Toshiba T1000LE

[witteveder]

Since a week I'm the proud owner of an Toshiba T1000LE from around 1989 (according to the oldest files on the hard drive). It had some troubles turning on initially, but putting it on the charger for a couple of hours (without removable battery) I was able to boot it up for ~10 times. I played around a bit and was able to confirm everything seems to be working (hard drive, LCD screen, memory, etc). The disk drive would make a sound as if it was working but gave an error. I guess the belt is gone.

The next day it wouldn't boot anymore. After pluggin in the charger (even leaving it like this for hours, with steady red power light) and when pressing the power button, other lights (like HDD) come on, laptop makes some noice (the fan I guess) but the computer powers down with in a very long beep. My guess would be that the capacitors are gone and that I was initially just lucky powering it on.

I really want to restore this beauty to its former glory. I have included some photos also of the motherboard and the capacitors on the left side. They have some junk on the pads, but besides that I cannot really tell if there is anything wrong with them (visually).

I have not yet disassembled the laptop completely, so have no photos of the powerboard, only the motherboard underneath the keyboard (that was just 3 screws).

Is there anybody on this forum with experience with this laptop or in general with these types of failures and repairs? Any hints/ help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Those brown caps are definitely bad, looks like they leaked their electrolyte out the bottom. If those caps are bad, it's a reasonable assumption that all of them are either bad or on their way out. It looks like there are some SMD caps on the other side of the board, and there are also going to be some inside the LCD panel. I would change all of them.

The radial electrolytic caps that are mounted sideways won't be that difficult to change, you just need to observe the polarity of the capacitor and put the replacement in the same way. SMD capacitors are a bit harder to deal with, but grabbing the body of the capacitor with a small pair of pliers and rotating 90 degrees is an easy way to safely remove them. You'll just have to pick off the plastic base and use the soldering iron to remove the remnants on the solder pads.

I wouldn't use the battery pack, or even plug it in. 29 year old NiCD/NiMH batteries are going to be very bad and could do unpredictable things if put in service. The pack should be re-celled before use.

 

[witteveder]

Yes, I'm definitely going to replace these. By SMD capacitors you mean the really tiny ones, usually with no markings on them? That will be a problem to replace them. I mean replace them by what? How to tell the polarity and which type?

 

[witteveder]

I had to build up some courage to attempt a repair. But I managed to do this!! I'm really happy.

I took the machine apart which was relatively easy to do espcially with the Toshiba manual that is on the internet. It has detailed text and figures to completely take it apart. When taken apart is has two more smaller boards 'hidden' close to the battery. These are for taking in and transforming the power. There were an additional two caps on here that leaking heavily and everything was covered in a brown oily residue. I cleaned it up as best as I could. I also noticed the lid switch and and reset button on the mother board were both drenched in this liquid. I feared that if either one was shorted because of this it may not boot so I cleaned those too. I decided not to wash the boards until nothing else worked. I fear the combo water/alcohol/ipa with pcb's. I replaced a total of 9 caps, left one in the middle of the board as it was. Replacing them was a pain in the ass. My solder skills are non existent and when looking at the result I cry a bit inside. So I wont post the results for fear of everybody making jokes etc. However after cleaning and replacing caps it worked, so at least I got that going for me.

The floppy drive didn't work as I noticed earlier, so I took it apart. It is the last item to take out of the laptop, but can be very wel serviced once you have it. The rubber band had completely dissolved. In my spare parts bin I found one that had equal width and thickness but was a bit to tight. I decided to try it anyway. After reassembling it worked for like 5 minutes, so I can confirm the drive is also OK. But the rubber band in the end got of the pulley with a specific sound so I'm going to scout for another longer one.

All in all, I'm happy i fixed it.

Some notes: the battery is NOT necessary to run the laptop. It runs without. My ancient one holds a max charge of 4.7 volt out of 7.2 but loses this on the spot. The CMOS battery stil has some charge in it! Not sure how that works, it doesn't leak or anything. There is long pencil like battery under keyboard. Not sure was it does, it is not affecting operation but dead altogether.