Link: CTX EzBook 800 Battery Damage Thread

I always considered the possibility the best retro laptops are ones people sleep on. That was part of my reasoning when I discovered the Toshiba 2805 with the geforce2. When I stumbled across the spec sheet, and then searched vogons and couldn't find a single thead about it, I knew it must of been a good one.

Even though for me I found the perfect retro laptop in my opinion, I'm still scouring the web for the next diamond in the rough. I figure its going to be some no name, unbranded trash that nobody ever heard of and, that has features that must of been last generation when it came out, so nobody ever wanted it when it was new.

The WinBook FX may be another candidate for that - I’ve got specs on my website: https://macdat.net/pc/winbook/fx_home.html

Scaling may not be that great but if that doesn’t bother you (for me it doesn’t), this may be one to look for. I still haven’t got one yet though.

Warlord wrote on 2023-08-01, 04:00:

Even though for me I found the perfect retro laptop in my opinion, I'm still scouring the web for the next diamond in the rough. I figure its going to be some no name, unbranded trash that nobody ever heard of and, that has features that must of been last generation when it came out, so nobody ever wanted it when it was new.

Same story. But from my point of view, after 2805 everyone need to have a laptop with DOS-native, driverless sound card with hardware WaveTable synth with ROM chip for samples, that will allow GeneralMIDI music in pure DOS.

I found two laptops that support this: Siemеns-Nixdоrf Sсеniс 710 and Compaq Armada 7792DMT.

Those were both good finds, with driverless sound the video is still not without its problems. Theres a toshiba with real OPL and Midi but the C&T doesn't strech the resolution. You have that one if I'm not mistaken. Find a replacement LCD panel for it with a max resolution of 640x480 and put that in there instead and it would be great.

Warlord wrote on 2023-08-01, 09:20:

Those were both good finds, with driverless sound the video is still not without its problems. Theres a toshiba with real OPL and Midi but the C&T doesn't strech the resolution. You have that one if I'm not mistaken. Find a replacement LCD panel for it with a max resolution of 640x480 and put that in there instead and it would be great.

Well, many old laptops has OPL chip or similar, but that's just FM-synth, not the WaveTable one. Here is what i'm talking about, many laptops sound like first part of the video, while two mentioned in my previous post sounds rich 😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mx8Nq2unN8

2805 also can play General Midi but only in Windows, so you can't have GM in games that require pure dos to launch.

Toshiba Libretto 70 is in my hands! Perfect condition of laptop itself, never opened, original charger and case broken dock station.

Proper videocard for VEXP, can do scaling.

Removed (submitted twice)

sangokushi wrote on 2023-08-01, 18:02:

vorob wrote on 2023-08-01, 17:24:

Toshiba Libretto 70 is in my hands! Perfect condition of laptop itself, never opened, original charger and case broken dock station.

...

Does it come with Japanese OEM Windows 95 from Toshiba? I noticed the keyboard has Japanese layout.

vorob wrote on 2023-08-01, 09:24:

2805 also can play General Midi but only in Windows, so you can't have GM in games that require pure dos to launch.

Which DOS games that are worth playing, not just examples, requiring general midi cannot be launched in windows though.

Does it come with Japanese OEM Windows 95 from Toshiba? I noticed the keyboard has Japanese layout.

To my surprise laptop came with original OS. Yes it's Japanize.

Which DOS games that are worth playing, not just examples, requiring general midi cannot be launched in windows though.

Maybe Ultima Underworld but i didn't bother checking this. I'll get some info and return to you.

Pretty sure those Librettos have the VARTA batteries internally, you definitely want to get it out of there.

Warlord wrote on 2023-08-01, 04:00:

Even though for me I found the perfect retro laptop in my opinion, I'm still scouring the web for the next diamond in the rough. I figure its going to be some no name, unbranded trash that nobody ever heard of and, that has features that must of been last generation when it came out, so nobody ever wanted it when it was new.

