keenmaster486 wrote on Today, 15:33:

The T4x series is nice. When SBEMU first came out I did some testing on my T42, and it worked as advertised.

Yeah, it's a hole in my collection of ThinkPads; I currently have one in most of the main CPU eras:

385ED
240
600X
T440

That left quite a gap between the 600X and the modern T440. I knew it had to be a 4:3 screen and a trackpad (not point), so that limited the options a little.

Update on Toshiba Portege R200:

Screen had really loose hinges. Fortunately it turned out to just be loose screws and so that was easily solved.

Internal CMOS battery pack had started to leak - it had the same party trick as all the old Toshiba laptops used to do; the battery leaked and through capillary action had wicked along the wires to the header terminal on the mboard which had started to turn green; it has been removed and will need neutralising with vinegar and then cleaning with isopropyl alcohol. Why on earth release such a late model with old-style leaky NiMH batteries???

It has two lithium battery packs - the built in, slimline one, and an external, clamp-on extended brick. I think the internal one is dead, or only charging to 1-2%. I'll need to work out if either is useable.

No internal drive; but I do now have a 1.8" to CF adapter which I can use - for now I just swapped in the old 1.8" PATA drive from the Latitude X1. DOS booted fine, VSBHDA detected the same ICH6 audio device and it all works as expected. Bonus compared to the Dell is that VSBHDA volume control seems much better (on the Dell I had to use /VOL9 to get any [ear splitting] audio, at anything less it was whisper quiet, with the Toshiba I can use lower volumes nicely). Old format 1024x768 panel looks much nicer in the few games I tested (Doom, Duke3d).

The main bad point is that there is a fault with the keyboard - I'm getting missing keys around the right 3/4, as well as the occasional 'ghost' keypresses, so I suspect the matrix is damaged in some way. No spares at present to be found on Ebay.

If either of the lithium batteries turns out to hold a charge, then it feels like it may be worth trying to source a replacement keyboard; it's a solid feeling device, but very lightweight and incredibly slim. It feels much more modern than its age would suggest. It reminds me very much of the Sony Vaio Z-series.