There were 19,705 views and 149 comments made on the video prior to the refresh on October 15th, 2023. Those comments appear below...
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
This snazzy and chic unit epitomized the ultimate in 1988 portable pizzazz. My Compaq SLT/286.
@TimLocke
10 years ago
I am amazed how thick that "laptop" is. A Mini-ITX desktop case is smaller than that.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Yes, definitely lunchbox thickness. I guess it's about right for the age though (1988), given it has a hard disk. Technology has come a long way in getting things smaller.
@Swenglish
8 years ago
Tim Locke I hollowed out my SLT-286 today. Might try to figure out what I can fit inside it. Its thickness should make for a very customizable laptop, and there should be room for decent airflow.
@paullangton-rogers2390
7 years ago
+Terry Stewart Terry check out the Compaq Lte the 8086 forerunner, it was much tinner and lighter.. so portable the case was about 1/4 of the size of yours (I still use the case today to carry documents and my tablet in!). Here's the Compaq Lte:
do you have a way to make a copy of the diagnostic disk?
@BENNYintheTECH
6 years ago
your videos bring me great joy. all of them :D
@MarkHyde
9 years ago
6.3kg 'lunchbox' with a 3 course meal and a gas burner too :)......new subscriber here.
Your videos are really informative and insightful....this vintage computer buff is a new fan. Thanks for your efforts.
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
You're welcome Mark. Enjoy!
@kellypaws
6 years ago
I used on for work day in day out from 93 to 96 ish. Really, really loved it.
@bunch6835
7 years ago
Thank you for this video. I liked it so much I'm going to watch all your others
Why I like it:
- You provide just enough history to keep it interesting - You provide pros and cons - You speak clearly - The subject is retro computing.
This makes me want to buy a Compaq SLT but with modern hardware in the same form factor. There's something I really like about that detachable keyboard.
@tezzaNZ
7 years ago
Thanks for those supportive comments Bunch.
@obsoletegeek
9 years ago
I love it! This is on my "want" list!
@wcarlin
9 years ago
My Dad had an SLT-286 which was passed on to me. I used it to teach myself C++ with Borland Turbo C++ This laptop was highly reliable and never had a problem with it. When I bought my own 386 desktop, the SLT-286 fell into disuse. I did break it out a few more times to do some quick C programming for work. I wrote a few programs to break down lists of names flat names into fields (Title, First, Middle, Last, Surname) and also to automate some mundane tasks when I worked in a digital imaging shop. It might even still be around here somewhere in a bin or box. Thanks for the heads up on the Dallas battery problem. Also, the floppy drive is proprietary so I would pickup a spare as time and money permits. Not sure about the compatibility of the hard drive though.
@deviceatt2605
5 years ago
William Carlin Yes sir c++ is fundamental to High-level programming but hybrid Source code like virtual C# or jvm are what the cool kids are into nowadays. Modern-day Linux didn't really catch on till 2004 but back in the day I was fortunate enough to have DSL so I force myself to learn how to use unix commands for things like unpacking tar BZ I like now that you wear you just type in simple sudo command and software installs from the internet.
@tetsujin_144
1 year ago
I saw this machine on The Computer Chronicles 1988 holiday buyers' guide... I know portable machines were big back then but it still surprised me! I love the detachable keyboard feature. With it as large as it is I actually wondered if they'd stuck an ISA slot or two into it - but I guess that's only with the expansion dock!
@desinfector
2 years ago
a laptop as thick as my cellphone is long... I found this computer in a pile of bulky garbage. but with no power adaptor and of course empty battery pack. Does anyone know the polarity of the terminals of the battery? I know its 12V but as it has 4 pins...
@James101
3 years ago
Hi Tezza. I love your videos they are always extremely well thought out and presented and look like a lot of hard work has been done on your part to bring these together. I hope you will continue the videos if you have the time and passion for it as Its been a fair while since your last one. Classic computers are always interesting to me as well as Dos and Basic but I never did manage to get my head around Dos or Basic enough to do anything meaningful. Your videos inspire me to buy an old computer and start a whole new nostalgia experience. Many thanks James
@tezzaNZ
3 years ago
Thanks for the support James!
@80sCompaqPC
5 years ago
Very cool! Your article on the clock battery replacement/hack is excellent! I’m going to be doing this to one (eventually all) of my SLT’s soon.
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
Good luck with the job!
@80sCompaqPC
5 years ago
I’m pleased to say that the mod was successful! However I found that cutting into the chip with a knife (at least the knife I had) was quite difficult. So I just went ahead and ordered a desoldering station (I had been needing to get one anyways) and desoldered the chip. It was a little scary, but it worked out very well, with no damage done to the system board!
@larssjodahl7660
5 years ago
Thanks for the demo! I recently got one as gift from my friends, pretty much "for shits and giggles", and I pretty much just have DOS on it, and I didn't see any graphics on it yet, but after seeing this inspiring video, I really want to get an external COLOR monitor (!) and a copy of that Battle Chess game.
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
Good for you! (:
@taketimeout2share
6 years ago (edited)
What a neat looking thing! What a great channel. Subbed! I love the fact you restore the bag not just the PC. The bag matters too, as its part of the package and makes the thing complete.
@LeonardCrassman
8 years ago
I've still got my 386 model somewhere; bought it to run Linux on a long time ago. Ran OK too 10MB RAM 120MB HDD, and mostly used my c64 as a terminal I preferred the keyboard.
@themacintoshmuseum
9 years ago
Wow - I actually had one of those SLT/286s years ago, running Windows 3.0. I wish I had kept it, but I got rid of it when the power adapter / charger connector came apart, and I could not fix it. It would have been fine if the connector had a simple + and - terminal, but not in this case!
