Compaq Portable Repair history & Foam and Foil Keyboard Repair
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 มิ.ย. 2024
- I got this survivor Compaq Portable a while back and after a little bit of use it's keyboard gave out. Time to get it fixed and also take a closer look at the computer itself.
This thing has had a lot harder of a life than I would have guessed. I even realized after the video was done that I think it survived a fire because the inside has some black power coating some parts. I'm so glad the previous owner seemed to enjoy it so much as to keep it going for so long.
If you have a Compaq Portable(Or Apple Lisa as well) with a bad keyboard I highly recommend TexElec's pad replacements:
texelec.com/product/foam-capa...
I'm really grooving on having this keyboard fixed and being able to use the computer now. It's rapidly becoming one of my favourite vintage computers.
Playlists of more stuff like this:
Computers: • Computers
Repairs: • Repair
1980s: • 1980s
Other Links
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It turns out it's easy to unplug the keyboard from the motherboard if you take off the bottom panel, oops.
well good to know now, for future unplugs or other people
Cool, but that compaq keyboard needed a rebuild lol
Your making me want to Dust off my Old Unit, But the Video card you can Also Plug in to a TV set for the Color.. Oh Flash Back of the Light Pen
I Also have the AT Clone Version of the Case, Much better it was Upgraded to a 486-DX50 VESA Local Bus. Two Cache Controllers, It was my Portable Workstation, till I got my IBM IntelliStation Z Pro (DUAL PENTIUM PRO), Intense3D Pro1000/T video adapter (16MB + 4MB Texture) Type 6899
@@MakarovFox I'm an otter person!
@@hypnotised-clover i prefer bats or foxes
Every time I hear the words foam and foil something in my brain goes off and I get ten times madder at whoever invented them.
I'd kinda counter with it cost about a quarter as much, and at least it wasnt a Sinclair keyboard.
@@mycosys yes it's cheap. But no one wants a keyboard that fucking disentergrates. The chicklet keys don't fail this bad.
Rubber domes are cheap, but they don't disenergrate.
Chyrosran22 much?
At least I'm not in the cult of Holy Panda yet.
Yet... I plan on it.
I have no problem with them at all. It's an easy repair.
Wow Planet x3 looks and sound much better than I imagined on it :)
Having played it on my friends IBM 5160, it looks really good with a amber phosphor monochrome display as well.
I think yours is better than one that is all original. It has a unique and verifiable history. A provenance that can be show. A story with the documentation to back up it's lore. Great find.
Every picture I've seen of the Compaq portable has had the keys be that color. Even the old ads for it. Its still good shape for being so old
This computer was purchased the day I was born. 11-4-83!!!
I signed my enlistment papers only a couple of days later.
They may not have used it for any graphics use. It could have only been used for business related operations. Like accounting and things like that. There for it would have been worth to keep it going for a long time. It would been a pain to transfer all that to a new architecture in that time period. Not like now.
Just got one of these DOA from ebay. Had a memory bank error, found a shorted out 7400, replace that, snipped off a bunch of shorted tantalums, had it up and running until I plugged in the floppy controller, which somehow shorted out and killed my original video card. Snipped off the bad tantalums on the floppy controller, ordered a replacement video card from ebay. Ram expansion was badly corroded from leaking battery, scrubbed all the battery acid off, snipped off shorted tantalums. Got all the cards back in and the machine is up and running! Ordered foil pads from texelec and an XTIDE. This weekend I'll be scrubbing the case. First 100% IBM compatible, and a portable no less. Very cool. Parked next to my TRS80 Model 4. The tantalums on the 12V rail are usually just to reduce RF interference. The machine will run without them. I've re-installed a bunch of them, will get to the rest of them eventually.
I’m the biggest sucker for Luggables. I’ve got a Portable II and love it. This one is screaming out for an XT-IDE and a Lo-fi ram upgrade. But even without, it’s looks in awesome condition even after all its repairs.
