A laptop with desktop capabilities.
Here it comes with its mouse and ZIP drive installed.

Got it for some euros. I've waited a long time for a 286 to work on.

What's in the box?

1. CPU i80286, 12 or 6MHz
2. slot for FPU 80287, 8MHz (I have it!)
3. Ram 1MB, up to 4MB with a 3MB module
4. Plasma display 720x400, 4 orange levels, supports CGA, EGA, Hercules and AT/T
5. internal Hard disk MFM 40 MB
6. FDD 1.44 unfortunately, it's dead
7. serial 9600 bits/s, bidirectional parallel port or external FDD
8. complete keyboard with numeric keypad
9. DIP switches for configuration
10. No battery! Only AC power.
11. 7 leds under the screen to show current state
    
    Leds for ON, active drives, key status
    and eventually the use of an external monitor

The rear panel

• A serial port with limited speed: 9600 bits/s.
• The bidirectional parallel port can be turned into a FDD port A: or B: (switch //, A: B: on the right).
• RGB output for external monitor
• Two ISA ports, 16/8 bits!
  
  On the left side the outputs of the ISA cards.
• This 10 dip switches are used to set the machine hardware settings:
  

  SW7 SW8 SW9 SW10 Tables for Monitor OFF OFF ON OFF Hercules Monochrome (720 x 350) ON OFF OFF ON Standard RGB ( 40 col. ) (320 x 200 CGA) OFF OFF OFF ON Standard RGB ( 80 col. )(640 x 200 CGA) ON ON ON OFF Enhanced RGB (640 x 200) OFF ON ON OFF Enhanced RGB (640 x 350 EGA) OFF OFF OFF OFF Toshiba high resoltion mode (640 x 400 AT/T)

  State	SW1	SW2	SW3	SW4	SW5	SW6
  ON	Auto-Switched display mode	PRT bidirectional	COM 2	Double dot font	Ext. RVB	North European font
  OFF	IBM EGA compatible	PRT output only	COM 1	Single dot font	Plasma	American Font

Sofware installation

I had to face a big problem: a dead floppy drive. The last user replaced the original DOS with a new 6.00 one that Toshiba reports to be not compatible with this laptop. As it was, I wasn't able to add more software, nor to use the extended memory (not detected by DOS 6.00) neither run large programs as the new system uses too much memory.

Solution:

• Using FastLynx (thanks Emmanuel for the info!) allows to upload a little slave program to initiate serial file transferts without FDD unit. So I was able to copy the ZIP drivers to use my 100MB disks for more file transferts.
• Use of old DOS 3 drivers to free memory and take advantage of old hardware

EMS.SYS from DOS 3.21 gave access to the 384KB in high memory as EMS3.2 MOUSE.SYS replaces MOUSES.EXE using only 7KB (instead of 17KB for version 8.x). You can use DYNALOAD from DOS 6.00 to load this driver at any time if it wasn't loaded at startup. KEYBFR.COM remplaces the files KEYB/KEYBOARD.SYS using less than 3KB

Memory map with MI.COM, up to 562KB free with keyboard, mouse and EMS loaded!

• Take advantage of DOS 6.00 to create a startup menu:

This menu to optimize the booting options according to what I need. I can install the mouse or not, and the ZIP drivers or not. Last, I can run Quick Menu or not. You can download here the drivers (EMS, MOUSE, KEYBFR) and my booting files (AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS).

Here are the results of the hardware test performed by System Info (SI.EXE), part of the Norton Utilities. Detections are: The CPU and FPU Conventianl memory 640KB EMS memory 384KB EGA screen mode, but the 256K are not correct... The speed test is not modified by the FPU presence, too bad...

The desktop Quick Menu III

Quick Menu III is a powerful desktop for DOS! Runs with almost every resolution, can be adapted to the color number. You can fully drive it with the keyboard or with the mouse. All settings can be user defined (colors, icons, position, background image, etc).

Some applications

	DERIVE is the ancestor of the one integrated into the TI 92/Voyage. Able to differenciate, integrate, solve, plot 2D or 3D graphs. Here in EGA mode, 640x350.
LE GEOMETRE, the ancestor of Cabri Geometre, the one integrated to the TI 84/92. Here the trace of a point when another is moving: the result is a parabola. The screen mode is AT/T 640x400.
Grand Prix Formule 1 The lemmings	Some games! Here Grand Prix F1, the Lemmings and Grand Prix 500cc. CGA mode has a better visual aspect because in EGA the same brightness can represent different colors, so you can't differentiate them. Grand Prix 500cc
On the programming side, I installed Quick Basic 4.5, the Turbo C 2.01, the Turbo Pascal 5 and the assembler A86/D86. Here you can the the compilation of BGIDEMO, the famous program that shows the capabilities of the Borland graphics libraries.
	Last, a visit to Windows 3.0a. The problem with that system is the lack of applications! In spite of the compatibility with Win3.0, most sofware requiere a 386 or extended memory or protected mode: everything you can't do with a 286/1MB. As you can see, the screen is too bright because of the white background of the windows. I think I'll have to modify the color settings to make things better.

Adding the FPU 80287

Under two plastic traps, you'll find two screws that hold the keyboard: unscrew them. (in yellow on the picture). Under the keyboard, you'll find the slot for the FPU. You can plug in it a 80287 running at 8MHz to enhance the mathematics capabilities of the computer. To verify if it's in working order, you can use that little fractal program. In Hercules mode, use FRACTHER.COM and in standard mode use FRACTCGA.COM. This program computes and displays the Mandelbrot fractal and makes a heavy usage of the Floating Point Unit.

Adding an external EGA monitor

With the key combination Fn + End the computer toggles to the external display, this switches off the plasma panel. (the reverse operation is performed using Fn + Home ).

Thanks to Johan Sanchez (merci!!) I had the opportunity to plug my computer to such a monitor that are becoming rare...

The Toshiba with a color monitor, the plasma is off and we can see Quick Menu in 16 colors!

For all that deals with programmation the plasma display is comfortable and you can work on it for a long time without hurting your view. On the other side, for all that concerns graphism, a color screen is really better. Here you can see Quick Menu, 16 colors, 640*350

Compare this image of Grand Prix 500 with the previous one on the plasma display. Color is for games!	The same for Windows 3.0, that is really comfortable to use the color screen!

Since december, 15th, 2007