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T43 upgrades

T40/T41/T42/T43 Series
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gdog
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2020 11:39 am
Location: portland, oregon

T43 upgrades

#1 Post by gdog » Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:06 pm

Hi All. Found this forum by searching for "T43 updates". I have a T43p which I've had for some years, but recently also acquired a T43, albeit with a blank HDD.

I have the T43p running XP that I had been using for car tuning hobby. Mainly used it for flashing bosch M4.4 ECUs (engine controller) and logging parameters from the same while test driving. Both over USB port. Therefore I need robustness over other modern features. Found that the stock T43p HDD does not like logging in the car as shock/vibrations seem to interrupt data stream. Thinking of updating HDD to SSD may be the answer? Found links on this forum about how to do that.

The T43 has blank HDD so does not boot and I don't have XP disks. Would like to get Win10 on both if reasonably feasible.

The main reason I like these old thinkpads is the keyboard; really like the tactile feedback you get and this feature seems to be gone on modern laptops IMO. That being said, I don't want to invest a great deal of money into either if I can help it; essentially got both of these for nada.

Hoping for helpful pointers/suggestions on how to update/upgrade these guys to make them more functional for my uses. I have a software/EE engineering background, but nube when it comes to this kind of tinkering, so please don't assume I know basic things you guys may take for granted. :D

TIA!

gdog
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2020 11:39 am
Location: portland, oregon

Re: T43 upgrades

#2 Post by gdog » Sat Aug 15, 2020 2:30 pm

On the topic of getting XP loaded to blank hdd, found this site from posts on this forum: https://getintopc.com/softwares/operati ... 3-6689179/

Is this legit? My two T43s still have the windows XP product key sticker on them, so assume I can use that?

kfzhu1229
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: T43 upgrades

#3 Post by kfzhu1229 » Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:36 pm

If you want Windows 10 on both you are in luck! (If the T43 is also having an ATI graphics). The T43 series (along with its bigger brother R52 series) are the very first ThinkPads to support Windows 8 and up!
The latest version of Windows 10 both can handle that's usable is 1607. It can be hard to find an image now but I have them if you want. You will need to disable Windows Update by disabling the service as soon as you get it or else it is gonna update to a new version that this thing will BSOD on and then revert back and then cycles indefinitely!
If you want Windows 10, you most definitely want 2GB of RAM (which is the max this thing can handle). I have 4x1GB DDR2 sticks for all of your T43 and T43p if you are interested.
Ideally you also want a blank DVD-R/DVD-RW disc to burn the image onto (The USB tool will no longer work because Microsoft have blocked the downloading of their old versions with mediacreationtool), and a USB drive loaded full of drivers (Windows 10 can't pick up many of these drivers automatically, but everything have a version of driver that still unofficially works under Windows 10).
Let me know if you want my assistance in getting these things working in Windows 10. I have as many as 4 of these T43/p systems in Windows 10 at one point.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

MikalE
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Posts: 1451
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:51 pm
Location: Marissa, Illinois

Re: T43 upgrades

#4 Post by MikalE » Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:37 pm

Yes, it is legitimate. I have the burned .ISO from that site and it works as advertised and self-activates.
A31p P-IV 2Ghz, 2MB, 2653-R6U
T500 T9600 2055-BE9
T510 i5 4384-DV7
T510 i7 4349-A64
T520 i7QM 4242-4UU Highly Modified
T16 i7 1260P 21BV000SUS

gdog
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2020 11:39 am
Location: portland, oregon

Re: T43 upgrades

#5 Post by gdog » Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:03 pm

Thanks much for the replies!

Got XP installed onto the T43 which had the blank hdd via that link and usb thumb drive.

But every time I try to access something in Control Panel, I get err dialog that says, "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
Tried reinserting the thumb drive, but same err.

Can't even open cmd window get same err, even though there is E:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe file.

shabba
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2020 8:02 pm
Location: Richmond, VA
Contact:

Re: T43 upgrades

#6 Post by shabba » Fri Aug 21, 2020 11:29 pm

gdog wrote:
Tue Aug 18, 2020 3:03 pm
Thanks much for the replies!

Got XP installed onto the T43 which had the blank hdd via that link and usb thumb drive.

But every time I try to access something in Control Panel, I get err dialog that says, "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."
Tried reinserting the thumb drive, but same err.

Can't even open cmd window get same err, even though there is E:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe file.
Which version of XP have you installed? At least SP2?
-Colin
X1 Carbon G7
T40, T22, I-1400, T420

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