Just bought a Japanese 755CE

[evening_hunger]

OMG what a great machine. Also, buying anything in Japan which has a "junk" status there, pretty much guarantees that in the Western world it'll be like new. And it is, safe for the gluey paint covers, but I guess a 28yo machine has the right to it.

The machine I received has 8Mb+approx 20Mb on a daughter card (OS reports 28MB). Has the Japanese keyboard (which is great, lovin it even if I don't speak Japanese), and Japanese Win95 which works flawlessly. The screen has blemishes but is fully readable with its glorious 256-color 640x480.

The battery is dead (28yo), fortunately only minor leaks. I will try to rebuild it sooner or later, so I will search this Forum section for any data, seen some already. (It looks terribly hard, worse than the T30 I've done before).

For now, my biggest task is to replace that Win95 with some Linux, which is not easy with 28MB RAM. First Debian installer I tried (from 2008) said no-no, 32MB minimum... Of course, I would kill for some 32MB daughter extension card as the HMM says it's the max. But it's unobtanium for now.

OK i will refresh this topic with whatever happens new, maybe some photos along the way (which aren't potato-vision), and questions.

[axur-delmeria]

Someone at the Thinkpad subreddit got Alpine Linux running on a 380XD, but he had to install the HDD on another PC and use a virtual machine. https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... on_an_ibm/

For computers of this vintage, you might end up with a similar approach, or worse (compiling Gentoo on the 755CE).

[RealBlackStuff]

Check the posts from marinelayer at the end of this: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=130405
He may be able to help you.

[evening_hunger]

@axur-delmeria: I already took out the hdd and tried this:) Too bad, I can't read it in my T14 (via the IDE->SATA adapter). Strange. It spins but won't read.
@RealBlackStuff: Yes Sir I will!
Thanks! I will keep you posted

[axur-delmeria]

Try a USB IDE enclosure.
Or try a much older computer, with native IDE slots (even a desktop).

[evening_hunger]

Yes, I'm gonna replace this HDD into a desktop-class external IDE enclosure which I just have handy here, and report back.

Meanwhile, I went the other direction a bit, that is to say I tested a total of 3 different HDDs by sliding them into the 755CE (via its supplied IDE2"something" adapter).
Here's the outcome:

• When trying the 120GB (2009 I think) Hitachi disk, the machine would act as if it wasn't there.

• Trying with a 320GB SATA disk + SATA2IDE adapter, I failed miserably as I couldn't close the laptop, and it won't power on w/o the closed keyboard. (It was a proof of concept, so I wouldn't keep it this way anyhow, just wanted to so if it'll read.)

• Finally, I found an older, 2001-2 20GB disk from an old laptop, IDE. This time the Thinkpad reacted, blinked the HDD led, I could hear it spin up. The the machine started throwing codes at me. It gave off 07 and then 301, but I think that was because of the PS mouse cable. Finally, it showed 00174, so according to HMM, this means, in order, to check the device list, system board, fdd and hdd assembly. So I guess it would mean it detects the HDD but won't try booting? The disk was w/o the plastic enclosure but I thought that thing is passive so no matter.

The machine is back to normal, I will now proceed with the suggestion of the external IDE enclosure...

An obligatory cool screenshot from that godly Win95 https://imgur.com/a/opRkynn

[evening_hunger]

I bought 6 PCMCIA cards to be able to connect the machine to the internet. Unfortunately 4 of them were wasted money, as I had not yet understood which type they must be, they turned out to be too modern. Finally, I got one Ethernet card which fits (Hioki 9578) , but no drivers exist for it in this world, not even for Windows, and a second one (Xircom) which had no dongle. I can get a dongle but it costs half of my car's value. So, I'm still working on it. I know 3Com would be the best. They're quite expensive here in the EU, especially with dongles.

I was able to get the 3.5''->2.5'' IDE converter, needed to connect IBM's disk to an external enclosure. Thanks to this, I was able to open this disk in my T14 allright. I made an image, then using a virtual machine, I installed an old Debian version on it. Tested it w/o returning the disk to the 755CE, but still in the VM. Worked allright, but the 28MB of RAM is non-trivially limiting, I could only run simple text editors in the CLI, forget the graphical environment. I must think of a way to run Xorg on it, which may required unloading half of the linux kernel to free the RAM. Surely, if Windows 95 can fit in 28MB... it is possible.

