vorob wrote on 2021-05-04, 16:49:

Guys, count my money...

Toshiba Libretto 50 CTA in perfect condition, with Pentium 75 and docking station - 215 USD. Too expensive or good buy? For collection and maybe re-selling it in future with bigger price.

Not sure, those seem to be hot lately. Personally I'd pay $150 but maybe there just aren't that many left on the market.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-05-04, 16:52:

vorob wrote on 2021-05-04, 16:49:

Guys, count my money...

Toshiba Libretto 50 CTA in perfect condition, with Pentium 75 and docking station - 215 USD. Too expensive or good buy? For collection and maybe re-selling it in future with bigger price.

Not sure, those seem to be hot lately. Personally I'd pay $150 but maybe there just aren't that many left on the market.

I'd say $150 would be right - collectively that's roughly what I paid for my NEC Versa M/75 ($75) and AT&T Globalyst DS ($50) docking station (Versadock II in AT&T branding).

Rechecked. This dude replaced the CCFL light with LED, so the screen was disassembled. Can't say it's a bad move, but there are some scratches on the screen corner and I better go for original parts.

Honestly, I already have a perfect retro machine, from my point of view - Toshiba 2805 with Yamaha and Geforce 2. But I just can't stop, so now I monitor the Russian eBay market (avito.ru) and search for old garbage that I can buy 😀

In my pursuit to find a good old laptop I currently own:

Dell Latitude D800 - my first retro machine, found it thrown out in Denmark, was used in Dansk Design School. Still works. Still a perfect thing.

And now stuff that I bought. Lots of laptops were bought just because I'm a lazy ass that doesn't wanna dig information. I was searching simultaneously for good native dos matching and a good dx9 powerful machine. One rule was applied in both directions, these machines must run Thief, an essential game in my life.

Compaq Evo n400c - ultra-portable (was shocked that such piece of tech existed in 2000), nice, have sound in native dos, bad video card, can't run Thief II. No general midi
Compaq Evo n600c - same as previous, but can run Thief II.

IBM ThinkPad R60 - good for middle 2000 games, x1400 can run Half-Life 2, Thief III, and DOOM 3 with EAX (from PCMCIA card). Extremely bad screen, not old, just piece of shit.
Toshiba Tecra S3 - same idea as the previous laptop, but GeForce 6600 is bad for old games, too many issues that prevent playing them natively. And also an Extremely bad screen. Not old, just piece of shit.

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1546 (Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1546, or my final step for an ultimate old gaming machine) - a real gem, ATI x1900 onboard, most powerful dx9 card that still supports old games, palette textures, dithering, and so on. Geforce failed in the 6th generation and ATI kept it all working until the last day of dx9. Have two of them, just because... Also good speakers, perfect screen.

MacBook Pro Late 2006 (A1211) - same as for Fujitsu just GPU is weaker - ATI X1600, but more compact and nice looking machine 😀

Toshiba Satellite 2805 - already said, a best possible laptop that has native DOS, late 90th Windows games, good scaling, general midi, and so on, and can run Thief II!
Toshiba Satellite 5205-S705- Well... Same as the previous one, but can't run in native DOS since it uses a WDM soundcard. But Geforce 5 gives nGlide support for 3dfx titles, Windows 98 allows to play DOS games with good Yamaha General Midi and the screen is gorgeous, it's even good by today's standards. So if a DOS game runs on it, and doesn't require real native DOS I prefer to play it on this laptop instead of 2805 which is perfect, but the screen is older...

The Thinkpad 240 battery (first one from my order of two) charged all the way up. Now I will unplug and see how long it lasts.

Sweet! Hopefully both batteries charge up properly and have good runtime

I have a feeling these might have been recelled at some point, or they are simply in very good condition.

I didn't bother draining this first battery all the way down, since it was taking so long.

46 minutes and it was down to 80%. If it drains at the same rate the whole time, that would be a 3.5 hour battery life.

I'll do a fuller test later when I have actual work to do on the machine.

Now I will charge it back up and try the other one.

Wow that's nice. I hope those just work and do what you need

My mind and pocket struggle between two laptops:

Toshiba T4700CT and Toshiba T2150CDT. The first one is old and fat like I want, but shitty WSS sound brings depression over me, plus there are now batter, charger, and this weird mouse ball thing. The second one is not that old, 1995 year, have build-in power supply and good sound. 55USD vs 80USD.

