Compaq SLT-286 Repair
- Thread starter Performa
- Start date
Performa
Member
Here is the adventure I've gone through with this one. It didn't go the way I expected at all!
So, to begin I assumed that the first place to look for a machine that's unresponsive would be to check the power supply. I've never cracked this open before, as I've never had a reason to. It doesn't smell weird, so at this point I'm hoping for the best.
So, to begin I assumed that the first place to look for a machine that's unresponsive would be to check the power supply. I've never cracked this open before, as I've never had a reason to. It doesn't smell weird, so at this point I'm hoping for the best.
Performa
Member
Upon closer inspection, I spotted some familiar yellow shapes. RIFA caps seem to be the "theme" of the summer so far.
There appear to be four of them, two big ones and two little ones, not unlike the PSU for the Apple IIGS computer. Unlike the IIGS, these don't appear to be damaged or worn, so I'm curious whether they've failed or not. This machine did run for a lot longer at RoboCup before it went down, so it would stand to reason the stress from that would have killed these caps... but it didn't. Or it doesn't look that way at least.
There appear to be four of them, two big ones and two little ones, not unlike the PSU for the Apple IIGS computer. Unlike the IIGS, these don't appear to be damaged or worn, so I'm curious whether they've failed or not. This machine did run for a lot longer at RoboCup before it went down, so it would stand to reason the stress from that would have killed these caps... but it didn't. Or it doesn't look that way at least.
Performa
Member
I plugged in the PSU, and the green light came on. As nothing seemed amiss, I thought I'd plug in the SLT and see what it did- officially turning my attention to the computer.
As an aside, it's clear Compaq put a lot of thought into how to make this power supply both compact and durable- a lot of effort has been put into making this thing resilient to drops, yanks on cords, and even crushing- not the sort of thing we see much of anymore, even in higher end portable PSU units today.
As an aside, it's clear Compaq put a lot of thought into how to make this power supply both compact and durable- a lot of effort has been put into making this thing resilient to drops, yanks on cords, and even crushing- not the sort of thing we see much of anymore, even in higher end portable PSU units today.
Performa
Member
So, here's what the thing did when plugged in and turned on.
Well, suffice it to say, I'm now totally mystified as to what knocked this thing out at RoboCup. Overheating? Some other mystery problem on the computer side? I don't really know.
I played Planet X3 for about 45 minutes longer than expected to test everything (the game is really addictive, even like this), and everything functioned normally. Totally stumped as to what went wrong before.
At this point I'm moving the Compaq SLT-286 from the project pile and back into the reserve for the next show. While we now have it on record that it might not run all the way through an event, knowing it could be called up as an alt for another machine is reassuring- mostly because it's really easy to lug around compared to some of it's contemporaries!
So that's it for this one... for now, at least.
Well, suffice it to say, I'm now totally mystified as to what knocked this thing out at RoboCup. Overheating? Some other mystery problem on the computer side? I don't really know.
I played Planet X3 for about 45 minutes longer than expected to test everything (the game is really addictive, even like this), and everything functioned normally. Totally stumped as to what went wrong before.
At this point I'm moving the Compaq SLT-286 from the project pile and back into the reserve for the next show. While we now have it on record that it might not run all the way through an event, knowing it could be called up as an alt for another machine is reassuring- mostly because it's really easy to lug around compared to some of it's contemporaries!
So that's it for this one... for now, at least.