So far, I restored the IBM disk using the previously taken image, and put it back in the 755CE, so no permanent system change. I think Linux would be better off on another disk. But these are also very hard to find (and I know 755CE won't boot of a CF adapter, so...)

[Enig]

Hey evening_hunger

I think all the drives you tried are way too large.
The 755Ce is from '94. I don't know the max HDD it can take - tho I doubt it's much more than 4GB at the very high end (if even that high), so I'd try something a little more conservative first like 2GB.
Why are you so sure it won't take IDE->CF?
This thread suggests that you can boot CF cards via PCMCIA adapter on a 755Ce (another way to go - maybe slightly more complicated), so why wouldn't it boot on a IDE to CF adaptor?
viewtopic.php?t=132765

Re: Hioki 9578 .. from a quick google, it looks like it went in some high-tech industrial gear, soo...
Maybe try putting it in a newer windows machine (like windows 7) to get then vendor/device IDs and google that, maybe it turns out to be something a little more familiar on the inside. Ofcause it could turn out to be super proprietary and truly no drivers exist

3Com cards .. yeah if you go by europe prices for a complete set, they are a little on the pricey side.
I got my first one with a TP600, and bought more cards without dongles later for cheap. Mine all use the same dongle, so if it's cheaper maybe get them separately? Saw a German 3com dongle om Ebay not long ago for a reasonable price. I think it's still there.

[evening_hunger]

Hey evening_hunger

Hello and thank you for your reply!

]
I think all the drives you tried are way too large.
The 755Ce is from '94. I don't know the max HDD it can take - tho I doubt it's much more than 4GB at the very high end (if even that high), so I'd try something a little more conservative first like 2GB.
Why are you so sure it won't take IDE->CF?
This thread suggests that you can boot CF cards via PCMCIA adapter on a 755Ce (another way to go - maybe slightly more complicated), so why wouldn't it boot on a IDE to CF adaptor?
viewtopic.php?t=132765

So concerning the spinners, I found info that it'll support anything up to 8GB. Preliminary research shows that ain't an easy limit to go below in an Ebay search. Seems the ppl know this is collector stuff. So, ironically, getting say, a 40GB hdd will get you back 5eur, while the 4GB disk will be a 100eur. I keep trying to find something.

Now that I have finally found a way to mess the original 810mb IBM disk up, I already have some feasible inroads into the machine. But (I hope my Linux friends can forgive me), I find that Win95 pretty cool, besides my 4yo son likes MS Paint.

Thus the option you mention with a PCMCIA to CF sound very interesting to me. Seems I could add Linux there in a losslessly and get the 755CE to dual boot (or just slide the PCMCIA in and out). I will take a look at Ebay to get such an adapter. Unless you have some tested model in mind you could recommend?

Re: Hioki 9578 .. from a quick google, it looks like it went in some high-tech industrial gear, soo...
Maybe try putting it in a newer windows machine (like windows 7) to get then vendor/device IDs and google that, maybe it turns out to be something a little more familiar on the inside. Ofcause it could turn out to be super proprietary and truly no drivers exist

Yes, I found that too, this came as part of some measuring equipment. In hindsight I would've never bought that. So far I gave up on the 9578 until something comes up by accident.

3Com cards .. yeah if you go by europe prices for a complete set, they are a little on the pricey side.
I got my first one with a TP600, and bought more cards without dongles later for cheap. Mine all use the same dongle, so if it's cheaper maybe get them separately? Saw a German 3com dongle om Ebay not long ago for a reasonable price. I think it's still there.

I see one here: https://www.ebay.fr/itm/314231126531 , but that thing is 55eur+15=70 eur. I spent 50eur on the laptop itself, haha. sure, the shipment and all the nonsense cards made this go up to 150 easily, but still, this is too much. The Americans sell 3Com for peanuts, but then shipping kills it. You can even see some 3C589D-s in the Philippines (also dirt cheap) but with 80euro shipment. So, I keep looking.


