If we have the same model of drive I could send you mine and then you would know if it was the drive or the system. Model number is XM-1502B N, dated April 1997. I've been hunting a floppy drive for mine for years - is yours parallel? I really wanted the Desk Station V,which allows you to add all sorts of expansion options such as SCSI, ISA and PCI cards, etc.

Cool idea! Does the drive have to be "Toshiba Tecra compatible" or can it be any drive?
My floppy drive is a "Toshiba 3.5" FLOPPY DISK DRIVE" (ZA1215P02). It's for the proprietary floppy port on the side of the laptop.

Arctic wrote:

Cool idea! Does the drive have to be "Toshiba Tecra compatible" or can it be any drive?
My floppy drive is a "Toshiba 3.5" FLOPPY DISK DRIVE" (ZA1215P02). It's for the proprietary floppy port on the side of the laptop.

Yep, I need to get me one of those. I've seen the drive itself on eBay from a supplier not far from me, but I don't think the lead is included. Very hard to find nowadays.

In terms of the optical drive, I was trying to find out if our parts are compatible, but it turns out its irrelevant. I thought that Toshiba used proprietary drives because of the connector and form factor but it turns out its just a caddy:

However, when I tried a random alternative drive in its place (a DVD / CD-RW model), the laptop would take ages to POST and then there was a significant delay before loading the Windows desktop. The only two drives I could get to POST were a Matsushita model and a Samsung / Toshiba model, so there's some kind of firmware check going on there. Sony and TEAC did not pass the test. Either way, the drives that did work were recognised by Windows 98 and read CDs successfully. DVDs did not work though, which is weird. I was unable to test DOS functionality as I use a proprietary driver, but I'm sure oakcdrom.sys would work with other models. So, your steps are:

1. Remove the drive and try it in another laptop (if you've got one).
2. Put an alternative drive in the Toshiba.
3. Follow the troubleshooting steps in the service manual if the drive turns out to be good.

Good luck! I've got a stack of replacement drives if you need a replacement 😀

Ok, I tried this:

I took out the caddy and put a matsushita drive from 1998 in it. The laptop took again ages to post. Once I am in Windows 98SE there is no "new hardware found" nor a CDROM icon in "My Computer"
But I'm sure this drive works. "CD ROM DRIVE Model No. UJDA150" "H/W:ver1.00 F/W:ver1.02"

Can you send me a drive that is verified to work? 😎
This is frustrating 😢

Arctic wrote:

Ok, I tried this: […]
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Ok, I tried this:

I took out the caddy and put a matsushita drive from 1998 in it. The laptop took again ages to post. Once I am in Windows 98SE there is no "new hardware found" nor a CDROM icon in "My Computer"
But I'm sure this drive works. "CD ROM DRIVE Model No. UJDA150" "H/W:ver1.00 F/W:ver1.02"

Can you send me a drive that is verified to work? 😎
This is frustrating 😢

Hi,

I have a very nice condition Tecra 500CDT with working CDROM drive, it has windows 95 on it. I would be willing to sell the whole thing if you're interested.
😎

coolty wrote:

I would be willing to sell the whole thing if you're interested.

Hello and welcome to Vogons. You should know that sale and trade is not allowed here. Just a friendly reminder 😀

Thank you for your reply! 😀

Well coolty he said he "would" be willing to sell...
But it is not allowed here, so.... 🤣