Testing some of the retro laptops from the Franklin eWaste haul.
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- čas přidán 17. 06. 2024
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You have my eternal gratitude!
It's time to start working on these laptops form the Franklin eWaste haul, and prepare them for repairs. Starting with some of the more promising-looking ones: A Toshiba Satellite Pro 425CDS, a Dell Inspiron 8000, and an IBM ThinkPad 560E.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
Toshiba Satellite (System 1):
0:22 S1 Tour and disassembly
6:27 S1 Testing and data extraction
14:01 S1 Display removal
17:01 S1 Cleanup and verdict
Dell Inspiron (System 2)
17:54 S2 Tour and disassembly
23:00 S2 Testing
28:13 S2 Battery necromancing
33:05 S2 Cleanup and verdict
IBM ThinkPad (System 3)
33:30 S3 Tour and disassembly
36:42 S3 Testing
44:38 S3 Cleanup and verdict
46:22 Outro
Remove the CMOS and the "Hibernate" Battery from the Toshiba laptop. Its not a question if they will leak. the question is have they already leaked... The acid flows through the cables into the plug where they are connected and destroys the mainboard. I have like 20 of them an all have leaked or were about to start leaking. We also discussed this topic on vogons and everybody had leaking batteries.
Thanks for the warning! I pulled them out and got incredibly lucky. The CMOS battery connector will need to be replaced, but the mainboard is safe! I'll be diving deeper into these systems in the future, just have to work up the nerve to face those incredibly brittle plastic clips...
@@miketech1024 The Satellite 400 series aren't usually that fragile, it's just that you have to separate the top half (screen, keyboard cover, video card) from the lower half (psu, mainboard, lower case). Once the screws are undone and the video card disconnected, the top case easily unclips from the back side where the PSU is and lifts forward and up.
The later toshibas like the Libretto can be really brittle, but mostly it seems the Satellite 400 to 435 models were made with a different type of plastic
For the battery damage, it might be worth looking close-up on the mainboard, the electrolyte from that larger standby battery can leak onto the mainboard if it was stored flat. That can often damage things like keyboard functionality. For the ones that are too far gone, something unique to the Satellite 400 to 435s, is that the top half (video card, LCD, LCD cable) can be swapped between a DSTN unit and TFT unit, if you've got a TFT model that has a dead mainboard but still working screen.
I made a 3d print of that port door that you glued back together, I should probably upload that for people to use
@@voodler interesting... I'm part way through restoring a 490XCDT. Yes both batteries had leaked, and yes it had made its way to the main board. Only after cleaning the area did I get the thing to boot. Now happily running Win 3.11 on a CF card. BUT... as you mentioned, still got weird keyboard problems. Some keys only work when another is pressed. Is there a particular chipset I should look near for damage? 😊
thanks - will pull my 2100CDS apart and pull the batteries - didn't know the ones in the Toshiba machines leak
@@billysteiger7092 Ah the 490CDT / 490XCDT are pretty bad for getting battery damaged. The first one I got the corrosion was so bad that it had got under the BGA chips on the back of the mainboard and it was just junk.
The mainboard design on the Satellite 490XCDT is quite different from the earlier models i.e. Satellite 425CDS in this video, so if you're having keyboard trouble that's less likely a motherboard problem, since it now boots you should be fine.
It's more likely to be the keyboard membrane itself that got damaged and it's best to just replace the keyboard for the same part #. Especially since you've said some keys work only when others are pressed, that often means a severed trace on one of the two membrane circuit sheets. Membrane keyboards can be fixed but it's tough to do and keyboards are quite readily available for the later Satellite 440 to Satellite 490 series laptops.
“My power supply hoarding compulsion is reenforced” needs to be a T-shirt. Great channel with someone who knows electronics, DOS & early Windows a rare combo.
This is great, as the material manager at Franklin eWaste seeing these dinosaurs brought back to life and not breaking them down is quite amazing. Keep up the great work I’m glad everything worked out!
