I have one of these with everything, port expansion, modem, pc wifi card, ethernet card, floppy disk drive, battery and manual with Win95 floppies. I actually installed Windows 98 ver 1 on mine. These were $4000 when first introduced. Bought mine for $100 back in 2001.
Excellent review for a cool & cute little computer. Feeling Totally nostalgic here; remembering playing Pajama Sam! I can tell you love old games too. Besides, you're a funny guy. Your laugh kind of sounds like Santa's... I bet he likes old computers too ;) Thank you.
Do you know if the Toshiba Libretto PCs have the same issue that some other Toshiba notebooks have? That is, the plastics turning brittle and the hinges breaking? My best friend has a Satellite 310 CDS from 1998 and when you close the lid, the whole back of the top cover lifts up because I guess the plastic has broken at the seems or something.
I think the best sound you could get outta some of these vintage machines is with the Roland cards, specially the MT-32 for the older games and the SC-55 for the mid 90's games. Those really sound freaking awesome, although the FM synthesis from the OPL chips have a special place in my heart ;)
And also...the Libretto's bottom part, just below the keyboard is actually BIG enough, to accommodate the two mouse buttons, in which that is located on the back of the LCD screen.
that is a pretty neat machine, I was wanting to ask though if you had ever seen a pcmcia external cd-rom drive. I actually got one of these the other day with a toshiba T4800CT/500, that has a bad display, the kicker is that it willy actually work under windows 7. I have only seen two of these on ebay
another thing, do you know the voltage rating for the packard bell speakers that were on the monitor? I got a fairly yellowed monitor that works and has the speakers, but there wasn't an adapter for the speakers, so I haven't been able to test them
Billy a tip here. When you use the format command in ms-dos put in the switch /autotest and that will format the drive automatically without asking you. Besides from 1996 or 1997 the Packard bell master CDs were different.
I remember one of the year 12 students at my school in 1998 had one of these, I remember seeing them using it, they were trying to print something to the laser printer in the computer room, but apparently the Parallel port wasn't working. I remember other students at my school talking about it, so I think it was somewhat popular here in Australia to some degree at least. Too bad Hocus Pocus won't work on the machine, I wonder why that is. I seem to remember the hard drive on the Libretto I saw being used in 1998 was a bit noisy too. Of course back in the day these things would have mostly been used by business people for work and not for playing games typically, but it's good to know that you can play at least some games on it.
I am picking up a toshiba Libretto 50ct, and hopefully a 70ct as well. I had some questions, if you had the time to answer them: Windows Xp, Possible? USB via PCMCIA card possible? Wifi via PCMCIA card possible? CF HDD, is 8 gigs the largest, or can you go to 16/32 gigs? I am going to be using this to take notes in meetings and stuff, and it would be nice if I had a way to back up or "sync" those notes with something else. one of them does not come with an OS at all, and I do not have a license or install media for 95/95, but I do have XP so hoping that would work. any other tips for owning a PC this old?
+lolly poppy Windows XP CAN run on a 50ct, but the performance will be really awful. A 110ct would improve things as it has a 233MHz Pentium MMX and 32/64MB of RAM. Hovewer, the RAM still won't be enough for a fast and smooth experience. If you really must have an NT based system, Windows 2000 will run a lot better and with some patches can launch Windows XP applications.
rndincircles Windows could is possible on a penguin mix with 64mb of ram at least. Though I’d rather go with Windows fundamentals for legacy PCs or Windows 2000. Later versions of the libretto, like the do 1100. Are better as do or windows 2000 machines and support card bus and usb out of the box.
I think the reason the hard drive sounds so loud Is because it does not have all that thick plastic, metal, and other thick things a regular laptop has plus that thing is as small as a vhs tape.
I nearly got one yesterday for $50 NZ dollars and it had a dock, it's original box and packaging, floppy disc and connection, manuals and Windows 95 and just a whole lot of other goodies, but at the time I didn't have that money
Nearly, and the auction is finished now but in US dollars that is $35.85. It got sold to an avid computer collector, I'm still in disbelief as it was a $1 dollar reserve auction and it wasn't in the vintage/collectable section on the auction website
your missing te battery causing it such ugly hole in front of it , i have a newer libretto 110ct if you want yo know how small it is its 3iphones in size comparison but it feels in the hand but they should hav used the mouse dot on the key board like they did on the satelite series touching the screen is not practical for scrolling etc but i love the machine
I still have mine packed away in the closet. I managed to get WIFI working on it with PCMCIA card, but eventually had to stop using it because it could only handle WEP encryption, which was completely hacked at that time. I was dual booting windows 98 and Damn Small Linux. Was still using it daily in 2007. Now I'm using an EEE PC 900, and it's nearly obsolete.
