VOGONS


Reply 40 of 50, by jaggedjimmyj

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Thank you, I really appreciate that. Now at least I know that mine maybe is not completely dead, as I thought because of not working front LED and status LCD.

Power supply should be alive, looks good and outputs required voltage. For now the main suspect is a power button, as it feels kinda weird and can sometimes stick in pushed state for a second. Will see how I can try work around it. Hope my guess is correct because otherwise it looks perfectly fine, can't find any signs of corrosion or other kinds of damage inside. And the seller insists that laptop worked fine some time ago.

By the way, just to be sure: am I right that memory slot is just an expansion and it is not required to fill it to boot?

Reply 41 of 50, by wiretap

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Finally got my HiNote Ultra CT475 fixed. 😁 I purchased a HiNote CT475 (non-ultra) to use the screen out of it. I thought I could swap it directly, but the frame it is mounted on is slightly different. However, the actual TFT panel itself is idential. I was able to swap them and it worked great. I now have a fully functional laptop in excellent condition. w00t! Third screen was the fix. phew.

Also, the regular CT475 is freaking epic how it is servicable. There are two thumb latches on the sides of the laptop that you slide back, then the whole keyboard and top panel fold upward, where you have access to the RAM, battery, and hard drive. I wish more laptops had that design. My mind was blown when I finally figured out what the latches were for, haha. Even my wife was like wtf that is awesome and she doesn't even like computers. 🤣 It was like opening the hood of a car.

5b1xmPlh.jpg

tmOIYUkh.jpg

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 46 of 50, by Roby1111

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
wulp wrote on 2020-04-05, 18:32:
Hello Roby1111, I also have a Toshiba T200CS. There is only DOS on it: I have a FDD drive that fits. Now I want to set Windows […]
Show full quote

Hello Roby1111,
I also have a Toshiba T200CS. There is only DOS on it: I have a FDD drive that fits. Now I want to set Windows 1.0 for Pen on it, but I only find that version on CD. How can that be managed?..
Thanks for any reply!
Guy
And sorry, I normally speak Dutch..

Hi Wulp,

sorry for replying that late, but notifications (if any) were deleted by my antispam filter probably...

Ok: How to get files on a T200 (a bit off topic here, but not really as generic advice for PCMCIA equipped old stuff)

1) get yourself a PCMCIA-Floppy drive, those were manufactured by Toshiba (for Libretto 50ct -110ct series) and also i ve seen some sony branded ones (no model nr in my brains...)
These devices incorporate a FDC like the WD765, so standard PC-ISA FDC and therefore are recognized by (almost) any standard bios at bootstrap (sometimes you need to enter setup and tell the system what kind of drive is connected, normally 1.44MB 3.5")

So you can even boot from this devices and also access any disk content you like.
You told, you only have CD as source, so you are to zip the needed files and dirs from cd using a "multi-disc" option from the zip tool, e.g.integrated in total commander (Norton Commander Clone i am working with if in windows)

On the target you can unzip those files into one directory and run the setup from there
A bit unconvenient, especially if much data...
But it works.

2) get yourself a PCMCIA or parallel-port CD(or DVDxyz)-Drive like the ones from Freecom, which can be found often on auction platforms and install the needed drivers via Floppy, afterwards you have access to the CD/DVD directly, very convenient, but a bit expensive maybe (for single purpose of installing win3.1/pen-extensions)

3) get yourself a PCMCIA 2 CF Adapter and rather small CF-card (512MB is best as compatible even with very old bios versions, but 1 or 2 GB also will do in most cases, bigger makes no sense as Dos can not handle bigger drives...) and a USB cardreader with CF-slot

With this rather cheap equipment (20 EUR/USD for all 3 items) you can copy the whole CD content to the cf-card (format it as fixed drive under Windows with FAT (no FAT32 or even NTFS, also NO removable or "superfloppy"-style formats!) and afterwards use it in the T200 (or any PCMCIA equipped x86 under Dos / dos based windows up to ME) by simply using ATAenab.exe or similar enabler. Booting from CF (in PCMCIA adapter) needs much more system knowledge and also sometimes is not possible because of bad bios behaviour (on ISA desktop systems one could help by inserting a rom extension with XT-IDE universal bios, but in notebooks this is mostly not an option or needs at least good hardware and system knownledge too)

4) get yourself an IDE 2 USB adaptor and pull out the existing IDE drive from the T200 (or whatever) and connect it to the modern windows-PC and transfer the files from the CD directly to the harddisk into a temporary installer directory. This works for most cd based installations including Win9x and MS-Office, some installations only run if startet from root directory, for such you need to do a drive mapping, which can be made also under pure dos (subst command) or with the help of any networking subsystem which allows for lan manager style "net xyz" commands like MS-Client (for WfW), Lan manager, netware client (with light extension for peer networking) or good old lantastic 😉

