I have around 6 of these, my dad bought them 12 years ago when they were dirt cheap, great typing experience. EDIT: And 4 broken ones for parts, they are very reliable, even most batteries holds a charge for 1-2 hours. Also it's relatively easy to open the battery and put some new battery packs. Thanks for the video.
Actually a feature of many Tecra and Satellite models from the era. They were built a lot more rugged than they really needed to be, which probably drove up prices for their intended customers and certainly worked out well for me as a high schooler wanting to carry a Tecra 550 around in a backpack. It fit right in with my books and could take about as much of a beating!
@@moomoobeef2173 That's not soundfonts, it's FM synthesis from the Yamaha OPL-3 chip inside the machine. The dropouts are due just to that crappy and heavy Windows Media Player application that's overtaxing the CPU.
@@bland9876 At what timestamp are these "party noises" you're talking about? I listened to the video with headphones but, apart the timing glitches due to the fact that the MIDI is being played with Windows Media Player, which is quite an heavy program for such computer, I can't detect anything other that's wrong. It sounds exactely how it always did on an OPL-3 FM synthesizer.
Collin, I'm a little late to the comment party, but thanks for the great video on that old laptop. I was unaware the screen was so terrible when I sent it or else I'd have probably just trashed it. Glad to see you got it to stay running. Hopefully the battery leakage issue wasn't too hard to resolve. Thanks for the awesome videos as always.
I've always felt like compared to Thinkpads, Toshiba's laptops are kinda under appreciated. They' super solidly built, look pretty good (not quite as good), and the plastic seems to be lasting fairly well.
The only issues I had with my OLD XP Satellite is, as mentioned in the video, the lackluster performance of the HDD. Other than that, very good laptops. At least those don't get the Trackpoint printed on the screen like my current T460 Thinkpad.
I really appreciate those drivers being available! It's frustrating when giant corporations don't make old drivers and bios available after 10 years or whatever. These are often such small package that I'm sure they could afford the server space. Don't make me take weird bios flashing risks!
Oh dang, I learnt how to work with a computer on one like that! 1999, a teacher comes to my school with a wheelcart full of laptops. Good moments of my youth. Thanks!
Quake 3 Arena was made in 1999 and for cutting edge PC's with dedicated GFX cards and not a basic laptop. If you wanted to test a game on a laptop from 1997 i would have personally gone with Quake 1 since you do not need openGL support ( unless you patched the game ) . I would also point out that Windows 98 was prolific in boot failures and reinstall was a common theme back in 'those days' so the command " c:\format c: /q " with the flag "q" would mean a considerable time saving. Great to see your enthusiasm for old retro hardware and i enjoy these videos *THUMBS UP*
I had a few of these when I was younger, rescued from roadside throwouts here in Australia. They were very very well made machines, I disassembled a few broken ones and was amazed at how properly built they were. The battery pack design was fantastic, and I could swap my working one between the few Toshiba machines I had.
I had one of these back in the 90's, used to chat with my (now ex) psycho girlfriend on AOL for hours at a time... now I no longer have the laptop or the psycho!
When my last employer was upgrading laptops, they dumped a lot of these. I saved one from being recycled. I still have it. No HDD but that’s not an issue. I still have the little frame and a CF converter or a straight PATA SSD might be a good idea. I remember one of these from new. You were prompted on which operating system to install, Windows 95 or Windows 98. Naturally we installed 98. The one I have also has laptop bag. Thank you, Colin, for the tip about the clock battery. I’ll be sure to sort that.
I had a NEC Versa 2400 with a DSTN screen and yunno surprisingly it was actually pretty decent. It wasn't super washed out and you didn't loose your cursor, still had mad persistence and the trademark lines. You could play a pinball game or a side scroller no problem but you would not want to play something like Descent. I think it was only this good because it was a tiny screen, only about 11".
I successfully modded several laptops and installed modern panels. Especially on the T5200C it was amazing, because it has one of the first ever produced color-panels. You can easily install most parallel RGB panels in this machines.
Oh man, this brings me back a bit. My first computer I think was a Toshiba Tecra 730CDT that my dad got secondhand from a coworker. I played a lot of edutainment games back then!
@@yt_consistency I bought mine new when I was starting college. It was $1100 (equivalent to $1231 now). It did have a touchscreen and a 4 year unlimited warranty. Toshiba laptops left North America while it was actually in getting new case parts. They just sent it back broken lol
@@yt_consistency I've actually kept on top of maintenance of my laptop. It still works perfectly like new. I also have replaced the CMOS battery when it needed to be, so I never have shutdowns.
@@sand0decker My shutdowns are random on the a300 and on the l755 its probably the charger, when the cpu turbo's it very likely resets itself, still great machines tho
Great trip down memory lane. I remember lusting after even low-end devices in issues of Computer Shopper, of all publications. At the time, I was still using my trusty IBM PS/2 Model 25 ... an old XT machine! Still have that device, though it no longer boots. Would love to figure it out and restore it to previous glory!
