HP Internet Advisor (J2522B)

Another "For Parts or Not Working" score, this time of a 1997 vintage HP "Internet Advisor".

Photo from a different model's eBay listing

It looks like a laptop, but it's actually a very heavy mid-1990s piece of test equipment. No battery power; it's "portable" but draws power from the mains. Mine is an apparently rare early model J2522B, intended to investigate T1 and 10Base-T Ethernet connections. Apparently these things cost upwards of 20 kilodollars 20 years ago, but my dusty example was only $20 shipped. I'd hoped it was broken, but alas, it worked perfectly.

There's a pretty good Lazy Game Reviews video that covers it pretty well. Especially the wacky built-in "Pop Out" mouse.

What's in the Box?

As with all mid-1990s HP test equipment, you need a T15 Torx driver (and later a T7 or T8) to take it apart, and it's built like a tank. The main body of this thing is fairly heavy-gauge steel.

Inside, you'll find a:

• Intel 486DX4-100
• 1.3GB 2.5" hard drive (still works fine!)
• 16 Megabytes of RAM
• Windows 95
• a 16-bit ISA "fast Ethernet" card in the left side option slot
• 640 x 480 VGA

The ELECTRONIC BRAIN. Notice the yellow "bodge" wires.

The "HammerLock" motherboard. That's a 2-cell Lithium battery for keeping the BIOS settings and running a (Y2K compliant!) clock.

That Doesn't Sound Like Much Fun

It won't make much of an old gaming machine. There's no sound hardware at all, except a tiny piezo speaker soldered on the main board. There's no PS/2 mouse or keyboard port, and the built-in Pop-Out mouse is a really cool idea, though it's not precise enough for gaming.

But maybe I can change all that...