Thinkpads Forum

Hello all,

I've had a thing about the Thinkpad 701c for years now as it was the first laptop I ever owned, I acquired my original one back in 1999/2000 when I was still at school and loved it, that laptop was the one that started my fascination with IBM and the Thinkpad range. Unfortunately my prized 701c died a couple of years later.

In recent years I've been on the lookout for one to add to my collection, only seeing the occasional one go by, usually at a very high price (in the UK), anyhow, I have finally gone for it and bought one from ebay in America, maybe paying a little over the odds, I don't know. From the pictures it appears in quite good condition with the exception of a small piece of plastic missing from one corner.

Anyhow, I was willing to pay what I did to add this piece of computing history and personal history to my collection.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161438893588? ... EBIDX%3AIT

Jim

Edit: I'm sure my old 701c had a 486 DX4 clocked at 100MHz, did such a thing exist or is my memory just bad. I know there was the 50MHz, 75MHz and an aftermarket 133MHz mod but I never see much about a 100MHz model.

IBM only ever manufactured two boards: #1 50 Mhz (with two onboard memory modules) and #2 75 Mhz (with four onboard memory modules).

Anything else beyond 75Mhz would have been a custom modification.

Congratulations on a good looking 701C! I was notified about this one from my eBay search, but with shipping and norwegian taxes I was looking into $400 for it, so I skipped it. And I do already have a 701C, so I should be fine for now. But this one has a slightly better looking lid cover than mine.

I remember the description said it was corrosion on the main battery and contacts inside, so make sure to remove the main battery and also the standby battery before battery acid makes havoc with something on your motherboard.

Theokretes wrote:Anything else beyond 75Mhz would have been a custom modification.

I must have had a modified 701c as I'm pretty sure it had a DX4 at 100MHz, it makes it even more of a shame that it didn't survive.

Norway Pad wrote:Congratulations on a good looking 701C! I was notified about this one from my eBay search, but with shipping and norwegian taxes I was looking into $400 for it, so I skipped it. And I do already have a 701C, so I should be fine for now. But this one has a slightly better looking lid cover than mine.

I remember the description said it was corrosion on the main battery and contacts inside, so make sure to remove the main battery and also the standby battery before battery acid makes havoc with something on your motherboard.

That's right, although it appears to be in pretty good condition there is a mention of the battery corrosion. When it arrives I will set about dismantling the base to allow full access to clean any mess out of it, one day I will try to buy a replacement battery for it, but for now I will attempt to dismantle the original battery and remove the corroded cells so the casing can be put back together to avoid a hole on the side of the laptop. Also the RTC/CMOS battery will be replaced as 2 of the error codes relate to a dead battery, I'm just hoping that the final error message relates to the expansion RAM opposed to the internal RAM.

It will be interesting when it arrives as I don't know the specs of the unit, other than the 32MB RAM as displayed in the picture (although I imagine this would actually be 36MB or 40MB with the on board RAM).

For now I am playing around on an A20m that I bought on eBay for £10 and collected on route to my holiday. I'm quite amazed at the A20m, other than a little glossing on the keys it looks almost new, it also came with the original restore CD's (Win95 & Win98 as it has a dual license), driver CD, Windows95/98 IBM manual and the original user manual. All the manuals/CD's look as though they have never been used. It's a bit of a time warp machine

x220 wrote:When it arrives I will set about dismantling the base to allow full access to clean any mess out of it, one day I will try to buy a replacement battery for it, but for now I will attempt to dismantle the original battery and remove the corroded cells so the casing can be put back together to avoid a hole on the side of the laptop. Also the RTC/CMOS battery will be replaced as 2 of the error codes relate to a dead battery..

I also took out the dead cells, but I didn't open the 701 up (yet) as it's no visible corrosion inside the laptop. I did however buy regular rechargeable AA cells, as a battery rebuild using them is described here on the forum. So make sure to not break the little circuit board inside the battery. A rebuild might be the only way to ever get battery power back, I have never seen a replacement battery for the 701. I have found batteries for swapping the CMOS and standby ones, though.

I'll see how it appears when it arrives, at present it is currently working it's way across the states (started in Nevada) and is now in Erlanger Kentucky, hopefully just a flight away from the UK now

I managed to find the guide you mentioned about replacing the corroded cells with rechargeable AA cells and have bookmarked it for future reference, that will no doubt happen one day, the only thing better than a vintage laptop is a vintage laptop that's still portable

Welcome to the 701C club.
Hopefully the battery isn't too far off, I had a 701C that's battery wouldn't open unless I decided to break out the sledgehammer.

Thank you, it's been about 14 years since I've owned one of these, although I believe that one was a 701cs with the DSTN screen.

Hi all,

I've gone a bit quiet on this one for a while. The 701c arrived last week with a crumpled corner on the well packed box. The 701c powers on and works, but has a chunky line down the right side of the LCD.

I've been in contact with the seller who is being apologetic and understanding about the situation, luckily for him it was sent using ebay's global shipping program, which means that it's down to ebay to refund the order.

So, I'm just waiting for ebay to step in and find out what is going on with it. It's a bit of a shame really as I've wanted another 701c ever since my original one died years ago.

I'll be back when everything's been dealt with to let you know the outcome. On another note, I've been naughty and bought an X24 to add to the collection, at least the X24 was cheap as chips, a few scuffs etc... on it, no hard drive and only the onboard 128mb RAM.

New update:

Ebay's Global Shipping Program have issued a full refund for the 701c, including all shipping costs and import duty charges, they have also said that I do not need to send the item back to the seller as the refund has come from eBay's GSP.

So, the final result: I have a free Thinkpad 701c with a couple of faults. Off to start a new thread now to see if they can be sorted.