Trying to understand which one has more history value 😀

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-05-04, 16:52:

vorob wrote on 2021-05-04, 16:49:

Guys, count my money...

Toshiba Libretto 50 CTA in perfect condition, with Pentium 75 and docking station - 215 USD. Too expensive or good buy? For collection and maybe re-selling it in future with bigger price.

Not sure, those seem to be hot lately. Personally I'd pay $150 but maybe there just aren't that many left on the market.

Eh, that's probably because the LCDs are around the time when they are about to age out, and some of the smarter owners are letting them go before they plummet in value. You are seeing the same thing in the Japanese used market with PC110s and the ThinkPad 235/Hitachi FloraNote 210s. If you think the price is ridiculous I recently lost an eBay bid for an HP Omnibook 800CT - that one went to 400 USD.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-05-04, 21:36:

I have a feeling these might have been recelled at some point, or they are simply in very good condition. […]
Show full quote

I have a feeling these might have been recelled at some point, or they are simply in very good condition.

I didn't bother draining this first battery all the way down, since it was taking so long.

46 minutes and it was down to 80%. If it drains at the same rate the whole time, that would be a 3.5 hour battery life.

I'll do a fuller test later when I have actual work to do on the machine.

Now I will charge it back up and try the other one.

Did the battery hold up after a few day’s usage?

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-05-09, 19:09:

Eh, that's probably because the LCDs are around the time when they are about to age out, and some of the smarter owners are letting them go before they plummet in value. You are seeing the same thing in the Japanese used market with PC110s and the ThinkPad 235/Hitachi FloraNote 210s.

By luck I secured an IBM PC110 a couple of years ago, local seller in Melbourne Australia, screen still works as intended without any "vinegar effect". It was listed for months on Gumtree (crappy online marketplace), nobody looked at it until me. But yes I'm paranoid, it's kept in two soft insulated pouches, in the nicest room in the house! It's my favourite PC (I usually collect vintage Macs), and to my eyes is the ultimate piece of 90's gadgetry: too smart, too small and largely useless (that a smartphone can now do substantially better) 😀

I'm seeing a lot of vintage laptops sold at this time with "vinegar syndrome"; clearly long term storage has not been good for these units. Mostly greyscale units, then DSTN, last TFT. A lack of use, moisture, temperature extremes knocks the screens out completely. A real shame, as some laptops are more rugged than their desktop counterparts of a similar era.

JB

I just looked up a IBM pc110 and that little thing is super cool. I love how you can use it as a phone as well just a neat little device. Yeah I don't blame you for storing it as best as possible.

Byrd wrote on 2021-05-19, 02:32:

By luck I secured an IBM PC110 a couple of years ago, local seller in Melbourne Australia, screen still works as intended withou […]
Show full quote

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-05-09, 19:09:

Eh, that's probably because the LCDs are around the time when they are about to age out, and some of the smarter owners are letting them go before they plummet in value. You are seeing the same thing in the Japanese used market with PC110s and the ThinkPad 235/Hitachi FloraNote 210s.

By luck I secured an IBM PC110 a couple of years ago, local seller in Melbourne Australia, screen still works as intended without any "vinegar effect". It was listed for months on Gumtree (crappy online marketplace), nobody looked at it until me. But yes I'm paranoid, it's kept in two soft insulated pouches, in the nicest room in the house! It's my favourite PC (I usually collect vintage Macs), and to me eyes is the ultimate 90's piece of too smart, largely useless gadgetry (that a smartphone can now do substantially better) 😀

I'm seeing a lot of vintage laptops sold at this time with "vinegar syndrome"; clearly long term storage has not been good for these units. Mostly greyscale units, then DSTN, last TFT. A lack of use, moisture, temperature extremes knocks the screens out completely. A real shame, as some laptops are more rugged than their desktop counterparts of a similar era.

JB

Well, there’s 2 modes of failures common to aging LCDs - one is the coating on top breaking down (vinegar syndrome) - I’ve heard PC110 users scraping off the failing polarizing layer and replacing it with mixed reports of success. The other is moisture seepage into the LCD panel itself. LCD panels have sealants keeping the layers together and away from moisture, and they are meant to go through cycles of slight heating and cooling from usage. Once that sealant turn brittle with long periods of disuse moisture can seep into the layers and eventually destroy the LCD. Note that one mode of failure does need not preclude the other - both can be happening at the same time. Either ways, cool dry place with silica moisture absorbers in the packaging, and occasional use will help extend its usable life.

