Testing a Compaq Armada 7710MT from 1997

Picked up this lovely-looking 90s laptop computer recently since it appeared to be in great shape cosmetically. It was sold as untested with unknown functionality, so let's see how it goes!

[@DrunkenYodaUnplugged]

I used to service those. In fact a lot of what you bring in I worked on in their prime. Gawd I'm old.

[@LMacNeill]

I feel the same way -- I used to repair computers from about '92/'93 until '05/'06, and everything I see on this channel is from that period. And now it's considered "retro." LOL. I wish I'd known retro computing was going to be a thing -- I would've kept all that old stuff that I threw out as junk back in the day. ;-)

[@swedebug2889]

You are not old, you are retro and therefore cool! :)

[@novo6462]

I BOW TO YOU, SENPAI 😆

[@joegee2815]

Some of us are even older than the Internet.

[@BilisNegra]

@@LMacNeill I have tons of mid 2000's stuff, exactly what would be regarded as junk today. Maybe I should keep it all?

[@djfanboyLIVE]

This would be like buying an $8k+ computer today. That's wild.

[@HarukaJad3]

So a MacBook Pro? :P Still crazy that a machine like this would've cost that much back then. Its really impressive, tbh. Outside of Apple, I doubt others could get away with charging that much anymore.

[@benanderson89]

@@HarukaJad3 You can very easilly charge this much for a computer these days. Apple MacBook Pros are entry/mid range workstation machines. High end workstations can cost a crazy amount of money.

[@juanbrits3002]

Can people stop making such comparisons, salaries in relation to cost of living and goods was extremely different than today. People could afford these luxuries on top of buying a house and multiple cars, have multiple children in their 20s-30s, now our generation struggles to afford half of this with way more qualifications...

[@benanderson89]

@@juanbrits3002 mate, these kinds of laptops were always sold to business and still are. They aren't home computers. That little rant of yours was pointless.

[@Sneakyboson]

@@juanbrits3002 not really, relative to the average salary back in the mid 90s which was about $37000...$4000 was a crazy amount of money.

[@HeadsetGuy]

The eBay seller travelled back in time to retrieve it. That's the only explanation I can think of. My God, that's incredible that this thing works so well.

[@LOVE-jq9fr]

*_>Great Scott!_*

[@garthhowe297]

Must have belonged to a high up executive...they always get the best laptop, and rarely use it.

[@zaf2774]

Yeah

[@scruffythejanitor1969]

Having supplied laptops for executives, there is about a 75% chance they never used it because it was "too heavy."

[@lwvmobile]

The ones I've worked with have that ONE laptop with the ONE setup that they will not let go of because its setup exactly the way the want it and they have to suffer catastrophic failure before they'll take a new upgrade.

[@brandonupchurch7628]

A member of executive management at my old job one time called IT because his Surface wasn't working... Turns out the battery was dead and it just needed charged. So half of them are like your clueless grandparents so they don't use it cause they don't know how..

[@craiglautenslager]

I have a Toshiba laptop from ~1999 with a 1050p screen I found at Computer Reset that belonged to a TGI Fridays executive.

[@TheLionheartcartoon]

The screen barely looks used as well, it's bright and barely has any dim spots too!

[@sammaster999]

Yeah we're gonna bump this bad boy up to 1440p 60fps

[@RisingRevengeance]

4k60 here, gotta see that late 90s dust

[@FlyboyHelosim]

@@RisingRevengeance It's not even shot in 4K so no point.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@FlyboyHelosim still get more bandwidth over the 1440 option

[@LGRBlerbs]

It is indeed shot and edited in 4K 60. All my videos have been for years now.

[@WatanabeNoTsuna.]

@@FlyboyHelosim ROASTEEEEDD! 😂

[@johntrussell7228]

I'm always amazed when stuff this old still actually functions.

[@dumitruciupu279]

Dude my gf knew nothing about computers and stuff (especially old ones) and now we're binging together on LGR. I call this a success sir!

[@russianbot8576]

i know nothing either but lgr is such a gem of a video maker

[@dumitruciupu279]

@@russianbot8576 that's true! Been following him since 2011 I think and he's been just improving constantly!

