It could well just not like the adapter, do you have an IDE drive to test it with? It's certainly normal behaviour for my 110CT when there's no hard drive in it or one it doesn't like.

britain4 wrote on 2021-07-05, 08:34:

It could well just not like the adapter, do you have an IDE drive to test it with? It's certainly normal behaviour for my 110CT when there's no hard drive in it or one it doesn't like.

Hey thanks for the answer.
I can try to extract one from another laptop, but I don't think I have anything that is smaller than 8gb if that's something this laptop needs.

ericmackrodt wrote on 2021-07-05, 09:16:

britain4 wrote on 2021-07-05, 08:34:

It could well just not like the adapter, do you have an IDE drive to test it with? It's certainly normal behaviour for my 110CT when there's no hard drive in it or one it doesn't like.

Hey thanks for the answer.
I can try to extract one from another laptop, but I don't think I have anything that is smaller than 8gb if that's something this laptop needs.

That could well be the issue - what size is the SD card you’re using with it as I know they do have an 8GB BIOS limit.

I’m not sure what the limit is on a 110CT to be able to test it - mine currently has a 60GB drive in it which works fine.

If it was mine I’d just be going through process of elimination with it which is annoying if you don’t have any drives handy but it sounds like if you had something <8GB you would probably be good to go

My experience with Libretto 50/60/70 is that the LCD CCFL takes quite some time to warm up, a good 10 - 20 minutes especially on well used machines. Hold down ESC (or press repeatedly) until the menu for getting into the BIOS comes up pressing F1. Lastly, a HD is needed but any size will do - only later on you need to partition < 8GB, leave 500MB empty then format anything past that as big as you like.

Lastly, there is a BIOS upgrade V6.3 for the 50CT, but you need a working PCMCIA floppy drive to flash it. Having said that, any PCMCIA floppy you can find will probably work.

britain4 wrote on 2021-07-05, 09:28:

That could well be the issue - what size is the SD card you’re using with it as I know they do have an 8GB BIOS limit. […]
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ericmackrodt wrote on 2021-07-05, 09:16:

britain4 wrote on 2021-07-05, 08:34:

It could well just not like the adapter, do you have an IDE drive to test it with? It's certainly normal behaviour for my 110CT when there's no hard drive in it or one it doesn't like.

Hey thanks for the answer.
I can try to extract one from another laptop, but I don't think I have anything that is smaller than 8gb if that's something this laptop needs.

That could well be the issue - what size is the SD card you’re using with it as I know they do have an 8GB BIOS limit.

I’m not sure what the limit is on a 110CT to be able to test it - mine currently has a 60GB drive in it which works fine.

If it was mine I’d just be going through process of elimination with it which is annoying if you don’t have any drives handy but it sounds like if you had something <8GB you would probably be good to go

I tried it with a 16gb, a 1gb and a 128mb sd cards. I'll check my laptops tomorrow to see if any of them has a hard drive that would work on it, I think it's gonna be hard to find one with 8gb or less though.

For my Libretto I used a mSATA to IDE 2.5" caddy. I setup the drive in modern Windows first with Diskpart to make a 4GB boot volume. I've never had good luck with SD to IDE adapters.. retro hardware can sometimes be picky with them. CF, SATA, and mSATA has always worked for me, from Amiga/8088 all the way to modern Win98 hardware.

But yes, without proper HDD recognition, my Libretto just displays a black/off screen.

Solid HDD light and no POST is definitely the symptoms I’ve had before with a bad/incompatible adapter.

I’ve tried CF and SATA too all with good results. I’d be picking an 8GB CF card or something up just to eliminate the SD setup as a cause (which I think is likely).

The internal batteries inside these old Toshibas leak and damage the mainboard. You must open it and remove/replace the green battery.

I have ordered a CF card and the adapter to test it out, I'm still going to try to find a hard drive in my garage.
I have a 32gb msata drive and an adaptor I can test, I'll report back.

Yeah, sadly it didn't work with my msata. The led in the msata turns on and the hard drive led on the laptop stays solid green but there's no sign of life aside from that.
I'm hoping the CF card solves that.

