From: garrett@me.udel.edu (Joel J. Garrett; Office 127 CMSL; Phone 831-2332)
Subject: What's in a Toshiba T3100?
Followup-To: garrett@me.udel.edu
Organization: University of Delaware
Distribution: usa 
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 19:17:20 GMT

My brother-in-law was given a Toshiba T3100 portable computer that appears to
have some problems with its built-in display.  However, aside from what appears
to be a bad CMOS-backup battery, the system seems to run just fine. (ie, the
screen looks garbled in some locations and the system boots up into what looks
to be some sort of setup program, but by pressing F1 and accepting the "default"
config the system starts up ok)

I was thinking if the problem is only with the battery and the screen that I
could get a replacement battery by mail-order and plug a display into the port
labeled "RGB" on the back and he'd have a decent desktop system (for things
like light wordproc, quicken, etc, etc.)

The main problem here though is that the system only came with a power cord and
a carrying case (in other words, no documentation)

I tried plugging a CGA monitor into the back of the machine, I get no picture.
Is there some variant of the MODE command required to enable the external "RGB"
port?

Could somebody give me a simple rundown on this machine's "stock" configuration?

It appears to have a 10 or 20MB internal hard drive (hard to tell exact size as
display is garbled), a 3.5" floppy drive (cannot tell if 1.4MB or 720K) and
640K RAM.

Is this machine based on a '286 or a '8088?

How expandable is it memory or diskwise without using the half-card slot
built in? (In other words, if it is a 286, can I expand past 640K on the
motherboard, if so what kind of chips/simms do I need and are the internal
floppy/hd Toshiba proprietary or can I put a larger drive of either type in
there with minor problems?)

There is a 4-switch DIP-pack on the back of the machine, what do these switches
control?

There is a switch next to a DIN plug on the left side of the case labeled
A/B/Prt, what does this switch do?

Is there a relatively cost-effective upgrade for this machine to one of the
newer processors (ie 386 or 386sx?)

If I can upgrade this system's memory and disk space, would it be possible/
worthwhile to run Windows 3.1 and/or generic MS-DOS 5.x on this system, or does
it require a DOS specifically from Toshiba? (The thing seems to be running a
variant of v2.11, which makes me tend to believe this thing has a 10MB HD, 8088
640K RAM, Internal CGA video and a 720K 3.5" floppy which doesn't bode well
for doing these kinds of things without a bunch of expensive upgrades... :-(
I hope I'm wrong!)

Are there any reputable, reasonably-priced mail-order houses that carry things
like replacement gas-plasma displays, floppy drives, batteries, etc. for
Toshiba hardware?

Might someone have an address/phone number for Toshiba USA so I can write/call
to see if I can get some hardcopy docs on this beastie?

Is there a god?  Does cold fusion really work? Will Bill Clinton's economic
plan help the US recover from its recession? ;-)

That just about covers all the questions I have...  Many thanks to you all for
any answers you might be able to e-mail my way... Have a happy holiday season!

					Cheers,
					Joel Garrett
					garrett@me.udel.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.laptops