Thanks again for some info, and if you have some PCMCIA2CF you can recommend, I would be obliged.

[evening_hunger]

ah okay, false alarm, the thing with pcmcia cf adapters looks better than expected.
just bought this adapter:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/254898913273
and this card (i think 4gb seems safe, and will be 5x larger than the IBM hdd, nice):
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/361908373235?var=631175570799

Made an idiot of myself as the seller on the latter auction actually also proposes reader+card combinations, fortunately the price of that is the same as of what I got. So, let's wait until this arrives, and see!

[RealBlackStuff]

Just looking at my HDD sash, I found a 6GB 4200rpm Fujitsu MHM2060AT
Last time I checked it was working fine, but will check again later today.
Not only that, but I also have some PCMCIA ethernet cards, at least one (Xircom IIRC) even has a dongle and another one where you can plug in the ethernet cable connector.
Will also check these later today and post back.

[evening_hunger]

Oh wow, that sounds great.

[evening_hunger]

I have located a 8mb RAM so-dimm RAM module on ebay. This could replace my (P/N: 59G3996) 4mb module, bringing the entire RAM to the sum of 32mb. I know this is the maximum value for the 755CE, however...

Isn't anyone aware of any attempts to surpass this value? I mean, IBM is known to have claimed a max RAM value based on the combined size of the memory modules available at the
time. In my T30, they declared 2x512mb is the max, but it works with 2x1gb. Hence the question. It so happens I'm also watching an ebay offer of a 16mb so-dimm, far more expensive but what the heck if it worked...

edit: OK I found out that the 755CE maxes out at 40mb, that is, 8mb builtin +2 modules 16mb each.

[evening_hunger]

also just found out here https://thinkwiki.de/755
that I can update it to a Pentium 75, good to know (but I'm not sure it's the same socket, of what I saw in the CPU photos...)

[evening_hunger]

Time for small updates. The laptop is still airgapped, no cigar with any connectivity. In this area, the only way I see is buying an expensive 3com so it's on hold.

In the meantime, I bought a 4gb CF card with a pcmcia adapter. The goal, to remind, was to setup Linux on it, and then prioritize it in in Easy Setup. So far, it failed. For technicalities (albeit it's a softcore version) see the paragraph below (or feel free to skip it).

I've created a virtual machine with a disk of 3.7gb size, and using qemu, I have installed Debian 3.1r8 ("Sarge") on it. (Curiously, you can even use online repos for that since archive.debian.org hosts them). "Sarge" is from 2004/5, so it's a decade younger than the 755CE. However, it is the newest passable version (the installer tolerates the 28mb ram limit). The installation went smoothly.
I can easily run the installed linux in the VM, and it's even online. Subsequently, I have moved the VM disk onto the CF card (this is done by some magic via qemu-img and then dd, of course). I have checked that this "physical" version works, because using my T30 (which is the newest machine with this PCMCIA format I have) I can run a VM that will boot from the CF card. Finally, the CF/PCMCIA was ready to leave the T30 and go into the 755CE. For linux users: naturally, GRUB (in the legacy version, we're talking 0.95 here) got installed on the card, no other way possible (I could performe the entire VM-based linux install with the CF card in the adapter and the "real" IBM 810 disk in another adapter, BUT that would still mess up the disk letters, as they're not the same in the Thinkpad).

Upon launching the 755CE with the CF card containing the prepared Linux, the machine won't boot. What's happening is that the CF card is seen allright, and Linux's GRUB bootloader starts. However, it won't display the OS-choosing menu. Instead it is, at best, stuck at the "GRUB Loading Stage1.5" message. At worst, the Thinkpad will reboot at this moment. This is all done w/o modifying the original IBM 810mb disk, of course. I could contemplate installing GRUB on it which could help, I don't know.

(Another technical paragraph: all I can google is that "Grub loading stage1.5" stuck means that there may be a disk problem between the MBR and the beginning of the 1st partition. That's not the case on the CF card, no errors there.)

Not a trivial question to debug, because it not only requires some Linux knowledge but in the antique sense: old GRUB, old hardware, mixed with the bleeding-edge VMs:) Life of a Linux Thinkpad collector, I guess... So, it's back to the drawing board.

