Building the Ultimate '90s Beige Laptop That Will Last a Lifetime

Creators & Developers
1

30 Years Apart, One Machine: Attempting to put a Framework 13 into a Compaq LTE 5300

The Beige
The Beige5712×4284 4.44 MB

This is a 1995 Compaq LTE 5300. And it has a gimmick that Apple didn’t “invent” until 2016. It’s also chonky and at the moment broken, which is why I’m gutting this machine and rebuilding it with a Framework mainboard.

Why attempt this? I think I speak for many here when I say I desire something unique that I can relate to as my daily driver, that will be by my side for many years. In three years, every other generic laptop you could buy today will be a slow, unrepairable e-waste. That’s why I’m turning to the Framework ecosystem. If it works, you’ve got a genuinely future-proof vintage beige brick.

Also, it’s funny.

The Process

My friend quickly scanning the Beige with his Framework 13 (which I envy), gave me a clearer idea of how this project might look. And the answer is a lot of Dremel, 3D printing and hobby glue.

Room really is not the issue the Compaq has, quite the opposite in fact. My goal is to get enough batteries in there to get me on a no-fly list, but besides that there are awesome Cyberdecky things that could be put in there like meshtastic. And using a salvaged USB-C Dock I expect epic User IO.

As easy as that
As easy as that1920×1080 70.6 KB

A big hurdle I expect coming my way will be the screen. Yes, believe it or not, I have no desire to make a custom adapter for the original 320p screen, as legendary as it might have been back in its day. Yet, even with 3D printing a custom front shell, I expect it will be a tight squeeze.

So whats next?

The keyboard: I will create an adapter for the proprietary matrix keyboard to work with USB using a microcontroller, simply because I have everything here.

The display cable nightmare: I will have to figure out the biggest hurdle, which will be how to route the frameworks display cable through the existing hinges, or how to modify them.

Budget parts: Another small problem is to get the necessary framework parts for as cheap as possible. Right now I don’t care how old they are, they will be a significant upgrade to my 6th gen Intel I currently use and who knows, maybe when the project is done and I have the money the internals will be upgraded.

So what about the gimmick?

iu
iu1600×1067 119 KB

Yeah. This little LCD panel below the main screen? 1995 Compaq called it a “system information display.” Apple later called it a “Touch Bar” and acted like they didn’t steal it from the true goat.

I’m swapping it for an OLED and running custom firmware on it. Because if we’re building a time machine, we might as well make it weird.

See You in the Next One

First update drops when the keyboard adapter works (or doesn’t, and I complain about it).
Have a good one
– Ben

11 Likes
2

this is awesome

2 Likes
3

I hope that you manage to keep the floppy drive working with this project.

Also, are all those IR tracking marks for the scanning? I’ve not heard of 3D scanners that use those before.

2 Likes
4

Yeah got a bad case of the 3D scanning pox xD It was scanned using my friends Revopoint inspire 2 which does a pretty okay job for being a consumer scanner, the IR dots really help its software.

As for the floppy, I‘ll have to see. I will 100% keep it for visual effect, but the module is just soo huge. Maybe I‘ll turn it into something more compact like a custom port that is just a usb for a fido2 key that looks like a floppy? But first its time for the minimum viable product to work xD we‘ll see from then

3 Likes
5

Wow, great work.

One thing I would like to see, for a FW laptop, is a deeper display panel, to fit more display types into.
One could then take a working display panel from an old broken laptop and reuse it in a FW laptop. Or even take any laptop display panel from the market, and use that instead of the FW supplied one.

The Compaq laptop in your picture has some large slots for a Floppy or Hard disk.
Maybe for your rebuild with a FW mainboard, use those slots to fit extra batteries?
The cooling fan might be a challenge though, getting the airflow needed.

The Compaq could also probably use a variety of display panels out on the market today, as there is probably depth to fit any of the them, and also a small signal adapter PCB to adapt from the FW pinout to the pinout needed for the panel you choose.

1 Like
6

The standard compac case has a pretty huge slots in the rear for ports that i dont even know what they do. i think the framework cooling will use those just fine. Thank you for the input!

7

Definitely going to follow this project! I’d love to convert my first laptop to use framework mainboards. Although much more recent (Toshiba satellite l670), it’d be quite nostalgic. Good luck!

1 Like
8

Thank you! Yeah so a big reason why I went for this one is the possibility to adapt the screen shell to framework. On one hand because with such an old device I would need a custom controller board and everything, but also because by using a Framework screen I can more easily upgrade, or swap if it breaks. I’ll keep you posted with all unforeseen problems I’ll definitely run into.

9

i cant wait to see the progress on this one, i love a good ol beige brick

3 Likes