Web template
updated by
Christopher Spry
28/06/2020

Guide to install Microsoft's 'Windows 2000 Professional' on a Toshiba Tecra 8100 computer

This page was written by Christopher Spry. This guide was started on 11 December 2002, after I had completed installing Microsoft's 'Windows 2000 Professional' on my Tecra 8100 notebook computer. I hope that my experience will be of use to others. See also my 'Guide to install Microsoft's 'Windows 2000 Professional' on Toshiba Tecra 730 computers'. 

Index

1. Hardware and background information

My Tecra 8100 computer has a Pentium III 650-MHz processor, a 14.1" TFT/1024 x 768 Dual display, a RAM Slot Configuration 256MB (128 + 128) SDRAM, an 18.1-G hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive and a built-in K56Flex modem with V.90 support. There is an external/internal 3.5" floppy drive. I also have a 'NetDock Port II replicator'. I bought them from Micro Solutions Inc.

Details about hardware and software that will run in 'Windows 2000' are at Microsoft's Windows 2000 compatibility site. Go to Microsoft's hardware compatibility page and enter the names of the components in your system (such as graphics cards, printers, sound cards, and network adapters). If all of them are compatible, your hardware is able to run Windows 2000.

Before starting the installation of 'Windows 2000 Professional', it is best to become familiar with the available ways to control how the computer BIOS can be viewed and altered. You will have to do this quite often if you run 'Windows 2000 Professional' . You can view and alter the BIOS settings either by

(a) pressing 'Esc' repeatedly then 'F1' when prompted, when the machine first starts, or
(b) booting the computer with the DOS diskette and run the 'tsetup.exe' program. If you set a 'boot' password, I recommend that you make a 'password Service Disk' as described after setting the password.
(c) opening a DOS shell and type 'tsetup.exe'.

The following sites provide information that can help you run 'Windows 2000 Professional' on the Tecra 8100 computer:

(a) The Toshiba-USA web site, Toshiba-Canada web site and Toshiba-Australia web-site have downloadable copies of files and drivers for Toshiba computers. Note that these are independent sites. Drivers on one site may not be available on another. For this reason I have described below, how to get the current drivers.
(b) The 'Toshiba portable computer' forum and 'Toshiba Windows 2000' forum on CompuServe (enter a screen name and password) are also places to download files. These forums provides technical support for Toshiba notebook computers by helpful volunteer who can call on the help of TAIS, the professional Toshiba team in the States.
(c) John Saville's NT 'FAQ', which provides the answers to many general questions about 'Windows 2000 Professional'.
(d) I have other suggestions of where to get software and help installing and running 'Windows 2000 Professional'.

There is native support for the Tecra 8100 in 'Windows 2000'. Unfortunately, Toshiba are still updating the driver and other files needed to run Windows 2000 correctly on the Tecra 8100. However, the current set of drivers will work and the operating system is reasonably stable with them.

2. BIOS v 2. 4

First check the BIOS version of your computer. Start the computer and press 'Esc' several times, then 'F1' when requested. The BIOS version is shown on the top right of the screen. If the computer has an earlier version, download and install BIOS 2.40 Release Date: 27/07/2001. To install the update, insert a formatted 1.44MB floppy diskette into the A: floppy drive and 'execute' the downloaded file that contains the BIOS update. This creates a bootable diskette. Details of what to do next are in the 'readme' file on the diskette. In brief, restart the computer with this diskette in drive A:. This will boot the diskette and run the BIOS update process automatically. Reboot again without the diskette in A:, to use the new BIOS.

3. Installation of 'Windows 2000 Professional'

It is essential that 'Windows 2000 Professional' is installed to a 'clean' system hard disk which does not contain any other operating system. You must not 'update' your current operating system, even if it is 'Windows NT 4', the version that proceeded 'Windows 2000'. 

Installation of 'Windows 2000 Professional' to a Tecra 8100 will erase all the files and data on the system hard disk. If you will be replacing an operating system that you have already used, you should make a complete backup of the computer and ensure that you have copies of the computer's current configured resources and user files, before starting the installation of the Windows 2000, if you want to use them in the new installation. 

Ensure that the computer is 'undocked' e.g. not attached to the 'NetDock Port II'.

