What frequently ruins or makes you quit a restoration?

[solidpro]

Hi

Ok, I'll start. What often kills a machine for you?

For me, it'll be something like I just get the feeling a machine is cursed. It starts with something relatively simple, like the LCD doesn't work, so I'll have to take it to pieces to get part numbers. I'll eventually find a used screen I'm told is working and then after 3 weeks of this machine, in parts, screws neatly laid out etc, I get the screen and then have to find the right moment and then I find out it still doesn't work, I've lost some screws or a cat has knocked something off a desk and cracked something.

I'd say this mostly happens to me with R-series thinkpads to the point I basically won't touch them now. Had so many that looked like they just needed a HDD and caddy and then after 5 hours of getting it perfect you find out 2 of the USB ports don't work and it blue screens on you.

I repaired a vingear screen the other day, that usually takes at least 2 hours - sometimes 4+ and was fairly sure once I replaced the 2 sheets of plastic, I'd be in business and....nothing. LCD was dead. I'd spent hours cleaning gunk off a sheet of glass that was likely to crack any second, if i pressed too hard only for the LCD to be dead for whatever reason. Dead as in it lights up but nothing will ever display on it. It wasn't the ribbon, it wasn't the machine itself, it was just not playing ball.

The other one I had, which is a bit OT was a Macintosh Plus which had been transformed into a huge luggable case in the late 80s. Everything from the Mac was inside there, plus a custom 80s PSU for an additional hard drive - but the original mainboard had a RAM issue. However whenever I fitted a replacement board, it would run over voltage. I think the PSU was destroying the boards. After about 3 PLus boards, which are increasingly rare, I gave up on the bloody thing!

cheers

[Enig]

Not much on Legacy machines from me.. Only have my 600, and it's been good to me from day one.

Moving a bit into the classical period. Grabbed two X60s' with a friend from DBA (my local equivalent of Craigslist). Offering didn't even have images but were dirt cheap. Turned out they both had dead screens (or none) and missing Bezels - working board but overall not in great condition.
I decided not to bee too disappointed and look for a screen for mine, but quickly found that buying just the screen off eBay was way overpriced - or one from China, with 'equivalent' screens - not even gonna bother. Put it on the back burner, waiting for a parts machine to show up. And it did - picked up an X61s and also an X41.
the X61s turned out to be in great condition (after replacing a faulty sodimm) but missing some parts and screws, same with the X41. So those two ended up 'eating' the X60s, stripping it of parts - I'm keeping the option open, but don't think that X60s will ever be complete again.
Not the first or likely last time something like that will happen.

TLDR: Project machines getting eaten by other machines. ..also overpriced replacement parts.

[solidpro]

One thing that grinds me but really shouldn't - I guess it's a case of 'sods law' is when you have a machine you've lovingly restored to all but one component and you're waiting and watching for the one bit you need to make it perfect and then another machine sells or goes for a tenth of the time and effort you've already spent and it's in better condition than the one you're doing...

[fultontech]

Completing the restoration, then asking myself 'what can I realistically do with this 25+ year old computer on a regular basis that can justify the time and expense invested?'. Then I put it in it's bag or box and store it with the others.

[kfzhu1229]

For me it would be things such as the strength of the plastics, whether there are missing HDD caddies (especially proprietary interposer connectors, like those frequently used by Dell and HP, as well as the ThinkPad 390) and RAM doors, and whether the motherboard is too broken (and whether I have a spare).
Things such as broken hinges I can usually fix well with hot glue, provided that the plastics aren't way too brittle it's gonna crack elsewhere.
I can do a bit of motherboard repairs too, but obviously there are fatal things such as a failed North/southbridge or failed hi-side 3.3 or 5V MOSFET that simply cannot be fixed while still be worth the money.
I have for example, called it quit for a full restoration on a Compaq Presario CQ62 because I don't have a spare HDD connector, caddy and door (though I can borrow from my CQ56 to get it tested, and then use a DVD to SATA connector)
A cracked display can sometimes get annoying, as it's one of those things where if you don't look for it, you find plenty off broken laptops, and if you look for it, you typically have to get a whole laptop to get it cheap.
Then, there is luck. If the luck is against me, I can't restore the laptop, such as my T520 that turned from a simple broken keyboard to a motherboard with broken battery charging circuit with a slew of bad luck; but other times I can get lucky, such as a T42, Compaq 6730b and Latitude D630 that had a BIOS password (and Computrace for the latter) that I just so happen to have the tools to bypass.

[solidpro]

Completing the restoration, then asking myself 'what can I realistically do with this 25+ year old computer on a regular basis that can justify the time and expense invested?'. Then I put it in it's bag or box and store it with the others.

Haha, I am so with you on that. I can spend 3 hours reinstalling Windows 95/98/whatever on a machine, after fighting to get it to even recognise a modern fixed disk, hunt down the drivers, get 'device manager' all perfect, seek out anything that it would have come with from IBM, then shut it down, close the lid and put it away. When it comes back out in 10 years time it will probably be covered in new eletrolytic fluid and will never work again anyway.

[Cigarguy]

For me is if it is worth it between cost and time. I already knew going in that the restored machine cannot compete with even the slowest of the modern machines so the nostalgic value have to be high or I just want a machine to run Pascal code from my high school programming days (1987-1990). Having said that I have a few T60 kicking around because of the screen size and the Flexview screen. And the T60 still serves my portable computing needs even if my smartphone is utilized more often for portable computing.

[kfzhu1229]

For me is if it is worth it between cost and time. I already knew going in that the restored machine cannot compete with even the slowest of the modern machines so the nostalgic value have to be high or I just want a machine to run Pascal code from my high school programming days (1987-1990). Having said that I have a few T60 kicking around because of the screen size and the Flexview screen. And the T60 still serves my portable computing needs even if my smartphone is utilized more often for portable computing.

Fair point. I would say a laptop that I restore either has to offer nostalgic value at least to some people (usually non-Sonoma Pentium M and earlier that can run Windows 98), or a newer machine (Santa Rosa, Montevina Core 2 duo or later) that's still competent as a better netbook replacement at the very least. Those Core 2 duo machines are helped by my now extensive knowledge of that generation and my access to cheap 4GB DDR2 RAM sticks.
As for the Sonoma Pentium M and the early Yonah Socket M machines, their use today by the general mass is quite limited unfortunately. Even with a T7200 it's far clunkier to use in Windows 10 than a modest T8300 equipped machine, and just being a Windows XP laptop isn't worth much nowadays.
So unless they have an extra trick up their sleeves, such as being a high end machine like a T60p or Precision M65, or being a 4:3 machine with a great screen like the T60 and my newly aquired HP Compaq nc6320 with wide viewing angle SXGA+ displays, or being in 10/10 pristine cosmetic condition like my HP Compaq Presario V3000, it's not gonna worth very much to warrant a full restoration, but you could still get them for LCD parts and such.