ScuzzBlog: Diaries March 2021
Entry 17th March 2021: Post 1: Commodore Laptop - Actually not.
Commodore Laptop - Actually not.
There is this quite well known Amigan on YouTube claiming this
laptop to be a true Commodore product and manufactured in the last
days of the original Commodore. Maybe he should have checked a few
facts first, like Pentium 75 being released in the winter of 1994
some 09 months after Commodore went bust.
The truth is that this is a Model FT6000E basic laptop machine from
November 1995 and rebadged as Commodore by Escom. The laptop is a
P75 with 1GB hard drive and shipped with 8MB RAM. This had 32MB.
The company of Escom came and went in a year promising great things
for the Amiga and then sold Amiga Technologies the following year
having done nothing to expand the Amiga product line. The truth is
they never intended to do anything with the Amiga. They were just
a PC retailer and a very bad one at that.
This laptop sums up the Escom adventure onto the Commodore landscape.
It tries to fool with a simple badge as being the only token of
promise. It represents a complete lack of regard to Commodore users
of the day trying to pass cheap Windows OS machines as something
those with an eye to a Commodore product would desire. They really
couldn't have been more wrong.
It is for these reasons that I care very little for this laptop. I
have little regard for laptops as it is, but one badged with the
Commodore name and purporting to be a line of that product house
makes my stomach turn.
Last time I switched this thing on it struggled to boot into the
OS having a failing 2.5" drive. This time around the noise from
the drive was a little more serious and of a mechanical scrape. No
chance of reviving this baby, and nor was I even going to attempt
to do so. Whilst lifting the lid I noted the clips on one side
completely broken and the one on the other snapped. What is more
is that whilst I had it laid out to check over the drive, the
screen edging had come loose one side. I discovered a few of the
clips broken.
Having switched on and got the error message I went to close the
screen and it flickered on and off and let out a sound through
the speaker. There appeared to be a problem with the screen which
felt like a shorting of some kind. I peered in behind the screen
edge that had come away and the thing just fell off. What I then
discovered was that the bottom screws had the washer edging pieces
broken and the one was stuck together in a little mound. There
was obviously a problem with the screen and the previous owner
had not first removed the bottom grommets to reveal the screws
that secured the screen. Instead had pulled it of breaking the
plastic retainers. I guess the screen had been faulty and the
owner was struggling with the face plate to rectify. Dunno.
This laptop is a sad little computer and will remain unloved. It
found itself here disguised as something it wasn't and really is a
complete load of junk. The hard drive is broken, the CD drive is
also broken. It has an intermittent fault on the screen and it
really is only good to use with Windows 95. Kinda November 1995
misfit with nowhere to go. Never mind, I'm sure plenty of these
were sold and really never going to be any collectors favoured
computer. I guess I could get her repaired, but for now she goes
back into store. I really only wanted to see if the 2.5" was OK
as I was thinking of using it on the Amiga 600.
Ar hum... Not a good day. Hopefully better tomorrow.
Commodore Laptop - Actually not.
|
