Here is a pic of the original display panel:

It actually looks better in that picture than in real life. Very severe shadowing. New caps will clear this up.

I got the 4SLC/33 a few days ago, and also found another 500C for cheap (which I bought mostly for the case, since it still had the original case with it).

Here's a pic of the 4SLC/33:

That black and white display sure is nice! The hard drive really was bad, so the Areal A260 went in, and that works well. Also had to mod the clock chip to restore functionality. Always wanted a 4SLC/33, so I'm very happy.

Now for the other 500C:

I had a case similar to this, but this one is exactly like what was with my old 500C. Super clean too. Couldn't be happier.

So, this ActionNote 500C is just like my other, right? I though so until I popped the keyboard off...

What do we have here?

Hell froze over. I actually found a 4MB memory expansion for an ActionNote!! Been after one for ages. This gives 8MB total:

I'm actually shocked that Kingston made memory upgrades for these. I have installed the memory expansion into my other 500C for now, since this one isn't very usable until I can get the screen recapped.

Also, here's another shot of a screen with failing caps (this is the screen from the ActionNote 500C I just got):

Looks soooooo bad. I have some caps on-order, so this will be fixed soon.

Also, this ActionNote is exactly like the one I used to have. It has a 180MB hard drive and no modem, just like my old one. Very nice. It is an Areal A180 just like the other one. These drives are insanely reliable! NONE of the three I own have a single bad sector! They have aged very well. Shame they never got used in many other laptops.

Here they all are stacked:

Very nice. Now need to find the others that I'm after...

Hello, I recently bought a laptop like this, can you please tell me what capacitors needs to be changed, for the LCD?

kmikze wrote on 2022-03-11, 11:46:

Hello, I recently bought a laptop like this, can you please tell me what capacitors needs to be changed, for the LCD?

Hi,

I can't recall what the exact values of the capacitors were, however there is 9 of them on the back of the LCD panel (the silver aluminum ones).

There is also 1 on the backlight inverter that needs to be changed. You will have to take a look at the capacitors and get the exact values off of them.

Hope this helps!

Zack_H wrote on 2020-01-18, 10:22:

Here is a pic of the original display panel:

IMG_5400.jpg

It actually looks better in that picture than in real life. Very severe shadowing. New caps will clear this up.

Hi, I seen that you received worked windows 3 copy, it is amazing! This is original system installation? I asked because I have this laptop, but my hdd is damaged and not ready for work. In epson manual I read about some system utilites from standard distribution. Possible you have abilty to get image of disk or files copy.

Thanks!

10on wrote on 2023-11-23, 17:48:

Zack_H wrote on 2020-01-18, 10:22:

Here is a pic of the original display panel:

IMG_5400.jpg

It actually looks better in that picture than in real life. Very severe shadowing. New caps will clear this up.

Hi, I seen that you received worked windows 3 copy, it is amazing! This is original system installation? I asked because I have this laptop, but my hdd is damaged and not ready for work. In epson manual I read about some system utilites from standard distribution. Possible you have abilty to get image of disk or files copy.

Thanks!

I do have a copy I made of all the files somewhere that I will try and find. Yes, it’s the original installation. If I can find it, you should just be able to sys the drive with DOS 6.20, copy all files and directories over and it should work. I’ve done that many times on other systems in the past and it worked.

Zack_H wrote on 2020-01-18, 10:20:

The very first Windows 3.1 computer I ever owned was an Epson ActionNote 500C. I found it at a thrift store almost 10-years-ago. […]
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The very first Windows 3.1 computer I ever owned was an Epson ActionNote 500C. I found it at a thrift store almost 10-years-ago. I was mesmerized by how old and primitive of a laptop it was, and really liked it a lot. I was quite young at the time, so when the screen eventually failed on it, I had no clue how to repair it, and it eventually got thrown out. I now know the screen fault was from failing SMD capacitors, but even if I had known that then, I had no clue how to solder, so it would have done little good.

Then roughly three-years-later, I got a second one off of eBay, and while it worked fine, it wasn't in the greatest condition. I had been using this one up until just a few days ago.

So I finally bought another a little over a week ago, and it arrived a couple of days ago. This machine was sold as "turns on but screen doesn't come on," so when I got the laptop, I figured out that the screen was working, but the backlight wasn't. Turned out to be a capacitor on the inverter board that leaked and rotted a trace, so once that was repaired, the backlight shined once again!

Then came the second issue, the image on the screen of the "new" ActionNote was terrible. Very shadowy, way more than it should be, even on a single-scan passive-matrix LCD. The reason for this is failing capacitors on the LCD panel (same issue that killed my original ActionNote). I do actually remember that the image-quality got worse and worse on my original one before the display died, so it all makes sense now.

So I took the screen from the ActionNote I already had, and installed it into the new one. This screen also needs a recap, but the image is okay for now on it. I will be recapping the original LCD soon and putting that back in.

This ActionNote I just got also came with the original Logitech TrackMan trackball, which I didn't have before. It was missing the button though, so I stole one from a parts trackball, which is the wrong color, but it works at least.

This one also has the Areal A180 180MB hard drive, just like my original ActionNote had. These Areal drives are very unusual. They sound really cool and are very reliable. They are also a bit shorter than a standard 2.5" hard drive. These were also among the first drives to use glass platters. Glass platters were a very unusual thing in the early '90s. The Epson ActionNotes are the only computers I have ever seen these Areal drives in. My other ActionNote, which has now became a parts machine for this one, has the 260MB Areal A260 drive, so I will definitely keep that as a spare.