This video was started over a week ago and since then I've tested my Tecmar Captain and XT-IDE in it and it is working great with 640KB!
Oh, awesome. Great to hear. My Portable II still has its original HDD. Mainly because it makes the most awesome sounds :)
Thanks for making such a great video! Those pads can be a bit pesky but it's worth the trouble. :D I have to say, this is the nicest Compaq Portable I've ever seen, what a beauty! Loving that case and that you still have all of the original paperwork!
It was a fun video to make, I've really enjoying this computer so I'm happy there were quality replacements for the original pads to revive the keyboard. They do require patience to put in but the results are well worth it!
I'm very happy with the condition and the extras I got with it. Good condition examples and details about the history are hard to come by so it is fun to have that for this computer!
When I was around 16 this was the first PC I fixed and resold. It had a hardcard which I thought was really cool. It is also the PC I learned to not touch capacitors in a CRT. Ouch.
This is by far one of my fav videos of this channel. The other being the long version of the death of windows 98.
I’ve never seen Compaq Portable in person. But when I first watched this video. This portable becomes my top 3 fav computers. It’s the look. The design. It’s perfect. I LOVE the history of this Compaq Portable. Very very cool.
it's nearly as legendary as the original IBM PC itself - great, inspired design and great origin story.
@@TheSulross lone stories like that. :)
I love this episode. This is what put Compaq on the map against IBM. Good documentary to watch about the Compaq and IBM wars in the early 80s is called.
Silicon Cowboys.
Great little documentary. Only an hr and 18 mins long. I recommend if haven’t seen yet.
The lil Portable that Could.
Also. I’d like to see a vid comparing the
IBM Portable
Compaq Portable
Gee, the X3 title theme sounds great on here!
Very nice video as always, Akbkuku!
I know this is a video about the Compaq Portable, but my attention totally got dragged away by the Nexus 10 making an appearance. Pretty cool seeing one of those still in use.
4K60... my man 😎
Yet another awesome video.
Not far off 50k subs now mate. Congratulations.
word processing and spreadsheets... as long as you can run dos or even CP/m, then you are not obsolete my friend, you are in monotasking paradise!
This thing feels like Theseus' Ship with how many parts have been replaced!
I'm guessing everything that was replaced was damaged when it was dropped. Those old portables were sturdy but not bulletproof, and they weighed quite a bit.
I have a computer like that. I was just thinking about it a few days ago. Every component in it has been replaced at one point or another except for the case. Optical drives, motherboard, processor, floppy drive, graphics card, power supply - everything at some point has been either upgraded or replaced. I still think of it as the computer I bought in 2004 - but IS it the same?
I have a broom very similar to your Compaq, about the same vintage too. Still works great. In all those years it's only had 6 new handles and 9 new heads.
I wish this type of computer case made like a throwback comeback, but with modern parts.
It took me a moment but you know what that case design reminds me of? The Apple Lisa.
For me it reminds me of an Osborne 1 but done right.
I used to have a Cordata 'luggable', very similar to this, absolutely loved it and the 5" green screen was so sharp (as is yours).
A little bit too late, but nevertheless:
In DOS, if your Return key does not work, you can substitute it with Ctrl+M!
Also, great repair, nice job getting the keyboard working again! That beautiful machine absolutely deserved it :)
He did say the M key wasn't working either. ;)
I used to run into these in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Thrift stores(in fact it was my first Dos PC). Heavy as hell to lug around but portable.
Also if you want to upgrade to 640k on board, you need rom C or better and also a decoder prom in U35. If you search for monotech there is a guy in New Zealand that reverse engineered it. I burned a C rom, installed the decoder prom, a bunch of 256bit chips, and an XT-IDE in mine.
Just picked up a compaq portable plus... it just so happens to have an intel inboard 386 in it lol quite an upgrade, apparently there was a hardcard in it at one point but it's gone, I'll have to replace it with an XT-IDE I guess. The faster CPU makes it fail the compaq diagnostics... not that anything is wrong with the machine it just runs too fast.