[evening_hunger]

I've solved the Linux issue for HDD only. That is to say I can make a dual boot disk which will be okay both to run Win95 and a choice of Linux. But the IBM 810mb is way too small to make it practical.
I have a few experiments to perform before giving up on the PCMCIA/CF based attempts though. One or two more ideas. If that fails, I will buy a bigger hdd.

(By the way, you might be wondering what's wrong with me noting all this down with nobody responding? Well, as a matter of fact tons of people read these forums, it comes up on google all the time, so this material might just help somebody in the future.)

[fatkatsupra1]

This video turned me on to the WPC11 Ver1 working well with win95.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfJq9cYudI

GL

[evening_hunger]

Thanks I'll check it out. It's well represented on ebay, I must see the status of Linux support but looks promising. Thank you.

[evening_hunger]

As a follow-up to the post #16 on the HDD. To make a more practical Linux installation, I made a setup, wherein the 388mb attributed to Linux on the HDD do not host the whole system. Instead, the /usr, /var and /home directories are on the CF card.
To explain for the Windows users, /usr and /var are kinda like "Program Files" in Win, and "/home" of course are users' personal directories. So the three make up the biggest space eaters.
I made this setup work perfectly in a virtual machine (on the T30! Think emulation was "sloooow", literally slower than 486DX2).

Unfortunately, software and hardware are different worlds. Once I moved the HDD and PCMCIA/CF into the 755CE, as we say in Polish, "the stairway has started". Namely, once the system boots (of the HDD) it can't find /usr and /var, because they're not yet mounted/initialized. Sure enough, some vital system parts are needed before PCMCIA subsystem is initialized. At least, that was the case in the 2004 linux version 2.4.27 which this runs. You can mount/install these CF partitions later, once the system boots, but it boots "broken" as there are parts especially in /var which are ...needed on boot time. So, you need x in order to have x, vicious circle.

But that's not all. Worse yet, the CF card behaves strange. The partitions for /home, /usr/ and /var which are pre-filled with data and should just sit there, get filesystem errors all the time. One restart, /home is allright, one clean restart later, it disappears or is stuffed with errors. I don't know if the PCMCIA/CF combo is to blame, is it a weak card or what.

Luckily I have the IBM disk images, I can always restore the machine to its factory state.

As suggested by Enig, I have yet to try the CF->IDE adapter, I have one on order, but China is far away so gotta wait. I hope this will be more stable than this chaotic PCMCIA/CF combo. And I have an option to buy the larger HDD, giving up on the solid state media.

edit: While waiting for the CF->IDE, I have reverted to the HDD-only (400mb for Win95, 400mb for Linux). Linux, being 10y younger than Win95, takes much more diskspace and X11 is not practical so, CLI-only. Don't care as long as I have Emacs... Without the "flying Dutchman" /usr and /var partitions which are now in metal, all works fine and Debian Sarge behaves very well on this 755CE... almost.

... I already discovered no cigar with the MWave sound chip. (BTW i have no sound in Win95 as well ). Will also return to playing with some other PCMCIA devices now.

[evening_hunger]

Got the CF-> IDE adapter working. Using a 4GB CF, I have Win+Linux moved to it from the IBM 810mb disk which had dual boot.
Now, using the card, Windows95 won't boot, Linux works OK (I even have Xserver, albeit it still needs tuning).

Would be a shame to loose W95 so I'm still on it. However, there's hope.

[evening_hunger]

So, I noticed that the mwave modem/audio card isn't working neither in Win nor in Linux. That's quite odd.

[axur-delmeria]

So, I noticed that the mwave modem/audio card isn't working neither in Win nor in Linux. That's quite odd.

The MWave audio+modem device never had Linux drivers. The only way to make it work back then was to boot to DOS, load the mWave DOS driver, then use loadlin to jumpstart the Linux kernel.

It's the later modem-only MWave MDSP3780 (found in the Thinkpad 770 and 600) that had Linux drivers.

Back to the issue: is the MWave device detected at all? Have you enabled it via PS2.EXE (command line) or the GUI?

