Can anyone identify the laptop used on this episode of Computer Chronicles around the 18:00 mark?

I was thinking it's a Thinkpad because of the keyboard that can be lifted up but I'm puzzled by how she swaps the CD. It's like swapping a CD on a PlayStation 1 or Dreamcast, I've never seen that before on a PC, and when I look at pictures of Thinkpads from around that time they have a normal CD tray. Any ideas?

The episode looks to be recorded around October 1995.

Idk but it's not a Thinkpad. Maybe a Compaq Contura, after doing some brief searching.

It looks so weird with the screen down 😁
It's the Panasonic CF-41: https://muzeuldecalculatoare.ro/2020/01/14/pa … book-cf-41-mk1/
(mostly great with a 640x480 TFT, ESS sound and that great CD-ROM drive. But, marred by the 25mm fan and I can't find the floppy drive to fit it)

Thanks! Neat machine. There aren't two CD-ROM drives in there, are there? Is the right one just a holder for another CD?

Also props to Panasonic for looking for the drivers for the thing 😀

The spindle on the left is the CD-ROM drive, the part on the right is for storing your CD-ROMs on the go

This isn't exactly retro, but I outfitted a Thinkpad X60 with 3 GB RAM (max), a 120 GB SSD, and Debian. It's actually a very nice machine to use. Debian with XFCE is fast and light enough that I don't notice slowdowns anywhere. I can use Chromium with multiple tabs and not rum out of RAM.

Plus I have the giant 9 cell battery that lasts forever.

I wanted this particular machine due to its being nearly the last to have a 4:3 screen, and its lack of Intel Management Engine, which I'd like to avoid.

1       _,met$$$$$gg.          <username>@tpx60deb 
2    ,g$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P.       --------------- 
3  ,g$$P"     """Y$$.".        OS: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) x86_64 
4 ,$$P'              `$$$.     Host: 1709H6U ThinkPad X60 
5',$$P       ,ggs.     `$$b:   Kernel: 5.10.0-9-amd64 
6`d$$'     ,$P"'   .    $$$    Uptime: 25 mins 
7 $$P      d$'     ,    $$P    Packages: 1297 (dpkg) 
8 $$:      $$.   -    ,d$$'    Shell: bash 5.1.4 
9 $$;      Y$b._   _,d$P'      Resolution: 1024x768 
10 Y$$.    `.`"Y$$$$P"'         DE: Xfce 4.16 
11 `$$b      "-.__              WM: Xfwm4 
12  `Y$$                        WM Theme: Default 
13   `Y$$.                      Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3] 
14     `$$b.                    Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3] 
15       `Y$$b.                 Terminal: xfce4-terminal 
16          `"Y$b._             Terminal Font: Monospace 12 
17              `"""            CPU: Intel Core 2 T7200 (2) @ 2.000GHz 
18                              GPU: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Expre 
19                              Memory: 1234MiB / 2978MiB 

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-11-13, 15:33:

This isn't exactly retro, but I outfitted a Thinkpad X60 with 3 GB RAM (max), a 120 GB SSD, and Debian. It's actually a very nice machine to use. Debian with XFCE is fast and light enough that I don't notice slowdowns anywhere. I can use Chromium with multiple tabs and not rum out of RAM.

Plus I have the giant 9 cell battery that lasts forever.

I wanted this particular machine due to its being nearly the last to have a 4:3 screen, and its lack of Intel Management Engine, which I'd like to avoid.

Now I turned off all of the antialiasing and forced all fonts to Tahoma 10 point.

Just as God intended.

I must admit to a love of the Thinkpad t60. I have the 15 inch model. Years ago I sent it out to get modded with an IPS uxga screen with an LED Backlight. Such a gorgeous memorial to the 4:3 laptops.

I have found that if you install windows xp it works well for some retro games. Mine has the ati card (though sometimes I wish I had one with the just the intel gpu) and I found a driver for the soundcard that had some hardware 3d sound support for games in XP.

2Mourty wrote on 2021-12-05, 02:52:

I must admit to a love of the Thinkpad t60. I have the 15 inch model. Years ago I sent it out to get modded with an IPS uxga screen with an LED Backlight. Such a gorgeous memorial to the 4:3 laptops.

I have found that if you install windows xp it works well for some retro games. Mine has the ati card (though sometimes I wish I had one with the just the intel gpu) and I found a driver for the soundcard that had some hardware 3d sound support for games in XP.