I have a Compaq Portable II, and I will need to do that with the keyboard as well. Nice little machine.
I was wondering if the Compaq Portable II used the same foam & foil system as the PC in this video, as I have one as well. So far my original keyboard is still holding up okay, though it doesn't get much use. I may one day put a socket on the keyboard cable to allow for a regular desktop keyboard to be plugged in. From what I understand it's wired the same as a PS/2 keyboard.
Ironically, you post a video today about a foam and foil keyboard, LGR posts a new episode of thrifts and finds a foam and foil keyboard...
Fate hast thou intertwined them.
Blessed and touched by his Noodly Appendage, Amen!!! FSM
thanks for showing how to replace those pads... will have to do that soon as well.
Once again, another great video!
AkBKukU: I have two of these - one of them was my first family computer. I think your B:\ drive is the original and the A:\ drive was likely replaced when they replaced the floppy controller card. I can take pictures of my two if you ever need reference pictures.
I also noticed on my plus, that one drive the A drive the floppy inserts just past flush and on the b drive it just out just a tad even when locked in.
I have the a first Gen Portable I , two 360K drives, 20MB hard card, six-pack mem card for a total of 640K , of course the CGA card, serial/parallel card. My keyboard died too, i found that a SUN type 4 keyboard had the same foam discs, yet the SUN type 4 keyboards of that time had been recalled so they had a newer foam and discs. So i took those keyboard foam discs out and put them into the compaq keyboard, they were a direct match and thats what i used to replace mine. i am glad to see now there is a source to get them.
I have the compaq portable 286 with an hd 20mb and I am in love with it!
I hate to break it to you, but in 1988-89 XT/PC class computers were still in wide spread use even tho by that time the 386 was out. While this computer was owned by "Art house Graphics" who's to say it was just used as a simple wordprosessing machine there.. an 8088 class computer would have been fine. personally im not surprised at the extended warranty docket
Yeah, it makes sense this machine was still in regular use in 1988, especially if it was used for accounting. I recall there were still XT-class systems being sold new in 1988. 386 machines were still quite expensive - especially portable models. Most of the software available in 1988 wasn't yet well-suited to 386 CPUs, either. 486-class machines weren't really manufactured in big numbers until 1990.
Hahahah, i literally got Portable Plus into my collection on Tuesday, and keyboard also worked until a few uses of Enter :) Wanted to look for repair solutions this weekend and this video showed up ;)
I was 13 when this darn thing was released❤
Well I'll be damned, the date on that Keyboard is rather significant to me. Also happens to be the day the "Computer Piracy" episode of the Computer Chronicles was filmed.
Yep.. quite the special day for me.... ;)
Lots of people complain about the keyboard but I like it, it's short stroke feels like a modern keyboard. Yes the IBM keyboards are heavy and loud, but if you sit next to a fellow programmer who is using an old long stroke clicky IBM keyboard you will soon want to strangle him.
Old things were made to be repaired, new crap is made to be replaced.
We had our IBM 5150 in use from about 1985-1995 or so... when we upgraded to windows 95 and a 16MB P166.... if you just need basic word processing or spreadsheets, the 5150 and other 8088 machines had you covered for many years.
For some reason, I'm picturing him carrying the leather-cased version, through an airport, while wearing a matching jacket! :D
as soon as i get the keyboard fixed, I fully intend to bring it in a starbucks on a busy day and ask “um whats ur wifi password.”
It's actually common for puters' of that era to have black stuff especially nearby parts that get very very hot. (source : I've serviced an old iMac G3 and it had lots of burned dust around the flyback transformer)
Fantastic quality video in 4k60! Good focus!
