FS: 701C on eBay

[hwattys]

Just finished setting up and listed:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Iconic-IBM-Thin ... 1324556558?

Forum members (for at least 6 months before now) can have a 10% discount off the final bid and half price shipping so your bids go further than everyone else's.

[RMSMajestic]

Dude did you learn that "10% discount for thinkpad forum members" from me?
Also just wondering: would you be willing to sell it at a fixed price here

[hwattys]

I guess it is great minds think alike. I may have subliminally picked it up from here, but I really thought I came up with it myself. Can I borrow the idea if you thought of it first? The last couple 701Cs on eBay have gone pretty high so I am just not sure what to ask. It takes some courage to start an auction at .99 but I did it. I think I will let the market set the price. Sometimes you just have to say what the heck.

[RMSMajestic]

I guess it is great minds think alike. I may have subliminally picked it up from here, but I really thought I came up with it myself. Can I borrow the idea if you thought of it first? The last couple 701Cs on eBay have gone pretty high so I am just not sure what to ask. It takes some courage to start an auction at .99 but I did it. I think I will let the market set the price. Sometimes you just have to say what the heck.

lol I was only joking about the 10% off for thinkpad forum member idea... I used that just for trying to encourage people to register and join discussions... And maybe I wasn't even the first person
But bear in mind that feebay will rip you off by 10% final value fee, paypal will also rip off with some transaction fee.
I'll try to remember 8 days later to place my final bid

[Norway Pad]

It seems like it's getting on pretty well, $76 at the moment. Before I found my last and final 701C unit, I participated in some eBay bidding rounds, and the prices always reached that level where I wasn't comfortable buying from an unknown seller overseas. So this seems like a good opportunity for someone here to get a 701 where the seller is known and can be trusted.

I also got the impression that 701 prices are higher than they were only a year ago. So not sure if we might have reached the point where most of the good units are in the hands of collectors who hang on to them, and the few remaining good ones are getting expensive.

[fultontech]

Have you seen all the 701 parts for sale on ebay?

[hwattys]

Yeah apparently some veteran IBM repair guy in CA passed away and his estate is selling all the parts. I have several of the auctions on my watchlist.

[Norway Pad]

I just did a search, but I only found hwatty's 701C, plus the random docking bar and system board. Can you guys post a link to one of these auctions?

[hwattys]

They are not necessarily using 701C in the titles so hard to find. I just purchased 5 plastic battery caps from them which was item number 251909647129

The seller is called stone-californian

Link to all their auctions:

http://www.ebay.com/usr/stone-californi ... 7675.l2559

[Norway Pad]

Ok, this is strange. I find the one auction from the number you gave, but clicking "Items for sale" from Stone-Californian returns 0 items. They don't ship to Norway, but I shouldn't think that prevents any results from showing up.

It's no big deal, as my 701s are complete except from PCMCIA covers missing on both of them and the rubber FDD connector cover missing on one of them. So these would be the only parts of real interest to me. But it would be interesting to see the auctions, though, if they are still active. My mother in law lives in the US, so I can theoretically have small parts shipped to her.

[hwattys]

They are all still up as of Wednesday morning. No pcmcia covers. Several motherboards and chassis parts, however. Also some stuff for 760s and 765s and non-Thinkpads like Toshibas, etc.

[Norway Pad]

Ok, they suddenly popped up. Strange.. Anyway, no PCMCIA covers, but found floppy, memory and standby battery covers. Nice small parts to keep, seems like some shopping to be done here.

[fultontech]

I've got a 701Cs coming in next week. I know all the parts I will need will be gone by the time I receive it.

[bentobox001]

Hello, I just acquired a 701CS from ebay and it needs a battery pack. Would any forum member have a "run out" LiMH battery they would like to sell me? I routinely replace the cells in the packs for my 600E, 600X and 770 series machines. Thank you.

[Norway Pad]

Congrats on your purchase of an interesting old Thinkpad.

Can't help you with a battery, but I know that users here would have been thankful for a write up on the process of recelling the 600 and 770 batteries. It has been brought up in various threads here, but I'm not sure if we have ever gotten any feedback from anyone with details around a successful recelling of these batteries. The recelling of the 701 battery has been covered, though.