I have such a system myself, also running XP. Except I didn't bother to do the LED upgrade, and it's still on the stock CCFL SXGA+ IPS (although one that has been replaced under warranty).

The problem with the original panels is that they lose a lot of brightness and develop a yellowish during the first 2 years. I believe the CCFL bulbs in those panels were just faulty. However, after a certain point the deterioration slows down, and so my system is still perfectly usable indoors, even with a ~12-13 year old panel. Although, to be fair, I don't use the panel that often as the machine is almost always docked and connected to a DELL 2209WA. Maybe the panel would deteriorate beyond usability if it had a few thousands more hours on it.

I lucked out and got the mod when it was relatively "inexpensive". 75 for the screen and 75 for somebody to do the mod for me. I like doing my own mods, but I didn't feel confident in my skills on this one.

This is definitely not retro, but for any t60 lovers out there look at this crowdfunded project:

https://www.xyte.ch/t700-crowdfunding/

Sigh..... wish it wasn't so expensive, or I was rich. Take your pick =)

I recently nabbed a Gateway Solo 9550.
Has ESS Allegro 1 ( 1988 ) chip which has decent DOS support
Geforce 2 Go graphics
A Tualatin 1.13 PIII
Rather large 15" 1280x1024 LCD (if i remember the res correcrly)
Win98se drivers are all available even though it came with XP.

It isn't perfect but it does tick most of the boxes for DOS and up to late 90s gaming.
It does weigh about one millions tons though.

Geforce 2 Go and dos sound support! That is a potent combo! How does the FM synthesis sound? Also, bet you my Inspiron 8100 weighs more. =) I think sometimes it is a good thing that they don't make things the way that they used to.

2Mourty wrote on 2021-12-06, 20:08:

Geforce 2 Go and dos sound support! That is a potent combo! How does the FM synthesis sound? Also, bet you my Inspiron 8100 weighs more. =) I think sometimes it is a good thing that they don't make things the way that they used to.

Well it honestly sounds fine to me, but I don't know if I am a very good judge for FM sound to be honest.
While I did use it back in the day I didn't very often and with a bare handful of games. What sounds 'good' to me, might sound like trash to people who actually know how it is supposed to sound.
I'm actually waiting to take possession of a earlier Gateway solo with a PMMX and a much smaller footprint. It should be a bit easier to grab and go although obviously only suitable for DOS and more early to mid 90s games, as I don't think that it has any 3D acceleration.

I find the laptops easier to manage than the desktops these days, even though I have several of them as well.

I think may have stumbled across a couple laptops that could qualify as the ultimate for DOS/Win98 usage.

Not going to divulge any specifics until they arrive and I get to run some tests but if they work like I think they will, I will be selling off a large portion of my laptops.

Sooo.... One of the laptops I ordered came. It was sold as parts. Was said to power on but not do anything else; as-in no video.

Got it, stuck a couple sticks of RAM in it, plugged in an appropriate power adapter and, what do ya know, it seems to work just fine. Just need to install a drive and OS to do some testing.

Still waiting on the other one which has even better specs but should be just as compatible with DOS/Win98... MWAHAHAHAHA.

Anybody want to hazard a guess at what the CPU/video/sound is?

What would the best possible laptop specs be that would fully support DOS/WIN98 ? Not looking for wish-lists here.. just what would have been an actual possible laptop that really existed.

Maybe I shouldn't reveal the brand/model.... Don't really want to make the price of an already seemingly pretty rare laptop skyrocket.

I believe the Compaq presario 2800 P4-M line with Radeon mobility 7500 had official '98 support, though I think only corporate sales could specify it as supplied OS. Then there was the v2000 series with s754 Turion and Sempron on an ATI Xpress200 based chipset, that can have drivers "persuaded" to work on 98, but not official.

edit: oh the p4-M unit supports a floppy, the v2000s don't (apart from USB)

What about pure DOS sound support though?

DSS on the parallel port if nothing else 😜

But that is not built into the laptop.

I'm talking about something like that with pure DOS compatible audio built in.

I'm getting a bit giddy now. Have a known working higher end one on the way and a second higher end one sold for parts on the way.

I also have a port replicator that is for these two different models on the way.

Both have ESS Allegro for audio. Lower model has ATI mobility Radeon 7500 and higher end model has ATI mobility Radeon 9500.

This is per the spec sheets and other info I was able to find.

Evo series? I think they had the Allegro. The Presario had that AD AC97 chip which in theory has drivers that nobody can find last I heard, but works in 98 Dos mode.