Any experience with HP Omnibook 300?

I recently picked up an HP Omnibook 300. Everything was going great until I got too curious. I exited a windows session and turned off the machine I then wondered if I could boot the computer with another cf card in place of the system rom because I had a hard disk installed. I swapped them out and it didn't boot. No problem I figured batteries were dead, swapped the batteries and nothing. Put the ROM disk back within fresh batteries and it still won't boot. Plugged it into the mains with the rechargeable battery pack and still no luck. Is it possible to corrupt a ROM disk? Is anyone aware of a special boot sequence that I may have to go through because I removed the ROM disk?

I was really starting to enjoy this thing too.

Oh the memories. I had one myself. I grew to hate it as I am left handed and the built in mouse is made for "righties."

Anyways… after you swap out cf cards, push the reset button on the back and it should prompt you to format the card (prepare it) for use.

Seems you have to push the reset any time you swap out the cards if I remember right… but hell…that was 30 years ago.

Rich you are a life saver! I didn't even know there was a reset button. Thanks so much! It's booting as I type this.

Edited by jorel101 2021-05-26 7:29 PM

Sorry- I just saw this. Seems Rich already helped. I should have known he had one. I had to figure that reconfigure thing out by sleuthing the net. Mine did not have original card, but I managed to get a 256MB CF (or maybe a 512MB GF -I don't have it here as I type.) set up in it. Then it reinstalled everything. It was neat.

I got one about a year ago to play with during the height of the lock downs. I like it. It's like a big 200LX but with Windows 3.1. I have DOS stuff on mine.

What are your thoughts on it? Do you have a 200LX too?

Just curious.

HG

Yeah I've got the 200LX also. I like them both. I am still getting the omni300 setup to my liking. You're right, it's like a big 200lx. What are you running on yours? I just loaded sidekick2.0 for windows and I'm about to load Puma intellisync so I can share info with the 200. I'm also planning to get the 200 to sync with a Rex3 I have so I can keep passwords offline and whatnot. Also keeping a journal that I hope to one day pass on to my daughter when shes older. So I actually type quite a bit on the 200. Running Windows 3.0 on it with word1.0. Not sure if I like the word setup better or just the standard memo app but I get wysiwyg in word which is nice.

I have an old menu system - Easy Working Dos Manager - I used it on my old IBM 286 back in the day. It's a dos shell kind of menu driven thing from the old days. Within it, I have Word Perfect 5.1, Lotus 123 R23, Microsoft Works (cant remember the Dos version - maybe 2.0), file maven to transfer back and forth between the 200LX and 300. I also have Word 5.5 ( I think, but don't use that much) and a few other things.

I like it for distraction free writing. I have a two sets of rechargeable AAs that run forever). It's not as good as the 200LX, but with no spinning harddrive, they last long enough.

I know I'm leaving out a dos ap or two. I will look again when I get home. Out of the office today.

HG

I definitely have an affection for the 200LX memo ap. It is so simple and I can export it almost anywhere. Memo is the tool I use the most with the 200LX. I wish I had it on the MB 300...

I have Win 286 on my 200LX but don't use it much. It's fun having Win 3.1 on the 300, but then again, I don't use it much - but it is nice having the Excel for windows on the 300.

HG

The hp connectivity kit for the 200lx installs the memo application on any dos computer. With it you can basically turn your omnibook into a 200lx. It's available via archive.org. or I think I found my copy on Vogons. You need to install it from a real floppy though so it would be best to install to something else and then copy the folder over to the omnibook. I think to launch the suite you'd run appmgr200.bat from the folder.

Edited by jorel101 2021-06-07 7:21 PM

Ha! I have that on a disk somewhere. I will give it a try. I had no idea it did that.

Thanks!

HG

I only recently found out these exist…

I had a Compaq C120 years back and I remember lusting over the 100LX long before I could afford such things.

I still have the Compaq and now I have a 95LX, 100LX, 200LX and a Jornada 690…

I HAVE to find an Omnibook 300 (that isn’t ridiculously priced) to round out the family!

I hope it’s as awesome as the palmtops once I finally find one.