Folks,

I received two Compaq LTE Lite 4/25 machines, one works and boots (486 25MHz, 12Mb RAM, 200Mb HDD) into 6.22 and works nicely. The other does not even turn on (I took it apart and could not find a way) - Both have dead batteries. The non-working one has a 120 Mb HDD from what I can read off the drive itself. Both have batteries, both are completely dead. I will try to power the other one up by putting 12V/2A directly into the battery ports. They differ cosmetically only in that one has a trackball in the screen (right side), the other does not.

Here's my question/problem - I tried to get the working 425 to read a floppy and the second I put it in it made a whirring noise. I decided to open the non working one up and swap the floppy to the other one. In either case, none will read a diskette. The working 425's drive motor is on its way out, the whirring is the actual motor spinning. I pulled it right apart and found that the band that goes from the motor to the platter is stretched. Other one is the same. I tried to run an elastic band and I got to the A:\ prompt before the elastic let loose inside. I think the elastic bands are too small and also not very precise (they're not straight cut at all) and there are no grooves on the platter (only the belt tensioner and the motor are grooved) so it slides off.

Where on God's green Earth can I get something like this? My best guess is random car tape decks or if I get lucky maybe a band inside an old floppy drive or home entertainment tape deck (usually I find these to be REALLY long though).

Here's some pics:

http://imgur.com/a/4mYPh