#1910cs-200

[commodorez]

Remember my Toshiba Satellite T1910CS-200?  Well, I gave it a bit of a paint job before VCF East XI, along with a few stickers I had been stockpiling.

My initial plan was to use this to store programs for Hero Jr. as plaintext, then transfer them over in terminal mode.  I’m not sure why, but I was getting dropped characters in serial port tests the week before, and I decided to give up on it, and maybe reassemble it during a spare moment in my hotel room before the event.  I did finish putting it back together on Friday night of VCF East, but ended up not messing with it any further.  It still needs some work, namely a replacement laminated floppy drive ribbon cable, and a proper switch to the CF card hard drive adapter replacement.   Not to mention a new battery would be very nice. 

[commodorez]

Well, I think I may have damaged another floppy drive thin ribbon cable for my T1910CS. 

I’ve tried 2 different floppy drives, two different motherboards, and the one cable I have is proving is the only common factor.  Each test has yielded the same result: a steady buzzing noise that wasn’t there before upon loading in a floppy.  I’ve tried a half-dozen different floppies too...

[commodorez]

Z-RAM 4MB RAM card vs. Kingston 16MB RAM card

Oh, and they both work in my Toshiba Satellite T1910CS-200′s, which only has 4MB of RAM on board.  This upgrade will be very nice, once I sort out my floppy drive problems.

[commodorez]

Toshiba Satellite T1910CS-200 Upgrade Progress

As I was gearing up to begin installation of Windows 95B on my T1910CS, I discovered that the floppy drive motor was acting up.  Fortunately I have a replacement.  In order to get into the machine deep enough to remove the floppy drive, I need to disassemble most of the laptop. 

By that point, I realized it wouldn’t be too much extra effort if I wanted to separate the main case for painting.  It had crossed my mind a few times to paint this beauty red or green or something, and really make it my own. 

Having to tear it down to brass tacks really pushed me to go ahead and paint it.  I plan to cover up the nice large stickers with masking tape, however the small “Toshiba” screen printing will sadly be lost along with the indicator LED marking.  I also ordered a larger ZRAM expansion card, because 20MB instead of 8MB sounds mighty nice right about now.  Plus, the CMOS battery is dead, so this is an opportune time to replace it.  The guts should be functional without the case, I just need to use an external monitor and keyboard.

This thing is gonna be one hell of a powerhouse if all goes well. 

[commodorez]

Hey @syntax-error, look it’s your favorite: Hotdog Stand!

[commodorez]

Off to a good start.

One Toshiba Satellite 1910CS-200 donated parts today for another.  Namely its floppy drive ribbon cable, a handful of screws, the PCMCIA slot cover, and a 4MB Z-RAM card.  It boots fine, and is a bit picky about floppy disks that it likes, but otherwise is fine.

[commodorez]

I found my old Toshiba Satellite 1910CS-200 (left)!  Believe it or not, it still works (minus the floppy drive ribbon cable).  That spare I bought on ebay earlier this year (right), will provide some donor parts. I plan on cobbling together one functional, pretty, custom 1910CS to run Windows 3.11 by the end of all this.  Network communication would be nice too, but that’s a pipe dream.  If I can remove the old battery from the donor unit, I can put fresh cells in there and make it actually portable.  Worst case scenario, the battery slot actually makes a good shelf for holding a floppy disk or two.