You're one of two channels whereI litterally wait for weekly videos to drop! I love the nostalgia, the high quality editing, and the expert explanations
Thanks, I'm so glad you're enjoying them!
Indeed. Mike never disappoints. Really enjoying your regular content, sir.
Not the box of power cables. That made me smile
I first started an IT admin career when that Toshiba came out. I've never felt so old!
I'm feeling it too! Still remember when they were new. I'd lust after the systems on display at OfficeMax and beg my mom to buy one.
That dell with the zip drive is a beast! Two fans! And a friggin zip drive! So awesome.
Man I remember how significant Zip was back in the day... my friend in high school had a grandfather who passed away in the mid-90's and he used some of his inheritance to get one of the most beefy Gateway computers built which he also got with a Zip drive... my mind was blown at 100MB capacity lol.
A 1997 old toshiba holds charge when a 2020 laptop has already a destroyed battery, the plastic clips dont break when a 2017 laptop has all destroyed plastic specially the hinges. And most amazing of all you can find replacement parts and for new stuff you cant even change parts, look at apple gluing the displays without screws and most laptops soldering the ram, disk drives and proccesor to the board. The built quality and servizability of old stuff were both amazing, now everything is crappyer and much worse built. A 2009 hp elitebook laptop is the best built laptop i have seen in my life, the og battery on that laptop works and holds the 5000mah its supposed to and i have a 2011 battery for that laptop with half the charge cycles that holds half the mah its supposed to, now things are not built like they used to, everything from cars to apliances to pcs is built awfully, though smartphones are pretty decently built thanks to people like jerry rig, the issue is still that parts are almost imposible to come by and replace, honestly the big issue with phones is software updates and the unavailability of quality replacement batteries. The dell inspiron looks even better built than the toshiba honestly. And the ibm looks good too. The thinkpad 760E is amazing, you can change anything in 1 minute.
I've got 11 of those Toshiba batteries, of which 9 still hold a charge for over an hour
Your videos never cease to amaze me. Wow look how thick laptops used to be. Your power supply hoard is impressive! I’m sure glad you didn’t blow up your house making a power supply. I expect nothing less from you when you need to get something done. I remember back in the early 2000’s you buying and fixing a shell of a laptop. That laptop lasted a long time.
Oh boy good old Netscape Navigator. That last laptop you showed is impressive the way you can shift the keyboard. I seem to remember when you had one. Your video never disappoint, neither does your humor! I’m addicted to watching your videos.
Another great video! Thank you!
Very cool laptops and an amazing video, thanks!
thank you for the upload i enjoyed watching this
Loved this video. Immediately subscribed.
Another informative and very entertaining video.😀
Well done, Mike. And it's been fun for me too just following along. :-)
Love to see those Toshiba laptops, built like tanks. Silly me tossed them a long time ago, with docking stations too......
Oh I regret disposing of so much of what I had back in the day...
That was another awesome video. Brought back so many memories (again). I love your commentary style and humour. Cheers
Totally not been waiting since 7am for the video :P
Your videos are awesome
thank you so much watching your videos makes me happy keep it going
Most Dells from this era I've had the Batteries Short out the charger. Disconnecting them will alow it to post.
I've had similar behavior with devices as new as the Vostro 1500
(Alt + F7 usually maximises POST Screen also) :)
Quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. I wait for your videos and whistlindiesel
Very amazing as always! Would love all of those laptops!
Love your channel Mike, my nerd heart is loving this content🤗 Sub'd!
14:00 video proof of a True Nerd! 😍😍 LOVE THIS CHANNEL!
33:48 I'm so old I knew instantly the PCMCIA card had both Ethernet and RJ-11 lmao.
I managed to get 12 of those Toshiba laptops with accessories from a e-waste recycler and they are some of the best laptops I've ever used. It was awesome to see someone go through that and do the same things I did.
I Love those Dell Lattitudes!
Woot made it here within 3 mintues... cant wait
Great video. :) Made me want toi get mine out of storage.
I have one of those Toshibas, really great laptops :)
I love a good hackulation!