Thanks! This was the first "real" video where I was using some new lights I put together. I went from 40W to 100W total (LED) which is drastically brighter meaning I can use tighter apertures with a wider depth of field. So I can get a lot more in focus now. Eventually I'll get the proper lens adapter for my camera which will fix this problem even more letting me get more light and even sharper images. I'd say I'm doing pretty well though for a $24 adapter when most people recommend one that goes for $300+.
I think I've finally hit my stride for processing/grading the footage from the BMPCC4K as well. I'm consistently getting results that I'm happy with from it now. For the last couple videos, including this one, I also used a different grading method to be more consistent shot to shot which also saves me a ton of time. So I'm even processing my videos faster now.
I was using an IBM Portable PC and other XTs in the 90's because I was a poor teenager. Just because newer computers were around didn't mean there wasn't still plenty you could do with the dinosaurs. I was BBSing, programming, and playing games, albeit loathing the CGA graphics!
CI/AN could mean Carry-In Annual, as per the ticked box a little higher above where it's handwritten.
Got this machine and going to pick it up at a location I have it set to (porch pirates). Too bad it isn't possible to put the Model F internals into the Compaq Portable 1 system, but I did order foam contact pads for the system and a few other items for flash storage, reading, writing, and archiving 360KB diskettes on another computer (XT-FDC BIOS on an ISA NIC for the system), controller card, sound card, and so on.
I installed an original IBM XT 10MB HD with a Xebec controller in mine. It drew so much current that the PSU would overheat. So we bolted a 120V cooling fan to the side of the case and it cooled it down so that I could use the HD.
To be honest, I'm grateful to live in the future, as opposed to when this computer came out.
Images of the compaq dos disks are located at winworldpc.
Thanks for this tip! I have the next version of the Compaq luggable that I am rebuilding. I was worried about finding disks.
Winworldpc is a goldmine for old DOS stuff.
It's pretty good for CP/M and obscure home computer OSes. Not that they require much disk space to host.
I have an incredible urge to bounce that keyboard around on the bench with all those springs!
I really hope you cleaned the finger oils off of the conductive sides of those pads after you finished handling them. I remember another TH-camr's restoration going wrong because they got the conductors oily and it was based on resistances.
Yes I wanted him to go over it with a cleaner.
The only two games it can run, Jeopardy, and Planet X3. At least you have that!
I'm pretty sure solitaire and maybe Tetris will work. Tetris is the best-selling game of all time, counting all the non-PC devices it's on.
Are you looking for original physical Compaq DOS disks or just images, because Winworld PC has several Images of DOS 1.x -3.x that are Compaq OEM
@@vaelfonia They can, but I still have 40 year old 360K floppies that are perfectly readable. The 360K diskettes tended to be far more durable than the 1.2 MBs in my experience.
Depends largely on storage conditions, floppies stored in a cool dry place away from magnets and sunlight should be perfectly fine, floppies stored on a desk in the sunlight or in a dank warehouse next to large motors are likely to not work.
I have diagnostic disks that came with my portable plus... I wonder if they work on the original portable I imagine so...
I adjusted that price tag for inflation 3167.21 in today's money would be 7,997.77. Its no wonder why I didn't get a computer as a kid until the TI99 4A was on sale for 50.00.
Things like PC compatibles (like this Compaq Portable) were expensive like that, but not all computers were. Home computers (like the Ti-99/4a you mentioned) were way cheaper. The C64 launched for under $600, for example, and was reduced in price multiple times.
The reason the Ti-99/4a got so low was largely because of the price war with Commodore. Which was kinda Commodore getting payback for when they were rival calculator manufacturers, heh
But yeah, PC compatibles were expensive. In fact, the cost of the Portable makes the inclusion of a foam and foil keyboard a bit ridiculous
PlanetX3, ironic only because I was redirected here from an 8BitGuy video. Funny.
