Serious throwback parts wanted - for a 755CE

[digitania]

I just acquired a good working 755CE. I say 'good' and 'working'; it turns on, anyway. Actually, it boots without error, and tries to load the OS but reboots itself, so I think the OS load is fried. The case is in nice condition, the screen looks good, the keyboard looks great... a nice machine, really. It predates the first Thinkpad I had (a 760EL) so I may hang onto it just because... until I find a 701.

Anyway, it has only 8MB of RAM (!) on the original IC-DRAM card and a 540MB hard drive -- that's all. The battery is fried, of course (that's okay, batteryrefill.com is your best friend for these old machines). It leaked a little, too, but not too bad.

So, if you happen to have a DIMM adapter with 32MB of RAM or a supported PCMCIA CD-ROM (all I have is USB, darn it!) or a good battery or anything else which might be useful -- PM me and let's talk.

Thanks.

[Wingnut]

I had an old 755ED at one time. I'm sure I have some parts hiding in a drawer somewhere. Do you know if they are compatable with each other?

[digitania]

No, I don't believe they are. I believe the ED is a somewhat newer machine... HOWEVER, if you have a PCMCIA CD-ROM drive, it *might* work for me. Send me the FRU # if you have/find it.

Someone else who might know can chime in, but I'm pretty sure that the only machines that are compatible with these are the 755CE, CSE, CV, CX, and maybe the CD and CDV (they're all machine type 9545s, anyway).

Thanks for the reply!

[phr]

You should be able to use a scsi cd-rom with an adaptec or qlogic pcmcia scsi adapter. I think I still have some of that stuff around the house and could look for it if you're still reading this thread and care about it.

[Thomcat]

An old parallel port zip drive or cd-rom is your best friend with these old machines. You can find them on craigslist, eBay or anandtech.com for a song.

Once you get one, if you have a floppy drive, create an ms-dos boot floppy with the drivers for it on the autoexec.bat, etc...then format the c: drive and copy the OS files to your c: drive and install.