I have the same Toshiba Satalite as in the beginning of the video. Ironically works great but same issue with a broken LCD! Love seeing another one out in the wild :)
I also forgot all about that pcmcia sound until I heard it, wow, its been over 25 years.
Good ole Made in Japan batteries!
as a man named Mike, i approve this channel. keep up the great work! subbed!
another great video by my favorite tech hottie
Got me out here blushing in public 😂
@@miketech1024 in all seriousness these are really good videos and they have a comfy vibe. Keep up the good work.
My Toshiba Satellite Pro 410CS' battery still holds an amazing charge. I was working on it one night for nearly an hour, before I realized it wasn't plugged in and was still going strong. 🤯
I wish I had more time to "play" with my retro stuff, but at least I can watch your videos while doing something else, it's the next best thing 🙂
I have a similar era laptop i got for very cheap. One of the Toshiba Tecra 510cdt series and its still fully functional amazingly.
The episode I've been waiting for! Taking apart an old laptop is something I always dread the most. Decade-old plastic is no longer as resilient as it used to be and it is easy to break something.
I was terrified! Haven’t worked on laptops like these since they were new-ish.
I have 5 Dell laptops, from PI to P4, all run fine and batteries hold some charge. Love the front swap modules, the floppy from PI works just fine in P4 and P4 battery in PI :)
1997 Toshiba had 810mb hard disk! ... if I remember Dos couldn't see more than 2GB? but still that's too low of a storage!!!!! these bad boys must've costed a fortune back in the day. Its kind of you to help the elderly laptops 🥰
DOS and Windows up to windows 95 couldn't utilize more than 2GB per filesystem because they were limited to FAT16. A disk could be partitioned to multiple 2GB filesystems though.
The first time I ever took out a loan to buy something was in 1997 to buy a Toshiba Satellite laptop. Nearly $3,000 if I recall!!!
Cool loot!!!
Have a full Thinkpad,but - with a clankin' hdd.
All 40 gigs of it!!
Just keep in mind with the magic erasers, they act like sand paper and can quickly wear down or soften the plastic removing the frosted feel of the plastic in the areas you used it at. Found this out from David over on his channel at the 8-bit guy and how to restore that damage!! He even shows some retro Retrobrighting techniques that you may be interested in as well!!
I had a similar machine to that Inspiron (a 4000 rather than an 8000) when I were a lad and I loved it to death. I always lusted after the fancier Latitude that it was based on (something in the C-series but I forget exactly which model).
If the Zip drive is just a regular C-Bay device then you could drop in another optical drive in its place and have one of the very few laptops to ever have dual CD drives.
From memory the dock for these is also pretty sweet in that it will let you PCI cards. It was definitely possible with the D-Series at least.
The 425CDS has a dual-scan passive matrix LCD, so no big loss if it's cracked. One of the first videos on my channel was showing how to get to the backup batteries, which are underneath the keyboard. One downside is that the Toshiba floppy drive for them uses a belt which has probably gone bad by now, and I haven't found a way to non-destructively open up the floppy drive to replace it.
I dove in there and removed the batteries as soon as I heard. Got very lucky on this machine! Just have to replace the CMOS battery socket.
My favorite thing about laptop IR ports was that you could find universal remote control programs in the days long before tiny portable devices with entire app libraries.
Funny how high-tech it seemed back then. Now it seems all quaint and simple.
Mike, I just found your channel and already found myself binge-watching your videos. Great work! Only suggestion (if possible) is that there is someone in the background playing loud music, and the bass is very audible to me. Otherwise, your technical skills are on-point. Keep it up man, so glad I found your channel!
Dell has and still continues to make some of the most well engineered laptops around.
id love to see my old IBM 770e working again
I definitely wouldn't mind having that Dell Insperon 8000.
I just picked up a few of them, including an 8100 and 8200, having a blast refurbishing them. Do it.
It looks like I have some catching up to do on your videos. I always love picking up old laptops especially because I can store more of them compared to desktop machines. I got a couple of older thinkpads I need to check out and see if they work. It should be fun!
