I really should've known it was IBM that actually manufactured it and not the other way around just by the keyboard, but the Crystal audio definitely tipped me off. Lot of older IBM PC's used it, including a newer PC 300PL I have that sounds a bit warmer and cleaner than this. I think PowerBook G3's also used Crystal chips but I don't think they had the FM synth or, was at least inaccessible
I love when youtubers are like 'i'll let you judge how this sounds.' I'm over here listening to this on my phone with a usb earbud and i'm like 'yep, that's exactly what it sounds like.'
So I did the leg work for you. I compared the audio he provided of passport.mid to my Sound Blaster 16 with a real OPL3 chip. I used the same set of Creative desktop speakers to listen to both samples. My conclusion is that the Crystal chipset in this laptop is pretty close to the real thing, I really couldn't tell a difference. That doesn't mean it's 100% Sound Blaster compatible, because as I found even Creative had difficulty with that back in the day.
Haha yeah I know what you mean. Despite having a smartphone since 2014, mine rarely gets any use other than occasional whatsapp wifi calls and TomTom GPS. Doing anything else with a tiny 6 inch screen and no keyboard or mouse, is like torture. Plus the video and audio chips inside those phones are very generic, and in an electrically noisy environment.
It's been so long since I've seen a laptop without a USB port, it now feels weird to see one needing an adapter. USB is one of the best things to happen to computers. No more worrying about serial, parallel, PCMCIA, PS/2 ports and more. Now it's evolving to pretty much replace any connection (Display, power, etc..).
Everything basically. Look at laptops like the 2016-2020 MacBooks. While they really shouldn't of had, 4 USB-Cs and a headphone port and that's it. Kinda impressive.
I love Yahoo auctions Japan! so cool to see someone else getting neat stuff from there. I really feel that the Japanese culture takes so much more pride when they resell stuff. I had one person repackage a fully built lego set into individual baggies, the same way one woulda got it from LEGO 10 years ago!
I saw the video and immediately recognised it - I used a rebadged version of the Hitachi, mine was a T-120 by PCPI Technologies Inc. Sold in the UK - I bought new and still got it. The case is a sort of blue-ish charcole colour, with a yellow mouse nub, grey keys with white letters, and purple/lilac function symbols. Its the front floppy connector version, though has a different style of rubber cover to the port than the Thinkpad. Floppy drive is same colour as the laptop, but with an integrated black cable. Windows 95 model. Amazingly all the port flaps are intact.
Years later and I'm still subscribed and watch your videos. I'm not into old tech, although I do remember these days in computer history, I just find your videos entertaining. Thanks.
The nice thing about FM music is it's mathematically defined. As long as it's still OPL2 or 3 compatible, and not emulating FM from some other tech, music will have only minor differences. If you don't like FM though there's no saving it. Still I bet this thing kicked but for games if there were DOS drivers.
Actually pressing a hotkey during Windows 9x to enter BIOS is also found on Dell laptops, all the way up to 2003! Even on something like a Pentium M equipped Latitude D600, D800, if the machine isn't running in ACPI mode with Windows 2k or XP or such, you can still press Fn+F3 to get to the BIOS battery page which enters the BIOS too. Seems like ACPI mode prevents this from being possible so you don't see that feature on newer laptops. The Latitude Dx10 series with their total BIOS UI redesign (as opposed to the same BIOS layout Dell used in 386, 486 days) no longer have this feature.
I had an unbranded one of these which I brought from CPC back in the late 90s early 00s (P120 IIRC), great little machine and got it for a good price. As you say the screen on it was good for the time, alas it got lost in a move as it would make a great DOS gaming machine (well maybe not sound wise!) with the native 640x480 display.
I still have a couple of Thinkpad 240Xs knocking around, along with a floppy drive that looks like it would hook up to that Hitachi. They were perfect (20 years ago) for taking to site for PLC programming duties.
Very cool machines! I have a rather scarce sub notebook myself. Mine is a Panasonic Toughbook CF-M32. Its a Pentium MMX 166mhz, 96mb RAM maxed out, Yamaha OPL3SAx sound, USB 1.1, Type 3 Cardbus & infrared on the machine itself, Docking Station for using the external floppy drive + Serial, Parallel, & PS/2 and it has a Li-Ion battery which still lasts 3 hours or so. It came with a 2gb hdd although since I got it, I upgraded to a 4gb hdd. I did buy a M-Systems Aerospace 8gb SSD which they call an FFD. These subnotebooks from this time period are awesome and although at the time people didn't buy them, they are highly sought after by collectors such as you and I. I like small laptops. That thinkpad 235 is very cool. I wouldn't mind finding one someday.
