Exploring the Compaq's first desktop computer from 1984: The Compaq Deskpro

Part 1. This is Compaq's first desktop computer released in June 1984, two years after their highly successful and 100% IBM PC compatible Compaq Portable. It borrowed the trick dual mode monitor and graphics card from the Portable and offer a lot more expandability. In this video, we'll start the process of diagnosing and testing the computer. Let's install a XT-IDE card in the machine and see what it can do. I also figure out how to control the CPU speed and key-click function from DOS.
Toggle CPU speed: CTRL-ALT-\ (power LED changes color)
Control key click: CTRL-ALT-+ and CTRL-ALT-MINUS (use the numeric keypad)
Change between high and low red video mode: CTRL-ALT-'LESS-THAN' and CTRL-ALT-'GREATER-THAN'
Part 2: • Compaq Deskpro Part 2:...
Part 3: • Compaq Deskpro Part 3:...
Part 4: • Compaq Deskpro Part 4:...
Apple IIc repair video: • What's keeping this Ap...
Links:
Commodore Computer Club
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
Free VI For DOS:
vetusware.com/download/Free%2...
Compaq Speed Control Scripts and tools:
vetusware.com/download/Compaq...
CGA Compatibility Tester:
github.com/MobyGamer/CGACompa...
Speed Test v0.99:
vetusware.com/download/Landma...
Checkit v3:
winworldpc.com/product/checki...
IMD:
www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/im...
Free VI For DOS:
vetusware.com/download/Free%2...

[@Maxxarcade]

Pretty crazy to think that if it weren't for Compaq, we probably wouldn't have the PC's we have today. They basically paved the way for all the "IBM Compatible" stuff we all use daily. And their older stuff looks really well built!

[@neilorourke3257]

If you can find an old-school TV technician - and you're literally looking for someone 60yo+ here - you might be able to get that CRT regunned to eliminate the burn. I'm really hazy on the details as it's been 30+ years since I was doing TV / VCR repairs, but there is a technique to overdrive the electron gun to redeposit electrons on the screen. I can't find any contemporary reference for this; I read about it in an electronics magazine in the late 80's - and the guy writing about it was 50+ then!

[@Cherijo78]

We had this as a kid in the late 80s/early 90s. We were poor and got hand me downs. That monitor was pure gold.

[@squirlmy]

are you F'n kidding me? I had an Apple IIe through college (monochrome monitor) in the early 90s. My friends had Commodores because PCs WERE FOR RICH PEOPLE!!! Did you get leftover caviar and champagne as well poor baby?

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@squirlmy in the UK, Commodores were for rich people. They were 4-5x the cost of a Spectrum.

[@trainingtheworld5093]

Thank you for doing a Compaq video! I used to work there before the disastrous merger with HP. They really made some great computers and I still get upset thinking about how a bunch of greedy ***holes ruined this company that gave me my big start. Looking forward to part 2.

[@d0wnboy]

I can’t argue with anything you said regarding the merger. Amazingly HP was smart enough to keep Compaq’s storage and server lines and dump the crap they created. Carly Fiorina was the worst.

[@whosonedphone]

Of all the vintage computers of my youth, I always thought this was the coolest. I vividly remember the light remained Green and turned red whenever the disc was writing or reading on the machine I used to. It's funny how you could be so sure of something but could be completely wrong.

[@millenniumtree]

Dang, this brings back memories. My very first computer was a Xerox XT I got from the office downstairs from our apartment. I remember staying up late writing stuff on that clunky old amber compy. I actually put the computer next to my bed, and lugged the CRT and enormous mechanical keyboard onto my bed. Good times.

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

A really cool project I did years ago was a 386 DX 40 running linux. I took two ISA RS-232 cards each with two ports. On one card I cut and traced the interrupt lines so I could extend them to the upper ISA interrupts. This allowed me to run getty's on 4 rs-232 ports and ran 4 text consoles with a graphical console. X windows done in hercules monochrome. We used it as a small 'mission' control for satellite tracking and ham radio communications.

[@camthehedgehog]

30:05- that screen never gets old! I’m sure it was quite the sight to see after all those hours!

[@joshpayne4015]

Compaq Computer. Started by the founders at "The House of Pies" in Houston, TX. The establishment is still there today.

[@MrLurchsThings]

Planet X3 would look fantastic on that not-CGA monitor. I suddenly have the urge to pull out my Portable II.

[@winstonsmith478]

Using an AMD 8086. Your actions really bring back command line memories.