Thanks! I’ve recently learned of a great danger though. Many laptops contain evil Varta batteries - destroyer of systems! Be sure to check on your laptops to make sure they won’t fall victim!
@@miketech1024 I removed the cmos and backup battery on my ThinkPad 760XL a few months ago. Luckily nothing leaked but I disconnected the speaker wires so the speakers don’t work anymore until I learn how to solder them back on.
I have a slightly earlier ('96) and a slightly later ('98/99) Toshiba. They don't look like much, but they are lovely to use still, the keyboards are just fantastic. Be warned there are usually two Varta Capsules of Doom buried deep inside and if they haven't already, they WILL kill your laptop. Also, to properly dismantle these, you have to first remove the keyboard as there are screws under there holding the top and bottom case together (at least on both of mine there are).
The Varta enemies have been neutralized. Got VERY lucky that the board didn't get damaged.
12:35 Yeah, those old lithium batteries are warriors. I have a Pentium 2 Inspiron 7000 that still holds a charge too.
I've broken so many of those plastic spudgers! They kinda suck honestly. It's ironic that you use a guitar pick because I've been using one for a long time as well. It's great what one used for tools back in the day before the internet/Amazon made everything readily available. Improvising and using what we had on hand to get the job done is how I grew up and I think the guitar pick gets put in the kit with the duct tape and channel lock for most versatile and used tools for diy or any job for that matter. Great content ! Keep up the good work! Also if you sprinkle baking soda on super glue it will harden instantly, greatly reducing the dry time. It also enhances the durability of the bond.
My dad was fixing this beautiful oscilloscope, but something conductive inside rattled around and bricked it. Nearly broke his heart. I think it had a 16-bit operating system and tons of options.
OMG, 1000 hours free ! Sure you're going to spend a lot of time on "the Internet" 🙂
Thx for your videos and share your experience...
Kiss from France
I have a 560e and is one of my favorites. here in Aus its a lot harder to come by these not so common models
Also, most thinkpads from this era will boot with flat cmos batteries if you set the time, let the system fail to boot, and then _rapidly_ turn the system off and on again with the power switch.
Wasn't sure if I should push that hellspawn contraption of a "power supply" too hard. Just lucky the CR1225 fit!
Best to remove them too from the thinkpads. They are in the palm rest and will eventually leak making the keybaord stop working.
You should do a meetup at the Franklin E-Waste place! I'm local...probably about 20 minutes from there. Glad to see there are other computer collectors around me!
I’m not sure if they still have a physical location, but @yardmine can answer that better than I can.
@@miketech1024 Dang I missed my chance!
I have the exact same Dell laptop (CPU, RAM and GPU), except in it's Latitude version, it's even more chunky and rugged, my battery still holds it's original charge and lasts around 2h, which was the advertised running time.
I had an Inspiron 8000 like that system and eventually warranty replaced it and got an 8100. Used it for years, and it was a pretty decent system for the era. I recently tried to restore it, but the hinges were so brittle they broke when I opened the lid. On the hunt for a replacement hinge now.
i have 2 inspiron 8000 p3 machines (and one in pieces as spare) i love it i have it loaded with dos games, because the ess card still works on dos too. I got it on full screen too i remmeber you have to cycle to one of the display keys (fn + one of the F keys)
2:18 Glados approves. "For the good of all of us, except the ones that are dead"
I have to ask. Is "schmoo" an actual term, or just a quick word like thingamajig, thingamibob and whatchamacallit?
5:10 funny :)
6:57 oh... I know the screen is destroyed, but... the pattern is actually pretty O.o Like something right out of Microsoft Bob :>
7:38 oh wow, that startup sound, and the background! Ahhhhhh sweet memories :)
7:55 and that typo on the desktop. "Responce".
8:33 sounds like pr0n if I'm being honest.
9:16 oh hello zip drive! I gotta see this.
Well, thank you for letting us hear its operating sounds. Not what I expected, but interesting nonetheless.
10:50 lol. Like bar security throwing someone out.
