Posted on August 25, 2018
Compaq Armarda 1592DT
The first ever laptop I bought myself. While propably not significant in computer history, it is an example for a solid and rigid business notebook, which served me well during my education.
Quick Links:
Historic Overview
While Compaq Computer Corporation has been defunct since 2002, when it was acquired by HP, and the brand itself hasn’t been used since around 2013 as well, Compaq did originally play a significant role in the computer industry, being amongst the first to manufacture IBM PC clones.
In it’s long line of portable computers, the Armada series might not have played an important role. During it’s time around 1996 to 1997, the Armada lineup was intended for small business users, delivering a powerful and rigid notebook for everyday use.
The Armada 15xx series came equiped with both Intel Pentium MMX and later also Intel Celeron CPUs. By default it came with 32 MiB of RAM and a 2.4 or 3.2 GiB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive and built-in audio. As typical for its time, it came with either Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0.
For the fun part, while clearly a notebook of the Windows 95/NT 4.0 era, it’s interesting to note that the keyboard lacked the typical “Windows” keys, although there was an empty spot just beneath both Control keys, which could easily be fitted with those missing keys. Instead, the Armada provided you with 4 programmable hotkeys sitting just above the function keys. And guess it or not, using the hotkey utility the missing Windows keys could be assigned to those hotkeys. Does it make sense? No. Didn’t back then, doesn’t today.
The Armada is a typical example of business notebooks of the time, not too many bells and whistles, no innovative features, but sturdy and proven technology nevertheless. Still functional by today, my original notebook is part of the collection for nostalgic reasons.
Specs
The PHINTAGE Collection currently holds a Compaq Armada 1592DT.
| Vendor | Compaq Computer Corporation |
| Model | Armada 1592DT |
| Released | 1996 |
| Original Streetprice | 5000 US$, 4800 CHF |
| Weight | 3.6 KG |
| Dimensions | 31cm x 24.4cm x 5.3cm |
| Builtin Display | yes, 12.1″ TFT |
| Builtin Battery | yes, removable, 2.7 Ah |
| CPU | Intel Pentium MMX @233 MHz |
| RAM | 96 MiB (upgraded from 32 MiB) |
| Storage |
|
| Network Support | optional, via PCMCIA FastEthernet Adapter |
| USB | 1 USB 1.1 |
| Video Output | 1 VGA |
| Other | Docking Connector, 1 PS/2, 1 RS232, 1 Parallel Port, 1 Serial Infrared, 2 PCMCIA Type 2 |
| Operating System | Windows 98 SE |
| Overall Condition |
|
| Restoration Parts needed |
|
| Benchmark Results | SiSoft Sandra 99, CPU benchmark: CPU Dhrystone: 506 MIPS CPU Whetstone: 257 MFLOPS SiSoft Sandra 99, Multimedia benchmark: Integer ALU: 525 it/s Floating Point FPU: 179 it/s Norton Utilities 3.1: Computing Index, relative to IBM/PC: N/A Norton Utilities 4.5: Computing Index, relative to IBM/XT: 473.2 Norton Utilies 8.0: CPU Speed: 794 |
Gallery
Coming soon.
what is the absolute maximum amount of hdd storage can be put in this machine?
Hello George,
I’ve uploaded the service manual.
I’ve misread your question first, sorry. The max for HDD recognized natively with the BIOS is 8 GiB. For a bigger drive, a real mode BIOS extender ist required.
Cheers, GP
Hi, I’m struggling to get mine to boot a fresh install of Windows 98, it’ll only boot in to safe mode.
Were you able to get yours working properly and if so can you advise whether you used any specific drivers or software versions?
Have you got drivers for NT? I have only got 16 colours and just beeps from the speaker.
Hello David,
I’ve uploaded my drivers collection to Internet Archive, see also https://archive.org/details/compaq-armada-1592DT
I only have the NT3.5 video drivers, but maybe they work on NT4.0 as well.
Hope it helps.
-GP
Thank you, it is lovely. I have installed it with NT 3.51 from WinWorld. I have also found the video driver for Windows 3.1, so I can now use the whole screen. The SVGA driver with Windows 3.1 didn’t work, so I was limited to a 640×480 screen.