Just an idea: Older Thinkpad as E-book reader?

Message

usernotabuser · #1 Post by **usernotabuser** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:22 pm

Topic says it all, I've always been in the market for an e-book reader of some sort. Lighter would be better but I understand these older laptops are probably not featherweights.

Anyway, I'd be glad to hear some input on this from you pros.

OldManClayton · #2 Post by **OldManClayton** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:44 pm

A 560 would be superb for this function. They were ultraportables back in the day that are still small by today's standards. I have three, one of whom has a broken screen. Once I get a replacement I'm going to try to arrange it in a tablet fashion, backwards and on top of the keyboard. Perhaps adding a touch screen, if I can find a power adaptor. It would be great for ebooks.

Anywho, the ones I think would be best for this are: TP 560 (560x, 560e, etc), 240, and one that was only released in Asia. >_>

virge · #3 Post by **virge** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:41 pm

Its not a Thinkpad, but the HP/Compaq TC1100/TC1000 would work well as an ebook reader. Its a a slate-tablet hybrid, meaning that the keyboard can be fully detached from the screen. I bought one to try out as a notepad and ebook reader. The Pentium M versions have IPS screens, so its easy on the eyes. Also, because it's a slate-tablet hybrid the screen can be positions in portrait mode which makes for less scrolling when reading something.

tselling · #4 Post by **tselling** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:42 pm

I would think that battery life and size and weight would be cons for a thinkpad for an ebook reader.

I personally use a cybook gen 3 for an ebook reader.

OldManClayton · #5 Post by **OldManClayton** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:48 pm

But Thinkpads are renowned for their portability... Or at least some models.

Also, if you want a newer one, the x41, x60, or x61 tablet thinkpads would work. I'm wanting one myself...

usernotabuser · #6 Post by **usernotabuser** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 3:52 pm

Oldmanclayton: What are the disk sizes associated with those guys? I saw one link that mentioned ~1 GB... that's going to be pushing it but still looks interesting.

virge: I didn't state this, but I'm interested in older options due to the fact that they would be very, very affordable.

tselling: Wow... a decently priced model that supports PDF, txt, etc. The reason I am (was) against a dedicated ebook reader was the fact that I thought most of them were all about proprietary formats (their way or the highway mindset). That little guy looks neat. How has your experience been, I'd be glad to hear more.

Thanks all, glad to hear the input.

OldManClayton · #7 Post by **OldManClayton** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:47 pm

I would speculate that the drive was originally ~1GB, but I wouldn't know, because I bought one on eBay for $20 without an HDD and slapped a 3Gig in there. I believe the BIOS limits HDD sizes to 8GB, but it could just be that my 12GB drive is faulty.

Website · #8 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 6:41 pm

OldManClayton wrote:I would speculate that the drive was originally ~1GB, but I wouldn't know, because I bought one on eBay for $20 without an HDD and slapped a 3Gig in there. I believe the BIOS limits HDD sizes to 8GB, but it could just be that my 12GB drive is faulty.

Don't forget that you can partition the hard drive, so that the OS is stored in the sub 8gb partition, and store the eBooks in the larger partition...

What is the typical size of these eBooks, and what kind of software is needed?

OldManClayton · #9 Post by **OldManClayton** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 6:51 pm

tfflivemb2 wrote:
OldManClayton wrote:I would speculate that the drive was originally ~1GB, but I wouldn't know, because I bought one on eBay for $20 without an HDD and slapped a 3Gig in there. I believe the BIOS limits HDD sizes to 8GB, but it could just be that my 12GB drive is faulty.
Don't forget that you can partition the hard drive, so that the OS is stored in the sub 8gb partition, and store the eBooks in the larger partition...

What is the typical size of these eBooks, and what kind of software is needed?

Nope. Sadly, the two 10 gigs and one 12 gig I tried didn't work, even with different partition setups. I even looked into jumper configs and DDO software.