5) get yourself a NE2000 compatible PCMCIA network card (it MUST be pure 5V PCMCIA, NOT Cardbus, which is often also called PCMCIA incorrectly! At a first glance you can identify real PCMCIA cards by having a look at the PC-connectorside: if there is any "golden" metal-stripe parallel to this edge, it IS Cardbus and unable (Cardbus corresponds to PCI in desktop machines!). If it is just the metal housing (mostly silver) without any additional sleeve, chances are high to have real PCMCIA. Also its label should read PCMCIA 5V and nothing about Cardbus at all 😉 Only very few PCMCIA network cards support 10/100 Mbit, most are 10Mbit only! (which is sufficient for most purposes and most modern router and switch hardware still supports 10Mbit connections, so no problem so far!) Cards with Coax-adapter can only be used if you have got a similar card for ISA or PCI desktop machine and RG58 Coax cables and 50 Ohms terminal resistors (experimentially handmade will not work!, must be very tight tolerance and 1Watts power devices!) on each end of the cable being min. 2m (!) and max 150m long.

Then install NE2000 generic dos driver (and PCMCIA card-enabler like Cardware if not recognized without) and either a TCP-IP stack for dos or (more common) IPX (novell) or SMB for windows style networking (there is a dos client from MS!)
There are a lot of instructions about that on the web already, it is easier as you might think!

6) Also there are parallel and serial so called "laplink" or "interlink" cables and matching tools like laplink, Norton-Commander (last version (5) as far as i remember only) or just generic terminal software with Z-Modem or Kermit support. There is also a lot of freeware & Shareware out there on the web for this purpose!
(For puritanians: with serial cables you could even use pure dos by sending the files to a pipe redirected to configured ComX: on the sending machine and receiving this stream with a pipe redirecting to a file on the receiving machine.)

Hope that helps 😉

best regards,

Rob

Reply 47 of 50, by wulp

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hi Rob,
Thanks for this post! This project is on the sidelines for a while. Now I'm trying to connect a floppy drive 720k to my IBM 5155, but once that is over, I will definitely test your recommendations!
Thanks again!

Reply 48 of 50, by GenSawen

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
wulp wrote on 2020-11-27, 20:21:

Hi Rob,
Thanks for this post! This project is on the sidelines for a while. Now I'm trying to connect a floppy drive 720k to my IBM 5155, but once that is over, I will definitely test your recommendations!
Thanks again!

has any1 met with completely blank screen ?[wondered thinkpad comp battery alikes? cf-pcmcia maybe way round too accept disks win95 install[tried floppys,no go,notes about digitals own system disks?any copys?]iv a vp 510 wiv 133 pent ,added 8mb [maybe par prob]dock would be useful for net as no usb[pcmcia only opts] wondering why www recur[cycles yunno'2000 round'gear'surfaces'?]nano/micro 'intel'mac reprise [bigblue,jazz,notes...]elefant2runX'gnu win'xclock'unix/sco]wild 'vfs'[linux/fpga?]dfs?!

Reply 49 of 50, by Dirtbag

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
GenSawen wrote on 2021-02-05, 21:24:
wulp wrote on 2020-11-27, 20:21:

Hi Rob,
Thanks for this post! This project is on the sidelines for a while. Now I'm trying to connect a floppy drive 720k to my IBM 5155, but once that is over, I will definitely test your recommendations!
Thanks again!

has any1 met with completely blank screen ?[wondered thinkpad comp battery alikes? cf-pcmcia maybe way round too accept disks win95 install[tried floppys,no go,notes about digitals own system disks?any copys?]iv a vp 510 wiv 133 pent ,added 8mb [maybe par prob]dock would be useful for net as no usb[pcmcia only opts] wondering why www recur[cycles yunno'2000 round'gear'surfaces'?]nano/micro 'intel'mac reprise [bigblue,jazz,notes...]elefant2runX'gnu win'xclock'unix/sco]wild 'vfs'[linux/fpga?]dfs?!

Hard tot read what you wrote all the way but a blank screen might be just that, a blank screen. Did you try connecting a external screen?

db

Reply 50 of 50, by Dirtbag

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

OKay, I'm toying with the Hinote again, first of all, I've got the original HDD out and put in a 512 meg CF that I used before as an external CF in de PCMCIA slot for this laptop. I've got win 95 installed on it and working.
I've been toying with the floppy drive and this is a Citizen W1D with a stretched belt, ordered one on ebay, will be a week before I'll get that.

After that I've made two video's about the screen and how great it is. Mind you, this is freehanding a mobile and nothing professional 😀

https://youtu.be/qcNRyD0-yMM

https://youtu.be/BcgHLVCQNxg

and if you want to know the trick to opening this one, you need a strong metal pin like a micro hex screwdriver or something and find the 3 latches under the keyboard and slot them towards the screen, under the keyboard, after that you can pull out the keyboard from some sticky double sided tape.

IMG_20210510_155912.jpg
Filename
IMG_20210510_155912.jpg
File size
1.78 MiB
Views
909 views
File license
Public domain

After that the front two rubber pads from the bottom can be pulled out which reveal two blue screws which can be removed and a bunch of screws from underneath the keyboard to remove the top plate to access just about everything from the top.

db