@tezzaNZ
9 years ago
Yes, it is a complicated non-standard connector alright.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Yes. Only a few to go now. I am thinking of redoing some of my earlier ones though. They are pretty low quality. I have a much better camera and feel for what I should be doing now.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Actually the battery IS an evil NiCad although no sign of any leakage. I'm keeping my eye on it though.
@strictlysega
10 years ago
Tez its a great show, so interesting, i love it, but im getting worried now as we are getting close to the end of the list!
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Actually it would be although you would need the docking station for a good sound card.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
No I don't think so. It seems completely proprietary and supported a 1.2MB and a 360k disk drive, and a 40MB tape drive.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Thanks for the comments. You're welcome.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Yes, I could see extracting the chip was way beyond my soldering skills!
@danwood_uk
10 years ago
Always enjoy your videos Terry, you have an incredible collection. Any machines you still wish you owned?
@James101
3 years ago
Maybe an Amiga ;-) Hi Dan I love your chanel. It helped me find alot of amiga tips.
@vwestlife
10 years ago
This machine would've originally come with Compaq DOS 3.31, which was their modified version of MS-DOS 3.3 which added support for hard drive partitions larger than 32 MB -- a feature that Microsoft's own MS-DOS did not have until version 4.0 (which most people avoided due to its bugs and larger amount of RAM it took up).
@jaykay18
10 years ago
As far as I know, VGA is _always_ color. What makes it B&W is the monitor itself. The IBM 8503, for example, could be hooked to any PS/2 and it would be B&W because that's what the monitor was. Hook up an 8512 color monitor, you've got color.
I'd like more information on that "storage port" on the back. It appears that was a proprietary connection of some kind, but I wonder if it may have used some standard such as SCSI over that interface.
@deviceatt2605
5 years ago
jaykay18 so there are different types of VGA which is the standard VGA and what's called super VGA but super busy a can display at HD quality and has an extra yellow because of the way the signal is formatted but it's default is native 64-bit at 800 Bobby VGA is native 32-bit in RGB format. Any monitors that had blue tipped monitor cables could support the super VGA but super VGA is backwards compatible and it all the pins on the graphics card which all integrated graphics cards have the super VGA format which Microsoft included in Xbox.
@uselessDM
10 years ago
The battery problem reminds me of modern smartphones and their solded in everything.
Oh well.
@mspenrice
5 years ago
The removable keyboard sort of harks forwards to tablets with bluetooth keyboards too...
@slappymcphee
7 months ago
I know the video is 9 years old, but it is still awesome in 2023! I wonder if it would be possible to upgrade the display to a color display. Also read that the developers wanted to go with a 386 however it would have been too taxing on the power draw. With that in mind wonder if the CPU could be upgraded as well.
@AnubisRules1969
8 months ago
I know this is a little late, but couldn't you just solder wires to the bottom of the mobo on the right pins instead of having to grind into the top of the Dallas?
@The_Wandering_Nerd
1 year ago
I wish modern laptops had separate detachable keyboards :)
@erikmerchant567
1 year ago
Terrific video! I just acquired one of these beauties, and am certain I will need to do something about that Dallas battery as well. Do you still have a copy of that manual? I'd be grateful for a copy if you do. I'm not looking forward to the disassembly, but I'm hoping to learn from your posts online and from a few forum members online. Thanks again!
@tezzaNZ
1 year ago
Hi Eric. Thanks for those kind words. I do have a copy of the manual. Email me to terry(at)webweavers(dot)co(dot)nz to get a copy.
@bricozone
1 year ago
Would you consider scanning and sharing that manual ?
@TheBudgie29
1 year ago
I had one of these from new, a friend of mine worked for the local council, and He was fixing all the Beta and VHS, and TV's. And now and again the Computers for the Schools. There was a small fire In the Warehouse the council used to store all the Parts, and Equipment for all the Schools In the area. The whole lot had to go because of Smoke Damage. He got Me one of these, with a Zip drive, and the all the other accessories that went with It. I was a DJ, so I got a Program called "DataEase" and with this you could build your own Spreadsheet, You would put In the different Fields stretch them out to fit the Characters you were going to enter. Give each Field a name. I was using It to, put all my Cd's on, so I could find a track In a matter of Seconds, rather than going through hundreds of them to find one track. It was great, and got a lot of attention every time I used It. Still In the bag somewhere In the loft. I remember the power brick would get really hot, If you didn't turn It off when the battery was charged. Happy Times. Thanks for sharing and bringing back some great memories.
@ericgroenendijk8843
2 years ago (edited)
I own a functioning Compaq SLT/286 in top condition, complete with functional charger, Compaq original manual and original Compaq carrying bag. Could you give me an estimate of its worth, were I to sell this unit?
@tezzaNZ
2 years ago
Well it all depends on supply and demand. Units with their chargers are not common. If it helps, i sold this one for $NZ 250 ($US175)
@qualin1974
2 years ago
I had one of these in 1995. Kept me sane while I was living abroad. I recall calling Compaq and asking them for a memory upgrade. They wanted $721 for 1 MB of RAM and $2421 for 4 MB of RAM. Boo on Compaq for using non-standard memory modules. Despite that, I had the docking station which had two full ISA slots built into it. It served me well for the years I had it. I have no idea what happened to it, but part of me wishes I had it again, I had so many fond memories using this machine.
@razvan.iulian.1990
2 years ago
I go tomorow se one of this !! But the guy don t have the charger... any idea where I can buy one from??
@tezzaNZ
2 years ago
No idea. It's common for these computers to become separated from their chargers. The charger is complex so it's hard to find a modern replacement. I don't know of one.
