This problem is easy fixable, just need good cleaning? Or it’s damaging the board and soldering? What’s the usual scenario?

vorob wrote on 2022-09-02, 08:59:

This problem is easy fixable, just need good cleaning? Or it’s damaging the board and soldering? What’s the usual scenario?

The VIAs around the connector look pretty crusty.
I would suggest the standard procedure.
Neutralize the area with vinegar.
Clean everything with Isopropanol and a toothbrush.
Measure all traces that look dodgy or darker then normal.
(everything on both sides)

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Here is a topic where we discussed how to find replacement batteries and the connector, and if its needed to replace the batteries.
Some help with an old Toshiba Tecra 510CDT

So I’ve been spending some time with this machine Compaq Armada 7792DMT. It’s in absolutely mint condition, even screen is bright as if it was produced yesterday.

Intel Mobile Pentium MMX, 266MHz
"13"" TN 1024x768"
S3 Aurora64 V+ (86CM65) (2Mb)
96Mb (2 slots, 32 MB soldered (up to 144))
ESS ES1878 & ES690F

Since I’ve got Toshiba that died from leaked battery, I decided to remove it from Compaq. It was never opened before plus some “clever” person decided to place battery under the screen. Had to remove warranty sticker (I is placed on palmrest so now it looks ugly) and take out the screen. Took some pictures of internals (mb is not mine, didn’t go that deep)

As I understand BIOS on these machines is kept on HDD. Thank god it’s alive and exists on my drive, need to backup it. But there are no any compaq tools in windows.

WaveTable works in pure DOS!

5 pic limit

Yes dude. That's beautiful. How does the keyboard feel compared to the Thinkpads from the era?

Those Armada machines are built like tanks, and have a great following among retro laptop fans, so there's a ton of information available.

Also, all the Compaq drivers (including the ROMpaq/BIOS) are still available for download from HP.

- Alex

I don't have experience with old IBM laptops, my earliest one it IBM R60. I can say that keyboard is soft but all pressings are processed clearly. I don't like hard keyboards where you need to apply pressure. But I also must note that only two simultaneously pressed keys work. If you W and D and press jump it won't work 🙁

Despite the perfect condition of my Compaq its hinges has some small loose effect.

I even opened the screen, thought that maybe screws are loosened, but not. It's inside the hinge itself. I can live with it, just wanted to share...

Many laptop hinges that develop play over time. Some amount is normal.

Posting from my Thinkpad T41.

Created a triple boot system with Debian, Windows XP, and Windows 98 SE.

I did the Win98 partition after the fact, so it was a pain to set up. But I got it working. GRUB is able to boot all three.

WiFi working in all three also, using a Ralink RT2561 card and the method outlined by @dr_st to make it work in Win98 with WPA2.

No DOS-compatible sound of course, but a nice fast single core 32 bit system nonetheless.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2022-09-12, 01:49:

Posting from my Thinkpad T41.

Created a triple boot system with Debian, Windows XP, and Windows 98 SE.

Great. I wonder if there is something like this in the future of my T42.
Currently I have an A31p dual-booting WinME and WinXP. When that one bites the dust, the next oldest retro system is exactly the T42...

keenmaster486 wrote on 2022-09-12, 01:49:

I did the Win98 partition after the fact, so it was a pain to set up. But I got it working. GRUB is able to boot all three.

You know, I have a write-up for that as well: https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/win9xme-2kxp-dualboot/
It helps when you do it backwards and install NT before 9x. 😀
However I don't know what happens when GRUB/Linux are added into the mix. Maybe you can contribute some of your experience. 👍

dr_st wrote on 2022-09-12, 08:19:

keenmaster486 wrote on 2022-09-12, 01:49:

Posting from my Thinkpad T41.

Created a triple boot system with Debian, Windows XP, and Windows 98 SE.

Great. I wonder if there is something like this in the future of my T42.
Currently I have an A31p dual-booting WinME and WinXP. When that one bites the dust, the next oldest retro system is exactly the T42...

I also own IBM Thinkpad T42. Actually few of them, 14" screen and 15" ones as well. I didn't explore them too deeply, but I've managed to boot them to pure MS-DOS 6.22 from a regular USB Flash Disk and with help of a special docking station that has one half-size PCI slot (ThinkPad Dock II) and a PCI Soundcard I even managed to force it to make some noises other than a simple beeps. From my short experience 14" are better for DOS than 15" cause 15" ones caused some problems with some programs while being in scaling mode. Scale disabling helped, but then you have a very small screen with a large black frame around it.

Guys, please remind me the story about Compaq Presario 1800? As i understood, there is a model with SOLO 1 and ATI M3, which is actually good for retro gaming, but there are other 1800 models with worse videocard, am i right?

