[SUCCESS STORY] Computing like it's 1999, woohoo!

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greengeek · #21 Post by **greengeek** » Sat 05 Mar 2016, 06:41

Puppyt wrote: What's sadder is I have more reverence for a 1996 Toshi Satellite 430CDS lappie (Pentium 120) with 16Mb ram... and the target of a how-to I wrote on the Murga forum a while back. I have FreeDOS on it, boots to the dos game menu in 11 seconds and wheeeee...
Main trouble is, the screen died. I haven't looked at it in yonks but I think the backlight tube blew. My intention was to replace it with an LCD solution. Starhawk - and maybe rokytnji or anyone else reading this thread with a thing for tinkering - have you had success doing such an operation? Sorry to hijack your thread starhawk

Pretty sure I have machines and parts that would restore your 430. How do I get them to the U.S?? Do you know anyone coming down this way?

EDIT : oh, my mistake - you are just across the ditch! must be some way to get you a new screen inverter....

Geoffrey · #22 Post by **Geoffrey** » Sat 05 Mar 2016, 08:09

Puppyt wrote:I think the backlight tube blew. My intention was to replace it with an LCD solution.

Would that be a LED solution. lcdparts.net have conversion kits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4x6GeC-XzU

Puppyt · #23 Post by **Puppyt** » Sat 05 Mar 2016, 08:44

doh! LED of course - good catch and thanks

Puppyt · #24 Post by **Puppyt** » Sat 05 Mar 2016, 09:17

greengeek wrote:EDIT : oh, my mistake - you are just across the ditch! must be some way to get you a new screen inverter....

Hey greengeek! Thanks for your response and your kind offer - I missed it before now. I actually bought a 430CDS "corpse" from China years ago to use as spare parts - actually had it working briefly at one stage which was nice... but never got around to diagnosing properly inverter-or-CCFL-bulb (etc) problems in either. The machine worked fine connected straight to an external monitor, and was a great games machine for the kids before I built them a desktop. So I have a few options yet for the 430CDS - it will be my L-plate project before I move on to restoring the Toshie Satellite Portege3840CT and a suite of Rocky/Rocky II (Amrel RT 686 knock-offs - rokytnji precedes me again)... dunno whether my future market will be collectors or museums

bark_bark_bark · #25 Post by **bark_bark_bark** » Sat 05 Mar 2016, 13:08

Puppyt wrote:
greengeek wrote:EDIT : oh, my mistake - you are just across the ditch! must be some way to get you a new screen inverter....
Hey greengeek! Thanks for your response and your kind offer - I missed it before now. I actually bought a 430CDS "corpse" from China years ago to use as spare parts - actually had it working briefly at one stage which was nice... but never got around to diagnosing properly inverter-or-CCFL-bulb (etc) problems in either. The machine worked fine connected straight to an external monitor, and was a great games machine for the kids before I built them a desktop. So I have a few options yet for the 430CDS - it will be my L-plate project before I move on to restoring the Toshie Satellite Portege3840CT and a suite of Rocky/Rocky II (Amrel RT 686 knock-offs - rokytnji precedes me again)... dunno whether my future market will be collectors or museums

I'm pretty sure some collector would want it.

starhawk · #26 Post by **starhawk** » Sat 05 Mar 2016, 15:54

I'm in the US, and I wouldn't mind having it

can't pay even shipping right now tho.

As for this thread, seems it (like a lot of my remarks) may have been a bit premature... I hadn't bothered with getting WiFi working yet -- which has been an unrecoverable hurdle, as I can get literally zero help with the issue.

Precise 571 Retro seems to have some sort of incompatibility with CardBus on this hardware; it simply will not raise the card. USB demonstrably works, but the system has exactly one port and it's at 1.1 speed (or slower!) and I don't want it permanently filled with a WiFi adapter anyways. Worth noting, the system's far too old to have any sort of built-in networking, wired or wireless... it *might* have an onboard modem but I seem to recall it doesn't even have that.

rokytnji · #27 Post by **rokytnji** » Sun 06 Mar 2016, 17:28

No experience with the LCD conversion. Sorry. I took the lazy way out during troubleshooting and did the below to find I needed a new lcd cable from inverter to back of lcd screen. The poor girl got tired of opening and closing and the cable suffered the effects.

I used to have to side slap the screen on this laptop to get out of a white screen. Sometimes 5 or 6 times even. A new/used cable made it like new again.

http://i47.tinypic.com/nbybsj.jpg

I still use it as a internet radio stereo player/reciever hooked up to a 200 watt per channel amp with speakers hanging off ropes in the ceiling and listen to places like

http://www.radioparadise.com/rp_2.php?#
and
http://www.radionovak.com/

It has a intel wireless G chip in it and is a panasonic CF-48 toughbook.

Old specs I posted

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 591#819591

rokytnji · #28 Post by **rokytnji** » Sun 06 Mar 2016, 17:44

suite of Rocky/Rocky II (Amrel RT 686 knock-offs - rokytnji precedes me again)... dunno whether my future market will be collectors or museums Wink

I am probably one of the few folks on the planet that has spare parts like floppy drive, spare cached on the floor rt686 EX with a touchscreen. <psst. It got wet from a flood in the house>

The hardest thing to find is power supply. Because it uses a screw in molex 2 pin type connector on the back that is military spec grade. I used to have a link to a Germany cable site that sold those ends for about 20 bucks (roundabout because I don't remember exactly)

I still have a running RT 786 EX (not touchscreen) that is cached on the shelf also. With CDRW and Floppy Hot swap drives with a working Power Brick (albeit electrical tape acts as replacement wire insulation on part of it)

Power drill batteries if finding the right ones are compatible if you die grind/dremel the plastic cover off the battery brick on the back.

Here is my 786 EX in action.

http://forum.lxde.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=31202

Here is the photo of the unit <amrel gear costs the military 2 to 3 thousand dollars on up when new> I paid 49 bucks for mine.

http://i52.tinypic.com/307sz8y.jpg

rokytnji · #29 Post by **rokytnji** » Sun 06 Mar 2016, 17:58

I hadn't bothered with getting WiFi working yet -- which has been an unrecoverable hurdle, as I can get literally zero help with the issue.

Is this pcmcia slot the older 16 bit or 32 bit? Did I not mail you a older netgear
or other brand pcmcia wireless card in the last box shipped long ago? Because I cannot remember what I threw there since then.

If it is the other brand instead of netgear that I am thinking of. There is no linux driver for that model of card. ndiswrapper is the way to go for that card.
Use like the Windows 98 .inf for that card.

It is only wireless b and has only open/wep capabilities though.

starhawk · #30 Post by **starhawk** » Sun 06 Mar 2016, 18:21

No, no, not that card. I don't remember what I did with that one

but I don't think I have it.

It's 32bit "PCMCIA" (CardBus).

I have three cards. One is Belkin, one I don't remember, and one is prism2 based. The two that are not prism2 based are ath5k based.

None of the cards work. The system simply cannot pull up a CardBus WiFi card of any kind.

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[SUCCESS STORY] Computing like it's 1999, woohoo!