Buying a used T21

[Tabby]

Hello, at the moment i dont have a computer, went kaput.

Joined here useing a friends laptop while i am house sitting, was given permission to use. Tomorrow i am going to pick up a T20, it has windows 98 as an operating system.
I have been trying to find out what i should test out to see if it is all working properly before i part with any money, i found the link for this site in favs.

Are there any quick checks that i can do so that i dont buy a useless machine.
Thankyou.

[dsvochak]

If the machine you're considering still has the IBM Preloaded software, you can run PC Doctor to test the hardware components. If not, you can download a floppy version of PC Doctor here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F

In order to run the floppy version on a T20-T21 you will need a Ultrabay floppy drive as those machines won't boot from a USB floppy drive

[Tabby]

3.5" 1.44 MB floppy, so not able to test it with PC Doctor. If the preload has gone is there anything else i can do to test it out.

I know Jan has been messing around with an older laptop here and she was bringing up a system test by holding down F1 while booting. Is there anything like that on the T20. I have tried to find out exactly what model it is but the person selling it seems to know less about laptops then i do. Apparently no tag on the underside like this one has.

[tfflivemb2]

If it has a floppy drive at all, you can still use PC Doctor. PC Doctor replaced the BIOS test system that was prevelant with the older systems like the 600 Series. For the T series, the T20 was the first to start using PC Doctor instead of the BIOS test utility.

[rkawakami]

In order to run the floppy version on a T20-T21 you will need a Ultrabay floppy drive as those machines won't boot from a USB floppy drive

I use an external floppy drive for the 600 series, plugged into the appropriate jack on the back of my T series port replicator. Works great