Edit:

I got a hard drive from another toshiba laptop and no luck. The hard drive turns on and the hdd led on the laptop turns on momentarily, turns off and there's no sign of life.
Granted, the hard drive is probably bigger than 8gb, so the CF card is my last hope at this point.
I wish I could test it with the hard drive of another libretto.

I made sure to see if the F12 still works and it does, the lcd comes on with the bios update message.

Yep, I got my CF card and no luck. The still gives me a blank screen.
At this point I'm giving up, I have tested multiple hard drives. Unless I need something in the file system for it to be detected, I don't think it's working.

Hello!!

Does anyone have an HD image that can pass me to burn it in a CF?

I don't have a floppy drive so the only option to get windows 95/898 or MsDos is through an image that is prepared for the computer.

Thank you.

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 12:53:

Hello!! […]
Show full quote

Hello!!

Does anyone have an HD image that can pass me to burn it in a CF?

I don't have a floppy drive so the only option to get windows 95/898 or MsDos is through an image that is prepared for the computer.

Thank you.

Yes no problem, send me a MP

theelf wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:01:

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 12:53:

Hello!! […]
Show full quote

Hello!!

Does anyone have an HD image that can pass me to burn it in a CF?

I don't have a floppy drive so the only option to get windows 95/898 or MsDos is through an image that is prepared for the computer.

Thank you.

Yes no problem, send me a MP

Thanks a lot!!!!

It won't let me send private messages since I just entered the forum looking for information. It gives me the following message.
"We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more in discussions to be able to use this feature"

How can we do it ?

😀

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 12:53:

Hello!! […]
Show full quote

Hello!!

Does anyone have an HD image that can pass me to burn it in a CF?

I don't have a floppy drive so the only option to get windows 95/898 or MsDos is through an image that is prepared for the computer.

Thank you.

Another easy way it to use "sys" dos command while the hard disk is attached to another PC.
For my 110ct I actually attached the hard disk to a VirtualBox virtual machine, booted a dos, did "format /s" the drive and then copied the win98 installation files.

This way I was able also to install ez-drive for larger capacity drive support.

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:26:

Another easy way it to use "sys" dos command while the hard disk is attached to another PC. For my 110ct I actually attached the […]
Show full quote

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 12:53:

Hello!! […]
Show full quote

Hello!!

Does anyone have an HD image that can pass me to burn it in a CF?

I don't have a floppy drive so the only option to get windows 95/898 or MsDos is through an image that is prepared for the computer.

Thank you.

Another easy way it to use "sys" dos command while the hard disk is attached to another PC.
For my 110ct I actually attached the hard disk to a VirtualBox virtual machine, booted a dos, did "format /s" the drive and then copied the win98 installation files.

This way I was able also to install ez-drive for larger capacity drive support.

Thanks for this option. I'll try to see if I can start it like this while I wait for the partner's image !! 😀 !!

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:06:

Thanks a lot!!!! […]
Show full quote

theelf wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:01:

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 12:53:

Hello!! […]
Show full quote

Hello!!

Does anyone have an HD image that can pass me to burn it in a CF?

I don't have a floppy drive so the only option to get windows 95/898 or MsDos is through an image that is prepared for the computer.

Thank you.

Yes no problem, send me a MP

Thanks a lot!!!!

It won't let me send private messages since I just entered the forum looking for information. It gives me the following message.
"We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more in discussions to be able to use this feature"

How can we do it ?

😀

Ah ok, i will upload to you a small norton ghost file with system, then you can make a booteable msdos fat32 CF card. Later i will give you the link, im working now

sendme a email

theelf wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:58:

Benalchi wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:06:

Thanks a lot!!!! […]
Show full quote

theelf wrote on 2022-12-28, 13:01:

Yes no problem, send me a MP

Thanks a lot!!!!

It won't let me send private messages since I just entered the forum looking for information. It gives me the following message.
"We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more in discussions to be able to use this feature"

How can we do it ?

😀

Ah ok, i will upload to you a small norton ghost file with system, then you can make a booteable msdos fat32 CF card. Later i will give you the link, im working now

sendme a email

E-mail sent!
Thank you!! 😀

Schule04 wrote on 2021-07-05, 15:33:

The internal batteries inside these old Toshibas leak and damage the mainboard. You must open it and remove/replace the green battery.

this might not be the issue but I wouldn't ignore the warning if you dont want a broken laptop.