I recently scored an AST Laptop from 1992/93 on eBay. The computer works well; even the 30 year old battery still works and the 60 MB hard drive has no bad sectors. The only problem I have is the power switch broke off. The switch appears to be a single-pole double-throw slide switch. Here are some pictures.
Does anyone have any info on this?
The busted switch is on the top left of the top photograph.
Anything at all?
It appears to be a standard panel mount switch. You should be able to find a replacement on Jameco, digikey, or mouser. As long as you know how to solder this should be a rather simple fix.
Why the double throw? It didn't have two clicks.
Unfortunately I can't answer that question but it should be pretty simple to desolder the old one and solder in a new one.
I'll have to try it. I don't want to ruin a vintage computer. I already did enough of that in the 2000s.
As long as you use the same style of switch you should be just fine.