@carlenger9707
2 years ago
3:29
just a random thing but I love how all the ports are labelled! Granted it's still just a picture as opposed to text but either way.. that wasn't something you saw too much back then
@alvarorivas6886
2 years ago (edited)
Hi Terry, which hard drive model is installed on it? is there room for a 3.5 FH drive?
@BamaE92
3 years ago
My dad had an SLT for work in 1989. I was 3 years old. He would bring it home and I would play Reader Rabbit on DOS!
He also bought a color monitor to use at home for the very reason shown in the video!
@MsJinkerson
3 years ago
really a great looking unit
@nticompass
4 years ago
I have one of these laptops! I tried to connect it's VGA output, but got nothing on the screen. I didn't realize I needed a key combo to switch to the external monitor. So... what keys did you press to switch to external VGA?
Hi Terry where the diagnostics disk can be found ? just got one but with not this floppy.
@tezzaNZ
4 years ago
Hi Panos, I have the diagnostic disk archive file. Drop me an email at terry(at)webweavers(dot)co(dot)nz and I can arrange to get it to you.
@jimmyharris1481
4 years ago (edited)
I have one but there is a virus on it which blocks the Floppy Drive ! I was not able so far to delete the virus ! :-(
@zdpuia9432
4 years ago (edited)
Boot from the floppy with a fresh dos on it with antivirus. Clean hardrive with it. Use dos command sys c: and Lo. You have a clean system. Dont forget to get to bios and change boot priority to the floppy
@TheBudgie29
1 year ago
Sounds like You have the dreaded "Stoned Virus" the worlds first ever virus. Do not put any more Boot disc's In, as It will spread from disc to disc, and computer to computer. Watch this and He explain In more detail on how to get rid of It. Good Luck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wpAucMg65Q
@fueledbymusic3
4 years ago
I was just given one of these yesterday. It does turn on. Interesting! And then I go to ebay to see what people are selling these for. Typically $500 or more. Is that really true?
@80sCompaqPC
2 years ago
No, it isn’t. You’re probably looking at asking prices. They usually sell for around $50 to $100.
@teddymills1
4 years ago
This was a cute and reasonably reliable laptop. Had a Conner 40MB. Case quality better than average.
@80sCompaqPC
2 years ago
As someone who owns eight SLTs, I can attest to their reliability! I’ve had very few major issues with any of them.
@rocifier
4 years ago (edited)
I have one of these which I repaired. But when I boot it up, it asks me to insert the setup disk you mention at
14:25
. For the life of me I cannot get hold of one of these disks. Does anyone have one or can make one for me? I have tried getting a USB (1.44MB) disk drive and writing one from my main PC, but the USB disk drive physically cannot write to the special boot sector of the floppy disk that it needs to in order to create a setup disk. A search of the net shows that this is generally the case with any modern floppy disk drive. Any ideas?
@toddstewart9070
4 years ago
I have a Goldstar 386sx laptop very similar to this, but it isnt as fat
@jupreindeer
4 years ago (edited)
I've got a couple of these. Last time I checked, they both fired up just fine. Just a shame that the technological leap has grown too wide. The world has pulled away from those old phone modems and my modern machines don't have 3.5" drives. Besides, last machine I did have with one...could no longer read the old 3.11 format. Otherwise, wonderful machines. Can run a great game of Wolfenstein. Oh...and mine came with a working copy of Windows 3.11.
@RetroErik
5 years ago
Hi. What key combination did you press to active external screen?
@mspenrice
5 years ago
Wow, this must have seemed extremely cutting edge when it was released... an entire desktop-grade computer a box small enough to - just about - fit in a student backpack and plunk on a small (if sturdy!) classroom desk... with various features a lot of contemporary desktops wouldn't have got round to including yet.
I mean, I compare it to a 286 desktop I had handed down to me by a family friend and I just can't see why that machine, just a year older (there's several dates on it that suggest a 1987 construction), is in such a beastly, massive, heavy box, other than for the sake of offering additional expansion (on a very limited basis as it actually only has 4 slots, and two of them were already occupied by a graphics card and a disk controller) and building in the power supply instead of having an external brick.
After all... it has the same 286 processor, at the same 12mhz speed. When I got it there was only 640kb installed (I later increased that to its mainboard maximum of 1152kb using a couple of 256k SIMMs; anything more would require installing an ISA XMS or EMS board, and accepting that the higher reaches of the RAM would run slower than the base 1.1mb) so it's not like it had more memory. The HDD was larger, at 40mb, but that additional storage didn't make it any larger or more power hungry than a typical 20mb would have been (it's still a 3.5" unit of a size that would fit in the Compaq). Graphics were the rather staid old Hercules Mono standard (later replaced by a Trident half-meg SVGA with no compatibility problems at all), and the floppy drive was a rather needless 1.2mb 5.25" unit (again, replaced with a fully BIOS-supported 3.5" 1.44mb in a bay adaptor). No extra ports were provided versus those of the Compaq other than maybe a second Serial (in place of the external floppy jack), and it didn't have a sound card or modem.
On top of which it didn't have a built in display or a built in keyboard. Or a battery of any kind beyond that used to keep the CMOS settings.
So why is it in a box that could be used to form the foundations of a small house? Or maybe, how did Compaq manage to cram the same amount of tech into such a relatively small and light box?
Also, how come the detachable laptop keyboard idea never caught on? The number of times down the years when I would have killed to have such a thing, it could at least have been an option. Not only would it be a boon for comfortable use in any situation where you can't site the base unit in a comfortable typing position, it makes getting at any service parts that might be on an under-keyboard PCB so much easier. The cable storage may be an issue, but it could easily have been made more lightweight and compact than this example. It seems we're only coming round to the concept again in the most modern age, with wireless keyboards and keyboard-less tablet machines becoming the general norm, vs laptops with permanently attached ones...