[@KTDFox]

I still have one of these things buried in a cabinet here, was my first laptop about 20 years ago. I still remember playing Ultima Online on it and encoding / watching VCDs with it. Great machine.

[@DamfinoMR2]

LGR is the f***ing PEAK of computer and gaming nostalgia. Thank you for all that you do my man.

[@jterry211]

I started in the IT field in 96 and these were my favorite machines ever. Total Nerdgasm Thanks Blerbs!!!

[@RetailArchaeology]

Mall retailers you say?

[@LGRBlerbs]

Oh yes. Lots of recognizable names from the late 90s. Gave me quite the craving for warm, steamy mall pretzels.

[@Logan-zp8bi]

I have a theory this was used mostly for checking the Network and security, everything screams IT department.

[@incumbentvinyl9291]

@@Logan-zp8bi Good call.

[@manuel0578]

I’m glad malls are dying.

[@starpoint2112]

I did the modem testing on that unit when I worked at Compaq - This brings back MEMORIES!

[@karenelizabeth1590]

This machine is taking me back to my 1995 Compaq Presario. Same wallpaper, same sound. I'd be so happy to own this laptop.

[@Randoplants]

I love how it’s chunky and has rounded corners. And with how bright white it is, it looks like a laptop made of cake!

[@nightfallgloam]

Caketop

[@jeremysart]

The fact that the batter held a charge, the cmos battery was still holding the date, and the hard disc booted up without fail.. after sitting for 23+ years.. that's incredible

[@TechTimeTraveller]

I accidentally bought a French keyboard version of these around 1997 for one of our sales reps. Saw a $500 discount, didn't catch the why. Poor guy had to set Windows to the US English layout and then mentally imagine where the English symbols were. Other than that little SNAFU it was absolutely bulletproof. Never mind it was DSTN we were amazed it was *colour*. Lasted years after my Sager bit the bullet.

[@happyguy5025]

Honestly if someone offered me a free RTX 3070 but I had to use a French keyboard layout I'd take it!

[@stevethepocket]

@@happyguy5025 Yeah, just get some of those little round stickers and a permanent marker, and make your own key labels. Of course, these days, you could probably go online and find a set of replacement keys from when an internal shipment fell off a truck back in China.

[@randomdouchebag]

Azerty ftw!

[@jimjones994]

That computer looks so clean, nice find!

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Jim Jones in the flesh, or rather, the hazard suit.

[@nitrax8629]

Neat computers! Couple of things: the things on the side above the PC card slots are for connecting a mobile phone or an adapter to use the modem in other countries (outside the US, this is the ONLY way to use the built-in modem). The sound hardware also features hardware wavetable too! Also, you should probably check the internal suspend battery for leaks - had one go bad on an Armada 7800 and it destroyed the keyboard controller sadly. If the clock battery does go bad, it's a smaller size but otherwise standard 3V coin cell.

[@CyclingSteve]

I still have my Armada 7800, the CMOS battery is dead and it refuses to boot, just asks for a password (there was never a bios password set). I had a go at disassembling it some years back but gave up. It's good to know that it's a standard battery, I should try again.

[@Toble_Miner]

Oh yes, this was my very first laptop! Haven't seen this model in decades but had an instant throwback to my childhood looking at that thumbnail. Ah, happy memories :)

[@TheFlyingScotsman]

Congratulations on such purchasing such a stoater of a machine. The 7700 series to me is the hallmark of what an MMX Era DOS gaming machine should be, especially with that Compaq crafted Real Mode environment.

[@nitrax8629]

Agreed on this - the fact the overlays for adjusting screen brightness and power settings / battery checking work under MS-DOS too make it even better!

[@drygnfyre]

I remember the Armada line. It was always crazy expensive. But they were pretty great laptops for the time. Generally competed with ThinkPads, as they mainly targeted the business market.

[@presidentkiller]

That thing is in better shape than most people's computers TODAY. Excellent find!

[@gamingchinchilla7323]

man I miss the late 90s. Such a simpler time. My dopamine hits were all videogames and movies and social media wasn't around to taint my life with needless politics and the like. Take me back please. I miss my old happiness.

