Compaq Deskpro 286 - Unboxing & Exploration

Thanks to Stephanie for the donation!

Another Compaq?! Yep, today we're exploring a Compaq Deskpro 286 that was sent to me by a viewer.

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Background Music:
"Ersatz Bossa", "By the Fireplace", "Rest" and "Brighton Lights" from the YouTube Audio Library

Outro Music: Silent Partner - Bet On It
Source: YouTube Audio Library

Some materials in this video are used under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allows "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, and research.

#MichaelMJD #Compaq #Vintage

[stephanieiwaniuk]

I'm at work right now but as soon as I am off I will watch!

Edit: Back from work now! I think the screws are original. The Seagate drive I was unable to test, but I had the 2 ide drives I found with the other 2 computers found checked and they were wiped, so it is safe to assume the previous owner wiped all 3.

Speaking of, I found some ribbon cables when looking in the boxes for the other computers. I'll take pictures and email them to you. If they are the correct cables I will send them to you.

In regards to the cards, the previous owner did work in IT with computer networking. That might help identify the cards. Also, the box says that it comes with 640kb of memory! How much more memory could you need, haha!

Feel free to name the computer whatever you would like. I am just glad it is in relatively working condition and that you are able to use it!

Enjoy the computer, and have a great week! Thanks for the awesome videos!!

[dungeonseeker]

Fun fact about 286 systems, the internal hardware on the motherboards is pretty much identical across all motherboards meaning that the system BIOS on 286s is almost always fully interchangeable so you could quite easily go grab a much newer and feature packed Award 286 BIOS, burn it to a ROM chip and swap the BIOS ROM on the board. It totally removes the need to have a separate disk to configure BIOS settings. Adrian Black did a video covering it a while back, IIRC he tried like 4 different 286 BIOSes and they all worked.

[JustPyroYT]

14:50 damn, that diskette wall looks amazing! :D

[RetroAnachronist]

Those torx/flathead screws were a signature of Compaq most of their existence.

[Techmej]

Can we just appreciate this man's content
it makes us all happy

[jbritain]

Don't think we haven't forgotten about that compaq portable!

[Speedyyou]

I kind of hate peeking in the reflection on the tv but looks like to me you have a nice house and setup. Keep up the videos man! Thank you.

[stonent]

I had the older 8086 version of this machine and they appeared to use the same exact monitor. The OEM video card in the Deskpro 8086 was the same card as in the portable and even had the internal CGA plug still on it. Something I found amusing about he video card in your system was on a website. "The Graphics Solution was a graphics card by ATI, launched on September 22nd, 1986. Built on the 800 nm process, and based on the CW16800-A graphics processor, the card does not support DirectX. Since Graphics Solution does not support DirectX 11 or DirectX 12, it might not be able to run all the latest games."

You have the -B version of the video chip which according to Wikipedia added Plantronics ColorPlus compatibility, so you should be able to get Tandy-like graphics in some games like Planet X3 by The 8-Bit Guy.

[JosephDavies]

If you don't mind tinkering a bit with microcontrollers and Python, Adafruit has a Floppy Featherwing that can be assembled into something that can read and write floppies of various kinds. That might be a good flexible solution for you if you find yourself with this problem even somewhat often.

[sutorippuwebmaster]

Always fascinating to peek inside these older boxes and see just how much motherboard design has changed and begun to incorporate by default over the years instead of needing 2-3 expansion cards for basic things like disk drive I/O.

[OrMain]

It came with a blanket as a gift😂😂
-
Looking at the IBM OS/2 installer box, it is sad that it was not popular in the personal computer market at the time. A real 32-bit operating system, way ahead of its time, even superior to Windows 95 and Windows NT.

[TheStarscouts]

Hope you're able to install an operating system on this. Also "the 80s PC" is a good name for this computer since it's similar to the 98 PC's name.

[Neksus-M]

The one we had came with a newer HD, Conner 40MB, with both EGA and controller by Compaq.
I have so many memories.
But we moved and I kept only the working parts. It was heavy with the monitor. :)
Keyboard wasn't that good though. IIRC, 30 years have gone by.

Edit: still have the high density 5.25 FDD

[ChloeKenobi]

7:58 “cracked, but still intact” same

[Windows_]

i love the checkered pattern on the floppy disk wall, a cool way to reuse old and broken floppies, lol

[kFY]

Even if the hard drive has an OS on it, it likely won't boot until it's properly configured in the BIOS.
And this thing doesn't have the BIOS setup in ROM; it came with a "BIOS setup" on a floppy disk, which is why it's asking for that Diagnostics diskette.
I also expect that booting this thing off 3.5" floppy without first going through that Diagnostics setup booted off 5.25" (as that's likely the default) might be problematic, too.
So, you probably need some other machine with a 5.25" drive, and some floppies to go with that, anyway.
I hope that Diagnostics disk image can be found on The Internet Archive or something...

[jjjacer]

@5:00 yeah compaq liked using the combo torx/flathead screws on alot of their machines, at least up to the pentium era, sorta like those screws rarely did you find one stripped that you couldnt remove it

[RetroGamerOG_]

Hello! I knew this video was going to go up because of the tweet! And this is a great retro unboxing!

[guitarkid]

I have been subscribed for 3 years man, keep up the work, your videos are really good.

[computerkid]

Since he won't do a face reveal, I automatically associate him with that Windows XP bobble head now. Plot twist would be if he actually does look like the bobble head guy.