Help: Driver Toshiba Dynabook 1600 in japanese

[Fed]

Hello,
I have bought Toshiba Dynabook Laptop PC from Japan (Portege 1601 series). Model number is 1600 10L/2, which has an INTEL Pentium M 1.00GHz specification. I would like to uninstall the Japanese OS and install English OS (Windows XP). But the problem is, I haven`t got the driver CD along with the laptop.
Because the Dynabook site (dynabook.com) is in Japanese I am unable to find all the drivers that I need. device Manager shows that I need: SM Bus Controller, Modem driver, Multimedia driver, Ethernet drivers, wireless drivers etc etc....
Can anyone supply the drivers or point me in the right direction?
Many many thanks!!!!!!!!

 

[Mars Man]

Hi there !! My son has almost the same model. I have asked him and he thinks that you may be able to get it from the net, he is checking now, so I'll get back with you later (and that may be tomorrow your time)

One problem is that it may be in Japanese though...I don't know... MM

 

[Fed]

Hi Mars!!!
Yes, the problem is the site language that's Japanese and I don't know how to get ALL the available drivers.
Maybe you can post here all the links at the drivers or sent they by email.
thanks so much!!

 

[mr.sumo.snr]

Have you deleted the Japanese OS yet? If not then the drivers you need are already installed - only NOT where you might think.

I do this for a living and have been very successful installing English OS on Japanese Toshiba laptops. The trick is to install the English OS separately, keeping the Japanese OS where it is. Once you have the XP desktop up and running and go to the device manager you'll notice a long list of components with yellow exclamation marks - they need drivers of course!

What I do next is to navigate to the Windows directory in the Japanese OS. I open up a search box and specify *.inf This locates all the 'inf' files in the Windows directory and especially the System and System32 directory. I then select them all and copy them to a new folder on the desktop.
Then I go back to the English device manager, select the problem component, click Properties and select Reinstall Driver. Uncheck the Windows Update option, click Next and then select "Install from a list or specific location" click Next. Check the "Include this location in the search" and browse to the desktop folder with all those inf files in it. Click next. After a few seconds it should identify the inf file it needs. The installation process will commence - but not finishﾂ…

It will need several other sys and maybe dll files to complete the installation - but the beauty of having found the correct inf file is that XP will now specify the exact filename it needs and you can use the Search option to locate these files generally in the Windows/System/System32 directory.

It takes time and patience but it's possible to complete all the driver installation by lifting the relevant files from the Japanese OS - I've done this about twenty or thirty times on Toshiba, Sony, NEC and Fujitsu machines. None of those companies have particularly user-friendly driver download homepages. DELL, on the other hand, is fantastic for this sort of thing. It helps that a US/UK/JPN DELL generally all have the same model numbers.

Anyway - good luck.
--

 

[Fed]

Hi Mr sumo !
unfortunately I've deleted Japan OS yesterday and I installed Xp in English...It work correctly, exception for the following drivers:
audio
ehternet
video

thanks

 

[Fed]

Mr Sumo , I have few questions for you.....

a)If I try to install Win Xp in another language is there the possibility that the HD is not recognized from the new OS?I have read posts of users that have encountered problems during this operation.

b)The European Windows versions doesn't have the Japanese Keyboard support. Does exists a method to use the Japanese keyboard?Because a lots of symbols have different positions on the buttons between Jap and Euro keyboard.

thanks!!!

 

[mr.sumo.snr]

Mr Sumo, I have few questions for you.....
a)If I try to install Win Xp in another language is there the possibility that the HD is not recognized from the new OS?I have read posts of users that have encountered problems during this operation.
b)The European Windows versions doesn't have the Japanese Keyboard support. Does exists a method to use the Japanese keyboard?Because a lots of symbols have different positions on the buttons between Jap and Euro keyboard.
thanks!!!

No, I've never heard of this problem. What WILL happen is that the new operating system won't be installed on the default C drive. Most likely it will be on the D: drive or perhaps the E: drive if the default operating system locked the CD drive access. This only applies if you're installing a second operating system on computer NOT if it's a fresh installation.

Personally, I would use the system recovery disks that came with the Toshiba to re-install the Japanese OS. Then I would make an Acronis back-up image of the entire installation to an external or network disc (or DVD-R disc). I would reformat the hard disk and install English XP from scratch. Install Acronis in XP and then 'plug' the Japanese OS as a virtual drive. The you can access it to copy over the appropriate drivers to complete a successful English installation.

I follow this somewhat long-winded approach so that:
a) English Windows is installed on the C: drive
b) it frees up hard disk space
c) the customer can always access the Japanese installation should a driver need to be re-installed

For the Japanese keyboard follow these instructions:
Start
Control Panel
Keyboard
Hardware
Properties
Driver
Update Driver
No, not at this time
Next
Install from a list or specific location
Next
Don't search. I will choose the driver to install
Next
uncheck "Show compatible hardware"
the menus will expand - using the Stand keyboards scroll up in the right hand box until you see Japanese keyboard - highlight it and click Next
Click OK on the warning message
Close dialog menus
Reboot
Welcome to a correctly mapped keyboard.

 

[Fed]

Emh,
How can I enter in the Bios of my dynabook?When I turn on the pc for 1 second appear few icons (like a cd, a HD, a pcmcia card etc etc...).
1)Does anyone knows wath they means?
1)Is one of those the bios?
2)What combination of buttons I have to push to select one of those icon?

thx!!

 

[mr.sumo.snr]

BIOS is generally accessed by press one of the following keys:
F1
F2
DEL
ESC

If you don't get it first time keep at it.

--

 

[Mars Man]

I just want to say, thanks, mr.sumo .snr, for helping out. As it turned out, my son wasn't able to down load the drivers it seems, or whatever...I know so very little about these things. MM

 

[mr.sumo.snr]

Cheers Mars Man. I have access to the drivers - no problem. It's just Toshiba and their, and if I'm being brutally honest, DELIBERATELY absurd model numbering system. That's why I recommended the Japanese system re-install so the correct drivers were available by default.

--

 

[Fed]

Thank you for support!!!
I've found all drivers, and all peripherals work fine except wlan (I don't know why, I've installed the driver but It isn't recognized by the os.)
I have the last question...
The dynabook is without cd rom drive and without floppy drive. I've an external (usb) dvd rom drive but this is not recongnized at the boot.The HD has two partitions, so I've started installation in windows. I've tried to format HD erasing all the partitions but is not allowed erase the partition in C: drive, I can't format c: partition...