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Compaq LTE Elite 486 4/75C - upgrades?

I

Imagios

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2023
Messages
11
Hi Everyone,
I'm a happy new owner of this almost 30 years old computer, looking forward for a couple of upgrades:
1 - the screen, its the one with the two slides on the right, brightness and contrast, hence it has a lot of ghosting: Is there a possibility to still order a better replacement? Or can I just take one out of the DXC 640 x 480, what's the best option here?
2 - obviously sound is a issue, I don't own the docking station, is the parallel port Adlib clone still the best option here?
3 - Need a new CMOS battery, anyone selling one of those in the EU?
4 - Laptop battery is obviously dead, is someone selling re-celled batteries?
5 - HDD is original and still works! Have not run a deep analysis yet, but want to go to the solistate version and archive the original, what is the best option for a "new" solution?
6 - Floppy, I dont have one yet to test, but probably its dead, what are the options here, anyone still selling replacement parts?
Anything else anyone recommending?
 
Hi Imagios, welcome to the forum! Would be good if you add your location to your profile although I see you are in the EU. The LTE is a great computer and if you check YouTube there are a lot of films on remaking the CMOS and main batteries .. I don't know if there is anything ready made, but remaking your own can be fun!
 
This US eBay seller has a recelling service: https://www.ebay.com/itm/325245847910
I trust his work, he goes by i80386SX on YouTube and has numerous videos showing his work.

Floppy will 100% be dead as it's a Citizen W1D which has a belt inside that melts. A seller in Germany sells new ones, but I'll warn you that installing them is a major ordeal. On my own unit, I've just forgone the drive in favor of LapLink over Parallel.
Belt: https://www.ebay.com/itm/166371297755

I don't currently know any source of replacement CMOS batteries. The original battery uses two cells similar or maybe the same as AAA size, spot welded together. They are rechargeable NiCad cells. If you haven't already, you should remove the original as they are prone to leaking with age.

Best option for a modern HDD replacement would be a CF or SD to IDE adapter. Make sure to keep the card size low - I'm not sure what the BIOS limit is for these, but it will be 8GB in a best case scenario. If you go with a CF adapter, make sure you buy an "industrial" card for the best chances of it being recognized properly. Many CF cards will show up as a "removable device" and thus not be able to be made bootable. I'd recommend SD to avoid these issues.

I'm currently not aware of a better solution for sound than the OPL3LPT. I need to pick one of those up myself in fact.
 
Hello, @Imagios and welcome to vintage Heaven.

1. Your laptop's screen is not TFT, but DTSN; and there is no changing of that (unless you are a hardware hacker, in which case you would not be asking about it here).
2. Sound: be content with PC-speaker audio quality. Lo-Fi is a thing nowadays. Enjoy it. Less is more.
3. CMOS battery: get to know what kind of CMOS battery your laptop uses. If it's a coin cell battery, you will be able to get a replacement; otherwise, you would have to hack a solution in a DIY fashion, if at all possible.
4. Laptop battery: forget it about buying a ready-make replacement. Your options are either not using a laptop battery at all, or making a battery replacement yourself.
5. HDD replacement: your best option is a Compact Flash (CF) card and adapter - just check that the CF card is not too big, so that your BIOS properly detects it.
6. Floppy drive: first test it, then report the results.
 
The only option for a replacement screen would be finding another of the exact same panel in better condition and swapping them. But, you may want to examine the back of the LCD panel, because panels of that era often had capacitors on them that go bad and cause the screen to not work properly. Recapping an LCD panel is an extremely difficult and time consuming task, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have extensive SMD soldering experience.

Another route you could go that requires extensive hardware modification would be to remove the VGA port and buy a modern LCD panel with a driver board that accepts VGA signals and wire it up internally. That would need extensive testing to make sure it works with common DOS screen resolutions. Square panels don't really exist anymore, so you'd have to "letterbox" whatever LCD panel you decided to use.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
Recapping an LCD panel is an extremely difficult and time consuming task, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have extensive SMD soldering experience.
Click to expand...
In my own experience recapping an LCD isn’t really much more difficult than a motherboard. You just have to be extra careful with your iron, flux, and any cleaning products. Also avoid using hot air to remove the old caps, that’s one way to cause damage. The first time I did any SMD recapping (beyond a single cap previously) was my PowerBook 145’s LCD, and i definitely didn’t have extensive experience then. Of course make sure you know how to do it first, but I don’t think it’s extremely difficult. It would be if you didn’t take the layers of the screen apart first though, that I’ll say.
I’d just recommend finding a parts 4/75CX or 4/75CXL to swap an active panel over from. Usually you’ll be able to swap between panel types as long as you swap the entire assembly (or everything except the plastics), and not just the panel.
 
GiGaBiTe said:
Square panels don't really exist anymore, so you'd have to "letterbox" whatever LCD panel you decided to use.
Click to expand...
I’ve seen a lot of people use converted iPad screens. Certainly an interesting project.
 
3lectr1c said:
I’ve seen a lot of people use converted iPad screens. Certainly an interesting project.
Click to expand...

The problem with using iPad screens is that there's no turnkey solution for them, you have to engineer your own adapter board, or build one of the few projects that exist only for specific iPad screen models. They're also hideously expensive, the adapter board and driver board can be quadruple the cost of the actual screen, and it's not guaranteed to work if something goes awry.

I also doubt those driver boards support DOS screen resolutions and refresh rates, so you'll also probably have to hack in some sort of scan converter on top of that already expensive mess of parts.

The aforementioned LCD panels I mentioned are more likely to support lower resolutions, even though they may require some bezel modification to make them look nice. 3D printers can make that a bit easier.
 
Yeah it’s far from plug and play. I’ve seen them used more than you’d think, but it is always very custom.
 
I have an LTE 5400. It's a Pentium 150. It has a VGA output on the back panel. Does your LTE have a VGA port? You could then use it as a desktop on a VGA monitor for better viewing.

Seaken
 
thanks for all the responses
I decided not to impact the historical authenticity and will keep the display as is. Yes I have a VGA, so I could go with a monitor a beamer, have both. It just beats the purpose of the a laptop.
Thou I will insert the CF reader.
I will try to get the docking station to add a dedicated soundcard.
As for the batteries I will take them out, I'm thinking to get a 12v power bank, I think the laptop has a 12v in, that will solve the battery situation :)
 
There were 5x86-150mhz overdrives for Compaq elites years ago, mine never worked so I returned it and upgraded my 440 to a 4/75 instead.

Slow as molasses compared to my dx2-66 desktop
 
so update, floppy drive as expected not working making it complicated with a bootable disk, what surprised me as well is the BIOS, its so strange, I have no idea how to even enter the bios, none of the usual ways work, any one has experience with how to enter the BIOS?
 
thanks for the manual excerpt, its just not working tried F10 all across, without success
 
Just tried it on my 4/75CX and I can’t get it to open either. I’ll experiment around more later.
 
It could be that the setup has not been installed on the hard drive. I know that when I replaced the hard drive of my 420C that I started the unit from floppy and then had to transfer the setup to a small partition on the hard drive .. this then enables the setup as described above.
 
Oh, it’s stored on the hard drive? Didn’t realize that. Mine came with no drive so I just stuck my own in. That would explain why I can’t get into setup.
 
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