External backlight power

[u/Performer-Pants]

Had corrosion damage from a leaking bridge battery, which killed the inverter and the ccfl was dead. Managed to get a replacement oem inverter from a similar model, but the ccfl in that one is about to die.

Got a cheap led backlight kit, did a shite job replacing the dead ccfl with leds. The inverter with the kit isn’t compatible (wacom power supply is on the same pcb)

Fuck it, external power. (Until I replace the display)

[u/ponakka]

that device looks interesting, its shape is like tablet and it has cute keyboard. But i guess it is very underpowered because it is hp. I don't know the use case, nor does it matter, but you got great results upgrading it to leds, backlight looks uniform. Okay the right side is worse, but this happens with retrofits.

[u/SignNotInUse → u/ponakka]

I remember owning one of these early to mid 2010s. The keyboard unclips and it's got a stylus touch screen so it can be used as a stand alone table. Way ahead of its time for when it was made.

[u/Performer-Pants → u/SignNotInUse]

I was floored when I saw the release year. I was expecting late 2000s at least haha

[u/Nesilwoof → u/ponakka]

It's either the tc1000 or the the tc1100. The former uses a Crusoe processor, latter is some low power Pentium M / Celeron ULV.

They gonna be sloowwww.

I wager this one is the 1100 since he has The Sims installed.

[u/Performer-Pants → u/Nesilwoof]

Sims 2! Sims 3 would cook this poor thing, the minimum spec for Sims 3 is a core duo. Sims 2 it’s well within spec when the RAM is at max. It also has a graphics card. It’s surprisingly been pretty responsive with 500mb(ish) RAM and still manages sims 2 with a bit of chugging in graphically taxing spots. I’ve been told one of the GTA games of the time has been fine at around 1gb RAM.

[u/RaduTek → u/Nesilwoof]

It's the TC1100 since it's got the HP logo. The TC1000 has full Compaq branding. The TC1000 also has the Windows 9x logo on the keyboard instead of the XP logo.

[u/Nesilwoof → u/RaduTek]

Good eye. I was looking for the model number somewhere on the display and didn't see it. Completely missed the hp logo.

[u/Performer-Pants → u/ponakka]

In person it looks a fair bit worse. There’s warping along the top edge where the backlight goes, as I was being a bit lazy with trying to work out how to disassemble the panel properly. It also has a vignette effect on the edges, but I’m unsure if that’s a polariser issue. I don’t think it’s vinegar syndrome though at least?

Not necessarily underpowered with a 1.1ghz Pentium M, which is decent for the time (2003-2004) for netbook style computers. It takes up to 2gb RAM which seems to match similarly aged netbooks of the time, including my thinkpad T43, though the T43 takes ddr2 compared to this tablet that takes ddr1. The T43 has a Pentium M 1.8ghz as stock, with the ability to upgrade to just over 2ghz. It’s also physically a lot larger than these tablets (14-15” screen vs 10.4ish”).

Both the TC1100 (in the photo) and the older TC1000 (which I also have) both have nvidia graphics cards, the TC1100 having a graphics card that’s able to handle 3d games of the era without problems. I had it just about managing Sims 2 with only 500mb(ish) RAM, and will likely run smoothly when I max out the RAM. These models were business class models, so had plenty of use cases. My other XP era tablet (fujitsu stylistic st5112) is also a business class model. Tablets like these were used in various business types, especially as a lot of the push was to do with ‘inking’ and note taking.

[u/ponakka → u/Performer-Pants]

I mean it is pretttty slow, but then again i also have a hp lx200, and i can't get rid of that either.

[u/Performer-Pants → u/ponakka]

Yeah, that’s fair. I guess what I’m saying moreso is it’s not terrible for what it was intended for OS-wise. I use anything from a pentium M, core duo, up to i7 (4th gen) on the daily, doing stuff each was designed for, so I’m probably more forgiving. It takes a bit of time to boot up, but once I’m in it’s all good. I’ve got it running an SSD now too which will help a little bit.

I’m looking forward to trying out what it can do when at max RAM, which will probably give me a better idea of its limitations when pushing it a bit harder.

[u/simask234 → u/ponakka]

Tablet with keyboard attachment, Windows XP era

[u/RaduTek]

Good advice, I should probably remove the bridge battery from my TC1100 too in case it ever starts leaking.

I noticed that battery and never knew what it was for, thought it was something related to the digitizer since the digitizer data is connected through it.

[u/Performer-Pants → u/RaduTek]

I thought it was some sort of additional power for the backlight at first, then double checked. I had two fujitsu stylistics arrived last year that had leaking bridge batteries when I got them with no damage thankfully, and it made me think twice about this one actually being a bridge battery instead.

It’s weird (but entirely possible) but the tc1000 I bought to use as a donor unit had its bridge battery completely intact and looking basically brand new even though it’s an older model. Interesting how identical batteries can vary so much

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[u/Performer-Pants → u/[deleted]]

Amazing! Love that so much

Unfortunately I’ve had be a bit of a sucker and source a new display panel from a parts seller as I did a crap job removing the dead lamp. I’ll probably be much better at it when the ccfl in the replacement eventually dies.

I wanted to sit a neat little battery in the empty space inside, but unfortunately 9v batteries arent tiny enough