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Thread: Old Toshiba Satellite T2105 series software

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    Default Old Toshiba Satellite T2105 series software

    Know this is a long shot. But I have 3 old Toshiba Satellite T2105 and T105CT all with windows 3.1 or 3.11. I am seeking out the old drivers and setup files. You won't believe how hard it's been over the years to find these items.

    Anyone have a idea of where I could find the stuff for these old relics I have in closet? They were hand me downs back in day and very popular back then so it's hard to believe it seems like they never existed.



Look Here ->
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    Dig around at this site --->>

    Look for .htm files in the list on that page.... ie;

    HTH

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    Maybe a version of Linux could bring this old beastie back to life
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    Maybe a version of Linux could bring this old beastie back to life

    Haha...not really. The reason I know about the above site, is I've had a couple of these old laptop things turn up, owner wanting to get them going again.

    I had the same notion back then ; stick linux on it -- man, was that a mistake ; machine took nearly 10mins just to boot! I should've thought about it -- i486, 24MB of ram ... this was always going to end badly =)

    I imagine things might be better if you went back to a really early linux distro release with linux kernel 1.x.x ... but I can't see the point ; machine was much better/faster with DOS/win3.x on it. Perhaps if one built against it ($LFS) you'd end up with something reasonable ... but even then you'd be looking to set up a cross-compile environment on more modern x86 hardware....ie; an i686 will take a measure of minutes to compile the linux kernel...think 6-7hours to do the same thing on i486 (I know, I've done it B^)

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    Quote Originally Posted by wotnot View Post
    Haha...not really. The reason I know about the above site, is I've had a couple of these old laptop things turn up, owner wanting to get them going again.

    I had the same notion back then ; stick linux on it -- man, was that a mistake ; machine took nearly 10mins just to boot! I should've thought about it -- i486, 24MB of ram ... this was always going to end badly =)

    I imagine things might be better if you went back to a really early linux distro release with linux kernel 1.x.x ... but I can't see the point ; machine was much better/faster with DOS/win3.x on it. Perhaps if one built against it ($LFS) you'd end up with something reasonable ... but even then you'd be looking to set up a cross-compile environment on more modern x86 hardware....ie; an i686 will take a measure of minutes to compile the linux kernel...think 6-7hours to do the same thing on i486 (I know, I've done it B^)
    Fair enough, I did consider that an older kernel might be needed. Given that there are so many distros out there, I'd be surprised if there was not one modern one that hasn't been set up for older hardware.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    Fair enough, I did consider that an older kernel might be needed. Given that there are so many distros out there, I'd be surprised if there was not one modern one that hasn't been set up for older hardware.
    There's a thread about this over on reddit that's recentish... ... and the pickings have only gotten fewer ; that thread's an accurate exposition of the case =)

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    I recall new the 2105 monochrome had a basic sound blaster driver. That is one driver I have yet to ever find. It would be golden to cross a working 2105 with the intact drivers

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    Whats interesting is years ago before hanging them up I had contact toshiba and they couldn't find record of making these! Talk about the speech of we don't have the technology there anymore to get to moon lol. What brought them out again was need for slower processor use.

    The windows 3.11 has a color display. T2105ct. Only issue is all 3 exhibit now the drive A fail to read floppy issue. I may tear one down and clean the heada on floppy drive to see if it takes. That one doesn't have the sound driver but is mostly intact. Definitely wouldn't mind sharing a mirror image of it to anyone needing the drivers it has. I may have to remove the drive and use a external modern USB and copy it that way. I'm beginning to wonder if the sound i heard uses uses pcmcia slot on side and was a slot deal I had heard when it was given to me and they just removed it from the one. It's been so long but have them back out.

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    All the best with your search Dave. I know from recent experience, finding anything meaningful from Toshiba is almost impossible, i.e. if anyone has access to a Service Manual for a P70-A (which is a recent model, comparatively), id be very happy.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by DaveBern View Post
    Whats interesting is years ago before hanging them up I had contact toshiba and they couldn't find record of making these!

    'Coz they didn't =) They were dynabooks .... .

