Is there any way to connect HP 200LX to external monitor?

There are many useful add-ons for HP 200LX, what about external monitor connection? Is there any way to connect HP 200LX to external monitor?

There are certainly PCMCIA cards that are 16-bit and have the potential, however I doubt that there were ever any DOS / Windows 3.0 drivers for them due to lack of demand
https://www.palmtoppaper.com/ptphtml/34/pt340004.htm

They were definitely available for the CE-devices. I have had one but it was way to slow. You could see every line pop out by itself. Mostly that was made to use the CE as a powerpoint-presenter with static images. The driver of some of these cards didn't support anything else (so no home-screen on the beamer)

Now imagine that with the much older DOS-palmtop in b/w

I made some research and managed to find only Canopus PowerWindow T64V Card, which supposed to work with Windows 3.1. But again, the latest version of Windows that is working with HP 200LX is Windows 3.1 Build 34f version, so ... I'm still puzzled.

@ThinkpadlL Can you cite your source for 3.1 on the 200LX? I was under the impression that only 3.0, in real mode, could run on the PalmTop.

Jake

3.10 needs 286 standard or 386 enhance mode, 3.10 WFW/3.11 WFW needed 386SX virtual mode.

Yeah, that was my understanding. I've never heard of anyone running 3.1 on the 200LX, nice though that might be.

Jake

Maybe I misunderstood, but I read it just as a statement about the Canopus PowerWindow T64V Card simply requiring Windows 3.1, not about the 200LX running 3.1 per se.

On that note, is there any way for a 3.1 device driver to work on 3.0?
Edit:


That would make more sense then, I did some searching and found that. So perhaps later betas / RTM dropped support for the 200LX?

Edited by torch 2023-10-03 11:31 PM

https://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv014.cgi?read=61905

has some information.
Someone mentioned redirecting CON (console device) to COM1 might be something to explore.

I don't really know if that is a solution to monitor output, but this adapter might do the trick?
https://www.showmecables.com/db9-female-to-hd15-vga-female-serial-adapter

Just some thoughts.

-stingraze

Edited by stingraze 2023-10-04 5:23 AM

I may have gotten to the bottom of this: the earliest betas of Windows 3.1 CAN run in real mode; MS appears to have phased that out in the later releases.

Build 034f complains about needing Standard or Enhanced, but Win3.1 build 3.1-026 actually installs on the 200LX. I was surprised at its sophistication--it offered to go through all my other programs on the drive and set up PIFs for relevant apps, including my Word 1.1a from the 3.0 directory.

From there, I was disappointed. Word 2.0, even in 3.1 presence, demands a 286 processor, and I haven't found a Word 2.0 beta that says different. Furthermore, despite the welcome addition of 3.1 TTF fonts, Word 1.1a apparently only plays with .fon, same as in Win3.0. Beyond that, Word 1.1a typing on 3.1 is laggy to the point of abandonment--the 3.0 setup available in our PalmTop subsection is far snappier.

Back to original topic: I'll be interested to see if external monitor drivers can run on Beta 3.1, real mode, and an HP 200LX. Be it 3.0 or 3.1, the 200LX is sentenced to real mode, which may preclude further advancement of this issue. Even if it did pan out, a 3.1 real mode display on an external monitor might only show the limitations of all this, albeit on a larger screen, and nothing more.

But 3.1 and the illusive TTFs are available on the 200LX; there's just no one to play with.

Jake

I think we need some photos!

Credit to astrohound: https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43683

This is the 3.1 real mode version that I'm running.







Attachments
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3.1 on 200LX.jpg (185KB - 0 downloads)

Thanks for posting!! Looking good
Very cool to see

That's the first time I've seen an actual picture of HP 200LX running Windows 3.1.

Edited by stingraze 2023-10-06 5:29 AM

Very cute!

Can you get print screen to fire?

If only it had the RAM to take a web browser - would IE even load on the beta?