VOGONS


First post, by my03

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I recently sourced a rather nice package consisting of this laptop with dock, floppy (somewhat working) and CD (also somewhat working). It was expanded to 128mb but unfortunately w98 was installed in the wrong language (to my preference) + it had the 6.2gb HDD.

So, i ended up swapping out the HDD for a CF (8gb) and at first i had to struggle a bit (due to very shaky periphials - floppy was sounding like it would die at any moment and only a firm tap would allow it to read the w98 boot floppy. CD was more or less the same). Until i realized that my 480CDT actually had the same connectors for floppy and CD and - yes they worked immediately when connecting them grinning face

So, after installing w98, finding all the crucial drivers (graphics, inf/usb, pcmcia, etc) i finally got it running nicely (even with wifi using my pwc-0301 card). But now comes the issue.

While i managed to install everything (except one thing - "PCI Card") including usb support (mouse and usb-storage works fine), i can only use either a ps/2 mouse (via the dock) or a usb-mouse (via the usb-slot on the machine or the usb-slot on the dock). The trackpoint (i think Toshiba calls it "accupoint") does not react at all when i move it.

I checked the flat-cable connections inside the machine and they are all connected to the best of my knowledge. Question is: does the accupoint require some extra driver or software to function?

Reply 1 of 12, by Thermalwrong

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That's great that you got the floppy drive from the 480CDT to use with it.

The silver floppy drive that comes with the Portege 3xxx laptops is a Citizen W1D and the belts have gone bad on even those later ones, so you'd need to swap out the belt to use that drive.
I'm surprised the connector matched up, I thought there was a connector pitch difference between the 480CDT caddy and the Portege, at least on my Portege 3010CT.

"PCI Card" - that gets me every time too, it's the Toshiba Fast IR driver grinning face

The mouse should work without any drivers, it's emulating a regular PS2 mouse. It could be the same is damaged but beyond that perhaps the trackpoint itself is damaged since those are just some variable resistors that react to pressure. I've seen them fail on laptops that were corroded / dirty enough.

Reply 2 of 12, by my03

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Thank you Thermalwrong. It was indeed the IR. Now everything is well in the driver department grinning face

Oh and i need to apologize for my (wrongful) claim that the 480CDT shares the same connector as the portege, they don't. When i bought the 480, i got some periphials with it (including this external floppy) but never reflected on that further as it already have an internal floppy as well. But now when i checked IRL, i noticed that this larger unit and the smaller silver one (that came with the Portege) have the same connector (took a picture of them both). I have no idea what this larger unit is supposed to support beaming face with smiling eyes Of course, the 480 on the other hand has a slightly wider connector for its intended external floppy.

I will try to remove the keyboard again and peek carefully if there is something that may have come loose..

Thx again

Reply 3 of 12, by dukeofurl

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I have this exact same computer with win 98 install on original HDD. Actually I used it regularly 24 years ago and just held onto it this long, and it's still working. My floppy drive crapped out recently though.

If you need to check anything or you think I might have a driver you need just let me know and I'll see if I can help.

Reply 4 of 12, by my03

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Thank you heaps both Thermalwrongs and dukeofurl for your kind input grinning face Much appreciated.

I think the trackpoint a.k.a "accupoint" gave up on this machine. I carefully removed the keyboard and looked at the small flat-cable but from what i can see, it looks pristine. No big issue as i can use my small usb travelmouse with the machine much more comfortably (and the small scroll-wheel works also which is a very nice bonus).

Oh, i thought the IR package would solve this mysterious driver issue (PCI Card) but after rebooting once again (after installing the 740fir.exe (and after that the 780fir.exe) referenced here: https://support.dynabook.com/support/viewCont … ontentId=106226

but actually found here: https://www.retrospace.net/toshiba/windows_98_files.htm (the 780 version)

I still have the yellow "PCI Card" thing in the device manager. Looking at what resources it occupies, i see I/O range FF60-FF7F which after some googling reveals that it may be related to UHCI USB Controllers (https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=50726) ??

Its no biggie as such as the machine works perfectly fine, but it IS intriguing beaming face with smiling eyes. And having this thing sorted would be nice at the end of the day. Has it something to do with USB (which works fine)? I did install the NUSB36e from Phils Computerlab earlier (which now makes the system properties proclaim the macine as "Microsoft Windows Me", probably because NUSB packages reuse Windows ME stuff i guess)

Reply 5 of 12, by Thermalwrong

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To find out what the device is in Windows 98 - go to Start > Run > "hwinfo /ui" minus quotes. Then when that loads, go to view > Problem Devices and you can see the PCI device ID which should help you to find what it really is since you can search for that and usually find definitive answers

Reply 6 of 12, by my03

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Great input Thermalwrong. Thank you.

And i finally managed to fix this grinning face

Following your advice i could find the vendor and subsystem (IR).

What DIDN'T work was to try the w98 specific drivers for the IR (740fir98.exe or 780fir98.exe) that i used before, but rather to download the xp package (p349irxp.exe), then using 7zip to extract it and finally point the driver install to the inf-file in this xp package. that did the trick and the IR kick-started immediately (funny enough).

All good. Thx heaps for the help.