That's kind of how I found the Kapok/Sager/NanTan FMAK9200D as my closest "Perfect" DOS Laptop. Sure it's got DSTN, but it's color, with sound, a pretty generic setup, uses desktop PGA 168 CPUs (486), excellent performance for DOS games, and likes ATA133 2.5" HDDs. Plus it has a cool startup chime. Nobody even knows what they are, and half of them are rebranded weird brands like "Duracom" and "Eurocom" and "Myriadbook".

Would love to hear what that chime sounds like!
Not enough computers have startup chimes.

I’ve got pretty ordinary story for you. Sometime ago I bought Compaq N600c with some case issues. Later I bought another sample, mentioned as broken. Bought it for parts. But it turned out to be fully functional. The issue was in its hdd. With dead drive laptop won’t show anything at all. Moreover this second unit was in better shape then first one so I sold original sample.

Now I bought third. Also dead. I needed to get battery cause my unit didn’t have one. I was also expecting to receive a working machine with dead HDD. But, to my surprise, it was really dead. To be clear, its lcd backlit is dead.

3lectr1c wrote on 2023-08-02, 00:03:

Would love to hear what that chime sounds like!
Not enough computers have startup chimes.

Here's the DFI Version I sold off - it's identical to the NanTan except the Generic NanTan version I have is a color unit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9J74rs6Yms&t=511s

You can turn the Chime off too by hitting Dip Switch #1. It makes me think of a "Genie", 🤣. This thing is crazy configurable via eight dip switches and a Jumper Block under the memory card so it supports everything from a 486 SX-25 to possibly an AMD Am5x86 133 PR75 - possibly overclocked even. I'm trying to find the jumper settings for it so I can document them for my website where I've been writing about hte two NanTan systems I have (I also have a color FMA3500C that has a rare pea-sized trackball, 🤣).

Neat! I like it 😀

Well my previous comment on avoiding the WinBook XL did not age well in the slightest. I now have one on the way from eBay...

We'll see how good of a DOS gaming laptop it makes when it gets here. Genuine OPL3 so I'd think it should be decent. Only bought the thing because it was a great deal and in good shape, with intact hinges. Reinforcing them with JB weld is going to be step one when it arrives.

I wouldn't recommend JB Weld for that, as it has a steel filler to more closely match expansion coefficient of metals, meaning that makes it different to that of plastics. Therefore thermal cycling will be trying to crack it off from plastic. I'd go with a normal epoxy filled with whatever is convenient, sawdust maybe, or just prime it when first mixed and runny, wait until it gets sticky and then fill the bulk.

Hmm. I've used it before with decent results, maybe in this case though I'll use my special plastics epoxy. I hate using that stuff though because the awful tube always gets stuck and it stinks terribly, and is just in general awful to work with and very viscous. I do want this to last though.

I also do have an inkling though that the hinges in these go stiff over time as well, evidenced by one video of one and how bad the damage I see these things with is. If that's the case, I might only have to relubricate and then reinforce to be good.

560E HV expansion for the LCD , you can set it in Thinkpad Configuration utility , that's a bios Configuration utility for old thinkpad.

ragefury32 wrote on 2020-02-18, 03:14:

keenmaster486 wrote on 2020-02-17, 17:38:

Oh wow! I didn't know the 560E had a Trident video card; much better than Neomagic!

Amazingly, my 560X still has a 100% working original battery.

Eh, not really "much better" - The Trident Providia did not carry over VESA compatibility from the TGUI8900 series, wouldn't do HV expansion for the LCD (so 640x480+ games don't fill up the screen), and doesn't seem all that fast versus, say, an ET4000 or an S3. For the oldschool stuff you are (in a way) better served by an S3 Aurora/Trio/Virge MX. The Providia does run oldschool VGA stuff like Commander Keen just fine, and setmul on Pentium MMX has multiple options that will allow it to emulate the performance of a 486DX33 or a DX2-66 (so titles like Wing Commander will work well on it), but it's still not quite the "magic bullet" for portable DOS emulation - the BIOS options are limited, and there are no built-in midi/gameport options for it.

I need to do something about the battery - there's something hilarious and sad about unwrapping a never-used IBM 560 series battery and finding it deader than a rusty coffin nail.