Since I have already made so many changes to my T5200 ...and no longer consider it orginal ...
I began to wonder about replacing the Plasma screen as well ..which might be useable in the 3200 ..(working but no screen)
So ..
after some searching ..found this ..and made an offer of £70 including delivery ..
It was accepted ..

VGA-LCD-Controller-Board-Work-With-10-4-034-AA104VH01-640x480-LCD-Screen

So ..more fun to be had I guess..
we shall see.

Vipersan wrote:

Since I have already made so many changes to my T5200 ...and no longer consider it orginal ...
I began to wonder about replacing the Plasma screen as well

That's a bit too far...
(as in: Pablo Francisco skit "the movie trailer guy")

Vipersan wrote:

..which might be useable in the 3200 ..(working but no screen)

Yes it is usable. I have done the transition both ways: T3200SX to T5200 and the other way round. That's the same screen and wiring. Works fine.

Yep ..it may well be a step too far ..but at least this way ..I get a working 3200 as well ..
and dont get me wrong ..this wasn't a quick or easy decision to make..
🤣

Vipersan wrote:

Yep ..it may well be a step too far ..but at least this way ..I get a working 3200 as well ..
and dont get me wrong ..this wasn't a quick or easy decision to make..
🤣

If the T5200 and T3200 screen are the same...
And this new screen works in the T5200...
Why not just put it in the T3200?

The main reason I got a T5200 was the gas plasma display. The 2nd reason was the two expansion slots.

Yep ..that is certainly a possibility I'm considering ..
I'll decide when it gets here ...which will be a while I think coming from China.
What I am wondering is ...
can I drive it directly from the signals which would arrive at the plasma header ....or the easier route of splitting the vga out from the rear 15 pin port ...and use the included vga driver board.
??
this will require further investigation I think.
rgds
VS

Just noticed: T3200 or T3200SX? T3200 has EGA graphics card and suitable EGA plasma screen (4 levels of intensity) - same as T5100, except in larger form factor. T3200SX on the other hand has VGA screen (16 levels of intensity) that can be swapped with T5200.

OldCat wrote:

Just noticed: T3200 or T3200SX? T3200 has EGA graphics card and suitable EGA plasma screen (4 levels of intensity) - same as T5100, except in larger form factor. T3200SX on the other hand has VGA screen (16 levels of intensity) that can be swapped with T5200.

Mine is a T3200SX ..so I guess I have options..
cheers OC

more mixed news from my T5200 front...

Worst news: my T5200 (Oscar) isn't saving CMOS info, even though I installed a new battery.
Maybe when working on the other stuff I disconnected and failed to connect it.
Or maybe the battery got drained already?

Not-good news. I got myself a Zyxel MWR102 portable router/access point.
Although I didn't appear to be able to connect to my network with it (and especially the internet)
My main router *did* find Oscar. In the network map it had Oscar's IP address.

Not the access point's address... the computer's address.

On the good news front:
I got myself another Logitech trackball, a "marble" (I like the ones you control with your thumb).
Works just fine.

I got a Quickshot game pad and a Gravis joystick (I can't remember the model designation; the black, elegant looking ones).
The latter seems to have some spatterings of paint on it, easily fixed.

If you recall, I installed my ESS1688 sound card in the 8 bit slot and my network card in the 16 bit slot. So I was kind of concerned whether the joystick would work or not.

Commander Keen 4 worked just great with the joypad.

Wing Commander worked just great with the joystick.

WFW 3.11 still locks the machine up when it exits, requiring a cold boot. I think it has something to do with the fact that I copied the configuration over from the desktop dos machine, and have been tweaking the settings.

So I'll open her up tomorrow, see what could be wrong with the cmos, and take another crack at cleaning the enter key.

Hello everybody,

IanB wrote:

Vipersan wrote:

As the T3200SX is very similar, I've patched some of the BIOS versions for that as well:

having my T5200 up and runnung thanks to the BIOS patches, I now work on my T3200. I pulled the BIOS(?) from two chips under the keyboard with an EPROM-Reader. Them chips were labled "033E" and "034E" residing in M27C256K from Mitsubishi. The chips seem to be only of 32KB size. I attach the dumped BIOS (the dumps start with the words "ODD" and "EVEN" for each dumped chip repectivley). Does anybody have an idea if I can use the patched BIOSes somhow for my T3200?

Thanks beforehand! Siegfried

Turns out ..there is space in that useless modem compartment underside of a 3200SX ....big enough to fit the CF adapter ..
with a bit of plastic trimming.
Probably been done before I guess ..but makes for easy CF access ..
So file transfer or plug in OS ..
both are good.
rgds
VS

Way cool, VS!

I tried getting myself a 2nd T5200 off of ebay, but I was outbid 🙁 Would have made a great backup.

But I'm afraid I've a more serious problem.

