My 701c restored, complete with WiFi

[twistero]

Look Ma, no wires!




This is my ThinkPad 701c, with a working battery, running Slackware Linux 10.0, connected to the internet via a WPA-secured wireless network.

Click pics to enlarge.
Link to photo gallery: https://picasaweb.google.com/1102152476 ... inkPad701c


The Battery

Rebuilding the battery is very straightforward. NiMH cells can be used in place of the original NiCd cells. Refer to this link for the rundown: http://www.conradshome.com/thinkpad/701/battery/

Here's a pic of the rebuilt battery:


Reported battery life is ~90 minutes when full, and actual performance is not far from that although I haven't actually timed it.


The "Hard Drive"

The main hard drive is a 1GB CF card:


Even though the CF-to-IDE adapter can host two cards (one master, one slave), the 701c doesn't recognize either if both slots are populated. Also, a 4GB CF card and a 5GB Microdrive both failed to work.

As a side note, this particular CF-to-IDE adapter has screw holes in the exact same location as the 12.5mm-thick hard drive it replaced, which is in different places from modern 9.5mm hard drives. However, the screws are different.


The Operating System

I chose Slackware 10.0 because it's the latest version where the official hardware requirements is still 16MB RAM. Even though it was announced in 2004, it received security patches up to 2012, and software support is not a problem since many applications can be compiled from source: the window manager (Ion3), terminal emulator (rxvt-unicode), browser (links2, elinks), wireless drivers and utilities (hostap, wireless_tools, wpa_supplicant).
The installation takes ~400MB space after installing all the applications.


PCMCIA cards

First up is the wireless card. It's a Linksys WPC11 v3.1 which has a PRISM III chipset, and that means it supports WPA (Personal and Enterprise) after flashing the latest firmware, even though it's only 802.11b.

The Ethernet card is a 3Com 3CXSH572BT. It has an XJack connector (a fancy popout Ethernet jack) and does not require a dongle.

Finally there's the CF-to-PCMCIA adapter. The 4GB CF card that refused to work as main hard drive works just fine here. This is the only removable storage available since there are no USB ports (or floppy drives ).





All in all, not bad for a laptop made in 1995 that can still check my mail today:

[Tasurinchi]

Über cool!

[Medessec]

That's epic. My 701 is miles away from a proper restoration... however at least it's good to know that other 701s like yours get a good amount of TLC.

Someday, my 701 will be in better shape. Someday.

[JaneL]

Nice!

[PowerPC]

If you don't mind me asking, what OS are you using?

Edit: disregard that, apparently I'm blind and I didn't notice you said it. I was mesmerized by the images, but I have no excuse.

[Temetka]

Nice work on the restore!

I am always a fan of re-using older hardware for various day to day tasks.

I think your choice of a linux distro for the older machine is spot on.

What are your system specs for that machine?

[Norway Pad]

Nice! Just a question on the side: How did you do the actual install? Did you load it through another computer? As far as I can see, the 701C doesn't even have a floppy drive(?). Were there any other issues along the road with the install? I assume it was, so feel free to post me a PM, or I can even set it up as a thread in the Linux forum, unless I find it described earlier.

I would like to try the IDE / CF card adapter setup on my 360Cs. It will never be used as a daily driver, and I will probably move the CF card to a newer laptop after I am done. But it's a fun project, and I would like to celebrate the 360's 20th birthday in May 2014 by making a post online from it.

Thanks for any answer!

[Utwig]

This is excellent. Congratulations!

[Temetka]

He could have formatted the CF card in another machine, copied over the net install and drivers for the ethernet card and run a net install. That's how I would have done it.

[identify9]

What browser is that you're looking at Gmail with? I'm a big fan of text browsers - mostly using W3M of late - and am always on the lookout for attractive ones that don't completely destroy formatting. I'm running Crunchbang (Debian based).

BTW - that is so cool that you're using a 701c! I love old ThinkPads - but what kind of monster doesn't?

EDIT: I've been informed it's Links2 - downloaded and been playing with it for the past hour - excellent!

[twistero]

Just a question on the side: How did you do the actual install? Did you load it through another computer? As far as I can see, the 701C doesn't even have a floppy drive(?). Were there any other issues along the road with the install? I assume it was, so feel free to post me a PM, or I can even set it up as a thread in the Linux forum, unless I find it described earlier.

It's been a while so the memory isn't fresh, but IIRC I did install it from another computer. I think I installed the CF card in another laptop as its main hard drive, booted it up with the Slackware install disc, and installed it on to the CF card while making sure that no configuration was specific to that computer (which is easier than it sounds, since Slackware makes it very explicit what you're doing at each step).

What browser is that you're looking at Gmail with?

[snip]

EDIT: I've been informed it's Links2 - downloaded and been playing with it for the past hour - excellent!

Indeed, in the picture I was running Links2 in graphics mode, under X11. That might disqualify it as a text browser.

[Dos3.1]

Wow, that's great!

My oldest TP so far is a 760EL that is running well, and I'm looking forward to getting it back online, soon!

[WillAdams]

Very, very cool.

Will have to try that Linux install technique on a Fujitsu Stylistic. ST-4110