Restructuring T23

simpic · **Posted:** Wed Nov 23, 2011 8:45 pm

Hello, last month I took my old Thinkpad T23 and i started to renovate it.

I have...
- replaced the hard disk and I have installed a Western Digital of 160 GB
- installed Ubuntu 10.4 (for systems <= 256 MB RAM)
- upgraded RAM adding a 128 MB module (now it's is 384 MB)
- installed a PCMCIA to USB ports adapter to have 2 more USB ports... on left side
- replaced the old battery with another one more lasting
- removed the 56k modem and installed a wireless card... but what is the better way to do it?

I was using a PCMCIA wireless card but it has very low signal so i installed the MiniPCI WiFi card. I think my T23 doesn't have wireless antennas since i can't see them! So i have searched and searched on forums and i have found a lot of topics about adding wireless to T23, but i'm bit confused.

Can you tell me the better and final way to add wireless to T23? Does exist a step by step guide?

Thank you so much and sorry for my english...

rumbero · **Posted:** Thu Nov 24, 2011 1:43 am

simpic wrote:

Can you tell me the better and final way to add wireless to T23? Does exist a step by step guide?

While i do own a T23 myself, i never bothered adding WLAN to it, but at least was reading up a bit about it before finally purchasing my first T61. The German thinkpad-forum.de once had an article with lots of interesting pictures showing the process. The first article in thinkpad-forum.de/threads/4105-T23-Internes-WLAN-%28Einbau-unter-der-Tastatur%29-mit-Bildern has a link to a photo album at arcor.de/palb/thumbs_public.jsp?catID=47&albumID=3555677 with explanations of every single step. Make sure to look through the whole thread, as there are some very inspiring photos spread all over it. If you don't know any German, the Google Translate services are quite good for at least rudimentary translations.

There is also a complete article dedicated to this topic in the German Thinkpad Wiki at thinkpad-wiki.org/WLAN_nachrüsten, which has a section dedicated to the T2x generation. Google Translate hopefully does a good job here, too.

simpic wrote:

... and sorry for my english...

Your English is great! Never forget that your English most probably is much superior to most people's poor or even non-existent Italian, so better be proud of it!

simpic · **Posted:** Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:08 am

Thank you so much for your reply!
Just a question: can i use antenna cables of any other notebook (i will take them off from a broken laptop) or i have to buy specific antennas cables (i have read here about "universal antenna" selling on eBay)?

Thank you for your support

Neil · **Posted:** Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:13 am

The antenna you already have should do just fine.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Thu Nov 24, 2011 9:32 am

You forgot to mention the best installation instructions from our own Admin Ray: http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_t2x/t23_wireless/

simpic · **Posted:** Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:23 pm

This solution put antenna in the display, right?

The LCD has a damage in a corner so I would replace it with another that i can take off from another T23. If you say that it could be easy to replace it, i can choose this solution.
Please let me know.

Thank you for your great help!

simpic · **Posted:** Fri Nov 25, 2011 5:11 am

Is it easy to replace the entire LCD (including the "case" and the hinges) with an entire display of another T23?
If it's, i could put the antenna cables in the display instead of under the keyboard.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Fri Nov 25, 2011 9:59 am

Get the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) here: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... IGR-4UYM3F
Swapping out the whole LCD should take less than 1 hour.

simpic · **Posted:** Fri Nov 25, 2011 7:44 pm

I have successfully replaced the LCD and installed the wireless antennas! I put one of them inside the LCD and the other one under the keyboard, in the right bottom corner where there is the IBM ThinkPad logo.

Thank you very much for your help!

Now i have more and more questions for you about my ThinkPad:

- How to scroll pages since there isn't the touch pad!?
- Where to buy cheap 512 MB RAM modules?
- Can i sell ThinkPad T23 and T21 spare parts here?
- To be continued...

