Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-03-27, 07:10:

Hello, […]
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Hello,

I get 2 toshiba satellite 320cds in bad condition, one had his hard drive broken and the other could start with win95 but the screen is difficult to read, blurry and not much light, and the keyboard works anyhow (double or wrong keys etc…).

So I removed the disk from the computer with garbage screen and keyboard and put it in the other one with a better screen and keyboard. I installed windows98se on it because I thought it would make things easier. There was some errors during the installation, but I can boot in win98 (I see an error with a file, I press ok, then an error with graphic card but if I cancel I can boot normally (in a window but it’s not a big deal)).

My principal problem is about the sound card which I want to use with adlibtracker2

But I can’t use the sound card (OPL3-SAx WDM YAMAHA). I tried with both SETUPSA and UNiSOUND but I have these errors :
With SETUPSA :
« SB reset error ! » (2 times)
« SAx board not present ! »

With UNISOUND :
« No PnP card detected. »

I tried also from freedos (I have the hard drive from a toshiba tecra 530cdt with freedos so it’s easy to test with it too) but it’s the same errors…

When I’m in win98, in system, opl3 driver looks like fine. At first there was a « ? » But I reinstalled the driver from win98se and now it looks ok (but I don’t know how to really test it on win98 and the final goal is to use it from ms-dos with adlibtracker2

try the driver in this post its from a 300cds/cdt driver cd,

Re: Advice on retro gaming Windows 98 build

I think also that the BIOS on the Toshiba laptops initialises the OPL3-SAx chip so unisound or setupsa are only needed if you want to modify the IRQ / DMA settings from the BIOS ones. The BIOS defaults for SB Pro are IRQ5 and DMA0, Address 220.

However it does the initialisation, it's normal for Unisound to not detect it as a PnP soundcard.

DudeFace wrote on 2025-03-27, 20:11:

Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-03-27, 07:10:

Hello, […]
Show full quote

Hello,

I get 2 toshiba satellite 320cds in bad condition, one had his hard drive broken and the other could start with win95 but the screen is difficult to read, blurry and not much light, and the keyboard works anyhow (double or wrong keys etc…).

So I removed the disk from the computer with garbage screen and keyboard and put it in the other one with a better screen and keyboard. I installed windows98se on it because I thought it would make things easier. There was some errors during the installation, but I can boot in win98 (I see an error with a file, I press ok, then an error with graphic card but if I cancel I can boot normally (in a window but it’s not a big deal)).

My principal problem is about the sound card which I want to use with adlibtracker2

But I can’t use the sound card (OPL3-SAx WDM YAMAHA). I tried with both SETUPSA and UNiSOUND but I have these errors :
With SETUPSA :
« SB reset error ! » (2 times)
« SAx board not present ! »

With UNISOUND :
« No PnP card detected. »

I tried also from freedos (I have the hard drive from a toshiba tecra 530cdt with freedos so it’s easy to test with it too) but it’s the same errors…

When I’m in win98, in system, opl3 driver looks like fine. At first there was a « ? » But I reinstalled the driver from win98se and now it looks ok (but I don’t know how to really test it on win98 and the final goal is to use it from ms-dos with adlibtracker2

try the driver in this post its from a 300cds/cdt driver cd,

Re: Advice on retro gaming Windows 98 build

On the second s320cds I installed the driver and I can now start setupsa.exe, but there is still no sound. In adlibtracker2 the playing works but there is no sounds from speaker or from headphones

Luckily, one of the 2 s320cds works now good because I saw that the screen could be ok if I turned the hidden wheel on it adjusting « brightness? » (yea I am stupid…) and I replaced the keyboard with the other computer keyboard which removed the keyboard problems. And sound works on this one (not from speaker where there is nothing, but from headphones it’s ok). The screen is bad but as I readed it’s related to several satellite CDS (adlibtracker2 playing is blurry, while on external screen with vga it’s ok). So there is probably nothing to do for better display ?

