Description

Vintage Osborne Computer OCC1a - First laptop – Z80-CP/M-Restored-Recapped-Working

Other than some yellowing of the case plastics, this unit is in excellent cosmetic condition and fully functional. This laptop has undergone a complete restoration (see below) and is in perfect working order! 

This 40 years old Osborne computer from the very early 1980s is considered to be the first commercially successful “laptop”. It came bundled with software valued at as much as the computer! 

This is the OCC1a model with the redesigned case and keyboard tray clips on the top.

Despite it being labeled as a “laptop”, it weighed 25 pounds(!), was as big as a sewing machine, it had a tiny 5” monochrome monitor, it had two FULL height, single-sided, single density, 5.25” floppy drives (able to store all of 90KB each! Kilo Bytes, yes!), it had to be used plugged-in (no internal built-in battery). It ran under the CP/M operating system and it had no mouse, no track pad, no trackball, no Ethernet and no built-in hard disk – everything was driven by user input commands on the keyboard! Communications were achieved through a 1200 Baud serial port.

This unit is equipped with the double-density disk upgrade option (180KB per disk) as well as the option to display on an external composite monitor. It is also equipped with a rare, Canadian made, aftermarket fan.

The laptop has been completely disassembled, cleaned, serviced and restored. The RIFA capacitors on the power supply board have been replaced (these 40 years old RIFAs are notorious for blowing up with a bang and lots of brown and awful smelling smoke). All electrolytic capacitors on the power supply have also been replaced - after many decades, these capacitors stop operating as intended and cause the computer to malfunction. Both built-in floppy drives have been disassembled, cleaned, serviced and lubricated. The drives read/write heads have been cleaned. Both drives read, write and format disks as intended. The computer starts up with a beep and boots from either drive with no issues. The black & white screen is bright and sharp with no burn-in – all its electrolytic capacitors on the video control board have been replaced and fresh corona dope has been applied to the flyback transformer. The keyboard has been disassembled and cleaned; all keycaps have been pulled out and washed. All keyboard keys function as intended. The leather carrying handle for the computer is still present and in good condition.

Unlike many such models sold in "as is", "untested", "no disk to test", "recapped, but disk drives untested", "powers on" (....to garbled screen), etc..., this is a restored, tested, functional and complete computer including copies of all original disks plus more. It's ready for display and use. Unlike some units being sold which are heavily corroded from having been stored in a damp environment, this unit exhibits barely any signs of corrosion.

This Osborne has been extensively tested: floppy drives, serial port, video port, speaker, reset switch, brightness and contrast controls, etc… all working as intended. It is not easy to find an Osborne in such great condition!

The computer comes with its power cord, a Canadian-made aftermarket cooling fan (using an empty VCR tape case as its shell! – 1980’s creativity at its best), copies of the original software disks (including CP/M, Wordstar, CBasic/MBasic and SuperCalc), a copy of Turbo Pascal for CP/M, a copy of the Osborne diagnostics disc and 3 (used) blank floppy disks.

This is an amazing 40 years old laptop. It’s a rare, and fully FUNCTIONAL, decorative item and a unique conversation piece from the very early days of the personal computer. It is considered to be the first successful, commercially available, laptop!