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:53 pm

To scroll, hold the middle mouse key down, then pull the trackpoint towards you.

simpic · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2011 7:37 am

simpic wrote:

I have successfully replaced the LCD and installed the wireless antennas! I put one of them inside the LCD and the other one under the keyboard, in the right bottom corner where there is the IBM ThinkPad logo.

Thank you very much for your help!

Now i have more and more questions for you about my ThinkPad:

- How to scroll pages since there isn't the touch pad!?
- Where to buy cheap 512 MB RAM modules?
- Can i sell ThinkPad T23 and T21 spare parts here?
- To be continued...

Worked, thank you!

I add another question to the ones above:
- What is the better way to clean a ThinkPad? I mean overall the plastic-rubber surfaces...

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:10 am

To answer more of your questions:
eBay sells the cheapest, ~$18.-
You may have problems finding people who deliver to Italy.
You might try http://www.ricardo.ch/kaufen/computer-u ... l/cn39232/ if you can read German.
The Swiss will probably ship to Italy.

You are welcome to try and sell parts here, but Italy has a bad reputation for shipping/receiving packages...
Also, T21 and T23 are not very popular any more, and you'll have to compete with low US prices/shipping.

simpic · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:18 am

You are quite right...
Thank you anyway for your help.

What about cleaning the ThinkPad "rubbery" surface?

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:34 am

I use 'Goo Gone' with Citrus Power everywhere, except on the LCD surface.
http://www.googone.com/

Apparently Mr.Clean's Magic Eraser works very well also
http://www.mrclean.com/en_US/magic-eraser.do

simpic · **Posted:** Sun Nov 27, 2011 6:28 pm

Thank you for your reply but i can't find these products here in Italy.
Can you tell me what kind of product could i use to clean my ThinkPad?
Just a wet cloth?

simpic · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:46 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:

To scroll, hold the middle mouse key down, then pull the trackpoint towards you.

Sorry, i was wrong. It works with documents (such as PDF) but it doesn't with web pages...
Is it possibile to scroll while surfing on internet?

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:51 am

Yes it does, provided the web-page is long enough to scroll.
Tried it in both IE and FF.

simpic · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:49 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Yes it does, provided the web-page is long enough to scroll.
Tried it in both IE and FF.

How you did it?

Now i have another problem: the audio doesn't work! Neither the "beep" when the battery is low or when i attach/detach the power supply. What could be the reason?

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:08 pm

Same way as I told you before.
Have you installed all the T23 drivers?
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-57669

simpic · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:38 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Same way as I told you before.
Have you installed all the T23 drivers?
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-57669

I haven't installed any news OS...
I make only hardware changes.

PS: I'm using Ubuntu, anyway before making changes all worked with no problems.

Neil · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:00 pm

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_co ... TrackPoint

cadillacmike68 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 28, 2011 5:10 pm

For cleaning the external sureface, i use the little wet naps moist towelettes that some restaraunts provide; it has just enough cleaner to get off some of the grub without hurting the case.

a dab of dishwasher on a face cloth will also do nicely, just don't use a soaking wet cloth, or water will get where u don't want want it to go.

I use these on the screen too if it has lots of fingerprints, then i pass a damp cotton towel and then a dry towel to get the screen clean. I have never ruined a screen this way, but i'm careful.

simpic · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:11 am

Neil wrote:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint

Thank you, it worked!

I did it in this way:

- sudo apt-get install sysfsutils
- reboot
- installed the deb from here
- sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

Just a little problem: every time i launch gpointing i get this:

Code:

** (gpointing-device-settings:1744): CRITICAL **: gpds_ui_new: assertion `module != NULL' failed

** (gpointing-device-settings:1744): CRITICAL **: gpds_ui_is_available: assertion `GPDS_IS_UI(ui)' failed

(gpointing-device-settings:1744): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

What is it?

cadillacmike68 wrote:

For cleaning the external sureface, i use the little wet naps moist towelettes that some restaraunts provide; it has just enough cleaner to get off some of the grub without hurting the case.

a dab of dishwasher on a face cloth will also do nicely, just don't use a soaking wet cloth, or water will get where u don't want want it to go.