[@frustro4323]

I was born in 76, i felt this pain growing up. drive cable twist, multiple at supplies and drives, thanks for helping me remember some of my childhood.

[@coryengel]

You’re welcome, Adrian!

[@tomaszkoellner1256]

I've got one of these! Along with original amber display and keyboard. I put Nec V30 inside, XT-IDE, high density floppy controller and Pro Audio Spectrum 8 bit. Sweet machine!

[@BandanazX]

V30 is sexy AF

[@arnaudmeert1527]

But can it run Crysis

[@bobfromsoireegames4309]

@@arnaudmeert1527 It can run Commander Keen

[@TezManGaming]

I always had to "PARK" the MFM hard disks before powering down to place the heads in the landing zone. It wasn't until I had a later drive that the auto park came in.

[@erinwiebe7026]

A //c under the tree! One of my favourite computers from my childhood. The Alps switches are fantastic too! I still use an adapted Apple Extended Keyboard (also from '87) with orange Alps switches with my Windows 10 PC daily. I wouldn't have it any other way. :) Looking forward to the //c video!

[@erinwiebe7026]

@@adriansdigitalbasement I thought I was the only one! I agree, it's a big 'ol keyboard but I have yet to find a keyboard that I enjoy using more. I tried making my own Arduino converter a couple of years ago, but ended up paying far too much for an original MacAlly (or similar brand) converter. I did try using a IIgs keyboard for a while (salmon Alps) but could never get comfortable with the odd layout (odd for PC anyway). It's fun knowing that there's at least one other person still enjoying using an AEK daily too! Cheers!

[@JimLeonard]

Thumbs up for using the CGA Compatibility Tester ;-) Very nice overview. I did not know the monitor was driven at 50Hz, nice to see that confirmed.

[@jagardina]

We had the first 80386 based desktop from Compaq, a Deskpro, at my job back in the late 80s. Used it to run AutoCAD for engineering and floor planning type stuff. Really snappy system. We went for some pretty high res graphics for the day and an NEC mutlisync which were for a while the best monitors you could get. Crazy expensive. Was awesome at the time to use such a fast computer.

[@namesolonggood1sgone]

I used to have a booting version of Compaq DOS 1.11. It came with a demo program (that I just found on my 286) with games and other "what you can do with your Compaq" stuff and a hardware test program. Most machines I tried to run the test program on balked, but I had a 486 that used to allow it to run the entire battery of tests and it would pass.

[@resrussia]

I enjoy your channel especially the repairs of vintage computers. Thanks for a awesome video on the repair of the Compaq DeskPro.

[@Stoney3K]

I've seen these rubber hard drive mounts in industrial machines a lot, it's mostly just to dampen the vibration from the drive so it does not make a terrible noise that resonates into the sheet metal case.

[@macboy91si]

I really liked this video. I always appreciate how in-depth you go on what you're working on. I've had two of these machines over the years and I never had a clue about the keyclick feature or that it was even a turbo XT 🤦 I still have a portable in storage somewhere, but the keyboard needs to be repaired. Thanks for your great videos Adrian, look forward to the rest of the series! -Tim

[@jondough76]

I'm so jealous! I used to live in SE Portland and I loved it.

[@AtariLegend]

Interesting video. Looking forward to watch parts 2 and 3. Great machine!

[@matt1834]

Great video, thanks for sharing Adrian! I remember having an old XT compatible computer when I was a kid and it had a Hercules graphics card, which had different levels of amber that was shown on your monitor. I have fond memories of playing games on that screen and almost prefered it to my mates CGA! Resolution seemed much sharper than the CGA. Thanks again, and hope you and your family have a merry christmas :)

[@osgrov]

This was in fact my dream PC back in the 80s. I used to spend hours reading BYTE magazine, and I always loved seeing the ads from Compaq. The Deskpro is a beautiful system, I only wish I get to own one some day. :) Really looking forwards to seeing you restore this one to its full glory! Video and sound much improved by the way, kudos for that. Especially the sound is a lot more pleasant now.

[@msthalamus2172]

I had this *exact* system when I was in high school. It was old even then. Good to you for finding one!

[@macboy91si]

So did I, I was given 2 that came from a tax office, exact matching twins and just like this one. Both had the AMD branded 8086 chips in them and amber screens (which also looked amber when they were off). They were old as dirt even in the 90's, but they were neat.

[@MarkMphonoman]

Back in the eighties I always admired the Compaq’s. They were really sweet IBM clones.

