I've got a couple of old (antique?) Toshiba T1910CS laptops that were
given to me years ago by a generous contributor to this newsgroup
(with whom I've unfortuately lost contact because all my email from
those days is stuck on a now defunct computer).
These laptops have been in storage for a number of years and I just
recently unearthed them and would like to try to get them up and
running again because I think they would make great writing machines.
I used to run a DOS based text editor on them and miss the simplicity
and elegance of that old fashioned text based software.
Neither of the laptops will boot anymore, but they do give me blinking
LED codes, (which I don't know how to interpret).
I'd like to pop open the case and check the CMOS battery but don't
have a clue how to get in. Are there any old timers like me in this
newsgroup who could help me figure out how to get inside these little
beasts?
Also, it would be great if I could find a list of the blink codes for
these machines so I could understand what they are trying to tell me.
Those are SO old that they really are not good for ANYTHING. That is a
386SX CPU with a horrible screen to boot. Not a Pentium, not a 486, it
doesn't even have a math coprocessor. Really not worth fooling with.
Clueless in Seattle wrote:
> I've got a couple of old (antique?) Toshiba T1910CS laptops that were
> given to me years ago by a generous contributor to this newsgroup
> (with whom I've unfortuately lost contact because all my email from
> those days is stuck on a now defunct computer).
>
> These laptops have been in storage for a number of years and I just
> recently unearthed them and would like to try to get them up and
> running again because I think they would make great writing machines.
> I used to run a DOS based text editor on them and miss the simplicity
> and elegance of that old fashioned text based software.
>
> Neither of the laptops will boot anymore, but they do give me blinking
> LED codes, (which I don't know how to interpret).
>
> I'd like to pop open the case and check the CMOS battery but don't
> have a clue how to get in. Are there any old timers like me in this
> newsgroup who could help me figure out how to get inside these little
> beasts?
>
> Also, it would be great if I could find a list of the blink codes for
> these machines so I could understand what they are trying to tell me.
>
> Will in Seattle
> a.k.a. "Clueless"
>
>
In news:48389d0f$0$7046$4c368faf@roadrunner.com,
Barry Watzman typed on Sat, 24 May 2008 18:56:04 -0400:
> Clueless in Seattle wrote:
>> I've got a couple of old (antique?) Toshiba T1910CS laptops that were
>> given to me years ago by a generous contributor to this newsgroup
>> (with whom I've unfortuately lost contact because all my email from
>> those days is stuck on a now defunct computer).
>>
>> These laptops have been in storage for a number of years and I just
>> recently unearthed them and would like to try to get them up and
>> running again because I think they would make great writing machines.
>> I used to run a DOS based text editor on them and miss the simplicity
>> and elegance of that old fashioned text based software.
>>
>> Neither of the laptops will boot anymore, but they do give me
>> blinking LED codes, (which I don't know how to interpret).
>>
>> I'd like to pop open the case and check the CMOS battery but don't
>> have a clue how to get in. Are there any old timers like me in this
>> newsgroup who could help me figure out how to get inside these little
>> beasts?
>>
>> Also, it would be great if I could find a list of the blink codes for
>> these machines so I could understand what they are trying to tell me.
>>
>> Will in Seattle
>> a.k.a. "Clueless"
>
> Those are SO old that they really are not good for ANYTHING. That is
> a 386SX CPU with a horrible screen to boot. Not a Pentium, not a
> 486, it doesn't even have a math coprocessor. Really not worth
> fooling with.
Glad to see you again Will. They are 486 laptops without a fan. Which is
why it is like impossible to find a working one anymore. Mine lasted 5
years and cooked itself to death. As the entire lower system board will
fail. You can get the laptop apart by the seam at the edge and usually
requires a special tool owned by Toshiba. But if you are careful, you
can get it apart.
On May 25, 6:00 am, "BillW50" <Bill...@aol.kom> wrote:
> Innews:48389d0f$0$7046$4c368faf@roadrunner.com,
> Barry Watzman typed on Sat, 24 May 2008 18:56:04 -0400:
>
>
>
> > Clueless in Seattle wrote:
> >> I've got a couple of old (antique?) Toshiba T1910CS laptops that were
> >> given to me years ago by a generous contributor to this newsgroup
> >> (with whom I've unfortuately lost contact because all my email from
> >> those days is stuck on a now defunct computer).
