Unlocking Retro Laptop Secrets | Toshiba Satellite Restoration & History

On a quiet August day, I found two lonely Toshiba Satellite Pro 460CDT laptops in a New Hampshire thrift store. Between missing power supplies, BIOS password locks, and other maladies these laptops needed more than a little help to come back to life. But their power might surprise you-are these business machines retro gaming powerhouses in disguise? Join me as I restore these machines to working order and explore Toshiba’s history as a laptop innovator.
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= Chapters =
00:00:00 - Opening
00:00:14 - Rescuing Abandoned Laptops
00:04:23 - Breaking Through The Back Door
00:14:06 - Where Do You Want To Go Today?
00:20:39 - The Toshiba Satellite Legacy
00:29:11 - Outtro
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[@wertywerrtyson5529]

I’ve watched so many videos about old computer stuff but you are one of the most thorough narrators and I appreciate it. I often find that KZbinrs skip over details and “boring” steps to make the videos more palatable and even speak fast to make it more efficient for the masses but I like that you take the time and explain everything and show every step. These old relics deserve such respect.

[@userlandia]

I come from a radio and voiceover background. So that's what I'm channeling with my narration.

[@ndbapereira]

Great video. One advise, all Toshiba laptops from 1995-2002 have internal batteries (with a green plastic cover, connected with a cable to the MB) that tend to leak. If not removed, they will eventually kill the mainboard with corrosion

[@Oakyman]

I bought Sharp laptop in Japan back in around 2003 when doing my Master there, then owned the i3 Toshiba Portégé Z835-P360 from the States in 2012 for 700 bucks, super light one, barely 1.1 kilos!!

[@jonathankleinow2073]

My first computer was a Toshiba T1000 laptop that my dad wasn't using anymore. It was pretty sweet with its 768 KB HardRAM card and 1200 baud modem. We got an old Tandy CGA monitor for it, and I used it to play games and get on Prodigy.

[@singletona082]

Found you on Bitbang. Glad I found this.

[@userlandia]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@MrStillions]

Same! :)

[@yatapaws]

I have a few of these toshiba laptops, specifically my 430cds, t2400ct and 110cs. Love these things!!

[@fradd182]

Fascinating to me is that laptops of the time have used regular desktop CPUs. Unimaginable today.

[@userlandia]

The CPU in this laptop used Intel's laptop-specific MMC-1 form factor. The chip was soldered on to a card that could be swapped out of the machine. Intel was making laptop-specific Pentium feature packages at the time, but the actual CPU cores were the same. I need to re-paste the heatsink so I haven't seen which specific variant it uses, but my guess would be the TT80503166, which has extra vCore controls and lower overall power consumption. Otherwise it performs identically to a desktop CPU when you're on AC power. There were definitely laptops still using full-fat socketed CPUs at the time but Intel was starting to get religion about laptop-specific parts and a lot of the OEMs were demanding better power management (and reliability).

[@fradd182]

@@userlandia Thanks. Honestly, its kind a weird looking at such level of production and research for a channel of less than 400 subs. I hope it will grow fast.

[@userlandia]

You and me both :) I was writing this as a podcast/blog for a while but the reality is that the audience is on KZbin, so I'm learning video production as I go.

[@alpzepta]

Huge 18 inches laptop and Eurocom laptop use desktop CPU too

[@robertcartier5088]

Love Toshiba laptops -- I own 6 of them! ;-] A neighbor gave me a Toshiba Stellite 2520CDS from 1998... It sports both a CD burner AND a floppy drive! After playing around with it for a couple days, I had cloned the drive and was going to reinstall the OS. I pressed the power button after moving it to another location, but I noticed that I had accidentally forgotten to plug in the charger... the damn thing still booted into the OS! The original lithium battery, after a quarter century, had actually taken a charge! My mind was blown! Sure, it only lasted all of 10 minutes, but still! It's enough to move the laptop from room to room, which I cannot do with other machines half its age! Those things were really built to last! It already had Win 98 on it, which I replaced with Win98 SE... but I recently found the original Recovery Discs online (as ISO's), so it might revert back to the original Windows 95, eventually. This was a nice video, thanks for the memories! ;-]

[@ArthLud]

I really enjoyed the video. You put a lot of effort into explaining everything from parallel password back door reset to a full Toshiba history in great detail! Sweet! I have a few Toshiba satellite grey models at home. And one Satellite pro (200 or 220 model) that runs still today. It was maxed out and a fast SSD was installed. It runs Win 10 on an intel centrino processor. It's slow but still runs! The 17" beautiful screen is what makes you keep it forever. What a machine. Thanks for your great work!