[@ayitsyaboi]

Man, Dave really sold that DMM. I have the same one and I'm super impressed with it.

[@telengardforever7783]

I did some of my best work on an 8088. I now understand why some writers stick to decades old obsolete machines or typewriters. Those machines force you to stay focused.

[@markfernandes5674]

Used one of these in my first job in '84. It had a green monitor and a 10Mb hard disk! I used it for image analysis down a a microscope (It had a frame grabber card). Had to write in C and assembler to get speed I needed (It also controlled an automated microscope stage. I swapped out the 8086 for an NEC compatible chip (V20 or V30?) which was slightly faster. Video has brought back fond memories :-)

[@Hutschnur]

Hello Adrian! I want to thank you for the content and for keeping up this channel and even improving its quality. I love old computers, started myself with a C64 in 1985 at the age of 10. There are so many machines from the beginning of the micro computer revolution and it's always good to see people that care about them - and share their experiences and knowledge with the community. So again: Thank you very very much!

[@cheater00]

what an amazing video. thank you so much! enjoyed it as my christmas eve tv watching!

[@Romanon26]

13:02 actually is pretty smart, back in times, hard drives was quite sensitive to shocks and this could help to reduce it.

[@arcanescroll]

It also greatly helped reduce noise, and those old drives rattled like crazy. It was a really good design IMO. And many higher end computer cases still use rubber mounting for hard drives. The Fractal R5 for example uses them to great effect.

[@seshpenguin]

Great episode as always!

[@AndrewAHayes]

Oh my lord I had forgotten about the tape drives, we used to use them where I worked when I first left school for backup, man they were slow even then

[@jmmbmdfm]

I love this video! brings me back on my childhood days, my father was a Compaq computer distributor here in the Philippines. When the company closed down during the 90s (these were hard days at the Philippines) there were a lot of Deskpros, Portables, CRTs (green and amber), manuals and utility disk and a whole shit load of parts left over and stored at our home. When I was about 10 years old I built up a Deskpro 286 and Portable III and restored them to full working order using left over parts and scavenging parts from other broken PCs and relying only on the manuals and utility disks, sadly only after several months of use those PCs i restored just decided to blow up.

[@cellularmitosis2]

Video and audio quality are really great!

[@moviebod]

Nice job and Merry Christmas to you and all!

[@catriona_drummond]

You are way too excited about this machine. It's super cute :)

[@svenpetersen1965]

I have used msdos for quite a long time actually. First, it boots quite fast compared to other os and also, it was easy to access isa bus peripherals. So it was good for partly testing industrial pcs in production. Usually there were some i/o register based controls. After ISA bus, I connected them to the LPC bus, which is a serialized ISA bus.

[@tonycosta3302]

Love the Apple IIc under the Christmas tree. Nice touch.

[@mixinginthebox]

just found this channel, love it.

[@MrDarchangelomni]

@Adrian, I too have suffered from monitor burn in, I find this helps normalize the screen, turn the contrast all the way down, brightness all the way up, then display a solid white box filling the screen (can be made from ascii) for 24 hours continuously, turn it off and let it cool down, start it back up and set your brightness/contrast to desired levels, I have found that this will normalize the phosphor burn in, and make the old images less noticeable if not all together gone.

[@DavidWhitley]

just Subscribed so catching up, had to watch this video, i am obsessed with Compaq as it was and had just this machine for a while, its one machine i regret letting go of but at that time i had nowhere to store it.

[@Amphioxus2029]

Love the screeching of the keyboard stands

[@JNOTECH]

Oh I remember that machine, I had a green monochrome 256k version with 2 FDD's. The turbo mode speed keyboard combo still sticks in my mind.

[@infinitecanadian]

A nice, cozy Christmas time basement. If you think Portland is bad for apartment buildings going up, you should come and see British Columbia's Lower Mainland. Classic businesses that have lasted decades being torn down, people being evicted, and all for more apartments.

[@KnotWoodworking]

Love the video quality

[@retropuffer2986]

Nice! Early PCs and Apple IIs were on many kids wish lists in the 80s! :D

[@krnlg]

Wow very nice machine, and I really wish I had a lovely amber monitor like that even if there is burn in! :) RF shields - you didn't just throw away your own ones, you threw away the ability of other collectors to have them who might end up with your machines in the future. Its not like they're made any more - that's why you should keep them ;)

[@akkudakkupl]

Those RF shields were a mistake 30 years back and are a mistake now. "Collectors" who just want to own something and not use it anyway are a joke too. If you want to use the computer then getting rid of the shield is a good idea.

