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Compact Contura 430c

J

JT64

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2008
Messages
402
Location
Sweden
Found a contura 430c in the dumpster today look functional but unfortunatly no AC power adapter.

There was both memory and HDD inside. I have tried to find out if original or extra memory inside, the memory card is a Viking 9442192.

I have an old powerbook 180, so i did test that adapter not a sound, but it could be different polarity but i guess most laptops run 12 or 24 volt?

Do anyone know were i could find a suiting AC adapter cheap, i was thinking maybe ELFA would have. I downloaded servicemanual but can not find voltage ampere and polarity.

JT
 
JT64 said:
How sensitive is computers, would following adapter work, it give a 30 watts extra.

Will the computer overheat if you give 90 instead of 60 watt, maybe even wont start?

Spänning: 19 Volt
Ström: 4.74A
Kapacitet: 90W
Dimension: 4.8*1.7mm
Input: 100-240V 1.5A 50-60Hz
Output: 19V 4.74A 90W

JT
Click to expand...


Uhhhhhhh, let's not go over the rated voltage by 3 volts! The extra watts are fine, good in fact. Just we would like 16v, not!! 19v. The poor power circuits have enough to handle without "doing" another 3 volt drop.
 
How do one know if old computers like a contura support 1 or 2 ide devices?

The reason i ask if because maybe it would be possible to squeese in a mini CF adapter, i guess only way to know is to strap HD as slave and boot from floppy and see if it find HD?

Since there is no USB port i guess there was no CD drive with the conturas?

I've seen pc card/pcmcia scsi would you be able to attach a SCSI CD/DVD that way?

I think i found a good wireless networkcard for the contura will report on it if i win the auction.

JT
 
JT64 said:
How do one know if old computers like a contura support 1 or 2 ide devices?

The reason i ask if because maybe it would be possible to squeese in a mini CF adapter, i guess only way to know is to strap HD as slave and boot from floppy and see if it find HD?

Since there is no USB port i guess there was no CD drive with the conturas?

I've seen pc card/pcmcia scsi would you be able to attach a SCSI CD/DVD that way?

I think i found a good wireless networkcard for the contura will report on it if i win the auction.
Click to expand...

You can also use a parallel-to-SCSI adapter to run a SCSI CD-ROM. I've never had a lot of luck with PCMCIA cards on early laptops--it seems as if they were all different in various little ways--enough to keep them from operating correctly.
 
various

various

watts is a unit that measures power.
Or:
1W = 1 A * 1 V
Or:
Wattage is driven by the load function.
Or:
You cannot feed more watts into a sink than it is capable of receiving.
The converse isn't necessarily true.
Or:
Using a PSU with a higher watt-delivered rating is okey, as long as the voltages are reasonably close.
Or:
Using a PSU with the same or lower watt rating, but with a higher voltage, is NOT okay.
OR:
Using a PSU with a lower or same voltage rating, and a lower or same wattage rating won't hurt anything, but it might not work.

IDE:
Try it. If the controller chip doesn't support 2 IDE devices, you'll know.
I'd try it with two hard drives first, before going to CF, just to know it works. CF can be a bit fussy.

patscc
 
patscc said:
watts is a unit that measures power.
Or:
1W = 1 A * 1 V
Or:
Wattage is driven by the load function.
Or:
You cannot feed more watts into a sink than it is capable of receiving.
The converse isn't necessarily true.
Or:
Using a PSU with a higher watt-delivered rating is okey, as long as the voltages are reasonably close.
Or:
Using a PSU with the same or lower watt rating, but with a higher voltage, is NOT okay.
OR:
Using a PSU with a lower or same voltage rating, and a lower or same wattage rating won't hurt anything, but it might not work.

IDE:
Try it. If the controller chip doesn't support 2 IDE devices, you'll know.
I'd try it with two hard drives first, before going to CF, just to know it works. CF can be a bit fussy.

patscc
Click to expand...

Actually now i've seen replacement adaptors with both 16 v and 17.5

Would be nice to know the specification of the original unit.