>
> >> These laptops have been in storage for a number of years and I just
> >> recently unearthed them and would like to try to get them up and
> >> running again because I think they would make great writing machines.
> >> I used to run a DOS based text editor on them and miss the simplicity
> >> and elegance of that old fashioned text based software.
>
> >> Neither of the laptops will boot anymore, but they do give me
> >> blinking LED codes, (which I don't know how to interpret).
>
> >> I'd like to pop open the case and check the CMOS battery but don't
> >> have a clue how to get in. Are there any old timers like me in this
> >> newsgroup who could help me figure out how to get inside these little
> >> beasts?
>
> >> Also, it would be great if I could find a list of the blink codes for
> >> these machines so I could understand what they are trying to tell me.
>
> >> Will in Seattle
> >> a.k.a. "Clueless"
>
> > Those are SO old that they really are not good for ANYTHING. That is
> > a 386SX CPU with a horrible screen to boot. Not a Pentium, not a
> > 486, it doesn't even have a math coprocessor. Really not worth
> > fooling with.
>
> See:
>
> http://home.att.net/~ronkar/toshiba.html
>
> Glad to see you again Will. They are 486 laptops without a fan. Which is
> why it is like impossible to find a working one anymore. Mine lasted 5
> years and cooked itself to death. As the entire lower system board will
> fail. You can get the laptop apart by the seam at the edge and usually
> requires a special tool owned by Toshiba. But if you are careful, you
> can get it apart.
>
> --
> Bill
Hi Bill! I'm sorry to say I can't rightly remember who you are, my
memory is so poor these days, but it's sure nice to receive a such
friendly personal greeting!
> They are 486 laptops without a fan. Which is
> why it is like impossible to find a working one anymore. Mine lasted 5
> years and cooked itself to death. As the entire lower system board will
> fail.
Aha! So my system boards are probably both fried then, eh?
I wonder if it's possible to track down the list of LED blink codes.
Each machine gives a different sequence of long and short blinks.
>You can get the laptop apart by the seam at the edge and usually
> requires a special tool owned by Toshiba. But if you are careful, you
> can get it apart.
OK, I'll give it a shot. I wonder where I could find one of those
special tools.
I guess the best thing to do, considering the fact that these machines
are self-basting ovens, would be to try to remove the hard drives and
install them in better designed laptops.
Fortunately I backed up all my data onto floppies (and tried to make
it a habit to back up all the software configuration files too, but
I'm not sure how diligent I actually was at that latter task. I did,
however, write some batch files that detected changes in the more
important config. files and then automatically back those up) so if
I'm not able to recover the software from the HDs I should be able to
pretty much reconstruct them.
I guess I'm going to be in the market for a "new" laptop. Over the
last decade or more I've become more and more disabled by chronic
pain, exhaustion, memory failure, etc. In a way I'm sort of like
those old Toshibas. About all I can do these days is emit blink codes
saying that I don't work all that well anymore. I'm no longer able
to sit up at my desktop computer for more than a few minutes at a
time, and I now spend an inordinate amount of time resting in bed, so
that's why I'd like to get a laptop computer up and running again: So
I can write while I'm lying in bed.
I'm trying to sc**** by on a very small Social Security monthly
disability benefit, so a new laptop is out of my reach; it would take
my whole monthly check to buy one.
And, anyway, all I need is a computer capable of running old DOS
programs: MS-DOS 6.21, a simple text editor, DOSSHELL, XTree, some
batch files and misc. utilities. About the only requirement is that
it have a floppy drive. I find that playing around with DOS is really
a lot of fun, whereas trying to keep Windows software up and running
is a big headache for me, just one big messy can of worms that just
keeps getting messier and messier as the years go by.
So I guess I could post a plea here in this group for somebody's old
laptop, offering to pay shipping and packaging. I bet there's
somebody who reads this group who has an old 486 laptop (with a fan!)
collecting dust on a closet shelf or in a storage locker that they'd
be pleased to be rid of.
On May 24, 3:56 pm, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOS...@neo.rr.com> wrote:
> Those are SO old that they really are not good for ANYTHING. That is a
> 386SX CPU with a horrible screen to boot. Not a Pentium, not a 486, it
> doesn't even have a math coprocessor. Really not worth fooling with.