You may want to put an ethernet PC-card into the PC-card slot to enable you to connect later to the computer where you downloaded the drivers.

Install 'Windows 2000 Professional' as a 'clean' installation: Put the first of the two 'Windows 2000 Professional' CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and press the button at the side of the computer to shutdown and then to restart the computer. Hold down the 'C' key as it starts, to force the computer to boot from the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM will begin to be read. This will start the installation of 'Windows 2000 Professional' as a new installation. Do not upgrade from any another operating system, or there may be a wide range of problems later on.

Important: In a few moments, when you see 'Press F6 for SCSI drivers', etc, quickly press 'F5' instead. Do not hesitate too long when you get the 'Press F6 ..' prompt, or it will continue automatically, so watch for this near the beginning of the installation. After pressing F5, you are offered a list of two or more options. Use the up-arrow key to scroll the screen upwards. Keep pressing the key until you have reached the top of the list of nine options. Select 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC', which is three from the top. If you select any of the other possible options, ACPI will not install properly and the notebook computer will not be able to be 'suspended' or 'hibernated'. Press return and it starts to load files. Three options are presented to 'Setup'. 'Repair' and 'Quit' installing 'Windows 2000 Professional'. Select 'Setup'. Press 'Page Down' to read, then accept the licence agreement by pressing 'F8'. If it finds a copy of 'Windows 2000 Professional' to repair, press 'Esc' to install a new copy. Select any partitions and delete them. Press 'C' to create a partition and use the maximal size offered. Press 'Enter' to install 'Windows 2000 Professional' on the unformatted partition. Select 'Format the partition using NTFS'. Formatting then starts and takes up to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the hard disk. 

Files are then copied to the setup folder. It asks for Regional settings: I customized it for English (UK). This set the keyboard for UK too. I 'Personalized' the software and gave it a computer name. I set an Administrator's password. I set the date, time and timezone. It then set up the network settings. I connected the ethernet PC-card to the local network. The 'typical settings' had 'client for Microsoft networks', 'File and print sharing' and 'TCP/IP' with automatic addressing. I close 'Custom settings'. It had found the Intel ethernet PC-card, file, printer sharing, TCP/IP, and local network connections. I selected to install NetBEUI. (You will require this if you are using a local network with other Windows computers). I entered the IP address for the computer, which our network manager had given me, the two DNS servers but not a WINS server, as we do not have one on our network.

I selected 'No this computer is not on a network….' and put the 'group' name to use in the Workgroup box. It then installed the network components. I waited while Setup 'installs the Start menu items, register components, saves settings and removes any temporary files used'. This took several minutes. Then it asked me to remove the CD from the drive and it restarted. It started the 'Welcome to the Network Identification Wizard'. I selected 'Users must use a username and password to log into the computer'. I logged on as Administrator. I disabled the 'Getting Started' screen and my desktop started. This was in a 640 x 480 pixels. I right clicked on the desktop and 'smoothed' the fonts. I right clicked on 'My Computer' and disabled content indexing for the whole computer, named the drive as 'PC4_C' and shared it on the network under that name. It took a few minutes to alter the attributes on the files so that they would not be indexed. Indexing slows the computer and I have not found it to be useful. I setup a user called myself so that I could login from other computers and copy over the files that I had saved elsewhere.

4. Online Registration of 'Windows 2000 Professional'

I ran 'Start | Run | regwiz /r'. I entered my data but not the hardware information and was told the product identification number to use for support calls.  

5. Windows 2000 service pack 3

Install 'Windows 2000 service pack 3' as soon as you have finished installing 'Windows 2000 Professional'. It provides, in one place, the bug fixes for Windows 2000 that have already been released individually since February 2000 and adds stability and installation improvements.  Download the service pack or order the service pack on CD-ROM. Before installing it, turn off any AntiVirus tools that may be running, as some, including Norton AntiVirus may give a false positive when you install SP1.

6. Tecra 8100 system drivers

Download the current files and drivers to a location which you will be able to access after installing Windows 2000. To do this, first select a Toshiba product, family and model to be taken to the relevant web site with current BIOS and drivers.

