Thinkpads Forum

Hi all, I'm relatively new on these forums, but I have had a slightly unhealthy obsession about Thinkpads for a number of years now. I am currently on holiday in Norfolk (UK) and won an auction for a Thinkpad A20m on ebay for the grand price of £10 that was on route. I picked it up on Monday and have been playing around with it in the evenings in our caravan.

I was happy to find an old(ish) Thinkpad, fully working for £10, but when I got it out the bag to look at it I was amazed at the condition it is in, other than some slightly glossed keys it may as well be new.

It's one of the lower spec A20m laptops with a Pentium III 500MHz, 64MB RAM (will be upgraded when I get home), 40GB HDD, 24x CD-ROM, 12.1" TFT (800x600).

Now for the pictures, first of all the general hardware pics:









Windows 98:




Paperwork and software:

It almost looks like you just took it out of the box. Very nice.

ZaZ wrote:It almost looks like you just took it out of the box. Very nice.

I know, except for the odd freebie Thinkpad that I have acquired, this one has to be one of the cheapest as well

Nice find, very sweet you got installation disks and manuals to go with them. Almost uneeded nowdays but cool to keep.

Nice photos as well.
Gotta love that screen bezel.

Saucey wrote:Nice find, very sweet you got installation disks and manuals to go with them. Almost uneeded nowdays but cool to keep.

Nice photos as well.
Gotta love that screen bezel.

Those installation disks and manuals truly make it a good find, I haven't even got them for my X220. Speaking of which here's an example of the bezel size, on the bottom is the A20m, on the top is my X220, both sport 12.1" screens, despite the 9-cell battery poking out the back of the X220 there is still a huge difference in size.



Thank you for the comments on the photos, it's another hobby of mine, although half the gear is back at home... Long drive ahead of me tonight

Nice find! Those recovery CDs are a jewel on their own.

Makes me think of my A22m that I've had since I was in high school some 10 years ago.

theterminator93 wrote:Nice find! Those recovery CDs are a jewel on their own.

Makes me think of my A22m that I've had since I was in high school some 10 years ago.

That's a good long time to own a laptop for, if only we didn't go though a financial crisis a while back, I sold off about 20 old Thinkpads (mainly 3xx & 5xx series), within a couple of days after the last one sold the financial crisis suddenly turned around

Was the A22m new when you bought it?

I bought it as a 3 year old, corporate off-lease specimen. I used it pretty regularly in classes (well before it was "cool" to have technology always with you) and after graduating - up until getting my T61p. Now it's mostly in storage, but I bring it out occasionally to reminisce about younger days. There's a little bit more of the story behind it in my picture thread here... http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=114485

That's a nice collection you have going there, out of all the laptops that I have owned in the past, the one I'd like to replace most of all is a 3xx series (excluding a 701c, last tracking update states it has left Colorado, destination ?) although the one I had was a 340, a 50MHz 486 with a 9.5" DSTN B&W display. That one brings back so many memories of childhood

That's a very nice looking A20 you got there. I agree with the others, the discs themselves are almost priceless.

So other than tinkering, got any plans for this jewel?

Hi Temetka,

I haven't got any plans other than general tinkering and remembering what Windows 98 was like, I bought this one purely on the basis of it being really cheap rather than for a purpose.

That said though, with the condition and accessories with this laptop I might try to preserve it for the museum of the future I've got a few T20 projects lined up and need to attempt the password removal tricks on an X60

An exceptional find no matter where one went to school. Museum-grade or just about.

My first personal ThinkPad was an A20m - albeit a 14" XGA version - and these machines will always have a very special place in my heart, although the example in question has succumbed to the infamous BOD syndrome a few months after the warranty on it had expired...

Enjoy your "new" classic and best of luck with it.