About the second one where there is sound and cd-rom problems, maybe I can use it too, it could be usefull if the first one is broken someday

So on the second one, the internal cd-rom is not recognized. Sometimes it’s recognized but the most time not, if it was I could reinstall windows98 without errors because now I know that if I point the cd-rom locator when prompted errors, it can install missing files so maybe it will repair graphic errors at startup and maybe sound ? Or maybe the sound problem is due to the chip and there is nothing to do ? 🫤

This laptop is not in good condition, I removed the keyboard because it acted crazy, unusable, it works with an external keyboard with a ps2/usb adaptor and a usb mouse.

In the bios there is no CD-ROM. Sometimes it is here, but the most times not, and several last times I rebooted it was not here, but when I insert a cd, it makes normal reading physical sound, but nothing in win98 and in bios…

Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-03-29, 11:36:

DudeFace wrote on 2025-03-27, 20:11:

Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-03-27, 07:10:

Hello, […]
Show full quote

Hello,

I get 2 toshiba satellite 320cds in bad condition, one had his hard drive broken and the other could start with win95 but the screen is difficult to read, blurry and not much light, and the keyboard works anyhow (double or wrong keys etc…).

So I removed the disk from the computer with garbage screen and keyboard and put it in the other one with a better screen and keyboard. I installed windows98se on it because I thought it would make things easier. There was some errors during the installation, but I can boot in win98 (I see an error with a file, I press ok, then an error with graphic card but if I cancel I can boot normally (in a window but it’s not a big deal)).

My principal problem is about the sound card which I want to use with adlibtracker2

But I can’t use the sound card (OPL3-SAx WDM YAMAHA). I tried with both SETUPSA and UNiSOUND but I have these errors :
With SETUPSA :
« SB reset error ! » (2 times)
« SAx board not present ! »

With UNISOUND :
« No PnP card detected. »

I tried also from freedos (I have the hard drive from a toshiba tecra 530cdt with freedos so it’s easy to test with it too) but it’s the same errors…

When I’m in win98, in system, opl3 driver looks like fine. At first there was a « ? » But I reinstalled the driver from win98se and now it looks ok (but I don’t know how to really test it on win98 and the final goal is to use it from ms-dos with adlibtracker2

try the driver in this post its from a 300cds/cdt driver cd,

Re: Advice on retro gaming Windows 98 build

On the second s320cds I installed the driver and I can now start setupsa.exe, but there is still no sound. In adlibtracker2 the playing works but there is no sounds from speaker or from headphones

Luckily, one of the 2 s320cds works now good because I saw that the screen could be ok if I turned the hidden wheel on it adjusting « brightness? » (yea I am stupid…) and I replaced the keyboard with the other computer keyboard which removed the keyboard problems. And sound works on this one (not from speaker where there is nothing, but from headphones it’s ok). The screen is bad but as I readed it’s related to several satellite CDS (adlibtracker2 playing is blurry, while on external screen with vga it’s ok). So there is probably nothing to do for better display ?

That's the contrast wheel, something that is probably thankfully forgotten now is that LCDs in the 90s were a mix of passive matrix DSTN LCDs (what the 320CDS has) and active matrix TFT LCDs (what the 320CDT has). Active matrix is what all modern LCDs use but back in the 90s they were very expensive because of the complexity to manufacture them.
Passive matrix DSTN displays were cheaper and more available in the 90s - they have poor contrast, viewing angles and display response time. The contrast wheel is a necessity because contrast settings for a spreadsheet won't work for games etc, so it's always a tradeoff and you just adjust it in use to fit what you're displaying. It's normal for the lowest contrast setting to basically invert the display and be unreadable.

Best thing you can do is use an external display, I have investigated the Satellite 300 series and can confirm that you can't just put the top half of a TFT model (320CDT) on the motherboard/lower-half for a 320CDS, lots of components and wiring are different.