The Tecra 8100 is compliant with the 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface' (ACPI) and it will run power management function, including 'Standby' and 'Hibernate'. Unfortunately, the implementation of ACPI on the Tecra 8100 is such that there is only one recommended way to install the software so that these functions can be used.

Here is my log of how I installed the drivers, which I had downloaded from the Toshiba Canada’s support website:

  1. Toshiba Windows 2000 Common modules for ACPI support (TVALD), Utility, Win 98SE, ME, 2000, Toshiba ACPI Common Modules, 2.02.01, T810E2CM.EXE, 10/03/01. I restarted the computer.
  2. Toshiba 2000 Internal Modem Driver, Modem, Win 2000, Toshiba Internal V.90 Modem, 2.01, TOSMOD2K.exe, 02/17/00. Rebooted. (Later, Windows Update said there was a free update to the modem driver, so I downloaded and installed it.)
  3. The Windows 2000 'Display Driver for S3 Savage/MX, Display' is called 't810vid2.zip'. Double click 't810vid2.zip' and the driver installs. It requires two restarts. I set the monitor to ‘True colour’, ‘1,280 x 1,024’ 60-Hz.
  4. Windows 2000 Sound Driver for Yamaha DS-XG, Sound, Win 2000, Yamaha DS-XG Sound Driver, 4.10.2223, SP430B2SN.exe, 07/20/00. I restarted the computer.
  5. Toshiba Mobile Extensions for Windows 2000, Utility, Win 2000, Toshiba Mobile Extensions, 1.00.04, T810E2ME.EXE, 10/03/01. There was a message about not stopping the device before removing the floppy drive etc.
  6. Toshiba Windows 2000 Display Power Save Driver, Display, Win 2000, Toshiba Display Power Save Driver, 1.10, W2KDISP.exe, 03/24/00. I restarted the computer.
  7. Toshiba Windows 2000 Power Extensions, Utility, Win 2000, Toshiba Power Extensions II, 3.03.00, T810E2PE.EXE, 10/03/01. The program failed to install the first time it ran, but it did install on the second occasion. Restart the computer.
  8. Toshiba Windows 2000 Infrared Port Driver. IR, Win 2000, Toshiba Ir Driver, 2.21, IRDAW2K.exe, 04/26/00 and IR, Win 2000, Toshiba IR Driver, 2.16, S430B2IR.exe, 09/20/00. Install version 2.16 S430B2IR.exe first and then upgrade to version 2.21 IRDAW2K.exe. I did this then I restarted the computer.
  9. Toshiba Windows NT/2000 Utilities, Utility, Win NT, 2000, Toshiba Utility (Fn-esse/HWSetup) Note: For Win NT 4.0 Service Pack 6 or Greater is required, 1.02.03-RC3, T810E2UT.EXE, 10/03/01. I did this then I restarted the computer.
  10. Toshiba Windows 2000 Mouse Sample Rate setting utility, Mouse, Win 95, 98, NT, 2000, Logitec MouseWare, 9.11.63, MW91163W.exe, 12/11/00. It installed in ‘C:\Program Files\Mouseware’. I restarted the computer
  11. Toshiba Windows 2000 Expansion Station IDE Driver, IDE, Win 2000, Expansion Station IDE INF, 2.00.04, T810B2ES.exe, 03/24/00. I closed the computer down, attached the computer to the expansion station and started it up. I was not able to see the driver that needed to be updated. There was an unzipped program that said it would install a driver, but it could not find the driver to install. I restarted the system in the docking station. I found I had not pushed the computer fully into the docking station. I closed down and started again. An Intel agent started a pre-boot sequence, said it could not boot from the network then Windows 2000 started. It booted normally when I set the boot sequence to be the hard drive before the network.
  12.  Windows 2000 FDC Driver, Other, Win 2000, FDC Driver Update, 1.0, FDCW2K.exe, 04/26/00,  .Note: FDC Condition Software Patch is not listed on the Tecra 8100 list but can be found at the following location . It was not there, but in the main list of drivers above.
  13. Enable IDE DMA mode. Open Device Manager. Open "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers". Double click on the "Secondary IDE Channel". Choose the "Advanced Settings" tab. Change the current "Transfer Mode" from "PIO Mode 4" to "DMA if Available". Click "OK". I rebooted and the "Current Transfer Mode" showed "Ultra DMA Mode" in use.
  14. Install the Power saver, Utility, Win 98SE, ME, 2000, Toshiba Power Saver, 4.03.00, T810E2PS.exe, 10/03/01. I restarted the computer

