sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Old laptop questions.

I'm trying to revitalize an old laptop so someone who doesn't have a computer can have something useable.

It's a Toshiba Tecra that was state of the art in 1853 (well, maybe 1996 or 97). It's running Win'98 and has got a whopping 32mb of memory.

So far it's running OK. MS Word and Excel work as do a few games. It's got a CD Drive, but no DVD and it has a modem, but no Ethernet or (of course) wireless.

Question 1:
I'm trying to give the machine Internet access. I took the 3Com 10/100 Lan card out of a Micron Transport ZX (a much newer machine - probably from 1999 or 2000 and also running Win '98) and tried it in the Toshiba - NG. it wasn't even recognized. Put it back in the Micron - it works fine. Same scenario with a no-name wireless card too.

However an Adaptec Slim-SCSI PC card works just fine in either of the two slots (I'm trying to bring up an external SCSI DVD drive).

So the slots work. Did PCMCIA slots change radically in the '90s? Anyone have an idea? I've got a 3Com 10BaseT card on order from eBay and I'm pretty sure it'll work in the Toshiba but I'm curious as to why the other cards won't work.

Question 2:
I'm also trying to produce a machine that someone could watch DVDs on. With the SCSI card working I can get the DVD drive working. Disks are recognized and files can be found and accessed, but I can't play movies on it. Power DVD recognizes the drive (as a Toshiba XM1402B) but says it needs the drivers updated. Toshiba is of course out of the business and while I can find references to Drivers for this unit, the drivers themselves are unavailable.

Anyone know of a free or inexpensive DVD (movie) player that I could try?

Thanks,

Sam

Sam, indeed there were changes with PC cards in the 90s, the biggest of which was the intro of 32-bit cards. I suspect this could be a problem here, ie the PCMCIA controller on your laptop is 16-bit only and the newer card is 32-bit. Or, it could be that you need special 32-bit drivers for the controller.

As for the DVD. I find it hard to believe that you can watch a DVD movie on a computer with 32MB of memory...Offhand, I don't know of any DVD player that works on Win98 with 32MB of RAM, but who knows? I'd be very surprized...don't they have any "cash for clunkers" thing going for PCs?

Also, you may want to look here:

Toshiba support

Click on "Product Support" and then make sure you click on "Show All Models" so that the discontinued/obsolete laptops show up. Hope fully you'll get something useful out of this.

Thanks! That (16/32 bit) makes a lot of sense. I'll check out the Toshiba site and see if I can get anything out of it.

Sam

Well -

I checked the Toshiba web site and while they list the Tecra series they don't even mention this one. A search of the site reveals some docs, but apparently I'm as up to date on the laptop as it gets.

Further research on the DVD Drive (using Adaptec's software) reveals that the drive is a Hitachi, not a Toshiba. Hitachi of course no longer supports the drive so apparently what I've got is what it is.

In any event the machine will (hopefully) still be pretty useful once I get the network card in and working.

Sam

Yoy can try Drivers.com to see if they have the ones you need. Or about $300 will get you a new laptop with a DVD.

I tried drivers.com - no luck.

And sure $300 would do it, but the young'un I'm giving it to is rather proud and is very big on not accepting charity. If I can pass this off as "just some old piece of junk I had laying around the house" I have a shot that they'll accept it.

BTW - I just got Internet access/networking going on it. This will work for them. The DVD player would have been a nice extra, but they weren't even thinking of that.

Sam

Out of curiosity, what was the purpose of the DVD drive (other than a DVD movie)?

Most larger files can be put on a flash drive and transfered, if that was the sole purpose.

----

also, refurb OLD dell laptops for 209 at tigerdirect
https://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4836305&CatId=3988

In any event, I got the laptop working with Word, Excel, dBase, Visio, a few games, a working CD-rom and (wired) Internet access. We'll see if that'll do. If not - they're on their own.

Sam

A 32 bit card won't plug into a 16 bit port.
The guide key is wider.
They also have a grounding strip on top near the inside plug with bumps on it.