Daniel Dee wrote:
> 
> I just recently picked up a Grid 1520 286 laptop
> in working condition but without any documentation.
> I am wondering if anybody can tell me what the
> IC sockets underneath the flip up panel near
> the hinge between the keyboard and display is.
> My guess is that they're for memory upgrades.
> If so, what memory chips do they take?

They are for EPROMs.  You can install EPROMs with files on them.  They
look to the machine as an extension of the floppy drive, that is, they
appear on drive A:.  The machine will look at the floppy drive first and
then the eproms.  You can even have the machine boot from eprom if you
want.  There is a program from GRiD that creates the eprom images from
files.

They can be up to 27512 or maybe 27010 (depends on the version of the
machine you have).


> Third, I plugged in a CGA monitor in the monitor
> out socket in the back. Doesn't seem to work.
> Is there a magic key sequence to turn that on?

Ctrl-Alt-Tab

Other helpful hints on 1520 care and feeding:

The display hinges are prone to breakage, especially the right side one.
Open with care! They're magnesium castings, and the ones I've seen (the
broken ones that came with my 1520, and the replacement that broke) seem
to be less than A1 castings...very porous, very brittle. I'm working on
producing replacements, experimenting with Kevlar-reinforced epoxy
resin. If I get 'em to work, I'll probably be bragging all over the
place... watch this space.

The coax connector jack inside the AC power supply module is badly
underengineered, and tends to make intermittent or inadequate contact.
Take the AC module apart, re-solder the little bugger, and you will save
yourself much grief with rubber bands, electrical tape, and propping it
up Just So.

Which of the display options do you have? If it's the orange plasma
display, as on mine, it can suck your battery dry in no time. I have a
portable lead-acid battery pack (Currently available from Damark for
$20, though that's not where I got my first one) that isn't sufficient
to cold-start my 1520, but will supplement the internal battery and
extend its life enormously. Apparently spinning up the hard drive *and*
firing off that plasma screen at the same time pull more power than the
porta-pack can source, but it's a nice cheap add-on. It will run my 1040
or my 1910 for hours.

There are a few useful GRiD downloads on AST's website. By the way,
don't believe the folks who tell you that you can't run anything higher
than DOS 3.3 on (fill in GRiD of your choice) -- my 1520 runs 6.2, and
the only reason I keep 3.3 on my 1040 is to save space; I've run 6.2 off
a boot disk just fine.

-- Jean

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