7. Service packs and security updates

Run Windows Update and install the following, restarting the computer after each is installed correctly:

  • Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1

  • Security updates

  • Windows 2000 updates

  • DirectX 8.1 and other new software

  • Windows Media Player 7.1 security patch

Enable hibernate support in the Microsoft Power icon 'Hibernate' tab. Check that 'standby' and 'hibernation' work, before installing other software. This ensures that ACPI is installed correctly.

 The Utility (Fn-esse/HWSetup) provides (a) a way to start programs using defined keystrokes and (b) a windows shell to set the parameters that are normally set using DOS 'tsetup.exe' program, when you first start the computer. I recommend that you do not install this Utility (Fn-esse/HWSetup). On my system it gave 'SCI' and 'HCI' errors when I used 'Control Panel'. I find it easier to set these functions when starting up the computer, by pressing 'Esc' then 'F1'. 

8. Windows 2000 recovery console

As a security measure, I then installed the 'Windows 2000 recovery console', which enables an Administrator to gain access to a 'Windows 2000' system from a command session to replace damaged files and to disable or enable services. When installed it adds an option to the Windows 2000 start menu.

To install it, perform the following. Boot into 'Windows 2000 Professional'. Insert the installation 'Windows 2000 Professional' CD-ROM. From a command prompt move to the CD-ROM '\I386' directory and type:

    C:\> winnt32 /cmdcons

A dialog will be displayed asking for confirmation. Click 'Yes'. File will be copied to the computer and an extra item added to the boot menu. C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Command Console" /cmdcons. A completion message will be displayed. Click 'OK'. Rebooting the computer will enable the option "Microsoft Windows 2000 Command Console" to be selected and start Windows 2000 in command mode. You will be asked which 2000 installation to repair and the Administrator password, if you need to use it. Once you have entered the password you will be able to enter a number of commands such as DISABLE to disable a service, DISKPART to create and remove partitions and many others. Just type HELP for a list of all commands. It is also possible to activate the console directory from the installation CD by booting off of the CD (if you motherboard supports CD booting), select Repair and press C to repair using the console. If you have renamed the Administrator account the console will still work however deleting the Administrator account will render the console inoperative. The Recovery Console does have some security built-in and you can only access the root of the system driver and the %systemroot% directory and its sub-directories.

Some of the most useful commands, if you need to use it, are:

9. Defragment drive C:

Right-click on My Computer and select ‘Manage | Disk Defragmenter’. Click on the small box representing drive C: then click on ‘defragment’. This defragments the files, so that they are easier for programs to work with, speeding up the computer. I do this after I have altered many files on the computer.

10. Check the hard drive for faults

Right-click on My Computer and select ‘Manage | Disk Defragmenter’. Right-click on the small box representing drive C: then select ‘Properties | Tools | Check now’. Select ‘Automatically fix’ and ‘Scan for …’. Click on ‘Start’ and accept that it will start when the computer next reboots. Close all the open applications and restart. The computer will restart and check the hard disk and correct any faults in the way that files are stored. I did this. I run this check about once a month or it I suspect there could be a problem, such as a file being ‘damaged’.

11. Internet Information Server v 5 (IIS5)

'IIS', which is also called the Personal Web server' is not installed by default. Put the 'Windows 2000 Professional' disk back into the CD drive, select 'Additional services' and install IIS5 from there, if you need it. Note that you can uninstall the 'Indexing services', which are installed by default, at the same time. The 'Indexing Services' are seldom needed and can use the processor at times when you need it for other things.

12. Dialup networking, TCP/IP and NetBEUI

I set up my dialup services and email accounts for the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that I use. If you find that these can not be installed from 'Start | settings | Network and Dialup Connections', then open 'Outlook 2000' and 'add' connection settings to an email account. They have the same function. Note that NetBEUI is not installed by default. If you need it, install it but as most dialup connections to Internet Service Providers do not use it, remove the NetBEUI options in the each dialup connection where it is not wanted, or it will generate an error message when you try to connect. 