Small companies like Art House Graphics seemingly was tend to use equipment until it is utterly obsolete, as if it still works reliably, does what you ask of it and continues to earn money after it has paid for itself there is little sense in upgrading. the building where Art House Graphics used to be is now a hair salon.
the notation on the receipt pricing out the compaq vs ibm SINGLEHANDEDLY makes this a museum find. or at least that receipt, itself… maybe consider offering the computer history museum an indefinite loan? you wouldnt have to worry about preserving paper and they would have one hell of a footnote.
I always opened my portable by hitting the edge on the front side of the top with my palms which lowered the tabs and allowed it to slide back towards the handle.
Ive heard the Compaq techs did it this way. It's probably the quickest way.
When viewing the part about putting in the capacitive pads, it would be a lot easier if the user pops the white pad holder out from the black housing. It prys out very easily, and allows the user to attach the pad under all four of those tiny pads very easily, then the white pad holder easily snaps back into the black housing.
I'm surprised the memory wasn't upgraded to 512K or 640K if it was in use until 1988.
Drinking game: take a shot every time he says "Compaq Portable" :D
Do you even need to remove the key caps? I disassembled one of those keyboards earlier today and while I didn't have the replecement pads, I could get at them just fine.
If anyone knows otherwise and better, please correct me, but it seems that back in the day, those plastic full-length ISA card card end holders may have been supplied with the actual full-length cards. My IBM 5150 lacked a full complement of those end holders too. A full set of those holders may not have been in those early IBM PCs and compatibles from the start. If you're very lucky, and I was, you may still be able to find some of those holders on classifieds or auction sites. The long and the short (heh) is that your Compaq Portable probably isn't incomplete if you don't have an end holder for a non-existent card.
Who thought making a foam keyboard would be a good idea?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿ Like even if the cost reduced by half, that foam isn't doing the job lol. Anyway, great repair video, these compaq are super cool and idk how you could get this great example of it, really in good condition.
Btw loving Planet X3
You have to remember these things weren't intended to go 35 years. Ten years, maybe, and for that, the foam pads were good enough. Little things like that add up when you're trying to undercut a giant like IBM.
I had an old self-employed business computer gifted to me from the owner that was used from it's new state right up until 2014 - it was a 486 xD.
quite a lot of hardware up in space still uses old radiation hardened chips. Rad hardened MIPS R10000 processors are pretty common in space hardware.
I wonder if that service agreement was the warranty for a replacement floppy drive.
4K? You spoil us.
that's it for the moment? 😍
I'm planning to turn a defective unit into a sleeper PC.
Two questions regarding that:
Is there any way to hook the CRT up to a modern GPU? If yes, how?
Is the protocol of the keyboard known and can it be adapted to USB or PS2?
Adapters of course. The old connector-to-usb is cheap and easy. Your also fine with VGA, adapters for the earlier video standards might require $$$
ayy planet X3. deffo gonna get that for my dos pc
It's a true Frankenstein's monster of a computer.
Ctrl-M can serve as an ENTER key in a pinch.
Damn, the bezel in that Nexus 10 is fucking THICC
Maybe they were running some CNC equipment from this computer. Doesn't make much sense to upgrade then.
I saw quite ancient computer hooked up to an engraving machine in a corner shop in Spain last summer, still being in use.
You may be right but I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense to use a portable computer to drive a CNC. Also CNC computers tend to collect dust/grime which doesn't seem to be the case here. We'll probably never know, but my guess is it was used in an office for something mundane like accounting or word processing. It's also conceivable the graphic art done by the company wasn't at all computer-based - plenty of artwork was still hand-drawn in the '80s.
hello! what version of dos did you run? Thanks
The interesting thing is that in terms of hardware, the Compaq was a complete copy of the Kaypro II -- a CP/M machine. Dos won the operating system war, so Compaq took off while Kaypro slowly died. But the idea that a Compaq portable was original in terms of design...not so much.
Compaq DOS images can be found on WinWorldPC.
Aww, I wanted to see what Planet X3 was like. :)
I have one !
