Last Update: November, 2003. I'm afraid my Actius has gone to its reward, so I won't be adding to this (unless readers email me helpful information) [Click here to get back to the Albrektson Family Home Page]
My aging Sharp Actius PC-A280 laptop suddenly began the habit of shutting down--abruptly. Instead of the battery gauge telling me I was running out of juice, the internal battery would reach a certain point (still indicating 80% charge) and the system would suddenly stop stone-dead.
It seemed likely that the internal lithium ion battery was beginning to fail. An email from Sharp PC technical support indicated that the part number for the internal battery is DUNTK5260ACZZ. It's actually made by Panasonic, listed as as CGP-E/404A with internal cells of type CGP345010 (see "spaceworthiness" test results). I bought one under the Sharp part number through FOX International (23600 Aurora Rd. Bedford Heights, OH. 44146 Order Info: (800)321-6993) or salesdept@fox-international.com, currently about $220 plus shipping) and it came in about a week.
Note: If anyone can figure out a cheaper alternative to this battery please let me know!
Of course, you should know what you're doing before attempting this. If you need to be told "Don't lose the screws!" "Note where the bigger ones go!" "Don't scratch the screen with the keyboard!" "Don't break, drop, lose, or shock anything!" then you probably should send it in for service by a Sharp authorized service center.
| The next challenge was getting the case open. The battery is under the palm rest area ("fascia") under your right palm, and the hard-drive under your left. Turn the Actius over and remove the seven screws indicated. Note that three will be longer--the two keyboard screws and the center fascia screw. Lay it back down upright and lift the keyboard up gently from the front and lean it back against the screen. |  |
| Pull the palm rest up gently from the top edge (adjoining the keyboard) and remove it (don't lose the i/r window cover). Remove the two HD screws and gently slide the HD up and to the left. This frees up the touch-pad assembly which then can be flipped up giving access to the battery connector plug. Unplug the battery and pry it off the thin double-sided tape holding it in place. |  |
| Now you're almost done. Slide in the new battery, plug it in, flip down
the touch-pad assembly, and gently replace the hard-drive. Reinstall HD screws, slip
palm-rest back on (note that i/r cover should be placed in its slots on bottom part of case
first) and then fasten the five palm-rest screws. Flip down the keyboard and refasten
with the two longer screws. Plug in and allow to charge fully before use. Note that the original HD in my computer was a Toshiba MK8113MAT unit with 8.45mm height. It appeared to be held in a bracket intended for a 9.5 (or possibly 10) mm drive, so that is probably the upper limit for thickness.
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Floppy Drive ReplacementJune 11, 2001: Note! My Actius floppy got very flaky, and I found a great replacement for the floppy drive mechanism (Mitsubishi MF355H-325MS) from ComputerGeeks. The key element in identifying a replacement seems to be the MF355 part, as the other numbers apparently reflect variations in color, etc., so any MF355 is likely to work. It cost me $9.50 plus shipping, and completely cured my ailing floppy. Search Ebay for "MF355" if ComputerGeeks runs out. Replacement Instructions: I don't have pictures, but here's what you do: Remove the two bottom screws and gently pry apart the screwed side (careful--there are molded-in plastic tension clips on the screwed side that must release before it flips open), and take the top off. Remove the "U"-shaped clamp holding down the cable that connects to the Actius itself. Remove the copper tape (note location), then the single screw holding down the flexible metallic shield. Now there are only four plastic tension clips that are holding the whole drive assembly in the bottom shell. Release two from beneath with a thin-bladed screwdriver (one side releases easily), then lift out. Remove the floppy mechanism from the carrier (two screws on each side). Release the ribbon cable from the floppy mechanism by gently prying up the amber-colored part of the ribbon-clamp about a sixteenth of an inch. Whew! Now reverse the procedures to install. |
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Hard Drive ReplacementJune 13, 2001: I replaced the hard drive with a IBM Travelstar DJSA-220000 20GB 4200RPM 9.5mm Notebook Hard Drive from Googlegear ($119 at present) When I closed things up there was a half-millimeter gap between the battery-guage and the touchpad housing that I thought was an inevitable result of the 9.5mm drive thickness. A few weeks later the gap had disappeared--something had settled in and the drive fit perfectly.. I opted to install Windows 2000 Professional, and apart from losing suspend and hibernate capabilities, and some questions about the PCTel modem (click for best driver) it seems to work just fine. Note that CE-CD01 CD-ROM drivers are not on the Actius resource CD--email Sharp and they'll tell you where to get them. If you update Windows 2000 to SP2 before using the CD-ROM it finds and installs everything automatically--no need to bother Sharp. Go to PCTel and once you click on the "AGREE" button download "HSP_UniDriverSoftware_Win2kXP.zip" How do you install Windows 2K or XP on the Actius? Well, my solution was to pull the hard-drive, put it into a desktop machine, format it (fat32) and make it bootable, and copy the /i386 files from the Windows 2000 (or XP) setup disk to the hard drive. Then I reinstalled and after it booted changed to the c:/i386 directory and ran the install program (I can't remember at this exact moment what it's called--you can figure it out! look at the .exe files). Once either is installed the machine will reboot and the CD-ROM will miraculously become active. Warning: I got word that some high capacity drives produce too much heat in the Actius and lock up after a while (e.g., Toshiba MK6021GAS)
Windows XPJanuary, 2002: Installed Windows XP Pro on the trusty Actius and it runs like a charm. Even suspend and hibernate work great, but must be enabled from with the Power applet in the Control Panel. I needed the above modem driver (see Hard Drive Replacement) to get the modem going, though. September, 2003: I needed to get simultaneous display of the LCD and external monitor (video projector) and found that some drivers for the Fujitsu Lifebook found at their German support site work well. The Trident Cyber9525DVD chips in both seem to be set up identically.
Class Action Lawsuit: (Updated January 20, 2002)There appears to be a class action lawsuit against Sharp regarding the short life of their internal batteries. You should contact the class action administrator if: 1) You bought a Sharp laptop and2) You replaced that battery. Write: Sharp Class Action Administration, P.O. Box 13005, Birmingham, AL 35202-3005
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Please EMAIL me if you have valuable news or tips on the Actius notebooks. Note that the words "remove_these_words" must be removed from my email address.