About the second one where there is sound and cd-rom problems, maybe I can use it too, it could be usefull if the first one is b […]
Show full quote

About the second one where there is sound and cd-rom problems, maybe I can use it too, it could be usefull if the first one is broken someday

So on the second one, the internal cd-rom is not recognized. Sometimes it’s recognized but the most time not, if it was I could reinstall windows98 without errors because now I know that if I point the cd-rom locator when prompted errors, it can install missing files so maybe it will repair graphic errors at startup and maybe sound ? Or maybe the sound problem is due to the chip and there is nothing to do ? 🫤

This laptop is not in good condition, I removed the keyboard because it acted crazy, unusable, it works with an external keyboard with a ps2/usb adaptor and a usb mouse.

In the bios there is no CD-ROM. Sometimes it is here, but the most times not, and several last times I rebooted it was not here, but when I insert a cd, it makes normal reading physical sound, but nothing in win98 and in bios…

That second one sounds like it might be water damaged or something, with CD-ROM detection failing and the keyboard / trackpoint being bad. The keyboards are pretty cheap and available I think if you want to go that route

It might be worth investigating why the CD-ROM doesn't detect. From what I recall that connects with a flex cable to the mainboard and then a connector on the back of the CD-ROM drive, perhaps one or both needs the contacts cleaned.

I have the 320CDT version of this laptop and use it regularly. Since you mentioned the sound works in Windows 98, have you tried using adlibtracker2 in Windows and not booting into DOS mode? I have had some issues setting up the sound properly for DOS, but it mostly works without issue in Windows.

8bitKittyKat wrote on 2025-04-01, 04:03:

I have the 320CDT version of this laptop and use it regularly. Since you mentioned the sound works in Windows 98, have you tried using adlibtracker2 in Windows and not booting into DOS mode? I have had some issues setting up the sound properly for DOS, but it mostly works without issue in Windows.

There is no sound when I start AT2 from win98. The playing works (mean, I see the lines moving) but no sounds. And there is no sounds too when I try to play pcm sounds from win98 control pannel —> sounds (system sounds). But in the driver list OPL3 look like fine… I don’t know an other way to test opl3 in win98. I read somewhere that midi files use opl3, is it as simple as downloading a random midi file and play it in win98 to see if a sound come or is there more things to do ?

About the first one (the one with freedos, the one which works the best) sometimes AT2 don’t open (black screen) and I have to reboot the system for make it working. And after a certain time of using, the keyboard start to work weird (even if I replaced it, before doing that it was worst) not properly or not at all or with delay… using an external keyboard and an external fan table make things better but the problem still happen sometimes. I suspect the fan to not working at all but the weird thing is that on the both s320cds the fan never start

There is a new thing ! On the one with windows98 and sound problems, I tried again AT2 from dos, and I choosed a project which has probably particulary loud sounds, and I hear very little sound, with very little level coming from speakers (nothing from headphones). I have to say that speakers don’t work on these 2 both laptops

Maz Hoot wrote on 2025-04-03, 13:47:

About the first one (the one with freedos, the one which works the best) sometimes AT2 don’t open (black screen) and I have to reboot the system for make it working. And after a certain time of using, the keyboard start to work weird (even if I replaced it, before doing that it was worst) not properly or not at all or with delay… using an external keyboard and an external fan table make things better but the problem still happen sometimes. I suspect the fan to not working at all but the weird thing is that on the both s320cds the fan never start.

I answer to myself as I found the solutions for this pc (the better one on freedos), if someone have the same problems :
- for the black screen when starting AT2 : switching screen mode with fn + F5 several times make the display works again
- for the keyboard acting weird after a certain time : I removed ctmouse from fdauto.bat , it was at first for use fastracker2 which can’t start without mouse but I don’t use ft2 finally, and after removing ctmouse, the keyboard seems to work properly for the moment