Service Manuals for the Ye Olde T1100 & T1200

[Computer Nerd Kev]

Just a stab in the dark.

I'm fixing up a couple of old Toshiba laptops (T1100 and T1200)
and as usual it would help to have the proper docs. In
particular anything about the T1200's PSU would be helpful
because it seems to be the problem there. For a PSU though, the
thing sure is complicated.

In my searches, I've seen service manuals for sale at book
websites. But I paid much less for the computers than those
manuals with postage.

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[Pen]

Here's the T1200 manual.
http://data.manualslib.com/pdf2/34/3303/330217-toshiba/tseries_t1200.pdf?96d7f046f04ce5c47ccbf7aca2820904

[Computer Nerd Kev]

On 19 Aug 2013, Pen wrote:

> Here's the T1200 manual.
> http://data.manualslib.com/pdf2/34/3303/330217-toshiba/tseri
> es_t1200.pdf?96d7f046f04ce5c47ccbf7aca2820904

Actually that's the specs sheet, which is the one thing I did
already have (I got it in text form from here:
http://bitlink.ca/Library/Toshiba/).

I'm looking for the service manuals (AKA Maintenance Manual).
I guess the User Manual would be interesting too, but it isn't
my aim at the moment. If someone has the T1200 Service Manual,
it would be great if they could scan the pages on the PSU.

[Computer Nerd Kev]

On 19 Aug 2013, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

> In particular anything about the T1200's PSU would be
> helpful because it seems to be the problem there. For a PSU
> though, the thing sure is complicated.

On the off chance it is interesting to someone...

I looked deeply into PSU troubles with Toshiba Laptops. It
seems they kept using similar (incredibly over-complicated, in
my opinion) power supply designs into the early 90s. They all
have a microcontroller on-board that decides on every startup
whether to give the computer power or just blink an LED in
disgust. On newer laptops where power comes on for a moment,
but then fails (they apparently work from battery though),
replacing a filter capacitor apparently often cures the
problem .

Webpages on the PSU failures in later laptops:
http://www.electronics.dit.ie/staff/bredmond/tosh486fix/
http://www.vobarian.com/toshibaProblem.html

My faulty T1200 wouldn't even give a sign of life (though it
worked with a PSU from my other, working T1200), it would just
flash the power LED from the beginning. I replaced the filter
capacitors (which were different to the one in the later
laptops) with new (slightly higher value (2200uF), as that's
what I had) ones and now it behaves more like the later
laptops with PSU problems. However I did find that if I
switched the power on and off in a certain pattern, it would
come to life and work for as long as I wanted (usually).

Feeling a bit sick of wrestling with the capacitors which only
barely fit and the annoying coating they put over the PCB that
messes up with my soldering and smells terrible, I decided
that was good enough.