@dwhollrah
5 years ago
Thanks..subbed. I'm interested to know the key stroke combination for external monitor. I have a 98-1999 Compaq missing its display and would like to try get video to a monitor at boot up...not sure its healthy tho..no boot up beeps and the floppy doesn't seek although the fan cycles and the HDD spins up.
@mspenrice
5 years ago
Going slow-mo on the manual as Tezza flips through it suggests that it's either Ctrl + Alt + "<" or Ctrl + Alt + ">" ... I'm not sure if those are meant to be less than/greater than signs (which surely need Shift as well?) or left/right cursors (or whether that's the separate cursors or those on the (virtual) numeric keypad), however. Still, it'll only take maybe a dozen different tries to find the correct combination given that guidance, one hopes :)
(and yeah, rather non-standard!)
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
From memory it's Cntr-alt and the "<" key to go to external monitor. Cntr-Alt and ">" to go back to the internal screen.
@smfanqingwu1474
5 years ago
dir/p dir/w dir/ad
@deehimself5587
5 years ago
Ew your computers
@1science100
5 years ago
Hi Terry, I've completely disassembled this laptop and even made some photo's of the inside of the Power adapter 'brick' and also have some pinsetting info on the mainboard inside 20 pins power plug and the Citizen Osda 53B floppy drive and the DP8473V controller that is running it. And I also repaired the bad RTC chip but the SLT/286 still was not responding. So I made an Amiga floppy to SD card copier of the Compaq SLT/286 after removing the boards and replacing the original 26 pins Citizen FDD by a 34 pins standard FDD. Because sadly we need info on the often sold special Compaq 34 to 26 pins FDD adapter board that enables to use the 26 pins Osda 53B on a 34 pins shugart interface. I got almost all FDD pinfunction by reverse engineering but still need more information on that Compaq adapter board. Is there something about that written in your manual or about the 26 pins connector? Thanks Alectronic (Albert).
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
Hi, sorry Albert. The manual is a user manual, and doesn't go into that level of technical detail.
@1science100
5 years ago (edited)
Thanks Terry. Sad that there is only very little technical documentation left on this decent made laptop. But maybe good to mention is that it is possible to repair the bad battery packs by replacing the NiCads by Li-ion 18650 cells with a protective pcb module. The boards are sold as 3S, 4S (3 for 10.8 to 11.1V or 4 serie cells for 4 x 3.7 to 4.2V) lithium charging protection boards 10A,20A,25A or even 30A. See Aliexpress searching for instance on "3s li-ion lithium battery battery protection board". By placing equal capacity cells in parallel you can double or tripple the current and the boards protect for short circuiting the battery.output too. I have a spot welder bought online in China for connecting the cells to a pack with pure nickel plate strips too (soldering Litium ion cells can degrade and even do explode or cause fire to them). My SLT/286 is beyond repair and I threw the bad battery pack away long ago. So it is too late for my machine now.
@kaosengr
5 years ago
Did the manual shown in the video have a pinout for the internal floppy drive connector?
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
No, sorry. It's a user manual and doesn't have that kind of technical detail.
@kaosengr
5 years ago (edited)
At
14:21
, I noticed a few pages in the back with connectors and what looked like pinout descriptions. May just be for the rear panel connections. Is that manual available on the net?
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
No, just the pinouts for the external ports. I'm not sure if its on the Net.
@remijakobsen1848
6 years ago
Very nice review. You can still get new Dallas chips that are a direct replacement, its not marked with the same IC number though. I'e just today purchased one SLT/286 of my own, will get it in a couple of weeks. I've just restored its pre-successor, Portable III. It had the same Dallas chip issue and also the HDD was dead, I replaced it with an IDE-SD memory card adapter.
@pauls640
6 years ago
Sir, you could try to open up (carefully) the battery unit, to see if you can replace the cells inside. If done carefully it could go unnoticed aesthetically, and the pc would fully functional.
cheers Paolo
@tezzaNZ
5 years ago
It seems to be a sealed unit Paolo. I'd rather not try...at least for now.
@TheLevitatingChin
6 years ago
Its our tezza
@SteveRawcliffe
6 years ago
To her great delight my 16-year-old daughter picked one of these up at a jumble sale today here in France for the princely sum of 5 euro! Works fine except for the same CMOS battery problem you had, and the main battery is missing. Doesn't have the numeric keypad either, but that's not a great problem. Had to revive my long-dormant DOS skills to make a boot diskette and a diskette with the configuration software, but I think she's going to be having fun with it.
Thanks for your video, which I'll be showing her tomorrow!
@Supcharged
6 years ago
can it play 4k video?
@kosztaz87
6 years ago
Great machine. But wow, I can't believe Compaq had the nerve to pull such a sleazy move with that non replaceable battery chip.
@pipschannel1222
8 months ago (edited)
Every PC manufacturer and their mother used these non-socketed Dallas chips.. No one expected these machines to still be in use decades later you know? Those things could last for over 10 years..
@kosztaz87
8 months ago
@pipschannel1222
Still not acceptable. It's basically a ticking time bomb with a 10 year or so long lifespan.
@pipschannel1222
8 months ago
@kosztaz87
I hate 'em too but that's a little dramatic. They are easily replaceable if you know what you're doing.. I just fixed an SLT with an empty Dallas, a few broken traces and some bad SRAM. They were never meant to live 30+ years but if you want them too they definitely can..
