I can't believe that after many years of trying to find one of these on eBay I have finally not only managed to find one, but win the auction and I now own one!
The first PC that I ever purchased was an ESCOM PC, I started with a Cyrix based system (as that was their cheapest model) but within just a matter of hours it was crashing and was simply unusable so I had to take it back. I was offered a full refund or if I wanted to pay £100 more and get an Intel based system that would definitely not crash - needless to say I paid the extra and went home with a Pentium 75Mhz based system instead of the silly Cyrix one...
Two months after owning my Escom PC instead of just being a customer, I became an Escom (UK) Ltd Employee working in the former Rumbelows retail shop in Kettering, Northamptonshire which Escom got rent free for around 18 months as part of a deal that they had to takeover all of the shops that Rumbelows left behind when it went bust.
Before working for Escom (UK) Limited I was working for a company called Stationery Box on £2.25 hour but Escom was paying £4.50 an hour so I literally doubled my pay as well as getting to work for what was at the time, the UK's Largest Specialist PC Retailer.
Let the refurbishment begin...
The seller mentioned in the listing that the Aztech CDA 468-03ISE wasn't working so that's the first thing I'm going to take a look at:
I've never refurbished a CD-ROM Drive before so I'm not sure if I need to lubricate the gears etc. or if the old saying "if it aint broke, don't fix it" comes in to play?!
Optical Disk Drives have come a long way over the last 28 years, as well as getting faster they also got quieter so I am unsure if this drive is noisy (and in need of some lube) or if it's perfectly fine - please listen to the YouTube video below and let me know what you think.
I'm off to see what the Vogons have to say as there is bound to be someone on there who has serviced/refurbished a CD-ROM Drive this old before...
TO BE CONTINUED... so bookmark this page now and check pack periodically as I will be updating/editing this page as I go...
This laptop is soooo rare I now have 3 of them... It always makes me smile when I see the word 'rare' in an eBay listing as 1) just because something is rare, doesn't mean it's valuable and 2) it's probably not rare at all...
I made a cheeky offer on this and after a bit of negotiating got it for a steal and I picked it up from Argos (eBay Click and Collect service) so now it's time to unbox it and see if it works.
Packed with nothing more than newspaper :( I hope it hasn't damaged in transit.
It looks in really good condition for a laptop that was first release in 2001!
More importantly, will it work OK? Time to grab my trusty 2-Power Universal Power Adapter and find out...
We have life! Unsurprisingly the CMOS battery will need replacing as it's not keeping the time. Does the hard disk drive work and will it load an Operating System?
The laptop was making some very strange noises whilst it was loading Windows XP, I was starting to think the hard disk drive might need replacing but then I checked the optical drive and found this:
A quick look in Windows Explorer revealed there wasn't anything of interest on the CD-R disc, just a couple of drivers someone has used to install the Windows XP operating system on the laptop (probably before they listed it for sale on eBay).
It doesn't look like they had the original discs to restore the OS as it looks like some sort of cracked version made by 'Gamerman' - whoever that is?!
Needless to say I wont be leaving the laptop like this so it's time to put my investigative cap on and see if I can locate and restore discs for this Compaq Presario 700 laptop or if I can find the Drivers and Utilities CD/DVD disc so I could install the OEM version of Windows XP Home Edition as that's what's on the COA on the bottom of the laptop...
I picked this little beauty up on eBay the other week and I think I was the only bidder as not only does it need a jolly good clean, but it was also listed as faulty.
In this short video I will see exactly how 'faulty' it is and if there is anything I can do about fixing it...
I picked up a Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) some time ago and when I saw this little lot on eBay I just had to try and win them! I left it until the last minute and it turned out I was the only bidder so I got them for a steal!
They even came with the cases (albeit they need a jolly good clean) so now it's time to unbox them and see what condition they are all in...
I made a cheeky bid on this little lot that got accepted and after waiting a few days in quarantine (the spare bedroom) it's now time to unbox it and see what I've got!
The only thing I can remember being in this haul is a HP laptop that works but has a broken screen (which I just so happen to have a spare of) so the plan is to fix it, flog it and the rest (as they say) is gravy! More money to buy more interesting Retro Computing stuff!
I purchased some Engineer (that's the brand) Rust Remover last year just in case I needed it and recently I purchased a CDR-80L CD storage box that one of the keys had some rust on so a perfect opportunity to see if it works or not - whilst I was waiting for it to work I also unboxed some recent software deliveries I had received...
I don't know what people are doing with the original power supplies for some of the laptops I keep buying but more often than not, I'm either getting the wrong power supply (they seem to think it's OK to use any ol' power supply even if it's the wrong Voltage) or I'm not getting any power supply at all.
To begin with I would scour the likes of eBay and Amazon looking for the correct power supply that would have originally come with the laptops and pay between £7 and £25 without even knowing if the laptop(s) worked or not!
Then, it suddenly dawned on me, there must have been some Universal Laptop Power Adaptors 'back in the day' - I wonder if I can find some on eBay...
Just in case you want to try and get hold of some yourselves, here is a list of the part numbers of the Universal/Replacement Laptop Power Adapters that I have:
2-Power
72W DC (Car) Adapter - CUC0001B
75W AC (Mains) Adapter - CUA0002B
90W AC (Mains) Adapter - CUA0001B
LOGIK
90W AC Dell Laptop Power Adapter - LPDELL12
90W AC Lenovo Laptop Power Adapter - LPLENO17
(Despite its name, the Logik Lenovo Adapter works with other makes too).
Targus
150W AC Power Notebook Adapter - APA08EU
Although these model numbers are no longer manufactured, every now and again 'New Old Stock' seems to turn up on eBay and that's what all these are/were, new but old stock and were never used until I got them - in fact at the time of writing this I have two more 2-Power NOS power adapters on their way to me in the post! It's amazing what you can find if you look hard enough.
Just got around to opening up the Compaq Contura 3/25 I 'won' on eBay the other week to see if it works or not. I got out my trusted universal power adaptor of the day, plugged it in, pressed the power button and hoped for the best!... and it powered on, booted and failed the POST due to the CMOS/BIOS battery being flat - no surprise really as this laptop is originally from 1992!
Time to take it apart to explore its innards:
Ooh! Is that a Hard Disk Drive I see hidden at the top right of the laptop under the silver piece of metal? Lets find out...
Yes it is!
So, the reason it was sold on eBay as not working is due to the CMOS/BIOS battery being flat and not storing the HDD geometry settings so it doesn't think it has a hard disk inside (which it clearly does).
It doesn't take the standard CR2032 battery but a slightly larger CR2430 so I have ordered some from Amazon (Same-Day Delivery) so I should be able to get this up and running tomorrow so watch this space...
