Boeing Aerospace Engineer Tandy 1400 FD Laptop Vintage Computer

[@RetroTechChris]

Great little machine! Long live Tandy!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

It sure is! Fun fact: Sanyo made the 1400 series laptops for Tandy corporation and Toshiba made the LCDs.

[@ohioterran7374]

It's always great to see a Tandy get some love! Great video and great machine!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Thank you for your kind words. I couldn't agree more! I'll be showcasing this machine again for SEPTandy going into more detail including connecting up my Tandy CM-11 color monitor to it and doing some game playing as well.

[@lindnertim]

Very nice system. Super jelly.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Thanks! Don't be too super jelly. After I do my part 2 video on this machine, I'll be looking to re-home it, so it might be a winner winner chicken dinner for you!

[@joelexplorestech]

Very cool system. Awesome that it's a V20 cpu. Look forward to seeing it run some games!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Agreed. It's shocking how much of a difference a NEC V20 makes in 8088 machines. As for running games, that will be in part 2 when I connect up my Tandy CM-11 color monitor to it. Games on the LCD don't look so hot with the horrible refresh rate.

[@8BitBoyzRetro]

Nice 1400! I have always been a fan of the drive brands Tandy used in their machines as they just work, even after 20 years in my attic. So glad your floppies held to that standard too. Looking forward to EP2!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Thanks! I wonder what brand of floppy drives Tandy used in these laptops? I do know the laptop was made by Sanyo and the LCD was done by Toshiba. I've have to dig more into this machine for part 2.

[@8BitBoyzRetro]

@@geekwithsocialskills Tandy had a big contract with TEAC for 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drives for most machines and retail drive upgrades. I remember when I was working for Tandy/RS all I saw were TEAC in the machines we sold and for the brief while I was in the repair center.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

I've always liked TEAC drives. Very high quality.

[@dave4shmups]

Excellent video on this laptop! I think it’s really cool that this laptop has an RGB out port on the back. The screen looks great, and it looks like a passive matrix display. I don’t think that active matrix displays on laptops Camry around until the 1990s. I can’t wait for Part 2!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Glad you like it! Agreed about having the RGB port for an external color monitor. The LCD does look great in person, but it was hard to try and capture that on video. The LCD is backlit which is nice. I found out it was made by Toshiba, so that's probably why it looks so good. Part 2 will more than likely be in September for a SEPTandy video, so stay tuned!

[@fractalMD]

Very cool!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

What's cooler than cool? Ice cold! LOL!

[@BollingHolt]

Nice! From other videos I have seen, it's hard to find these in that good of a condition. I remember playing with those back in the day, but I never owned one. Looking forward to seeing it attached to external peripherals ;)

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Thanks! I'm thinking because this originally belonged to a Boeing aerospace engineer he took really good care of it. The machine did have some surface grime, but I cleaned that up before doing my video. Stay tuned for a follow up video in September for #SEPTandy where you will indeed see it attached to external peripherals.

[@BollingHolt]

@@geekwithsocialskills #SEPTandy will be here before you know it LOL

[@geekwithsocialskills]

@@BollingHolt I know right!?! LOL!

[@RetroTechy]

I really love the dual drive aesthetic

[@geekwithsocialskills]

It's all about the A's and B's LOL!

[@UncleMikeRetro]

You had me at Tandy! What a sweet little laptop!

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Awww thanks Mike! Tandy is pretty awesome and agreed, this 1400 FD is a sweet little laptop!

[@MotownBatman]

Thats Sweet! I had an Atari similar to this, Mom threw it out with a huge amount of PCs I had in Storage in the basement

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Agreed, it's pretty sweet. Sorry to hear about your mom tossing your Atari laptop out back in the day. My mom sold off some of my Star Wars toys back in the day. Fist of rage LOL!

[@MotownBatman]

@@geekwithsocialskills 3 older cousins had the Millennium Falcum setup & Castle Greyskull... Trash. Mine also threw out 2 working 5150's I had

[@geekwithsocialskills]

#RudeMoms

[@MotownBatman]

@@geekwithsocialskills #PeggyBundyButDrunkMomsLol

[@FranksRetroLab]

Love that 1400. I had one back in the day. Great little machine.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Very cool you owned one back in the day. What sort of stuff did you run on it?

[@FranksRetroLab]

@@geekwithsocialskills Back in the day, I was very much into gaming. Loved the King's Quest Series (OK...all of Sierra Online's stuff).

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Did you connect up an external color monitor or just use the built-in LCD? King's Quest is awesome by the way.

[@FranksRetroLab]

@@geekwithsocialskills I don’t recall ever plugging it into a monitor as the monitor was connected to a different machine. It was so long ago, I don’t really remember what happened to it. Wish I still had all of my old machines.

[@macrohard007]

I love Texelec. They make some quality stuff to keep our vintage machines going strong. Plus, get to support my Texas peeps.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Same. I've purchased a lot of stuff from Texelec over the years.

[@TJBChris]

Love that 1400! I’ve got a 1400 HD with a broken power supply, which I will hopefully get around to fixing. To motivate myself, I picked up one of those TexElec cards.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

Awesome that you have the 1400 HD. What's broken with your power supply? Does it need a recap? Hopefully you make a video about repairing it since I will probably have to do that with mine at some point as well. The TexElec XT-IDE CF card is sweet!

[@TJBChris]

@@geekwithsocialskills It had a couple of bad caps, which I replaced. But I subsequently found the fuse blown, so I've got to try and figure out why before I replace it. I need to find a few hours to break out the meter and see if I can find a shorted component. :)

[@geekwithsocialskills]

@@TJBChris Thanks. For my part 2 video on my Tandy 1400, I'll probably crack it open to inspect the power supply.

[@tarstarkusz]

Does this have TGA? That 128kb of extra RAM sounds suspiciously like the 128k some of the TGA machines have. If it does have TGA, it would be an awesome machine. But might have compatibility problems without the sound system.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

I'm working on a part 2 video with this Tandy 1400 FD laptop where I'll be going over these things, including connecting up my Tandy CM-11 (that I currently use with my Tandy 1000 TX) color monitor to the RGB port on the back. Stay tuned.