AST Ascentia P Series
The AST Ascentia P was a Pentium-based laptop that was released in 1996. This one was made by Quanta, and this same laptop model was in fact also sold by WinBook as the FX, and by Austin as the Edge.
I don't know the full specs for the Edge, but this one differs from the WinBook in specs a bit. The video card in the FX is a Cirrus Logic chip, and the sound is from Creative. This one has C&T video and ESS sound according to AST. If you look at a photo of the two side by side though, you can tell they're the same guy.
Specifications
| Spec | Details |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Pentium MMX @150 or 166MHz |
| RAM | Proprietary - 32MB Standard - 80MB Maximum |
| Hard Disk | 2.5" IDE - 2.1 or 3.0GB Standard |
| Display Options | 12.1" Active Matrix Color @800x600 |
| Graphics Chipset | Chips & Technologies 65550 - 2MB VRAM |
| Audio | ESS AudioDrive 1878S |
| Main Battery | Lithium Ion, 12-cell, 3900mAH |
| CMOS Battery | - Soldered Lithium CMOS Battery - Socketed 6-cell Varta NiMH |
| Power Supply | Barrel Jack, 19V |
| Disk Drives | Modular Bay, holds CD-ROM, floppy drive, or 2nd battery |
| PC Cards | 2x PCMCIA slots - CardBus and ZoomVideo Supported |
| Networking | Modem |
| Other I/O | - 1x Serial - 1x Parallel - 1x VGA Out - 1x PS/2 - 1x Dock Connector - 1x Game Port - 1x Line In - 1x Mic In - Line Out - Infrared |
| BIOS | Phoenix |
| Pointing Device | Trackpad |
Resources
 Brochure |
|---|
Common Faults & Maintenance
VARTA Hiberate Battery
The Ascentia P has an internal 6-cell VARTA battery that is used as a "hiberation" battery (allows the computer to stay alive in sleep mode for a main battery swap). This battery is incredibly prone to leaking with age, and should be removed ASAP on any Ascentia P. It is located under the left palmrest, thankfully a ways away from the motherboard. It is very close to the left side speaker and its ribbon cable though, so a leak could damage
Poor Soldering
The Ascentia P suffers from poor quality soldering. I couldn't get sound working on my own WinBook FX (same laptop), and eventually found out from someone else who'd dealt with the same problem that it was likely bad solder joints. I reflowed the sound chip (located under the PCMCIA slots - you'll have to remove them) and the sound started working again. That same person said that one of their units (were Ascentia P Series laptops) also wouldn't not start as a piece of stray solder had managed to short something out. If you have problems, especially with the sound (which seems to be very common), inspect solder and reflow. My sound chip didn't have any visible issues, but a reflow still fixed it.
The real confusing thing here is that the sound chip in the FX is a Creative chip, while AST says the Ascentia P has an ESS chip. I'll have to confirm with the person who told me about the fix whether their P Series laptops had Creative or ESS chips.
Brittle Plastic
Like close to every 90s laptop, the Ascentia P is quite brittle. The hinge mounts are actually pretty decently made, I've seen far worse. They aren't trouble-free though. The metal hinge itself snapped on my WinBook FX, and I've heard one account on the VCF forum of these having hinge issues as well. You can do far worse though when it comes to a laptop from this time.
Other Notes
This system uses proprietary RAM, which will obviously make upgrades very difficult to find.
They use a standard barrel power plug and voltage.
The hard drive uses a proprietary interposer/adapter like most laptops with modular IDE drives do. Avoid buying one that's missing the drive, unless the seller states that they saved this adapter.
There are no electrolytic caps in the lower half of the unit. Not sure about the LCD unit.
Like any laptop from this time, the LCDs can become affected by Vinegar Syndrome.
Page last updated (MM/DD/YYYY): 09/20/2024
Update Reason: pages consolidated
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