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Vintage - Compaq LTE Elite Laptop Still Works (1994)
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Jan 17, 2024
Take a nostalgic journey back to 1994 with this video showcasing the enduring functionality of a vintage Compaq LTE Elite Laptop. The presenter explores the features and capabilities of this classic piece of technology, demonstrating that it still works decades after its release. Witness the resilience of computing history as the Compaq LTE Elite Laptop proves its longevity and functionality, offering a glimpse into the early days of portable computing. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, collector, or simply curious about the evolution of laptops, this video provides a fascinating look at the enduring legacy of a computing relic from the past.
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0:00
Hey everyone, if you like old computers, vintage laptops, and I hope this is a video that you will
0:06
enjoy. So I was just doing a little bit of cleaning and I came across this. This is a
0:12
Compaq LTE Elite 440C. This was a laptop that I used in college. Now this was produced in 1994
0:23
I used it probably about five years after, so it was well past its prime by the time I got ahold
0:29
of it. But at the time there really weren't many laptops available that were cheap enough where
0:36
college students could just buy one. Most college students had probably a desktop that they picked
0:41
up at a computer city or circuit city or one of the big box stores. So this was kind of unique
0:47
being in college with a laptop. Now if you've never seen this before, this is pretty heavy
0:54
It's probably a good five pounds or so and you can definitely feel the weight of it compared to
1:00
other laptops today. But what made this model unique is the fact that not only did it have
1:05
this three and a half floppy drive, but if I open this door this also has a removable hard disk. Now
1:13
I'm not sure what size that hard drive is, but that was one of the, I guess, unique features of this
1:19
Now at the time the thing that really saved me is the fact that there is an ethernet port
1:26
right over here that you could just plug in this ethernet card and once the card was inside
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you would just use this little dongle right over here to plug in. You would plug in your ethernet
1:40
port and you would have internet. Of course this did not, this does not have a wireless signal
1:47
so that was really the only way that you could get internet. So for the most part if you didn't have
1:52
an internet cord near you this could be used offline but there was no online access. A couple
1:59
of other interesting things about this, you'll notice that on the back it has two mouse buttons
2:04
That's because this laptop actually had the mouse on the screen. So if I open this up
2:12
like this you'll notice that this is actually the the mouse ball. Right over here the two buttons
2:18
the right click and left click buttons are on the screen. It never really worked very good
2:23
so in most situations I just had a regular mouse that I used. So again this became less like a
2:31
laptop and really more like a smaller computer with a little screen, a little square screen
2:38
that's on it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to plug in the power cord because this battery
2:44
never worked good even back in the day. So I'm going to plug this in. Let's see if this will
2:48
start up. Okay so I plugged this in and immediately it started up. I didn't have to push the power
2:56
button or anything else. It's going to be a little tough to see the screen. I'm just going to adjust
3:01
the brightness. I guess one of those things that's nice about having the controls on the screen
3:08
It's giving me some sort of strange DOS command. It says F1 to boot. Let me push F1 to boot
3:17
And let's see how this goes. There it is. It has a version of Windows 95. I apologize for the
3:24
banding that you're probably about to see. It's just how the screen works. Now I don't know if
3:29
you can hear it through my microphone but this is pretty loud. You can really hear the, I think it's
3:35
the hard drive grinding. It sounds like a loud external hard drive. It makes strange beeps and
3:42
sounds like that. We'll see if it starts up. It's probably been a good 20 years or so since this
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thing has been started. We are in. This actually did start up and you can see some of my desktop
3:58
icons. Obviously there's no internet because I don't have an ethernet connection in this room
4:04
and also there's no wireless card so this won't pick up any wireless signals. But you can see if
4:09
you remember Windows 95, it looks kind of like this. Of course it has the AOL instant messenger
4:16
icon, the classic internet explorer, as well as a few other things. I actually have the Netscape
4:22
communicator on there. Winzip on the screen. That was really important for those files that you
4:28
downloaded. Now one of the interesting things here is if I just click right over here, I do have a
4:32
folder that has computer games on here. You can see some of the other ones. These are the NES
4:39
emulators which were always really cool because they would emulate different Nintendo ROMs. So
4:45
this was something fun that I used to do along with some other ones that I don't even remember
4:49
Obviously Pac-Man's on there but you can see Zorland's Arcade and In Search of Dr. Riptide
4:55
I'm not really too sure about those programs but they are on here. Now this moves very slow
5:02
so if I try to open Microsoft Word, you can see it kind of did something funny with the
5:09
with the background. I'm impressed with how long this computer is still functioning and
5:15
still standing for being so old. If I just go in and type, not too bad. There's a little bit of a
5:25
delay. The keyboard is not really in great shape. You can't see it but it's very kind of dirty
5:32
You saw the yellowish color. The keys also stick in kind of a funny way. So it doesn't work
5:40
so great but this is it. You can see this is still a functional laptop. Obviously the mobility
5:48
factor isn't there. I really can't bring this anywhere and use it especially if I don't have
5:54
power. If I don't have internet, an ethernet connection, I obviously can't get on the internet
6:00
and because this type of mouse on the outside monitor frame is so bad, I have to use just like
6:09
a regular old mouse like this with the mouse ball that you can remove which was always fun
6:16
but that's about it. This is the Compaq LTE 440C manufactured in 1994. We're looking at something
6:26
about 28 years old and still working. Obviously it doesn't perform anywhere near where we would
6:34
want it but the fact that it's still standing after all these years and all the times that I
6:38
dropped it is still pretty impressive. So hopefully you like this video. If you have any questions
6:44
let me know and I'm happy to answer any
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