---
title: "The IBM prototype nobody could identify, brought back piece by piece"
locale: "en"
url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/ibm-7496-restoration-en"
markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/ibm-7496-restoration-en.md"
category: "tech"
tags: ["retro computing", "hardware", "restoration", "ibm"]
published_at: "2026-08-14T08:34:00.000Z"
author: "Mathis Renaud"
translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/ibm-7496-restoration-fr.md"
---

# The IBM prototype nobody could identify, brought back piece by piece

A rare late-1980s IBM prototype, the 7496 Executive Workstation, comes back to life: floppy drive fixed, hard drive added, sound card grafted on.

Epictronics owns a machine almost nobody can name: a late-1980s IBM prototype, the IBM 7496 Executive Workstation, with its monitor permanently mounted on a swivel arm.[1](https://hackaday.com/2026/08/13/rare-ibm-pc-brought-back-to-life/) The case is gorgeous. The machine itself did not work.

The video is a teardown doubled with a repair.[2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdWd7erCZ_g) The first job is the 720K double-density floppy drive, which has accumulated several faults. Rather than fight to run everything from floppies, Epictronics adds an XT-IDE card to hook up a real hard drive, then an AdLib clone sound card.[1](https://hackaday.com/2026/08/13/rare-ibm-pc-brought-back-to-life/)

The unit carries a rare, short-lived graphics subsystem, MCGA, which fits its prototype nature.[1](https://hackaday.com/2026/08/13/rare-ibm-pc-brought-back-to-life/) By the end it runs a fair number of games from its era.

What makes the video interesting is not the object's rarity. It is how the repair moves: nothing is restored to factory spec, everything is a user's choice. A hard drive instead of floppies, a sound card grafted on. Restoration here means deciding what the machine should become again, not just making it hum quieter.

For anyone who likes old computing, it is a useful reminder: a rare prototype is first of all a machine you can still understand piece by piece.

## References

1. [Hackaday, Rare IBM PC Brought Back To Life](https://hackaday.com/2026/08/13/rare-ibm-pc-brought-back-to-life/)
2. [Epictronics, The Mystery IBM Nobody Can Identify — Restoration Repair (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdWd7erCZ_g)