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Compac LTE lite 4-33c..

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psm650

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Jan 4, 2024
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The 3,5" floppy-drive on this small portable PC (Win95) is not functioning properly... The PC has been turned on every 5-10 years since 1997 when I finished my graduation-project 'on' it... I need to get 3 x files(1x large Word + 2 x assembler-codes(?.txt / ?.s03) out of it before it is being 'recycled'... When you insert a floppy-disc into it an electrical-motor sound is being heard but the PC/drive can't read the floppydisc!!?? Is it a broken floppydrive-drivebelt?? Any clues?? Anyone having any useable spareparts??

BR Peder
DK
 
Those laptops use a belt. a very, very tiny little belt I've had trouble sourcing.
I have three LTE Lite's and the belt is bad on all of them and resorted to having to use the floppy port on the docking station.
 
Yes, it's the belt. You can boil it in hot water for some minutes to make it work again for a short period of time. Should be enough to get some files from it.
 
The floppy disk drive's belt deterioration is the cause of this kind of issue. Replacing the belt is the best way to permanently solve the issue.
However, I believe it's easier to take out the hard drive and purchase a hard drive case in order to retrieve the data if all you want is the original data back.
 
Owning a LTE Lite 4/25c myself, I can assure you that the belt does not deteriorate (i.e. it's not turning into goo) - it only loses its flexibility. Boiling it is all that is needed to make it working again short-term and does not cost anything.

"purchase a hard drive case" is NOT going to work. The LTE Lite 4 series uses tiny, pre-LBA hard drives which can not be accessed thru external USB hard disk enclosures. You need a PC with a proper IDE controller for that.
 
Thank you very much for your inputs... They where a great help... It looks like I better put that old portable on the working-bench and dismantle it to get to that floppy-belt... I don't see much of screws...?? Any clues / description on how this PC is opened up to get to the internals??
 
Hmm, could of sworn I made a thread on how to open it up. Unfortunately it's a lot more plastic latches than screws.

If you can give me a few hours I think I have the photographs already done but I'll need to make a write-up and host the iamges.
 
If you have a 3D printer, you can sometimes get away with printing a belt out of TPU. You'll need to tell the slicer to print layers as thin as possible, use randomized layer endpoints to make a more uniform belt and use spiral vase so that it doesn't try to make rectlinear infill. Sometimes you can abuse the shell thickness to only print spiral lines, if you need a thicker belt.
 
The drive in these uses a tiny belt as described above. Very hard to find a replacement for. I never found a good replacement in over a decade of playing with these laptops.

The solution I used is to replace the Citizen drive with a common TEAC, which does NOT use a belt. This is NOT a beginner-level project though, unfortunately. It's quite involved.

See the 9th post here. (Big thanks to Thermalwrong on Vogons for this info!)

What retro activity did you get up to today? - Page 1191 \ VOGONS

www.vogons.org www.vogons.org

It would be great if there was a pre-made adapter board available for this.
 
Back after the weekend... And I am indeed very pleased by your post... I will look into this dismantling project...
 
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