[@darkwinter6028]

Y2K Compliant?!? Wow.

[@KomradeMikhail]

DOS always was Y2K compliant... It's the crappy 3rd party software you run on top that you had to worry about.

[@ruadeil_zabelin]

@@KomradeMikhail I'd go as far as saying most software we used was; or it wasn't a problem if it ticked over. 2038 wil be a very interresting year for all those 32-bit unix-like machines out there though.

[@74teppic]

@@KomradeMikhail A ton of 80s BIOSes didn't allow a date beyond 1999 to be stored, though earlier PCs had to have you manually enter the date anyway. Since DOS had no proper time management, whether it supported it or not wasn't relevant ultimately, it's whether all the applications just assumed dates were 19xx or not (which tons did).

[@KomradeMikhail]

@@74teppic You are mixing up CMOS with BIOS. Those few CMOS chips that were not Y2K compliant were all found in generic off-brand i386 motherboards... Which were long obsolete and nearly unused by 2K. My point stands true... DOS itself was always Y2K compliant since day one... Boot up version 1.0 and type in the _"date"_ command.

[@74teppic]

@@KomradeMikhail I'm not, though maybe I should have said the "setup programs contained in BIOSes" to be more specific. I'm only talking about 80s PCs, not 90s. As for DOS, you're missing my point. All it allowed was to retrieve and set the system date, expressed as a simple number between 1980 and 2099 which was used for file stamps. That's entirely useless to applications that had to process dates beyond simple file stamps, so they all wrote their own routines for date handling, many of which were not y2k compliant in the 80s because they only used two digits.

[@nikelquint]

That computer is so beautiful

[@waltschannel7465]

I'll really enjoying your channel. I just discovered it. RF shields. You're funny!!! 😆 I totally agree with your emphasis on Commodore and early Apple. I had a Compaq deskpro at Boeing in the late 1980s. I did Autocad drawings of communications circuits (max speed of 1.544 Mbits -T1) along with instructions for installers. I used that machine until late 1994! Next stop was Windows 3.1. Now I've got Gigabit Ethernet from the cable company at my house! 😆😆😆

[@blaknift]

I was able to restore an A1000 keyboard cable, I wrapped it around a Dowel rod that was around the same diameter of the coil. I heated it up with a hair dryer for a good 5 minutes or so and let it cool down while still wrapped around the dowel. I let it sit a few days and it had tightened right back up. Just make sure to wrap it around as tight as possible. Zip ties help hold it onto the rod.

[@retallickp]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Most curly cords are a type of memory plastic. If you just dip them in boiling water (keeping the ends out) they go back to their original shape. It takes a few seconds.

[@steveallen8800]

The third connector on the floppy cable was for the Compaq tape drive. I used to repair these professionally. I managed the service Dept for Snyder Computer Center in SLC. Compaq were built like tanks, at least until HP bought them.

[@nadirsalim7419]

Good old days. Thanks.

[@stonent]

The portable also had shock mounts on the drive bay, but in a different design. The video card in the Portable I and Deskpro were the same in the ones I had. The Deskpro even had the internal video port connector that would connect to the portable's monitor.

[@kathrynradonich3982]

Omg I live in Vancouver WA. Will have to goto the next one

[@texan01]

I had that exact setup as my first own computer in the late 80s/early 90s. Mine had an 8087 and that same monitor, it's a CGA compatible monitor, and could do EGA in the lower resolutions. Mine had the original 10mb Seagate, and a single 360k drive, I hot-rodded it over the course of a few years, and it was a pretty good performer. I learned about the speed switch by just trying key combinations until I saw it turn green again. My CRT had a burn-in from Lotus 1-2-3.

[@ghohenzollern]

Regarding the loosely coiled cord, you could always try twisting it around the other direction. That is, if the helix is right-handed, twist it around to be left-handed or vice-versa. If it is not too loose this should help, though if it is, it may lie strangely flat. Even so, leaving it like that for a while and then twisting it back around the original way should tighten it up a bit.

[@kimt6333]

Damn, came here for the same thing over 2 years after the video release.

[@metalheadmalta]

Oh god, I remember Checkit!!! That was so many years ago...

[@a.lisnenko]

Awesome. Thanks. It is very interesting.