I use these on the screen too if it has lots of fingerprints, then i pass a damp cotton towel and then a dry towel to get the screen clean. I have never ruined a screen this way, but i'm careful.

Thank you very much for your reply

What about the audio problem?

simpic wrote:

Now i have another problem: the audio doesn't work! Neither the "beep" when the battery is low or when i attach/detach the power supply. What could be the reason?

Neil · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:34 am

About the audio problem... It could be that the speakers are broken or disconnected. Have you tried ear-phones, to see if you have audio on the output jack?

Also more reading on Thinkwiki about T23 audio: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/CS4299

Majestic · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:21 am

"What about the audio problem?"

If you haven't done so already, go into the BIOS Setup and check to see that the Alarm options for Low Battery and Power Control Beep are enabled. Those sound options are listed under CONFIG -----> ALARM in the BIOS Setup. If they are disabled, no sound during those events.

simpic · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:57 pm

Neil wrote:

About the audio problem... It could be that the speakers are broken or disconnected. Have you tried ear-phones, to see if you have audio on the output jack?

Also more reading on Thinkwiki about T23 audio: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/CS4299

I think it's not a software problem...

Majestic wrote:

"What about the audio problem?"If you haven't done so already, go into the BIOS Setup and check to see that the Alarm options for Low Battery and Power Control Beep are enabled. Those sound options are listed under CONFIG -----> ALARM in the BIOS Setup. If they are disabled, no sound during those events.

They are both enabled.

I encountered this problem after i opened the laptop to change the LCD panel and add the wireless antenna cables.
What could i do to make it stop working?

Majestic · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 10:14 am

simpic wrote:

I encountered this problem after i opened the laptop to change the LCD panel and add the wireless antenna cables.
What could i do to make it stop working?

Check the screws that hold the speaker assembly in place. On the bottom of the speakers there are contacts that touch contacts on the motherboard. There are no wired connections. If you were working inside and accidently bumped the speaker assembly and if it is loose the speaker assembly may have lost good contact with the motherboard. Since you will have to open up the machine to check, I would clean the contacts while inside.

simpic · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 2:30 pm

I opened again the notebook and i see where the speaker was.
I removed it, cleaned the contacts and placed it again... but it didn't work.

What could be happen to it?

Majestic · **Posted:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:37 pm

simpic wrote:

I opened again the notebook and i see where the speaker was.
I removed it, cleaned the contacts and placed it again... but it didn't work.
What could be happen to it?

A couple of more suggestions......

First, the obivious which I probably should have mentioned earlier, is the volume turned up and not muted in Windows?

Secondly, if the volume control is Ok then try resetting the CMOS/BIOS options. This may or may not work, but it is worth a try. Remove the main battery and the CMOS battery and press the power button for several seconds. Re-install the batteries and turned the system back on. By removing the batteries the system will default most of your CMOS/BIOS options and you will have to enter the date and time. Hopefully the system will then redetect all your hardware including the sound.

simpic · **Posted:** Sun Dec 04, 2011 6:18 am

Majestic wrote:

A couple of more suggestions......

First, the obivious which I probably should have mentioned earlier, is the volume turned up and not muted in Windows?

As i said above, i have Ubuntu on it and it's not the matter because even the beep for low battery and power control don't work.

Quote:

Secondly, if the volume control is Ok then try resetting the CMOS/BIOS options. This may or may not work, but it is worth a try. Remove the main battery and the CMOS battery and press the power button for several seconds. Re-install the batteries and turned the system back on. By removing the batteries the system will default most of your CMOS/BIOS options and you will have to enter the date and time. Hopefully the system will then redetect all your hardware including the sound.

Where is the CMOS battery? The one under the main battery? How to remove it?

Restructuring T23

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