I'm watching this on my shed computer, a laptop with no battery, screen or HDD plugged into a tv, running linux on a USB stick. Perfect! Thanks for the video.
@@MisterRorschach90 I didn't mention it because Colin said touchpads had his preference (over the nipple on his Satellite): in my opinion, the trackballs were better than the touchpad
I have been using an M-sata to IDE adapter on my 2005 compaq presario V2000 with no issues aside from running hot but within the manufacturers specifications. I have no where near your qualifications, familiarity or experience so if you have time to respond with any downsides I appreciate it . I'm sure someone will find fault with my choice in a UA-cam comment section. I really appreciate your videos the most useful to me was your n-lite overview, Thank You!
I don't know if its just me but I really like the Toshiba logo on their older hard drives like the one that laptop has. I personally think the signature Toshiba logo looks better than just "TOSHIBA" like it has on the laptop.
Funny that you posted this. When I worked as Auditor in 1998 this was the exact laptop that were provided with and man if you were travelling you needed to lug this beast from place to place. It's neat to see the old start up and all the applications that were utilized back then and even the fax. But you are right the clock battery tended to go quick on these units.
My first ever computer was one of these. I got it for $2 from the Salvation Army and never even got it to turn on. It's awesome seeing one in such good shape after so long! And working at that!
All about that battery cover. For sure. I'm certain that there will be some "go-around" for a more modern battery solution down the road. Great video, Colin.
When i was 18 or so, i had my desktop computer stolen, and a friend lent me this laptop. It was my first experience with a laptop. Very well made, aweful screen as you said. But learnt how to program and did more on this laptop then any computer before.
I have a very very similar Toshiba laptop that was my grandparents for the longest time. I remember playing a crapton of Tonka and Pac-Pack (? -- basically knock-off Pacman) on it as a kid. They gave it to me years after they retired it. I believe it's basically the same except has the better screen. I pulled it out of the closet about a year ago to clean it up a bit and I don't remember the screen being too bad.
Toshiba used this exact battery in several models from 1996 to 2004, which made it cheap to replace. I always liked this design decision not to integrate the battery cover with a battery.
I've got the 300CDT (166MHz, 32MB RAM, 2.1GB HDD, TFT display) from 1998. It still works and the screen is a charm. Although I had to find a donor 300CDT because the screen had one vertical red line. The donor screen works fine. It came with windows 95, I have tried 98 and Me and it worked fine. But now I have DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 installed for DOS gaming. The only thing that does not work because of DOS is the USB port. And something else: the battery still holds charge for more than half an hour operation!
I have a 305CDS that I got a couple years back at an estate sale. I absolutely adore the thing. The screen on the CDS models leaves a lot to be desired, but the fact that it has a genuine Yamaha OPL3 in it makes it great for DOS gaming (when hooked up to an external monitor and a decent set off speakers, of course)!
Toshiba's aren't all that iconic compared to thinkpads, but they are pretty reliable. So much so that they are not talked about due to how getting out of the way of thigs they are.
I've liked the units i've owned but I think they designed in some planned obsolescence. I think the bodies are better than most Acers, they don't flex much, they will take a hit and simply using it with the power plug in won't cause cracks in the plastic, but for years and years they had a problem of not having enough structural rigidity around where the brass standoffs for the hinges attached to the case. Over time they would form stress fractures and eventually break, leaving the hinges un-attached and upon opening will tear the two halves of the computer apart, basically making it useless as a laptop.
It's so satisfying to see manufacturer driver support. I was recently handed a Sony Vaio to bring back to factory condition, and unsurprisingly, Sony has removed all driver downloads to versions of windows that are no longer supported. By Microsoft. So no windows 7 drivers at all.
Hi Collin! Greetings from Colombia. I like old laptops too (strange hobby here, lol!), in fact, I have two amazing thinkpads: a 760XL and last year I manage to grab a 770X in very good condition from a guy in Germany. Shipping costs were high and I needed to change the video card and hard disk, but it's all worth: it's has an amazing (from the time) 13.7" 1280*1024 TFT screen. I love to remember old times in a laptop that costs $5000 US dollars in 1999, an unreachable dream from me back then.
I have one in my vehicle as an interface for my scanner and a few other things. Fits and matches perfectly on the center console tray (2001 Odyssey). It's tough and resilient. Runs Win2k, boots pretty fast.
This was my first laptop! A hammy down from a family friend that didn’t know what was wrong with it. Replaced the HD and installed Windows 2k. Bought a WiFi adapter for it, and used it until 2005 when a bought a new Dell Latitude.
