The worst laptop ever produced

[@airfixer9461]

Brave lad...tackling all this shit...You know what we used to call AST...(All Shit & Trouble)...and your video proves it once again!

[@nickwallette6201]

When? Because, for a while there, they were a serious competitor to the likes of IBM and Compaq. I have an Advantage 486SX/25 that is built like a tank. Works great. And that was a time where AST was starting to feel price pressure. The stuff before _that_ was even more of a unit.

[@bionicgeekgrrl]

​@@nickwallette6201 probably later in their life I'd expect when they were hitting trouble before being sold to Samsung. All the brands had derogatory nicknames though, packed hell for Packard Bell for instance or compacted trouble for compaq. It did depend upon what market segment you had experience with some of them, with a lot of the trouble stemming from the various proprietary features they all used making repairs and replacement either harder, more expensive or both. Also depends if you fixed lots of them or just used them too, if a given brand was always being repaired you likely wouldn't be recommending them to friends and family no matter how big the company were.

[@UpLateGeek]

These definitely aren't the worst computers ever made. That 110% return rate still isn't as bad as some of the Dell Optiplex systems during the mid-late 2000s. We had thousands of GX270 model machines at work, literally every single one failed, and most failed at least once more before the warranty expired. It got to the point where I could swap out the motherboard within a few minutes, and we were getting the replacements sent to us from Dell in bulk.

[@nickwallette6201]

Haha... just got one of those. 100% intended to do a full recap anyway.

[@NielsHeusinkveld]

So it went from a 110% return rate to 111% with this video..

[@nickwallette6201]

Gotta love retro enthusiasts. "Aw, I bought a computer that doesn't work. I bet I can fix that by buying a few more that don't work!" haha :-D

[@pieroc91]

I had this exact same issue on a Toshiba Satellite of the same era, it also had a Ni-Mh leakage. I've heard sometimes the PCB can absorb the alkaline and make it somewhat conductive. Following this I took the chemical approach and tried to neutralize the PCB, you can normally use lemon juice or white vinegar for this, in my case I let the mainboard soaking an entire day on a bucket of a very saturated water with a white neutral soap, the rinse and air dry for a few days. The machine worked flawlessly after this for a few years and lately I sold it. I hope this helps you and you can get your AST back to life.

[@panopolis8051]

Unfortunate that they stopped working after such convincing signs of life. To fix the cracks in the hinges or other broken plastics, I've had good luck with Plastruct Plastic Weld, I believe the main ingredient is MEK (methyl ethyl ketone). Have you ruled out power adapter as a problem? If it is starting to fail, that could explain the intermittent power issues. Perhaps try powering the laptops from a bench power supply. With the large number of bodge wires, I would suspect maybe one of them has a bad solder joint. Given the horrendous reliability history of these laptops, I completely understand if you don't want to waste more time on them.

[@3lectr1c]

Plastruct will NOT hold under stress, so it is not suitable for fixing plastic around a screen hinge. It's best used when you have a plastic standoff fail in an area that's not going to be under stress. Plastic epoxy or JB Weld will work much better for something like this. It will be a very ugly fix, but better than a broken hinge.

[@panopolis8051]

@@3lectr1c Thanks for the tip. Come to think of it, I haven't tried using Plastruct in a spot that is stressed like a hinge.

[@EDDY-to2hf]

Is that a half AST laptop

[@SianaGearz]

When enclosure is ABS, you can just run pure acetone into a crack. Take 1ml syringe, load it up, and then press just enough to form a droplet on the needle end, then touch the needle end down to the crack from the inside and see the acetone droplet get absorbed. Repeat about 20 times, no hurry. It will weld up that spot. and it's a near invisible repair. Unfortunately there will be some degradation already that lead to this crack, so as a total repair it's not robust enough. Then you can grind away some material if need be and lay some reinforcement on the inside, my preference is for hemp blotter paper soaked in epoxy for a very thin reinforcement layer. You need to wait a day or two between applying acetone and stressing the joint or applying epoxy, to allow acetone to go away. It's also advised to cure epoxy at elevated temperature, simply set the bed of 3D printer to 80°C and throw the item on there.