@Adrialf
6 years ago
Mine Compaq SLT/286 only appears " 102-System Board Failure" I don't know what I should do ...
@tezzaNZ
6 years ago
That sounds serious. The only thing I would advise is to open it up and check all the connectors.
@Adrialf
6 years ago
Terry Stewart I open it yesterday and connections were well , hdd and floppy , etc... are in his place . Maybe capacitors ?
Thanks
@tezzaNZ
6 years ago
Could be. These boards are surface mount. They would be very hard to diagnose the fault and work on. If you want to persist, see if you can find a service manual on the web.
@Adrialf
6 years ago
Terry Stewart Ok! I will do it . When I oppen at it , I didn't saw corrosion of the capacitors . I don't know ...
@217awsome
7 years ago
Imagine what Doom would run like on this xD Could it run?
@paullangton-rogers2390
7 years ago
I owned (and still have it somewhere) the first generation Compaq SLT Lite notepad (possibly world's first notepad PC) which had an 8086 chip and 640kb RAM, and a 20GB hard drive. 4-shades of mono on the LCD, and the LCD if you look at it, very odd size, small only took up about 2/3rds of the lid size. I remember taking it to work around 1991-1992 (it had been around a while by then and I bought it 2nd hand from an auction) and everyone in my workplace (who were all still using luggables and the Toshiba plasma screen tank-laptops) marveled at my Compaq Lite. The boss of the company even offered me £350 for it! It really was ahead of its time and a super-portable computer, really design from Compaq who went on to be the no1 computer manufacturer later on.
@Kilbarron55
7 years ago
It lives!!!!!
@konnykoo
7 years ago
folder SOVIET?
@tezzaNZ
7 years ago
+Konstantin Kuzminykh Yea, a Cold War text-based Adventure game written in BASIC (:
@konnykoo
7 years ago
ok no problem ;) at those times we in Russia had very slow computers, even slower to this one =)
@johneygd
7 years ago
For 1988 this was a milestone, i bet once you saw a buzzyness man at the train with such laptop, everybody would,ve look at him,being jalouse, they would hate him for being an possible spion for russia and wondering what the hell is he doing, Remember it was the soviet age bofore 1989.
@rfif-vg8kw
7 years ago
HI Terry I am an old computer geek from back in the day. Loved my commodore 64. Just want to say I really enjoy your videos. I doubt you could find anyone that goes into the depth you do. Thanks for sharing with us.
@tezzaNZ
7 years ago
+rfif1541 You're welcome!
@Ants79
7 years ago
I have one of these
@phlaelym
7 years ago
I worked on the assembly line at Compaq's main headquarters in Houston in the mid-to-late 90's. It was a horrible work environment. I'm not surprised Compaq is no longer around.
@WaffleWaffles
7 years ago
+phlaelym why was the work environment so bad?
@phlaelym
7 years ago
It was just a poorly run company. Mismanagement, and apathy towards their employees; unless you were management you were miserable. I started working there with my friend, who is Hispanic (keep reading and you'll know why I told you that). I knew everything about computers back then -- I could (and still can I guess) program in Pascal, Basic, and had an understanding of C++. I had assembled many computers from spare parts and knew the industry lingo. But Compaq needed to look racially inclusive so they gave the high-paying job as a liaison between the customers and the engineers to my friend. He knew next to nothing about computers and had no work experience, and was fired about a year later because he didn't have a clue what he was doing. I worked on the assembly line. Twelve hour shifts on your feet screwing boards into the units for chump change. One day we noticed the very obese gentleman who worked on the assembly line with us had a stool to sit on while he worked. We talked to our manager about letting others use a stool. Wasn't happening. I didn't think it was right they rewarded that guy's poor life decisions by making his job easier, while the rest of us weren't given that privilege. I quit soon after -- one of the best decisions I ever made. The turnover rate for employees at Compaq was quite high. Usually, places with high turnover rates are usually not the best places to work (or the employees would stay). I had another friend working there on the line. One day the manager walked up and pointed to a hairline scratch on the motherboard my friend had made with the electric screwdriver; it was barely visible. My friend gouged the motherboard with the screwdriver while saying "That's not a scratch -- That's a scratch". He dropped the screwdriver like a microphone and walked out. I still get a chuckle from that memory. Anyway...does that answer your question?
@WaffleWaffles
7 years ago
phlaelym Thank you for sharing your experience and replying. Sounds like one of those companies that is awful to work for but there are some things that you miss. It reminds me of the sort of work environments and politics I had to deal with working in software. Some of the companies were truly awful, dire managers and sometimes people didn't get paid and projects you'd work on for a year being cancelled, totally soul destroying but I look back on much of it with nostalgia, and remember the few fun moments and dramas with the people I worked with.
@1991stratplus
8 years ago
Very impressive for it;s day.
@AthenaNova1
8 years ago
I still used one of these until the mid 2000s to program 2-way radios. the software and hardware needed to run on a old system because of timing problems with faster ones.
I ran DOS and Tandy Deskmate on it. Worked great for the job, and was compact enough to stow away nicely when not in use.
@Kennynva
8 years ago
Wow..I had that exact chess game program..that is wild..thanks for showing this...
@rijden-nu
8 years ago
Kennynva T. Everyone had BattleChess :) That game was awesome.
@Kennynva
8 years ago
If you had the, what they called back then, a Math Co-processor...it would have really been a smoking machine...back then..I really liked mine...There is a large connector that I believe was a docking port..or a port for a SCSI hard drive..I think. It was good for a Amateur radio packet system..or a ham bulletin board system..that used a TNC or a terminal node controller, that would hook to your ham radio...and make it transmit and receive packets of info...kinda like a teletype system, where things in the amateur radio world would be for sale..or any kind of info..Nice video..and thanks alot of taking me back to the good ole days..KE4HVE...
