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Book 8088 discovery and modification thread

milpool said:
I might.
It's a funny bug though. It only happens when turbo is turned ON and the system is using either a graphics mode or 40 column text mode. 80 column text works fine.
It must be something about the screen ram, because the cursor is not affected. Neither is the background color. It's just the contents of the screen memory that drop in and out when turbo is on.
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Looks sort of similar to my first Book8088 - I posted video in post #499. The seller sent me a new graphics card and that solved the issue. The replacement card came in less than two weeks.
 
sampson said:
Looks sort of similar to my first Book8088 - I posted video in post #499. The seller sent me a new graphics card and that solved the issue. The replacement card came in less than two weeks.
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I wonder when this little Chinese guy will understand that doing better quality control on what he sells could save him a lot of money on replacements and shipping to people who bought a defective computer...
 
I connected my book8088 to the internet via a serial cable using a Linux PC. I was playing with mTCP, IRCjr, etc. I wanted to try gopher browsing, but even though Gopherus for MS-DOS says it requires an 8086 and an MDA video card as the minimum configuration, it doesn't start on the book8088. The cursor just blinks and everything freezes. Does anyone know why or know of a gopher browser that works? PS: Considering that the serial port is occupied by the null modem cable to the bridge PC, I can't use Windows 3.0, not without a mouse... I think...
 
well my book 8088 up and just died today. it let off a funny smell and then the screen blanked and it just started making buzzing sound out of the speaker. it can't boot no life at all except for the buzzing sound.

i think i used it for a grand total of 3 hours powered on in the entire time i had it.

in the trash it goes
 
furball1985 said:
well my book 8088 up and just died today. it let off a funny smell and then the screen blanked and it just started making buzzing sound out of the speaker. it can't boot no life at all except for the buzzing sound.

i think i used it for a grand total of 3 hours powered on in the entire time i had it.

in the trash it goes
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I believe that the regulator that charges the battery has burned out. Unfortunately, the manufacturer of the Book 8088 does not perform quality checks on the products they assemble, but they are very willing to send replacement parts when they break down. If you say that it lasted only 3 hours, I think they will send you a replacement motherboard.
 
Not worth it. In general it has enough issues on its own. That money is better spent elsewhere.
I modified mine with help from this thread and I thank everyone that made it better.

It kept me on my toes since my cga prom was defective from the start and I got the help I needed here.

Moving on.
 
furball1985 said:
well my book 8088 up and just died today. it let off a funny smell and then the screen blanked and it just started making buzzing sound out of the speaker. it can't boot no life at all except for the buzzing sound.

i think i used it for a grand total of 3 hours powered on in the entire time i had it.

in the trash it goes
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Actually, I would save the ICs. The maker designed a disposable device, but used original ICs that aren't being made anymore.
 
I saved the 8088 v20 cpu and took my E-proms back out for reuse, i will never re-use the CPU, it just will never happen.
 
furball1985 seems to be annoyed with the machine. Let's stop with the advice and let him get through the grieving period. ;-0
 
Anyway, I want to say something: this little computer may not be very well-made, but constantly messing with it by opening it up and making modifications that involve cutting traces and adding wires... you'll break it, and you asked for it. I've followed those who made the modification to run 8088mph... it's a heavy alteration and in the end, it's only useful for running one demo. All other programs and games work without these modifications. I know it can be fun, but you have to assume that you might break it. As for my book8088, besides installing BIOS 1.0.6 and changing the LCD controller, I haven't touched it, and it continues to work well.
 
for the money i could get any vintage machine that actually works.

the screen issues, the USB port issues, me having to burn new roms, it burnt out a compact flash drive when i tried to delete a file over the usb port.

Really what was the point, self torture? when i started to use it then it just released the magic smoke LOL!

as for selling it? How much is a broken/used 8088 worth? and would you have paid the crazy shipping costs? no you would not have.

I put effort into this, i still have a 8Bit ISA box i made just for the book 8088 with serial/parellel/game port so i could have a mouse in windows 3.0.

the grieving is over. trash man took it, a cloud has lifted from my desk space replacing the book 8088 foot print with a windows XP machine running procomm host BBS with a wifi modem.

everyone enjoys the hobby in their own way, nothing made me smile like the empty trash can on the curb this morning.

200w.gif
 
GizMo79 said:
will have run out of nec v20 chips, so now it is cannibalizing cards with 8086
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Actually, not sure it's the same people... there's schematics, the bios source, everything else http://8086cpu.com/lm1/102.html I think it's a "rival" based on mentions I saw on the vogons book8088 thread or maybe just going back and fixing the book a bit based on changes from the 386 version? I dunno.. Has - 768KB RAM which the book8088 does not, so that's a plus, so UMB capability.. and for @sergey and @n0p a schematic of the CPLD! Also there appears to be the schematics for the pocket386.
 
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GizMo79 said:
I wonder when this little Chinese guy will understand that doing better quality control on what he sells could save him a lot of money on replacements and shipping to people who bought a defective computer...
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Lenovo did something similar in the 1990s and early 2000s, producing immature products and then making up for it with better after-sales service.
It's actually been a successful strategy, allowing them to launch new models faster, maintain lower prices, and most importantly accelerate their cash flow.
Lenovo relied on this strategy to defeat IBM, Fujitsu and NEC in the 2000s and then acquired their PC manufacturing divisions.
The only ones that followed this strategy were Taiwanese manufacturers like Acer, which then acquired Gateway 2000.
 
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