Vintage computer repair. $49 diagnosis, then a quote you approve.
Commodore, Apple II, Tandy, and the 80s/90s DOS machines. Board recaps, floppy drive service, clock batteries, power supplies. At this age capacitors and leaked batteries are the usual killers, and we tell you what is actually obtainable before you commit a dollar.
How vintage computer pricing works
$49 to find out exactly what your machine needs. The fix is then one flat quote, approved before anything starts.
Diagnosis
$49The $49 diagnostic answers the real question: what is actually wrong, whether the parts are obtainable, and what the whole job costs. Free when you approve the repair.
Board recaps & repair
Quoted after diagnosisFilter capacitors, trace damage from leaked batteries, RAM and logic faults. Caps get replaced when they measure bad, not because the machine is old.
Floppy & disk drives
Quoted after diagnosisBelts, head cleaning, speed and alignment, drive electronics. The drive is serviced, not condemned from across the room.
Clock batteries
Quoted after diagnosisReplaced before they leak, the board inspected underneath while they are out. Already leaked? The diagnosis says how deep the damage goes.
Power supplies
Quoted after diagnosisRebuilt and load-tested before anything else gets blamed. A tired PSU is the most common cause of a supposedly dead vintage machine there is.
Want mods instead?
Quoted per projectFlash storage, accelerators, video and sound upgrades change the machine rather than restore it, so they live on the custom work & retro-mods page.
The three failures that come in most
Forty-year-old machines fail in patterns. These are the three we see weekly.
It worked years ago and is dead today
Electrolytic capacitors dry out and power supplies sag with age. Most supposedly dead vintage machines come back with a recapped board and a rebuilt supply, confirmed on the meter before any parts get ordered.
A crusty battery on the board
Barrel batteries leak, and the electrolyte eats traces. Replaced early it is a small job; caught late, the diagnosis measures exactly how far the damage runs and the quote tells you straight whether the board is worth saving.
The drive spins but never reads
Floppy belts turn to wax and heads collect forty years of grime. Cleaned, re-aligned, and speed-checked, most drives read again; the ones that cannot are quoted honestly.
Three ways in
However the job reaches the bench, the quote comes before the work.
Bring the machine, or ship the board
- 01Bring the machine. 2224 Sunrise Dr, Longmont · Mon–Fri 9–6, Sat–Sun 10–3. Bring the whole machine or just the board; if the drive or PSU is the suspect, bring that too.
- 02Ship it. Anywhere in the U.S.: get an RMA number online, pack it well, and we diagnose within 24 hours of arrival and email a flat quote. Boards and small machines ship fine; console-size cases travel packed like dishes.
- 03Start online. The repair wizard gives a first-pass assessment any hour, and the AI receptionist answers the phone around the clock. A human follows up.
What we don't do
Scope stated plainly, so you know before you book.
Electronics, not glass, not makeovers
- No CRT monitors. High voltage inside the tube is a genuine safety hazard, the same line our console benches hold: we repair the computer, not the glass. Modern replacement displays are a mods question for the custom-work bench.
- No unobtainium promises. Some proprietary parts are no longer made anywhere. The diagnosis tells you exactly what is obtainable before you commit, and if the answer is nothing, you pay nothing.
- Repairs restore; mods live elsewhere. Flash storage, accelerators, and cosmetic makeovers change the machine, so they are built on the custom work & mods page, not slipped into a repair.
Vintage computer questions
The things owners ask before they hand over the machine they kept for forty years.
Straight answers
Diagnosis is $49 and free when you approve the repair. After that every fix is one flat quote that depends on the machine and its parts. You approve before any work starts.
Usually, yes. The big three at this age are dried-out capacitors, sagging power supplies, and battery corrosion. The $49 diagnosis finds which one it is and what the whole repair costs.
Not always. Caught early, the electrolyte cleans off and the traces survive; caught late, it eats through them. The diagnosis measures how far the damage runs, and if the board is not worth saving you pay nothing.
Yes. Belts, head cleaning, speed and alignment, and drive electronics are regular bench work. Most drives read again after service; the ones that truly cannot are quoted honestly.
Some, and we say which before you commit. Where a part is no longer made anywhere, the diagnosis tells you what is obtainable, so nobody funds a dead end.
No. High voltage inside a CRT is genuinely dangerous. We repair the computer, not the glass. Modern replacement displays are a mods job on the custom-work page, not a repair.
Repair labor carries a 90-day warranty. Parts are covered by their manufacturer warranty where one exists, and the quote states which is which.
Tell us what the machine is doing.
Call the shop any time: our AI receptionist answers around the clock and a human follows up. Or run the repair wizard for a first-pass assessment before you commit to anything.