Mix and Match Compaq Contura 3/25 Laptop Repair

The Compaq Contura was a low-cost laptop solution for the early 386 and 486 processors. This repair of a Compaq Contura 3/25 was to address the process of getting a single laptop working from a pile of parts. The primary computer was an eBay find from a seller in Texas, the screen had degraded and the motherboard was broken. A parts machine provided the missing bits including a working LCD screen, hard drive, motherboard the rest was repaired and reassembled. Our final build features a 120MB hard drive, 4MB of ram, 386 25Mhz with a monochrome screen. The onboard VGA connection was also modified to accept regular VGA cables. Sadly, there was no fancy soldering or cap swaps to be seen and the breakdown and reassembly was rather simple. The whole machine was either screwed together, friction fit using plastic clips or featured pin headers making the service easy to do and likely done on purpose for technicians in the field.. However, for anyone looking to do the same, it can sometimes be helpful to see what is inside before you dive in.