Compaq LTE 5000 Series

The LTE 5000 was Compaq's premier Pentium laptop, announced in August 1995 and released later the same year. Compared to the previous LTE Elite series, the 5000 added not just Pentium processors, but also a sound card, PCI Video, Modular drives, and more. The LTE 5000 is now considered to be one of the best laptops for MS-DOS gaming, as it fits the rare spec of a laptop with both a 640x480 TFT display and a DOS-compatible sound card. All later models in the LTE 5000 Series had 800x600 displays.

Following the original 5000, Compaq would release several updated models with faster processors and higher resolution displays. Below is a spectable showing all model differences.

The LTE 5000 line was produced in collaboration with Inventec, a Taiwan-based ODM (Original Design Manufacturer).

The strangest thing about the LTE 5000 Series is perhaps the spec configuration of the 5380 and 5400. The 133MHz LTE 5380, released around June 1996, was one of the very first laptops with a 1024x768 (XGA) display. You'd then expect that the faster 150MHz LTE 5400, which released around November of that year, would also use the XGA panel - but so, it used the 800x600 (SVGA) display. Why was this? Perhaps it was to do with a flaw in the 5380 - it still only had 1MB of VRAM, the same as the rest of the series. This meant that it could only display 256 colors at the XGA resolution. Perhaps this did not sit well with customers, thus why they went back to SVGA for the 5400. Pure speculation.

Specifications

Earliest Confirmed Dates are not announcement or release dates - they are the earliest mentions of each model that I can find in magazine archives.

Spec	LTE 5000	LTE 5100	LTE 5150	LTE 5200	LTE 5250	LTE 5280	LTE 5300	LTE 5380	LTE 5400
Earliest Confirmed Date	August 1995	January 1996	June 1996	January 1996	June 1996	April 1996	April 1996	June 1996	November 1996
CPU	Intel Pentium @75MHz	Intel Pentium @90MHz	Intel Pentium @100MHz	Intel Pentium @120MHz			Intel Pentium @133MHz		Intel Pentium @150MHz
RAM Capacity	LTE 5xxx Proprietary - 8 or 16MB On-Board - 72 or 80MB Max
Hard Disk	IDE 2.5" - 510 or 810MB Standard	IDE 2.5" - 810MB Standard		IDE 2.5" - 1.35GB Standard	IDE 2.5" - 810MB Standard	IDE 2.5" - 810MB or 1.35GB Standard	IDE 2.5" - 1.35 or 2.16GB Standard	IDE 2.5" - 2.16GB Standard
Uses Proprietary HDD Adapter?	Yes
Display Options	- 10.4" Passive Matrix Color @640x480 - 11.3" Passive Matrix Color @640x480 - 10.4" Active Matrix Color @640x480	- 10.4" Active Matrix Color @800x600	- 11.3" Passive Matrix Color @800x600 - Possibly also available with Active Matrix at the same size and resolution	- 10.4" Passive Matrix Color @800x600 - 10.4" Active Matrix Color @800x600	- 10.4" Active Matrix Color @800x600	- 11.3" Active Matrix Color @800x600	- 12.1" Active Matrix Color @800x600	- 12.1" Active Matrix Color @1024x768	- 12.1" Active Matrix Color @800x600
Graphics Chipset	Cirrus Logic GD7543 - 1MB VRAM
Audio	ESS AudioDrive 1688 - Stereo Speakers
Main Battery	NiMH or Lithium Ion
CMOS Battery	NiCad - User replaceable under a cover on the base
Power Supply	Barrel Jack, 18V 2.6A, Center Positive - Compaq Series 2882
Disk Drives	Modular Bay - Supports Floppy, CD-ROM, 2nd Battery, 2nd HDD, or weight saving module
PC Cards	2x PCMCIA Slots (2x Type II/1x Type III)
Networking	None built-in
Other I/O	- 1x Parallel - 1x Serial - 1x VGA Out - 1x PS/2 - 1x Dock Connector - 1x Line In - 1x Line Out - Infrared
BIOS	SystemSoft
Pointing Device	TrackPoint

Resources

Service Manual

Common Faults & Maintenance

The plastics used on the LTE 5000s is not as brittle as other laptops from this time, and they have generally good build quality. The most common plastic damage you'll see is missing doors and covers, but it's very rare that you'll find a busted hinge.

Logic Failure

The most common LTE 5000 Series problem is failed logic - whether it be the motherboard, cpu card, or DC/DC controller. It's not currently known what the most failure-prone parts are, but something is making them die. It sometimes ends up being bad capacitors, but not always. They just seem to be more unreliable than the average. Until someone finds out what's breaking, I'd recommend against buying an LTE 5000 Series laptop that doesn't power on.

Status LCD Failure

Some sort of design defect in the secondary status LCDs used in these laptops causes some of the indicators on them to stop lighting up. I believe it's to do with the bond/zebra stripes that connect the ribbon cable to the LCD matrix itself. This issue is rampant and the vast majority of LTE 5000 Series laptops will be affected to some degree.

Battery Leaks

Pretty much every battery in the LTE 5000s leaks to some degree. The CMOS battery is a coin cell NiCad pack that's easy accessible via a door on the bottom - it only takes 30 seconds to remove. These don't leak as often or as bad as Varta NiMH packs do, but I'd still highly recommend removing them as they are starting to leak.

There were two types of main batteries - one NiMH and one Lithium. The NiMH ones can leak like any other NiMH battery can, but the Lithium batteries in these leak as well. They used Sanyo cells, and these cells all start to release a sweet smell and leak with age. It will take a very severe leak to do any damage, but you definitely won't find an LTE 5000 Lithium battery that still works.