Oh yeah, yyzkevin documented swapping the CSTN screeen out on the PC110 with a TFT panel. That’s an interesting read for those considering similar action.

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-05-19, 01:55:

Did the battery hold up after a few day’s usage?

It did! I've been using it off and on since then. Holds a charge well. The 2nd battery, however, charged up but does not hold its charge, so I'm writing it off as bad.

One good battery out of a set of two for $10 each isn't bad at all, I'd say.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2021-05-19, 16:27:

ragefury32 wrote on 2021-05-19, 01:55:

Did the battery hold up after a few day’s usage?

It did! I've been using it off and on since then. Holds a charge well. The 2nd battery, however, charged up but does not hold its charge, so I'm writing it off as bad.

One good battery out of a set of two for $10 each isn't bad at all, I'd say.

Oh yeah, that's for sure. An old laptop with working batteries is an extra bonus.

Here's an almost perfect laptop.

It's an IIT Wedge Showman DS/DV with a Cyrix Cx5x86-100 CPU (standard Socket 1 LIF), 16MB RAM, C&T video, ES488, Trackball, 640x480 TFT Active with a projector mode (removal of the top display cover door and installing a side cooling fan), functional floppy drive, and boots to Windows 95 (must've had Windows 3.1 with DOS 6.22 back when it was new in the mid 1990's).

The downside is the stretched display and I'm unable to find an option in the BIOS setting to disable it or the VGA utilities since the diskette it has doesn't have the files (must be a disk 2 somewhere).

It needs the hinge repair and a couple of other items, but it's almost perfect for DOS gaming.

Bought an interesting no-name laptop, FCC ID FMA7600 with an Active Matrix display and uses an oddball power supply connector (4 pin barrel-ish connector that supports either 20VDC 2A DC input or 25VDC 1.6A for the charge input) ,however, it has no power supply to go along with it and I might daisy chain something to get it to work.

It's possible it has a Pentium 75 in it and an ESS sound card, but the rest leads something to be desired once I receive the beast.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-06-17, 07:15:

Bought an interesting no-name laptop, FCC ID FMA7600 with an Active Matrix display and uses an oddball power supply connector (4 […]
Show full quote

Bought an interesting no-name laptop, FCC ID FMA7600 with an Active Matrix display and uses an oddball power supply connector (4 pin barrel-ish connector that supports either 20VDC 2A DC input or 25VDC 1.6A for the charge input) ,however, it has no power supply to go along with it and I might daisy chain something to get it to work.

It's possible it has a Pentium 75 in it and an ESS sound card, but the rest leads something to be desired once I receive the beast.

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s-l1600 (3)~2.jpg

I think I saw you on VCFED, your new purchase inspired me to post up a database in the VCFED Wiki on the NanTan built laptop computers like yours. I've owned three myself (Prostar 9200 (FMA9200M), Duracom 5110D (FMA9200D), and a NanTan Notebook 3500). I actually really liked the Duracom 5110D for gaming even though the DTSN screen made fast movements blurry. Shame it passed away years ago (I really ran the HECK out of that little 486 DX4-100 machine, it was my main laptop for a long time). I've also read about people modifying these to work off a more standard PSU Connector.

I think the FMA7600 was one of the first Pentium versions released, and it shares a case with the 486-based 7500 and 8200 it looks like. That said I don't know if the Pentium versions have a desktop CPU but it might be upgradable to an even faster CPU like a 90 or 166. I know the 486 models are. Mine was originally a DX-33 upgraded to a Cyrix DX2-66, and then when I got it I bumped it up to a DX4-100 and it was a beasty machine.

Guys, was there any laptop in past that supported general midi under native dos? Or it's only about sound blaster?

vorob wrote on 2021-06-20, 22:10:

Guys, was there any laptop in past that supported general midi under native dos? Or it's only about sound blaster?

Pretty sure there was. If I remember correctly, it had an ESS or Yamaha chip. I might have one but don't have time to go digging through stuff right now.