[@VK2FVAX]

I think the AST's are lucky they didn't suffer from a RUD ("Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly" (tm)) due to frustration... you sir have my admiration.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Back in the day we had an AST advantage pro 386sx/25 with a SB 16/cdrom upgrade kit. I still miss that machine

[@Viczarratt]

That's interesting... did it have one of those "sliding toploader" Mitsumi cd-roms fitted?

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

@@Viczarratt It was a regular cd rom I think it had soundblaster branding on the front. Later that one was replaced with a faster caddy loaded rom drive

[@nickwallette6201]

@@Viczarratt If it was an SB16 upgrade kit, it was probably a Matsushita CR-562/563. Those were the 2X drives with the MKE 40-pin interface that connected directly to the sound card, before ATAPI was a thing.

[@Viczarratt]

@@nickwallette6201 there were also the propietary sony and mitsumi interfaces in addition to matsushita and scsi ports found on various SB16 cards made prior to 1995.

[@chriswareham]

Did all the motherboards have a similar number of bodge wires and that really sketchy looking little PCB which your first one has? The level of rework AST did on that was shocking!

[@RetroSpector78]

Similar. Definitely not identical. All seems very custom.

[@sapientsatellite]

7:00 it's easier with a desoldering pump, saves time and effort

[@SianaGearz]

You can now get nicer ones as well. Red flat reset plunger top, silicone tip. Clones of Engineer Japan ones. They are a little wider and shorter, easier to reset, better seal.

[@DominatorHDX]

I would recommend using plastic prying tools to open up connectors, lift PCB's etc. (like from a smartphone repair kit) in stead of regular screwdrivers and tweasers just to minimize possible damage (as a comment on your previous video) and for this video: Cut the solder wick in small pieces when using to de-solder holes or pads as that way you won't loose much heat and make the de-soldering a lot easier 😉 Have to say I'm a bit jealous of your computer hobby workplace space. Wish I had the room for it.

[@lukedavis436]

Loosten up the display hinges if possible, I've done it to a Siemens Nixdorf laptop and it's worked wonders!

[@SidneyCritic]

Modern stuff starts but just error beeps if something is wrong, but old stuff just plays dead if something is not plugged in or has dirty pins. Dirty RAM pins is the common. Also maybe a flat CMOS battery. I would say just reseat/clean pins on every chip that is in a socket.

[@andycristea]

Indeed, the Sanyo oscons never fail. Most notable one in my collection is an IBM server that was used from 2001 until last year until I got it. It's full of Sanyos and still works. Did you rule out the power supply? P.S. i've sent you an email regarding the PCD-5T 😊

[@PotatoFi]

Replace the yellow CMOS battery. My 910N (486, very similar in construction) stopped working after years of use. There was a coin cell battery on the processor daughter board and replacing that instantly fixed the problem and brought it back to life. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of your 950N’s just need new batteries!

[@VVProduction-h9w]

I used to dumpster dive AST RESEARCH in Irvine, Ca in the 90's and I day there were 3- 40ft roll offs that they filled with mostly laptops and PDA's and I got a ton of parts LOL!

[@kirishima638]

Are the plastics around the hinges breaking because of brittleness or because the hinges themselves are too stiff?

[@3lectr1c]

It’s brittle plastic combined with terrible hinge mounting design that puts too much stress on a weak area. It’s possible the hinges may be stiff but loosening them will at best slow down the cracking, it won’t stop it.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Did you check the power supplies at all? Those might be the reason if they are only working intermittently and show no issues other than having trouble powering on.

[@bstar777777]

I did a project with a 486 laptop and it was just awful. I just avoid old laptops now.

[@JohnVance]

Holy cow look at all the bodge wires!

[@greypatch8855]

Congrats on the new AST collection haha

[@iSamYTBackup]

found out about this model from the 8 bit guy lol these literally caught fire and the return/repair rate was over 100%

[@BilisNegra]

There are obviously several contenders to worst laptop ever produced. The PowerBook Colin (This Does Not Compute) tried to repair in last week's video is a strong one!