I replaced the 2032 button battery with a fresh one... when I did a cold boot again, it retained the cmos info...

But a few hours later when I went to turn the computer on... it again will not remember the cmos data.

Could it be the wires are crossed?
It plugs in to the same connector as the old battery... I wonder if the wrong pins are connected?

But why did it work once? Suddenly discharged? A short?

Hamby wrote:

Way cool, VS! […]
Show full quote

Way cool, VS!

I tried getting myself a 2nd T5200 off of ebay, but I was outbid 🙁 Would have made a great backup.

But I'm afraid I've a more serious problem.

I replaced the 2032 button battery with a fresh one... when I did a cold boot again, it retained the cmos info...

But a few hours later when I went to turn the computer on... it again will not remember the cmos data.

Could it be the wires are crossed?
It plugs in to the same connector as the old battery... I wonder if the wrong pins are connected?

But why did it work once? Suddenly discharged? A short?

That's a mighty tricky one Hamby ..
Possibly a cap leaky ..and pulling on the battery causing a discharge over a short period of time.
could you hang a meter in series with the Cmos supply from the battery (current range) ...and monitor discharge perhaps ?...
Theoretically only the bios chip should be drawing any current ..so remove the bios chip and monitor to see if there is a load.

Personally I prefer AA sized rtc batteries in both the 3200 and 5200 ..
Those older UV erasable 40 pin chips ..I would assume to be a heavier load than modern day EEprom or SPI flash chips.

Sporadic behavior like for example:

- Sometimes saving CMOS, sometimes not.
- Sometimes external keyboard detected, sometimes not....

...etc.

Usually means that capacitors fluctuate in their values indicating them getting old...

Has anyone heard from IanB lately?

Hello, chozilla here... got myself a T5200 now.

So I am working on 3... effectively 2 Toshiba notebooks now (great job starting and never finishing a thing...)
About the T5200 I have a few questions that probably anyone can answer.

1. Does the onboard IDE support two harddisks? I am unable to boot when I plug in two CF cards and one CF card runs fine. Could it be the Hardware only having one channel or is it a BIOS limitation.
2. What sort of memory do I have to buy for the system?
3. and what type of Floppy drive can I use to replace the broken internal one? (It makes noises and when I remove it the boot takes forever...)

The mystery T5200/100 came with a full size IO card that I can not identify, and with a modem expansion card.

Inside was a badly damaged harddisk and a strange bios chip that I can not read from. (images attached)

Any ideas how to setup the system?

best reg4ards
\ chozilla

Hamby wrote:

Has anyone heard from IanB lately?

Sadly not ..
..and I'm hoping he just took a vacation.
When it comes to the old gas plasmas..he provides much needed expertise.
his input is very much appreciated.

btw Hamby ..
Do you have working original 30 pin memory simms in a 3200 ?
not sure if it was you or JZ ..but I seem to remember someone has ?
If so I'd very much appreciate some good quality closeups of a working stick (both sides)...
to help with my research into suitable memory
rgds
VS

chozilla wrote:

Hello, chozilla here... got myself a T5200 now. […]
Show full quote

Hello, chozilla here... got myself a T5200 now.

So I am working on 3... effectively 2 Toshiba notebooks now (great job starting and never finishing a thing...)
About the T5200 I have a few questions that probably anyone can answer.

1. Does the onboard IDE support two harddisks? I am unable to boot when I plug in two CF cards and one CF card runs fine. Could it be the Hardware only having one channel or is it a BIOS limitation.
2. What sort of memory do I have to buy for the system?
3. and what type of Floppy drive can I use to replace the broken internal one? (It makes noises and when I remove it the boot takes forever...)

T5200_twoCFbootFail.jpg

The mystery T5200/100 came with a full size IO card that I can not identify, and with a modem expansion card.

T5200_cards.JPG

Inside was a badly damaged harddisk and a strange bios chip that I can not read from. (images attached)

T5200_BIOS_HD.jpg

Any ideas how to setup the system?

best reg4ards
\ chozilla

If that was the hard drive used in the system ..then one could only assume it already hasbeen fitted with a modded bios ?
AFAIK ..you could only ever user Conner drives with the original bios.
I would strongly suggest pulling the bios chip and reading it with a programmer such as the TL866 ..
..and letting Ian check out the 'chip dump' ..If he ever returns..?
rgds
VS

I tried to read the chip but like I said - no luck.
Chip reads:

1AM27C1024 
2- 205DC
312.5V PGM
4838APDZ

I have seen such errors before ..usually when recent programmers cannot correctly identify the chip (Chip ID)
on the TL866 ..I think there is a check box to untick and ignore the chip ID and continue the process regardless ..
rgds
VS

Thanks for the help,

after all it might just be the default bios and someone trying to put any (defect) HDD in the case to sell it on ebay as defect...

anyway here is the thing. looks like the first 2/3rds are empty

best reg4rds
\ chozilla