I remember these kind of laptops very well from my (short) time at the Technical University in Eindhoven: in 1997 they were the first university in the Netherlands to use laptops for every student. You could buy the model the university provided for about half the amount it would cost new, at the time about ƒ2000 (which equalled probably about $900 at the time). The students starting in 1997 and 1998 got these kind of Toshiba machines, we called them "breadboxes", as they were so thick. But they were very sturdy and student-proof. And they had the CDT versions of course, with the good display. When I started in 1999, they switched to very thin, sleek-looking Fujitsu's (LifeBook c-something, I don't remember exactly, cannot find them in Google so quickly), but they were made out of very thin plastic, falling apart even as you just looked at it... I once got then a Toshiba as replacement for a while: slower, but much more stable. A few years ago, I took a 300CDT in pristine condition home from work, I still have it, works fine, with a National Instruments GPIB PCMCIA Card, it was used for measurement logging at the time. The thing I immediately recognised in the video is that the CDS version has the contrast wheel, which is missing on the CDT, thought already that that must have been the Dual Scan display. I remember them, they have always been bad. With many manufacturers you could choose between the different display options, like Apple's cs-Powerbooks vs. c-Powerbooks.
Interesting vid. I have a 490 CDT and it’s a great little laptop, perfect for dos gaming and windows rts type games. The OPL-3 chip is ace as is supports SB Pro and Roland. The difference in music quality between ad-lib and Roland in Monkey Island, Canon Fodder is worth price of laptop alone. Mine has a fairly rubbish d3d compatible S3 Virge graphics chip which is perfect for dos games. I note you mention larger than 4gb HD replacements. I haven’t tried this as I thought the bios / interface had a 4gb limit, so that’s interesting. I installed a 4gb cf card in the end.
Man you got me all excited that drivers were still available on Toshiba's site! But I checked for anything from the older 486-era T-series and.... nope. :-( awww..
I love the touchpoint (i.e. eraser head mouse control). As a touch typist, it allows me to keep my fingers on the home keys while still using the mouse.
LGR just did a video on a sound card with the same sound chip that this laptop has, a Yamaha OPL3. While it's probably worse quality than a dedicated card, it probably sounds "right" for DOS games from the 90's.
I have an OPL3 laptop, exactly for the reason I want DOS games to sound right. The onboard speakers aren't great but out the headphones or line out it's just as good as a SB16 or Yamaha.
I still have my Toshiba laptop that's almost exactly like this but the 330CDS. It's also from November of 1998. It still has it's original 4.1 GB hard drive that still works perfectly with no bad sectors. Mine has 266 mhz Pentium mmx cpu with 96 mbs ram and with Windows 98 second edition on it.
A former employer of mine let me keep and old one of these with a 100Mhz P1 in it sometime in the mid 2000s because they were throwing it out. When I booted it up I found early scripts for a mid to late 90s sitcom on it. Unfortunately the drive died a few years later.
I've picked up a few retro laptops from scrap and/or friendly recyclers over the years. I've got both a Satellite Pro 430CDT in good cosmetic condition and a Tecra 500CDT that works well despite looking like it was dropkicked, both with the Active Matrix displays
Ah! This brings me back! A neighbor kid had this machine. Spent many hours fiddling with it and setting up some games it could play on Windows 98 of course. I remember maybe Supaplex or Lemmings being the favourites. Also managed to install a pretty old version of Slackware on it. It was slow as hell. 😂 And I remember the awful screen panel quality very well. It was an old machine even at that time but did it's job quite well and provided some nice gaming time to a couple of kids who we're stuck with it. Thank you for bringing up those memories.
MY CHILDHOOD LAPTOP!!!! Mine was slightly different, no nub mouse....it had a trackball in the display instead! I was also lacking the Audio card and CD-ROM drive installed. Must have been an older model! That power switch!!! lol
All these dual scan screens got a kind of screen rot after all this time and look like this. I have 90s laptops with TFT displays that still look fine, but every dual scan screen has been like this and in my HP Omnibook 2100, I just swapped the screen out for a TFT unit and now it looks great...
My first laptop was a Toshiba Satellite back in 2015. Can’t remember which exact model, but I still have it and boot it up occasionally to perform Windows updates.
I used a casing of one of those and put a new screen in it. Ow, and a raspberry pi 4. Was a struggle getting the keyboard going but it works great now.
