My ThinkPads

[theterminator93]

Over the years I've managed to acquire a handful of ThinkPads. Today I decided it would be fun to have them all out together and reminisce a little about the "history" I have with each.

The 365XD I acquired from eBay last year. It's mostly a nostalgic piece for me, vaguely reminding me of the first laptop/ThinkPad I ever had (a 755C for a brief few weeks). I don't really use it for anything but I do have a few old games on it.


This A22m is the laptop I bought off-lease nearly 10 years ago when I was in high school - way before it was "cool" to have a modern tech device always on your person. The original screen failed about a year after I acquired it and the replacement I bought from eBay was misadvertised (it was a 15" despite saying 14.1" - I installed it anyway since it fit physically). Last year I found a cheap A22m on eBay and swapped screens. It gets used occasionally to play old games over LAN at home with friends.


Attached to a docking station, this is the 'spare' A22m I got for cheap from eBay (due to a lost supervisor password). I pulled the supervisor password off the security chip and unlocked it, and was pleased to learn it was fully functional. As it sits now there is no HDD and it has the old "replacement" 15" screen from my high school A22m. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one for now (save for parts or install a hard drive/OS).


This is the recently acquired X24 docked in an ultrabase. I'm infatuated with its amazing portability and size - especially considering its age. I've got some goodies on the way which will help make it easier to handle today's tasks. For now I'm using it for old games and as an 'around the house' laptop.


This T41 I rescued from a storage closet at the site of one of my employer's clients. Fortunately they were all too happy to donate it to me, and since I've upgraded the screen, wireless, processor and memory with the intent to use it as a work PC. Unfortunately after the upgrade to Windows 7 it crashes randomly with the battery installed. For now this project is on the back burner.


This T60 and docking station I was given by another of my employer's clients when she asked me about disposing old personal equipment. I've been using it as my work PC since I acquired it about 2 years ago.


And this T61p is the only ThinkPad I ever bought new from the factory. It's my workhorse laptop at home for anything I do when I'm not using my desktop.


And here are a few assorted shots of them all lined up. Long live the ThinkPad!

[Temetka]

That's a nice collection you have there.

If you are into writing, the X24 would make a great lightweight (in terms of actual weight, not software) portable writing platform that should be relatively distraction free (aka internet). At least that is what I would do with it. Slap Linux on there and get to writing.

The rest of the machines look nice as well. But the X24 is my favorite out of the group you presented.

[ilakast]

Neat collection you've got there, very good photos and most of all great stories behind them. Most of all I like to read stories like yours around TPs.

I have the same dock like you have for your A22m for my A30p and I believe it offers the best size/outputs/connections ratio. Have you plugged anything into its PCI slot at any point? Just out of curiosity..

[theterminator93]

Thaaank-you both. It seems to have grown slightly in recent months...

I have used the PCI slot before. A number of years ago I put a sound card in it to get better recording quality. Most recently I used a TV tuner card.

[theterminator93]

Decided it was a good day to get a photo of all the new acquisitions alongside the old keepers. Although the unit in my possession the longest, my A22m, decided it did not want to power on today. I'll deal with it later. Now for the group...



In back we have...
701C (Windows 95), 365XD (Windows 98 SE), 600X (Windows 2000), TransNote (Windows 2000)

Middle row...
A22m (Windows XP), A22m (Windows 98 SE), X24 (Windows XP), T42p (Windows XP)

And up front...
T60 (Windows 7), T61p (Windows 7), T61p (Windows 7), and T420 (Windows 7)

As for the stories behind the recent acquisitions...
The 701c I bought a few months ago from a forum member. It's been one I've wanted to add to my collection once I realized I had a collection. I installled Windows 95 on it shortly after I made an image of the Windows 3.11 factory install so I can actually "use" it on occasion. I've since rebuilt the battery and filled in the missing cosmetic pieces.

The 600X I most recently acquired off eBay. Another unit I decided to get for the collection due to its significance in being the transitional machine between the bento-style 7xx series and modern "thin" Txx series. I installed a new HDD then Windows 2000; additional use of this machine has yet to be determined.