[@seekerrsa8275]

Try blowing around the power supply with a hairdryer on high for 30secs if it does not power on.

[@andresbravo2003]

I believe AST Computer might’ve caused problems even in the 90s.

[@RinoaL]

I feel like the IBM Thinkpad 385CD may be have been second worst. So bad that most thinkpad fansites don't even know it exists. Made obsolete before it was even named. (Edited mine to say second worst once I saw the bodge wires in your AST lol)

[@SianaGearz]

I think that's an off the shelf connector, not custom. The category is called mezzanine connectors and they have them in a large number of pin counts. The module PCB is custom. It's a tall order to name it the worst laptop, because there are quite a few contenders, including every single machine made by Uniwill. But yeah it's definitely critically flawed.

[@PaulinesPastimes]

That's such a nightmare. It must have been so frustrating and I do sympathise. Note to self: Don't buy that bargain Ascentia 950N you've been watching 😄

[@maxtornogood]

They don't seem to work reliably or consistently & it's hard to tell why! I see why you're putting this one on the shelf.

[@ZacCrawforth]

One of my first jobs was working IT at a Canadian PR agency. AST was one of our clients, so we had a LOT of AST gear, including an AST Manhattan server - thing was a huge beast! Thing was built like a tank, but was rock solid the whole time we had it. But wow, looks like that laptop did NOT aqe well, lol!

[@stevec00ps]

Ah we had a Manhattan massive server at my old work too, plus a load of Bravo machines - I was a fan!

[@nickwallette6201]

Yes -- by this point, AST was contracting a lot of their design and manufacturing. The home-grown stuff from earlier was way, WAY better.

[@zaprodk]

For people that are new to repairing computers I feel it is imperative to /not/ call it 'cooling paste' as that will push people to use a metric sh*t tonne of it, because more is better, right? 'thermal paste' is a better naming as it doesn't imply that the paste itself cools the components.

[@AiOinc1]

Wow, a 950N! I want one.

[@RetroSpector78]

You sure ? :)

[@iSamYTBackup]

you really sure these can catch on fire

[@Viczarratt]

​@iSamYTBackup Not too long ago there was some hot news about the Samsung Galaxy 7 pulling off a similar publicity stunt... and they still sold. 😮🔥

[@iSamYTBackup]

@@Viczarratt yup i remenber it was discontinued and recalled after 2 month on the market over 90% of the devices were returned

[@ultrametric9317]

I have a similar machine - Gateway Solo 2000 - upgraded CPU P166 MMX and 72Mb of RAM - runs Windows 98SE fine. Very solid hardware on that one, other than the plastic, which is just totally disintegrating. I will eventually remove its guts and install them in a custom clear polycarbonate case.

[@Stefan_Payne]

Those Sanyo Caps are probably Polymer Caps...

[@3lectr1c]

Did you pull apart your working one to remove the varta suspend/hibernate battery?

[@askjeevescosby2928]

Looks nice compared to other laptops of the Era

[@screamengine]

The Ascentia J series was gorgeous for its time but apparently it was not made by AST USA.

[@Schule04]

Is the power supply okay?

[@bastian775]

Where a Compaq or Toshiba laptop from the same era probably still works fine and doesn't have any breaking plastic this one does.... I have to admit I threw one out just a few years ago after formatting the harddisk. some employee came that they had an old laptop in their cabinet. Little did I know how old it was going to be, and what kind of garbage it was (yes the hinges snapped of course). It did however still work... it had an 800 mb harddisk in it.

[@Pillusch]

I somewhat like this Laptop. How can something be so nice and so horrible at the same time? 😅 Nice Video as always 😉

[@eliotmansfield]

Worked at an AST partner in the late 90’s - they were pretty rubbish to be honest.

[@todortodor12]

Were AST machines always trash or did they ruin them at some point like Toshiba?

