NanTan Early 1990's laptops Guide (386/486/Pentium)

[3lectr1c]

Just pulled the RTC battery! Caught just in the nick of time. No lasting damage I think.





Here’s a full shot of the motherboard. It seems to have a weird combo DIP/PGA socket for a coprocessor which is pretty neat! I don’t see anything here or inside the system that indicates that it wouldn’t start if I got it powered. If anyone has the PSU pinout, or a PSU I could buy, please let me know!

 

[3lectr1c]

Alright, GREAT news. I found a new listing for an FMA8100 with the power supply on eBay. I messaged the seller and got clear photos back of the supply, and by sheer luck there was one on eBay for $20! That supply should be in my hands in not too long. Lucky!

For anyone in the future: PSU model number is KTX-8912A.
The eBay seller’s photos showed one actually branded by Nan Tan (remarkably). The one I ordered is badged as “Dataworld”. I assume that this was likely an off the shelf supply that shipped with multiple products, that or some company called dataworld sold FMA8100s. Either way, the model number and specs match, so I think it *should* work, fingers crossed.

I’ll report back once I’ve got the supply in and the darn thing back together. This thing is awful to work inside.

 

[JamieDoesStuff]

Ohhh, she's a beaut! Can't even think of how heavy it must be. Unfortunately, yours has about a dozen more pins for the AC adapter than mine does. So still waiting for that pinout, but I have found a 20V barrel power supply & connector I could use for it. Darned Nan Tans.

Oh BTW, how do you remove the CMOS batteries? Do you unsolder then first and then use the pliers or?

 

[3lectr1c]

The metal's usually so corroded you can just carefully break them off, that's what I did with mine anyway. I can't imagine it would be all too healthy to heat up NiCad leakage.

 

[JamieDoesStuff]

Just did that: one of the pads came along with it. Heh, at least now I won't have the urge to put a new one it.

 

[JamieDoesStuff]

Or maybe it didn't: there was a cylindrical metal that might've been used in conjunction with solder? Gotta get the think up&running first to find out...