First Generation Dell Laptop Saved From E-Waste

I found a Dell System 320LT "laptop" to look at for E-Waste Wednesday. This is actually the second laptop that Dell produced and it has some issues. Let's see if I can fix it.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:35 - History
07:11 - First Look
13:00 - Similar Laptops
14:36 - First Boot Problems
19:29 - Disassembly
24:11 - Repair
29:48 - Second Boot Attempt
34:26 - Next Steps

Music used by permission:
"Not Awake" and “Fakebit World” by Malmen

Other music from the YouTube Audio Library

#Retro #Computers #Dell #laptoprepair

[jdmcs]

Here's an idea: Install a network card that supports a boot ROM, and install the XT-IDE BIOS into that ROM socket. Configure the XT-IDE BIOS to use the on-board IDE port, and then use an IDE to CF adapter to use a CF card. (This is how I was able to get my 386SX PC working with a nice-sized CF card. While its BIOS did have a user-defined type, I wanted to exceed its limit.)

Also, did you happen to notice that the CPU was in a socket? That was a cleaver way for Dell to build 316LT's and 320LT's without having to manufacture separate motherboards for each.

And yeah, that is really cool that it takes standard 30-pin SIMMs (probably requires parity SIMMs). Yeah, I see why PC Magazine almost categorized this as a portable... it's basically a mini desktop PC with a battery and built-in display. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a Dell desktop that shared the same motherboard.

[mikepettengill]

When you did the sad trombone I thought, "pain meds are great!". Good work! Get back in shape soon!

[AdamHougham]

Thanks for posting this - I had the very similar 316LT as my first computer at university in 1996 - I upgraded it to the maximum RAM (4mb?) and put a 110mb HDD in it (though don't think it worked at full capacity). Running Win 3.11 it saw me through 2 years of studies. The orginal power brick was huge and worked great as a foot warmer in the cold Welsh winters, I remember it had hot-swap batteries, something I've never seen since and my other main memory of it was the slowness at sending anything to the printer. If I had an essay to print, it would literally take 20 mins to arrive at the old Canon Bubblejet I used with it; no good when deadlines were looming!

I do remember trying to use it in the garden once in the summer and the sun overheated the screen and I thought I'd killed it. I also lugged it on my back (it had a really huge carry bag) on my bicycle once and had to do some solder repairs to it later as the shock of transport damaged it. It survived uni, though a few years later I lost it in a house flood. Good to see it (or something very similar) again.

[Flamelily-IT]

It did say in the BIOS that the 320LT usually uses Hard drive type 17 so you could try that..

[Dr_Mario]

Interesting 386 laptop - the theme with those early laptops is that they're an absolute unit of a computer, huge and heavy. Good find.

And I instantly knew that it's a 386 computer as some model numbers were an universal theme that concerns what CPU they got - 3 being a 386 CPU, and 20 being the speed they run at, long before you put on the laptop advertisment and tore into it.

[temporarilyoffline]

There was a utility way back when by "ontrack" that would install a boot sector type TSR that would interpret drive geometry to DOS. Good luck!

[fuelvolts]

What a beast of a machine. My dad had something similar in size to that in the mid/late 80s (not a Dell) with an amber LCD and I thought it was the coolest thing. Being able to have a portable 286 was amazing at the time, even though our desktop 386 was much faster. I love these old machines. Glad to see people like you keeping them running and away from landfills.

[SenileOtaku]

We don't have much in the way of 'e-waste" facilities around here, usually require you to be a town resident and have an expensive tag. ANd they don't let you take anything out of the place either. So any classic equipment around here is just getting crushed.

What a difference though. You had to pull this one *out* of e-waste. These days Dell just makes e-waste machines right from the factory.

[horusfalcon]

I used to have an old Dell NL25 Laptop, which probably was the successor to the 320LT. Gave it away to my niece and lost track of it.

[senilyDeluxe]

Laptops of that era almost always defaulted to black text on white background.*
And if the hard drive is Conner, if the rubber sealing ring hasn't melted, the head arm will be stuck in the parking position, just slide a piece of sticky tape between the arm and the bump stop, that fixed all of mine.

*) Long story short most pixels black consumes noticeably more power than most pixels white.
Dumpster diving should be an Olympic discipline. But then again trophy space would cut down on shelf space and while a trophy is nice to look at, a functional piece of vintage hardware is nice to play with. And then again, most people in my surrounding would much rather look at a nice gold medal instead of "all this junk, oh no, there he goes dragging in some more".

[infinitecanadian]

I have never seen a removable screen on an early laptop like that.

[mogwaay]

I'd be interested to look at a disassembly of the bios to see if I could hack the HDD types table to add one that matched a CF card you had. There might also be another Dell BIOS that's compatible which allows custom types too. Anyway if you have a link to the BIOS ROM I'll have a poke around...

[Bacon]

LOL I was at Dell from 98 on, and was certified to repair all the laptops back to 1993! Never seen this one mentioned anywhere!

[markrhine]

Dear Retro Hack Shack, First time viever to the channel, I am using the Dell 5420 lab top was fitted to run Windows 10, It is a little slow but works like new.

[gertraba]

Great Edison. Re invent the light bulb., fyi used to do trash week in township and get oldie PC s l and mixx and match the stuff to get working boards were there toxic with leaking caps and batts

[kaitlyn__L]

I wonder if someone will update Wikipedia to say the first logo was used until 1990. It’s clearly not just in the moulding, since they were sending off print ads in the summer to run in the autumn with that logo too.

[CasioGreg]

What about a dynamic overlay driver? I had a 2.1 gig drive running on a 386 where it wouldn't otherwise run.

[kencreten]

Hand***rk... Great video, but we're going to have to pull your pun card.... heh

[troytaylor]

I have one of these working but I also need to replace the batteries. Mine was missing the big yellow battery so I do not know the voltage. Can you share with me the details of the larger yellow battery? Thank you for any help you can provide.

[infinitecanadian]

So if a hard drive seal is broken, it is unsalvagable? Often the term 'leaky' when describing a capacitor doesn't necessarily mean that it is physically leaking; more that it is unreliable.