TI Travelmate 4000m DX/75. Where is the VRAM? \ VOGONS

TI Travelmate 4000m DX/75. Where is the VRAM?

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First post, by polishvito

Posted on 2026-04-20, 19:53

polishvito Offline

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Joined: 2010-07-12, 19:43

I have a Travelmate 4000m that I am attempting to restore. Among a host of other issues, the VRAM (as can be seen in the attached photo) is completely hosed. The rest of the system itself seems to be functional - system ram checks good, scandisk without errors, and it actually boots into windows 95. This is a pure VRAM problem.

My issue is that I do not currently know where the VRAM is. I have the laptop partially disassembled and I can see a section of the motherboard under the keyboard but it is not there.

The problem with just tearing the whole thing down to pieces is that this plastic has all the strength of stale crackers. Every little thing I touch starts to crumble to pieces. I'd really like to be careful with what I have to take apart and only do what is absolutely necessary, so was hoping to have something to go on about what I have to access to get those vram chips replaced. The screen hinges in particular are in bad shape and already cracking, but I'll probably have to do something about them regardless.

Thanks

Reply 1 of 3, by vstrakh

Posted on 2026-04-20, 20:12

vstrakh Offline

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The attachment travelmate_vram.JPG is no longer available

The VRAM is on the bottom of the motherboard. It's quite away from the ram expansion slot, and inaccessible without full disassembly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV_d7Phk_rA

Reply 2 of 3, by polishvito

Posted on 2026-04-20, 21:01

polishvito Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 48
Joined: 2010-07-12, 19:43

vstrakh wrote on 2026-04-20, 20:12:

The attachment travelmate_vram.JPG is no longer available

The VRAM is on the bottom of the motherboard. It's quite away from the ram expansion slot, and inaccessible without full disassembly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV_d7Phk_rA

Appreciate it. Welp, the damn thing is completely unusable in its current state so I can’t really make things worse.

Wish me luck

Reply 3 of 3, by polishvito

Posted on 2026-04-20, 23:50

polishvito Offline

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Posts: 48
Joined: 2010-07-12, 19:43

Welp I got the motherboard out. Wasn't AS bad as I was expecting.

The attachment IMG_9759.jpeg is no longer available

Good thing I did this too because I found a few other problems:

1. Corrosion on the underside of the CMOS barrel battery. I already cut it off the top and didn't see any corrosion. Not too bad though.

2. Capacitors on this small power board. It contains the DC input jack, I'm guessing its power for the screen and various other voltage levels? Anyway 3/4 of the purple electrolytic caps were buldging. Took them out, all of them totally bad in my capacitor tester.

The attachment IMG_9760.jpeg is no longer available

3. As I was replacing the capacitors, I stumbled on a nearby resistor charred to a crisp. Fell apart as I was taking it out. I think it says 47 ohm... right? Or is it 470?

The attachment IMG_9766.jpeg is no longer available

The attachment IMG_9772.jpeg is no longer available

My only guess is that it has something to do with the bad caps. Or just junky parts. Or both.

Frankly I'm amazed this thing was working given the condition of this power board. Good thing I ended up taking it apart, recommend everyone else with one of these does the same. Seems like this was gonna go boom sooner or later.

Gotta go order myself some resistors and vram chips.

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