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    Quote Originally Posted by DaveBern View Post
    I recall new the 2105 monochrome had a basic sound blaster driver. That is one driver I have yet to ever find. It would be golden to cross a working 2105 with the intact drivers
    The maintenance manual to the T2100 series -->

    Wrt sound ...load up the above PDF file and search for 'sound' ...you'll find table B-1 detailing the mainboard connectors, specifically (R) -> PJ15 -->> Sound interface connector. The machines I worked on in the past were on the 'Tecra' design, and the sound card was built into a desktop base expansion unit the laptop fitted into --- it looks like the same connector ---- if it is, what it'll actually be is the 16bit ISA bus terminated by that custom connector .. on the satellites it was named sound expansion connector, on the Tecra is was base expansion connector as the ISA bus (and par/ser ports..aka: port replicator) connected to the base unit for extra floppy drive, network interface, sound card, modem module blablabla...the satellites worked around this need by having a pair of PCMCIA ports.

    If the sound module is still present, you could visually identify what is but it's be polemical for now whether it's a real soundblaster or not ~ if it's a real soundblaster, maybe it came from a T2150CT ...but I can't find nada wrt sound expansion module/card for the T2105CT... that's why I'd head for the visual inspection first.

    Floppy drive not working sortta sucks...but there's other ways and means to transfer files =)

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    I had the monochrome version back then, normally I never throw stuff away but this was so old, I guess it never got into the container when i moved back to AU.
    It had no battery and I remember making my own out of NiCad cells, that I somehow stuffed inside it but I do not remember any sound coming from it except rudimentary beeping and buzzing noises from Pacman and other arcade types games. No way there would have been a Soundblaster chip in this.
    Yes, as Wotnot points out there is a docking type port that may have had the ability to address external audio hardware but any drivers would be part of that hardware.

    As for setup files I always managed to throw any floppies at it, DR DOS being my favourite and the old Windows 3.x, can't remember the need for special drivers and it beeped happily little melodies with a few lines of QBasic
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    Quote Originally Posted by Uncle Fester View Post
    I had the monochrome version back then, normally I never throw stuff away but this was so old, I guess it never got into the container when i moved back to AU.
    It had no battery and I remember making my own out of NiCad cells, that I somehow stuffed inside it but I do not remember any sound coming from it except rudimentary beeping and buzzing noises from Pacman and other arcade types games. No way there would have been a Soundblaster chip in this.
    Yes, as Wotnot points out there is a docking type port that may have had the ability to address external audio hardware but any drivers would be part of that hardware.

    As for setup files I always managed to throw any floppies at it, DR DOS being my favourite and the old Windows 3.x, can't remember the need for special drivers and it beeped happily little melodies with a few lines of QBasic

    With the T21xx series, the soundcard was a discrete board held in a tray, inside the case just underneath where your right palm would sit. and the line in/out ports appeared at the front...(this is a T2150 pictured)



    They made so many different models of the things....the model nomenclature of 'T2105' [suffix of letters] doesn't mean much ... the actual model number 'PAxxxx[suffix]' is the definitive identifier. As I recall it, these machines had a hinky custom BIOS...ie; it was a custom mainboard&hardware construct and only factory upgrade options, so you could do away with the normal mainboard with multiple slots to jiggle IRQ/DMA about to suit whatever cards) you'd installed....you have to enter this custom BIOS during early boot (normally hold down Esc and power on and key screen when 'setup' screen appears)...errm...the other way, was to create to bootable ms-dos floppy, copy the toshiba setup,exe to the disk, and call it from autoexec.bat ...if the BIOS battery goes flat, you have to access the BIOS to turn things back on (as I found out =)...like the 'boot from hard-disk switch ....it would not at all surprize me, that you'd have to enter this menu to turn an expansion on (like soundcard).

    They worked best with DOS, we OK with win3.xx ...but even win95, which would run on them, turned them into a dog...you really needed a pentium for win95...

    It's hard to reconcile the self reality, that once upon a time I/we considered the i486DX/50 as a CPU beast 8^)

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