"the screen has gone yellow over the years" There is a setting on Windows 10 and other os to make your screen look like that and I just assumed it was on this machine as well
I have the Toshiba 310CDT (active matrix LCD) works excellent and I loaded Windows 98SE and all the retro games. I managed to get an 80GB IDE hard disk working too. My LCD is perfect too
Those Satellites are amazing for Retro DOS installs. They have a built in OPL3 chip that has full SB Pro compatibility with a small driver install. The CT65xxx video chip has Windows 3.11 drivers. The HDD compartment is fairly spacious and will fit an SD card adapter for replacing the hard drive easily. If a game runs too fast, it's possible to disable the CPU cache (through the BIOS or from a software) to make it run approximately the speed of a 20mhz 386. :)
Pretty sure me and my mate completed Command & Conquer on my moms company laptop which was just like this. Remember we had to use a piece of paper on the little mouse knob to prevent it from getting too slippery from sweat
I purchased this model along with the Tecra 550CDT two years ago via ebay. I was looking for the fastest Pentium 1 powered laptop. I believe there was a 300MHZ Dell laptop but it only had 2mb onboard graphics and the maximum ram sixe was 128mb. I decided to get rid of the Satellite. The viewing angle was rediculous and there was a lack of processing power. I kept the 1997 released Toshiba Tecra 550CDT with its 266MHZ Pentium 1 MMX which is now able to run Windows XP after maxing out the ram to a total of 160mb (32 onboard + 128 Transcend added.) The 4mb onboard graphics chip is able to play fullscreen 640x480 MPEG2 video @1,400kbps without any skipping. Still holds an hour of battery which always freaks me out. I have the Toshiba Deskstation V docking station which allows up to three full size desktop PCI cards or two ISA cards. The screen has no stuck or dead pixels. Toshiba did not cut any corners on this machine. It cost $3,000 when it was released back in 1997. In theory an added PCI graphics card should work in the dock. A vintage ATi Radeon PCI graphics card would look very nice in there.
Had a very similar Toshiba laptop around that time. IIRC, it was a little faster processor (233 MHz MMX) and a larger hard drive (4 GB? No more than 6 GB). But other than those, it was pretty much the EXACT SAME laptop -- case and all. Dual-Scan LCD as well.
Technology was moving fast back then. I have a Compaq Armada from around 1999-2000 and its a Pentium 2 with an Active Matrix lcd, DVD drive and 10gb hdd.
My mom had the exact laptop as her work computer for years.
I used to play need for speed hot pursuit at 10fps on it lol.
Thanks for taking me back.
bruh
@@gavincoop10 bruh too. My dad had one of these with a DVD-ROM drive - we watched our first DVD (Batman & Robin) on it
@@dustmighte That must have been painful on that display.
I remember being it acceptable. I think it did have a TFT LCD...
I have around 6 of these, my dad bought them 12 years ago when they were dirt cheap, great typing experience.
EDIT: And 4 broken ones for parts, they are very reliable, even most batteries holds a charge for 1-2 hours. Also it's relatively easy to open the battery and put some new battery packs. Thanks for the video.
mind if i buy you one x3 (jk or not)
Hey Colin, this is everyone, how is it going?
I always like to put my power button and USB port behind tiny sliding doors.
But,”shave and a haircut” is a horrible secret knock!
Actually a feature of many Tecra and Satellite models from the era. They were built a lot more rugged than they really needed to be, which probably drove up prices for their intended customers and certainly worked out well for me as a high schooler wanting to carry a Tecra 550 around in a backpack. It fit right in with my books and could take about as much of a beating!
16:43 That rendition of Passport is comically bad lol
It's almost charming/endearing in a way
it's got everything from occasional dropouts to crap sounding noise to weird soundfont, what's not to love
That's just how it sounded on the Yamaha OPL-3 FM synthesizer.
@@moomoobeef2173 That's not soundfonts, it's FM synthesis from the Yamaha OPL-3 chip inside the machine. The dropouts are due just to that crappy and heavy Windows Media Player application that's overtaxing the CPU.
I don't know what it's supposed to sound but I'm pretty sure those farting noises are not part of it
@@bland9876 At what timestamp are these "party noises" you're talking about? I listened to the video with headphones but, apart the timing glitches due to the fact that the MIDI is being played with Windows Media Player, which is quite an heavy program for such computer, I can't detect anything other that's wrong. It sounds exactely how it always did on an OPL-3 FM synthesizer.
Collin, I'm a little late to the comment party, but thanks for the great video on that old laptop. I was unaware the screen was so terrible when I sent it or else I'd have probably just trashed it. Glad to see you got it to stay running. Hopefully the battery leakage issue wasn't too hard to resolve. Thanks for the awesome videos as always.
I've always felt like compared to Thinkpads, Toshiba's laptops are kinda under appreciated. They' super solidly built, look pretty good (not quite as good), and the plastic seems to be lasting fairly well.
The plastic, yes. The rubber, not so much...
The only issues I had with my OLD XP Satellite is, as mentioned in the video, the lackluster performance of the HDD. Other than that, very good laptops. At least those don't get the Trackpoint printed on the screen like my current T460 Thinkpad.
For me this is one of the best channels on youtube and I nerd out on 90's technology videos. Thanks for taking the time to share all this with us.
THE best!
Honestly I prefer this format, your voice sounds more natural here.
NO WAY! I had one of these as a kid until like 2008! Slow as hell for anything but still super fun to use
I really appreciate those drivers being available! It's frustrating when giant corporations don't make old drivers and bios available after 10 years or whatever. These are often such small package that I'm sure they could afford the server space. Don't make me take weird bios flashing risks!
Oh dang, I learnt how to work with a computer on one like that! 1999, a teacher comes to my school with a wheelcart full of laptops. Good moments of my youth. Thanks!