13. Fax services

To open 'Fax Service Management', click 'Start', point to 'Programs', point to 'Accessories', point to 'Communications', click 'Fax', and then click 'Fax Service Management'. In the console tree, click 'Devices'. In the details pane, right-click the device you want to configure and select 'Properties'.

Enable send Select this check box to send faxes.  This is checked by default.
Enable receive Select this check box to receive faxes.
Rings before answer Type the number of rings allowed before Fax answers a call.  Fax transmissions are answered automatically.

I set it to receive a fax after 6 rings, to play a sound and to save them in 'C:\Documents and Settings\cspry\Documents\Faxes\Received Faxes'.

14. Infrared IrDA services

Unless you want to use InfraRed devices, I recommend that you disabled IrDA services for all hardware configurations. It uses resources that may be needed by other devices and occasionally it can conflict with programs playing '*wav' files, see above. To disable IrDA devices, right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties | Hardware | Device Manager | Infrared devices'. Right-click on 'Toshiba FIR port type-DO' and select 'Do not use this device in any hardware profiles'. The computer needs to restart to enable this change.

15. DVD/CD player

'Windows 2000 Professional' does not include DVD video player software. The DVD video software that I use successfully on my Tecra 8100 under Windows 2000 Professional is 'PowerDVD' v 2.5 by CyberLink Com who are in Taiwan. It is available to purchase and download over internet from Netis Technology Inc. for $49.50.

The default 'Windows 2000 Professional' configuration for the DVD devices can produce problems playing MP3 files or DVD video CDs. For this reason I recommend that you alter the settings for the secondary IDE channel from 'PIO' to 'DMA'. I did this by right clicking on 'My Computer' and selecting 'Properties | Hardware | Device Manager | IDE ATA/ATAPI Device Controllers'. I clicked on the '+' and right-clicked on 'Secondary IDE channels | Advanced Settings | Transfer mode' and altered 'PIO only' to 'DMA if available'. 

If the display of DVD video images is too dark, you will want to alter the video display's 'gamma value', which is a measure of the relationship between numerical pixel value and the amount of light displayed, from the default value of 1.0 to 1.5. Right click on the desktop and select 'Properties | Settings | Advanced | S3 gamma' and change the settings for the three colour channels from 1.0 to 1.5.

16. NetDock Port II replicator

When I put the computer onto the CardStation and started the operating system the computer 'added new hardware' automatically and I rebooted. It now recognized this resource. If you use it on an network, you will have to configure TCP/IP again to use the network device in the replicator. 

17. 'Windows 2000 Professional' Resource Kit

Microsoft has details of the 'Windows 2000 Professional' Resource Kit. It has a number of programs to help in administering 'Windows 2000'.

18. Application software

I installed a range of software that I use, including:

  • Microsoft's 'Office 2000 Premium' which provided 'Word 2000', 'Access 2000', 'Outlook 2000', 'FrontPage 2000', 'PowerPoint 2000' and 'Excel 2000'. I copied the 'Outlook' address book file 'cspry.wab' and my '*.pst' email files to the relevant directory under 'Windows 2000'. 

  • You probably do not need the 'Office 2000 server extensions' on CD # 3, unless several people need to administer the server. If you  do install it, it will install 'MSSQL server' which uses 11-MB memor and runs with an icon in the system tray where it can be turned off and on.  I installed this from the third 'Office 2000' CD. I gave a name for the database that will be used for the discussions and subscriptions to this web and a password  to secure this database and the MSDE System Administrators account. I did not create Windows Groups for the server. I set 'Administrators' to be administrators for this web. I allowed everyone with a windows account to participate in web discussions and register for web subscriptions. I said to setup mail server settings later. The software said that the final stage could take a long time but it only took a few minutes.  and runs with an icon in the system tray where it can be turned off and on.  I installed this from the third 'Office 2000' CD. I gave a name for the database that will be used for the discussions and subscriptions to this web and a password  to secure this database and the MSDE System Administrators account. I did not create Windows Groups for the server. I set 'Administrators' to be administrators for this web. I allowed everyone with a windows account to participate in web discussions and register for web subscriptions. I said to setup mail server settings later. The software said that the final stage could take a long time but it only took a few minutes. 