16:27 that cable is so pink! My family would call it "panty pink", because apparently women's lingere was that colour. "Róż majtkowy".
29:55 what was the cat complaining about? :)
38:20 nothing exploded, no smoke, that's always good.
38:27 angry PC speaker!
Very enjoyable vid as always :)
"I have to ask. Is "schmoo" an actual term"
It's a fragment of the innumerable damage that AvE has done to my vocabulary.
"what was the cat complaining about?"
She just wanted attention.
@@miketech1024 Which leads me to the natural follow-up to my question. What is AvE?
Ah yes, sounds like a cat. Situation: all normal.
Wowsers! I had a Toshiba Satellite Pentium Pro, but it died on me, however, I still have a 486 Satellite! I use it on occasion to run Kermit, when I want to modify the programming on the PABX.
Dell Inspiron, and Latitude, I have aplenty. I have one Inspiron P3, and at least three P4s, and a Latitude P4. The thing is, I still consider them to be quite modern! I used one of them to generate TV test cards, and therefore had/have the TV adapter to go with it. On the batteries, I always found the silver labelled ones were the best for charge reliability. I loved the twin battery capability because it meant you could get phenomenal battery life compared to many of the rival brands.
You're bound to know this, but the P3 Dells used the Dell PA-6 power supply, and the P4s used the PA-9. Difference being 75 Watts and 90 Watts respectively, but I also liked the way you could still run a P4 on a PA-6 PSU if you didn't mind the system clocking down to save the power supply. Of course, the P3 would work perfectly well on either power supply.
The Dell was definitely giving me modern-system vibes. Seems plenty capable even to this day. No doubt I could load a modern Linux distro on it and use it for work.
@@miketech1024 I agree, I was using one of mine, running Windows XP-Pro upto and beyond the end of XP service life. To be honest, it's still my go to machine for copying/digitising analog music recordings, and remastering for burning to CD Audio. I had to stop using it for internet use when I could no longer get a browser that was capable of displaying websites correctly - especially CZcams! I hadn't come across the alternative O/S options at that time. With wi-fi, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and a Bluetooth dongle, these old Dells just felt like they would go on forever. I just loved them to bits!
Hey, I don't know if anyone on here has suggested it yet, but the Dell Inspiron screen being small, I believe you can press the function key and the font key and it will make it fill the screen. If I'm not mistaken. If it isn't the font key, try the others. Loved the video dude!
Thanks! That did indeed stretch the display.
Hey Mike! I know I'm coming back to this video late, but please check underneath the palmrest on the Inspiron for a Varta battery. On similar machines from the era (Latitude C600 and C800), they have leaked and caused damage to the trackpad, mainboard, and speaker assemblies...
I love the old toshibas I have an old 110CT that i bought in japan years ago and have used off and on for years for shiggles. Need to buy a slightly newer one with sound for dos games.
Had that same Toshiba Satellite in the 90’s, ended up throwing it away regretfully because it stopped powering on or whatever was wrong with it. Was a nice laptop with built in sound! I think it would usually get like an hour of battery time.
10:20 I had a Zip drive just like that one back in the day. It only ejected disks about a 3rd of the way though.
Seems like it could be easily modified to be a ZIP disk launcher!
21:35 I actually have a deathstar drive, from 2009 complete with the infamous Click of Death. Still works.
"Voyeur" could be the video game.
I also have a 760E, identical to yours. My battery also works! Mine has a 5 GB hard drive (later replacement?) and 64 MB of RAM. It has a rather trashed install of Windows 98 and unfortunately the rubber coating is beginning to perish, but it's otherwise fully functional. _The clock battery even holds time!_ I do plan to take it out soon, but I was absolutely astonished at that discovery when I acquired it a few years back.
I’m thinking about trying Plasti-dip to restore the rubber coating. I’ve had it on my car for the past two years and it holds up incredibly well. With the right primer I think it could work. Be sure to check your ThinkPads for Varta batteries! They can and do leak. In typical Varta fashion, they will destroy the motherboards!
