Talk:HP 200LX

vfd link
This article was proposed for deletion January 2005. The discussion is archived at Votes for deletion/HP 200Lx. Joyous 03:55, Jan 16, 2005 (UTC)

Pictures
I can take more pictures by request. -- Sy / (talk) 16:08, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Additional info for your consideration
My name is Everett Kaser. I was a software team member on the 95LX, 100LX, and 200LX development at HP. Extra info about your article that might be of interest:

The Lair Of Squid game was written by Andy Gryc "on his own time", not as an official HP project. Someone had brought in an early B&W digital camera (very low-resolution), and in playing around with it, Andy got the idea of taking pictures of the HP software team and (after converting them to VERY VERY low-res pictures) including them as a cookie in the game. This was done without HP management's knowledge, and wasn't publicly known until after the unit was shipping.

The self-test poems: I joined the 95LX project late in the development cycle, and my task was to write the self-test for it. Some text was needed for a "text readability" test, and I'd always enjoyed limericks, so I created the first one. I suspected that HP management wouldn't allow it, but no objections were raised, so it stayed. After intro, a forum on CompuServe originally for HP's calculators became heavily about the 95LX. I was asked by the moderator to spend time on the forum answering questions, but I didn't have a CompuServe account and wasn't going to pay for one. The moderator, after much fighting with CompuServe, convinced them to give me a "free" account as a "contributor". Several folks on the forum were huge early supporters of the 95LX, so during the development of the 100LX, I added a second poem to the self-test, as an "inside joke" for the CompuServe HP forum folks. "On my way to the Forum" was a direct reference, and "the Burg On The Wire" was an indirect reference to the CompuServe HP Forum. "charging a fee for sharing their treasure" was reference to CompuServe originally not wanting to give me free access to the Forum. "Good man" was reference to "Dave Goodman" and "Mark my words" was reference to Mark Scardina, two of the early and VERY vociferous supporters on the forum, and "the Dickens, I say" referred to Ted Dickens, the forum moderator. The third poem was added for the 200LX (after all, the 95LX and the 100LX each got their own poems, so the 200LX had to have one too!) Unfortunately, the final line about "Who knows what comes next, the clock is a tickin'", which was intended as a tease regarding future products in the line, was all too prophetic in the opposite direction: not long after the 200LX, the entire line was shipped off to the Singapore HP division, effectively killing it.

Regarding "significance" of the 95LX, it WAS one of the first true "palm top" computers, being a fully functional computer in the palm of your hand, and it was so significant at the time that Peter Jennings covered it with a short story on the national "ABC Evening News" the day it was introduced!

Oak Bog 16:22, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

any evidence of "current usage?"
as far as i can tell, the hp 200lx has gone from "quirky, niche hardware" to "wholly obsolete and essentially abandoned." the fact tags have been on the current usage section since last august, for a damn good reason. the 200lx webring appears to have been last updated eight years ago.

if nobody steps up to rewrite the current usage section and demonstrate that they are, in fact, currently used, i'm going to go ahead and remove it.pauli133 (talk) 20:56, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I still use one and had little difficulty finding a recent journal paper which confirms that they are still in use. I am removing all the tags. Colonel Warden (talk) 22:51, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

There is still no proper replacement on the market with modern technology. By proper replacement I mean: - 200g weight, incl. batteries; - battery life measured in weeks rather than hours; - AA-batteries used which are available anywhere and can be charged anywhere, so no need to schlepp a charger around when mobile; - instant-on; - proper personal information manager and note taker which is available by function key instead of numerous mouse clicks; - full keyboard with good distance of the keys to the next one, with function keys, cursore keys and num pad; keys don't need to be large to thumb-type well. the distance needs to be large so you don't hit the wrong key accidentally; Modern technology: - color screen; - touch screen; - usb and microSD instead of PCMCIA Type 2; - backlight;

I used the last one in 2008. Both appliances I have need to be repaired. Still looking for a replacement, but couldn't find one. I'm back to paper and pen for the moment. Maybe an UMPC? Some day? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.238.72.226 (talk) 09:52, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Active mailing list at hplx@mail.eberl.com http://mail.eberl.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hplx

Commercial support of the 200LX provided by Thaddeus (www.thaddeus.com) and Hermocom (www.hermocom.com) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.69.172.199 (talk) 02:49, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Easter Egg section nearly 50% of article
Does the Easter Egg section really need to be 50% of this article? I doubt this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.224.28.154 (talk) 12:35, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

Netgear FA411 network card worked with HP 200LX
As far as I am aware, no one else had discovered that the Netgear FA411 network card worked with the HP 200LX. I wrote the following message to the comp.sys.palmtops news group on July 2, 2002:

"I just learned from experimentation that the Netgear FA411 PCMCIA network adapter, which is NE2000 compatible, works with the HP200LX. Visit http://lxmnc.hplx.net to get the Microsoft Network Connectivity Kit for the HP200LX.  The FA411 is a 100/10 Mbits/s card.  I was able to connect to my Windows 98 machine from the HP200LX and map a network drive using the IPX/SPX protocol and Ethernet II frames so that I could access a drive on the Windows 98 machine from my HP 200LX.  You need an HP200LX with 2MB of RAM or more so that you can get the connectivity kit stored on the C:\ drive of the HP200LX to a directory such as, C:\NET.  You then need to modify the SYSTEM.INI file of the connectivity kit on the HP200LX to indicate what workgroup you belong to and then run IPX-UP.BAT. If SYSTEM.INI is not there, then try running IPX-UP.BAT first." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.16.39.16 (talk) 04:55, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

HP 1/200LX DAC
The HP 100LX/HP 200LX's digital-to-analog converter cannot play audio tones; instead, it monitors battery life and charging.

My 200LX most definitely has audio. MS Flight Sim 2.1 and the DOS version of Prince of Persia most definitely do, as do the built-in organizer programs (alarm clock, etc). I haven't tested anything else, but if these games work, I'd be surprised if simpler software failed here.

There is even a .WAV player for the 200LX floating around on one of the LX-specific websites, with instructions to add a 1/8" headphone jack, although I've never used this. 24.51.217.118 (talk) 03:43, 18 June 2016 (UTC)

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External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

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What is meant by "audio tones"?
The HP 100LX/HP 200LX's digital-to-analog converter cannot play audio tones; instead, it monitors battery life and charging[citation needed].

It certainly supports PC speaker audio in every program I've used which supports this. 57.135.233.22 (talk) 00:53, 14 March 2024 (UTC)