Toshiba T1910
Posted by Retroaffaire@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 36 comments
Not exactly the pinnacle of portable computing technology, but in 1993 this Toshiba T1910 laptop was pretty good! Heavy but also heavy packed with cutting-edge 25MHz Intel 486SX processor and a whopping 4MB of RAM, to crashing numbers in Excel faster than you can say "Y2K panic." - Dazzling 9.5" monochrome display (who needs color when you have 64 shades of gray?) - Pre-installed Windows 3.1 (because who doesn't love Program Manager?) - 80MB hard drive (store up to 5 high-res photos!) - 3.5" floppy drive (here very yellowed over time) - PCMCIA slot (for all your expansion needs... if you can find the cards) - Various expanding ports here and there! But wait, there's more! This technological marvel comes loaded with the most advanced software of the era. Prepare to lose countless hours to the addictive gameplay of two true classics: Solitaire and Minesweeper. I’ll try to install more games, curious to see how they appears on this monochrome monitor ❤️
warezeater@reddit
Old GUIs were way more consistent across the OSes...
labbo2243@reddit
Your photos of this laptop and the Sony Clié are awesome! What camera do you shoot with?
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
Thank you! I use a Sony A7 with a Macro lens 90mm Sony G.
labbo2243@reddit
Thanks for responding! You have some nice gear 😉
RO4DHOG@reddit
These little bad boys could play Microsoft Flight Simulator 4 (not 2004, but the FS4 version in 1988) Before CD's, before USB... you had a dozen diskettes that you hoped were all still readable each time you installed it. Took years of my life, to configure Flight Simulators, to play for hours. Now in VR, with FS2020 it's been a dream come true. I still have to wait for hours to DL 150GB... about 6 million 1.44 floppies worth. I love watching it come from MS Servers at 100+MB/s (80 floppies per second).
haha.. that's what we should call it... Individual Floppies per Second (IF/s)
-Roadhog
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
lol love the individual floppy per second measurements 😂 indeed I’m quite happy I got to experience those days, the technical evolution has been amazing to live
JamesTuttle1@reddit
This is a beautiful part of history ❤️
knightcrusader@reddit
I love these old Toshibas. My very first portable PC was a T1600.
In fact I have been collecting broken ones and have about 7 of them now. Only one will power on, all the rest are suffering from bad power boards. I'm not an electrical engineer but I would love if there was more love given to these that we can get some newer replacement power boards for them or something, the originals just can't hold up to the test of time.
I know that multi-function expansion board was made for them and have yet to get my hands on one.
FuST_NL@reddit
I've been thinking about creating a replacement powersupply for the T1600 ever since I repaired a couple of them. In the process I've reverse engineered the schematics which makes fixing the originals a lot easier but not as easy as a drop-in replacement.
Generating the correct voltages isn't that difficult to do but supporting batteries is. Especially if you want to support the original NiCd packs, as well as NiMH and/or Lithium replacements. Another major blocker is the connectors, those are complete unobtanium by now so it would require desoldering the original and reusing it. Not everyone is capable of doing that.
The multifunction cards created by /u/ConventionalMemories are a fantastic project, even the XT-IDE card is a lifesaver for these as the JVC harddrives have a special interface.
rambald@reddit
Those monochrome screens had a good thing for them: they worked in the sun!
AEW_SuperFan@reddit
The latency and ghosting made most games impossible tho.
5erif@reddit
I was so excited to try Doom on my 1995 grayscale ThinkPad, and then so disappointed.
i486dx4@reddit
What a beauty. I miss monochrome lcd screens that worked well in sunny weather
rednifegnar@reddit
the display on my sharp pc3000 is very visible in bright sunlight.
my texas windx is barely visible (monochrome lcd with backlit).
the new modern machines color displays are barely visible in direct sunlight.
i have a book 8088, machine that is useless in sunlight.
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
I hope someone makes a weird laptop with an elink screen 😄
TrannosaurusRegina@reddit
There's a guy who installed transflective screens into ThinkPads
ryannelsn@reddit
Love this idea. For a time, I wanted to revamp an old Mac Portable with an e-ink screen.
Gammaparanoid@reddit
1910 vibe
algaefied_creek@reddit
Do you have the display inverted for this?!
michaelmalak@reddit
I remember the Tecra that came three years later. You booted it up the first time and it started playing a full-motion video clip from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c&t=15s as a way to show off its color display and processing that was fast enough to do full-motion video.
alwayzz0ff@reddit
Incredible
wbpayne22903@reddit
I can’t get over how the shades of gray seem to be inverted on the display, the normally black borders on the Windows logo being white for example. Nice machine!
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
I noticed it was inverted but I couldn’t find the settings, indeed another person pointed out I can change this setting in the bios so I’ll try that!
wbpayne22903@reddit
I’d be interested in seeing how it looks if the BIOS setting works out.
Gnissepappa@reddit
Please my dude, go into the bios and change the screen color mode to Inverted, then you'll have normal grayscale color.
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
I was wondering about that 😅 thanks
Gnissepappa@reddit
No problem :) I've never understood why these machines has the inverted color labeled as "normal" and vice versa. I can only assume it has to do with DOS, as black text on white background is easier on the eyes.
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
I think you are right, it might be because of DOS being easier with black text on white. Looks almost like an e-link display. Will try the FN-F10 in DOS next time, and the bios 👍
jon-henderson-clark@reddit
I had a T1000. Used it as a portable terminal most of the time.
KingDaveRa@reddit
Love the old Tosh laptops. Shame they used that weird Chinon floppy drive that has an unobtanium belt that always breaks AND is non standard so most replacement drives don't work. Thankfully Flashfloppy can be convinced to work with it, I've got a hotel in one, but I'd love to find a source of the belts (at a reasonable price).
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
Indeed this doesn’t seem to work either… will try to move files over CF and expansion port
Paul-E-L@reddit
Got Doom running on it yet?
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
Top of the list 😄
Prodigyinme@reddit
The last pic is just brilliant 📸
Retroaffaire@reddit (OP)
Thank you! These laptops have a lot of charm
DonManuel@reddit
This was a pretty fast computer if you didn't use a GUI but the previous character version of display like in MS-DOS 5.1, Framework III or MS-Word 5. Really unknown speed compared to your old 80386 or even 80286 system.