Quake 3 Arena was made in 1999 and for cutting edge PC's with dedicated GFX cards and not a basic laptop. If you wanted to test a game on a laptop from 1997 i would have personally gone with Quake 1 since you do not need openGL support ( unless you patched the game ) . I would also point out that Windows 98 was prolific in boot failures and reinstall was a common theme back in 'those days' so the command " c:\format c: /q " with the flag "q" would mean a considerable time saving. Great to see your enthusiasm for old retro hardware and i enjoy these videos *THUMBS UP*
I had a few of these when I was younger, rescued from roadside throwouts here in Australia. They were very very well made machines, I disassembled a few broken ones and was amazed at how properly built they were. The battery pack design was fantastic, and I could swap my working one between the few Toshiba machines I had.
Your casual videos are good Colin, continue this style if you want. Easy viewing
I have a love/hate relationship with these videos. I love seeing old tech from when I was a kid, but then it makes me feel super old at the same time
The coziest of computer videos. 😌
I had one of these back in the 90's, used to chat with my (now ex) psycho girlfriend on AOL for hours at a time... now I no longer have the laptop or the psycho!
When my last employer was upgrading laptops, they dumped a lot of these. I saved one from being recycled. I still have it. No HDD but that’s not an issue. I still have the little frame and a CF converter or a straight PATA SSD might be a good idea.
I remember one of these from new. You were prompted on which operating system to install, Windows 95 or Windows 98. Naturally we installed 98. The one I have also has laptop bag.
Thank you, Colin, for the tip about the clock battery. I’ll be sure to sort that.
I had one of these in high school in the 00s, good workhorse with the 266mhz pentium 1 and 128mb of ram on mine.
My aunt has the same lying around. It was in active use up to the end of 00s. Still has an original Win 95 and all Toshiba software software on it.
Hello from Greece Collins. I am. a huge fun of your channel. Particularly I like your research on every topic.
All Passive-Matrix screens on any laptop is ugly as hell.
That's why I own a Toshiba Satellite CDT model, which has a very nice Active Matrix display.
I had a NEC Versa 2400 with a DSTN screen and yunno surprisingly it was actually pretty decent. It wasn't super washed out and you didn't loose your cursor, still had mad persistence and the trademark lines. You could play a pinball game or a side scroller no problem but you would not want to play something like Descent. I think it was only this good because it was a tiny screen, only about 11".
Need a dispenser here!
I successfully modded several laptops and installed modern panels. Especially on the T5200C it was amazing, because it has one of the first ever produced color-panels. You can easily install most parallel RGB panels in this machines.
You can put the screen in a CDT in A CDS
I didn't know about mouse "trails" and why you would enable those… What a revelation 🤯😉!
Love your videos colen plz keep posting you are the best
I love your ancient stuff and the way how you kept it
Oh man, this brings me back a bit. My first computer I think was a Toshiba Tecra 730CDT that my dad got secondhand from a coworker. I played a lot of edutainment games back then!
I had this! So much Doom and Worms 2. I dailed up to MSN and chatted on AIM. Loved this thing.
Honestly I love *any* late 90s laptop and will always want to watch a video of this sort.
Thanks for the content and a great channel for Sunday chill.
That Minnesota comment got me lol glad to see there is youtubers here too
Minnesota has an amazing amount of Twitch streamers.
The more natural/non-scripted narration of yours was great and sounded even more lively and curious than the regular videos
Worked at Xircom in the late '90s. Tested a lot of firmware on these machines. Great to see one again. Very cool!
Even old Satellites randomly shut down, nice to see that tradition didnt change on the 2010's Satellites xD
My 2014 or 2013 Satellite has so many problems.
It was cheap though
@@sand0decker I got a L755 for 30€ and a A300 for free, they are good machines even if they keep shutting down
@@yt_consistency I bought mine new when I was starting college. It was $1100 (equivalent to $1231 now). It did have a touchscreen and a 4 year unlimited warranty.
Toshiba laptops left North America while it was actually in getting new case parts. They just sent it back broken lol
@@yt_consistency I've actually kept on top of maintenance of my laptop. It still works perfectly like new. I also have replaced the CMOS battery when it needed to be, so I never have shutdowns.
@@sand0decker My shutdowns are random on the a300 and on the l755 its probably the charger, when the cpu turbo's it very likely resets itself, still great machines tho
Great trip down memory lane. I remember lusting after even low-end devices in issues of Computer Shopper, of all publications. At the time, I was still using my trusty IBM PS/2 Model 25 ... an old XT machine! Still have that device, though it no longer boots. Would love to figure it out and restore it to previous glory!
This was my first laptop. Loved that thing.
I'm watching this on my shed computer, a laptop with no battery, screen or HDD plugged into a tv, running linux on a USB stick. Perfect! Thanks for the video.
The touchpads of that era weren't great. My personal favorite was the trackball
You’re forgetting about the nipple.
