Around 1997 or so, active matrix screens (what we use now) became much more commonplace and they have decent response times. But they are still considerably slower and have much lower color quality than anything relatively modern. LCDs don't age well, either, as the CFLs for the backlight wear out like any other fluorescent bulb (they tend to yellow).

The older you go, the less likely it'll be active matrix. Those screens were extreme luxury in 486 times. Think of laptops that cost $3000+. If you get a laptop with a dual scan or passive matrix LCD, it will be really slow and make motion blur/smudge.

Another major issue is that old laptops don't have graphics chips that can scale the image remotely well. If you can't run native resolution (probably 800x600 or 1024x768), you will have two options: basic pixel resize (horrible jagged aliasing) or letterboxing. I remember being able to alternate these two with a function key at the time. It may also be a BIOS setting. Proper image scaling arrived around the time of the ATI Rage Mobility (called "ratiometric expansion".)

thats a good idea it can do fallout. the only reason we have it is cause his dad still had it laying around. if you want a retro laptop you will need circa year 2000 most lappys from that time can do 98se. i have some 2800 series toshibas but, they don't stretch the image to fit smaller resolutions take up a smaller square in the middle of the screen, i guess thats letter boxing? you can enable it in bios but, it's horrid. the come stock with me so they are good for 98se. yeah this laptop cost several K back then but, his dad got it from the company when that had no use for it any more and bought it for cheap. what the heck did laptops use for screens back then mono chrome?

PowerPie5000 wrote:

I never even knew Epson made laptops 😖 all these years and i just thought they manufactured average quality printers 🤣

My old 286 is actually an Epson; it is Epson PC AX2.

desktop. Any thing printer is a Satan spawn, they never work they are awful like the one in office space.

I wonder if a newer screen could be retro fitted?

Not likely. If Epson offered a TFT variant of that notebook, you might be in luck. However, even then, TFTs typically use some different circuitry. I'd say your best bet if you want to use that laptop is to load up on simple Windows and DOS games (Like MS Entertainment Pack, SimTower, SimCity, etc) that don't have a lot of fast action. With a NIC or modem and a copy of IRC and a terminal emulator (and a list of whatever BBSs my still exist), you could get yourself to appreciate how advanced the internet is now.

For blabbering, I used to have an Epson ActionNote with a 50mhz 486SLC2 and a monochrome STN LCD and 4mb of memory (and it used proprietary modules, yuck!) and, just like your Epson, it's floppy drive was shot. However, with this one, known working replacements also wouldn't work. Otherwise, despite that and being horribly underpowered, it was incredibly durable and I could play some games and it wasn't horrible to use. Also, it's simplicity I suppose helped it's battery life; a single charge would last a few hours.

I used to use the Hak5 BBS but then they took it down. BBSs are kinda fun. this is my bros laptop. I have p3 laptop with 98se and 98se mods like kernelex.

I wonder if this ram would fit,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/128MB-MEMORY-32X32-72 … =item1e67fbc6e4

http://www.ebay.com/itm/64MB-MEMORY-16X32-72P … =item1e67fbc6f4

I count 72pins.

I wonder if the soldered on RAM models can be swapped out for higher capacity version.

are 72 pin EDO and 72pin SIMM modules/sticks the same thing?

http://www.oempcworld.com/OEMPCworld-com/128MP.html

http://www.oempcworld.com/OEMPCworld-com/128MP-EDO.html