I found one in Russia, but no idea about its config. All i know it is SERIES CM2050. Does it help in understanding its internals?

dr_st wrote on 2022-09-12, 08:19:

Maybe you can contribute some of your experience. 👍

I did this backwards since when I first set up the machine months ago I didn't expect to be putting Win98 on it.

Here are the steps I followed as best I can remember:

1. Already had dual boot with WinXP and Debian. Debian installed after WinXP so GRUB acts as the bootloader. WinXP partition 32 GB, Debian 32 GB.
2. Decide to install Win98.
3. Shrink WinXP partition with GParted within Debian to 21 GB. Note: must set Align to None, not MiB or Cylinder, to preserve starting position of the NTFS partition.
4a. Now you might think you should add a FAT32 partition in the empty space in between to install Win98 on. I found out that this doesn't work; DOS can't see it.
4b. You will have to boot into DOS 7.1 (or 98 DOS) from floppy drive with FreeDOS FDISK loaded. Use FreeDOS FDISK to create new primary partition using maximum size. Do not format.
5. Reboot into Debian. Launch GParted. It will complain that partitions are overlapping. FreeDOS FDISK created the new primary partition with a starting position too low for some reason. Resize the NTFS partition down by 50 MB or something to remedy this.
6. Reboot using DOS floppy. Format the C drive. Run SYS a: c: to copy system files to the C drive. Copy HIMEMX to the C drive and configure in CONFIG.SYS to limit RAM to 512 MB. Copy CD drivers to C drive and load them in CONFIG.SYS.
7. Load floppy disk with BOOTMGR from BTTR Software. Run BOOTMGR, backup the MBR to a file on the floppy (important), and have it load itself into the MBR with one menu option: Win98, pointing to the new 11 GB C drive, with the other two partitions set as hidden. Make sure you select Keep NT Bytes.
8. Reboot. C drive should boot DOS with CD drivers. Insert the Windows 98 setup disk and run SETUP.EXE. Install Windows 98. It will overwrite BOOTMGR with its own MBR.
9. After installing Win98, reboot into DOS floppy. Load BOOTMGR. Set up a BOOTMGR menu with one option: Win98, but with the other partitions not hidden this time. This is important because the hidden state of partitions is persistent.
10. Reboot into Win98.
11. Reboot into DOS floppy. Run BOOTMGR and restore the MBR backup you made earlier. This will restore GRUB.
12. Reboot. Select Debian at GRUB menu. Run update-grub in Debian; it will pick up all three operating systems.
13. Profit.

Wow, that's much more complicated than just fixing up NTLDR after 9x trashes it. 😅.
Thanks for sharing! 💪

Really the only "secret" here is knowing some basic principles:

1. Don't mess with the start position of the NTFS partition
2. Win98 will only install if it can't see any other primary partitions that aren't empty
3. GRUB is very smart and will find all the operating systems on the drive as long as you are able to install it to the disk.

Then you take advantage of the partition hiding capabilities of BOOTMGR to make it happen.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2022-09-12, 18:55:

... 9. After installing Win98, reboot into DOS floppy. Load BOOTMGR. Set up a BOOTMGR menu with one option: Win98, but with the […]
Show full quote

...
9. After installing Win98, reboot into DOS floppy. Load BOOTMGR. Set up a BOOTMGR menu with one option: Win98, but with the other partitions not hidden this time. This is important because the hidden state of partitions is persistent.
10. Reboot into Win98.
11. Reboot into DOS floppy. Run BOOTMGR and restore the MBR backup you made earlier. This will restore GRUB.
...

Hi! Robert from BTTR here. Nice to see some BOOTMGR user these days. What is step 10 for?

bttr wrote on 2022-09-13, 19:27:

Hi! Robert from BTTR here. Nice to see some BOOTMGR user these days. What is step 10 for?

Maybe it is not necessary, but I did that to unhide the partitions since the hidden state seemed to be persistent across reboots unless changed with BOOTMGR at boot.

Your utility has been invaluable to me; thanks for creating it.

Partition hiding works by changing the partition id (= type) in the partition table. So, yes, of course, it's persistent. 😀

Did a little screen scaling testing with a Thinkpad 365X (800x600) and Thinkpad T22 (1024x768)

The 365X scales non-linearly no matter what resolution you use.

The T22, interestingly, scales linearly only in mode 13, VGA 320x200 256 colors. In other modes of the *same resolution* e.g. EGA 320x200 16 colors, it scales non-linearly for no reason despite staying in the same (incorrect) aspect ratio.

Frustrating.