- Toshiba T4700CT Introduction & Repair
- Fixing the Toshiba T4700CT P30 Error
Archived Version of Toshiba Webpage for T4700CT
This is my first post in about 10 years, I neglected this blog for years but recently my parents decided to sell their house and during part of the clean-up I found a heap of laptops from my childhood.
The Toshiba T4700CT has to be my second favourite laptop next to my LTE/286. Most modern laptops are all the same, but the 80s and 90s were filled with manufactures and product designers trying to come up with quirky and unique features.
One cool signature of old Toshiba’s from the 386/486 era of laptops was their side mount trackball mouse. I preferred this as controlling the mouse with your right hand felt more natural.
My old T4700CT was a 486DX2, 16mb ram and a 500MB hard drive. After sitting in storage for 10+ years, it didn’t turn on any-more. Keep reading in this blog series on how I managed to resurrect this laptop and give it a really cool and very unintentional processor upgrade.
Memory:
Many Toshiba’s from this era had memory upgraded through a PCMCIA style memory card refereed to as a “JEIDA DRAM Card“. The T4700CT specifically uses 88pin JEIDA DRAM Cards (non-parity, 3.3v).
The Viking 8MB Toshiba “Platinum Card” from my T4700CT
The T4700ct has one slot on the left hand side to expand memory. From factory most of the T4xxxCT/CS series have 8 MB memory that’s non removable (soldered directly to the main board). The maximum memory you can expand a T4700 to is 24 MB if you can find a 16mb memory card.
Hard Drive:
The T4700CT were listed to have a 200MB or 320MB hard disk drive according to Toshiba’s documentation. Mine was sporting a Seagate ST9655AG which according to an Amazon listing is a 524MB 4200RPM Drive, it looks like the drive had been changed at some point.
The Display:
Look at that cool side-mount trackball mouse!
The display is a 9.5″ Color TFT-LCD Active Matrix Display with a resolution of 640×480, perfect for games like Wolfenstein 3D or Doom.
Our of all the laptops from the early to mid 90s era the Toshiba had the best LCD screens, vibrant colour and ghosting was minimal, this screen is my preferred choice for old school gaming.
In one of my earlier write ups I reviewed a NEC Versa 550D which would actually hurt my eyes just watching the mouse move around, it’s like mouse trails are turned on and the contrast is not great.
The T4700CT has a better screen in-terms of refresh, contract and all round smoothness compared to one of my newer IBM Pentium 2 laptops.
Specifications & Downloads:
| Processor | SL enhanced Intel i486TM DX2 50mhz (8KB internal cache; integrated math coprocessor) |
| Hard disk | One 200MB or 320MB hard disk drive. |
| Video adapter | 1MB video RAM Local-bus video and graphics accelerator with BitBLT, WD90C24A |
| Sound Card | 16 bit sound Wave audio compatibility Built-in stereo speaker and microphone Headphone or external speaker jack Microphone jack |
| Screen | Color TFT-LCD Active Matrix Display (T4700CT) Display area: 7.6″W x 5.7″H; 9.5″ diagonal Resolution: 640 x 480 Dot pitch: .30mm(W) x .30mm(H) Aspect ratio: 1 : 1 Contrast: 100 : 1 Colors: 256 colors out of a palette of 262,144 in 640 x 480 mode Simultaneous display to external monitor on video modes up to 640 x 480, 256 colors |
| Memory | 8MB standard, 3.3 volt operation (640KB conventional memory plus 7.360MB which can be configured as RAM disk, expanded (LIM/EMS 4.0), and/or extended memory, plus 128KB shadow ROM. Memory expandable up to 24MB using 4, 8, or 16MB user installable credit card style memory. |
| Floppy Drive | One 1.44MB 3.5″ floppy disk drive. |
| Pointing Device | BallPoint(R) mouse version 2.0 with cordless QuickPortTM connection. |
| I/O Ports & Expansion Slots | SVGA color video port (supports 640 x 480, 256 colors internal or external; 800 x 600, 16 colors; 800 x 600, 256 colors; 1024 x 768,256 colors external) PCMCIA 2.01 compliant slot (16mm) supports type 1, II, or III cards PCMCIA 2.01 compliant type II slot (5mm) RS-232-C serial port Parallel printer/external diskette drive port 150 pin expansion bus connector for optional Desk Station IV docking station or optional SCSI adapter PS/2 keyboard port PS/2 mouse port Credit card style memory slot Kensington(R) cable lock slot QuickPortTM connection for BallPoint(R) mouse Audio-out headphone or external speaker jack Input jack for external microphone |
| Keyboard Type: | 101-key keyboard compatible. Full-function 82 key sculptured keyboard with 12 dedicated function keys and 8 dedicated cursor control keys. Arrow keys arranged in an inverted “T” pattern. |
| Battery | Removable rechargeable NiMH battery pack. 2+ hrs. battery life per charge; recharges in 1.5 hrs. off/3 hrs. on. Internal NiMH backup battery for memory backup, vanadium lithium RTC battery for real time clock |
| Power System | Computer DC input – 18VDC, 1.7A, Universal AC adapter – 100-240 VAC 50-60 Hz |
| Weight | 6.9lbs. with battery pack |
| Size | 11.7″X x 8.3″D x 2.0″H |
| Year & Cost | $4699 USD in 1993 |