Reply 7 of 12, by Zeugitai

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dukeofurl wrote on 2024-06-09, 00:08:

I have this exact same computer with win 98 install on original HDD. Actually I used it regularly 24 years ago and just held onto it this long, and it's still working. My floppy drive crapped out recently though.

If you need to check anything or you think I might have a driver you need just let me know and I'll see if I can help.

I, too, have a Toshiba Portege 3110CT that I am reviving to my family's ridicule. Unfortunately, I have to do a clean install of Win98 and lack vital drivers, especially the PCMCIA CD-ROM driver and the SMC EZ Connect G PCMCIA wireless driver. I managed to replace the belt in the floppy drive and use it to get the USB driver installed, so I have that access now, at least. Would you happen to still have any drivers? The display driver, too? I'd be very much obliged!

Reply 8 of 12, by DaveDDS

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Did the trackpad work with the original (Wrong language) HD?
Do you still have that HD?
If yes to both, I'd try putting it back in and see if the trackpad works..
If yes ... you have a software/driver problem .. Perhaps you can recover the
drivers it needs from that HD

Also, if that original HD is the one that shipped with the machine when
it was new... Perhaps there is a "recovery" partition on it?

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

Dave ::: https://dunfield.themindfactory.com ::: "Daves Old Computers"->Personal

Reply 9 of 12, by MAZter

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Zeugitai wrote on 2025-02-25, 00:56:

I, too, have a Toshiba Portege 3110CT that I am reviving to my family's ridicule. Unfortunately, I have to do a clean install of Win98 and lack vital drivers, especially the PCMCIA CD-ROM driver and the SMC EZ Connect G PCMCIA wireless driver. I managed to replace the belt in the floppy drive and use it to get the USB driver installed, so I have that access now, at least. Would you happen to still have any drivers? The display driver, too? I'd be very much obliged!

This unofficial boot floppy image contain at least DOS driver for Freecom F-TO-TCD-24L CD-ROM, found in this thread:

The attachment Tos_Companion_Disk_P3110CT_CD_Support.zip is no longer available

Page at Archive.com with recover media cd/floppy for 3110CT

Doom is what you want (c) MAZter

Reply 10 of 12, by Zeugitai

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MAZter wrote on 2025-02-25, 12:41:
This unofficial boot floppy image contain at least DOS driver for Freecom F-TO-TCD-24L CD-ROM, found in this thread: […]
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Zeugitai wrote on 2025-02-25, 00:56:

I, too, have a Toshiba Portege 3110CT that I am reviving to my family's ridicule. Unfortunately, I have to do a clean install of Win98 and lack vital drivers, especially the PCMCIA CD-ROM driver and the SMC EZ Connect G PCMCIA wireless driver. I managed to replace the belt in the floppy drive and use it to get the USB driver installed, so I have that access now, at least. Would you happen to still have any drivers? The display driver, too? I'd be very much obliged!

This unofficial boot floppy image contain at least DOS driver for Freecom F-TO-TCD-24L CD-ROM, found in this thread:

The attachment Tos_Companion_Disk_P3110CT_CD_Support.zip is no longer available

Page at Archive.com with recover media cd/floppy for 3110CT

Big thanks! I've wasted days already scouring around. I should have come here first!

The attachment Image_20250225130833.jpg is no longer available

Everything is back except the driver for the SMCWCB-G PCMCIA Wireless Cardbus Adapter called 'EZ Connect g' (802.11g). Anyone have this?

The attachment Image_20250225134715.jpg is no longer available

Reply 11 of 12, by MAZter

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Zeugitai wrote on 2025-02-25, 14:35:

Big thanks! I've wasted days already scouring around. I should have come here first!

Everything is back except the driver for the SMCWCB-G PCMCIA Wireless Cardbus Adapter called 'EZ Connect g' (802.11g). Anyone have this?

You are welcome!

Try this one:

https://drivers.plus/pt/smc-smcwcb-g-keyboard … -0-0-167/13813/

Doom is what you want (c) MAZter

Reply 12 of 12, by dukeofurl

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Zeugitai wrote on 2025-02-25, 00:56:
dukeofurl wrote on 2024-06-09, 00:08:

I have this exact same computer with win 98 install on original HDD. Actually I used it regularly 24 years ago and just held onto it this long, and it's still working. My floppy drive crapped out recently though.

If you need to check anything or you think I might have a driver you need just let me know and I'll see if I can help.

I, too, have a Toshiba Portege 3110CT that I am reviving to my family's ridicule. Unfortunately, I have to do a clean install of Win98 and lack vital drivers, especially the PCMCIA CD-ROM driver and the SMC EZ Connect G PCMCIA wireless driver. I managed to replace the belt in the floppy drive and use it to get the USB driver installed, so I have that access now, at least. Would you happen to still have any drivers? The display driver, too? I'd be very much obliged!

I have this stuff which looks very promising. The companion disk just seems like it is a bootdisk, and also includes a hardware diagnostic utility on it. I think the CDs will probably give a factory reset style install of win95 or 98, probably with the appropriate drivers. Let me know if you'd still like any of this.

The attachment PXL_20250227_024950794.jpg is no longer available