It happens sooner or later to everyone in the tech industry. They find one laptop or another that they really, really like. If you’ve stumbled onto actively-updated web sites dedicated to really old laptops… you’ve seen a case of this. Even happens on desktop systems, the Macintosh Color Classic being the most common in Japan.
Mine happened to be the Toshiba Satellite 5005 series. There were two models, the 5005-S504 (with GeForce2Go and XGA display) and then later the 5005-S507 (with GeForce4Go and UXGA display). Interestingly enough, these were the first two “desktop replacement” laptops in the industry. Before 17-inch laptops, there was the 5005 series. Unlike laptops prior to them, the Satellite 5005 was the first laptop to use a desktop Pentium III processor. No mobile chip at all.
Now, the systems were far from perfect. Many overheated, and I was personally involved in the class action law suit surrounding them. Let’s just say I was paid well for my expert advocacy… but basically, Toshiba put out a BIOS update that clocked the systems to run at 600 MHz (instead of 1.1 GHz) when they got hot. Bad Toshiba, bad! Thankfully, it was easy to fix the heat problem, and the machines lived out happy lives, and most owners got a nice check in the mail for their problems ($500 to $1500, not bad for a three-year-old $2000 system).
Toshiba went on to make the 5105 and 5205 series systems with Pentium 4-M processors, before Toshiba’s laptop division was downsized. And, by downsized, I mean most of the teams were fired and replaced with Quanta designers in the middle east. Wonder why most Toshiba laptops look the same today? Now you know.
Now, Toshiba actually has expanded since, and I understand most of the people are back working on Qosmio systems (which are the apparent successor to the 5000 series systems).
If you happen to own a Satellite 5005, you’re in luck… I’ve been keeping the drivers up-to-date while Toshiba hasn’t. Toshiba’s support teams in the U.S. are not good at maintaining drivers. And, with Windows XP SP3 on the way… those ancient drivers will fail horribly on the system. So, you can download the truly latest stable drivers from the link below. These drivers are a well-tested, Frankenstein mix of reference drivers, 5005 drivers, 5105 drivers, and 5205 drivers. Lots of BSODs were involved in the making of this set.
And, as an added bonus, you can download the 5005 reference manual at the link below.
Satellite 5005 Driver Kit for Windows XP 2.2
Satellite 5005 Service Manual (PDF)
P.S. Yes, I do still use the Satellite 5005-S507 that I own. It primarily acts as a DV capture unit for captuing HDTV from my Comcast DVR via FireWire. Granted, it may not play the video well, but the system certainly is not going to waste.
P.P.S. The graphics card drivers in the kit are very old (40 Series ForceWare). This is because Toshiba was using a special Video BIOS that has not been cracked yet for re-integrating into “Mobile ForceWare” drivers. You can use newer versions, but they prevent the system from waking from Standby. 70 Series drivers provide optimal performance, and a hacked 70 series driver is included. Just disable standby and only have your system hibernate.
Thank you, I recently picked one of these up for my wife’s girlfriend. I got it for free, but was starting to think even that was overpriced due to the problems I had. I knew the standby issue was a video driver, but could not seem to find one that worked.
After the kit all seems to be well, however it does several times an hour report an unknown usb device has malfunctioned, considering I have no devices plugged into it at the time, I figured it had to be an internal component riding the usb bus. Everything seems to function when it happens and all devices seem to be there, disabling the device it reports seems to do nothing as it just disappears from the device manager and then comes back re enabled the next time it malfunctions. Have you had this issue, not sure if there is actually a device malfunctioning, or maybe a driver issue of some sort? The machine is a 5005-s504.
Thanks
The malfunctioning USB port is an issue with these systems… I’ve isolated it to the USB port next to the VGA connector. That port is actually a single port hub (yeah, not very smart).
I never use that port myself, only use the ones on the back of the system if possible. Or, even better, pick up a $15 USB 2.0 PC Card.
Unfortunately, the only fixes are to pin the port down in Device Manger and disable it… or rip the whole part out of the system.
Cool, I think I will just disassemble and disconnect. Disabling in the DM it just disappears and then comes back re enabled.
Thanks.
Hi Mr. Christopher Price!
Just like Prophet I picked one satelite 5005-s507 for free from a friend of mine and the USB ports are not working, but in ny case the wired network card is not working too.
I’ve downloaded the service manual you posted here (tnks for that!!!)
What I want to know is where is the USB controler chip? The system have a main board but the ports are separated one in the video card and other two in the audio card.
In the begining I was convinced it was a problem on the main board but after some searching I just found a lot of people with the same kind of problem.
There is some parts (boards) on ebay but I want to have a idea of the cause of this insue before do something.
I have the 5005 s504 and need to know if you only have one stick of ram does it matter which slot it is in.
Regarding the RAM “stick” placement for Mr. Speakman…It “SHOULDN’T” really matter !! At least it DIDN’T on MINE ? This Laptop DESERVES its OWN user fan-club forum. It REALLY ROCKS..for its age !! I even think the intel 815e chipset ??might?? support 2x512mb., pc133/100, CL3, 16chip sdrams..if the..”right kind”..can be found?? I’m STILL looking into it..C’iao (N.V.)
Hi Chris,
nice article here 🙂 I am happy owner of 5005-S504 since 2001 and now I bought another one on eBay for $15 for spare parts. I wanted to renew my old laptor sitting for years in my desk. What I found out is, that I forgot power-on password and I am screwed 😀 Any idea or tip, how to get rid of it?
Thx for any advice.
Luke
Hi Lukas!! Try and find the CMOS motherboard battery and temporarily REMOVE it for a minute or two. Then REPLACE it!! That should “clear” the password in the bios and “restore” everything to their “de-fault” settings! P.S. Make SURE that you “unplug’ the power pack and remove the battery “BEFORE” attempting ANY of this!! GOOD LUCK
Hi Chris,
I tried remove CMOS battery for more than week … it probably clears BIOS password, but does not clear Power-on password – I am talking here about master password, which is being typed before BIOS loads (typing of password is being displayed on small front LCD display in front of touchpad).