  • PhotoDraw,  from the 'Office 2000' CD is a useful graphics package.

  • 'Outlook Express' v 5.5 is not included in the upgrade to 'Internet Explorer' v 5.5 on 'Windows 2000' but it is included with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Tools. Outlook Express v 5.5 contains the same features that are available in Microsoft Outlook Express v 5.01 but also includes several fixes. 

  • See the detailed list of application software, which  I have installed under 'Windows 2000 Professional' on my Tecra 8100.

  • It is advisable to run 'Windows Update' regularly, to check for security fixes and software updates, which should be installed as they become available.

Windows XP Professional

Note that, although I have not done this, Windows XP Professional has been found by others to run well on this notebook computer. Advice on how to install it used to be on the CIS 'Windows XP' Forum, but this is no longer there. I do not know if it is available elsewhere. Please let me know if you find it.

In June 2011, James Cook confirmed that Windows XP Professional can be installed successfully on a Toshiba Tecra 8100. He had no problems, except with installing a working display driver. The steps that he used for obtaining the Toshiba display driver that works in Windows XP on a Tecra 8100 are as follows:

'Go to the Toshiba Website at http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/outFrm.jsp?ofId=AskIris&searchString=Installing%2FUpgrading+to+Windows+XP+on+Tecra+8100&x=7&y=4 Select 'Download' then Laptop, Tecra, 8100 from the 3 selection area and click GO which takes you to the download page. Select "Display" from the drop down list. This will list all the available Tecra 8100 Display drivers. I chose the "Windows 2000 Display Driver for S3 Savage/MX(2933)(06-30-2000; 1.02M)" for my Windows XP installation. Click on the link and then click the download button to download. I did the download from my Windows 7 Desktop machine since the 8100 was giving me so much trouble. Then I copied the driver to a USB drive and installed on the 8100. Before I installed the driver I booted into Windows safe mode and deleted all files with the name s3savmx by doing a search first and then deleting them.
Then a curious thing happened. When I rebooted (before installing the downloaded driver) the 8100 came right up in 1080x764 resolution and ran like a charm before I installed the new driver. I went ahead and installed the driver and rebooted. Two boots are required for this install and it worked great. Now another factor seems to be total RAM installed. On this 8100 laptop I only had 128MB RAM. I had ordered a 512MB RAM upgrade but it had not arrived yet. So I had used msconfig to stop all non-system services from running (anti-virus, and a couple others). When I started the non-system services back up the s3savmx driver started crashing again. Somehow the crash of s3savmx had apparently corrupted something because after that I could only boot in safe mode. So I booted in safe mode deleted the s3savmx files again. Then stopped those non-system services again and reinstalled the s3savmx driver and everything started working again just fine. Now I also want to point out that the Laptop seemed to run fine without installing the s3savmx display driver. Without the driver installed the Device Manager shows a problem with the s3savmx display adapter but nevertheless the laptop seemed o run fine without the driver being installed. So I'm unclear what that means or why it works.'

If you have problems with memory modules not being 'seen' in a Tecra 8100, James Cook's experience may help:

'After testing I determined that both new 256MB modules where good because they both worked in slot A. I used Google and searched on bad memory slot B for Toshiba Tecra 8100. It turns out that this is apparently a common problem with Laptop memory slots. Over time the slot stops making good connection with the Motherboard. To get the slot to work again people have used things like rolled up paper or slices of an old plastic credit card to place right under the memory cover on top of the memory so that when the memory cover is replaced it adds additional pressure to hold the memory modules tighter in the memory slot. I thought that sounds crazy but I gave it a try. I cut a slice of some stiffer packaging material from a PNY USB package. I laid the stiffer slice of packaging on top of the memory slot and then laid the plastic strip on top of that and then replace the memory cover. This modification adjustment is performing great. The addition pressure seems to function like a spring to put gentle pressure on the slot.'

If you have any corrections or additions to make to this document, please mail them to me, Christopher Spry. Please note that all standard exclusions and waivers apply to this guide and that all Trademarks and Copyrights are fully acknowledged.

Return to the 'home page'

Return to the 'Computing index page'