[@ms-dosman7722]

Fantastic laptop! The shape, the colour.. just awesome 90's design there.

[@TheNiteNinja19]

Damn that's a good find. Be an awesome retro gaming box. I like how modular those old computers were as well.

[@PXAbstraction]

Man, that is a DEAL you got there man! What a gem of a machine.

[@retrotech.oldschool]

I still have my compaq armada from the 90's its a 166mmx machine and pure awesome... the hard drive still works and I am in the process of putting in a compact flash ide adapter...

[@sambrown9494]

They were always lovely laptops! Mine was an Armada 4131t, also a very sleek design and with those programmable buttons. Very thin screen for the time. Imagine spending the best part of $5000 and finding a dead pixel though! Hardly ever happens these days. Congrats on finding such a good machine!

[@chrisdigitalartist]

Wow! What a find! Awesome! After all the Windows 11 hype...I sure miss these days of computing...Windows 11 doesn't even seem like Windows anymore...

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

My Compaq armada also still holds a charge, 24 years later :D

[@pazzieanneknexx809]

Congratulations on finding such a gem! I look forward to seeing your adventures with this piece of incredible technology. I'm not a technology preservationalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I wanted to thank you for documenting and keeping alive the oddest or most incredible technology you find. Keep being amazing!

[@RetroTechChris]

Oh yeah, that's a beautiful machine!! Always loved the Armada 7000 series, they were my favorite Armada laptops.

[@jaredwright5917]

Those old Compaq Armada laptops were pretty tough. I have one of the models that had a trackball. I got it for $4 as junk and used it for years with Windows 98 and 16mb of onboard RAM.

[@BilisNegra]

A definitely sweet deal! I'm not actively collecting old computers at present, but I'd take this for 70 bucks any day. At 100-ish it would still be a no brainer!

[@TheDeadUnlucky]

Holy it looks like you managed to score a unicorn and for a good price too. The case and screen being in good condition is one thing but the battery still holding a charge. Someone made a deal with the devil for a battery of the gods.

[@quantumtheo]

Can't wait to see you refurb this. I used to refurb these for sale when I worked at a small mom and pop computer store from 99 to 04... laptops were GOLD back then. We would have them sold as soon as we got them in the store to refurb them.

[@krux02]

From my retro collection, the conpaq laptops are really on the top list

[@sithnamqus]

Instant like! I had one of those, years ago. Mine was 166 Mhz, 32 MB Ram, and a 4GB hard drive I believe. I had the Floppy Drive and the CD Rom. Great machine. Too bad that I bought it somewhat faulty. Problems with fan blower and screen. But when it worked, it was awesome.

[@cjsebes]

80 bucks for a fully working piece of tech that old is a pretty nice score. Considering that plastic that old tends to become so brittle after 20 years, you found a gem. Enjoy it!

[@th3cub350]

what a find, so rare these days to have everything working as intended ! thanks for sharing !

[@LMacNeill]

What an amazing time machine that thing is!! It's like it was transported from 1998 to today. You got SO lucky finding that! Wow!

[@signbear999]

Lol I bet the mailman always wonders what the heck you are even doing... he probably has to deliver 5 packages a day

[@LGRBlerbs]

Pretty sure they all know what I do at this point. There's one delivery guy that always lets me know what he thought of my latest video, heh.

[@RisingRevengeance]

@@LGRBlerbs Heh thats awesome

[@ProSimex84]

@@LGRBlerbs I work at the (canadian) post office and we have one customer that gets several packages a day, whenever a clerk finds one while sorting in the am they shout out her name. I'm sure your local sorting center does something similar. "Got another LGR, what a guy!".

[@daniloivensmina]

@@LGRBlerbs that is cool.

[@fede81s]

I can't believe that battery still works, that is amazing!

[@Auraxium]

Those screen bezels are really impressive for a computer of such vintage.

[@BilisNegra]

I don't quite get what you mean.

[@whyme3772]

@@BilisNegra The area around the screen is in good shape for it's age. This thing is over 25 years old, and you'd expect it to be in bad shape.

[@BilisNegra]

@@whyme3772 Well... Yes, but then all of the machine is in pristine condition, so why that in particular? Oh, maybe because it's what is in frame during most of the video, it makes sense. I'd add that it's also admirable that the screen hinges are in perfect condition and the plastic around them hasn't cracked. Plastics in old laptops can become really brittle.