A perfect fit for the Japanese market. There was some extra magic with these early sub-notebooks with can't quite can't be matched with ultra thin bezelless designs. Though those are cool too, doesn't maybe seem quite as impressive.
I compared the audio he provided of passport.mid to my Sound Blaster 16 with a real OPL3 chip. I used the same set of Creative desktop speakers to listen to both samples. My conclusion is that the Crystal chipset in this laptop is pretty close to the real thing, I really couldn't tell a difference. That doesn't mean it's 100% Sound Blaster compatible, because as I found even Creative had difficulty with that back in the day. As far as FM OPL synth, the Crystal chipset does a pretty good job.
10:00 This is what I absolutely love about japanese auctions. I've even purchased junk machines that work flawlessly. Compare that to ebay where sellers will list as untested despite knowing the machine doesn't function and likely have attempted repairs too.
I have the Epson Endeavor TK-400. It was still off for about 1 year, and now not run the S.O. The internal battery is low (1,9 V) but I think there is something wrong on BIOS or RAM because not see the internal hard disk and on POST, the word displayed is not correct. Where can I take info on this beatiful micro notebook? I tried on google but this model is very hard to get some information or link to download old BIOS
I know this is kinda unrelated but I picked up a ibm Thinkpad 380ed at a thrift store about a week ago for 7$ it powers on and everything but I have a puzzling issues with it.. first of all it doesn't have any sound at all I even took it apart to check if the speaker was unplugged and it wasn't, second whenever I put a cd in the cd-drive one of two things happen if its a data cd the drive spins up and it reads it but then the computer just shuts off completely and you have to unplug it and re-plug it to power it on again, second if I put a audio cd in it it doesn't cut power to it self and it works but there's still no sound.... I replaced the cmos battery because it was dead and the main battery is also dead and makes a strange whining sound when its in the computer.... also I'm using a universal onn brand power adapter because the I got it without the power adapter... Do you know what could be possibly causing these issues? Any help would be appreaceated.. Thanks!! :))
That Passport.mid sample sounds identical to how I remember it sounding on my Genius PCI Soundcard, except for some reason, on Windows 98 midi files played mono and at a slightly higher pitch, like a semitone up.
That resident BIOS idea was a trend for a while, although I'll never understand why. I once owned a 486 Packard Bell Legend in which the BIOS was accessed by striking Ctrl+Alt+S, but not before boot, rather from the DOS prompt instead. It wouldn't work from the Windows desktop, but you could actually open the BIOS in Windows' command prompt window.
The 235 plastic build material seems like the same flimsy plastic they have used for the 560. Very lightweight. Both nice collector items. Well done Colin.
Using sony batteries as the powersource, thats frikking brilliant! I mean, not great battery life to be honest, but who cares when you can hotswap a non-proprietary battery!
Long time viewer, first time commenter I love small 90s laptops! This video is where I first saw the Mitsubishi Amity CN, which I love. I have 3 now. Would you ever consider a video on that machine, or maybe even a Toshiba Portege, like the small ones, 3010ct or 3110ct? Great channel!
@@ThisDoesNotCompute Yeah, but I guess the PCB will be still interesting since there is logo on the back which is being illuminated by the LCD backlight.
It's funny how back then you had to pay premium to get smaller devices, but nowadays it's pretty much the opposite; be it laptops, smartphones or tablets, bigger costs more.
Bios accessibility while on desktop?!? that's the dream right there!
I really wish modern computers could do the same thing. But perhaps most changes might require a restart anyways(?)
A lot of Dells and Toshibas did the same thing at the time.
Even though it's not 'perfect', I love how those Crystal Audio chips sound.
I thought he would play a couple of short wav file clips too, not just Yamaha OP2 FM synthesis.
I really should've known it was IBM that actually manufactured it and not the other way around just by the keyboard, but the Crystal audio definitely tipped me off. Lot of older IBM PC's used it, including a newer PC 300PL I have that sounds a bit warmer and cleaner than this. I think PowerBook G3's also used Crystal chips but I don't think they had the FM synth or, was at least inaccessible
That sound would have blown my mind in 1997.
@@marioman971 a lot of Dells did too, later. Dells of this era usually used ESS chips.
I just love how those machines look, feels so comfy and professional
I love when youtubers are like 'i'll let you judge how this sounds.' I'm over here listening to this on my phone with a usb earbud and i'm like 'yep, that's exactly what it sounds like.'
ya, i want to hear keyboard clicks too!
