Cory Whitesell gutted the logic of a dead NEC ProSpeed 286 laptop and replaced it with a Raspberry Pi, powered directly from the original HDD Molex connector, leaving the stock power supply untouched. The original PS/2 keyboard connects via a USB adapter. The passive-matrix LCD is the one visible concession: it is gone, replaced by a modern panel cut to the same dimensions.
The case is intact. The internals look stock from most angles. The Pi runs DOS emulation for period-correct use and handles modern workloads too. When the Pi's ARM core ages out, the drive bay has room for a more capable single-board computer. The upgrade path is already designed in.
This build is an entry in Hackaday's 2026 Retrocomputing Contest, which includes a dedicated restomod category. The full project log on Hackaday.io details the power tap, the keyboard adapter chain, and the screen swap, and it is worth reading for the constraint-solving alone, not just the finished photos.
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