• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

WANTED: Photos of vintage laptops for a large-scale documentation project!

3lectr1c

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2022
Messages
1,053
Location
USA
Hello to anyone who's reading this!
I run MacDat, a website dedicated to preserving online info on vintage Macintosh hardware, and on vintage PC Laptop hardware. My eventual very long-term goal is to document just about every laptop released in the 1990s. Who knows if I'll ever get there, but it's a goal nonetheless. This is an active project that I work on almost every day in my spare time. One of the things I'm looking to do of course is to provide images of what the laptops I'm documenting look like. Most have at least some photos on the web, but of course, I don't have the rights to use them. So far, I've used photos that I've taken, that I've gotten permission from others to use, some screenshots of old print advertisements, but for many, many models, I just don't have any photos. Print ads are one of the more reliable ways, but those photos are often very low quality.

So, I'm asking you all for help here: If you have just about any vintage laptop, send in some photos if you'd like to help! Submitting them will help to ensure they're better documented for people looking in the future for information on them.

For an example of what sort of photos I'm looking for, see this page here: https://macdat.net/pc/winbook/486series/gallery.html
The main shot I'd need the most is a head-on or angled shot of the computer open and either booting up or booted to the desktop, or just a photo of it off it your laptop doesn't work.
If you really want to go the extra mile, photos of each side of the computer (top, front, right, back, left, bottom) would also be useful! If that's too much though, I'm perfectly happy if you just send in a photo you already have lying around, or one you posted in another thread, whatever works. Any photo is better than no photo.

Also - Photos sent in may take a while to get onto the site. Unless it's a brand I'm currently working on documenting, or already have pages on that are missing or have bad photos, it will probably go into "cold storage" until I make a page on the laptop. I'll likely prioritize documenting laptops I have images for though. And finally, the chances are fairly low, but if I do already have photos of a laptop you send images in of, I may not use them.

Thank you in advance to anyone that wants to help!

Also - let me know if you'd like to be credited or not.
 
Last edited:
If it's something obscure without much info online, I may also need specifications. Below is an example of my format for specs, with the example of the Dell Latitude C600:
  • Release Date: 2000
  • CPU: Intel Pentium III M @750, 850, or 1.0GHz
  • Chipset: Intel Mobile 440BX PCI
  • RAM: Officially up to 512MB, 1GB likely possible, PC133
  • HDD Type: 2.5" IDE
  • Uses Proprietary HDD Adapter: Yes
  • Display Options: 14.1" 1024x768 or 14" 1400x1050 LCD
  • GPU: ATI Mobility 128
  • VRAM: 8MB
  • Sound: ESS Maestro 3i
  • Main Battery: Lithium Ion
  • CMOS Battery: VARTA 6-cell NiMH
  • Power Supply: External, Dell C-Series 3 pin
  • Expansion: 2x PCMCIA/CardBus slots
  • Internal Drives: Dell C-Series Modular Bay (Supports CD/DVD, Floppy, 2nd HDD, ZIP, 2nd battery, more)
  • Networking: Modem, Optional Ethernet, Optional WiFi
  • I/O (Front): Battery bay, Modular bay
  • I/O (Left): 2x PCMCIA/CardBus slots
  • I/O (Rear): DC Jack, VGA, 1x USB 1.1, 1x PS/2, Dock Connector, Parallel, Serial
  • I/O (Right): S-Video Out, Ethernet, Modem, Mic Jack, Headphone Jack, IR
  • BIOS: Dell BIOS
  • Pointing Devices: Trackpad, TrackPoint
 
I agree. Internal photos are equally useful if you have any. I do include them if I have them.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top