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Compaq Portable 286

LiqMatrix

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2017
Messages
687
Hey guys,

Jim from Ribbon Recyclers in Williston, Vermont is shutting down for good in mid June. Some of you might remember my photos of his small warehouse with all the TV broadcasting equipment. He has this Compaq Portable 286 he would like to take offers on. He ships worldwide. Give him a call if interested. I attached his business card. Nice guy. It turns on and it looks complete, but needs to be configured since the battery has died. Probably will need a setup disk.

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It turns on and it looks complete, but needs to be configured since the battery has died. Probably will need a setup disk.
Setup disks are a dime a dozen and readily available.

If he were smart he would run the setup himself and then probably get twice as much (or more) for it.
 
He has an entire warehouse of equipment to dispose of and no time for the small details. I'm sure someone will be glad to perform that task if they're interested.
 
Sorry about the broken attachments. Difficult to manipulate on my phone. Let's try that again.

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Which battery does the system use?

Looks like it's a rare system, few of them were made before the Portable II and Portable III. https://www.vintagecomputer.net/browse_thread.cfm?id=442

Similar to the Portable/Portable Plus in size and other things. I'll try to contact him before the weekend as I will be out of town. I found another forum that has the diagnostics or BIOS diskette in a ZIP file, except EXE or COM files, so I'll need loads of 360KB diskettes. Good thing my Packard Bell has a dual floppy drive installed, however, the diskettes I have are 1.2MB only, sadly, however, I have a couple of 720KB diskettes left, so I can install a 720KB diskette drive in the system, set it up, and check to see which battery it uses.
 
I've got one of those, a local PC repair shop happened to get it in for recycling and since I know the owner well he gave me a good deal. Great computers, if you're feeling confident in your arm strength.
 
Which type of battery does the unit use, itsvince725? I'm thinking about buying the system sometime, however, money is kind of tight right now with surprise bills and I need to fix the fuel system on my car at the moment and the brakes.
 
Portable 286s aren’t really rare; they are slightly less common than other models, but they don’t qualify as rare in my book. I’ve seen lots of them on eBay over the years.

That being said, they are very cool systems, and I’d be very interested in this, but I’m currently in the process of acquiring another vintage machine.

The one for sale here looks like a great unit given the asking price is reasonable. They usually go for about $100 or less on eBay (at least the ones I have seen).
 
Broken (as-is) or working Portable and Portable Plus systems being sold on eBay are being sold for over $200

Never mentioned Portables or Pluses. There is also an untested Osborne 1 that sold for $350 on eBay recently. Does that mean they are worth that? No. They rarely bring $200 fully working.

There is a non-working original Portable on eBay right now at $9.99 with one bid and 9 minutes left.

It just ended for $26, so there ya go.
 
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Usually, the S&H charges are a major setback. The listing you mentioned had a tax rating on there for my state. On top of that, it had a funny smell according to the seller.
 
Usually, the S&H charges are a major setback. The listing you mentioned had a tax rating on there for my state. On top of that, it had a funny smell according to the seller.

If you can’t tell by the user name, I know my Compaq Portables. The burnt smell was either a tantalum cap, or the horizontal output transistor in the CRT. Guaranteed. An easy fix for something with even limited soldering experience.

Even with the S&H charge, it was still way less than $200. Anyone who pays $200+ for a non-working original Compaq Portable that doesn’t work is crazy IMO. They made LOTS of those them, because it was a fantastic and reasonably priced system for its time.

There was actually one in the back of my local Goodwill once that I saw when they had the door open. I begged them to sell it to me (two different times actually), but they wouldn’t. Poor thing probably got recycled. I haven’t gone there much since, because it they are recycling the very stuff I am looking for, what’s the point?
 
The 8-Bit Guy had a Portable Plus that lost the motherboard to a burnt trace and tantalum cap on the CGA card when he jump started the power supply after sitting for a long time. If I find one cheap, I would inspect it and fix it. Do the power supplies go out after many years?
 
The 8-Bit Guy had a Portable Plus that lost the motherboard to a burnt trace and tantalum cap on the CGA card when he jump started the power supply after sitting for a long time. If I find one cheap, I would inspect it and fix it. Do the power supplies go out after many years?

I actually remember seeing that. I will tell you that is not a common issue though. That’s actually the first and only time I have ever seen it.

The power supplies in these are pretty rock-solid. I haven’t had any issues out of mine yet.
 
If you can’t tell by the user name, I know my Compaq Portables. The burnt smell was either a tantalum cap, or the horizontal output transistor in the CRT. Guaranteed. An easy fix for something with even limited soldering experience.

Even with the S&H charge, it was still way less than $200. Anyone who pays $200+ for a non-working original Compaq Portable that doesn’t work is crazy IMO. They made LOTS of those them, because it was a fantastic and reasonably priced system for its time.

There was actually one in the back of my local Goodwill once that I saw when they had the door open. I begged them to sell it to me (two different times actually), but they wouldn’t. Poor thing probably got recycled. I haven’t gone there much since, because it they are recycling the very stuff I am looking for, what’s the point?

Why didn't they want to sell it to you? Are there any regulations? I have never seen any CRT display or laptop for sale in any of my local goodwill stores.
 
Why didn't they want to sell it to you? Are there any regulations? I have never seen any CRT display or laptop for sale in any of my local goodwill stores.

It was in the back area of the store where customers aren’t allowed. I just happened to see it when they had the door propped open.
 
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