@@miketech1024 Yes absolutely. I did check it shortly after making this comment, mine seems to be okay and curiously, is not a Varta brand. There are signs that it was replaced at some point in the machine's life, which is a relief.
I bought my first laptop 6 years later than the first laptop on the video was manufactured. Compared to that, it had 8x the RAM, more 20x the hard disk space, a DVD drive, built in 100 meg ethernet and a touchpad. And it was way thinner, but still had a bigger screen. Things moved on pretty fast back then!
It is insane how much more advanced the Dell is compared to the Toshiba, with such a small amount of time between them.
On the old Toshiba laptops that hard drive are super reliable
Careful with those batteries. I redid my Dell Latitude CPi laptop and I used a M.2 drive to PATA and the battery had a short in it and damaged the m.2. So I took apart the battery and took out the cells to were I still had the shell to cover the hole. Also with those higher Res panels on the Dells it will not auto stretch picture you have to do it by FN + F7"Blue Text FONT" will stretch the image.
Thanks!!
I have a very similar Toshiba 200cds, the screen has a terrible refresh rate, the curse of a DSTN display. It looks great as long as nothing on screen is moving.
The serviceability of that ThinkPad would be illegal nowadays
That Thinkpad sure brings back some memories. If possible, try to save the backlight tubes from the first machine's dead screen, sometimes it's handy to have spares as these also tend to die/arrive dead._
Most definitely saving the old LCD! It’s interesting that the replacement tubes are 3x more expensive than the replacement panel itself.
@@miketech1024 It might be regulations related to the mercury content.
There are special glues for plastic, much better than super glue for plastic things. I have one branded Bison, bought it just in a regular local big box store. Pretty good stuff.
I’ll need to invest in some. Super glue sucks!
Adrian Black uses Acetone for gluing some specific kind of plastic, I wish I could recall which kind. It seems to make it good as new.
Great video! I see someone already warned you about the Toshiba hibernate battery, which is good! The Inspiron 8000 and your 760 ThinkPad BOTH HAVE THEM TOO!!! ALWAYS check a vintage laptop you get for one of those batteries, nearly all of them have them!!!
I think Dell buried theirs near the top right? The 760’s is really sneaky - it’s inside of the palmrest.
Your ThinkPad 560 is safe, doesn’t have them.
Varta got their little pods of evil into more than I thought! I did replace the batteries in the 760E since they were dead, but they hadn't leaked so the threat wasn't apparent to me. I'll have to get more brave with going deeper into laptops in the face of brittle plastic clips.
@@miketech1024 sure did… it’s a really worrisome threat because so few people know the extent of them. I’d even call their NiMH batteries worse than the NiCad barrel batteries on old desktop boards. From what I’ve seen, these NiMH batteries are leaking much worse more often. The NiCads cause a spot of damage while the NiMH ones just blanket everything near them. The Toshibas even have those huge 9 or 10 cell packs right on top of the motherboard! In 10 or maybe even 5 years every last one of those Toshibas will be damaged beyond repair. It’s nearly every brand that used them: IBM, Dell, Apple, Toshiba, Compaq, WinBook, Sony, the list goes on.
I’ve been looking for a WinBook XP laptop (486DX4, Sound card, TFT screen, awesome design, touchpad support) but they put one of those batteries right over the back of the motherboard under the CPU. I worry I’ll never find a working one at this point.
my 760C fortunately didn't have the keyboard PCB too damaged. yeeted that hibernate battery instantly.
that toshiba was a nice find. i think i had the same exact model as a find but in much rougher shape. i still have some pieces of it. i sure have the motherboard and the ram module. also the hdd but its dead sadly. and might still have the cd rom drive
Would you be willing to sell the CD drive? If so, please send me an email. You can find my email address under Business Inquiries on the channel About page. Thanks!
My favorite retro laptop I owned was a Texas Instruments TravelMate T4000m, before the TravelMate line was sold to Acer. It had a genuine Pro Audio Spectrum sound card in it and an Active Matrix LCD which was beautiful for the time.