JT
 
It seem impossible to get an AC adapter to the conture for under 10 Euro, is there any value to old laptops, it is in great shape and with memory expansion and battery, have no idea if the duracell battery is working though.

Should i spend some money on an adapter, already spent 6 Euro on a wireless networkcard for it?

Are they even possible to sell or exchange for other Vintage?

JT
 
Contura series

Contura series

I am quite familiar with the Contura series; for a period in the late 1990s, I had so many of those come and go from my house, I could qualify as a dealer...

Most of my Conturas were the first generation models, which used a very different chassis than yours (mine were the 3/25, 4/25, 4/25c, 4/25CX models). The Conturas were notorious for screen hinge breakage (stress cracks form around the threaded brass hinge mounts in the display housing). The Contura series was aimed towards budget-conscious consumers, college students, and anyone looking for an inexpensive notebook. The LTE and Armada series were the "business grade" units). That said, if your notebook is genuinely solid, and you are not sure if it runs, it's still a risk. I have gone as far as three volts over the manufacturer's specification for power supplies (on other notebook... not the Conturas). This is something you can try at your own risk, it may damage the unit, but it might not... I never considered the Contura to be a particularly valuable, desirable, or rare notebook (most have been killed off by now, so this could flip in the other direction). Personally, I would spend up to $20 USD to find out if this thing works. If it works, you've got a great little DOS or Win3.1/95 machine; of not, sell it for parts! As for your WiFi card... I've never seen anyone try to run one on a '98 or earlier machine... were you able to find a driver for it? If so, where?
Best of luck in this project!
 
bbishoppcm said:
As for your WiFi card... I've never seen anyone try to run one on a '98 or earlier machine... were you able to find a driver for it? If so, where?
Best of luck in this project!
Click to expand...

I have, with several laptops. I use a couple of Cisco 340s, which fit 16-bit PCMCIA slots, and I got the drivers from Cisco's website. Still haven't figgered out how to get 95 working on one, but it's s'posed to. I know people who run OS/2 on the same hardware.

--T
 
Terry Yager said:
I have, with several laptops. I use a couple of Cisco 340s, which fit 16-bit PCMCIA slots, and I got the drivers from Cisco's website. Still haven't figgered out how to get 95 working on one, but it's s'posed to. I know people who run OS/2 on the same hardware.

--T
Click to expand...

I used to have one a long time ago. It came to me with 95 on it, so I know it's possible, but I don't know how it was installed. I could't afford a PCMCIA card for it at the time so I was using an parallel ethernet adapter for it.
 
bbishoppcm said:
I am quite familiar with the Contura series; for a period in the late 1990s, I had so many of those come and go from my house, I could qualify as a dealer...

Most of my Conturas were the first generation models, which used a very different chassis than yours (mine were the 3/25, 4/25, 4/25c, 4/25CX models). The Conturas were notorious for screen hinge breakage (stress cracks form around the threaded brass hinge mounts in the display housing). The Contura series was aimed towards budget-conscious consumers, college students, and anyone looking for an inexpensive notebook. The LTE and Armada series were the "business grade" units). That said, if your notebook is genuinely solid, and you are not sure if it runs, it's still a risk. I have gone as far as three volts over the manufacturer's specification for power supplies (on other notebook... not the Conturas). This is something you can try at your own risk, it may damage the unit, but it might not... I never considered the Contura to be a particularly valuable, desirable, or rare notebook (most have been killed off by now, so this could flip in the other direction). Personally, I would spend up to $20 USD to find out if this thing works. If it works, you've got a great little DOS or Win3.1/95 machine; of not, sell it for parts! As for your WiFi card... I've never seen anyone try to run one on a '98 or earlier machine... were you able to find a driver for it? If so, where?
Best of luck in this project!
Click to expand...