@@MisterRorschach90 I didn't mention it because Colin said touchpads had his preference (over the nipple on his Satellite): in my opinion, the trackballs were better than the touchpad
Touchpads are barely usable in 2021.
@@shadowflash705 apple ones are great
@@MisterRorschach90 this is why I prefer Thinkpads. They have great nipples.
That's some E-ink level of display refresh performance you've got going there!
It’s always good to gut the battery charger modules. Also the thermal fuses, that link between the batteries. 🔋
I have been using an M-sata to IDE adapter on my 2005 compaq presario V2000 with no issues aside from running hot but within the manufacturers specifications. I have no where near your qualifications, familiarity or experience so if you have time to respond with any downsides I appreciate it . I'm sure someone will find fault with my choice in a UA-cam comment section. I really appreciate your videos the most useful to me was your n-lite overview, Thank You!
I don't know if its just me but I really like the Toshiba logo on their older hard drives like the one that laptop has. I personally think the signature Toshiba logo looks better than just "TOSHIBA" like it has on the laptop.
Funny that you posted this. When I worked as Auditor in 1998 this was the exact laptop that were provided with and man if you were travelling you needed to lug this beast from place to place. It's neat to see the old start up and all the applications that were utilized back then and even the fax. But you are right the clock battery tended to go quick on these units.
My first ever computer was one of these. I got it for $2 from the Salvation Army and never even got it to turn on. It's awesome seeing one in such good shape after so long! And working at that!
All about that battery cover. For sure.
I'm certain that there will be some "go-around" for a more modern battery solution down the road.
Great video, Colin.
toshiba made one of the best retro laptop with the 2150 cdt : 486 dx2 with tft screen (640x480), CD and soundcard. Perfect for retro-gamers
When i was 18 or so, i had my desktop computer stolen, and a friend lent me this laptop. It was my first experience with a laptop. Very well made, aweful screen as you said. But learnt how to program and did more on this laptop then any computer before.
Toshiba kept that keyboard plastic strip cover in their designs for such a long time
Yup. Right up until they moved to island style keyboards that were integrated into the top plate.
I have a very very similar Toshiba laptop that was my grandparents for the longest time. I remember playing a crapton of Tonka and Pac-Pack (? -- basically knock-off Pacman) on it as a kid. They gave it to me years after they retired it. I believe it's basically the same except has the better screen. I pulled it out of the closet about a year ago to clean it up a bit and I don't remember the screen being too bad.
Toshiba used this exact battery in several models from 1996 to 2004, which made it cheap to replace. I always liked this design decision not to integrate the battery cover with a battery.
I've got the 300CDT (166MHz, 32MB RAM, 2.1GB HDD, TFT display) from 1998. It still works and the screen is a charm. Although I had to find a donor 300CDT because the screen had one vertical red line. The donor screen works fine. It came with windows 95, I have tried 98 and Me and it worked fine. But now I have DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 installed for DOS gaming. The only thing that does not work because of DOS is the USB port. And something else: the battery still holds charge for more than half an hour operation!
Ah, I remember when mouse trail was a default thing. I still have two Toshiba CT110s in my collection. Pretty interesting devices given their age.
I have a 305CDS that I got a couple years back at an estate sale. I absolutely adore the thing. The screen on the CDS models leaves a lot to be desired, but the fact that it has a genuine Yamaha OPL3 in it makes it great for DOS gaming (when hooked up to an external monitor and a decent set off speakers, of course)!
Toshiba's aren't all that iconic compared to thinkpads, but they are pretty reliable. So much so that they are not talked about due to how getting out of the way of thigs they are.
I've had nothing but horrible experiences with Toshiba laptops post 2002 or so. Super cheaply made and unreliable.
I've liked the units i've owned but I think they designed in some planned obsolescence. I think the bodies are better than most Acers, they don't flex much, they will take a hit and simply using it with the power plug in won't cause cracks in the plastic, but for years and years they had a problem of not having enough structural rigidity around where the brass standoffs for the hinges attached to the case. Over time they would form stress fractures and eventually break, leaving the hinges un-attached and upon opening will tear the two halves of the computer apart, basically making it useless as a laptop.
@@aprofondir Pre-2000 Toshiba laptops like the one in the video were very well built. After 2000 they really become crap.
@@mima85 the Satellite L35 was a good laptop
I used to have one of these exact laptops, it's actually what started my love for retro tech (besides gaming hardware)
It's so satisfying to see manufacturer driver support. I was recently handed a Sony Vaio to bring back to factory condition, and unsurprisingly, Sony has removed all driver downloads to versions of windows that are no longer supported. By Microsoft. So no windows 7 drivers at all.
16:55 that melody on the right channels tickles in my ear :D
Ohhhh the memories. Had one of these new in 98. Spent it's time on 747s criss crossing Asia for work, or typing contractual agreements in hotel rooms.
