VOGONS


First post, by Maz Hoot

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello, I’m still in my quest of a decent laptop for adlibtracker2. It went good on toshiba satellite 320cds but the screen was garbage and the speaker didn’t work, and I can have headaches migraines easily (about the screen). So I found a toshiba satellite pro 4300 in good condition.

I’m on Freedos, it may seems weird but I had to change the disk on the sat pro 4300 and I had one with Freedos and all my stuff, and I’m use to it so if it’s possible I would like to continue using it.

USB problem : I use USBASPI.SYS and DI1000DD.SYS in FDCONFIG.SYS , I have an old usb key which was good recognized and used on toshiba s320cds and tecra530cdt in freedos too with same driver. But on the pro 4300 it says target usb device not found… I have an other usb which is found and is 4Go but on this second one it says : #1 : ??? 4026MB drive = D: Not format and I can’t access to it… I tried format it again in fat32 but same error…

Hot problem : Freedos is probably really not too much for this computer, but after 3min of use, the fan turn on very quickly and it’s a little hot just under the place where the power supply is plugged. I tried an other power supply so the problem does’t come from here… I think it’s not suppose to be hot or have fan running so fast when i’m just in the freedos command line doing nothing…

Graphic/character problem : the screen is small, a rectangle in the middle, if I stretch it from bios, it’s not beautiful and under adlibtracker 2 character are weird… under toshiba s320cds I used vexp for resolve this. Is there something similar for the toshiba sat pro 4300 ?

My music (chiptune, post-punk, world, industrial) : https://mazhootmusic.bandcamp.com

Reply 1 of 6, by dominusprog

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

For the heat issue, you have to clean all the fins, copper base and the chips so you can add a fresh thermal paste onto them. The fan itself might need a service too.

Duke_2600.png
A-Trend ATC-1020 V1.1 ❇ Cyrix 6x86 150+ @ 120MHz ❇ 32MiB EDO RAM (8MiBx4) ❇ A-Trend S3 Trio64V2 2MiB
Aztech Pro16 II-3D PnP ❇ 8.4GiB Quantum Fireball ❇ Win95 OSR2 Plus!

Reply 2 of 6, by megatron-uk

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

According to the specs, the Satellite Pro 4300 uses the S3 Savage IX... it doesn't have any DOS scaling tools that I am aware of.

If you want nice scaling in DOS, your options are either the C&T VGA series like you used before with the VEXP utility, or later chip like the ATI Rage LT (or later) or Nvidia; the latter both do interpolation of non native screen modes.

Anything else does not offer anything better than linear scaling (often only in one axis, and sometimes not even that!), hence the poor screen quality of any mode that isn't native to the panel resolution.

My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net

Reply 3 of 6, by Maz Hoot

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
megatron-uk wrote on 2025-04-12, 12:30:

According to the specs, the Satellite Pro 4300 uses the S3 Savage IX... it doesn't have any DOS scaling tools that I am aware of.

If you want nice scaling in DOS, your options are either the C&T VGA series like you used before with the VEXP utility, or later chip like the ATI Rage LT (or later) or Nvidia; the latter both do interpolation of non native screen modes.

Anything else does not offer anything better than linear scaling (often only in one axis, and sometimes not even that!), hence the poor screen quality of any mode that isn't native to the panel resolution.

For the scaling, I don’t know at all if it’s a usefull information but just in case, NSSI give me this : « toshiba svga 8 mb vesa vbe 2.0 secondary: none »

My music (chiptune, post-punk, world, industrial) : https://mazhootmusic.bandcamp.com

Reply 4 of 6, by megatron-uk

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-04-13, 06:22:
megatron-uk wrote on 2025-04-12, 12:30:

According to the specs, the Satellite Pro 4300 uses the S3 Savage IX... it doesn't have any DOS scaling tools that I am aware of.

If you want nice scaling in DOS, your options are either the C&T VGA series like you used before with the VEXP utility, or later chip like the ATI Rage LT (or later) or Nvidia; the latter both do interpolation of non native screen modes.

Anything else does not offer anything better than linear scaling (often only in one axis, and sometimes not even that!), hence the poor screen quality of any mode that isn't native to the panel resolution.

For the scaling, I don’t know at all if it’s a usefull information but just in case, NSSI give me this : « toshiba svga 8 mb vesa vbe 2.0 secondary: none »

Yeah, that's the Savage IX chip. You probably only have a BIOS option or Function hotkey 'windowed/fullscreen' mode... and that is all.

There's nothing more you can do.

My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net

Reply 5 of 6, by Maz Hoot

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
megatron-uk wrote on 2025-04-13, 06:26:
Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-04-13, 06:22:
megatron-uk wrote on 2025-04-12, 12:30:

According to the specs, the Satellite Pro 4300 uses the S3 Savage IX... it doesn't have any DOS scaling tools that I am aware of.

If you want nice scaling in DOS, your options are either the C&T VGA series like you used before with the VEXP utility, or later chip like the ATI Rage LT (or later) or Nvidia; the latter both do interpolation of non native screen modes.

Anything else does not offer anything better than linear scaling (often only in one axis, and sometimes not even that!), hence the poor screen quality of any mode that isn't native to the panel resolution.

For the scaling, I don’t know at all if it’s a usefull information but just in case, NSSI give me this : « toshiba svga 8 mb vesa vbe 2.0 secondary: none »

Yeah, that's the Savage IX chip. You probably only have a BIOS option or Function hotkey 'windowed/fullscreen' mode... and that is all.

There's nothing more you can do.

Ok again, I’m stupid… I tested in adlibtracker2.ini different resolutions and it works like a charm ! I thought it would be stuck in the small windows under dos (when stretching is not activated in dos) because of the character mode, but not, the extended full screen (it’s the 5th mode in adlibtracker2.ini ) mode works the best for me, it’s so much better than the bios stretching and it is full screen ! 🤩

About the too hot and fan problem, I’m a little afraid of opening and clean components and add thermal paste on this beast, sometimes I make stupid mistakes in the process, but I will probably do it or ask a pro in a shop in my town

My music (chiptune, post-punk, world, industrial) : https://mazhootmusic.bandcamp.com

Reply 6 of 6, by megatron-uk

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Just be aware that some laptop cooling solutions don't use thermal paste, but a thermal interface pad. I've got a few p2/P3 era laptops and they vary from paste, to thermal pad to fancy phase-change material.

You can't really swap the pad types with thermal paste as the gap is too large to be taken up by paste.

My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net