[@BreakingPintMedia]

I have 2 in these series I've picked up over the years on eBay and both have been in surprisingly nice condition. Aside from being owned by folks that took care of them, they must've been retired to electronics recyclers that care.

[@foxyloon]

What a smoking deal for $70! I'd have rolled the dice on this one, too.

[@abarahona]

Compaq laptops from this era are known for having great battery life. I own a Compaq Evo 620 from 2004, still in near mint condition and, the battery still holds a very strong charge; after 20+ years I still get 5 hours out of one single charge.

[@phantom2012]

Yes! A color checker for accurate color on video. Good job sir, I salute you, as an old video tech.

[@pc-sound-legacy]

I used to work on such a machine back in the days. Back then it was an unwritten rule that compaqs were white, IBMs were black and Toshibas were grey, fujitsu-siemens chose green. Quality was great on all of them, but the prices, wheew...😄

[@PeTTs0n88]

Wow, you struck gold with this one! Dad had pretty much the exact same model at work in the mid '90s, real happy to see one in this great condition!

[@Mini-z1994]

Surprised the battery sputtered too life & actually held charge, i mean the computer hasn't been used in at least 21 years, that's some quality battery lol.

[@BilisNegra]

Maybe it only powers the computer for like 10 minutes, but it's no small feat that the laptop can boot on battery at all.

[@NickDalzell]

It's no surprise to me. That Armada has a Li-Ion battery--it can last decades if taken care of. Can't say the same about NiMH or Nickel Cadmium. Those would be lucky to last 5 years or less, or 1-2 tops on a laptop.

[@72polara]

I have an old Toshiba with factory installed Windows 95 that will still hold a decent charge. I still use it to program older two way radios in vehicles that will not work with newer computers.

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

Perfect content while waiting for a system restore to finish!

[@Bill-lt5qf]

windows update issues? got mine on pause atm, wondering if i should keep it that way a while longer.

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

@@Bill-lt5qf Nah, got a 1TB m.2 today and moved windows to it. (done with disk cloning) Worked fine for one restart. Afterwards windows couldn't find the BCD anymore. Fine, fired up Reflect Rescue again and restored yesterdays backup to the m.2. Now Windows tries to boot but restarts and then hangs on a blank blue screen. Moved back to my Sata SSD for now. God do I hate windows sometimes.

[@Bill-lt5qf]

@@DrakkarCalethiel Woah, i feel for you man. I would do a fresh install to the M.2 next. But I'm guessing there was a reason you didn't go down that path to begin with. If you do go down that path, make sure you got either your key or activation details ready beforehand of course. Good luck man. Fingers crossed for Win 11 XD.

[@jayhill2193]

@@Bill-lt5qf at this point I don't hold any hopes for Windows anymore. I just hope the Linux support of software I use and games I like grows and then I'll hopefully be out the Windows bs and never look back. From what I've seen so far, the alleged Win 11 looks like they try again to merge mobile and desktop use, similar to what they did in Win 8 and we all know how terrible that went. It may be great for their Surface devices, but for a desktop I really don't what that stuff. I think Apple had the better approach there, making their mobile platform iOS or iPadOS more and more like Mac platform, instead of the other way around. Feels more natural for their mobile devices and doesn't bother the Mac users.

[@DrakkarCalethiel]

@@Bill-lt5qf It was the fucking NVME driver. Once I installed the NVME driver from micron on the OG system drive an then cloned it onto the NVME, wincrap now boots without issues. I know Win 10 is crap, but not that bad.

[@darkinversion]

Wow I had one of these back in the day. The extra battery pack was awesome for school. Wow the memories. Nice.

[@RobertSpringall]

Truly happy for your find Clint!

