Re: Toshiba T1910cs: How to open case?

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...@xxxxxxx> 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 scrape 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"
.

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