[bentobox001]

Thank you, Norwegian Pad. I noted with interest your dual addresses; one in Idaho and the other in Norge. You must be an avid and dedicated collector/user of thinkpads considering the lower availability of the machines in your geographical location. I have obtained Panasonic LiMH cells off ebay and replaced the existing cells in packs for both my 600 series and 770 series laptops. Given the close tolerance between the cells and the inner wall of the pack, I use a thin strip of copper sheet to replace the existing rather complex and spot welded connections. There is simply no room for suitable gage wire. On occasion, the electronics of the "smart" battery fail, so I keep a store of "dead" packs to hand just in case. As an alternative, the cells can be replaced without the "smart" component and charged in an external charger that IBM offered as an option. I was lucky to have purchased one on ebay. The soon-to-arrive 701cs will, I suspect, be a challenge from both the hardware and software aspects, but squeezing utility from what some would regard as junk has always had its' appeal for me. Thank you for your reply and be well. Bentobox

[Norway Pad]

My wife is from the US, so we used to live in the US, which is also where I bought most of my Thinkpads. We relocated to Norway 3 years ago, but we have until now regularly visited the US, hence the two locations. And I guess I am a dedicated collector. It started with a 360Cs at work 16 years ago, then it has over the years turned into a hobby. Your statement about squeezing utility from "junk" has some appeal to me as well, and I like to call it retrocomputing.

Thanks for the input on the copper sheet and the use of an external charger. I have been planning to rebuild my 701C battery, but that uses regular AA batteries, and has room for proper wire, so an easier task than the 600 and 770 ones. Good luck with your 701CS!

[bentobox001]

Thank you, Bjorn. I'm Will by the way. I just received the 701cs in the post today and it would appear that I have a Sisyphean task ahead of me. The unit powers intermittently (the bane of all techs) on ac and displays an early version of Windows (3.01?). The screen intensity is slight and the displayed image faint and difficult to read except at an acute angle. It did however, pass the diagnostic tests for each of its' components. The keyboard had a stuck space bar which I fixed with a tool made from the finest paperclip to hand. Overall, it is intact without any apparent exterior damage. Once I line up a set of small torx wrenches, I'll begin the disassembly, inspection and cleaning phase of the restoration. Fortunately, I just purchased a stock of 701 parts off ebay which should aid and abet the process. I have of course, been playing with the keyboard which really is a minor league marvel. If I am blessed, I will not find any extensive corrosion in the interior and I will, after setting the innards to rights, reapply a new coat of the classic rubberized finish to the exterior. I expect I'll probably set it up with either Win95 (I have a copy in the wrapper) or [censored] Small Linux. I expect it will be something of a curio, but since it's in the stable, it will have to perform from time-to-time. The battery pack uses AA rechargable batteries?! Interesting, I'm still hoping to obtain an old pack and recell it. We shall see. Thank you for your comments. Will

[Norway Pad]

Thanks for you interesting post, Will. I almost feel that your project deserves it's own thread, as this will be interesting for the rest of us to see. I never had to do any extensive work on any of my 701C units, but I still plan to open up the non-mint one and solder in a new CMOS battery. If it works I might also do that with the collector unit, even though I prefer to not mess with that one too much.

I will, after setting the innards to rights, reapply a new coat of the classic rubberized finish to the exterior.

Out of curiosity, which aftermarket paint or coating is used to achieve the rubberized finish?

I expect I'll probably set it up with either Win95 (I have a copy in the wrapper) or Dam* Small Linux.

I know one forum user succeeded in installing Slackware on his 701C. But feel free to share your experiences, always interesting to know what might work and not. The small amount of RAM is probably the main limiting factor here. I have bought a spare HDD and downloaded the Slackware ISO, but never gotten around to actually install it.

The battery pack uses AA rechargable batteries?! Interesting, I'm still hoping to obtain an old pack and recell it.

Have a quick look at this page: http://www.conradshome.com/thinkpad/701/battery/ Pretty informative. This page gave me the kick to purchase NiMH batteries and gut one of my dead 701C batteries. But there it came to a halt. As you might have guessed at this point, I unfortunately have too many Thinkpad-projects and ideas and too little time to actually go through with all of them.

[fultontech]

Fortunately, I just purchased a stock of 701 parts off ebay which should aid and abet the process.

I knew I was going to miss out on parts.

I ended up with a 701Cs factory referb unit (according to the serial number) I may have a later battery (it still takes a charge), but will have to wait for the weekend to check it out.