What about hard drive? Baldur's Gate is many gigabytes big and Pentium MMX lappies usually go around the 1GB-1.5GB mark. Even worse about the cache thing, when spells go flying your frames go dying

If I were to play an RPG on the go with that thing it would have to be a roguelike like Nethack so I could set the thing on low power mode for longer nethacking

and finally if the video chipset is Chips & Tech 65k or so, I would install Windows 2000 because the stock video driver is better in that than the ones available for 9X and will run ddraw games slightly faster (if you don't mind dual booting or losing DOS gaming that is)

Diablo

leileilol wrote:

What about hard drive? Baldur's Gate is many gigabytes big and Pentium MMX lappies usually go around the 1GB-1.5GB mark. Even worse about the cache thing, when spells go flying your frames go dying

If I were to play an RPG on the go with that thing it would have to be a roguelike like Nethack so I could set the thing on low power mode for longer nethacking

and finally if the video chipset is Chips & Tech 65k or so, I would install Windows 2000 because the stock video driver is better in that than the ones available for 9X and will run ddraw games slightly faster (if you don't mind dual booting or losing DOS gaming that is)

Considering the space issue, I already ordered a dual (master/slave) CF card adapter, we'll see how it works 😀 In ideal circumstances I'll have 24Gb of space on cheap 8Gb CF cards (two via IDE, one via PCMCIA).

The chip set is indeed 65K, it's not just video, NB and SB seem to be included there. However, I have only negative experience playing older games on 2k :\ Thanks for advice anyway, might be worth trying on one of CF cards since they are easily interchangeable.

bjt wrote:

Diablo

Diablo is a "no". Diablo would require a mouse instead of joystick...

RacoonRider wrote:

However, I have only negative experience playing older games on 2k :\ Thanks for advice anyway, might be worth trying on one of CF cards since they are easily interchangeable.

Did you enable Win95 compatibility mode for those games? The option is usually hidden in 2k, you have to enable it first.

idspispopd wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

However, I have only negative experience playing older games on 2k :\ Thanks for advice anyway, might be worth trying on one of CF cards since they are easily interchangeable.

Did you enable Win95 compatibility mode for those games? The option is usually hidden in 2k, you have to enable it first.

Isn't that an addition from one of the later, more memory-requiring service packs? Vanilla W2K will work with 32mb.

leileilol wrote:

Isn't that an addition from one of the later, more memory-requiring service packs? Vanilla W2K will work with 32mb.

Actually I didn't remember, but it seems at least SP2 is needed. I suppose at the time I found out about this I was already running a sufficient service pack.
I didn't know that the service packs also lead to higher memory requirements like in XP. But 32MB is indeed not very much for 2k, just the stated minimum. I would say it runs fine with 64MB, didn't try it with less.With 32MB I would probably disable a lot of services.

Got the machine yesterday! First of all, speedsys confirmed that it does not have any L2 cache. However, its weakest link for now seems to be the sluggish hard drive. It's only 1.5Gb and 1.2Gb is filled with OS and personal files of a German psychiatrist. It seems to me, he's an M.D. and a professor. I'll probably try and find his email there, in case he needs any of his data.

Tried installing Fallout 2 (It said "Pentium 90MHz, 16MB RAM on the box) on a CF card in PCMCIA slot. The thing is kind of slow. Is it possible that PCMCIA slows it down? Scrolling is fine, animations are lagging a little, loading times and video playback are kind of awful.

I'm currently at work, so I'll post pictures and benchmark results when I get back 😀

RacoonRider wrote:

Tried installing Fallout 2 (It said "Pentium 90MHz, 16MB RAM on the box) on a CF card in PCMCIA slot. The thing is kind of slow. Is it possible that PCMCIA slows it down? Scrolling is fine, animations are lagging a little, loading times and video playback are kind of awful.

PCMCIA will certainly slow it down. The machine has a 16-bit PCMCIA slot, no CardBus, so you are restricted to ISA PIO modes.
I don't know which chipset is inside, but I guess it can do bus master DMA which helps a lot. A missing L2 cache will additionally slow it down.

Maybe it is easier to replace the HDD, possible using a drive overlay?

idspispopd wrote:

PCMCIA will certainly slow it down. The machine has a 16-bit PCMCIA slot, no CardBus, so you are restricted to ISA PIO modes. I […]
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RacoonRider wrote:

Tried installing Fallout 2 (It said "Pentium 90MHz, 16MB RAM on the box) on a CF card in PCMCIA slot. The thing is kind of slow. Is it possible that PCMCIA slows it down? Scrolling is fine, animations are lagging a little, loading times and video playback are kind of awful.

PCMCIA will certainly slow it down. The machine has a 16-bit PCMCIA slot, no CardBus, so you are restricted to ISA PIO modes.
I don't know which chipset is inside, but I guess it can do bus master DMA which helps a lot. A missing L2 cache will additionally slow it down.

Maybe it is easier to replace the HDD, possible using a drive overlay?

Uh-oh, the HDD is thinner than standard 😀 My 10Gb TravelStar does not fit. I guess I'll have to wait for CF2IDE adapter. btw, is there any sense in using a higher class CF card as an HDD?

Which chipset does the notebook have? Assuming it is Intel it should be at least 430FX, which can do DMA mode 2 (16.6MB/s). I don't know if that is high for a CF or standard. 430TX can do DMA mode 3 (33MB/s).

idspispopd wrote:

Which chipset does the notebook have? Assuming it is Intel it should be at least 430FX, which can do DMA mode 2 (16.6MB/s). I don't know if that is high for a CF or standard. 430TX can do DMA mode 3 (33MB/s).

The motherboard is ultra compact, the two biggest chips are CPU and C&T chip, which probably functions both as a chip set and as VGA:

I might be wrong though.

Anyway, the notebook performs close to a Pentium-100. Phil's scores are 81.1/30.7/1627/26.1.

Speedsys:

Topbench:
MemoryTest=38
OpcodeTest=12
VidramTest=383
MemEATest=12
3DGameTest=9
Score=126

OK, so definitely no L2 cache.
I found some conflicting information about the hardware. http://www.noteland.ru/info/libretto70ct.pdf says the VGA is connected through VLB (on a Pentium??) and everything else through ISA. Your screenshot says the HDD can do DMA 2 but I don't know if the chipset can do that, too. PIO 4 can also do up to 16.7MB/sec but that is more than ISA bus can handle.

Does the device manager in Windows tell you anything about the chipset or the IDE controller?

My Satellite 410CDT has VLB graphics too, even according to Toshiba's official spec sheet, so that information may be correct. Some desktop Pentium's did have VLB (though it was hard to implement apparently) and of course it could be used with the Pentium OverDrive on desktop systems too. It probably isn't too far fetched then, to think that the mobile versions of the chip and their supporting hardware were probably also capable of providing a VLB interface somehow. They may even have been designed with that in mind and negated the difficulties with their desktop counterparts as implementing VLB requires less components than implementing PCI, something which would be more desirable in a mobile system due to size and battery constraints.

Pretty sure the video on my 425CDT is VLB as well (CT65550 w/ 2MB EDO VRAM). Wouldn't be surprised if the bulk of Toshiba's early Pentium laptops used VLB, though apparently the Tecra series from around that time used PCI: http://support.toshiba.com/support/staticCont … omTOCLink=false

Windows 95 device manager shows no information on chipset whatsoever. Perhaps AIDA will help. I wonder if 32-bit AIDA64 will work on Windows 95.

Anyway, I tried Magic: the Gathering from Microprose and it runs fine, a little slow on the global map though... I think Master of Orion 2 will be perfect.