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Compaq Portable III (UK Model 1989)

C

compaqman

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Joined
Sep 3, 2007
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3
Hi all,

I've recently acquired a compaq portable iii 286 model, the Uk version without the co-processor, it's missing the roms and has a system board fault, i'm in due process of getting some 27C256's to burn the two images i have of the Hi/Lo bios BUT i need to trace someone in the UK who can do a repair job on the system board, preferably an ex compaq engineer.

If anyone can help and quote me a price (no daft ideas please!) then please do get in touch, this is otherwise in good condition and id like her working back up to as she should be.

Thanks

i can be mailed at johngilbert at vodafone dot net.

im in the west midlands UK btw.


Cheers.
 
To be honest, at the moment it's probably cheaper to get another portable III and keep yours safe, than to get someone to fix it, they seem to be going for peanuts on ebay at present. I was considering trying to locate a chap I worked with 20 years ago who was the company compaq specialist in stoke-on-trent, but as his name was Steve Jones, the process of elimination is a bit too onerous:-(
 
I have to agree with Nige.
Even if you got someone to fix it for 15 - 20 pounds (not that you really need an ex-compaq engineer, just an old computer tech LOL), you're looking at most of the cost of another one off e-bay.
Between 2 units, you should be able to get one going and you'd have the other as a source of parts.
 
aye !!

aye !!

yep, perhaps ebay isnt a bad idea, but they seem to come up infrequently on ebay UK and on ebay USA they ask stupid prices for vintage stuff, why do the americans equate old = worth a million bucks ???!!!!

I'd chance my arm bidding on one from usa but with a shipping cost of nearly 400 dollars from UPS (or as i call them OOPS i dropped it!) i'd be mad ....
 
Well, I'm sure if you found one in North America, someone would be happy to trans-ship it via USPS or Canada Post to you.

I've sent lots of vintage stuff to all over Europe and the prices weren't too bad (no where near UPS rip-off rates), you'd just have to wait a little longer.

If you find one in Canada, I'd do the trans-ship for you.
 
thanks

thanks

Thanks for the reply druid. Much appreciated. I'll keep searching. I missed TWO other week on ebay UK but both pickup only from South Wales, and both fully working, I could kick myself, just too far to travel and they just wouldnt post!

Ho hum, its off to search we go !!
 
could anyone help me with info on my Portable III? I'm trying to get it back running but I think I need a Diagnostic Disk for it, get message "162-System Options not set-(run setup) Insert Diagnostic Disk in drive A Have DOS 2.0, 5.0, 6.2 none work
 
A lot of these old Compaqs use thier diagnostic disk to set up the BIOS etc, so I'm not surprised your DOS disk's don't work.

Good luck with finding one. There are copies around on the Internet for these kind of things. I found my SLT-286 diagnosis diskette files at
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/

Might be worth having a look there.
 
Thanks Paul, got it, now just have to get it onto a 5 1/4. I wonder if there is a way to do it over a null cable?
 
There's the same softpaq for 3.5" disks too theoretically at the location pointed to by Tezza, you can put a 3.5" drive onto the compaq.
 
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