Hi Collin! Greetings from Colombia. I like old laptops too (strange hobby here, lol!), in fact, I have two amazing thinkpads: a 760XL and last year I manage to grab a 770X in very good condition from a guy in Germany. Shipping costs were high and I needed to change the video card and hard disk, but it's all worth: it's has an amazing (from the time) 13.7" 1280*1024 TFT screen. I love to remember old times in a laptop that costs $5000 US dollars in 1999, an unreachable dream from me back then.
I have one in my vehicle as an interface for my scanner and a few other things. Fits and matches perfectly on the center console tray (2001 Odyssey). It's tough and resilient. Runs Win2k, boots pretty fast.
0:14 *did you say send more laptops?*
This is the exact same disassembly process for my i7 Gen 3 satellite. They didn’t change the design much from a repairability standpoint.
This was my first laptop! A hammy down from a family friend that didn’t know what was wrong with it. Replaced the HD and installed Windows 2k. Bought a WiFi adapter for it, and used it until 2005 when a bought a new Dell Latitude.
I remember these kind of laptops very well from my (short) time at the Technical University in Eindhoven: in 1997 they were the first university in the Netherlands to use laptops for every student. You could buy the model the university provided for about half the amount it would cost new, at the time about ƒ2000 (which equalled probably about $900 at the time). The students starting in 1997 and 1998 got these kind of Toshiba machines, we called them "breadboxes", as they were so thick. But they were very sturdy and student-proof. And they had the CDT versions of course, with the good display. When I started in 1999, they switched to very thin, sleek-looking Fujitsu's (LifeBook c-something, I don't remember exactly, cannot find them in Google so quickly), but they were made out of very thin plastic, falling apart even as you just looked at it... I once got then a Toshiba as replacement for a while: slower, but much more stable.
A few years ago, I took a 300CDT in pristine condition home from work, I still have it, works fine, with a National Instruments GPIB PCMCIA Card, it was used for measurement logging at the time. The thing I immediately recognised in the video is that the CDS version has the contrast wheel, which is missing on the CDT, thought already that that must have been the Dual Scan display. I remember them, they have always been bad. With many manufacturers you could choose between the different display options, like Apple's cs-Powerbooks vs. c-Powerbooks.
That one with the better panel + an IDE SSD and you got yourself one hell of an MS-DOS gaming notebook, I'd say.
Toshiba Sadly never make laptops anymore to this day... but quite retrospective. 😇👍🏻
I am Remembering these old screen at school whit the w95 background immortalize in it while running Windows XP.
Interesting vid. I have a 490 CDT and it’s a great little laptop, perfect for dos gaming and windows rts type games. The OPL-3 chip is ace as is supports SB Pro and Roland. The difference in music quality between ad-lib and Roland in Monkey Island, Canon Fodder is worth price of laptop alone. Mine has a fairly rubbish d3d compatible S3 Virge graphics chip which is perfect for dos games. I note you mention larger than 4gb HD replacements. I haven’t tried this as I thought the bios / interface had a 4gb limit, so that’s interesting. I installed a 4gb cf card in the end.
Man you got me all excited that drivers were still available on Toshiba's site! But I checked for anything from the older 486-era T-series and.... nope. :-( awww..
Wish they would've had the multi-piece battery compartment on my older T2400CT! The battery pack's casing was a PAIN to disassemble.
I love the touchpoint (i.e. eraser head mouse control). As a touch typist, it allows me to keep my fingers on the home keys while still using the mouse.
Hey I love these era of Toshibas. I have a T1910CS and a T1960CT (upgraded to 1GB CompactFlash and 20MB Ram) Models and I just picked up a 315CDT
Just picked up a working toshiba t1100 plus. Not entirely sure what do with it but I’m glad to gave.
It's weird seeing my first laptop on a channel. Good memories
LGR just did a video on a sound card with the same sound chip that this laptop has, a Yamaha OPL3.
While it's probably worse quality than a dedicated card, it probably sounds "right" for DOS games from the 90's.
I have an OPL3 laptop, exactly for the reason I want DOS games to sound right. The onboard speakers aren't great but out the headphones or line out it's just as good as a SB16 or Yamaha.
Yes, it does sound very good in MS-DOS. I currently have a 4000CDT (basically the same laptop as shown here but with a Pentium II and a TFT screen).
I still have my Toshiba laptop that's almost exactly like this but the 330CDS. It's also from November of 1998. It still has it's original 4.1 GB hard drive that still works perfectly with no bad sectors. Mine has 266 mhz Pentium mmx cpu with 96 mbs ram and with Windows 98 second edition on it.
A former employer of mine let me keep and old one of these with a 100Mhz P1 in it sometime in the mid 2000s because they were throwing it out. When I booted it up I found early scripts for a mid to late 90s sitcom on it. Unfortunately the drive died a few years later.
