I just got this 486 computer from eBay, there are a bunch of slots I don't know anything about. Does anyone have this model computer and would you be willing to by my mentor for teaching me about it?

Thanks in advance, Julie

are you talking about slots on the motherboard??
if so, those are 'isa' slots and very obsolete. usable, but obsolete.
i don't know what your planning to do with the computer, and i hope you did not give much money for it.
there will be lotsa help on this forum from many folks who have already been there.

I haven't opened up the laptop, yet. There are a bunch of slots in the case, itsself, that I'm not sure about. I've located the HDD slot, the battery slot, the usual stuff...but there are what look like THREE
PC card slots...two on one side of the case, the other slot is alone. According to
the user's manual, the laptop can house two PC cards. I'm just wondering if that third slot is for a RAM card. The actual connectors in the three slots look like ones for PC cards.

I also haven't managed to get this thing up and running. It doesn't have a hard drive, I've got spares sitting around for it. The laptop also doesn't have an A/C adapter or battery, yet.

I plan to keep it around the house, use it as a WFW 3.11 machine, play old games on it. Heck, I might even put a browser and modem on the thing, and get it on the internet. Got to find the RAM slot, first. The machine has 12 megs and I know 16 meg RAM sticks are available.

Just need someone who also has one of these laptops to give me some pointers that I don't find in the user's manual! I know about all the helpful people around here...I've got Lightspeed's web site bookmarked! Woof's is bookmarked, also.

Julie

If this is similar to the T1900 series, the top slot is for credit card memory, the bottom 2 slots are probably pcmcia slots, could take 1 or 2 cards depending on height of cards and what the toshiba card manager program will support

Thanks, Shadow. I had begun to suspect that the Toshiba takes credit card memory, rather than the regular sticks. I think, for now, 12 megs will be fine, since I plan to put WFW 3.11 and DOS 6.22 on the machine. 12 megs RAM will be plenty for that setup. Not really interested in running Win 95, especially since I have only the first version!

Again, thanks for the info. DJ

12MB is great. I run a 386 with 12mb ram and its good. it only runs WFWG 3.11 with IE v2.0, Netscape v1.22, and I think i have a mail program on it. either Eudora or Foxmail pro. I didnt use it in awhile. runs real smooth. I plan to put chicago on it or NT 3.1.

Its not how it runs, it how it looks. ;-)

Congratulations Julie, the T4700 is a great choice amongst 486DX2/50 laptops, assuming yours is in working order. Ignore the suggestion above about being obsolete, kkk knows not what he is talking about, and isa slots are not even a consideration here. My T4700 is a *BEAST* and works nearly as hard as my pentium 133 desktop, honestly! However this is a ten year old computer and you should not spend much (if any) money fixing it up. If you can beg/ borrow/ steal/ whatever parts you need, then definitely go for it.

Firstly, DO NOT open up this laptop. Everything you need to get at is accessible from the outside via hinged trapdoors and removeable plastic panels. Only the hard drive may need some few screws undone to access.

Although I am no computer expert and have no manual for my T4700, I have learned a few things about it in the four years I owned it and happy to help you out if I can. Firstly, are you sure that the computer is in good working order? That yours came with no power supply or battery or hard drive is a bad sign that someone has gutted out the good stuff and left you with a dead T4700! You need to be sure it is working first.

Since you will need an external power supply as minimum and maybe a battery later, this will certainly cost you something, so you need to find someone locally to test your computer before spending anything. Also keep in mind that a suitable new rechargeable battery is likely to cost a lot (US$100+?). My power supply is a genuine Toshiba AC adaptor, model number PA2478U. The output is 18 volts DC at 1.7 amps. The connector is a barrel plug with the inside being positive and the outside negative. That should be sufficient info for a technical type person to find a replacement and test out your computer. Get a DOS boot disk or even a MiniWindows disk so the computer has something to boot off or if available a bootable hard drive would be great.

