This mini forum is intended to provide a simple means of discussion about the Commodore  PC Compatible systems computer. If you want to share your own experience or memories, or add relevant information about this system: post a message!

I remember when dad brought home a Commodore PC10-2 (2 likely for number of Floppy Drives) I couldn''t make it work, as LOAD "*" ,8,1 gave me strange errors, as did any BASIC Commands. Once I figured out that it ran "DOS" I started getting used to it. One problem we had was that it wouldn''t not *ever* recognize a 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy drive. It simply did not exist to the machine. It did however accept a 42MB Hard Drive (32MB and 10MB partitions, who could ever use more than 32MB?) A few years later it was joined by a Compaq Portable II, and was eventually replaced by a 286 with a mouse! But that''s a story for another Old Computer.

PC 10-II was my first DOS PC, after C-64 in early 90s. Orange CGA display, ~28MB HDD, built like a tank.

Aside of quite slow yet unforgettable gaming and writing odd texts, I begun to learn Turbo Pascal on this machine and after many years and computer generations, I ultimately ended up developing software in the company that made DOS.
Sometimes I miss that orange CRT glow of times when it all started for me (reclaimed c-64 already).

A note on the mouse interface on the commodore PC 10-III. The mouse interface has a reverse diode protection on each pin to prevent damage to the PC should you plug in a serial mouse.

I owned a Commodore PC 20-III with a dual floppy disk (1-3,5" 720kB 2-5,25" 360kB) and a hard disk (20 MB). It featured a 12,66 MHz 8088 and came with a color monitor (the same sold with the Amiga 500).

To add value to the "technical informations" it also featured a CGA/Plantronix graphics card, capable of 320x200 at 16 of 256 colors. Unfortunately not many programs supported this colorful resolution at the time (once was deluxe paint).

A really good and robust machine with a beautiful and comfortable keyboard and a mouse (the same of amiga 500).

I owned a Commodore PC 20-III with a dual floppy disk (1-3,5" 720kB 2-5,25" 360kB) and a hard disk (20 MB). It featured a 12,66 MHz 8088 and came with a color monitor (the same sold with the Amiga 500).

To add value to the "technical informations" it also featured a CGA/Plantronix graphics card, capable of 320x200 at 16 of 256 colors. Unfortunately not many programs supported this colorful resolution at the time (once was deluxe paint).

A really good and robust machine with a beautiful and comfortable keyboard and a mouse (the same of amiga 500).

I have a PC-1. It does indeed have an Expansion port on the back. But it''s not very useful. Some voltages and a Intact DMA0 line are missing. Also, the pinout is different from an ISA Port. But with a ISA Backplane and a AT Power Supply I made an Expansion Adapter with 5 additional slots. When you set the dip switches of the initial PC-1 Videomode to "none", you can add any Graphics card you like, but keep in mind it needs to refresh its own memory, otherwise you will be plagued with video artifacts. I used a WDC 16-bit SVGA card, a MFM Harddisk controller and a Soundblaster. Obviously, the internal PSU is too small for that and the stuff behind the PC-1 needs much more space than the PC-1 itself!

I have an old PC10 with strange mainboard, it''s made of 2 boards. One contains CPU, RAM and ROM v. 2.01, as NPU socket and some VLSI chips. The second mainboard is connected by goldpin connectors, it''s an "IO board" containing serial and parallel port, ISA slots and all I/O chips. Some tracks from ISA slots are factory cut by drilling. This early PC10 has no RTC, HDD controller or reset switch, in front it has DIN keyboard connector. One LED (green and red 2-color) is not used, one (red) is for power. Computer contains 2 BASF floppy disk drives, they run very quietly.
Any info about this version?.

