I knew Ni-Cd was good (albeit a lower capacity than Li-ion) but still working after 33 years is amazing!!! My earliest laptop is 1997 apart from a dead HDD and the occasional sticky key it still works great 😁but maybe in another 7 years....

​@@HandheldComputing I find that it's really hit and miss with these older machines. There are certain series of laptops that are known for certain failures (for example the Thinkpad A/T 2x models have the dreaded blink of death, I myself have an almost pristine T22, but it either switches on or not depending in what mood it is in), other models have gpu failure, ram slot failure etc. And if you go pre-1995 or so, then the chances of leaked capacitors increase exponentially. But when you get a machine that works, or even better you yourself are able to bring it back to life, it's a magical feeling. I grew up in the 90s in eastern Europe (Hungary), and thanks to my dad we always had a desktop computer of some sort (starting with a Commodore 64). But portable machines were something way out of our budget. I remember always looking at the catalogues and advertisements in pc magazines about all the portable laptops and PDAs, how incredible it was to me to be completely mobile, and be able to do all these things on the go, wherever you were, unplugged from anything. Nowadays thanks to smartphones, and all the other gadgets, we take these things for granted. But I still vividly remember how amazing it was when I got my first laptop, mobile phone, then later my smartphone. I feel lucky that I experienced this transitional period in the 90s and earlier 2000s, when progress was so incredibly fast, and every few years felt like a completely new era.

i do actually have a Cyrix 486 laptop i bagged off ebay but it won't POST and acts funny, i suspect it is capacitors but i will certainly fix it up. i have already named it Wendy. it is quite a weird one with the model NB7D

also the GPU failure on IBM laptops isn't the chip itself thankfully but the solder balls. since the motherboard was placed over a fault line, the T4X series had flex issues which would cause artifacting and No Boot. a Re-ball with leaded solder and careful handling will prevent further issues@@kosztaz87

Glad you liked it! I am also pleased to have another Jornada and especially as its one I have been chasing for so long!

FYI - The hinge on our newish Dell laptop cracked at one of the 2 plates that screw in. The hinge is some pot metal and the case is carbon fibre. We had excellent results with "LocTite Extreme Glue", scuffed both surfaces, cleaned both surfaces with alcohol, glued, inserted screws, clamped for 24 hours to cure. With both glue and screws, the broken hinge has worked fine for c. 4 years now. 2 part epoxy might have been a better option but we didn't have any on hand. If you use epoxy, make sure to follow the instructions carefully; it really needs to be well-mixed and used quickly. You need to be ultra careful as some adhesives will react with plastics and coatings. You might test on an inconspicuous place and see how adhesion-reaction is after a few days. I don't know about longer-term reactions. Maybe the case has some stampings inside which provide clues to what materials are used, which would be a nice clue.. Also, would adhering the hinge create future servicing issues on the Jornada? On our laptop, the adhered hinge would be difficult or impossible to remove. But that was a risk we thought worth taking.

Thanks for the heads up @Karpour, the whole thing seems a little delicate and I'm not sure yet how I am going to manage to rescue the battery pack.... I look forward to your tutorial on HPCfactor! 😉

This sounds like it could be a workable solution but I think @Karpour is right it neds something more than plastic to screw into on the J820

The Armada is a great looking machine, if it wasn't for the screen ratio and IO it looks like it could be a modern laptop. I really hope I can get it working properly and I love the fact that to keep it slim the optical and floppy drive wer part of a base station, clever!

That sounds like a great recommendation, I will add the NEC LaVie to my list and start looking. I've never tried buying from Japan before so that will be interesting!

Yeah 3 years, its flown by! The thinkpad has some damage to the plastics as well, I'm going to pop a HDD in and see if it boots, if it does I will get a replacement keyboard, they are great laptops

Ha ha I'm very glad you didn't out bid me in that case!!!! OK, good recomend I shall hang onto it and see if I can get another machine for parts

It was an odd choice at the time to use an ARM CPU but perhaps they had seen the future, by the 2nd version of PPC Microsoft insisted that all units used ARM. It was a bit crazy to have 3 parallel CPU types and 2 different form factors so 6 versions of everything... The keyboard feels great, bigger than the 720 but with good tactile feedback so I reckon itll be nice for distraction free typing! I bet its rubbish on the web now though 🤣

@@HandheldComputing internet was ok for the times 33 or 56kb was cutting edge, back then, at least the hp web link worked, which only showed specs and accessories and other models , but the 820 had the larger resolution 480x640 vga I think so not much software worked well, it was trial and error back then to see which worked, wish I bought the 620/680 back then, I’m using a hp 620 lx currently

@@HandheldComputing I was looking through my old Iomega zip backups and found my jornada 820 programs from 2001 the ones that worked, including a hp site page saved in archive ie mode with handheld pc pricing in 2001 in AUD , internet was slow 54k but what I did was save pages in archive mode to read anytime when on the train or at home off line, worked well, files still load

I downloaded the Win98SE iso from winworld, as you say its bootable so no where near as bad as when I installed Win95 from floppys on my Libretto!!!!! Did a clean install with drivers from internet archive - Win98 runs like a dream on the M300 such a great laptop! I'm trying to get a floppy drive for the base station 😃 then I might re-cell the battery so its portable again

@@HandheldComputing I can remember doing a Win95 floppy install on my old Compaq Concerto (check it out, like a MS Surface but 486 with a monochrome touch screen), was painful!

If you download Rufus 3.5 and watch the video on replacing the HDD on the libretto (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/esyKoah6l7rIgas.htmlsi=CXgdZOcj5gXLxt9h) you can see how to set the drive as bootable. You can also use Rufus to copy ISO's for installing OS etc. I might make a video (in the future) on Rufus and its uses as bits a very handy tool

I love the M300!!!! I have set up a second desk in my office for it. It has a clean install of Win98 and Office 97 😃 I'm trying to get a floppy drive for the dock. Thanks for the heads up on the power supply I have one that works but its not quite the right voltage so I shall pick up a new one before I replace the lithium cells 😊

keep searching for the floppy i believe there was another computer it went in in the armada line@@HandheldComputing

It's a fake DZ09 (you can't get a real one anymore) and there's a video on it soon. In short it's not great