compaqportableplus
Veteran Member
This is an extremely special Compaq Portable I found on eBay a while back in a hideously dirty state and non-working. I would normally not buy a computer in such bad condition, but when I saw this machine's serial number, I knew it had to be saved. It was serial number 001229, the lowest I have ever seen.
Here are the "after" photos of it after I got it cleaned up (mostly) and working.
Actually looks quite decent now, considering how awful it was when I received it. It even still has the original luggage tag! I did have to replace the leather handle as well, since the original was falling apart.
Oh, and the entire reason it didn't work was ONE shorted capacitor on the motherboard! After replacing that it sprung right to life.
Upon disassembly, I did find that the system board and monitor assembly was replaced at one point, which isn't surprising considering the hard life this machine clearly had.
The original VDU board was still present, which was nice to see. Here's a pic.
All of the dates on this board are late 1982.
The original floppy controller was also missing, and was replaced with a generic card at one point, so I put a spare original Compaq floppy controller I had back in it.
It also had two mismatched floppy drives, the original Magnetic Peripherals drive, and a Tandon drive that was added later. Being an early production unit, it's highly likely that it originally shipped with just one floppy drive and had one added later. Both drives were rusty and nasty, but with a little cleaning and lubrication, I got the original MP drive working again! I then replaced the Tandon drive with another MP drive I had from a broken Compaq Portable, so they both match now.
Another difference I noticed inside of this machine compared to the newer ones, is that instead of the hex/flathead screws you typically see, it uses these tiny Phillips screws.
Quite interesting. My guess is they stopped using these because they strip out VERY easily.
As for configuration I'm leaving this thing stock with 256KB of RAM, dual floppies, 8088 CPU and no hard drive. It's a lot of fun to play with this way! I've found that most programs you would realistically run on a dual 360K drive system do fine on 256KB.
It did actually have a Plus Hardcard 20 in it that I was able to repair, but I'll use that in a different machine.
I wish I could find some original Compaq slot covers for the empty, but they are impossible to find these days.
So, there you have it, a very early production Compaq Portable, a true piece of history. This is a very important piece of my Compaq collection now and it is definitely a keeper!
I will dig up the eBay pics and post them later to show just how nasty this thing was before!
Here are the "after" photos of it after I got it cleaned up (mostly) and working.
Actually looks quite decent now, considering how awful it was when I received it. It even still has the original luggage tag! I did have to replace the leather handle as well, since the original was falling apart.
Oh, and the entire reason it didn't work was ONE shorted capacitor on the motherboard! After replacing that it sprung right to life.
Upon disassembly, I did find that the system board and monitor assembly was replaced at one point, which isn't surprising considering the hard life this machine clearly had.
The original VDU board was still present, which was nice to see. Here's a pic.
All of the dates on this board are late 1982.
The original floppy controller was also missing, and was replaced with a generic card at one point, so I put a spare original Compaq floppy controller I had back in it.
It also had two mismatched floppy drives, the original Magnetic Peripherals drive, and a Tandon drive that was added later. Being an early production unit, it's highly likely that it originally shipped with just one floppy drive and had one added later. Both drives were rusty and nasty, but with a little cleaning and lubrication, I got the original MP drive working again! I then replaced the Tandon drive with another MP drive I had from a broken Compaq Portable, so they both match now.
Another difference I noticed inside of this machine compared to the newer ones, is that instead of the hex/flathead screws you typically see, it uses these tiny Phillips screws.
Quite interesting. My guess is they stopped using these because they strip out VERY easily.
As for configuration I'm leaving this thing stock with 256KB of RAM, dual floppies, 8088 CPU and no hard drive. It's a lot of fun to play with this way! I've found that most programs you would realistically run on a dual 360K drive system do fine on 256KB.
It did actually have a Plus Hardcard 20 in it that I was able to repair, but I'll use that in a different machine.
I wish I could find some original Compaq slot covers for the empty, but they are impossible to find these days.
So, there you have it, a very early production Compaq Portable, a true piece of history. This is a very important piece of my Compaq collection now and it is definitely a keeper!
I will dig up the eBay pics and post them later to show just how nasty this thing was before!