Paul Pennington · #10 Post by **Paul Pennington** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 7:18 pm

I can confirm this: these old machines with the 8 GB BIOS limit will not accept any larger drive. The only thing you can do, if the hard disk is an IBM/Hitachi is use the "Feature Tool" program to make the larger drive think it is an 8 MB drive. I've done this with several drives up to 20 MB. The program can be downloaded from the IBM or Hitachi sites. Ask again if Google fails you.

OldManClayton · #11 Post by **OldManClayton** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:44 pm

I would VERY MUCH like this program. A while ago I searched and searched and dealt with people on computing.net who claimed I was an idiot and that there was no software that made HDD's look smaller to the BIOS. So it does exist!

EDIT: Is this the one? http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm If it is, I'll have to give it a try tomorrow. Two of my 560's have failing hard drives...
Knowing that it was called "feature tool" helped.

Paul Pennington · #12 Post by **Paul Pennington** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:51 am

That's the one.

OldManClayton · #13 Post by **OldManClayton** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:20 pm

Ok, here's a nasty little booger. I plopped the program onto a floppy, but the 560 hangs because of the HDD, so I can't get into the program to change it. O_o

Sorry for thread-jacking.

Paul Pennington · #14 Post by **Paul Pennington** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:31 am

Go into the BIOS setup and set the boot order to boot from the floppy drive before the hard drive.

OldManClayton · #15 Post by **OldManClayton** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:27 pm

I always do set it to boot floppy first... I'll have to double check.

Paul Pennington · #16 Post by **Paul Pennington** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:43 pm

OldManClayton wrote:I plopped the program onto a floppy, but the 560 hangs because of the HDD, so I can't get into the program to change it.

What do you mean by "plopped the program onto a floppy"? If you just copied the downloaded file to a floppy disk it won't work. You have to RUN the downloaded file to create the bootable floppy. Sorry if you already know this, just checking after re-reading your post.

OldManClayton · #17 Post by **OldManClayton** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:52 pm

Oh, yea, sorry for my unconventional language. ^_^ I ran the program that writes the image. Although, now that I think about it, most of my floppies have died... it could have been faulty. >_O I'll check the BIOS settings right now.

Yup. I removed everything but the FDD from boot order, and it still hangs.

I may have to put this HDD in m 600e for a moment just to use the program...

OldManClayton · #18 Post by **OldManClayton** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:47 am

Well, poogalumps. I stuck the 12Gig in my 600e and used the tool to lower it to 6GB, but the 560 still won't do anything. The only difference is that the little blinking cursor thing moves down a line and the computer beeps once. Error code?

virge · #19 Post by **virge** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:46 am

To stay on topic.... before I got the TC1100 I tried using some of my older laptops as e-book readers. The problem I had was that some of programs required WinXP or Win2k. The older, Pentium II computers do not run that OS very well. Perhaps there are some linux based reader programs, but I'm not familiar with that that.

Also, now that I have the TC1100 I realize I don't like reading off the tablet nearly as well as I do a real book. A book you can put down and come back to hours later, no problem. You can toss it across the room and read it while eating. A computer is more high-maintenance and that gets old quick.

usernotabuser · #20 Post by **usernotabuser** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:45 pm

virge wrote:To stay on topic.... before I got the TC1100 I tried using some of my older laptops as e-book readers. The problem I had was that some of programs required WinXP or Win2k. The older, Pentium II computers do not run that OS very well. Perhaps there are some linux based reader programs, but I'm not familiar with that that.

Also, now that I have the TC1100 I realize I don't like reading off the tablet nearly as well as I do a real book. A book you can put down and come back to hours later, no problem. You can toss it across the room and read it while eating. A computer is more high-maintenance and that gets old quick.

Two issues that are vital to the situation. I'm hoping the new e-ink ebook readers will address the second point. We'll see I suppose.

Just an idea: Older Thinkpad as E-book reader?

Just an idea: Older Thinkpad as E-book reader?

Who is online