Here are some pics of this wonderful machine:

IMG_5402.jpg

IMG_5403.jpg

IMG_5404.jpg

IMG_5406.jpg

IMG_5399.jpg

I used the bezel from my old ActionNote, as this one was a little nicer, and still has the "Clock Doubled 486" sticker, which denotes the Cyrix 486SLC-2 50MHz CPU that these use. If you know anything about the 486SLC, you'd know that it's basically a tweaked-up 386SX. In fact, this machine doesn't benchmark much higher than my Compaq Contura 3/25 does, which is a true 386 laptop. That being said, it's still very competent Windows 3.1 laptop, and would have been a decent machine for its $1700-ish price tag in 1993/94, a time when other laptops could easily be $3000 and up.

I also popped my already-modified Dallas clock chip on there. It was so nice of them to socket it!

It's also worth noting that this laptop has the smallest passive-matrix color display I have ever seen! It is 8.4-inches, which was usually the size that active-matrix displays were. I think it pretty damn cool myself. Looks very "vintage" with such a tiny display. 😀

The finish on this laptop is typical of an early '90s Taiwanese-built laptop. It's actually a really nice feeling textured finish, but not the most durable finish on the planet. It's fine as long as you are mindful of it.

Anyway, I'm very happy to have a really nice ActionNote 500C now! This one is considerably better condition compared to my first and second one. I consider this to be one of the main computers that got me into this hobby, so it's very special to me.

Now to get the other ActionNote models I don't have! 😀 I do actually have an ActionNote 4SLC/33 on the way, which is exactly the same as this, but with a 33MHz CPU and a slightly larger, grayscale display. Seller says the hard drive is bad, so the spare Areal A260 might be going in there if the drive is actually bad.

Although they are somewhat cheaply-built, the ActionNotes are actually very reliable and easy to work on. Never seen one with a catastrophic/unrepairable problem.

Dear Zack, thanks for sharing all this information. I have a 500C and my screen is not in its best days, also its backlight is blinking a bit. I imagine some capacitors could be the problem. As you mentioned you changed some of screens caps, would you mind sharing more information about it?

When you say the "capacitor on the inverter board", where is it? Mainboard, some other board?
Do I need to change any of those SMD capacitors near by the LCD cables (A B C D E in the attachments)?

About the screen recap, which capacitors need to be exchanged? Could you point me where they are?

I've added some photos of my 500C and some A B C D E F on the capacitors I found relevant, in order to make easier for you to comment.

Thank you

Actually I found where are those caps, all of them was inside the LCD case, need to remove 2 soft protection at the bottom of the screen to reveal 2 screws, and carefully separate both sides of LCD case.

However, I ended up ruining the LCD when exchanging the capacitors. By mistake, I shorted a capacitor negative pin with a very small pin beside it, and that was a positive of the next capacitor. So basically I shorted positive and negative of one capacitor. I notice that it was wrong when I tested it, but I thought "who knows, it could be the way it works, it's an old machine", and turned it on. The backlight worked, but no image at all. Removed all the capacitors to find the problem and fixed it, but even so, no image at all, just the backlight. Tried to dissable all the LCD to see if there was a visible signal of the damage, but not signal at all.

There is something more, I did another big big big mistake, I've kept some screws in the battery door (there is no battery anymore), but when I tested after the recap (with that short in one cap), also there was a short in the battery pins with some screens. So, when I turned it on, not only the LCD didn't work, but also a bad smell and smoke comes out, when I noticed I turned it off very quickly and removed the screw from inside the battery slot, fixed the caps, and tried turning it on again. It seems to be working, but no image anymore.

Well, I guess a bad day? Any hope to fix the screen not working? Could it be just a fuse in the motherboard or in the LCD board?

I've attached some photos to show the caps and also to help anyone else trying to do this. Just be careful to not short any capacitor with any other pin, it's very easy to do it by mistake and can damage the LCD. Test all pins if there is no short and all negatives should be shorted with the ground (the metal parte is grounded). About the screews in the battery door I think no one else would do that nonsense.

Thanks

tngustavo wrote on 2023-12-21, 17:58:

.....

Hi tngustavo, sorry for my question.
I see that you have a memory module installed.
Can I ask you to take a photo of this module from different angles, and if possible from both sides?
I can't find it for sale, but I want to expand the memory of my 500C.
I want to repeat this module myself, your photos could help me.

Unfortunately I can't help you with your screen problem, other than the obvious advice to check all electrolytic capacitors.

Zack_H wrote on 2023-11-30, 10:39:

I do have a copy I made of all the files somewhere that I will try and find. Yes, it’s the original installation. If I can find it, you should just be able to sys the drive with DOS 6.20, copy all files and directories over and it should work. I’ve done that many times on other systems in the past and it worked.

Thanks for your attention. This looks promising. I will hope that you can find and share.

10on wrote on 2023-12-29, 22:44:

Hi tngustavo, sorry for my question. I see that you have a memory module installed. Can I ask you to take a photo of this module […]
Show full quote

tngustavo wrote on 2023-12-21, 17:58:

.....

Hi tngustavo, sorry for my question.
I see that you have a memory module installed.
Can I ask you to take a photo of this module from different angles, and if possible from both sides?
I can't find it for sale, but I want to expand the memory of my 500C.
I want to repeat this module myself, your photos could help me.

Unfortunately I can't help you with your screen problem, other than the obvious advice to check all electrolytic capacitors.

sure, hope those photos can help you.

I've also uploaded more photos here:
https://imgur.com/a/bPy0wiZ

tngustavo wrote on 2024-01-03, 14:35:

I've also uploaded more photos here:
https://imgur.com/a/bPy0wiZ

Thanks! This looks very useful to me!