@Kennynva
8 years ago
I had the 386 version of this laptop. A friend of mine worked for Compaq..and would send me parts for this laptop...pretty cool for its age..and worked ok...had a hard drive in it..too..I wish I still had it.
@paullangton-rogers2390
7 years ago
+Kennynva T. When you wish you still had something which ancient tech, you know it's well made and designed...that bond between user and device, is a reflection of very well engineered, well designed machines, sadly lacking in mass produced Chinese rubbish today.
@Kennynva
7 years ago
You are exactly right...you could throw this laptop across the room and it will still work...try to do that to today's machines..
@midnightrocker7
8 years ago
when was this obsolete by, 1990?
@tezzaNZ
8 years ago
Midnight Rocker38 Yes, probably around then. Things were progressing very quickly around that time...
@mspenrice
5 years ago
Depends what you wanted to do. The majority of mundane Windows tasks including basic Office stuff don't actually trouble a 286 that much, particularly a faster one like this, and don't consume huge amounts of memory unless you make something really complex - if you can get a 1mb, or better a 1.5mb to 2mb machine you can load most software.
In fact given the relative simplicity of most of Windows 3.1 and the typical 16-bit programs written for it, 386 and 486 chips barely accelerate operations on a pure code front (only getting some small gains from better cycle efficiency, caching and loading up their pipelines at a higher speed... IF you had a 386DX or a non-SL 486) and until Win32S came along really only sped up thanks to higher clock rates.
My main early experience of Windows systems was with 386 SX-16 desktops at school and a 486 SL-25 laptop (essentially a 486 core in what was otherwise a 386SX system... and 386SXes were basically AT's with a 386 chip shoved onto them, so the architecture for both was really just that of a very fast 286) brought home by my mother - later, I got an SL-33 as my first owned laptop, traded for a box of soap powder with a similarly cash strapped student - and if you turned off the desktops' turbo switches or put the laptops into battery-saver mode they both ran at 8mhz. Overall processing speed in both cases probably not any better, at least not significantly so, than this Compaq. (And likewise with a 486 SX-25 desktop I have - which was in use for sports science data capture and some light word processing at a previous workplace until at least the late noughties if not early 2010s, as its attached printer was still serviceable with new cartridges, and there were some USB floppy drives around the site for file transfer - although the effect isn't as marked because it's a full 32-bit system and I think it only drops to 12.5mhz)
But everything still worked just fine. There was a little more of a redraw delay for more complicated pieces of vector clipart and suchlike (in MS Works which was more common at the time), but I had until then been used to using an Atari ST, so I quite liked watching the relatively colourful, relatively high rez images being built up. It still seemed fairly quick, and more interesting than the near-instant redraw of full speed mode on the 486.
So I figure if you put 1 or 2 of the 1mb upgrade sticks into this machine, and resigned yourself to somewhat slow hard drive loading (the one thing that using a 386 or better, and having lots of memory for RAM-caching, genuinely accelerated), you probably wouldn't have found it to be "obsolete" in terms of general Windows / MS Office type tasks for a great many years to come, basically until 16-bit drivers were no longer available for any device you wanted to plug into it, or maybe the rise of USB. Of course, if you wanted to take part in the multimedia revolution, or install Windows 95, it would have been more limited, but then there were enough 386 and 486, even some early Pentium laptops that were just as handicapped. I've got a P120 machine that still only had a VGA-resolution internal panel (able to run up to 16-bit colour on it, however), so it didn't have any additional space for document creation on the go (Powerpoint is especially irksome at 640x480), and came with "just" 8mb on board, which although it makes running Windows 95 possible, also makes it torturous... really you need at least 12 or preferably 16 (...as it was already obsolete when I bought it, I just hopped straight on eBay and bought enough to max it out, to I think 40mb...)... plus very poor quality onboard audio (better than a lot of 486s that had nothing but the beeper, though) and no CDROM support... like, at all. Unless you used a parallel port one. In which case you were as well to use a Zip drive as well - which is something that had entirely 16-bit compatible drivers available for DOS...
It always amuses and annoys me in equal measure when I see adverts for computer retailers on the TV and they bang on about how such and such system has a Core i5, "perfect for multitasking", and the example of multitasking is using an art package to create a picture and then copying it into Word which was sitting in the background. Like, I can totally do that on the 1.1mb, 12mhz 286 desktop I also have. It doesn't have any ability to run background tasks, maybe, but your word processor or paint program aren't going to do anything whilst sitting in the background anyway. You're not "multitasking"... merely "task switching". And a computer from 1988 can do that just as well as one from 2018, really.
@Ts6451
8 years ago
I would suspect the chip was soldered in primarily for reliability, not as a planned obsolescence thing, those potted circuits are rather large and heavy compared to a normal IC and a laptop would be moved around, subjected to vibrations and changing temperatures much more than a stationary machine, and so it might have been thought it was a good idea to avoid having it in a socket.
And while they were not designed to be user replaceable, a service center of the time would probably have a the tools and experience to do so.
Of course, when working on an older machine that is likely to be hard to replace should something go wrong, it is quite understandable that you don't want to risk replacing it.
@JimBales
8 years ago
I have one of these that I would like to sell. Wonder what the market is for and "antique" laptop?
@tezzaNZ
8 years ago
Jim Bales A very small one, but you do see these on e-bay occasionally. I'm not sure what they go for.
@JimBales
8 years ago
Terry Stewart Thank you Terry.