[evening_hunger]

So, I noticed that the mwave modem/audio card isn't working neither in Win nor in Linux. That's quite odd.

The MWave audio+modem device never had Linux drivers. The only way to make it work back then was to boot to DOS, load the mWave DOS driver, then use loadlin to jumpstart the Linux kernel.
It's the later modem-only MWave MDSP3780 (found in the Thinkpad 770 and 600) that had Linux drivers.

Back to the issue: is the MWave device detected at all? Have you enabled it via PS2.EXE (command line) or the GUI?

Thank you, I understand. Yes, it's MDSP2780 and so the description from (https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/MWave_MDSP2780) applies (it also lists the method you mention). Back when I last ran w95 on this setup, i believe I had used ps2.exe in the cli.

Currently, running all the stack from the CF I cannot (as mentioned in previous posts) boot Win95. I'm trying to fix that e.g. by running Win95 floppies and using fsck to fix the MBR which I think is not right. But it may still turn out the only way to have the double boot functional will be to buy a larger spinner...

[axur-delmeria]

I wonder if your Win95 boot problem is related to the issue where the CF card identifies itself as a removable disk rather than a fixed disk (as HDDs do).

[evening_hunger]

No idea how to check that.
Upon buying the CF->IDE adapter, I plugged it into the 755 (with a CF card, of course) and made a self-test in the BIOS, which didn't look to happy. It spat the error codes:
DEV 017
ERR 01
FRU 6010
but as far as I can tell from the HMM, this means a hard disk problem and I should reseat it. There aren't any errors/codes when in POST, it looks clean when booting (no go with Win95 however). Also, of course, as I said above, I had used it w/o issues with Linux, even wrote some texts in Emacs. It's only the task of Win95+Linux that keeps me up at nights:) (quite literally).

I tried some neat tricks, such as for example using dd (Linux's low-level disk operator) to copy over the first 446 bytes from my mechanical disk to the CF (that is, the MBR sans le partition table). But nada. One think I'm planning is to clean the CF completely (I have backups anyway), and install a fresh w95 on it. This would also help me get a non-Japanese version of this OS.

Oh, unrelated: I bought more RAM to... ekhem, futureproof it. If all goes well I will have 40mb total soon (there's where it maxes out at).

[evening_hunger]

Interesting.
I have installed Win95 (there are ISOs flying around archive.org, good times) on the CF card using a virtual machine.
The Windows setup went normally, however it won't boot from the CF after installation. Says

"While initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer."

It actually gets enough time to flash the w95 logo, and ask about what mode I'd like that served it (recovery, normal, etc...). Still, this msg appears anyway.

Once the card is placed in the laptop, it won't have it at all, just flashes '174' (re-check configuration, hard disk) et voila. So, no go here.

[axur-delmeria]

Tried a RAM test?

[evening_hunger]

Yes, it passes the RAM test all right.

So, I found out that the CF->IDE adapter had a switched jumper (I played with it and forgot to put it back).
Correcting it made the '174' disappear. Win95 still won't boot, this time its the "Disk I/O error; Replace the disk, and then press any key" message.
To be sure, I flashed the CF card with Linux again and it boots fine.

So I think this might've been my last attempt on placing the Win95 on this CF. I may do a 'swap dual boot', i.e use the original spinner with W95, and use CF for Linux. The former OS is very rarely used anyway. Previous experiments have shown that dual booting with Win95 on the HDD and Linux on CF (in the PCMCIA adapter) won't work.

[evening_hunger]

Concerning aggressive modding
Can I replace the 486DX4-100 with the Am5x86 (or while we're at it, the Cyrix 5x86 )? I think Pentium OverDrive won't fit.
I thought about a Pentium 75 but AFAIK they're different sockets. Haven't seen my 755CE's CPU yet, but I'm pretty sure it is a 486dx4-100 in a Socket3.

[solidpro]

This might be controversial and whilst in some cases I can see the point in upgrading a process (for instance, you need a maths coprocessor to get to W95) but in many cases (seemingly to me, such as these) I don't see the point in fudging a really old some computer's CPU to run a slightly less older CPU - which will effectively run almost the same archaic, out-dated software....