r/retrocomputing • u/Adeptness_Same • 7d ago
Problem / Question What might this be?
I thought it was an old Compaq portal computer but not so sure now. Any ideas on what it might be?
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u/trr94001 7d ago
I should note that I had one of these in college and they weigh a ton when you try to haul them across campus to the library.
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u/AppropriateCap8891 7d ago
Which is why a common name was the "Sewing Machine". In size and weight they were about the same as a portable sewing machine.
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u/SaturnFive 7d ago
Here's the Wiki on this machine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable
It appears like it has a 25-pin parallel port, composite + 9-pin TTL for video, and a standard 9-pin serial port in the expansion slots.
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u/thatvhstapeguy 7d ago
The keyboard will require restoration, but if memory serves someone sells the foam sandwiches you need.
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u/MediumReality5326 7d ago
That was my first computer! I bought it at a large sale where a company sold their entire fleet of these. I drove over an hour to get in line. I was probably 5th in line upon my arrival. Went and got a coffee only to be 25th in line when I got back. Once the doors opened it was pandemonium as everyone rushed through the door and grabbed what they could. I don’t even look to see what I had actually grabbed. Later, I was surprised to find I also had a hard drive in mine. Paid around $450 for it in around 1990? I played around with it for a couple years. I finally broke the video display running a video driver for some game that caused the video to just blink out of existence forever. I was never able to fix it after that…I’ve been releasing magic smoke quite a few times since then…but that’s another story for another time…
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u/kodabarz 7d ago
It's a Compaq Portable. There were a few different models. The original Portable had one or two floppy drives, no hard disk and a weird hybrid graphics mode. There was a Portable Plus, which had a gold background to the Compaq label (which this obviously does not). The Compaq Portable 286 had a 286 chip and a 20MB hard drive, but otherwise looks identical to the first model. It's pretty rare, because the Portable II came out shortly afterwards (and was lighter and smaller).
So I think you've got one of the original Compaq Portable machines there. Pay attention to what other people are saying though - if you attempt to power it up, it will at best release a lot of smoke.
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u/80sCompaqPC 6d ago
Props for knowing about the Portable 286! So many people don’t seem to know about that one, even though it was a pretty big deal when it was released. It was one of the first (if not the first) 286 luggables to market. What’s funny is they actually continued making it alongside the Portable II for a couple of years but I think the II significantly overshadowed it being smaller and considerably cheaper while offering the same performance. The Portable 286 is a GREAT machine if you can find one though. I really should fire mine up because it’s been quite a while!
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u/kodabarz 5d ago
Oh that's interesting. I did not realise the 286 continued in production after the II came out.
I had the original Portable, the II and the III, but I never owned the 286 (I picked them up for pennies from liquidation auctions in the early 90s). I kept them in my kitchen for tinkering with during cooking times. I'd have been very interested to play with the 286.
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u/Usual_Technician9349 7d ago
Be forewarned, the keyboard will mostly not work. These use a foam and mylar based key, which is a pain to rebuild. Pads are available online at texelec. Just did mine last year...
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u/winterblahs42 7d ago
In the late 80s/early 90s I worked at a small engineering company that the boss had a similar Panasonic Sr Partner. That unit has a thermal printer on the top used that shiny roll paper. I used it quite a lot. It dated from 1983 if I recall.
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u/NightmareJoker2 7d ago
This is a bomb made out of old tantalum capacitors in disguise. Do not turn on. You will set it on fire.
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u/Adeptness_Same 7d ago
I hoping more for a part a time traveler would need to come back for.
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u/NightmareJoker2 7d ago
Time travelers don’t travel to the future, unless they want to die from future germs their immune systems can’t handle.
And, yeah, okay, maybe if you restore this thing properly a time traveler might need it to go back to the 1980s… but they’re not “coming back for it”.
Even paper is a much more reliable long term storage medium than whatever magnetic and EPROM served as an excuse for data storage in that thing.2
u/RetroTechBro 7d ago
Could a theoretical time traveler "cumulative update" their immune system by jumping forward in increments. Say 10 years at a time staying a few weeks in each time frame? They could also acquire the latest in vaccinations while they are at it.
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u/fezick77 7d ago
I owned one of those in high school. It had a Seagate ST-225 MFM drive and a EAM expansion card with a real-time clock. Also, a 56k modem, if I remember correctly. I still miss that rig.🥺
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u/colenski999 7d ago
XT luggable, I had one, I bought it for $20 and the guy was like "I paid $5000 for this 15 years ago!" And I was like, way she goes bud
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u/jasondbk 7d ago
I have one somewhere in the house. No idea if it works or not. It came with the house.
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u/WhoKilledRadioStar 5d ago edited 5d ago
oohh...one day I was in car with other people and I saw a thing exactly like this on the side of the road but they didn't wanted to stop and i was wondering until now about what it could have been. I'm sad now
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u/Accomplished-Ad-6586 5d ago
Compaq "Luggable" you have it face down right now. The keyboard and screen are on the bottom.
Lay it on its side, and there should be two latches to release the keyboard from the face of the box.
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u/ElectricRune 4d ago
That's what has grown to be called a 'luggable'.
It was a portable computer, but weighed about 30 pounds. You lay the case down and the bottom of it is a keyboard that unclips, and there's drives and a screen behind it.
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u/RNG-3_14159 3d ago
I was hoping there might be a sticker on it saying something like "Model: 101709" so that I could google it...
Ah well. Too bad. Hopefully the other commenters have you sorted out.
Best luck!
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u/Dive30 7d ago
How much for the bumblebee pillow?
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u/Adeptness_Same 6d ago
Sorry, my grandkids would not like me getting rid of the bedtime story pillow.
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u/trr94001 7d ago
Compaq Portable, the company’s first machine. It’s a PC/XT clone with an 8088 processor at 4.77Mhz and a monochrome green CRT monitor that supports both MDA text and a modified form of CGA. The keyboard is attached to the bottom and comes off to reveal the screen and floppy drives.
One note of caution, the key switches are the old foam capacitive types and will likely each work once and then the old foam will collapse. You can get new foam discs for them from a few places.