[@organiccold]

Happy New Year

[@foxyloon]

Nice score! I've always had a soft spot for Compaq machines, especially because of the quality engineering that went into them. Where else do you see a shock isolated drive cage in a production built PC? I still have my old Pentium 3 Deskpro EN, arguably the last "true Compaq" ever made before HP bought them out. The silkscreen of the motherboard has the initials of every engineer from the team who designed it. I'd go as far as to call that true love.

[@NuntiusLegis]

Nice computer worth the effort.

[@theposguy1435]

This was my first build... Either a deskpro 286 or 386 .. I think 40mhz with a whole 5 mb ram. It took something like 5 hours to install windows 95 and that had to be done every other week. Thanks for the video

[@thorpejsf]

The Deskpro was my first PC back in the day. I wrote a lot of programs in Turbo Pascal. Good times.

[@themetalmicky]

man your videos are good

[@KomradeMikhail]

I assume the proprietary display adapter is similar to a Hercules HGC, since it does both MDA and also Greyscale CGA ?... Maybe run some stuff intended for a Herc and see how it handles. Especially try the updated Planet X3 after David added some extra display modes.

[@sadasulna6056]

I think its not an Herc compatible but a CGA with an enhanced 400 line mode, there were a few clone CGAs that did this mode and I think Compaq was one of them, I need to dig out some of the docs I have lying around. So i'm guessing that hotkey switches between the 400 and 200 line modes.

[@douro20]

The monitor says it was manufactured by EIA 343- this is Zenith Radio Corporation.

[@mick_hyde]

Enjoyed that thanks. Brought back some nostalgic support memories. Excellent audio/video.

[@TheAzial]

Oh crap I was in Vancouver helping my elderly parent from Wisconsin. I wish I had known since it’s a wasteland here for C64s. I have yet to get my first one

[@CommodoreLive]

Next time you're in the Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR area, check in with the Commodore Computer Club and we can get you set up with a C64 no problem www.commodorecomputerclub.com/

[@jlfrodsham]

I like your tree.. reminds me of being a kid.

[@markharrisllb]

If Adrian comes to the U.K. on business trips I think he must have quite a senior position and has a lot of responsibility. However, the sheer joy he gets from each success on old computers, his willingness to ask questions and to share what information he gets points to great humility. He reminds me very much of my late computer mentor who worked for British Aerospace in a very high position and did trips the other way round. That is as great a compliment I can give any man.

[@distortions1]

Thumbs up, for using Resolve.

[@paulstubbs7678]

I like the colour on that mono screen, something that is definitely hard to find these days. I think the darker phosphor backgrounds were typical of long persistence phosphor. As for the crack and squeal you observed, the crack is the EHT starting up, and the squeal is probably the screen getting the wrong frequency from the computer before it has a chance to properly configure the graphics card.

[@wally4000]

Thanks Adrian, your videos are brilliant and tickle my nostalgic love for retro technology

[@10MARC]

Great stuff, Adrian. It brought back a lot of memories. I started on the C64 and the Amiga in the eighties and did not get into the DOS scene until 1993, really. That is when I learned all of the old DOS commands. Of course I realized how archaic it all was compared to my Amiga, but it is what I did for a living after 1993. I am truly thankful that I missed out on the entire 8086 - 386 era of PC machines and instead was involved in the Amiga scene. I really did not miss anything at all! What is interesting is that even though I always felt DOS was Archaic in the nineties, I use it on a daily basis today when I work on Windows 10 machines - it is just faster for doing certain things

[@EnderMalcolm]

If you think this is dusty, I got an IBM Thinkcentre out of the trash (Got it running, it's a nice XP machine.) and it literally had solid clumps of dirt inside.

[@frankowalker4662]

Hi Adrian, I've only just found your channel. I'm going to look at previous vids. Many years ago when I built a Win 98 machine, I somehow managed to lable the 5 inch floppy as Drive Z instead of B. LOL

[@Stjaernljus]

Adrian's Xmassy Livingroom

[@YarisTex]

Hi Adrian, love your channel. One cool thing to do would be actually to dump the BIOS ROM's, i suspect there's 2 of them (One high One low) and actually patch the BIOS to write 1 to the I/O port instead of 0, so you will get the fastest speed as the machine is powering up. Also if the BIOS has a checksum, it might need to add 1 to its value. Not the easiest thing to do, but certainly possible. Then, just burn compatible EEPROMs with the patched BIOS and replace the original ones.

[@BollingHolt]

9:41 My friend had one of those back in the day, and it had two half-height drives in it. Not sure if any ever shipped with full height "table shakers" or not LOL. He also had a Compaq portable. He'd call my BBS on these machines with his mighty 1200 baud modem! ;) Thanks for the nostalgia!

