Thinkpads Forum

Good evening!

Its my first post here (long time lurker who just joined) so please be gentle.

I’m looking to acquire an I-Series Thinkpad like the 1410 or 1450 that I once owned. It totally died in the early 2000s - the whole battery issue, dead screen, CD/DVD issues, etc. However, I still miss it, and even after all of these years its still the best laptop I’ve owned in terms of simple functionality, with the most comfortable and effective laptop keyboard ever, plus some actually pretty doggone good speakers for an early laptop. There are a few on a certain auction site from time to time and on the secondary market that I’ve been looking at recently although the I-Series seems to be somewhat rare compared to other models, it seems to me. I still have the original hard drive, and I’d love to just swap it in, turn the box on, have all of my old data come up and be able to say, “Hello, old friend.”

So, what is available for upgrading an old I-Series Thinkpad after I acquire one?
- Can it go wireless with a PCMCIA card or a wireless USB dongle? I’m assuming the OS would be Win 98 or 2000. I’m not looking for any super web searching or video/Youtube playing, just the odd email and such when I’m traveling. Its mainly for typing and maybe playing the odd DOS game.
- Can the CPU and memory be easily upgraded or expanded, or did it ship pretty much maxed out?
- Can an extra USB port be installed? Maybe replace the PS/2 port?
- Can a larger hard drive be installed? I’ve seen some folks on the forums here have installed solid state drives to their Thinkpads. Can that be done with an I-Series? It would certainly solve a lot of long term storage problems.
- Anything I’ve missed?

Many thanks for any pointers and for indulging me. Its great to see so many others still appreciating the ‘ol Thinkpad. With respect to Lenovo, I truly wish that Big Blue had remained in the PC market. I miss my Thinkpad and my IBM Aptiva.

Thank you again,

Bob

Going in the general direction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141851735001

Thanks. I've been able to tentatively source a 1410. Based upon the hard drive from the original model, I probably had a 1450, but the 1410 is close enough, just a slightly smaller screen and hard drive. Is there a larger hard drive that I could eventually swap into the 1410? How large of a hard drive could I put in there? The IBM documentation that I've been able to find says that the hard drive isn't upgradeable, but the 1410 and 1450 used slightly differently sized drives with the same motherboard, etc., so there must be some wiggle room in there.

Thank you again,

Bob

aptivaboy wrote: Is there a larger hard drive that I could eventually swap into the 1410? How large of a hard drive could I put in there?

Any PATA/IDE 2.5" laptop hard drive will work. The largest one is 320GB.

Depending on the intended use and OS, you may want to go lower than that in order not to spend more on the drive than you have on the laptop itself.

Happy shopping.

Many thanks, I will keep that in mind. The plan is to eventually upgrade the HDD and the memory, if possible, install Win 98 or 2000, and use it as a typing and word processing machine for when I'm traveling. I still have the original Lotus Smartsuite CDs, plus older WordPerfect and Office 2003 if my sister will ever return the CD set, and all of that should do just fine.

I'm guessing a USB wireless dongle might work if a PCMCIA solution isn't sourceable under Win 2000? I doubt it could run XP properly.


Bob

I'd go with PCMCIA. USB is painfully slow on these machines and likely to cause freezing when wireless dongle is connected.

ajkula66 wrote:I'd go with PCMCIA. USB is painfully slow on these machines and likely to cause freezing when wireless dongle is connected.

True. Computers (laptops and desktops) before the middle Pentium 4 generation only have USB 1.0, which has a bandwidth of 12 megabits/sec (compared to USB 2.0's 480 megabits/sec).

You can gain wireless with a Cardbus USB 2.0 card + USB wifi adapter, or a Cardbus-based wifi card.

Any PATA/IDE 2.5" laptop hard drive will work. The largest one is 320GB.

One last question, and I think you all for your indulgence. Would an SSD work? I found a solid state drive in 120 GB which should be more than large enough, or does the age of the BIOS, etc., make a rotating drive the only option?

Bob

aptivaboy wrote: Would an SSD work? I found a solid state drive in 120 GB which should be more than large enough, or does the age of the BIOS, etc., make a rotating drive the only option?

You'd need a PATA SSD, and these are overpriced junk, generally speaking.

While an mSATA SSD + adapter would physically work, you'd be limited to some rather ridiculous speeds...so a good fast PATA HDD is your most viable option.

axur-delmeria wrote: True. Computers (laptops and desktops) before the middle Pentium 4 generation only have USB 1.0, which has a bandwidth of 12 megabits/sec (compared to USB 2.0's 480 megabits/sec).

You can gain wireless with a Cardbus USB 2.0 card + USB wifi adapter, or a Cardbus-based wifi card.

Very few computers have USB 1.0 specifically, most are USB 1.1:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Version_history

(although that said, they are almost identical). I have an old desktop with original USB 1.0 ports from '97, works well for what it is (as an alternative to diskettes)-- but transferring anything over 2 GB, and you may want to bring a sandwich to eat while you wait

I'll just add that I upgraded my i Series 1400/1500 ThinkPad to Windows 2000, and I think it's quite a bit slower, though your life will be much easier getting modern compatible software like an up-to-date Web browser!
So yeah, it depends on what you want to do with it for sure.

Good luck!

I was probably going to stick with Win 98 and just use it for word processing and the like, as much out of nostalgia as for the great keyboard. I have two 17" HP Envys that really scream that are my main machines.