Page 1 of 1
Toshiba Libretto 50CT Teardown
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
User-Contributed Guide
This guide is not managed by iFixit staff.
The Libretto is the father of today's netbooks, this little laptop can support up to 32MB of RAM memory and 2GB of HD. There's the support for an external screen thanks to his docking-station, and it has a bundled floppy drive too!
Difficulty: Medium
Special: Comparison between Libretto and iPod Touch!
- View:
- Paginated
- Full width

Edit
Step 1
—
Toshiba Libretto 50CT Teardown
¶
Say "Hello" to Libretto!
This is very small, the dimensions are about 21x11,5x3
The best OS fitting inside it is Windows 95, the base RAM is 16Mb (yes, that's 16!) and the bundled HD has 810Mb of memory.
There is no floppy integrated, only a PCMCIA slot, a IR port mapped as COM2, a mini-jack for audio (back), a speaker, the power connector and the base attachment.
The screen is about 6", 16-bit color, the backlit is powered by a neon light as usual in LCDs.

Edit
Step 2
¶
Before starting with screwdrivers it's better to remove first the battery.
It's like nowadays notebooks, move the slide-button and pull the battery.
The battery-pack contains 9 batteries, as usual 1.2v each 1200mAh; that makes 10.8v, enough to power the HDD, the PCMCIA, the screen and the processor at the same time.
The model number is: PA2497U

Edit
Step 15
¶
The screen! Not easy to open.
First remove the glued tapes at the bottom, so you can access the two screws that hold the upper part.
With a screwdriver take away the MousePad.
The pad is nice to use, confortable and easy to handle, you only have to get a little pratice, notebooks have abandoned this kind of pointing device from years, but in my own it's still excellent.

Edit
Step 17
¶
Now you can see the screen, the power elevator for the lamp, the controls and the speaker.
Don't touch any part of the left circuit, it's dangerous to handle it because it handles high voltages for powering the neon lamp; take it from the edges and handle carefully. For your safety I would recommend you a pair of guants.
Unscrew where shown with a Phillips cross screwdriver.
Carefully move the screen to access better the rear cables.

Edit
Step 21
¶
Paying attention not to touch any contact, detach the neon cable by simply pulling it.
The screen is very small, the maximum real resolution is only 640x480, actually the minimum for Win95.
Because the screen is old it contains mercury, and the cables may contain BFR, so try not to break anything.

Edit
Step 27
¶
As you see the little PC is still working perfectly.
And now a little comparison to the iPod Touch 3G (look! it's mine!):
Results are that the iPod touch does more, costs less and is that simple..! (I've already heard it somplace)
I hope you enjoyed the guide, if you have any corrections, tips, additions or reproaches please post them!
Guide made by Mc128k
Page 1 of 1
