GONE: Thinkpad A21m (failed motherboard, good cosmetic condition)

[dr_st]

Edit: system is no longer available.

I got this A21m from a friend and thought to use it as a small test machine for DOS and early Windows games. Alas, it lived less than 2 years in my possession, before succumbing to the famous "Blink-of-Death" syndrome, which plagues these systems due to the prone-to-failure ADP3421 chip.

You can read more about this system's history, and see some pictures of the condition in the thread below:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=127074

My attempts to revive the laptop have been unsuccessful. I had a friend, who is a soldering expert to try the following workaround, but it had absolutely no effect. The next logical step would be to try to replace the ADP3421 chip, but at that point I already decided I don't really care, and gave up. In hindsight, I should have just ordered a couple before attempting a repair, as the location of the chip is so unfortunate that you really have to take the whole thing apart to access it.

Anyways, the A21m has been tucked in a drawer for the past several months after the unsuccessful repair. While I have no idea whether it can be salvaged, I am almost certain I will never get around to it myself. I took out the hard drive to use in another old system, and I am offering the rest of the machine, as is.

Specs are as follows:

ThinkPad A21m 2628-GXU
CPU: Pentium III 800 MHz
RAM: 128MB
HDD: None (Caddy + Cover are included)
LCD: 14" 1024x768
Optical Drive: 8x-2x DVD/CD-ROM
LAN/Modem: 3Com Combo card
Battery: 3rd party battery which I bought ~2 years ago. It had good capacity when I last used the laptop, but obviously I cannot say anything about its current condition.
Cosmetic condition: Generally very good with almost no wear (see the pictures in the aforementioned thread). However, I think I broke something in the Ultrabay latch mechanism, as the spring does not work (but the drive does not fall out).

I would be happy if someone with a working motherboard in a trashed chassis, or with a stock of ADP3421 chips and the skills of replacing them, would find this computer useful. The caveat? Shipping might be more expensive than the thing is worth. Based on the size and weight, looks like the cheapest international shipping out of Israel would be ~$30 to the closest European countries, but to some destinations it may be twice that and more.

[wujstefan]

Hello!

Well I'm a happy owner of a working-but-terrible-condition A21m. Long story short, I'd happily get this one the question is: what would be the shipping cost to Poland?

[dr_st]

Poland is one of the cheaper destinations. I weighed the package at slightly under 3.5kg, which comes up as $30. May be as much as $32 if it ends up being a bit over, but that's about it.

I hope they offer some kind of tracking for this service, but it wasn't clear on the website. I can inquire at the post office tomorrow to be sure.

[dr_st]

System has been dispatched and is no longer available.