So I did the leg work for you. I compared the audio he provided of passport.mid to my Sound Blaster 16 with a real OPL3 chip. I used the same set of Creative desktop speakers to listen to both samples.
My conclusion is that the Crystal chipset in this laptop is pretty close to the real thing, I really couldn't tell a difference. That doesn't mean it's 100% Sound Blaster compatible, because as I found even Creative had difficulty with that back in the day.
@@akaJughead creative make speakers? I thought they only make headphones and sound card.
@@asmc1492 i have a creative webcam
Haha yeah I know what you mean. Despite having a smartphone since 2014, mine rarely gets any use other than occasional whatsapp wifi calls and TomTom GPS. Doing anything else with a tiny 6 inch screen and no keyboard or mouse, is like torture. Plus the video and audio chips inside those phones are very generic, and in an electrically noisy environment.
It's been so long since I've seen a laptop without a USB port, it now feels weird to see one needing an adapter. USB is one of the best things to happen to computers. No more worrying about serial, parallel, PCMCIA, PS/2 ports and more. Now it's evolving to pretty much replace any connection (Display, power, etc..).
Everything basically. Look at laptops like the 2016-2020 MacBooks. While they really shouldn't of had, 4 USB-Cs and a headphone port and that's it. Kinda impressive.
Since my ex wife made me get rid of all my retro stuff, hence EX, I live vicariously through you. Thanks for the video
You should had made here ex. before you sold your stuff...just saying
I can see why she's your ex
I sold PCs back in the mid to late 90s. These videos really take me down memory lane.
7:49 ハードディスク [hādo disuku] "Hard disk"
Ahh good old midi now that brings back memories lol.
Still used to this day as its brilliant. Supposed to be MIDI 2.0 on the way but no idea when.
That crystal audio sampler music was smooooooth!
I love Yahoo auctions Japan! so cool to see someone else getting neat stuff from there. I really feel that the Japanese culture takes so much more pride when they resell stuff. I had one person repackage a fully built lego set into individual baggies, the same way one woulda got it from LEGO 10 years ago!
The perfect video for my morning cup of coffee before work.
Lmao I can wake up hours before my shift starts and yet I somehow never have free time for coffee or a small video. Teach me.
Great video Colin, always love watching your uploads
Passport is a banger. I danced in my kitchen to the whole track.
I saw the video and immediately recognised it - I used a rebadged version of the Hitachi, mine was a T-120 by PCPI Technologies Inc. Sold in the UK - I bought new and still got it.
The case is a sort of blue-ish charcole colour, with a yellow mouse nub, grey keys with white letters, and purple/lilac function symbols.
Its the front floppy connector version, though has a different style of rubber cover to the port than the Thinkpad.
Floppy drive is same colour as the laptop, but with an integrated black cable.
Windows 95 model.
Amazingly all the port flaps are intact.
Years later and I'm still subscribed and watch your videos. I'm not into old tech, although I do remember these days in computer history, I just find your videos entertaining. Thanks.
I am not even into retro computers but you always explain everything so well and make things sound so interesting! Thank you!
I love these videos about vintage Laptops. Make me wanna get a few myself! :)
I just wanted to say that, i really enjoy watching all of your videos, and i think you are very intelligent, keep up the good work.
the cool thing about this laptop is it use cam recorder battery that still sells new today, i hope modern laptop do this
I own 235, as well as lots of other IBM laptops. 235 if by far my favorite.
Hi sorry to bother I just came across this video after getting a 235, would you know how much they could be worth?
@@shane._.morgan one in a decent condition about 500$
Awesome video mr Collin!!!
The nice thing about FM music is it's mathematically defined. As long as it's still OPL2 or 3 compatible, and not emulating FM from some other tech, music will have only minor differences. If you don't like FM though there's no saving it. Still I bet this thing kicked but for games if there were DOS drivers.
The audio chip sounds nice
ahh.. those MIDI tracks are so nostalgic...
i remember those days when this device released i was a peeping outside because purchased this lap a costs fortune how much now i need a one
"supplemental software" is a nice way to put it
This was a blast from the past! This brought back the old days of laptops.
The music in the testing part for the audio really sounds like something you hear from a 1980's Adult film
You mean passport.mid
@@Tom2404 Yeah that. My bad
Actually pressing a hotkey during Windows 9x to enter BIOS is also found on Dell laptops, all the way up to 2003!