I should not have parted with it. 😣
Nice! My dad had one of those for a period of time. Had a trackball mouse that attached to the side. My first real laptop was a Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX, which I absolutely adored. It didn't have a sound card though, so it was either PC speaker sound or a PCMCIA sound card with headphones. It had a trackball built into the monitor! I finally broke down and bought one earlier this year and it is surreal seeing it again. It is quite a troubled machine though. Been working on it (and its associated video) for a few months now.
Laptops I own that are center-negative: Zenith SupersPort286, and Texas Instruments TravelMate LT286. I can tell you the connecting it the wrong way leads to smoky capacitor failure in about 5 seconds.
Zone Labs is a multi virus package!
Zonelabs...I haven't heard that name in ages. 🤣
I’ve got a similar Toshiba Laptop to yours at: 0:22, Mine’s the “CDT 430” although the Screen has a small bit of damage in the bottom right corner, Still usable mind! 🙂 The Voyeur Folder that you were a bit dubious about is to do with Drivers and I have come across it before, Either Network or Sound if I remember correctly, Love your obsession with Power Supplies at: 23:07, I totally Agree, You can never have too many, I wonder who’s worse, Me or you? 🇬🇧😂
Just watched this Video again and can’t believe I missed the Dell Inspiron Laptop, I’ve got a few different models, I haven’t got a good PSU for my Dells but I have a few which I’ve repaired using quick connect connector Blocks which I’ve configured so they can only be connected one way round because the last thing I’d want to do is cause a short circuit and most of the batteries that I’ve got hold a fairly decent charge too! 🙂
I also like how rugged those Dell Laptops are too!
17:03 Hope my suggestion to use magic sponge helped :)
It did indeed! Thanks!
Spybot s&d, still my favorite, even on windows 10, and it continues to recieve updates..
It is definitely my go-to on the increasingly rare occasions where I need to use it.
the best thing to do with the inspiron is to put 2k on it lol, as you can tell I'm not much of an ME fan. I do have a system that has it as a default install though. that zip drive was definitely a rare add-on. yeah that rubberized coating is a pain, unfortunately I haven't found a way to stop the coating from degrading, short of just stripping it off altogether.
Imo, the problem isn't ME, it's that tagteam of viruses (viri) that call themselves Zonelabs and McAfee. I'd remove those, long before I'd consider removing ME.
Actually I had a Toshiba from 1999 that used DC voltage. I remember this specifically because I had to repair the DC jack several times. It came off the board. Eventually I found a better fix. Instead of resoldering it to the board, I soldered a jumper wire to each lead. It flopped around, but it worked perfectly. lol So yeah I do find it odd that this takes mains voltage.
oh wow this is older than mine. That's surprising. Mine had a built in floppy and cd and this only has the CD. That's why I thought it was newer than mine.
Dell is great for the serial port
It amazes me that Doom played fairly well under Win95 with only 8MB of RAM!
These Toshiba are great, got like 5 of them in different Versions - from Pentium 120mhz to Pentium MMX 266Mhz.. Incl 2 with the 133mhz MMX variant. Just these DSTN passive displays... yuuuuckkkk.. The 425CDS you got there might probably be one without L2 cache. Just like my 430CDT - but the good thing is you hardly notice it. Try Cachechk to find out. Dont know why Toshiba did that.
The IBM mouse buttons lock so you can type without accidentally pressing them. FYI.
I like the old 90's Toshiba laptop designs, I have a 300CDS & a Satellite Pro 430CDT. I also have an Inspiron 8000 with totally busted hinges (I bought it cheap), the screen is basically loose. Where would one even get replacement hinges for this?
I always loved laptops. Back in the 90s, I had one of those Thinkpads with the butterfly keyboards. Completely useless for all practical purposes now, but I sure wish it still had it. Why can't they make cool things like that now?
That is my white-whale ThinkPad! I would LOVE to find one!
I have two of those in working condition with floppy and cd drives. Their value has shot up sixfold plus in the last five years. Very sought after now.
hp omnibook 800ct has a center negative power connector :)