***** No bank would have that much. You'd pretty much would have to rob every bank in the world just to get one hundred trillion dollars. But no one would do that.
***** Yes, robbing every bank except for Greece would give you that much. Greece would only give you only some very few euros. Although, I am not European.
Or they could had at least put the trackpoint between the "G" and the "H" keys...to make the control of the mouse pointer easier- as in the location of the trackpoint in the center of the keyboard of today's business class laptops. And also the two mouse buttons on the bottom of the keyboard, too.
Waited so long to see this, but anyway congratulations you had a Toshiba Libretto!
I've always thought these were really cool, been wanting one for a long time.
I have one of these with everything, port expansion, modem, pc wifi card, ethernet card, floppy disk drive, battery and manual with Win95 floppies. I actually installed Windows 98 ver 1 on mine. These were $4000 when first introduced. Bought mine for $100 back in 2001.
Excellent review for a cool & cute little computer. Feeling Totally nostalgic here; remembering playing Pajama Sam! I can tell you love old games too. Besides, you're a funny guy. Your laugh kind of sounds like Santa's... I bet he likes old computers too ;)
Thank you.
Do you know if the Toshiba Libretto PCs have the same issue that some other Toshiba notebooks have? That is, the plastics turning brittle and the hinges breaking? My best friend has a Satellite 310 CDS from 1998 and when you close the lid, the whole back of the top cover lifts up because I guess the plastic has broken at the seems or something.
I think the best sound you could get outta some of these vintage machines is with the Roland cards, specially the MT-32 for the older games and the SC-55 for the mid 90's games. Those really sound freaking awesome, although the FM synthesis from the OPL chips have a special place in my heart ;)
And also...the Libretto's bottom part, just below the keyboard is actually BIG enough, to accommodate the two mouse buttons, in which that is located on the back of the LCD screen.
Why did you remove the like/dislike bar? prob an old question to ask..
that is a pretty neat machine, I was wanting to ask though if you had ever seen a pcmcia external cd-rom drive. I actually got one of these the other day with a toshiba T4800CT/500, that has a bad display, the kicker is that it willy actually work under windows 7. I have only seen two of these on ebay
another thing, do you know the voltage rating for the packard bell speakers that were on the monitor? I got a fairly yellowed monitor that works and has the speakers, but there wasn't an adapter for the speakers, so I haven't been able to test them
Great video! Did you have to use a voltage converter, since this is from the UK?
I've never seen reviews of vintage computers trying to play an MP3 file. Does a 320kbps file plays there?
Billy a tip here. When you use the format command in ms-dos put in the switch /autotest and that will format the drive automatically without asking you. Besides from 1996 or 1997 the Packard bell master CDs were different.
I remember one of the year 12 students at my school in 1998 had one of these, I remember seeing them using it, they were trying to print something to the laser printer in the computer room, but apparently the Parallel port wasn't working. I remember other students at my school talking about it, so I think it was somewhat popular here in Australia to some degree at least. Too bad Hocus Pocus won't work on the machine, I wonder why that is. I seem to remember the hard drive on the Libretto I saw being used in 1998 was a bit noisy too. Of course back in the day these things would have mostly been used by business people for work and not for playing games typically, but it's good to know that you can play at least some games on it.
Cool little machine =)
My dad had one of these right before Digital got bought out. Wonder if he still has the battery. lol
That's a lot of modern history there; it looks and controls kind of like a 3DS and its name lives on in the form of a game console emulator.
I am picking up a toshiba Libretto 50ct, and hopefully a 70ct as well. I had some questions, if you had the time to answer them:
Windows Xp, Possible?
USB via PCMCIA card possible?
Wifi via PCMCIA card possible?
CF HDD, is 8 gigs the largest, or can you go to 16/32 gigs?
I am going to be using this to take notes in meetings and stuff, and it would be nice if I had a way to back up or "sync" those notes with something else.
one of them does not come with an OS at all, and I do not have a license or install media for 95/95, but I do have XP so hoping that would work.
any other tips for owning a PC this old?
