Taking Apart a VersaView 200R

[Eddie Willers 2]

I recently inherited a VersaView 200R computer from a mothballed project. I don't have the A-B documentation, but in my experience with A-B computers they're pretty closed-mouthed about what's really inside them. So, I'm going to take this one apart and have some fun with it, and post the findings here on the MrPLC forum. My unit part number is 6155R-NS2KH, Series A Rev A. The "2K" must mean Windows 2000, as it has a license sticker on it for Windows 2000 Professional and it boots to Windows 2000. There's an RSView32 runtime license and application on the computer. I immediately took off the cover (7 tiny screws for the cover, 4 for the hard drive) and found there's a single-board computer inside with a PC/104 expansion bus. Silkscreened onto the board is the vendor name: "Wafer-6820". Google then led me to ICP industrial computer products: http://www.icpamerica.com/products/single_...WAFER-6820.html Terrific ! Now I know there's a FDD connector on there somewhere so I can patch in a floppy, and I might be able to connect a CD-ROM to this somehow, too. More news as I get further into the box.

[Eddie Willers 2]

I got into the hard drive, which is in a nice solid carrier, though without any shock mounting. A-B part number is 6189-P25HDSTD A, with another A-B sticker repeating the 6155-NS2KH part number over the Travelstar data. There is some old clear adhesive near the connector; it's possible that the 44-pin IDE connector was once glued on, and that this hard drive is a replacement. The IBM part number 07N8325 says this is a 20 GB drive, which matches its information in Windows. This was a very popular laptop hard drive, used by Dell and HP and Compaq. Some of the online reviews I've read complained of failures in laptop applications, so if I put a new one in I'll keep my eyes peeled for another make. I think I'm going to make an image for backup of this one for now, before I break more stuff. I have a 44/40 pin IDE adapter so I can attach this to my big desktop system and use Norton Ghost to burn an image of the drive to CDs.

[panic mode 246]

do you have camera? would be nice to see some pics...