Fixing a 701C

[kobalt]

Hi,

I just got my hands on a 701C, for a few euros...It was sold as "faulty - won't work at all". But for 10 euros...It was on the other hand in great external condition, and butterfly keyboard fold/unfold perfectly. Hell, what a nice piece of engineering !!!!

Anyway, it kind of work, well, electrically speaking.
Indeed, the 701C does power on. I got 2 green lights on, power and battery.

No beep though, blank screen.
I had a look in the HMM :

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/858943Untitled1.jpg

So it seems there are 2 mobos in the 701C ?

Before going in further investigations, does anyone has a quick fix idea ?

I've opened and done maintenance on various Thinkpads already, but this is the first time i see a dual-mobo setup.
How hard is it to disassemble and to change a mother board on this TP ?

Thx in advance

[kobalt]

By the way, I removed the 720MB HDD and I was curious so I benchmarked it...

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/976149Untitled1.jpg

Now you can see the progresses made those 20 last years...

[evening_hunger]

Salut, I'm afraid you have to wait until Americans wake up, remember it's the time difference:) Contratulations on your finding!

[RealBlackStuff]

The 701C has indeed 2 motherboards, a big (Top) one and a smaller (Bottom) one.
Get the HMM here: download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/tpvol2.pdf

Last time I worked on a 701C it had a fair bit of corrosion.
The CMOS battery connector had to be replaced (with one from a T23 mobo).
Cleaning with lots of Isopropyl alcohol (91%), known as Isopropanol in Europe, did the trick.

[kobalt]

There is indeed some corrosion on the battery itself (blue/green marks)...

I haven't opened yet the 701, but I can see inside with a torchlight, the battery bay connector looks corroded too.
Doesn't sound very good...

I'm currently looking for a 701C mobo to buy, at a reasonable price.
Is this seller still active ?

It sounds like I'd need a full rainy sunday to disassemble and to clean this little machine...

[RealBlackStuff]

They work under various names ( http://www.thinkpad-parts.com/ http://www.acsoutlet.com/ ) and yes, still active.
I don't buy from them, they regularly advertise an item as "in stock" and then don't have it.
They don't even tell you, just leave you out in the cold.
Emails are not answered, phone calls put you on hold, UNRELIABLE and UNTRUSTWORTHY.

Check with Forum owner Bill Morrow, he has several 701 machines (and possibly parts) for sale.

[kobalt]

Thank you for these informations.

I'll try to contact Bill as you suggested.

[BillMorrow]

FIRST, you will need a T-1 torx driver to remove the 4 screws on the fron of the n701..
be VERY CAREFUL..
the T-1 can twist off and break.. the tiny screws can disappear forever.. do NOT sneeze..

then you will need a T-6 torx driver..
and the rest is somewhat obvious..
there is a plate that covers part of the folding keyboard when closed which has a few "hooks" used to attach it.. careful, they break off easily..
BUT, i DO have a few NOS plates.. forgot the real name..

i also have some NOS system boards..
the one with the cpu..
whici is probably the one that is bad..

i have a thinkpad owner and friend in dijon who might be able to help you if you are close..

there is more but that'll hold you for a while..

shipping to france can be affordable if using the post office..
fedex and UPS seem to think france is on the moon..
maybe so, maybe no, but still they charge like it is..

[thinkpadcollection]

I had a 701C with no screen which had a small connector in LCD assemably come apart from hard jar, easy fix and ordered a LCD cover to replace the broken LCD top cover (screw mounts broke apart). Be careful of picking right top cover. Mine came wrong one but screw post mounts are not used and had to snap them off.

Oh yeah T1, I used small flat screwdriver for that, carefully or find T1 screwdriver which is not a problem these days on ebay.

Hard drive up to 2GB is not a issue for hard drive but mounting pattern is smaller and more square than the standard modern restangular mounts. See if can pad this out to keep HD from bumping around.

701C keyboards have a tendency to have more sensitive keys at corners due to weak metal plate.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[bit_twiddler]

By the way, I removed the 720MB HDD and I was curious so I benchmarked it...

Well, compared to a floppy, it's actually pretty good...