@jannevaatainen
8 years ago
Thanks for these videos. Your accent is great, especially how you say the word "port"! ;)
My Canon BN100C 486SX-based laptop is almost as thick as this one, but Canon also has a printer built in! Of course it's from the year 1994, so it's more advanced (though really not by so much). These old laptops are fun to play with, but the screen ghosting limits their usefulness.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
You're welcome.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Umm...There is nothing I'm really desperate for now. A jupiter ace would be good. I wouldn't say no to one of the high end Amigas either, say a 2000 or 3000. A Compucolour would also be nice.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
LOL! I'm not sure being able to put people to sleep with my commentary is a good thing (-: Anyway, hope you are enjoying the videos.
@EgoShredder
10 years ago
NVRAM Dallas chips are notoriously difficult to replace and you need exemplary soldering skills! It's one of the reasons I sold my two Atari Falcon 030 machines recently, although there are other solutions to the NVRAM problem like cutting the top half of the chip away and removing the lithium cell battery and replacing it. You have done something similar I see.
@JacGoudsmit
10 years ago
What an interesting little machine! I thought I'd seen most Compaqs (at least the ones that were available in the Netherlands in the 1980s and 1990s) but I have to say I don't remember ever seeing this one before. It reminds me of an Ericsson portable PC I once used. It looked almost the same: like a small suitcase with a flip-up (red monochrome plasma) screen and a removable keyboard, but it also had a built-in thermal printer. No battery though (mains only) and it was XT-based (NEC V20?) IIRC.
@strictlysega
10 years ago
its funny,, whenever i want to put my wife to sleep i just put on your show terry,, i think its just how calmly u speak.
As far as the computer goes,, my unkle had that computer but it had a red screen,, ,, i dunno maybe my memory is playing tricvks on me,,
But it was the first time i played commander keen..
@TheFlyingScotsman
10 years ago
As a collector of classic Compaq machines I very much love this video. I am a person who laments the demise of what Compaq used to be before HP bought them out, and as such I'd love an SLT if I was able to get hold of one. This was a fantastic video as always. Thanks for showing us this gem in your collection. I did have a Compaq Portable II but unfortunately it was broken and I was unable to get it to go.
@robertross9298
2 years ago
I have one that I would like to get rid of. You can contact me at longfellowjoseph12@gmail.com
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
I didn't realise Compaq had it's own customised version of MS-DOS. That's new information for me, thanks.
@electricadventures
10 years ago
I can remember the guys in the marketing department at Telecom got one of these machines (as they had to go out and see customers). I can actually remember having issues with the BIOS back then, but they were a very nice machine indeed.
@CaminoAir
10 years ago
Thanks again, Terry. Compaq's laptops were (as far as I remember) always stylish. It's always interesting to see how designers can fit so many features into a limited space.
@tribalmasters
10 years ago
the detachable keyboard is great! Imagaine a tablet with that feature
@tribalmasters
10 years ago
Fascinating laptop! I wish some of its freatures were used today such as tbe detachable keyboard! You could put the laptop beside a monitor and just pull ojt that keyboard for convenient desktop use or what about a tablet computer with detachable keyboard and a built in stand for the jltimate in comfort whilst using desktop applications!
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Those docking stations are rare. Well done.
@tezzaNZ
10 years ago
Thanks. Yes, it's passive matrix, and ghosting can take place when there is a lot of movement.
@maboroshi1986
10 years ago
Great video as always. To be honest when I saw the machine on your desk I thought it was a real late 80's desktop computer. Its so big.
I'm assuming due to age that the screen is s passive matrix LCD, do you have to worry about a lot of ghosting or faulty pixels?
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/mickfrench/compaqlte.htm
Your videos are really informative and insightful....this vintage computer buff is a new fan. Thanks for your efforts.
Why I like it:
- You provide just enough history to keep it interesting
- You provide pros and cons
- You speak clearly
- The subject is retro computing.
This makes me want to buy a Compaq SLT but with modern hardware in the same form factor. There's something I really like about that detachable keyboard.
I found this computer in a pile of bulky garbage. but with no power adaptor and of course empty battery pack.
Does anyone know the polarity of the terminals of the battery? I know its 12V but as it has 4 pins...
Subbed!
I love the fact you restore the bag not just the PC. The bag matters too, as its part of the package and makes the thing complete.
So... what keys did you press to switch to external VGA?
I mean, I compare it to a 286 desktop I had handed down to me by a family friend and I just can't see why that machine, just a year older (there's several dates on it that suggest a 1987 construction), is in such a beastly, massive, heavy box, other than for the sake of offering additional expansion (on a very limited basis as it actually only has 4 slots, and two of them were already occupied by a graphics card and a disk controller) and building in the power supply instead of having an external brick.
After all... it has the same 286 processor, at the same 12mhz speed. When I got it there was only 640kb installed (I later increased that to its mainboard maximum of 1152kb using a couple of 256k SIMMs; anything more would require installing an ISA XMS or EMS board, and accepting that the higher reaches of the RAM would run slower than the base 1.1mb) so it's not like it had more memory. The HDD was larger, at 40mb, but that additional storage didn't make it any larger or more power hungry than a typical 20mb would have been (it's still a 3.5" unit of a size that would fit in the Compaq). Graphics were the rather staid old Hercules Mono standard (later replaced by a Trident half-meg SVGA with no compatibility problems at all), and the floppy drive was a rather needless 1.2mb 5.25" unit (again, replaced with a fully BIOS-supported 3.5" 1.44mb in a bay adaptor). No extra ports were provided versus those of the Compaq other than maybe a second Serial (in place of the external floppy jack), and it didn't have a sound card or modem.
On top of which it didn't have a built in display or a built in keyboard. Or a battery of any kind beyond that used to keep the CMOS settings.