A note about the CTRL-ALT-D combination. Soon after purchasing my Commodore Colt I found the combination and calculated the speed was 9.54MHZ. I wrote Commodore Business Machines and asked them what the speed of the computer was and if it was safe to operate it in this mode. I received a letter back from Commodore stating that the speed was not supported and that they did not recommend operating the computer in that mode. Even though the CPU was the 10MHZ 8088 other ICs on the motherboard may not be able to operate at that clock speed resulting in timing issues. Being a Electrical Engineer student, however, I knew that ICs were designed with a margin of error to allow for variations in designs. I therefore proceeded to use the Double speed and never experienced an issue.

I purchased my Commodore Colt in 1988. In 1990 I purchased a 20 MB hard drive for it and soon after a VGA card. I spent many hours playing games and doing homework for college on that computer. In 1993 I upgraded to a 386 computer and the Colt went into storage. Recently I pulled out my Commodore Colt to restore it to operational status. The 20MB hard drive I originally purchased had failed, but I recently obtained a Seagate ST351A/X 40 MB drive and a 4.36 Bios chip. The new drive is working great and I plan to replace the RTC Battery.

My first computer was a Commodore PC-10 which I had in 1988. I learned GW-Basic Programming with it. one good thing about it was since it dosent have any hard disk that you could put the OS Disk in the Upper slot while put your program disket in the lower one. and another one was that it supportes 16 green colour wich was amazing for a monochrome pc.

My 1st computer was a Commodore PC 10-III I bought in May 1989 at an incredible price for my 15-years-old-boy pocket. It had no HD, and I requested the 2nd floppy to be 3"1/4 instead of being another 5"1/4 that would be useless IMHO. The processor run at 9.54MHz (double speed) and -according to Wikipedia- was a Nec V20, an 8088 clone. The graphic board was a CGA compatible board with some more RAM than normal and some undocumented video modes. For instance I remember I could achieve 320x200 with 16 colors which was impossible on a real CGA. I loved that machine, really.

My first DOS computer was the Commodore Colt I bought secondhand in 1992. I didn''t have a monitor for it but used a composite monitor that I was using on my Apple IIc. For some reason, the composite output quit working and I didn''t use the Colt for a while until I found a CGA video card to use with it. It had a 720kb 3.5" floppy and the standard 360kb 5 1/4" floppy drive, as well as a 40 MB hard drive. I had a lot of fun learning how to run DOS with it. I ended up selling it on ebay a number of years later, but kind of wish I still had it. Nowadays I play the DOS games I played on the Colt on my Win7 laptop using the DOSBox emulator.

my old hometown school had a couple of C$ PC-III''s and a Compis when i was a kid, we used them to play this fun mathematical game on it and save our results on personal 5,25 floppies.

I was the owner of a Commodore PC 60 III.
It was my very first MS-Dos compatible PC and for that time it was a nice machine. It featured built in VGA graphics, a 20 Mb harddisk and 2 MB of ram.
But it was a real problem to expand the memory. While other PC's could be upgraded with EDO ram modules, the Commodore required a special memory module, designed by Commodore. The motherboard had special expansion slots for that board. Unfortnatelly, by the time I wanted to expand the memory, the memory modules were not longer available by the reatailers and Commodore didn't exist anymore as a PC manufacturer.

I think that PC-10 come with hard disk too...in the year 1986 i get this computer with HD (22mb)
And this is not been a option...

I purchased the Commodore Colt which was an 8088 based PC for $799. It came with two 5 ¼” floppy drives, CGA graphics, 640k RAM and MS-DOS 3.2. It would run at 4.77 MHz or 7.16 MHz (x1.5) if you pressed the Alt-T combination. There was also an undocumented Alt-P combination that would step up the processor to 9.54 MHz (x2.0). One of the earlier instances of over clocking your processor. I ended up putting a 3 ½” floppy in one of the drive bays, a 40 Meg hard drive and a 2,400 Kbps modem.