The TransNote I got in an unexpected opportunity offshoot to my desire to acquire parts to complete the 701c. It came to me with no sub battery for the ThinkScribe, a non-posting CRC1 error motherboard, and an original 10 GB HDD which was (literally) on its last legs. I was luckily able to make an image of the original hard disk by freezing it immediately prior to the image creation attempt; after this it stopped working. I was able to repair the CRC1 error (see details in the 701c and TransNote restore thread I have here) and after writing the hard disk image to a spare disk I had, I was able to get it working. Most recently I built for it a sub battery to restore the ability to use the ThinkScribe while the unit is powered off.

The T42p I acquired in an eBay transaction from ajkula66 hosted by RealBlackStuff. I had been looking out for a FlexView equipped unit en passe for a time, and coincidentally upon searching, this one appeared up as a steal. I've since put a SSD into it and upgraded it, finally deciding to keep the factory Windows XP as its OS in lieu of 7.

The T61p on the left is one I reassembled from spare parts I had accumulated while looking into repairs for my other T61p. I acquired a complete (albeit with a cracked LCD and dead motherboard) unit for parts on the cheap, then decided to put my original T61p's motherboard (which I had replaced with an eBay unit when it started crashing under intense GPU loadi) into this chassis as a backup for my wife should her Dell Studio go belly-up. Works fine under "normal" use.

Lastly we have the T420. I bought this out of a desire to have the newest ThinkPad offering with all the classic design features as an alternative to my main T61p requiring the extra CPU power. I've since upgraded it with an mSATA SSD, Blu-ray recorder and i7 CPU.

[Norway Pad]

Nice additions to your collection there. From your project threads, you seem to be very handy with various refurbishing projects and getting the oldies going. So they are definitely in the hands of the right person here.

And I recognize the collection "motives" you describe for the different models. Pure legacy (3xx), last of a kind (770), first of a kind (600), odd balls (701C and Transnote), last and best of the good old ones (Flexview'ed T4x and T6x) and finally the last one with any classic resemblance (T420) are pretty mush the same factors as I used to shape my collection.

[theterminator93]

Thank you for the kind words, Bjorn. I know (and the wife certainly knows all too well too) that I've already got too many of these things, but I can't help but notice a small desire in the back of my mind for a "couple more". Things like a T/A3* to bridge the gap between my many *2 series P-III models and the T42p. Some flavor of 700 series, probably a P-II (since I've already got an example 486 and Pentium based TP). I'd also love to have a nice IPS T60p at some point as well. The right deals will find me eventually, I fear.

[MrMaguire]

Nice collection! I wouldn't mind a free T60. Some of you guys are so lucky.

I'm fascinated by that 14.1" A22m with the 15" lid on it. I'm guessing the latch doesn't work at all.

[theterminator93]

Believe it or not, everything lines up - except the edges of the lid. I was baffled by it myself when I put it together nearly 10 years ago. Although the original screen backlight has gone horribly yellow and the latches themselves have vanished.

[Norway Pad]

I know (and the wife certainly knows all too well too) that I've already got too many of these things

Same thing here, indeed. Add some Dells and a couple of other old oddballs to my collection, and I am currently at around 30 of them. Luckily we have a big house, and my wife works in IT. (She's even a member on this forum) So she is probably more accepting of my hobby than many other wifes would be..

Some flavor of 700 series, probably a P-II (since I've already got an example 486 and Pentium based TP). I'd also love to have a nice IPS T60p at some point as well. The right deals will find me eventually, I fear.

They will find you the same way as they will find me, I suspect. Have you considered a 770? As the ultimate revision of the Bento-box, it's monumental. I'm probably a bit biased there, as I still remember the excitement when I got to use my boss' 770 back in 1999. Coming from a 360, it had an enormous screen, crazy resolution, crazy resources, could play DVDs, and it almost seemed like the world would never need any better laptops. Unfortunately it aged way too fast back in those days when CPU speed doubled almost every year.

[thinkquan]

Wonderful collection of ThinkPads!

It is interesting to see that larger screen fit.