#RetroComputing image dump: My Sunday activities

This really isn't what I personally consider retrocomputing, since MS-DOS based systems like this were a big part of my career... But I know Not everyone here is as ancient as I am!

What we have here is called an Altima Three - It's a 386 "laptop" (for large laps) made ~1990. I pulled it from a junk pile where it has been sitting outdoors for at least a year.

It's been indoors now for over a week, so it's no longer wet. If you look at my previous post, there's a black object just above the keyboard. That's a black widow spider that ran out, and I smacked (with a pair of calipers, of all things)

She cleaned up well, AND still functions! Mostly.

Hard drive is dead, though. Made in 1991. I'm not sure how long ago the drive died, but because it's a Maxtor, I'm certain it was immediately after the warranty expired.

The floppy drive seems to be a standard unit, which is good, because this one appears to have been used as a canal.

Amazingly, the mainboard doesn't look bad at all. In fact, the whole interior is surprisingly clean.

But here's where our troubles begin, a Dallas DS1287 clock module: These things combined a real-time clock, some static RAM, and a battery into one package. Which meant that in 5+ years, when the non-replaceable battery was dead, your computer would retain neither its time/date or hardware settings when powered off.