VGA card won't need software effort, only setting of the DIP switches at back to disable onboard video, SW5 in particular. For onboard video SW7...10 set the output you'll get over the video output + internal screen. You may have to use Fn+Home/End to switch between internal/external display when using onboard video. https://github.com/SpitFire-666/Toshiba-T3200

Thanks again, Tiido, that's what I wanted to hear. VGA card can be initialized through DIP switch 5 without any BIOS mods or software configurators after all. I've read SpitFire's wiki (I respect the rule stating that one should only ask quetions after googling the hell out of it, so I did) and somehow could not figure this out for a fact. I'll keep trying then.

So, summarazing all up: before posting my original question I tried installing VGA card, tried DIP switch 5, tried searching for hotkeys that enable the card, tried searching the way to access BIOS to switch to VGA card from there, tried understanding if VGA cards even work in this laptop, and finally tried asking here. In that exact order. The only thing I have not tried right after the first (or rather second) step - is another VGA card. After Tiido's confirmation that T3200 sure did work with VGA cards and DIP switch 5 is sufficient to make it work, I finally tried using another ISA VGA card. Oh god why did not I try it 1,5 month ago when the original did not work and I started this journey, bought who-knows-how-many EGA to VGA converters and cables, tried who-knows-how-many different monitors, visited auctions to buy more of them (but fortunately couldn't) and so on. Ofcourse it did work. Switching from S3 1MB to Trident 512K just worked and that's it. I now have a working 286, yay!

Thanks again, Tiido.

Nice to hear things are operational ~

I'm getting T3200 today. What is known to work is HDD and screen. Floppy not tested and CMOS battery dead. Only 1MB RAM.

I have already T3200SX and T5200. Both have modded BIOS with XTIDE and bigger HDDs. T5200 has Ti486SXL2/40 with cache flush circuit soldered on bottom of the motherboard. 10GB HDD and Gravis Ultrasound MAX, 12MB RAM. T3200SX has SB Vibra16, 420MB HDD and 10MB RAM.

But what to do with T3200... Don't know yet.

I think the floppy might be the biggest challenge. I have two T3200s and both of the floppy drives went bad. The caps leaked on them and damaged the motor control board so bad they were unreparable. You might be lucky if the cap didn't leak and you and replace it right away. Or you can put a non-proprietary floppy disk in them but you have to make your own cable, which is unique to the T3200 only so be careful or you may trip the fuses in your power supply if you do not make it correctly.

The battery is easy to replace. And if you really want to replace it with the same battery, it's possible.