ADVICE ON SELLING T30

[DrGrafix]

Hi... I haven't been around for a while, but I'm back seeking advice on finally selling my Thinkpad that I bought off a member here when it was like a year old. Its a T30 Pentium 2.4 with the now faulty memory bank, so I'm running on only 512M of RAM. This T30 has the SXGA+ 1400 X 1050 resolution, and it also has the upgraded wireless G internal wifi card as well as a upgraded 60 Gig HDD. I have the original shipper from IBM with all the serial numbers stickers still on the box, and the WXP license stickers are still on the T30 itself. I would include a smaller black IBM usb mouse, and a nice ballistic nylon notebook bag, power supply with velcro tie, and I'll include the 1GIG (2 pcs) memory as well as anything else I can bundle with it. Cosmetically its a 9/10, never been abused or bounced around. While I did the Wireless G upgrade, I never had the courage to do the memory bank fix but I'm sure it can be done. Its a solid machine with awesome graphics, and enough storage for most people.

So I'm curious as to what I should ask/expect on eBay or should I sell it here? I can provide pictures and of course would do so if it went on eBay. Thanks for the advice.

Mike

[dr_st]

It's as high end as T30s go. You can even ask for around $100 IMO, although the bad RAM slot may be a turnoff. If you had a 1GB in a single RAM stick it would be much better.

[DrGrafix]

Hmmm... I was hoping for at least $150 since its not really "broken" just I agree that the 1Gig stick would solve the problem. Is it important if it has software like Office or Photoshop or whatever?

[ajkula66]

You'd have to get the slot working in order to get $150, or anything close to it.

People who buy vintage ThinkPads expect them to be in excellent physical and working condition. Yours fails the latter request.

Otherwise it's just another parts machine in most people's eyes...regardless of all the goodies involved.

Nowadays $150 gets you (at least) a T43 which will leave every T30 in dust in any performance contest. Look a bit harder or add a few bucks and you've entered the T60 price range...

So, you have to be offering it it as a Classic.

A non-fully-functional-Classic is extremely different to sell for any amount of money.

Been there and done that many more times than I dare remember.

Good luck.

[DrGrafix]

Well... the good news is that my son dropped off the T30 this morning. Turns out he bought a 1Gig stick and its inside, plus I have the two half-Gig sticks. Bad news is he had installed his MC WXP Home on it, and removed it to transfer over to a desktop he just built, and now its looking for a CD with XP Home to update it. I don't know if I still have the XP Professional backup CD laying around. But I was glad to hear its got the max memory in it.

Going to have to dig around and see if I can find that XP Pro backup CD or figure something else out.

Mike

[Scott H.]

Going to have to dig around and see if I can find that XP Pro backup CD or figure something else out.

If you can't find the CD, I would personally wipe it and install Linux.

You're wanting to sell the machine and you can download Linux for free. With Linux, you can state that it has an operational operating system on it and take pictures showing it physically working. If the buyer wants Windows, they can easily wipe the drive and do the installation with their program disk.

Either way, do not forget to mention the memory slot issue when selling it.

Good luck with the sale,
-Scott H.

[DrGrafix]

Wouldn't I be more likely to sell the T30 with WXP on it than Linux? And of course I will mention the memory slot plus the extras I am including (IBM Thinkpad Mouse, Nice Case, extra memory, etc.)

[ajkula66]

You can pick up a T30 recovery disk set for a few bucks in the forum's Marketplace.

My opinion that the bad slot issue needs to be resolved before any serious sale can be completed still stands, though.

[DrGrafix]

I ordered a full set of T30 recovery CDs this morning so I'll get _that_ taken care of as soon as I get them, restoring the WXP with the service packs as well. I will take a look at the memory slot and the solder connection. IIRC, its usually some cracking in the solder that causes the problem. I have a pair of magnified swing down glasses, and a fine point Weller bench soldering iron with adjustable temperature. Maybe I'll give it a go and see if I can make it whole again LOL.

I read online that these T30's can actually use more than 1Gig but because there were only 500mb sticks available at release, thats why they said 1Gig max. Is that true or just an urban rumor? If its true and I can get that slot working, I'll try installing 1.5Gig using two (2) sticks (1Gig & 500mb).

Next I have to get the driver for the wireless G card that is in the unit as it is not an OEM driver. Once I get finished, this will be a nice T30 again... cosmetically its a 10, it has all the best upgrades, and the display is pretty awesome, so that should be a good selling point.

Mike

[ajkula66]

Yes, once you have both slots working, the machine will take 2GB.

[Neil]

@-DrGrafix -- You are probably much better with a soldering iron than I am, but a word of caution. Be very careful with that RAM slot fix! I tried it once and must have created a solder bridge somewhere that I could not see, because on first power it burned up an IC chip on the motherboard. Totally destroyed an otherwise functional (single slot) board. Sometimes, it's just better to leave well enough alone.

Just my $.02, YMMV and so on.

[DrGrafix]

@-DrGrafix -- You are probably much better with a soldering iron than I am, but a word of caution. Be very careful with that RAM slot fix! I tried it once and must have created a solder bridge somewhere that I could not see, because on first power it burned up an IC chip on the motherboard. Totally destroyed an otherwise functional (single slot) board. Sometimes, it's just better to leave well enough alone.

Just my $.02, YMMV and so on.

