WTB: Cheap (~$50) Small ThinkPad (X60/1, X40/1)

[Atreides]

Haven't been here in a long time! I thought I would just be able to pick one of these up on eBay, but it seems as though much of the resale has dried up.

Basically the situation is such: My girlfriend has this fancy photo scanner she uses all the time, however the drivers only work with Windows. She has a Mac, and I'm tired of always letting her borrow my computer.

A few requirements:
Cheap
Works
Cheap

Plus to something that is complete and has some modicum of battery life, though for the right price I wouldn't mind putting the parts together. It will only be used 30m/week to scan and transfer pictures. Preference to X6x derivatives, though I'm not opposed to working X4x series.

[kfzhu1229]

I am wondering why do you need a X series laptop? T series have so much more potential, which means better specs today, and R series can go pretty cheap.
What ver of Windows do you want btw?

[jaspen-meyer]

A few requirements:
Cheap
Works
Cheap

Sell the scanner and buy something compatible with her computer.

[dr_st]

Better yet, just buy a scanner that knows how to send email.

However, if there is something very special about this scanner, like size, or quality, or features, this may be a problem.

In which case I agree that it's important to know which version of Windows we're talking about.

And what scanner is it anyways?

[RealBlackStuff]

If you hunt around for the proper drivers, most scanners will work on most laptops/desktops.
OT: with my desktop I use an Agfa Snapscan 1236s SCSI-scanner from the year 2000, hooked up to an Adaptec AIC-7850 PCI adapter card.
It uses software (Agfa Scanwise 32-bit) from W2K, an .inf file from XP, and is running great under W7-Pro SP1 64-bit.

[wujstefan]

If you need a X-series that is working and nothing more I will have one, and it will cost $50 + shipping

[Atreides]

Fine, fine. I suppose you guys are right, I'm being lazy. I'll attempt to dive back into troubleshooting it.

It's not particularly old, but it's an expensive Canon film scanner known to have issues with OSX. Have yet to get it to work on her brand new MacBook, but it works without fail on my 13. I'll give it one more go and then come back here if I continue to fail.

[mgb]

Many scanner drivers were broken post WinXP. But check out Vue-Scan (www.hamrick.com). I use it and it works for me. You can download a trial copy to confirm it will work for you.

[kfzhu1229]

Many scanner drivers were broken post WinXP. But check out Vue-Scan (www.hamrick.com). I use it and it works for me. You can download a trial copy to confirm it will work for you.

I think the OP is using Mac OS which is terrible in terms of legacy support. Apple is one of those companies that never gives long term support for their OS and forces you to push forward.
That said, nowadays even the older X series are still pretty portable, though they are nothing compared to ultrabooks, while getting better quality and longevity than ultrabooks. T series and R series can be found for much cheaper or you get much more with it. If you need it just for the printer, I guess you can get one of the T4x laptops if you really don't wanna spend all that much money. Or if you don't plan to move it at all, get a cheap Core 2 desktop for the same price and you get even more out of it. Heck should you decide to throw in a Q9550/Q9650 and a good graphics card later down the line, you can play games on it too

[mgb]

kfzhu1229 is correct. Vue-scan won't work with Mac.

As a desktop option, my local FreeGeek sells core2duo desktops for $20, $25 with monitor. They've all been loaded with Linux, but many will have XP COAs on them. If you're not online, XP might be OK.

[kfzhu1229]

While I cannot find ones in my local area for $25, I was able to find one with Pentium Dual core (from C2D era, Dell O755) with 1GB of RAM for CAD$40 with Windows 7 preactivated. Slap in a few more GB of RAM, a C2D E8400 which I had lying around, and a SSD, you get a computer that does all casual tasks of today fine.
or you can go up a notch and slap in 8GB of RAM, Xeon X3363 / Core 2 Quad Q9650 and GTX 1050 Ti, now the computer will handle anything.