Hello and first question - T5200

[Mon]

Hello everyone,

I was reading quite a bit in the forum before posting and I think if there is a place where someone can help me it's here ;-)

I'm living in Germany and was always a bit fascinated with "older" Hard- and Software. I have quite a few old (mechanical) keyboards, but until a few month ago no more complete hardware.

Browsing the classical computer section on the well known auction site I saw an old laptop and remembered the one my father had when I was a child and which I remembered for the incredible price tag. My first own PC was a 286, so I thought I can buy the laptop and play some games from the past bringing back some memories.

I bought it just to realize that it was a near miss - it was a Toshiba T5100 and after I got it and did some reading I realized I really wanted a T5200 (mainly for the lock mechanism and the extra"power" and because it's the one my father had).
While waiting for one to appear I "accidentally" bought a T3200 and a T1200 because they looked so good... All of them need some care (bad CMOS Battery on all, bad HDD in the T5100, bad Floppy in the T3200 and probably a bad capacitor in the T1200...) and while I wondered which to fix first a T5200/100 showed up.

It arrived a few days ago - and unfortunately the display got cracked in the transport. Its not only the Glass cover, but also the display itself, so I didn't dare to put power on it. After removing the display (really great feature) it boots really good. The least noise of all newly bought Toshibas and the HDD light is flickering after pressing F1 (so another bad CMOS battery?). It also starts reading a floppy if I enter one before F1.
Here it stops. I am not getting a picture via the external VGA connector.

Reading the maintenance manual, It might be possible that I have to enable the external signal in the setup section of diagnostics disk. There are quite a few files I can find via google, but not the one which I'm supposed to start from the disk ("testce52") and also there are some files to switch other models (e.g. The T3100) to CRT mode, there is none for the T5200.

Is it possible to enable the external signal with a different method? Does one of the "Test.exe"s work? Can I do it without seeing anything, or are there too many steps to dare it?

I would be glad if someone can help me, otherwise I have to wait some time more and buy yet another T5200 (even if my wife thinks about 100kg of old laptops piling up in my room is more than enough).

Greetings, Simon

 

[modem7]

Welcome to these forums Simon.

Reading the maintenance manual, It might be possible that I have to enable the external signal in the setup section of diagnostics disk.

I think I can see what you are referring to on page 3-49

There are quite a few files I can find via google, but not the one which I'm supposed to start from the disk ("testce52")

For TESTCE52.EXE:

1. Goto http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Toshiba/Toshiba.htm
2. Navigate to the 'Diagnostics' section.

Within that section are two links for downloading a ZIP file containing collection of Toshiba diagnostic programs.

3. Of those two links, click on the top link to download file Toshiba_diagnostics_1995.zip
4. Within that file, TESTCE52.EXE is in the /DIAGS/HIGH folder.

 

[Mon]

Thank you very much, I can't wait to try it out

I overlooked the diagnostics section, even if I found minuszerodegrees.net before and already got the maintenance manual from there.

There is a typo in the link description, so it reads: Click here to download the collection of diagnostic programs that is found on the 1985 dated Toshiba Atlas CD-ROM." when the zip is dated to 1995. --> without your help I would never have found this, thanks again!

The Manual is really specific and offers step by step instructions, so I will give it a try and hopefully get my external screen to work. Still don't know if the HDD is really working and how much RAM there is installed.

 

[modem7]

There is a typo in the link description, so it reads: Click here to download the collection of diagnostic programs that is found on the 1985 dated Toshiba Atlas CD-ROM." when the zip is dated to 1995. -->

Thanks. I have fixed it.

 

[Mon]

Thank You for the great collection.

Of course it wasn't that easy an I didn't manage to get it working. I think I get MS-Dos started from the HDD (HDD-LED flickering) and when I siwtch to a: even the FDD-LED starts to flicker but there is no sound from the FDD at all. There is a really high noise coming from the back of the laptop which sounds a bit like the capacitor charging in a real flash for a camera....

I have another floppy bought at ebay which has the correct Model name on it, so maybe I will give this a try. At the moment I always are limited to half an hour before my wife/children ask for the time I'm spending here...Maybe I wait for a Screen, because anyway what I wanted was the orange Plasma look and not only a 386 connected to my normal monitor ;-)

 

[inakito]

Mon, i own a T5200 and the external VGA output is always enabled. You just plug the vga cable to the monitor and you should get the picture. It works same way with the internal display detached or atached. Btw my floppy drive was not working until i removed it and performed some cleaning inside. Now it works.

 

[ibmapc]

...While waiting for one to appear I "accidentally" bought a T3200 and a T1200 because they looked so good...

Yup! I have "accidentally" bought quite a few items!! So the boxes of old computer parts are taking more and more space. I think my wife wants me to sell some stuff but I find it difficult to "accidentally" sell this stuff! Anyway, welcome to the forums!!

Regards,

Greg