[@userlandia]

Glad you enjoyed it! The spirit of Toshiba lives on.

[@proteusbridge]

Tons of great info. Thanks!

[@userlandia]

You're welcome!

[@Oakyman]

Agree with this, didn't expect so much background. Kudos!!

[@communalnoodle1356]

I've scored some old Toshiba's for cheap because of passwords. First one I just pushed wires into the port to clear it, then I made a loopback plug. Has worked beautifully.

[@SB-dg8hq]

That was a very enjoyable video. I have one of those laptops, if you strip one down to change the coin battery it would also be a great video. Thank you 👍

[@alisonsmith4436]

Thank you so much 😊

[@agy234]

Troubleshooting vxds makes me want to start drinking

[@brocka.6479]

Mmm, classic YDKJ. Excellent video!

[@userlandia]

It was my first CD-ROM trivia game (albeit on the Mac). Still eminently playable after all these years.

[@oidpolar6302]

Those satellite were capable to run from the non regulated car DC power. A straight through cigarettes lighter to round connector cable was enough. No intermediate power adapter require

[@crabdonkey6381]

I bought a Fujitsu laptop with two drive/battery slots in front. It was chosen because of a $2500 limit on purchases at work. I would have loved having one of those you found. One of the weirdnesses of our office is the laptop could not have WiFi. I found a WiFi to Ethernet adapter that worked, but performance was awful! I had to get this when hotels stopped putting Ethernet jacks in their rooms.

[@OmegaWolf747]

I had a couple of Satellites back in the day. Solid machines overall. Sorry to hear Toshiba no longer makes laptops. Bet they'd make damn good smartphones and tablets. Samsung needs the competition. 😂

[@AJComputerServicesUK]

Good Video, I own a couple of old Toshiba laptops, One being a Satellite Pro 430CDT which has some screen damage in the bottom right corner but still works to a degree plus I could connect an external monitor via the VGA port, One of the plastic doors on the side is held in place by tape but overall it’s in reasonable condition, The other is a Satellite Pro 480CDT, It is in better condition although it does turn on but the Screen no longer lights up, It’s in need of new CMOS batteries as both have leaked and when attempting to carefully remove them the cables came out of the plugs leaving the plugs in the sockets but it should still boot I would have thought, I’m not sure why but it’s got 2 x CMOS batteries, One being a 3.6v fairly standard battery and the other is a chunky 7.2v battery, Both Laptops have the 2 x CMOS battery arrangement, I am going to work on them and may only get the one fully working, I am passionate about old Tech and hate the idea of Vintage Tech ending up in Landfill, I also own newer Toshiba Laptops and have a Compaq Armada 7400 (27:58) which does work but does need some TLC & I have the Boot Diagnostics Utility archived on a Hard Drive somewhere, I am a big collector of Laptop Power Supplies, Preferably OEM PSU’s if possible but have some cheaper 3rd party PSU’s, I recently bought a cheap Lenovo 3rd party PSU which blew up a couple of months ago so ended up buying a genuine second-hand PSU from eBay which has served me well since, I used to own a Minolta Dynax 3xi 35mm SLR Camera back in the day which I have fond memories of! 🇬🇧

[@userlandia]

My videos are shot with an A-mount camera, Minolta lives on. ;) The two batteries are a CMOS (3.6v) and the memory standby (7.2V). The latter can be safely left out.

[@philking5740]

Great video. I have just picked up a 460CDT 2gHDD etc. Needs a new cmos battery etc but runs great came with a docking station. Has a CD drive but no floppy. Have you had any luck using flash drives in the USB port? I am waiting for a PCMCIA card adapter and compact flash to turn up so I can start putting some software on it- but having the USB working would be great!

[@userlandia]

I used a USB Zip drive with drivers in Windows 95. Thumb drives should work with the ToastyTech USB mass storage driver. It's USB 1.0 though so it is agonizingly slow and you'll want to use small drives (less than a GB).

[@hawk19085]

I have one of them, but struggling to open it and change some parts.

[@omega3fatass61]

awesome

[@Windows_XP_2005]

I wish we had shops like this in the uk

[@userlandia]

Unfortunately finds like this aren't very common. You can go weeks without finding something interesting. But this store in particular seems to be a magnet for old electronics.