Even on something like a Pentium M equipped Latitude D600, D800, if the machine isn't running in ACPI mode with Windows 2k or XP or such, you can still press Fn+F3 to get to the BIOS battery page which enters the BIOS too. Seems like ACPI mode prevents this from being possible so you don't see that feature on newer laptops. The Latitude Dx10 series with their total BIOS UI redesign (as opposed to the same BIOS layout Dell used in 386, 486 days) no longer have this feature.
I’ll have to try that on my latitude c600 when I get it a new case(the right hinge is snapped)
The way this was presented is phenomenal! It's better than the commercial, it makes you just going out there and buying the damn thing!
Man laptops just looked better back then! I just gave away a old Lenovo x200 to a mate whos into old computers...
that crystal audio sounds just like my old PC, i give it top Passport marks
hell yeah that sounds DOPE, my Mac Fixerman
I had an unbranded one of these which I brought from CPC back in the late 90s early 00s (P120 IIRC), great little machine and got it for a good price. As you say the screen on it was good for the time, alas it got lost in a move as it would make a great DOS gaming machine (well maybe not sound wise!) with the native 640x480 display.
I love old stuff
CrystalFM is actually pretty decent except certain broken implementation like, CX4235.
I still have a couple of Thinkpad 240Xs knocking around, along with a floppy drive that looks like it would hook up to that Hitachi. They were perfect (20 years ago) for taking to site for PLC programming duties.
3:43 Oh that's funky!
that aesthetic is what i see when i close my eyes and think of "laptop"
I still remember the first windows 3.1 laptop my mom ever brought home from work, it blew my kind that windows could be run portably.
Very cool machines! I have a rather scarce sub notebook myself. Mine is a Panasonic Toughbook CF-M32. Its a Pentium MMX 166mhz, 96mb RAM maxed out, Yamaha OPL3SAx sound, USB 1.1, Type 3 Cardbus & infrared on the machine itself, Docking Station for using the external floppy drive + Serial, Parallel, & PS/2 and it has a Li-Ion battery which still lasts 3 hours or so. It came with a 2gb hdd although since I got it, I upgraded to a 4gb hdd. I did buy a M-Systems Aerospace 8gb SSD which they call an FFD. These subnotebooks from this time period are awesome and although at the time people didn't buy them, they are highly sought after by collectors such as you and I. I like small laptops. That thinkpad 235 is very cool. I wouldn't mind finding one someday.
To quote Alan Partridge: 'they've rebadged it you fool!'
A perfect fit for the Japanese market. There was some extra magic with these early sub-notebooks with can't quite can't be matched with ultra thin bezelless designs. Though those are cool too, doesn't maybe seem quite as impressive.
What is it about computers before the 2000’s? They have an undefinable charm.
my favourite "little pc" is toshiba libretto, rlly cute
Think my 570 Thinkpad has Crystal Audio too. Seems quite a common laptop soundcard.
I compared the audio he provided of passport.mid to my Sound Blaster 16 with a real OPL3 chip. I used the same set of Creative desktop speakers to listen to both samples.
My conclusion is that the Crystal chipset in this laptop is pretty close to the real thing, I really couldn't tell a difference. That doesn't mean it's 100% Sound Blaster compatible, because as I found even Creative had difficulty with that back in the day.
As far as FM OPL synth, the Crystal chipset does a pretty good job.
Neat, you’re a great collector for Vintage Computing!
Love that Sega fart midi
It's adorable because it tried lol
Still has more features than my modern Lenovo, considering I bought it from a crappy refurbisher and it can't connect to the web.
theres a standard camcorder battery? huh, learn something new every day i guess. pretty damn cool, wish it was more common in laptops and smartphones
USB 1.0 ... I remember when Windows 98 having issues with detecting some of my devices.
I think I have a smaller one Lookup a Sony Vaio PCG-505FX with a Intel P1, Sony has used this model number in newer models I think.
Ngl, that Passport song was 🔥🔥🔥
It's included in Wondows 9x
10:00
This is what I absolutely love about japanese auctions. I've even purchased junk machines that work flawlessly. Compare that to ebay where sellers will list as untested despite knowing the machine doesn't function and likely have attempted repairs too.
And it looks just like every other ThinkPad ever.
wow, nice video
Another excellent video as always. Thank you. That is a very interesting machine, the TFT 640x480 is the ideal one for DOS gaming.
3:45 That's up to LGR to decide
Hey @This Does Not Compute!
Love your content. What's the name of the song @6:08?
I've been searching for it forever!!
