Sharp PC 3000

By Richard Zealley | 27th April 2020 |

The PC-3000 was a DOS-based computer, the predecessor to the PC-3100, launched in 1991 following the release of the Atari Portfolio, the world's first palmtop computer. Both the Sharp PC-3000 series and the Portfolio were developed by DIP Research. The only difference was that the PC-3100 came with 2 MB of RAM, rather than 1 MB.

Although a heavy user of DOS throughout the 1990s, and an enthuiast for small computers, I'd never owned a handhelp DOS machine so was keen to try one. The Sharp PC-3000/3100 looked ideal as they also came with a lot of peripherals that wouyld allow me to link to other computers, including serial, parallel and a floppy drive.

I managed to find a boxed one on eBay that included a parallel cable but no serial or floppy. It also has a power supply though that proved to be faulty.

Sharp PC 3100 at Museum of Computing History
Posted in Miscellaneous, Sharp and tagged ,

5 Comments

  1. Mark S on 22nd February 2023 at 5:35 pm

    Hi Richard,

    Just purchased a PC 3100 today. Will receive it in a few weeks as it is coming from overseas.

    In order to use CF card in a PC card adapter, one needs to get the driver onto the 3100 using a sram card first, unless you have a cable (one I bought has no cables).

    Have you used yours with CF cards? If so, which ones?

    Have you installed and run other DOS programs on your 3100?

    Any other suggestions on usage?

    Thank you.

    Mark

    Reply
    • Richard Zealley on 23rd February 2023 at 9:51 am

      Hi Mark
      Yep, that’s a bit of a holy grail for me too. I have a floppy drive for mine but it’s never worked. In the end I used a serial connection and a program called LapLink to transfer files from another PC, an Amstrad Alt386sx. However, I could never find the correct driver for the CF card so am not there yet. It’s been a while so I can’t recall exactly where I got up to so I may get it out again and have another go in the next few days. I’d be interested to know how you get on.
      Richard

      Reply
  2. Mark S on 3rd March 2023 at 7:49 pm

    Hi Richard,

    Thank you for your repy and input!

    My package just arrived in USA this morning….so, hopefully, it will arrive to me early next week.

    Will let you know how it goes….

    Best,

    Mark

    Reply
  3. andrej2112 on 3rd January 2024 at 2:23 pm

    Did you got sharp pc 3100?
    How did you found it?where?
    andrej

    Reply
    • Richard Zealley on 3rd January 2024 at 2:32 pm

      Hi Andrej
      I've not got a PC-3100. That would be nice of course. Almost all my stuff comes from eBay.
      Richard

      Reply

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