Re: Toshiba 4000CDT LCD with dark spots

Posted on Yesterday, 17:08

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It is the front / outer polarising film on the LCD that's damaged, I've seen mouse pointers and the buttons do the same thing on some of mine. The oil on the mouse buttons reacts with the polariser and permanently alters the composition / look for the polariser. Usually where there's been a heavy …

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Re: Netier netxpress xl-1000 questions

Posted on Yesterday, 10:11

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the RTL card, assuming you want to use MTCP, then you just need RTSPKT.COM, available here: http://www.georgpotthast.de/sioux/pktdrv/rtspkt.zip (http://www.georgpotthast.de/sioux/packet.htm) I've used a few 8139(A/B/C) cards in the past with it (and MTCP), and they have generally just worked.

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Re: Toshiba 4000CDT LCD with dark spots

Posted on Yesterday, 09:59

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a 480CDT and 550CDT and had to take them apart to remove the CMOS battery packs. Warning! - they all leak on Toshiba laptops of this age! Fortunately mine had only leaked to the point of travelling along the battery cable, and the motherboard wasn't damaged. If you haven't done so yet, please …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on Yesterday, 07:37

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I suspect the coin cell and diode option is going to be the least hassle in that case!

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Re: What does your significant other think of your retro pc hobby?

Posted on 2025-01-15, 18:06

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually, fair point. Retro gaming/computers is probably the least expensive/space consuming of my hobbies. The cars sitting in the garage, on the other hand... those get a constant "when are you going to finish X/Y?" ....

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Re: What does your significant other think of your retro pc hobby?

Posted on 2025-01-15, 17:52

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mine just rolls her eyes. The kids get more excited. I'm building a virtual pinball cabinet at the moment, as an 'open secret' because I have asked for a few years now to get a (small) arcade cab (cocktail style) or pinball machine for the lounge... and got a very firm "no" each time. Since I'm …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-15, 13:54

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Now, next question: is there an alternative, 2.4v, ~15mAh rechargeable lithium cell available? I don't want to re-fit a ni-mh/ni-cd part!

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-15, 13:17

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm convinced one of the IC's on these boards is failing due to age or use, and has nothing to do with the battery leakage. Which likely means that it's only a matter of time before they all start to fail. Thanks for updating, that means I don't have to disassemble my PCG-F480 to prevent leakage. …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-15, 12:54

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Spot the working one... Filename IMG20250115125252.jpg File size 559.82 KiB Views 119 views File license CC-BY-4.0

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-15, 12:51

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The PCG-F807K (P3-650, 1024x768) arrived this morning, and as listed it is indeed working. Filthy, and scratched. With a backlight that has seen better days (pink tinged screen). But working : IMG20250115121727.jpg It didn't take long to remove the power sub-board and temporarily fit it into the PCG …

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Re: Addon PCI /PCI-E PS/2 Mouse +Keyboard cards - experience - its genuine PS/2 replacement or new HW SW emulation / f

Posted on 2025-01-14, 15:09

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was digging a bit more. I found this - Advantech PCI-6771 , not even heatsink, but fan.. and it also seems to have own x86 CPU Pentium III / Celeron and memory, even Trident video card working within Win98 and compact flash support, i know that is overkill.. but tried someone with access to …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-13, 19:57

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a different problem with this series of laptop that I would like to try and confirm with someone. When I turn mine on, there is a high pitched noise that comes out of the laptop. It's extremely high pitched so you might not hear it if you can't detect this frequency. I tracked it down to the …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-13, 18:57

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Internally they appear to be standard cells, btw. At least one forums post I found seemed to indicate that it was feasible to replace the cells and do something with the internal battery controller IC to make them think they were new again.

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-13, 18:56

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nope. Not found any. There are a few electronics resellers in China that claim to have them, but no stock that I have seen. Closest I saw was an industrial company on Alibaba that purported to sell reproductions of them, but minimum order sizes of 10. It's not worth it when it is going to cost the …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-13, 18:10

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I swapped in the power board from another PCG-F series (not the complete machine I have coming) and it hasn't worked. Either the power board is faulty, like my original one, or there is something more at fault. We should know for sure when the working laptop arrives.

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Re: Socket 478 P4 and DOS.

Posted on 2025-01-11, 11:55

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What throttle programs could I use with my chipset? Seems like throttle ain't compatible.. :( My board doesn't have ISA slots saddly, what are my other options? Setmul can (usually) be used to enable/disable L1 and L2 cache from within dos. Cpuspd can, depending on motherboard/chipset be used to …

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Re: B: on the same channel?

Posted on 2025-01-10, 16:29

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Errius wrote on 2025-01-10, 15:11: megatron-uk wrote on 2025-01-10, 08:58: send out their disk drives all jumpered/configured for drive a:. 3.5" drives are configured for B: by default if I remember correctly, but the twist at the end of the cable causes that drive to be seen as A: I knew I'd have …

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Re: HWinfo32 download

Posted on 2025-01-10, 10:50

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Isn't Shadow Warrior a CD-audio game? I don't think the registered version uses FM/MIDI music, does it? It's been a long time since I played that one.

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Re: B: on the same channel?

Posted on 2025-01-10, 08:58

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Floppy disks (almost always) run on the same cable, with a twist in the cable being used to make one of the drives respond to drive b: compared to drive a: - this is why you (almost never) have to jumper a floppy drive as a: or b: ... it's the position on the cable which determines it: VYByP.png Yes …

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Re: If you own a Sony VAIO PCG-Fxxx series laptop, inspect it for corrosion as soon as possible!

Posted on 2025-01-09, 20:41

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just checked, it's there - I'm guessing it's the bios/firmware since it's a flash-device-shaped part? These power boards seem to be common to a huge number of sub-models in the range (in fact the entire pcg-f* range appears more-or-less unchanged in terms of internal layout and major physical parts, …

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