VOGONS


First post, by nfraser01

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Hi All

Just acquired a Dell Latitide LT subnotebook. The weird thing is I can't find out anything about it. The Dell support page suggests one exists but has no images, files or details about it. The Service Tag and serial numbers don't register on the website. General googling amazingly brings back pretty much nothing. Searching for the model numbers of the accessories (Flopy drive and CD-ROM) bring up an unanswered floppy drive query on Dell's support webiste. All very strange. It's circa 1998 according to the maufacturing mark on the bottom of the CD-ROM drive.

Anyone ever come accross one, or even owned one?

I'll post specs and pictures if anyone is interested...

Thanks

Neil

Reply 1 of 13, by Ydee

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Here's a possible manual if they fit the specifications (P MMX, NeoMagic 2MB, 64 MB EDO?):
https://www.manualslib.com/products/Dell-Lati … ystem-4118.html
Other mentions here:
https://www.cnet.com/culture/dells-got-a-new-latitude/

If it matches, you may find drivers here, unfortunately in Japanese: https://download-drv.com/contents/drivers/del … titude_LT01.htm
Clicking on the blue text on the right side of each line takes you to a new page, where you'll find a link to the Dell website with the appropriate driver at the bottom of the line under the URL.

Reply 3 of 13, by nfraser01

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Ydee wrote on 2022-07-25, 10:11:
Here's a possible manual if they fit the specifications (P MMX, NeoMagic 2MB, 64 MB EDO?): https://www.manualslib.com/products/D […]
Show full quote

Here's a possible manual if they fit the specifications (P MMX, NeoMagic 2MB, 64 MB EDO?):
https://www.manualslib.com/products/Dell-Lati … ystem-4118.html
Other mentions here:
https://www.cnet.com/culture/dells-got-a-new-latitude/

I had seen the Dell support page, but it doesn't even show a photo of the item, which I thought was weird.

I hadn't seen the CNET article - not sure why it didn't appear in my search results, but yes that does appear to be the item in question.

Ydee wrote on 2022-07-25, 10:11:

If it matches, you may find drivers here, unfortunately in Japanese: https://download-drv.com/contents/drivers/del … titude_LT01.htm
Clicking on the blue text on the right side of each line takes you to a new page, where you'll find a link to the Dell website with the appropriate driver at the bottom of the line under the URL.

Hadn't see this either, but luckily I got the laptop with the User Guide and Restore CD so have all the dirvers required 😀

The fact that the BIOS doesn't go above the release one (A00) suggests to me that it was only on the market for a short time.

I'll keep digging...

Reply 4 of 13, by 3lectr1c

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Bumping to add more info on this laptop.
It appears to have been released in 1999, and only was available for a few months. One was up on eBay recently, I didn't end up buying it.
I put all the information I could find on my website: https://macdat.net/pc/dell/latitude/lt_home.html

Is there any chance you could image the Restore CD and preserve it on archive.org?

Weird release in general. Dell had the slightly larger 12.1" Latitude LS out around the same time, and that one's far more common. I get the feeling from the design that Dell didn't actually make it, and that it was likely a slightly redesigned/rebadged generic laptop from one of the Taiwanese ODM companies, maybe Quanta or Compal as Dell worked with them a lot back then (and still do).

Owner of https://www.macdat.net, the largest vintage laptop documentation resource on the web!

Reply 5 of 13, by Many Bothans

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Bumping to add more info on this laptop.
It appears to have been released in 1999, and only was available for a few months. One was up on eBay recently, I didn't end up buying it.
I put all the information I could find on my website: https://macdat.net/pc/dell/latitude/lt_home.html

Best I can tell from the Drivers page it used a Neomagic MagicGraph128XD 2MB video chip on the PCI bus and had Crystal CS4237B audio.

  • Zenith Z386SX-20, 8MB FPM, Video 7 1024i, Unhoused
  • AOpen AP43, Am5x86-133@160, 1MB L2, 128MB FPM, Stealth III S540 32MB Savage4, SB32
  • ITX-Llama, 3Dfx V3
  • Asus CUV4X-E, P3-933, 512MB PC133, Hercules 3D Prophet II MX 32MB, SB Live!

Reply 6 of 13, by 3lectr1c

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Yeah I've gotta update that, thanks for the reminder.

Owner of https://www.macdat.net, the largest vintage laptop documentation resource on the web!

Reply 7 of 13, by Thermalwrong

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Another way to get drivers: https://web.archive.org/web/20200713184934/ht … atitude-lt.html
The Internet Archive got this pretty complete pull of Dell's /published/pages section which used to be really nice way to find stuff without the service tag, all the way back to their first computers.

So this thing's got Neomagic 2160 graphics and Crystal CS4237B sound. I wonder if it's really made by another OEM?
Some pictures especially one with an FCCID would give a clue, maybe it was made by Samsung, Sharp or NEC, maybe a taiwanese ODM? Dell always did this, there's a bunch of their monitors in Europe that were just relabelled Nokia CRTs. I think one of their later ultraportables the Dell Latitude X300 was a rebadged Samsung.

Reply 8 of 13, by 3lectr1c

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I definitely think it was ODM'd, doesn't look like any other Dell laptop. No FCC ID present though. Compal and Quanta are the most likely since Dell used and still uses them a lot. Could also be Uniwill just based off looks, but I've never seen that exact system branded under a different name. Quanta did make the LS and L400 and Gateway sold the same Quanta system under their Solo line.

Thanks for linking that archived support page, very useful. One thing I wish I could find was the LED error code tables for the Latitude C Series. I swear they used to be available but aren't anymore.

Owner of https://www.macdat.net, the largest vintage laptop documentation resource on the web!

Reply 9 of 13, by 3lectr1c

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Forget what I said about Compal and Quanta, this was very likely made by Sharp. I looked up the UL Listing code on the bottom sticker of one in an ebay listing and it led back to Sharp. Now that I've seen the name connected to them, it makes sense. I've seen a very similar looking Sharp laptop before.

Owner of https://www.macdat.net, the largest vintage laptop documentation resource on the web!

Reply 10 of 13, by 3lectr1c

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Found it, Sharp Actius PC-A150. That’s the same machine.

Owner of https://www.macdat.net, the largest vintage laptop documentation resource on the web!

Reply 11 of 13, by Thermalwrong

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3lectr1c wrote on 2024-07-23, 14:49:

Found it, Sharp Actius PC-A150. That’s the same machine.

Awesome detective work 😀 I had a feeling it might be Sharp since they had an MMX laptop that looked similar from that time period but my searching didn't come up with much.

Reply 13 of 13, by nfraser01

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Sorry - for some reason I've not been getting notified of updates to this thread. Great detective work folks.

@3lectr1c I'll dig it out and try and fill in some of the blanks for your website....