[@arjanvuik2004]

Ah the Compaq Armada series. I bought the 7730MT on sale in 99. The 7730 had the 166MHZ processor, compared to the 150 that the 7710 had. If memory serves, there was also a 7750 with a 200MHZ and a 7770 with a 233MHZ CPU. I had the 32mb base model, but, because it was used as a display model, it had the floppy and the CD-ROM drive with it! So, there was me, 19 year old nerd, craving a laptop and this was on sale. I bought it so I could play Command and Conquer en Starcraft on the go dang it! ;) I think the memory access underneith was for expansion and that it had 32MB on the motherboard. Because I know for a fact that I upgraded it to 64MB so I could install windows 98 SE on it... Anyway, thanks again for yet another trip down memory lane!

[@8bitnitwit]

I used Netcom in the late 90s, never expected I'd ever see that Netcomplete software again.

[@agenttexx]

I found an old Compaq a few years ago at a previous job. It turned out to be the first office computer the company had bought. It was a Presario with a Pentium II, running Windows 98SE. It was interesting to play around with. It had been a construction guy's notes on building one of the warehouses and the systems they were wanting to buy. It also had letters to the guy's kids back on the East Coast. The guy had been laid off and they put his laptop into an aluminum equipment case and stuck it in a storage room. The computer was in great shape. The docking station for it weighed a ton, though. I originally planned to keep it and toss it on eBay, but I forgot about it and left it behind when I left the job.

[@thepirategamerboy12]

Pentium MMX, would be cool to see Pod on it.

[@LGRBlerbs]

Would be cool to have a CD-ROM drive at all!

[@wohlhabendermanager]

@@LGRBlerbs It's time that someone invented a "CD-ROM-to-Floppy adaptor". I mean, "headphone-jacks-to-tape-Adaptors" exists, and how is a floppy drive different from a cassette tape, right? It's both magnetic, so it practically MUST be totally the same!

[@quilak]

@@LGRBlerbs Are you maybe in need for one? I have this exact same model fitted with the CD-Drive

[@amirpourghoureiyan1637]

@@LGRBlerbs DaemonTools to the rescue!

[@jamesmillerjo]

@@wohlhabendermanager Theoretically our computers are all electronic signal processors....

[@qdmc12]

I have a Compaq Armada 7770 that was donated to my computer shop about 3 years ago. Good luck finding that optional CD drive!

[@xanshark]

Thank you for mentioning the dead pixel in the end or I would be looking at it the whole time

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

A another LGR retro Laptops video 👍

[@bandie9101]

i used this model for years! good old days of computing optimalization…

[@Rabbit_AF]

Man, this makes me miss my old Compaq LTE Elite 4/75. Amazingly, they still go for what I sold it for in 2001.

[@StereoBucket]

I picked up a few armadas myself recently. 1573D and 3500. I love that 2nd one. The lcd surprised me and it also had like a detachable half that holds the charger, floppy and CD drives and a set of speakers. Both turned on on battery alone. Amazing! What I didn't love was when I replaced the harddrive with a CF card the thing smoked. As it turns out, the plastic around the harddrive is conductive and grounded, so the 5V on the CF adapter shorted to ground. Nothing died thankfully, just lots of burnt plastic smell.

[@jerrymartinez1208]

4:47 this is why it's special because of it's color. Very retro and old school.

[@RandomInsano2]

I’ve been half-heartedly looking for one of these for awhile, so while I’m happy Clint found it I’m also a little sour about it. 😆

[@AntonyTCurtis]

Had a work Compaq back in 1999 ... the built in tilt stand legs at the back makes them nicer to use than most others of that era.

[@mikekz4489]

A gem of a find.

[@SnipE_mS]

That’s a rare gem there Clint. Very nice!

[@TielSong0509]

I used an Armada 7800 (pentium II 266) in 2010-2014 as a trip laptop. It had 1,5-2 hours of battery time.There was a Windows XP installed to it. Unfortunatly it died. First the keyboard started dieing more and more buttons refused to work and after some time it didn't turned on. I think that was a motherboard faulty. But hey it was a laptop from 98 and it served well. RIP.

[@nitrax8629]

My 7800 had the same issue, turns out the suspend battery leaked over the keyboard/floppy controller chip's connections... Loved it so much I bought another and removed the problem before it could wreck havoc!

[@flow221]

I don't usually care much about laptops, but gotta admit that's a beauty. Nice pickup.

[@KingLich451]

Blerby greetings right back at ya!

