Gateway Handbook (original, not 486) - Info Wanted

[compaqportableplus]

I was wondering if anyone here has much experience with the original Gateway 2000 Handbook? I'm talking about the original 286-class model, NOT the 486 version. There's basically no info out there about the original.

Potentially interested in getting one because I love the form factor, but I would really like to see some internal pics of one to get an idea of what's going on in there.

The main question have is this - is the laptop full of those nasty, silver SMD capacitors that leak and rot the motherboard? The 486 model seems to have them, so I'm concerned the original might also.

I really try to avoid late '80s and early '90s machines that have those caps nowadays unless there's lots of repair info out there (like there is with the old Macs). They usually just end up being such a headache that it's not worth it. This is why I sold my original Compaq LTE and LTE/286 laptops recently. The boards on those always end up with extensive damage from leaking caps.

I'm just looking to avoid going down the rabbit hole of trying to fix rotted traces and vias.

Thanks!

 

[pkhoury]

I owned one back in the 90s; my retro computer mentor sold one to me (learned a lot of what I know from him back in the 90s). Oddly, I found the power supply the other day, but I don't think I still own the Handbook anymore.

IIRC, it had either a 20 or 40MB hard drive and no provisions for a floppy drive. I think everything got transferred via a Laplink cable. Again, I'm going by what I remember 23+ years ago.
Never took it apart, so I couldn't tell you about what caps it uses. I also seem to remember it having a white text on blue background lit screen, which emulated CGA. Not sure if this helps a lot. But yes, the form factor was definitely pretty cool.