No... thats good advice and thank you. I wouldn't use a large soldering iron as I have a Weller adjustable temp soldering station with interchangeable tips. One thing I might try in the interim would be shimming it. In googling the memory issue, some people have had success with shimming the memory slot or card (not too clear LOL) with pieces of Post-Its? Is there a good visual tutorial on either the solder or shim method?

Mike

[RealBlackStuff]

http://www.omskakas.se/2007/07/thinkpad ... ilure.html

[DrGrafix]

Woo-Hoo!!! Sat down this afternoon after reading a gazillion soldering posts for T30's and broke out the magnifier headset and the Weller Soldering station. Using a large needle and very gently pushing from the side, I determined that two (2) connections were bad, looking down on the bottom, it was the two on the far right. Used another needle to apply a micron of flux just in case... and then used the 1/16" chisel point, pressed down gently and counted to three. Re-checked and it looked good.

So I swapped the 1Gig stick over, put back the battery, and booted into bios. BINGO 1024MB! Shut her down and plugged in the 500MB stick in the opposite slot and tried again... 1536MB! Put back the memory cover, tried again, no problems.



So now I'm waiting for the set of restore CDs, and I'll get it back to a functioning WXP Professional OS with SP3. Last thing to do is to get the Wireless G driver and get that working.



Anyone recognize this puppy? Model WM382200BG

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. I'm going to go have a cold beer now LOL.

Mike

[Neil]

Congrats!! Job well done! What a difference it makes to have the right tools, and steady hands (I don't have either).

[RealBlackStuff]

That's the Intel 2200BG
Drivers: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=18408

[wolfman]

Nice job OP!

[DrGrafix]

This may sound dumb, but I can't figure out exactly how to use the wifi with my Apple Airport Extreme. The T30 is asking me for a WEP network key. SHouldn't I be able to logon to the network with a simple password? Its been so long since I used a Windows XP setup with Wifi I'm in the dark LOL.

BTW, WXP Pro is installed although I have yet to install SP2/SP3. Maybe thats it? I have relative visiting me all the time who use wireless devices and they logon in 10 seconds once I give them the password. I've never had to give anyone a WEP code.

Mike

[Neil]

You probably have WPA encryption with a passphrase, and XP before SP1 did not support WPA encryption. For best results you need SP3.

[RealBlackStuff]

The problem here was that DrGrafix was skipping some of the instructions that came with the Restore CDs.

[DrGrafix]

The problem here was that DrGrafix was skipping some of the instructions that came with the Restore CDs.

OK, tell me where I went wrong... maybe I screwed up ?

Windows XP Professional is installed, that seemed to go well from the three CDs.

I inserted the SP2/SP3 CD, then clicked on the XP-SP2.zip file (there is no XP-SP2.exe) and it extracted. The SP2 Setup Wizard window has been open now for roughly 90+ minutes and there's about a 5% blue bar in the upper, and a "performing Inventory" in the lower part of the window. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

When I look at the contents, there were 2 or 3 "Update" application files. Is there one specific file I should be using? If there is, give me the file size so I'll know which one because it doesn't display with an extension like update.exe.

[RealBlackStuff]

Please check your PM.
And there are NO SPx.zip files on the extra CD, only self-extracting SPx.exe files!

In Windows Explorer, click on Tools/Folder Options, then on the View tab, and UNtick Hide extensions for known file types. Click OK.
That will show you the correct update.exe

This is my post # 10'000 (TEN THOUSAND!)

[DrGrafix]

Dom...

Replied to your PM. Right now I'm letting it run its course bc I don't know how to speed this up. Its been trying to update for about 6 hours now and I've googled this and it seems its a common problem LOL. The blue progress bar is about 40-45% across. Hopefully SP3 will go quicker!

Mike

[DrGrafix]

OK its morning and supposedly SP2 finished installing during the night or it said so on the screen. I went to reboot and its been 45 minutes of trying over and over and still won't boot, so I'm tried to boot into safe mode with networking to see if I can get a an XP screen to come up. That doesn't work, I guess I have to do the DBAN/Killdisk all over and start from scratch again. I haven't been able to get a working screen up so I can delete the SP2 files as noted in the instructions. I will try Start Windows Normally although the countdown timer says it will start in 28 seconds but a minute has passed and now the progress bar is appearing slowly across the bottom of the screen. it seems extraordinarily slow still reading 28 seconds a couple of minutes after the bar appeared but bar seems stuck at maybe 5 spaces.

Something definitely wrong here and I'm somehow missing it? It should boot faster than this.

Mike

[RealBlackStuff]

You may have a hard disk problem.
Installing the SP2 and SP3 should not take more than maybe 10-15 minutes each.

[DrGrafix]

You may have a hard disk problem.
Installing the SP2 and SP3 should not take more than maybe 10-15 minutes each.

Well... SP2 done and SP3 is in progress. Once I get it done are there any diagnostics I can run to check the HDD?

BTW, congrats on your 10,000th post. That is a heck of an accomplishment and sign of dedication to Thinkpads.com!

[DrGrafix]

I've been reading a lot on the other computer while the thinkpad takes forever to boot and have found numerous instances of the same condition, many suggest its an incorrect BIOS. If someone has a T30 that runs like a deer, can you tell me what BIOS version it is? Thanks.

Mike

[RealBlackStuff]

As long as you have the latest BIOS (2.10) and ECP (1.07) you should be fine.
There used to be a CD with PC Doctor diagnostics, but that seems to have been pulled by Lenovo, after they did not renew the license...