Well it is a D-Link DWL-650 bought it 5 euro, and i think it have drivers for both win95 and 98.
(It is not the new 650+ cardbus this is an old 16-bit pc-card i think it should work)

I was thinking trying DSL damn small linux also, i think it also will suport the card.
I am thinking of buying a CF to PCMCIA adapter, if it will enable me to change OS with the CF.
I guess i need a tool like syslinux or some bootloader to make it happen.

Maybe i can load/configure the dosparts of win95 and win98 and load pcmcia drivers, and then reach the CF, let autoexec.bat to start win.com on the CF. We will see if it work would be nice to chance OS just changing CF on such old hardware. The CF ultra driver read writes 9 MB per second i do not know how fast the PCMCIA slot can handle reads and writes.

Fun project however.

JT
 
Last edited:
I got the Contura "working" with a 12 volt adapter, a little to low voltage i guess, but i've been to lazy to resolder my other adapter. :mrgreen: Cant say that the battery is recharging at all though.

I've installed the latest bios upgrade, was a bit afraid the machine would reboot during the flash due to low voltage(happens), but all did go well. I got my wireless networkcard installed with drivers, but i do think the power is enough to get it work correctly, or there could be issues with the driver and win95

I did go into the bios and noticed that the contura actually support 4 ide devices i found this a bit peculiar, since there is only one ide port in the machine.

Will drives mounted in CF come up as ide devices in the bios?
I assume there is ide 44 cables with both master and slave?

JT
 
bbishoppcm said:
I am quite familiar with the Contura series; for a period in the late 1990s, I had so many of those come and go from my house, I could qualify as a dealer...

Most of my Conturas were the first generation models, which used a very different chassis than yours (mine were the 3/25, 4/25, 4/25c, 4/25CX models). The Conturas were notorious for screen hinge breakage (stress cracks form around the threaded brass hinge mounts in the display housing). The Contura series was aimed towards budget-conscious consumers, college students, and anyone looking for an inexpensive notebook. The LTE and Armada series were the "business grade" units). That said, if your notebook is genuinely solid, and you are not sure if it runs, it's still a risk. I have gone as far as three volts over the manufacturer's specification for power supplies (on other notebook... not the Conturas). This is something you can try at your own risk, it may damage the unit, but it might not... I never considered the Contura to be a particularly valuable, desirable, or rare notebook (most have been killed off by now, so this could flip in the other direction). Personally, I would spend up to $20 USD to find out if this thing works. If it works, you've got a great little DOS or Win3.1/95 machine; of not, sell it for parts! As for your WiFi card... I've never seen anyone try to run one on a '98 or earlier machine... were you able to find a driver for it? If so, where?
Best of luck in this project!
Click to expand...

I never got the contura with win95 to run the D-Link card, and the driver states win98, there seem to be IRQ and memory port issues that make it impossible to load. I will try to install win 98 i am not sure i can get it up running with only 12 MB of memory though, probably have to install on another computer move it and tweak it.

I for now I got a none wife 3com card 589c instead work like a charm, very fast.

JT

JT
 
Win98's minimum Ram requirement is 8 mb, But as a warning, running Windows 98 on a 486 with the minimum ram or only slightly over it can be frustrating. It will run, but slow.
 
I just unearthed my Compaq Contura Aero 4/33C from the Back Closet. It was placed there after the hinge broke (see bbishoppcm's message above) and, while I was able to fix that, in the process the flex connection through the hinge area to the display was damaged and the LCD went all stripey (a few full-brightness bands, but mostly a grayed-out display).

The power supply says 17.5 volts dc, 1.8 amperes, 20 watts. The bottom of the Aero says 17.5 volts dc maximum. The connector has positive on the middle pin. While I was using it, I made up a cable to go directly to an automobile cigarette lighter plug (so dirty 12-15 volts); it worked fine, as I recall.

It came loaded with Win95. Bootup took about two minutes today. It says it has Win 95 4.00.950a loaded. Processor is a 80486. There is 12.0 MB RAM. The hard drive is 160 MB. The Windows folder takes up 67.7 MB. I normally used it with a serial mouse, ignoring the trackball. It came with an external floppy drive cabled to a PCMCIA connector.
 
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