Micron TransPort XPE
The Micron TransPort XPE is a spec-bumped and improved version of their first laptop, the Millennia TransPort. Like The Millennia TransPort, the XPE was manufactured by Sanyo. I do not know to whether Micron had a hand in designing them or not, but I've yet to see any other brand selling the same laptop.
Internal Drives
The TransPort XPE has two modular bays, one on the front left and the other on the right side of the laptop.
- Front side bay: Battery, CD-ROM drive, Floppy Drive, or secondary hard drive
- Right side bay: Battery or Floppy Drive
This configuration allows a wide range of drive configurations.
Specifications
| Spec | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | CPU Type: Unknown Intel Pentium MMX @133, 150, or 166MHz |
| Chipset | Intel 430MX |
| RAM | Type: EDO, 2x 144pin Slots Standard: 16MB Soldered Maximum: 80MB |
| Hard Disk | 2.5" IDE Uses proprietary adapter?: Yes Standard: Unknown |
| Display Options | 12.1" Active Matrix LCD @800x600 |
| Graphics Chipset | Cirrus Logic GD7555 VRAM: 2MB |
| Audio | Creative Labs ViBRA 16S |
| Main Battery | Lithium Ion (3900mAH) |
| CMOS Battery | - 3V Maxell Super Lithium (around AAA size w/ leads) - 6-cell Varta NiMH Reserve Battery |
| Power Supply | Barrel Jack |
| Disk Drives | Dual modular bays - Front bay holds battery, CD-ROM drive, floppy drive, or 2nd hard drive - Right bay holds battery or floppy drive |
| PC Cards | 2x PCMCIA/CardBus Slots - ZoomVideo Support (bottom slot) - TI PCI1130 Controller |
| Networking | None |
| Other I/O | - 1x Parallel - 1x Serial - 1x VGA Out - 2x PS/2 - 1x Dock Connector - 1x Composite Out - 1x S-Video Out - 1x MIDI/Game Port (proprietary port, laptop shipped w/ adapter) - 1x Line In - 1x Mic In - 1x Line Out - Infrared |
| BIOS | Phoenix |
| Pointing Device | Trackpad & TrackPoint |
Resources
Drivers for the XPE (along with all other Micron laptops) have been lost to time. I was however able to find the latest BIOS update for the XPE on a 3rd-party site. Use at your own risk.
Common Faults & Maintenance
This page largely goes off the assumption that most of this laptop's problems are common with the earlier Millennia TransPort. I'm lacking data on the XPE specifically in this regard.
CMOS Battery Leaks and Issues
This info assumes the XPE uses the same batteries as the Millennia TransPort!!!
The XPE has two internal backup batteries - a 3V Maxell "Super Lithium" battery, appearing to be a similar size to a AAA and has leads and a connector attached. This is the CMOS backup battery. In addition, it also has a VARTA brand 6-cell NiMH battery. It's a barrel-style, but with leads and a connector attached. This battery is used as a hibernation battery, to allow battery sleep-swapping.
BOTH of these batteries, but especially the VARTA, are prone to leaking. The VARTA batteries leak nearly 100% of the time, and while it appears these are SOMEWHAT isolated from critical components, it could still cause damage. Remove it. Unfortunately, this does require a full tear-down. Now, I have no DIRECT evidence that the Maxell battery in these leaks, but I can say that the 1/2AA size batteries, also part of their Super Lithium series, that ended up in Macintosh computers from the same time period are EXTREMELY prone to leaking and causing absolute chaos. Even though the XPE doesn't use the EXACT same battery, I still wouldn't trust another from the same series. Remove both.
Now - you will want to replace the Maxell battery. If like the original Millennia TransPort, the XPE's BIOS will not hold settings AT ALL, even between reboots if the main CMOS battery is bad. This means you will not be able to boot the laptop as it will not be able to save the hard drive parameters AT ALL.
Other Faults
Many XPEs that come up for sale are missing their hard drive caddies. I've heard before that a lot of these were sold to government/military, so that does check out. Avoid buying one that's missing the caddy, I believe they do use a proprietary adapter board to actually connect the IDE drive.
The biggest problem perhaps is that most XPEs that show up for sale don't work. I don't yet know why. Could be the CMOS batteries leaking, or maybe their DC/DC boards are a common failure point.
One thing I can say is that the XPE is built VERY well. I've yet to see a single one show up for sale with a broken display hinge. Sanyo did a good job here.
Page last updated (MM/DD/YYYY): 11/03/2024
Update Reason: page converted to php
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