Sounds good for that time
I have the Epson Endeavor TK-400. It was still off for about 1 year, and now not run the S.O. The internal battery is low (1,9 V) but I think there is something wrong on BIOS or RAM because not see the internal hard disk and on POST, the word displayed is not correct. Where can I take info on this beatiful micro notebook? I tried on google but this model is very hard to get some information or link to download old BIOS
Npf battery to power laptop? That's great!!
that midi is... its close... its unique...
I know this is kinda unrelated but I picked up a ibm Thinkpad 380ed at a thrift store about a week ago for 7$
it powers on and everything but I have a puzzling issues with it.. first of all it doesn't have any sound at all I even took it apart to check if the speaker was unplugged and it wasn't, second whenever I put a cd in the cd-drive one of two things happen if its a data cd the drive spins up and it reads it but then the computer just shuts off completely and you have to unplug it and re-plug it to power it on again, second if I put a audio cd in it it doesn't cut power to it self and it works but there's still no sound.... I replaced the cmos battery because it was dead and the main battery is also dead and makes a strange whining sound when its in the computer.... also I'm using a universal onn brand power adapter because the I got it without the power adapter... Do you know what could be possibly causing these issues? Any help would be appreaceated.. Thanks!! :))
That Passport.mid sample sounds identical to how I remember it sounding on my Genius PCI Soundcard, except for some reason, on Windows 98 midi files played mono and at a slightly higher pitch, like a semitone up.
Nice. I've heard worse audio out of IBM's NetVista line.
That resident BIOS idea was a trend for a while, although I'll never understand why. I once owned a 486 Packard Bell Legend in which the BIOS was accessed by striking Ctrl+Alt+S, but not before boot, rather from the DOS prompt instead. It wouldn't work from the Windows desktop, but you could actually open the BIOS in Windows' command prompt window.
Whoa! NP-F batteries!
Nice.
Looks like ThinkPad that would have been nice to own back then.
Could you try ReactOS on the IBM Thinkpad in this video?
Can someone make a modern shell/dock for like a cellphone or raspberry pi that has this form factor and look?
Just waiting for the dom notebooks now.
I find the midi song really good ! Would it be possible for you to upload it ?
That does compute 😁
The 235 plastic build material seems like the same flimsy plastic they have used for the 560. Very lightweight. Both nice collector items. Well done Colin.
Crystal audio was aight.
AOL , now for some very slow download porn that stopped halfway through 😂
Using sony batteries as the powersource, thats frikking brilliant! I mean, not great battery life to be honest, but who cares when you can hotswap a non-proprietary battery!
$2400 for that 1997 laptop is too much. Wait many years later putting that same money amount towards a gaming laptop instead.
Well if it had 98 on it the specs would have been fine for dos gaming lol.
Why not just install DOS 6.22
put the sound card in a Eurorack module and a fortune could be yours..!
"good things can come from small packages"
yeah haha, tell that to my future wife
Please, do a video on alphasmart neo
I have that exact same Hitachi subnotebook! I thought I had seen the same design elsewhere but couldn't put my finger on it.
Have you had a Libretto?
Long time viewer, first time commenter
I love small 90s laptops! This video is where I first saw the Mitsubishi Amity CN, which I love. I have 3 now. Would you ever consider a video on that machine, or maybe even a Toshiba Portege, like the small ones, 3010ct or 3110ct?
Great channel!
6:04 -- They spelled "fluorescent" wrong :P
Passport kinda slaps, ngl
"The track pad is small". What track pad, I legit don't see one 🤣
Are you gonna make a teardown video for Game & Watch The Legend of Zelda?
Not sure…I doubt it’s much (if any) different inside.
@@ThisDoesNotCompute Yeah, but I guess the PCB will be still interesting since there is logo on the back which is being illuminated by the LCD backlight.
Did you say Pentium MMX @ 266mhz? I didn’t think there was a Pentium at that clock speed.
IIRC this was a mobile-only part, the desktop Pentium MMX maxed out at 233MHz.
source on the fly tunes?
It's funny how back then you had to pay premium to get smaller devices, but nowadays it's pretty much the opposite; be it laptops, smartphones or tablets, bigger costs more.
Hi Guys, I recently found a thinkpad 235 does anyone know how much they could be worth?
Ahh yes 446 likes with 147 views. That's because everyone liked it 2-3 times
Like the look of Hitachi one much better than the original IBM model. Is the CPU socketed in these ?
2:38 Somebody call Cathode Ray Dude because he likes infolithiums