Regarding the lack of a hard drive, this may or may not be a big problem. Good news is the T4700 is well behaved and likes many standard IDE or EIDE laptop hard drives. Larger capacity drives may require uprade of the flash bios to version 5.0 which is fairly simple and the download file to do this is still available on the toshiba website. However, the hard drive sits in a metal caddy which has its own *weird* connector on it which fits between the laptop and the hard drive, if you don't have that adaptor you may find it extremely difficult to connect a drive at all.

You say you have 12meg! As the T4700 only came with 8meg onboard I would guess you already have a 4meg memory card plugged in. You'll need to take a look. The memory slot is the one on the left side just above the microphone and speaker sockets. It takes a memory card which look almost identical to a pcmcia card except for the connector which has staggered pin holes rather than parallel ones, and the edge notches slightly different on one side too. I believe new 4/8/16meg card were available about 3 years ago but may be hard to find now. I think the maximum memory is 24meg (8meg onboard plus 16meg card). Sadly I think these memory cards may be custom toshiba ones as I could not get an identical looking one from IBM to work (although it could have been bad or the wrong voltage I guess). Certainly the modern memory sticks will not fit or work, sorry.

Your 12meg is plenty for windows 3.11 and may be sufficient for windows 95 also. I am running 95a on 16meg right now without problems. And using your T4700 for internet access is no joke, as I'm doing exactly that right now. Well I hope I answered all your questions above and some you didn't, enough to get you started anyways. Please keep us informed what happens with this project and ask any questions you need to, we all will help out best we can.

Best of luck.... Shaggydoo

shaggydoo, can I tap your brain? I've got a 2130CT which is similar to the 4700. It's running Win3.1 with Dos 6.22. I'm trying to get on the net but the 3 modems that I've tried don't do it for me. The software (Quicklink II) tests the modems and declares them OK but it can't initialise them. Any ideas? I've tried fiddling with port addresses and IRQs but it only seems to get me into deeper trouble!

Shaggydoo, I found the manual on the Toshiba web site! Here's the link:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_modItemList.jsp?ProductMenu_0=Portables&ProductMenu_1=T-Series&ProductMenu_2=1073769827&BV_SessionID=@@@@1888297645.1063322549@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccfadcjgekdigecgfkceghdgngdgli.0&moid=1073769827&smoid=true&ct=DL&ListType=Model&x=12&y=13

Yeah, impossibly long!

I have an A/C adapter for another laptop that works with the Tosh. Can't get the thing to boot, so I'm getting new RAM and CMOS batteries. Don't have a HDD adapter, either, but do have extra drives around. Not spending much on this little laptop because of it's age, but figure the little batteries are worth replacing. I won't be using the laptop 'cept with the A/C adapter, so I'm not worried about getting a main battery.

Hey, email me so we can talk more about the laptops. I really want to get this thing up and running.

Thanks,
Julie

jon, sorry but my brain all tapped out... nothing but dark roots under the shaggydoo! I know not of the 2130CT but I would doubt it is very similar to the T4700 else it would probably be called T4700(2). And what is quicklinkII, a fax software or a terminal emulator? Don't waste your time fooling with a terminal emulator to access the internet unless you have a specific need to do that and your internet service provider has given you a shell account and text browser to do that with. Why not just get your 2130CT online using internet explorer or netscape or even opera and save yourself the pain of having to use text browsing..

DenverJulie, can I just re-iterate that I am no computer expert, just a 4 year long T4700 owner. we can do the email thing if you wish but if we discuss the T4700 on this forum others can contribute or maybe even benefit!

Check on that power supply you have, that it's up to the specifications I gave above. If voltage or current is too low the laptop will not boot up properly or not at all. With a dos boot disk or miniwin in the floppy drive the laptop should boot up if it is not faulty.

Is your CMOS battery run down? My T4700 has appeared to have a run down battery when it had not been used for a long while. Leaving the computer plugged into the power supply for a day or so usually did the trick for me.

Why did you want to buy new memory? You have 12meg which is plenty for windows 3.1x and probably even windows 95 too. Please be sure the laptop is not faulty before spending any money for new memory. BTW, if you tossing out your old memory card you could always toss it my way :)