[@JeffreyPiatt]

they began to suck when they acquired GRID and Tandy computers in a bid to become the new Radio Shack PC Vendor only to have that contract quickly out bid by compaq and they also made a dumb deal with Wal-mart that cause them to sell systems under cost. They were almost saved by Samsung who wanted to use AST to rebadge there systems in NA and have the US Support team support there systems. the final AST laptop was a rebadged Samsung that was also being sold in other stores under the Samsung brand.

[@todortodor12]

@@JeffreyPiatt Interesting, thanks. I always wished I could have an AST back in the 80s but too much money.

[@EDDY-to2hf]

Holy bodge wires batman gotta bodge em all

[@ndbapereira]

just an idea, maybe the rubber power button lost its carbon coat (not sure if it's carbon, but the tint that provides conductivity) You may try adding an aluminum foil layer or some conductive paint. Cleaning will only make it worse. BR

[@Torbjorn.Lindgren]

No, we can clearly see that the power button is not the problem. When he's plugging them in the power on led is not lit, then he press the power button and it lights up, so it's not that.

[@komplikatorful]

Would you mind selling me the broken one? I would like to give it a try - it seems like the PCB needs fixing because of the corrosion and I would be probably able to do that 🙂

[@GeoNeilUK]

AST - 8 Bit Guy's former employer, be interesting to know what he'd have to say about this video!

[@dezibeldani]

I thought you would bring up my NEC Laptop (type unknown) 😛

[@canopus5498]

this has got to be the messiest board i have seen in a commercial product

[@JasperTedVidalTale]

Ascentia more like Descentia

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

From the best channel ever produced? ;)

[@kevinwetsch5209]

A laptop with a mind of its own.

[@johnosborne9271]

That looks just as bad as NEC laptops from the 2000s. We had one model where the fan connector on the motherboard was physically installed in the place from the factory 🤣

[@michaelperugini4199]

you need to pull the CMOS battery, let it factory reset and replace with a good full charge battery, some systems do not start with a low or dead cmos battery

[@RetroSpector78]

Tried it with a 3v power source for the cmos. Same issues.

[@vinniepie1989]

Dat is jammer, heb je echt niks kunnen vinden waarom die niks meer wilde doen?

[@RetroSpector78]

Het heeft lang genoeg geduurd. Heb er nu effe genoeg van. Te onvoorspelbaar. Alle voltages zijn goed, de onderdelen werken, maar toch wil hij meer niet dan wel.

[@explorer9049]

These AST laptops were literal trash...

[@TheotanyaSama]

Stupid question but, Did you tried with an other power supply ? Maybe yours is dying.

[@RetroSpector78]

Had 4 different AST power supplies to try with, 3 cpu boards, 3 power / speaker boards and 2 soundblaster cards :)

[@TheotanyaSama]

@@RetroSpector78 Indeed, my question was stupid :p

[@peterdevreter]

Mwaha! This gives me car fixing vibes. First jeeeeeej!!! And after a while aaaaaah.... But at least you have one working.

[@NigelMontezuma]

The REAL Worst Laptop Ever Produced: ALL MacBook/ALL MacBook Pro/ALL MacBook Air/ALL PowerBook/ALL iBook/ALL Macintosh Portables 1988-present!!!

[@nickwallette6201]

Real original.

[@Neksus-M06]

I have a 810N and it sucks. All plastics are disintegrating. Everything else is good though. Keyboard is really good. Go figure...

[@marksmith9566]

E-Waste poster children [unfortunately!]

[@johnDingoFoxVelocity]

They are not great machines

[@pentiummmx2294]

it is like copying off the Thinkpad 755 and 365XD design but it is a total piece of rubbish

[@zarkeh3013]

Take those Yamahahahahaha chips and populate an soundblaster that can take them! ... **shrugs**

[@briangoldberg4439]

hahahaha I can imagine why you'd be sick of it. maybe just cut your losses and move on? that's clearly what most people did with AST

[@DmiA]

This is definitely not the worst laptop, I've seen much worse.