007 00:14:42 by bill)

I am in need of some help for an old professor friend. He is a well published poet from NM and used his PX-8 to store many documents. I have his PX-8 but am unable to get the thing going. He has a lot of work on cassettes and would like to get to the info. He now has a number of medical issues including not being able to speak well or even to write out his thoughts. I am heartborken when he comes by since we can no longer visit. I have to try to guess what he wants. Can anyone help with getting the data off the cassettes?

TIA,

Bill

(Submitted May 9, 2007 05:40:21 by Dave)

Hi All, I have obtained a vintage Compaq III luggable computer because I need a slow beast to program some radios. The computer came with a large cardboard box full with s/w on 5 1/4 disks but the system s/w had been deleted from the hard drive! I have downloaded the setup program but in this day and age don't have a computer that is capable of the Internet with a 5 1/4 disk drive on it! Does anyone out there have a setup disk on 5 1/4 they could help me with to get this old girl going again? Any help much appreciated and any expences covered Thanks in advance....Cheers Dave UZN

(Submitted May 7, 2007 02:05:08 by (a href=mailto:)MoonShadow(/a))

I'm pretty sure this old beast had 32kb of ROM. I have one, I've opened it up (not recommended!), and there is a jumper setting that sets 32k or 16k. 32 is the factory default. There are 2 ROM chips. I probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

(Submitted April 28, 2007 12:32:26 by Chris Gibson)

I have one of these machines and a dozen or so floppy disks for it, make me an offer and its yours!

(Submitted March 7, 2007 08:37:36 by chris)

I have a CompaQ Portable 3 with all manuals..Any idea on value.?.It has been in basement for well 15-20yrs...CL

(Submitted January 18, 2007 16:56:19 by im_an_alien)

That looks cool... I want one.

ps. does anyone know where I might get a Compaq Portable (one) manual? I got one with no documentation.

Description
Manufacturer	Compaq Computer Corporation
Model	Compaq Portable III
Date Announced	1987
Date Canceled	Unknown
Number Produced	Over 10,000
Country of Origin	USA
Price	$5,000 plus for a typical configuration
Current Value	$25-$100

Specifications
Processor	Intel 80286
Speed	12 MHz
RAM	640K
ROM	Unknown
Storage	5.25" 1.2MB floppy drive, 20 or 40 MB internal HD
Expansion	One IBM PC/AT compatible slot
Bus	ISA (Industry Standard Architecture)
Video	CGA 320x200x16 color (shades of gray) or 640x200x2 color. RGB out.
I/O	Parallel and Serial
OS Options	MS-DOS, CP/M-86, Windows 286 and others

Notes	Compaq was one of the first successful IBM PC clones and they eventually took a brief technological lead of the clone marketplace when they released the first Intel 80386 based PC. The Compaq Portable III was introduced prior to that as an AT class machine.

Related Items in Collection	Guide To Operations Manual, Compaq MS DOS 3 reference manual, Compaq expansion (2 slots), Compaq Portable Computer, IBM PC AT
Related Items Wanted	Other Compaq models with software, manuals, etc. Compaq Setup/Diagnostics disk.