>Hello, I'm new here, and I've got a problem with an
>old Laptop. I just purchased a Toshiba T5200 in a flea
>market, which can be seen here...
>
>http://web.ukonline.co.uk/zelandeth/computers/t5200-100/
>
>...and I bought it for $1! A total bargain,
>but...unsurprisingly, it's broken...kinda broken. I've
>opened it up to determine the cause of what's wrong
>with it, as it won't turn on. A little tinkering
>later, and, boom, the power supply of the Laptop fries
>itself up. Damage looks bad, and it stinks really
>bad...a poisonous sort of smell, so I've thrown the
>offending power supply to the garbage. Now I have a
>laptop...with no power supply. But, is it possible to
>buy a replacement power supply for this? Or, is it
>even possible to just hook it up to a regular PC's
>power supply?
I'm not familiar with this particular machine, but I used to have a similar
286 based machine. A noname tawianese brand, model HL3200 or some such.
Designed to look like the Toshiba 3100, but with EGA and an MFM HDD.
The main problem with replacing the power supply with one from a generic PC
is that the original supply probably had a high voltage output to drive the
plasma display. In my 286 machine it was 205V. If you use a power supply
that doesn't have the 205V line you'll be able use an external monitor, but
not the plasma display. Which would kind of defeat the purpose of getting
it running these days.
Your best bet would be find a power supply from another machine. One from
a 286 based T3200 might do, as may one another machine with a plasma
display if you can work out what goes where. It probably won't fit in
space where the original power supply was. Either way I'd retrieve the
original power supply from the garbage to work out what goes where.
I had mine many years ago. I found it in a dumpster with a cracked screen
and no drives. This was when back when a 286 with EGA was something
special, at least to a 13 year old with no money. I got it running on an
external monitor and dumped the broken plasma display. It lived out the
rest its days in a plastic case that once held an apple 2 clone, a naked
5.25" FDD and a 30MB MFM HDD at it's side. I completed Leisure Suit Larry
1, Duke Nukem 1, Catacombs 3D and others on this beast before upgrading to
a Wang 386-16 (a full size case with room for 2 70MB MFM HDDs with noisy
bearings!) and a flaky VGA monitor with serious screen burn. A good used
VGA monitor cost around AU$200 at the time so I has to settle for one
removed from an old memorex terminal, but I could finally play Wolf 3D.
Received on Thu Dec 05 2002 - 01:47:01 GMT