Thinkpads Forum

Found this computer at my local secondhandshop, dont know what it is, especially the external CDROM thingy.


The computer itself



The external device with integrated floppy and CD (or DVD) rom reader.



The connector who links the 2 devices together.



On the computer is a "Aptiva" mark. I searched on Google, but didn't find any IBM PC's looking like this one. It is a Pentium II computer, because it has a "Pentium II inside" sticker, and a "Designed for windows" sticker.

Who can tell me what this is?

The tower is an Aptiva 2140 or 2142
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... ANS-3YBSKQ

Post better quality pics of the CD thing and especially the stickers on the rear. I couldn't identify it based on the single pic.

Joe

Although I can't see your pictures at the moment (work filters), I strongly suspect that it's the seperate media bays that you are confused about. Essentially, they put the optical and floppy drives in a seperate bay that is attached the tower via an umbillical that has a connector that looks like one of the big SCSI Centronics ones. IBM tried this starting with the Black Aptivas of the S or Stealth Series back in the Pentium days. I had an S9c with a Pentium 233MMX in it. It was kinda of neat idea especially if you got the matching MM50 or MM70 monitors that had a stand that wrapped around the drive bays plus giving you a sort of shelf to put your KB on top of. The earlier towers were a kinda of low-slung "Mini-ATX" sized case with very few drive bays. The last models were built off of an adapted "ATX" sized case giving you more options in terms of expansion.

I believe the machine you have is a late Aptiva that's kinda of crossover to the later IntelliStation professional workstation line (or at least that's how I would describe it). If I was a betting man, I say it probably has a PII of some sort in it on an ATX MB with a strange SCSI looking adapter card on the MB that has the connector on the back for the Media bays. I'm not certain if the whole shebang is upgradeable with a newer ATX MB, but it'd be a fun project to play around with.

The system you have there is an IBM Aptiva S Series system from 1999. I supported those a looong time ago.

It also came with a monitor with built in stand. The external device was a seperate drive cage that fit underneath the monitor.

It came as a S 880 or 882 models. Google has a lot of announcement letter information and memory upgrade links.

You *might* be able to find parts for it out in the grey market. IBM has parts for all of their systems going all the way back but the older the system the higher the price they typically charge due to limited availability of parts.

First time look into this particular forum.
I know this is an old thread but if you want info on Aptivas, this is by far the most comprehensive one:
http://wymette.home.att.net/aptiva.htm