[@Legen007]

this brings back memories, this was my first laptop back in my HS days.

[@MikeyMystery45]

I had flashbacks of nostalgia by watching that video. So awesome.

[@fd5927]

Yeah awesome... what a great find. Ahhhh Windows 95 startup jingle still gives me goosebumps after all these years and years... GREAT vid...

[@michvod]

I had a Armada 1590DMT back in 2004 and I was surprised how good it was. The battery still held 3 hours with no problem. I replaced it with a ThinkPad 390E which was quite faster, but it had dead battery. I found this quite sad since it was 2 years younger and less used, and IBM stood for their quality. Remember that replacement battery for 390E would cost more than I paid for the whole laptop. I also got a Compaq Armada 7800 in 2006 or 2007. It is essentially the same case design as yours, just in gray/black.

[@DrakorthaProductions]

Windows 95 looks sooo good. Simple yet functional design unlike the operating system of today.

[@CptJistuce]

A computer with FOUR any keys?! That's true power.

[@matthewrease2376]

Hard to imagine spending so much money on something and then not using it. Spent a little under 2k on a laptop in 2019, and I have used that thing nearly every day, and I'm sure it will continue that way for a couple more years. That thing is my b a b y.

[@MrDuncl]

I think very few individuals bought laptops back then. This was almost certainly bought by the company the person worked for. My guess is that after a few years they got given an upgrade and this one got put to one side and forgotten about.

[@horusfalcon]

I carried one of these (or a white Compaq laptop that was very similar) when I worked in the petrochemical industry as an instrument technician. This was because it still had the ports I needed to communicate with industrial gear like flow meters, gas analyzers, etc. The thing was built like a tank, and was a very useful tool for doing my day-to-day work. (The one I had ran Win NT 4.0, SP6.) Just curious: did they have any more?

[@jenzGuitarist]

I love my Compaq Armada 1575D (which its original battery still holding a charge; up to a couple of hours!) I have the docking station also, which gave me a MIDI Port and other great stuff. Nice to see this Compaq in action! And Compaq batteries are apparently quite good :D

[@JamesKuffner]

As soon as you pointed out the dead pixel, it stood out to me for the rest of the video. Very cool find.

[@YodaPagoda]

I had an Armada that was a bit older than this one, and looked like it had fallen off a truck. But it worked! I had to update Windows 95, and I had to use Mozilla's browser, because most browsers had too high of requirements to run. I had a spare Thinkpad nubbin that I put on the Trackpoint, it served me well for a year.

[@DavidWonn]

80 MB of RAM? Nice. You have to love when a laptop has more than you originally expected.

[@IRWPD]

Very cool looking laptop. Am impressed that the battery still works.

[@tsunamirider9895]

Great find. I never get that lucky!

[@anew742]

What an incredible find!

[@NathanHassall]

as soon as you pointed out the dead pixel it was the only thing I could see for the last 2 min

[@ScanLinesAU]

What an awesome laptop. Great blerb too!

[@corruptedsave482]

Legends say that ahack1 still roams the internet to this day.

[@BilisNegra]

Some comment reply got me back here and I must say I miss the Blerbs channel.

[@Hanssone]

Damn, that looks mint AF

[@Jeremy_Hopkins]

That the battery holds a charge at all is incredible. I mostly stick to desktops these days, but my circa 2010 Dell Studio 17 is permanently plugged in. Jiggle the cord loose, and it immediately powers off.

[@andresvaldevit3692]

My God I loved Compaqs in the ‘90s

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

Congrats on the purchase!

[@everestcomputer]

these were sweet for running emus back in the day. portable zsnes rocked!

[@bru319]

I have had good luck removing stains and soiling from plastic using Mr. Clean and generic copies of scrubs sponges that deteriorate when used. I removed yellow turmeric stains from my refrigerator handles and dishwasher lid with ease. Go ahead and charge your battery up 100%. Typical discharge rate is about 3% per month for a healthy battery if it's taken out when stored. In the late 90s my aunt got a used IBM laptop that had been an insurance company agents machine.

[@UncleMikeRetro]

It is so original bright white! Just so clean 😎

[@davidinark]

Man you got a deal on that bad boy!! Kudos!