[@BollingHolt]

@@adriansdigitalbasement Pretty rad machine for its day! Looking forward to watching parts 2 and 3.

[@DevilsHandyman]

There is a street in Spring Texas over by the old HP campus named "Compaq Drive" where Compaq's headquarters once were. Now it's mostly a branch of Lone Star College and some other smaller businesses.

[@at90systems]

We used these 286 and 386 systems years ago circa 1994 and ran both DOS and Novell 2.x systems in a retain environment. While those I bought at end of service all were damaged in a storage catastrophe I think instill have 1 and some parts left these things were tanks. Ones we had came with 40mb ide and 40mb Irwin qic tape drives.

[@Lee_Adamson_OCF]

Apple IIc: The "c" means "Christmas Computer". :3 I was a IIe kid. :3. Been fixing up and tricking out a IIgs lately though. :D Great channel, bro. Keep up the good work! :D

[@d2factotum]

With regard to the error reading drive D: you were getting when booted to the internal hard drive--does the PATH variable include one or more directories on drive D:? It would have to search those when you type a command it doesn't recognise (e.g. MEM) and would thus throw that error if it was struggling to read those.

[@blakecasimir]

This channel goes from strength to strength. Excellent video, Adrian. Looking forward to the rest of this.

[@argvminusone]

Did…did that machine keep time while powered off for almost 30 years??? 🤯 What in the world is the battery? A radioisotope generator? That's amazing!

[@MLampner]

Hi Adrian Compaq's came with 8086 in both the portable and the deskpro from the get go. Compaq ads frequently touted the 16 bit memory access. As you observed everything else on the bus was 8 bit but the drives were relatively slow anyway so it would have gained little even if they could have transferred data at the full CPU bus width. Takes me back to the dawn of the IBM era. I owned the IBM portable which came out to challenge the Compaq.

[@trickyrat483]

Audio and video is top notch. Congrats.

[@thedungeondelver]

In the year of our lord 2019 (2020!) no-one needs an RF shield. Fight me! :) Also, slick IIc. Anyway, Adrian, this is the year I discovered your channel and it's been a stone groove. I have shared your field-abandoned C64 repair/rebuild with so many people and they are always floored by it, even non-computer folks who do things like car restorations and what-not are in awe, and I hope that brought you more views! Happy Holidays and see ya in 2020!

[@retrogamer33]

I bin them

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

The FCC would like to have a word with the interference you're leaking.

[@ozzie_goat]

Why were RF shields needed anyway?

[@johnsaller2481]

@@ozzie_goat To shield people and things outside of the computer from radio frequency radiation. The cardboard shield on he C64 also kept the heat in!

[@arcanescroll]

@@ozzie_goat In the days of AM radio and antennas on televisions, the RF leakage from electronics would play havoc. But, since AM radio is rarely used anymore and even over the air television is better shielded, they really don't have much need anymore. I keep them, but mostly because I like to keep my hardware intact. Often they are just stored away and I use heat-sinks instead (on the C64/C128 for example).

[@maniatore2006]

Thank you for the new Video :) Great work.

[@garthhowe297]

I started at a Compaq reseller in 1990, and I loved those old Deskpro's. They were built like tanks, and lasted forever. Then the pressures of price competition started the slow erosion of quality in PC's. Great video.

[@techman2471]

Adrian, I discovered your channel recently and found it to quite entertaining and informative. I am looking forward to watching more of your creations in the coming year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[@stevencarlson5422]

Dude love this machine I can't believe the battery still was keeping a close date and time hope to see you save the data off that old drive

[@skuula]

I always grabbed hold of the chassis when inserting or removing expansion cards, just to be sure not to discharge any potential difference through the card.

[@SiD3WiNDR]

Very nice.. I have a newer Deskpro (386s/20) which looks the same but in a different colour scheme. Uncle worked for Compaq so it was pretty well kitted out, 10 megs of RAM, SB Pro II, 2x 40MB HDD internal, 2x 650MB HDD ESDI external... :-D Still have it, tried to fire it up after many many years a few months ago.. Power supply said poof and magic smoke came out. Have not had the time to recap yet, but this video is making me want to... It does not have the key clicking I believe (or I never knew about it) - my 386s/20 laptop however definitely did have that!

[@lander1591]

If you start to notice screen distortion and snow, that's what the RF shield was for...