megatron-uk wrote on 2026-04-24, 11:54:

Well my Thinkpad T43 failed on me today :( […]
Show full quote

Well my Thinkpad T43 failed on me today 🙁

After reading a couple of the later posts here I though I would pull it off the shelf, charge the battery and see about replacing the soundfont I was using with VSBHDA with something larger (I mean, I've got 1GB of RAM for DOS... let's use it for something!)... sadly, whilst the battery charged (amber -> green indicator after an hour or two) it won't power on. The PSU and battery indicators light up, the cpu fan spins, but the screen is dead and there's no POST/beep messages. Tried on battery, on psu, on both, removed battery, held power button, reseated ram, etc.. all the normal tricks... it just won't POST.

I guess I'm in the market for a replacement:

- Later Pentium-M or Core Solo/Duo
- Minimum 1024x768 screen - absolutely must be 4:3 aspect
- Must have chipset supported by SBEMU/VSBHDA
- Trackpad preferred - nub controllers are a pain for gameplay
- Not too physically big/heavy - I've a lovely Armada 1750, but don't use it because it's so brick-like

Currently thinking: Thinkpad T60, T61, R51, R60, R61 (but most of the these were specced with 16:9 options), Compaq Nx6310, Dell D520

All the Acer note and netbooks I've got have held up very well for their age, so I would suggest looking at Acer Travelmate models with Pentium M or Centrino tech.

megatron-uk wrote on 2026-04-24, 11:54:

Well my Thinkpad T43 failed on me today 🙁

After reading a couple of the later posts here I though I would pull it off the shelf, charge the battery and see about replacing the soundfont I was using with VSBHDA with something larger (I mean, I've got 1GB of RAM for DOS... let's use it for something!)... sadly, whilst the battery charged (amber -> green indicator after an hour or two) it won't power on. The PSU and battery indicators light up, the cpu fan spins, but the screen is dead and there's no POST/beep messages. Tried on battery, on psu, on both, removed battery, held power button, reseated ram, etc.. all the normal tricks... it just won't POST.

I'm actually not surprised. This is the era of bumpgate; the issue that plagued the entire industry (2005-2010 ) The most famous victim here is the XBOX 360 with its RROD. But it also effected PS3, GPUs and laptops. I remember that's how my T43p died at work (and I was mostly using a dock at the time to a connected monitor). The T61 replacement I got was more reliable; the thing that killed it which resulted in me being switched to a Macbook Pro was it falling out my hands and cracking the LCD screen.

T43 works fine with a dead CMOS battery. Probably either the GPU or Southbridge failed. T43 is unfortunately not the most reliable laptop 🙁

3lectr1c wrote on 2026-04-24, 12:50:

T43 works fine with a dead CMOS battery. Probably either the GPU or Southbridge failed. T43 is unfortunately not the most reliable laptop 🙁

Yeah, I've much older Thinkpads (385ED, 600X, 240) that still work great. The T43 came to me as a bit of a basket case: the backlight had failed (replaced it with new screen and inverter), I also had to replace the heatsink fan (seized up) and thermal paste and interface material. I suspect it had a hard life before then and may have been on its last legs. Shame, as before it went onto the shelf I had gotten it into a nice working state.

megatron-uk wrote on 2026-04-24, 11:54:

After reading a couple of the later posts here I though I would pull it off the shelf, charge the battery and see about replacing the soundfont I was using with VSBHDA with something larger (I mean, I've got 1GB of RAM for DOS... let's use it for something!)... sadly, whilst the battery charged (amber -> green indicator after an hour or two) it won't power on. The PSU and battery indicators light up, the cpu fan spins, but the screen is dead and there's no POST/beep messages. Tried on battery, on psu, on both, removed battery, held power button, reseated ram, etc.. all the normal tricks... it just won't POST.

Have you tried specifically the static discharge voodoo? It never helped me with anything, but there are evidence that sometimes it works on that generation of machines.

Thinkpad T40 works fine with sound in most late DOS games using SBEMU. And even with some early DOS games could work (with NOEMS option).

I really like how Screamer 1/2 game runs on it, smooth and cool.

At the same time, the graphics in Big Red Racing suffer from significant ghosting:

In Grand Prix Unlimited, for example, music plays only during the intro sequence and then stops completely.

dr_st wrote on 2026-04-24, 20:37:

megatron-uk wrote on 2026-04-24, 11:54:

After reading a couple of the later posts here I though I would pull it off the shelf, charge the battery and see about replacing the soundfont I was using with VSBHDA with something larger (I mean, I've got 1GB of RAM for DOS... let's use it for something!)... sadly, whilst the battery charged (amber -> green indicator after an hour or two) it won't power on. The PSU and battery indicators light up, the cpu fan spins, but the screen is dead and there's no POST/beep messages. Tried on battery, on psu, on both, removed battery, held power button, reseated ram, etc.. all the normal tricks... it just won't POST.

Have you tried specifically the static discharge voodoo? It never helped me with anything, but there are evidence that sometimes it works on that generation of machines.

It was worth doing, so I just tried it this morning - all combinations of hammering the power button as quickly as possible, pressing and holding for 0.5-1.0s... no change in behaviour. It's dead, Jim:

I've been on the lookout for replacements and have spotted a clean looking Compaq nx6310 (Intel graphics, 14" 1024x768, 2GB, 1.8 C2D) for not much more than postage costs, as well as numerous Dell D610's in a similar config... though with the Dell I'd prefer to find one with the ATI X300 discrete graphics and the 1400x1050 panel as that is the spicy one. Somewhat similar would be the Dell D520, but that's closer to the Compaq as it isn't available with a discrete graphics option.

Got three new candidates on the way to replace the dead T43:

HP/Compaq nc6000
- 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
- 14" 1024x768
- Unknown CPU, RAM, disk

HP/Compaq nx6310
- C2D T2400
- 2GB RAM
- 128GB SSD
- 14" 1024x768

Dell Inspiron 600m
- Pentium-M 1.7
- 2GB RAM
- 40GB
- 14" 1400x1050
- ATI Mobility Radeon 9000

Hopefully since at least the nx6310 and 600m have ICH/AC97 audio, they should work with SBEMU/VSBHDA. Not sure about the nc6000 as it's a little older with the ICH-4 controller... it was cheap enough to give it a try.