I don't understand how someone could pay for five years of warranty service but never upgrade the RAM. I know RAM was expensive, but I had 640K by '90 anyway (in a Compaq Deskpro no less). The previous owners of your machine weren't even close. My guess is that this machine was just used to track inventory, or something like that, so RAM was not something it really needed. Hope you had fun play Jeopardy again at any rate :)
Always like your video’s. Is it possible to put a diverted video card in it? You is it connected to the internal monitor?
At 15:13 you can see the outputs of the video card briefly. It looks like it has CGA and composite outputs.
It can be replaced with an 8-bit ISA VGA card to drive a modern LCD monitor, but then the internal monitor will no longer work.
zoomosis thanks, but how do you think the card is connected to the internal monitor? With the pins on the top of the card above the compesite video connector?
@@EdwinNoorlander It looks like it. The video card on my Portable II is different, with a header on the other end of the card to connect the internal monitor. Incidentally I'm pleased the Portable II no longer uses those oddball card mounting brackets...
zoomosis thanks 👍🏻
Things didn't go according to plan so they Stockpiled a lot of these, knowing that IBM would fail eventually. I don't thing some of those have been replaced at all, they simply made the boards and waited for the right time to put things in shells :)
Great Video in 4K!
The complete motherboard replacement may make sense, I know the 8-BitGuy's motherboard had a shot/bad capacitor combo that kept it from booting with a video card.
I think he only replaced it to make the video in a timely way. It's very easy to replace capacitors, it's just the corrosive chemicals released when they leak or burst.
It's had a troubled work life, but maybe it'll have an easy life in retirement with you as its caretaker. BTW, I believe 8 Bit Guy has a Compaq Portable as well.
bundesautobahn7 he does, and he even made a video restoring his
Hello Dragua1 here)))
i think you should have wipe the foam and the board before reassembling it back together. even a little dust may prevent it from working properly.
Compaq DOS is on winworld I believe
Maybe the scratches at the nuts wehre from installing the 2nd floppy?..
i saw your hair at 1:01 , trying different colours then black? kool, i do like you in black though.
i use to have one of these that i got from my grandfather but i could not get it working properly ended up leaving it behind in a move on accident
I don't have Compaq DOS but I do have a disk image of the setup/BIOS disk, although I think that's for a Compaq Portable 2. If it's any use let me know and I'll e-mail you a copy.
The website Wibworldpc has all these old DOS disks, even many older disks. It's a great site to visit and look around. It's kind of you to offer though.
Of course they stuck with it as long as they could, they spent the 2019-equivalent of $7,700 on it. Look what lengths Linus went to with his iMac Pro. Also, the documents inside the case were just a copy, they likely had another copy with their receipt that they used to get it serviced (possibly multiple times).
AkBKukU
State of Art!
Does anyone know if a NEC-V20 can be used to replace the 8088? I mean, it should, but maybe with tech this old, the increased speed would screw up timings? Could I even do better with a V20hl?
We also had wheel of fortune. Weeee!
10:28 The address is now just a normal house, currently a hair salon.
You forgot to mention it's also portable
Can the memory be extended? Seems like a good move.
The board can take up to 640KB via DIP switches or if 256KB is installed, a RAM + RTC card can be installed with 384KB and I believe drivers are required to get the full 640KB, but I digress.
Once I pick mine up, I'll look at mine and see once I diagnose and fix the issue it has: blank screen.
Might be possible to modify the keyboard cable to unplug on the keyboard side (without a screwdriver involved) or even a breakaway inline with the cable? Not that it's particularly necessary, but there's no kill like overkill!
Technically it could be done without a screwdriver if you have a way of removing the bottom panel on the case. It would be difficult to do regularly without scratching the computer though.
The only real reason to remove the keyboard beyond working on the hardware would be to adapt it to a standard XT connector to use any keyboard. It's very doable, but not all the necessary.
holy fuck this computer was bought on my birthday!!