Well, I'm pretty old myself. You may find it difficult to believe,
but I'm "SO old" that I actually preferred working on that old 486
laptop running MS-DOS. to trying to cope with this new fangled Windows
and all of it's overwhelming complexity. At my age simplicity in
software is a virtue.
All I really need in a laptop is the ability to run a very small and
simple text editor and a few utility programs. Essentially all I'm
looking for is the electronic equivalent of an old Smith Corona
portable electric typewriter (without the paper).
I realize that I've become something of a neo-Luddite, but with the
limitations of age also comes a philosophical acceptance, and in my
case, even an embracing, of those limitations.
So, you wouldn't happen to have an old 486 laptop with a floppy drive
(and a fan!) sitting around that you'd just as soon be rid of, do
you? ;o)
Again, I think your Toshiba is a 386SX, not even a 486.
Some suggestions if you do want an "older" laptop; these suggestions are
SO MUCH BETTER ***AND*** SO CHEAP, that you should consider "upgrading":
-The lowest thing I would EVER consider for ANYTHING would be a 430 or
435 CDT (note: CDT, not CDS, which has a vastly inferior screen and
which should be avoided). This is a Pentium 120. Drivers still exist
to run Windows 3.1. It has an internal drive bay that can hold EITHER a
floppy OR a CD. There is an external case for the floppy available so
you can have both a floppy and a CD drive at the same time. Memory
expandable up to 48MB, it can take a good size hard drive (up to quite a
few gigabytes). Available on E-Bay for WAY under $50 (like as little as
$10-$15 sometimes). Note: this was the last machine to have an internal
power supply (no external power brick at all; power cord plugs directly
into the laptop). The 420CDT is the same machine with a Pentium 100 and
is ok, but the lower 400 series are quite inferior, and the higher 400
series are not as good as the Satellite 300 series (next paragraph).
-Moving up just a tad, the Toshiba Satellite 300's ... 300 to 335
(again, stick with the CDT models, avoid the CDS models), these are all
identical machines except for CPU speed (all Pentium MMX's, the range
here is 166MHz to 266MHz). I believe that Windows 3.x drivers are
available, I think that these may be the last machines to have Win 3.x
drivers. Aside from a faster CPU, here's what you get that is not in
the Satellite 430's (note that these later machines had the lower model
numbers .... 300's vs. 400's in the earlier series):
-Floppy AND CD both internal ... no swapping
-MUCH higher memory expansion (to 160MB)
-Pentium MMX CPU vs non-MMX in the 430CDT
-USB Port (this is a biggie)
-Cardbus (32-bit PC Card) support (another biggie)
-These still have all the old ports (serial, parallel, PS/2, Infrared)
YOU CAN STILL FIND THESE WELL UNDER $50.
Want to go higher?
Next step up is the 4000 series, which are identical to the 300 series
but now with Pentium II CPUs. The "cream of the crop" here is the
4020CDT (also the identical 4025CDT). Pentium II 300MHz with a 13" XGA
LCD (1024x768 resolution). Also, these use SDRAM memory (the earlier
machines used EDO memory). I don't THINK that Windows 3.x drivers are
OFFICIALLY available, but I do think that Windows 3.1 can be made to run
(MAYBE) using non-Toshiba drivers based on the chips used in these
machines. You can find SOME of these for $50 or less (in particular the
4000/4005 and the 4010/4015). Very occasionally, you can even find the
4020/4025 for under $50, but not often (the 4020 is a really sweet older
machine). TECHNICALLY these machines can run XP, but they don't have
enough memory expansion to make it practical (they are limited to 160MB
tops, which isn't really enough for XP to be comfortable, although it
will run). 98SE really flys on these, however.
Higher still:
The next "really good" Toshiba machines are the 2805's. There were over
a dozen configuration models from the low-end 2805-S201 (Celeron 650MHz,
13" screen) to the high end 2805-S603 (1GHz Pentium III, 15" LCD screen,
CD burner and DVD-ROM combo drives). These are modern machines, they
run XP and run it fairly well although they came with ME. They all have
DVD drives, a few models have "combo" DVD-ROM and CDRW BURNERS. They
all still had floppy drives, they all have multiple USB ports and
parallel printer ports but serial ports were gone. Built-in modem and
wired network. Memory expandability is mostly 320MB, they will all take
hard drives up to at least 120GB (maybe more, not sure). YOU CAN GET
THESE FOR UNDER $100 pretty easily if you are patient (although they
often go for well over $100 and occasionally over $200). Very
occasionally you can find a doggy one that needs work and cleanup for
$50 or so. These were the last Toshiba models to have the "trackpoint"
mouse stick (between the G and H keys), later models have the "trackpad".