“I’m not gonna be some sort of hipster” meanwhile has all these laptops and retro computers
I've picked up a few retro laptops from scrap and/or friendly recyclers over the years. I've got both a Satellite Pro 430CDT in good cosmetic condition and a Tecra 500CDT that works well despite looking like it was dropkicked, both with the Active Matrix displays
I have this laptop! I never thought I would see a video on such a basic 90s laptop haha!
Ah! This brings me back!
A neighbor kid had this machine. Spent many hours fiddling with it and setting up some games it could play on Windows 98 of course. I remember maybe Supaplex or Lemmings being the favourites. Also managed to install a pretty old version of Slackware on it. It was slow as hell. 😂
And I remember the awful screen panel quality very well.
It was an old machine even at that time but did it's job quite well and provided some nice gaming time to a couple of kids who we're stuck with it.
Thank you for bringing up those memories.
I had one. The passive matrix display was horrendous
MY CHILDHOOD LAPTOP!!!! Mine was slightly different, no nub mouse....it had a trackball in the display instead! I was also lacking the Audio card and CD-ROM drive installed. Must have been an older model! That power switch!!! lol
im getting one similer to this soon cant wait it seems like a cool machinr
All these dual scan screens got a kind of screen rot after all this time and look like this. I have 90s laptops with TFT displays that still look fine, but every dual scan screen has been like this and in my HP Omnibook 2100, I just swapped the screen out for a TFT unit and now it looks great...
Lol, I've watched almost all of your videos and just now I noticed that I'm not a subscriber. Well, I'm subscribing now.
Funny, 2 years later I'm back at this video because I just inherited this same laptop yesterday and were looking for repair parts.
My first laptop was a Toshiba Satellite back in 2015. Can’t remember which exact model, but I still have it and boot it up occasionally to perform Windows updates.
I used a casing of one of those and put a new screen in it. Ow, and a raspberry pi 4. Was a struggle getting the keyboard going but it works great now.
I have a Toshiba Satellite 2065 CDS and it’s very similar to this, such a nice laptop
"the screen has gone yellow over the years"
There is a setting on Windows 10 and other os to make your screen look like that and I just assumed it was on this machine as well
This was the first computer my dad ever brought home, the memories :)
Nothing makes me want to click faster than when the video says boring 😂
I have the Toshiba 310CDT (active matrix LCD) works excellent and I loaded Windows 98SE and all the retro games. I managed to get an 80GB IDE hard disk working too. My LCD is perfect too
Those Satellites are amazing for Retro DOS installs. They have a built in OPL3 chip that has full SB Pro compatibility with a small driver install. The CT65xxx video chip has Windows 3.11 drivers. The HDD compartment is fairly spacious and will fit an SD card adapter for replacing the hard drive easily. If a game runs too fast, it's possible to disable the CPU cache (through the BIOS or from a software) to make it run approximately the speed of a 20mhz 386. :)
Not all drivers are on the Dynabook site.
Can you link the software to disable the software cache?
@@W00fer No, but they're fairly easy to find if you do an internet search for Vogons Drivers.
@@W00fer the software is named Setmul. it's fairly simple to find on Vogons. There's also other utilities for slowing the system down like MoSlow.
@@yblademoor yeah but VOGONS doesnt have all the drivers for Toshiba
Pretty sure me and my mate completed Command & Conquer on my moms company laptop which was just like this.
Remember we had to use a piece of paper on the little mouse knob to prevent it from getting too slippery from sweat
I like having battery support, just if the BIOS needs to be updated.
I grew up with a similar model of this, with a better screen. Such a great unit, I have to check if I still got it..
I purchased this model along with the Tecra 550CDT two years ago via ebay. I was looking for the fastest Pentium 1 powered laptop. I believe there was a 300MHZ Dell laptop but it only had 2mb onboard graphics and the maximum ram sixe was 128mb.
I decided to get rid of the Satellite. The viewing angle was rediculous and there was a lack of processing power.
I kept the 1997 released Toshiba Tecra 550CDT with its 266MHZ Pentium 1 MMX which is now able to run Windows XP after maxing out the ram to a total of 160mb (32 onboard + 128 Transcend added.)
The 4mb onboard graphics chip is able to play fullscreen 640x480 MPEG2 video @1,400kbps without any skipping. Still holds an hour of battery which always freaks me out.
I have the Toshiba Deskstation V docking station which allows up to three full size desktop PCI cards or two ISA cards.
The screen has no stuck or dead pixels. Toshiba did not cut any corners on this machine. It cost $3,000 when it was released back in 1997.
In theory an added PCI graphics card should work in the dock. A vintage ATi Radeon PCI graphics card would look very nice in there.
Had a very similar Toshiba laptop around that time. IIRC, it was a little faster processor (233 MHz MMX) and a larger hard drive (4 GB? No more than 6 GB). But other than those, it was pretty much the EXACT SAME laptop -- case and all. Dual-Scan LCD as well.
Technology was moving fast back then. I have a Compaq Armada from around 1999-2000 and its a Pentium 2 with an Active Matrix lcd, DVD drive and 10gb hdd.