[@dayfornight88]

Last week I found Toshiba 330cdt In near mint condition for 4 99 at vv .

[@crabdonkey6381]

Maybe you will find a Libretto some day!

[@userlandia]

Someone local to me is selling one, but the price is too rich for my blood (they were asking about $400). It does have all the docks and such, but I can't justify it. I would definitely grab one for the right price.

[@galloe]

I just found two identical Toshiba Tecra 510CDT laptops... and I have no idea what to do with them.

[@mikestrange6969]

A truly enjoyable video, thank you. I was fortunate and picked up a 460CDT on Freecycle of all places just over a year ago. It is working perfectly except the BIOS battery had failed; soon replaced that. It came complete with original power supply, hard, floppy and CDROM drives but no battery in the compartment so nothing to reverse engineer. Anybody have a design to build a pack out of 18650s? Why 10 contacts, what are their functions?

[@philking5740]

Dont know but my pack is a PA2487U you can still get them pricey though

[@mikestrange6969]

@philking5740 Thank you Phil, I shall investigate.

[@jjohnson71958]

i have the toshia 4015 cdt toshiba needs a replacement motherboard

[@bfapple]

Can't remember whether or not is was a 460CDT, but I binned a complete set ~15 years ago. Laptop, dock and floppy, disks, the lot :(

[@userlandia]

My condolences. Fortunately, reacquiring these on eBay isn't too expensive. Just don't look at how much people are asking for Librettos.

[@Sushiaco]

Hi, I recently found an old laptop similarly to the one in the video. I am not sure what differences there are. Hopefully minor and only aesthetically. So my problem starts with the laptop not turning on. I have the charger it came with. When I plug it in and press the turn on botton. The On light lights up while the charging light lights up too. I hear a sound comming from the machine, but the screen are still black. How can I fix this? Also can you make a more detailed guide on how to by pass the password? Where you can list names for which devices I need to bypass the password. Unfortunately I am not good with computers or have ever worked with this kind of computers on a deep level. Thank you so much if you can help me. :)

[@userlandia]

It's possible that the display has failed. Have you tried plugging in an external monitor? How about the brightness control? As far as resetting the password goes, visit this website for detailed instructions: criggie.org.nz/laptop/tecra530cdt/toshibapassword.shtml

[@Sushiaco]

@@userlandia Thank you a lot for replying this fast :D I have tried to change the brightness, but that did not work. I will try to connect it to another display and see. Which type of cable is needed to connect to a more modern display? Name? Are there any specific imports that are required to have on the display? So it fit the right cable. Thanks a lot for trying to help me. :)

[@userlandia]

It's a standard VGA display port. Any VGA display should work. By default the laptop should mirror the built-in display's output over external VGA.

[@Sushiaco]

​@@userlandiaHi, I have recently obtained a cable with VGA on both ends. The only problem for me here is that I do not own a display with a VGA import to it. Is it possible for me to use another laptop with a VGA import to display the screen from the old laptop? If so, how? I am also wondering if you are comfortable to move to another platform to talk about this? I do not want to flood your comment section with my stupid questions or ask too much. If it is easier or you are not comfortable to switch to another platform, it is understandable.

[@userlandia]

If you don't have a VGA monitor you can pick one up very cheaply at a thrift store or off cragslist/facebook marketplace/letgo or whatever local classifieds are out there. There's tons of them out there. You can always join the discord to ask questions (there's a link in the video description).

[@sonraptor2162]

Because when I boot it all light blinks but monitor is not working

[@userlandia]

The display's probably bad. Or more likely the flex cable that connects the display is bad. Plug in an external monitor and see if you get any video.

[@sonraptor2162]

Bro please tell me how to boot it

[@Sushiaco]

Same :'(

[@VSigma725]

I have a ThinkPad 760 locked with a supervisor password and apparently clearing it requires *desoldering*, yikes.

[@userlandia]

As far as I know there's no documented backdoors for ThinkPads. But you might not necessarily need to de-solder the chip; I've read reports of people shorting certain pins while it's on the board.

[@VSigma725]

@@userlandia I wasn't finding anything myself, the perils of buying a laptop formerly owned by a huge pharmaceutical company (Merck, in this case).

[@userlandia]

Coming back to this, I was reading a blog (OS2Museum) that said shorting certain pins on the EEPROM can clear the password. This can work on a surprising number of thinkpads. www.os2museum.com/wp/cracking-a-thinkpad-755c/

[@sonraptor2162]

Bro I have it