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Tandy 1110hd dead display?

H

harshbarj

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Joined
Feb 23, 2011
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28
Location
Omaha
I just picked up for cheap an old Tandy 1110hd but the display is dead. The laptop powers up and beeps(twice quickly), clearly with an error code of some sort. I can also hear the hard drive (all 20mb of it) spin up and it sounds normal and healthy. Pressing enter then f1 causes the computer to try to boot off the floppy. The laptop dose not have any video out, only the built in display. It's and old supertwist type of LCD (think wristwatch type of lcd technology, just larger), so it could just be it's time has come. Any suggestion on what to try would be welcome.

P.S. Yes I did try the contrast slider to no avail :sarcasm::stupid:
 
I had this in a 1400FD - failed electrolytic caps in the internal PSU had resulted in no -22V line (or something around that value) hence no output from backlight inverter.

I've not attempted to follow through the internal PSU in the 1400 but it seems to be based on a multi-tapped transformer so presumably some oscillator circuits drive the primary from the 12DC input, oscillators being dead due to dead caps.
 
It IS possible that the CCFL bulb is bad... but the contrast is not going to affect the backlight...
Can you shine a light thru the front and see anything after adjusting the contrast?
Just a thought... :D

Im not sure the -22 is responsible for the backlight... Ive had some issues (DOZENS, in fact) with a 2810hd and I have been able to get the backlight to come on WITHOUT -22 working.
The inverter for the backlight on IT is in the display itself...

I THINK the -22v is responsible for the CONTRAST working... so if it IS a backlight problem you may be able to see something by using a light from the front...
Possibly.
:D
 
Perhaps I should make something clear. This laptop runs an NEC v20 cpu (think 80186 processor in an 8088 pin compatible package). It also does not have any kind of backlight. As I said, think large fancy watch lcd.

This video shows the tandy 1100fd (same laptop, just a bit slower and no internal hard drive)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs4vvUoueOE

A picture (not my unit naturally)

Tandy1110hdb.jpg
 
So did Tandy use the "supertwist" brand to describe passive and backlit LCD screens?
 
Supertwist is just a display technology. It can be backlit, but it really shines because it can be lit 100% passively. So a laptop like this with a good battery can get 3-4 hours run-time. You are not going to be playing many games on a display like this because of the atrocious response times, but for simple text it works great. The Amstrad PPC512/PPC640 both use similar, though in my opinion lower quality displays.
 
Ok, I fixed the LCD. Turned out to just be a loose connector within the display assembly. Next problem ;)


The system will no boot off a 720k floppy. I have a dos 5 720k image and created a boot disk and it correctly boots a p3 desktop, but the Tandy laptop says the disk is bad. I did have to repair the floppy drive to even get this far as the drive belt had wrapped around the drive motor and turned to tar. I just used the strongest rubber band I had to fix it (same one I have used on other floppy drives and they work). I just need to check the head motor as that could be dead. Because Tandy used a one of a kind drive I can't just replace it or even use a known good drive to test. It's just too late to continue (past 2am).
 
Either the floppy needs to be cleaned or the drive is out of alignment. I'm suprised a 3.5 floppy has belts. All the 3.5 floppy drives I have don't have belts. I have only seen 5.25 floppies with belts and they were very early period (pre 1985).
 
The 1100fd drive uses a belt (which turns to goo over time), had to replace mine and there are posts on this forum about it and model numbers for replacement parts.
 
I think nearly ALL the panasonic drives Tandy used then were belt-driven... your rubber band is just not strong enough to keep it spinning properly, Id bet.
In fact I still have drives that need the belts replaced... have the belts, just have been too lazy to do them! :rolleyes:

Got mine off flea-bay... searched for Matsushita (sp?) floppy belt (also Tandy, or actual drive number)...
:D
 
I have an 1100FD that had the same issue with the floppy, but since there was more wrong with it than just the belt, I ended up, replacing the drive (I had to build a cable that would work with a regular PC floppy). I also have an 1110 that I replaced the belt on (came of the 'bay) and it works great. I tried other rubber bands, etc but all the ones that I found were either too tight or too loose to work correctly. The replacement belt is the way to go (as leeb suggested).
 
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