VOGONS


First post, by zago27

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Hello there!
I'm working to restore my ancient Dell Latitude XPi P133ST laptop, after I stupidly killed it by dropping the DC-DC converter in the wrong spot while 12V were on the board. Yikes!
I bought a P100SD off eBay and, after thoroughly testing it, I declared the mainboard dead and the backlight inverter literally burnt. I reused the DC-DC converter and, lo and behold, the P133 board is still alive! But I've encountered a few issues:

  1. Only half the keyboard works: I tried with two keyboards I have and both of them had the same non-working keys, so I'm guessing the two connectors on the board might have some issues reading the matrix. It's not a PS/2 issue, because a keyboard connected to the rear PS/2 port will work perfectly fine.
  2. The trackball is not detected: again, tried with the two I have, none of them works. Windows can't detect anything on the PS/2 bus. I checked continuity from the mainboard to the trackball and all traces are good, and I also get 5V on the trackball assembly. My guess, now, is that the internal PS/2 mouse controller is dead.
  3. I can't use my display. The P133ST originally had a 11" SVGA TFT display, but the screen is completely cracked. The P100SD came with a 10.4" SVGA DSTN display (I know it will look horrible, but at least I'll get a screen!). I guess I'll need to modify the BIOS ROM to flip some bits around to change the display type, but I'm also afraid that part of the driver circuitry on the mainboard might be slightly different.
  4. Last, they use a 7.2V NiCd CMOS backup battery that, of course, has leaked but without too much damage. I don't know where to find a replacement.

Most of the stuff I need to check would easily be referenced with proper schematics, but it's quite difficult to get such technical docs for a laptop that predates most websites currently online. If anyone happens to have any experience on this family of machines, I'll greatly appreciate your input!

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Reply 1 of 3, by cyclone3d

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I'm almost 100% sure that schematics would have never been released to even the techs that worked on these back in the day.

So unless somebody at Dell.. or more likely Foxconn released the schematics then you will never find them.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 2 of 3, by MAZter

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I had Compaq 5100 laptop with similar simptom (half keyboard worked), only motherboard replacement helps. In case with Dell XPi P133ST, not worth it, just give up and sell it for parts.

Doom is what you want (c) MAZter

Reply 3 of 3, by zago27

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cyclone3d wrote on 2020-08-19, 18:27:

somebody at Dell.. or more likely Foxconn

I'm adding Seiko to the list, since most of the components were made in Japan and the plastic parts all have the Seiko branding. I'm also not aware of a clone machine made by someone else, so I guess the only way would be to kindly ask Dell if they are willing to send 25+ years old schematics.

MAZter wrote on 2020-08-19, 18:43:

just give up and sell it for parts.

Absolutely not! That's a nostalgic piece, it was my first computer, so I really want to fix it. I've been waiting for years before getting a unit that was cheap enough (and it had worse problems than mine...)

Your friendly neighborhood hardware database and blog, The Retro Web