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Compaq Portable Plus Restoration

desertrout

desertrout

Experienced Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
63
Location
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
It's nice to have some straight-forward wins on a Sunday... got a non-starting Compaq Plus (common 'fan turns on, nothing else happens'), and found two blown tants on the PSU board, a shorted tant on the system board, and a blown tant on the VDU board. Replaced them (and dodgy looking 3300uF cap in the PSU) and bing-bang-boom it posts and even boots off the MFM drive. I was literally giggling, an adult alone in his basement. So that was nice.
The keyboard is gross (as you can see), but I already have the Texelec foam/foil replacements. I also need to test/refurb the floppy drive. But I'm pretty pleased that things have come up so well so far without too much pushback - especially since I've been getting dragged by a Toshiba T1200 PSU for the last month or so...

I do need some replacement pcb standoffs for the PSU board... but should probably 3D print some.

(I do have the brightness knob... it was split, but it's been glued back together)

IMG_3612.jpg
 
desertrout said:
It's nice to have some straight-forward wins on a Sunday... got a non-starting Compaq Plus (common 'fan turns on, nothing else happens'), and found two blown tants on the PSU board, a shorted tant on the system board, and a blown tant on the VDU board. Replaced them (and dodgy looking 3300uF cap in the PSU) and bing-bang-boom it posts and even boots off the MFM drive. I was literally giggling, an adult alone in his basement. So that was nice.
The keyboard is gross (as you can see), but I already have the Texelec foam/foil replacements. I also need to test/refurb the floppy drive. But I'm pretty pleased that things have come up so well so far without too much pushback - especially since I've been getting dragged by a Toshiba T1200 PSU for the last month or so...

I do need some replacement pcb standoffs for the PSU board... but should probably 3D print some.

(I do have the brightness knob... it was split, but it's been glued back together)

View attachment 1319073
Click to expand...
What happened with the contacts?
 
No idea. It looks like some kind of liquid made its way in? Something white and pasty - possibly some corrosion. Also a lot of detritus from the disintegrated foam/foils. The machine looks like it spent a lot of time in a garage attic for the last 35+ years - lots of dirt, bugs, fluffy things... sawdust? The keyboard screws in particular were quite corroded, but cleaned up nice. The rest of the interior is quite clean. All cleaned up now though and with new foam/foils the keyboard is working again. Now just working on the floppy drive.
 
desertrout said:
No idea. It looks like some kind of liquid made its way in? Something white and pasty - possibly some corrosion. Also a lot of detritus from the disintegrated foam/foils. The machine looks like it spent a lot of time in a garage attic for the last 35+ years - lots of dirt, bugs, fluffy things... sawdust? The keyboard screws in particular were quite corroded, but cleaned up nice. The rest of the interior is quite clean. All cleaned up now though and with new foam/foils the keyboard is working again. Now just working on the floppy drive.
Click to expand...
I'd assume that if the keyboard screws were corroded, the contacts would be corroded too?
 
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