Grimjaw
Member
I am restoring a couple of Compaq Portables. Unfortunately, I was not aware of this forum until well into the process or I would have taken more pictures.
One unit, I bought from a friend. It had just 256K and one 360K floppy when he originally purchased it. Over time, he added an I/O + clock board, a 2nd 360K floppy, upgraded to 640K, added a Maynard Surprise board, and later a BreakThru 286. After I bought it from him, I added a hard drive and controller, a VGA card, an Intel Inboard 386, an AST Six Pak Premium, and other upgrades. This was my computer, even though I had worked with main frames and mini computers for quite a few years before acquiring it. I'll call this one #1 (very original, right?)
The other unit was purchased cheap at a surplus store. I bought it for parts, if needed and only booted it up once with a floppy disc. I'll call this one #2.
After sitting in a closet for many years, I have decided to restore them both. I stared by tearing #1 down to the bare metal cage, washing the plastic case parts, cleaning the power supply, video unit, motherboard, and all the cards and drives that I have. I replaced all of the foil and foam pads in the keyboard. I reassembled it with the VGA card, a floppy controller, a 3.5" high density (1.44M) floppy drive and an I/O + clock card.
Of course, there is a lot of pomp and circumstance with an event such as booting up an old computer for the first time in over 20 years. #1 got into the spirit of the event with a fireworks display. The I/O board blew a capacitor with the expected flash, pop, and curl of smoke. After I removed the I/O board, it booted right up with a FreeDOS floppy disc I had prepared with my Windows PC and a USB 3.5" floppy drive.
Note here: DO NOT format a floppy on a Windows PC if it is to be used for DOS on a vintage computer. Windows formats floppies in a way that makes them unusable on a DOS machine. I used a floppy that was formatted from the factory. Fortunately, it was still usable. Now I format any floppies I need in the Compaq before transferring any files or images to in on the Windows PC.
Next, I installed the hard drive controller and the hard drive that had been in the computer when stored. I was amazed and pleased to find that the data on the hard drive was not corrupted by time. I have tried all of the other mfm hard drives I have. All but one still work. The data on one had been corrupted by time, but now that it has been reformatted, it works fine. Another will not spin. The rest all work fine.
Currently, I have the original video/printer port card install, a floppy controller and the 3.5" floppy, and a hard drive controller and hard disk. I am doing some benchmarking and will start testing and adding other boards as I go. Below is a picture of the system with the internal monitor, and a CGA monitor attached to the external port of the video card. More later...
One unit, I bought from a friend. It had just 256K and one 360K floppy when he originally purchased it. Over time, he added an I/O + clock board, a 2nd 360K floppy, upgraded to 640K, added a Maynard Surprise board, and later a BreakThru 286. After I bought it from him, I added a hard drive and controller, a VGA card, an Intel Inboard 386, an AST Six Pak Premium, and other upgrades. This was my computer, even though I had worked with main frames and mini computers for quite a few years before acquiring it. I'll call this one #1 (very original, right?)
The other unit was purchased cheap at a surplus store. I bought it for parts, if needed and only booted it up once with a floppy disc. I'll call this one #2.
After sitting in a closet for many years, I have decided to restore them both. I stared by tearing #1 down to the bare metal cage, washing the plastic case parts, cleaning the power supply, video unit, motherboard, and all the cards and drives that I have. I replaced all of the foil and foam pads in the keyboard. I reassembled it with the VGA card, a floppy controller, a 3.5" high density (1.44M) floppy drive and an I/O + clock card.
Of course, there is a lot of pomp and circumstance with an event such as booting up an old computer for the first time in over 20 years. #1 got into the spirit of the event with a fireworks display. The I/O board blew a capacitor with the expected flash, pop, and curl of smoke. After I removed the I/O board, it booted right up with a FreeDOS floppy disc I had prepared with my Windows PC and a USB 3.5" floppy drive.
Note here: DO NOT format a floppy on a Windows PC if it is to be used for DOS on a vintage computer. Windows formats floppies in a way that makes them unusable on a DOS machine. I used a floppy that was formatted from the factory. Fortunately, it was still usable. Now I format any floppies I need in the Compaq before transferring any files or images to in on the Windows PC.
Next, I installed the hard drive controller and the hard drive that had been in the computer when stored. I was amazed and pleased to find that the data on the hard drive was not corrupted by time. I have tried all of the other mfm hard drives I have. All but one still work. The data on one had been corrupted by time, but now that it has been reformatted, it works fine. Another will not spin. The rest all work fine.
Currently, I have the original video/printer port card install, a floppy controller and the 3.5" floppy, and a hard drive controller and hard disk. I am doing some benchmarking and will start testing and adding other boards as I go. Below is a picture of the system with the internal monitor, and a CGA monitor attached to the external port of the video card. More later...