So why is it in a box that could be used to form the foundations of a small house? Or maybe, how did Compaq manage to cram the same amount of tech into such a relatively small and light box?
Also, how come the detachable laptop keyboard idea never caught on? The number of times down the years when I would have killed to have such a thing, it could at least have been an option. Not only would it be a boon for comfortable use in any situation where you can't site the base unit in a comfortable typing position, it makes getting at any service parts that might be on an under-keyboard PCB so much easier. The cable storage may be an issue, but it could easily have been made more lightweight and compact than this example. It seems we're only coming round to the concept again in the most modern age, with wireless keyboards and keyboard-less tablet machines becoming the general norm, vs laptops with permanently attached ones...
(and yeah, rather non-standard!)
Because sadly we need info on the often sold special Compaq 34 to 26 pins FDD adapter board that enables to use the 26 pins Osda 53B on a 34 pins shugart interface. I got almost all FDD pinfunction by reverse engineering but still need more information on that Compaq adapter board. Is there something about that written in your manual or about the 26 pins connector? Thanks Alectronic (Albert).
By placing equal capacity cells in parallel you can double or tripple the current and the boards protect for short circuiting the battery.output too. I have a spot welder bought online in China for connecting the cells to a pack with pure nickel plate strips too (soldering Litium ion cells can degrade and even do explode or cause fire to them). My SLT/286 is beyond repair and I threw the bad battery pack away long ago. So it is too late for my machine now.
cheers
Paolo
Thanks for your video, which I'll be showing her tomorrow!
Thanks
Remember it was the soviet age bofore 1989.
I ran DOS and Tandy Deskmate on it. Worked great for the job, and was compact enough to stow away nicely when not in use.
In fact given the relative simplicity of most of Windows 3.1 and the typical 16-bit programs written for it, 386 and 486 chips barely accelerate operations on a pure code front (only getting some small gains from better cycle efficiency, caching and loading up their pipelines at a higher speed... IF you had a 386DX or a non-SL 486) and until Win32S came along really only sped up thanks to higher clock rates.
My main early experience of Windows systems was with 386 SX-16 desktops at school and a 486 SL-25 laptop (essentially a 486 core in what was otherwise a 386SX system... and 386SXes were basically AT's with a 386 chip shoved onto them, so the architecture for both was really just that of a very fast 286) brought home by my mother - later, I got an SL-33 as my first owned laptop, traded for a box of soap powder with a similarly cash strapped student - and if you turned off the desktops' turbo switches or put the laptops into battery-saver mode they both ran at 8mhz. Overall processing speed in both cases probably not any better, at least not significantly so, than this Compaq. (And likewise with a 486 SX-25 desktop I have - which was in use for sports science data capture and some light word processing at a previous workplace until at least the late noughties if not early 2010s, as its attached printer was still serviceable with new cartridges, and there were some USB floppy drives around the site for file transfer - although the effect isn't as marked because it's a full 32-bit system and I think it only drops to 12.5mhz)
But everything still worked just fine. There was a little more of a redraw delay for more complicated pieces of vector clipart and suchlike (in MS Works which was more common at the time), but I had until then been used to using an Atari ST, so I quite liked watching the relatively colourful, relatively high rez images being built up. It still seemed fairly quick, and more interesting than the near-instant redraw of full speed mode on the 486.
So I figure if you put 1 or 2 of the 1mb upgrade sticks into this machine, and resigned yourself to somewhat slow hard drive loading (the one thing that using a 386 or better, and having lots of memory for RAM-caching, genuinely accelerated), you probably wouldn't have found it to be "obsolete" in terms of general Windows / MS Office type tasks for a great many years to come, basically until 16-bit drivers were no longer available for any device you wanted to plug into it, or maybe the rise of USB. Of course, if you wanted to take part in the multimedia revolution, or install Windows 95, it would have been more limited, but then there were enough 386 and 486, even some early Pentium laptops that were just as handicapped. I've got a P120 machine that still only had a VGA-resolution internal panel (able to run up to 16-bit colour on it, however), so it didn't have any additional space for document creation on the go (Powerpoint is especially irksome at 640x480), and came with "just" 8mb on board, which although it makes running Windows 95 possible, also makes it torturous... really you need at least 12 or preferably 16 (...as it was already obsolete when I bought it, I just hopped straight on eBay and bought enough to max it out, to I think 40mb...)... plus very poor quality onboard audio (better than a lot of 486s that had nothing but the beeper, though) and no CDROM support... like, at all. Unless you used a parallel port one. In which case you were as well to use a Zip drive as well - which is something that had entirely 16-bit compatible drivers available for DOS...
It always amuses and annoys me in equal measure when I see adverts for computer retailers on the TV and they bang on about how such and such system has a Core i5, "perfect for multitasking", and the example of multitasking is using an art package to create a picture and then copying it into Word which was sitting in the background. Like, I can totally do that on the 1.1mb, 12mhz 286 desktop I also have. It doesn't have any ability to run background tasks, maybe, but your word processor or paint program aren't going to do anything whilst sitting in the background anyway. You're not "multitasking"... merely "task switching". And a computer from 1988 can do that just as well as one from 2018, really.
And while they were not designed to be user replaceable, a service center of the time would probably have a the tools and experience to do so.
Of course, when working on an older machine that is likely to be hard to replace should something go wrong, it is quite understandable that you don't want to risk replacing it.
My Canon BN100C 486SX-based laptop is almost as thick as this one, but Canon also has a printer built in! Of course it's from the year 1994, so it's more advanced (though really not by so much). These old laptops are fun to play with, but the screen ghosting limits their usefulness.