+lolly poppy
Windows XP CAN run on a 50ct, but the performance will be really awful. A 110ct would improve things as it has a 233MHz Pentium MMX and 32/64MB of RAM. Hovewer, the RAM still won't be enough for a fast and smooth experience. If you really must have an NT based system, Windows 2000 will run a lot better and with some patches can launch Windows XP applications.
rndincircles try tinyXp but i would upgrade the ram though
rndincircles Windows could is possible on a penguin mix with 64mb of ram at least. Though I’d rather go with Windows fundamentals for legacy PCs or Windows 2000. Later versions of the libretto, like the do 1100. Are better as do or windows 2000 machines and support card bus and usb out of the box.
The Toshiba Libretto, the first ever portable netbook!
I love your videos and i love laptops as well i own a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 from 2008
I have an IBM Thinkpad 760EL from 1996. Beat that boiiiii
Fiber Silkington Well, i have a old HP Vetcha desktop computer from late 1995 or early 1996 so beat that
SPCmuncie I have a 1989 Nintendo Gameboy. Beat that. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Fiber Silkington oh yeah, i have a 1985 NES beat that
SPCmuncie Early 80's Casio typewriter. Don't know the exact date but it is before 1985, I know that much.
Nice little machine, man!!!
can you try doom 2 on it or something similar?
Hopefully Jay keeps the battery so that he can try to gut it and send a battery case and controller with a wiring diagram.
I just wish we had gotten flying cars that would have been cool!
You can't get those in Sweden and if I import one it's like 600 bucks. Sad since i really want one of those!
I think the reason the hard drive sounds so loud Is because it does not have all that thick plastic, metal, and other thick things a regular laptop has plus that thing is as small as a vhs tape.
Dude that laptop is so weird and cool at the same time.I mean,right and left click on the back and a thumbstick like that thumbstick on the PSP?!
Beautiful looking screen on that thing. Man, a lot of the screens back then looked washed out and horrible.
144p?
I nearly got one yesterday for $50 NZ dollars and it had a dock, it's original box and packaging, floppy disc and connection, manuals and Windows 95 and just a whole lot of other goodies, but at the time I didn't have that money
Nearly, and the auction is finished now but in US dollars that is $35.85. It got sold to an avid computer collector, I'm still in disbelief as it was a $1 dollar reserve auction and it wasn't in the vintage/collectable section on the auction website
your missing te battery causing it such ugly hole in front of it , i have a newer libretto 110ct if you want yo know how small it is its 3iphones in size comparison but it feels in the hand but they should hav used the mouse dot on the key board like they did on the satelite series touching the screen is not practical for scrolling etc but i love the machine
I remember when Sony tried making a laptop the same size back in 2009, but it was really just horribly awkward to use, and it ultimately failed.
I WANT IT ♡_♡
It's Like The Size of my 3DS XL.
I want one!
This reminds me of the sony vaio p from like 2009. pretty much same form factor
COOL!
I still have mine packed away in the closet. I managed to get WIFI working on it with PCMCIA card, but eventually had to stop using it because it could only handle WEP encryption, which was completely hacked at that time. I was dual booting windows 98 and Damn Small Linux. Was still using it daily in 2007. Now I'm using an EEE PC 900, and it's nearly obsolete.
I NEED IT
I *_NEED_* IT
I love the Toshiba Lebrettos. I would buy those for $100,000,000,000,000.
***** No bank would have that much. You'd pretty much would have to rob every bank in the world just to get one hundred trillion dollars. But no one would do that.
***** Yes, robbing every bank except for Greece would give you that much. Greece would only give you only some very few euros. Although, I am not European.
Correction: Speaker. I should know, I own one.
I have a 30CT one! :D
I found batteries for it at around $50.
Or they could had at least put the trackpoint between the "G" and the "H" keys...to make the control of the mouse pointer easier- as in the location of the trackpoint in the center of the keyboard of today's business class laptops. And also the two mouse buttons on the bottom of the keyboard, too.
That's the smallest laptop I've ever seen.
good computer.
I want one XD
Batteries are a bit of concern. They may put cheap chinese ones in it. So watch out.
TH-camrs can't know where i live
japan made japan computer toshiba even nec\packerd bell japan pc
Lol 31 views :p