The last "older" Toshiba laptops .... the last model with floppy drives:
The Toshiba 1410 / 1415 / 2410 / 2415's were the last Toshiba models
made with floppy drives (note, some very low cost 1410/1415 models (the
S105 configuration suffix) were missing the floppy drive only as a cost
saving measure (it could be added if you got the parts)). These are
Celeron (1400 series) or Pentium 4 (2400 series) machine, speed range of
1.5GHz to 2.2GHz. They use DDR memory and can go up to 1GB, and will
take any 2.5" IDE hard drive capacity made. Built in modem and wired
network, most models are also "WiFi Ready" (internal mini-PCI slot and
antenna) but don't have the actual card installed (just drop in an Intel
2200 card for internal wireless B and G). You can sometimes find these
in the low $100's (and very rarely below $100) but they are usually
still over $200. Very nice machines, still usable for actual modern work.
That is my kind of the quick guide to older Toshiba laptops.
Clueless in Seattle wrote:
> On May 25, 6:00 am, "BillW50" <Bill...@aol.kom> wrote:
>
>> See:
>>
>> http://home.att.net/~ronkar/toshiba.html
>>
>> Glad to see you again Will.
>
> Hi Bill! I'm sorry to say I can't rightly remember who you are, my
> memory is so poor these days, but it's sure nice to receive a such
> friendly personal greeting!
>
>> They are 486 laptops without a fan. Which is
>> why it is like impossible to find a working one anymore. Mine lasted 5
>> years and cooked itself to death. As the entire lower system board will
>> fail.
>
> Aha! So my system boards are probably both fried then, eh?
>
> I wonder if it's possible to track down the list of LED blink codes.
> Each machine gives a different sequence of long and short blinks.
>
>> You can get the laptop apart by the seam at the edge and usually
>> requires a special tool owned by Toshiba. But if you are careful, you
>> can get it apart.
>
> OK, I'll give it a shot. I wonder where I could find one of those
> special tools.
>
> I guess the best thing to do, considering the fact that these machines
> are self-basting ovens, would be to try to remove the hard drives and
> install them in better designed laptops.
>
> Fortunately I backed up all my data onto floppies (and tried to make
> it a habit to back up all the software configuration files too, but
> I'm not sure how diligent I actually was at that latter task. I did,
> however, write some batch files that detected changes in the more
> important config. files and then automatically back those up) so if
> I'm not able to recover the software from the HDs I should be able to
> pretty much reconstruct them.
>
> I guess I'm going to be in the market for a "new" laptop. Over the
> last decade or more I've become more and more disabled by chronic
> pain, exhaustion, memory failure, etc. In a way I'm sort of like
> those old Toshibas. About all I can do these days is emit blink codes
> saying that I don't work all that well anymore. I'm no longer able
> to sit up at my desktop computer for more than a few minutes at a
> time, and I now spend an inordinate amount of time resting in bed, so
> that's why I'd like to get a laptop computer up and running again: So
> I can write while I'm lying in bed.
>
> I'm trying to sc**** by on a very small Social Security monthly
> disability benefit, so a new laptop is out of my reach; it would take
> my whole monthly check to buy one.
>
> And, anyway, all I need is a computer capable of running old DOS
> programs: MS-DOS 6.21, a simple text editor, DOSSHELL, XTree, some
> batch files and misc. utilities. About the only requirement is that
> it have a floppy drive. I find that playing around with DOS is really
> a lot of fun, whereas trying to keep Windows software up and running
> is a big headache for me, just one big messy can of worms that just
> keeps getting messier and messier as the years go by.
>
> So I guess I could post a plea here in this group for somebody's old
> laptop, offering to pay shipping and packaging. I bet there's
> somebody who reads this group who has an old 486 laptop (with a fan!)
> collecting dust on a closet shelf or in a storage locker that they'd
> be pleased to be rid of.
>
> OK, I've prattled on long enough, haven't I?
>
> Will in Seattle
> a.k.a. "Clueless"
Toshiba T1910cs: How to open case? 
Linear Mode