There seems to be at least one error in the data provided on these pages regarding Commodore PC-models. Not all 8088 computers came with 84 keys keyboard, as my Commodore PC 10-III came with 102 key keyboard. I gave up the computer around 1989, but this very keyboard stayed with me for many years, actually I still have it in my closet. The Commodore 102-keyboard was and probably still is, the best there is :) Once I accidentally sold that keyboard, but believe it or not, I found the very same keyboard from a second hand shop some two years after that (I recognised it as I once burned some marks on it). I might still have the original documentation somewhere. Hope I will find all that.

My first computer was a Commodore PC 10-III...
Derek, to answer your question re: the tones when pressing Ctrl-Alt-S/T/D, this is actually for changing the CPU clock speed:
S = Standard speed (4.77 Mhz)
T = Turbo speed (7.16 Mhz)
D = Double speed (9.56 Mhz)

I used a Commodore PC 10-III in the late eighties and noticed that whenever I hit Alt-S, the internal speaker would produce a tone (D#) for half a second. Alt-D would produce a G, and Alt-T would produce an F.

I have no idea why this is, but I'll be there's a silly story behind this. Anyone?

I have commodore model PC10c (on back sticker) now, in front its name is Commodore PC 20-III. CPU is Siemens 8088-1-P. It have slot for copprocesor - empty. memory is 640KB, Graphic chip is paradise PVC4 - its maybe cga (how do i recognize this?) with one monitor and one TV out output. it have one mouse port, one big serial port and one paralel port. It have HDD Western Digital 20MB + 2x 5.25 floppys. Everything is integrated on mainboard, computer have 3 free expansion 8-bit isa slots. Bios is dated to year 1988.

My father's office used a Commodore PC-50 as a workstation in the early to mid 90's, ran MS-DOS 5 or 6 though came with version 4.11. We used Sage Sterling version 6 for invoicing and also Wordperfect 5 (not sure on the version). Was networked using Lan Manager and a 16bit tonken ring network card.

I remember when dad brought home a Commodore PC10-2 (2 likely for number of Floppy Drives) I couldn't make it work, as LOAD "*" ,8,1 gave me strange errors, as did any BASIC Commands. Once I figured out that it ran "DOS" I started getting used to it.
One problem we had was that it wouldn't not *ever* recognize a 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy drive. It simply did not exist to the machine. It did however accept a 42MB Hard Drive (32MB and 10MB partitions, who could ever use more than 32MB?)

A few years later it was joined by a Compaq Portable II, and was eventually replaced by a 286 with a mouse! But that's a story for another Old Computer.

i think this type is really cool. commodore was obviously one of the best computer manufactueres. it looks real neat it must have been a good computer. i am a computer nerd and i study these things.

I found an old PC-1 from 1984 with PC-expanson (A whole cabinet with 21 MB HDD). I took it home, and it is in my cellar now. A day I will open the case and look at the motherboard myself, take some pics. etc...

I picked up a Commodore Colt at a garage sale for $2. At first, my dad and I had no idea what it was, but when we took the cover off, lo and behold, an 8088! We started playing with it right away. All we had was the case, we had to scrounge around for a keyboard (any IBM keyboard would work on it). We used it for about 2 years, running Wordperfect 5.1, DOS 3.3, etc... Eventually we made it up to DOS 6 and even tried Windows 3.0 on it! The best part of the system was the Video Out RCA jack on the back that allowed you to plug the system in to a TV and use a TV as a monitor. We used to record ourselves playing games through the VCR line in for fun :-P This system was my first IBM compatible PC, before this I had an ADAM and an Apple //c, and the Laser 128 clone of the Apple //c. We later attempted to use the case to hold a 286 motherboard we found, but they were proprietory cases. I would still use the system today if I had it, but the floppy drives eventually died and we retired it.

I had a "Commodore PC1" in year 1988. It had a 8088 CPU running 4.77 Mhz, 360 Kb 5 1/4 floppy, CGA graphics with monochrome monitor (black&green), compact keyboard and finally 512 K RAM (expandable to only 640 K). It had no HD but there was a non-standard port for that purpose. It came with DOS 3.21.