Commodore C286-LT Restoration
I love flea markets and always visit them whenever I find one in a new city. While visiting my parents, my dad told me about a flea market nearby that was open for two days, so I went to check it out right away.
It was a rainy day, and I got completely soaked—but no problem! :) While browsing, I spotted a laptop-like device on one of the tables that caught my interest. Initially, it was priced at 10 EUR, but I negotiated with the seller since the device was wet and I wasn’t sure if it even worked. In the end, I convinced him to sell it to me for only 0.5 EUR. (A true negotiation victory!)
I brought it home, disassembled all the parts, and left them to dry overnight. The next day, I reassembled everything, and when I turned it on, the monitor flickered a bit but wasn’t consistent. I looked up the issue online and found a few people mentioning similar problems. There’s an analog fade control on the right side of the laptop, which I suspected was the culprit. I replaced it with a potentiometer, and it worked! It was incredibly satisfying to see pixelated text appear on the screen. :)
The computer is now giving me a warning about hard disk failure. I’ll need to replace it eventually, as it’s clearly a hardware issue—the disk makes strange noises while trying to read. I found a replacement hard disk on an online store, but shipping it to Turkey is expensive due to high prices and taxes. I’ll tackle that issue another day. :)
