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Hello everyone. I have a Sharp PC-7200 that when booting complains of "Invalid configuration information" and says to "Strike F1 to continue". When I got it, the original CMOS battery was dead, as you might expect. I've replaced it with the same voltage Ni-MH battery, and it now stores...

Hello everyone. I recently acquired a Sharp PC-7200. I knew it wouldn't boot from the hard drive before purchasing. I thought it was going to be a PLUS+ HardCard like the PC-7100 and figured it just needed the rubber bumper replaced. Unfortunately, I found the 7200 is not a hard card, but...

I got this the other day and it won't turn on. I think it may be the caps on the DC/DC power board as I've read they are a common problem, as is usually the case in our hobby. I have replacements in my shopping cart on Mouser, but I wanted to verify the problem before ordering. I started poking...

I guess I lied. The LED that indicates it's receiving power from the A/C adapter lights, but nothing else. I suspect there's a common flaw with these systems as I haven't seen any for sale that say they power on. Nor have I seen anyone with a photo or video of one booting. The only one of...

Hey everyone. I buy pretty much all of my vintage computers varying degrees of disrepair. Some I can handle and some are beyond my current knowledge. I enjoy the process of diagnosing and repairing. I'm actually a little bummed when there's no more left to do. Part of the thrill is pushing...

I've never seen this before. The text is physically too big to even display the BIOS messages without going off the screen! I've done some cursory checks of the dip switches and looked through the manual, but nothing jumps out. I have to put it in 80 column mode just to be able to use it at...

Another eBay find. I really just need to delete my account there. I have zero self control, apparently. This is by far the most fragile computer in my collection. You even think about putting pressure on it's sun-burnt plastic case and it'll snap. I had pieces breaking as I tried to move...

I recently picked up a Sony VAIO PVC-W20. It's a Windows XP era P4 all-in-one. This era of computer is currently not considered vintage-enough to merit a post on sites like this, but is also old enough that finding original software for them is getting difficult. There are no ISO's of the...

Hey everyone. I recently bought a project portable computer that came with a 160 MB SCSI hard drive and controller card. The drive is a Micropolis 1674-7 160mb and the controller is a Future Domain TMC-885. The motherboard was bad in the computer (another one taken from us by a very leaky CMOS...

I finally had a much-needed success with my collection of vintage "portables". I bought this Sharp PC-7100 on eBay -- I really need to stay off eBay -- with a bad power supply. The PO said it "blew fuses". After sourcing an appropriate 3.15A 250v fuse and disconnecting everything from the PSU...

I'm taking a break from working on the CRT board/power supply on my VP by working on another project I have. It's a Compaq Portable III and similar to my VP, has a no-video problem. I've traced it down to the board on the back of the plasma display. It has a very obviously bad 1uf 250v...

There's not a lot of information out there on these systems, so I thought I'd start a thread where we can collect information and share it with others. I found mine on eBay. It was dirty. The CRT doesn't work properly (work in progress). It sounds like it POSTs (single beep). Until I fix...

I recently picked up a Columbia VP, one of the early IBM clones. The CRT in it displays but it's not giving a usable picture (see attached image). I've discharged the high volatage in the anode and removed the CRT board. Inspecting the caps and other components, I don't see anything obviously...

I'm looking at a Compaq Portable 386 on eBay. The seller mentioned that the screen is "blurry" sometimes. I'm trying to determine if the artifacts are from the LCD panel or from the computer itself. These screens are impossible to find replacements for. If it's something on the board, I can...

I recently bought one of these and the screen did not survive shipping. I'm hoping I can find someone who has a good screen in a machine with other issues. If I have to buy the whole computer, I may be willing if the price is reasonable. I think the screen from a Portable III may work as...

I just picked had this delivered a couple days ago. I've given it a good scrub down and it was fil-thy. I could have made a youtube video claiming I've discovered a new retrobright technique with the change in color I got, lol. Incredibly, everything works, including both 5.25 drives...

I, uh, got a little long winded. Everything below the divider is the long story of my first PC. Apparently I fancy myself a writer... Everything above is actually about the stuff I have coming. I somehow had managed to avoid the vintage PC hobby up till now. But thanks to a recent YouTube...