HDD interposer for iSeries and 39X

[Tom81]

Recently I found an auction to buy an interposer that I missed for thinkpad 1200.
Unfortunately, the price was high, but in the description of the auction I found that this interposer supports laptops of other brands.
Thanks to this information I bought a cheap Dell inspiron 7500 which has this interposer.
When he reached me, it turned out that it was a complete machine, the seller does not know if it is functional because he did not have a charger.
After inserting the HDD and interposer from Dell into the Thinkpad 1200, it turned out that it fits and even start loading win2000, then a blue screen of win error appeared.
It turns out that there is nothing to overpay for the original interposers
I'm curious about this Dell is even bigger than my Thinkpad G40...
I do not have a power supply for Dell is an unusual plug with 3 pins, do you know how to connect voltage to this laptop?

[astral]

despite how non standard hard drive interposers seemed to be with a few exceptions many used a few common connectors. i ran into the same issue you did when I got a laptop missing a hard drive and it’s caddy that was from an obscure company. took some measurements and figured the one for the Dell Inspiron 7000 was likely the same and it was.
the dell connector is stupid and not very strong but you can find proper adapters that are OEM for around $20 on ebay still luckily. there were two different voltages and types though, one for older 90s models and another for models starting with I believe the latitude CP series. just make sure the voltage matches on the laptop and the charger you’re getting and you should be fine. you’ll probably have better luck searching for latitude cp/cpi/CPx/c610, etc chargers than Inspiron variants though because a bunch of modern stuff comes up for Inspiron 7000 series. latitude chargers should work fine.

[Tom81]

latitude chargers should work fine.

This Dell was very cheap and probably for the power supply I would pay much more.
I would just like to check in what condition this Dell is.
I have a power supply from an old Compaq laptop with the same voltage, only it has a round tip like a Thinkpad.
I wonder if it is enough to connect the + and - pins in this Dell and Compaq power supply.

[astral]

Do what you think is best for you, but the dell OEM supply runs only $20 or so on ebay and every model from that time used them, just a good investment to get one or even a couple when they’re still cheap. I’ve got a few myself.

[Tom81]

Do what you think is best for you, but the dell OEM supply runs only $20 or so on ebay and every model from that time used them, just a good investment to get one or even a couple when they’re still cheap. I’ve got a few myself.

Curiosity won out and I bought a power supply for this DELL.
I plugged the machine in and pressed the power button, the fan turned on for a second and nothing else even the LED flashed.
I don't know anything about Dell laptops so I tried the standard procedure, removed all drives and memory.
I press the power button and then the same thing turns on the fan for a second and everything goes out.
I was wondering what parts I could use for my Thinkpads , but due to lack of time I decided to put it back to its original state and put it on the shelf.
I decided to press the power button one last time and this Dell turned on normally, asked for the date and time and loaded Win2000
It is a pity to allocate such an old laptop for parts as it is functional, maybe the next one will be suitable

[astral]

perhaps the connection of the cpu is flaky or something. i forget if the 7500 was a P2 or a P3 but I know some of the dells had their chips on cards that could become badly seated. also there's probably a varta clock battery inside of it that's fixing to leak and ruin the whole thing so you should check on that.

[Tom81]

perhaps the connection of the cpu is flaky or something. i forget if the 7500 was a P2 or a P3 but I know some of the dells had their chips on cards that could become badly seated. also there's probably a varta clock battery inside of it that's fixing to leak and ruin the whole thing so you should check on that.

Now I have more free time, so I took this Dell laptop apart. It turned out that you have to remove the motherboard to get to the bios battery. The battery was permanently attached to two plates, so I had to gently remove it with a blade so as not to tear the plates off the motherboard. After removing the batteries, I attached the red and black wires to the + and - plates, and finally soldered the CR2032 battery slot and placed the new battery in it.I put the whole thing back together and it works fine now. Now I'm sure the old bios battery won't spill on the motherboard and the new battery in a safe place powers the bios

[Tom81]

As for the Thinkpad iSeries1200, I bought an HP Compaq nc6120 laptop complete in unknown condition. Upon delivery, it turned out that the HDD connector is only theoretically compatible with the Thinkpad 1200, but I practically matched it with a knife...
Now the thinkpad works up nicely. As for the Compaq laptop, I wouldn't be myself if I didn't check its condition. I found a Toshiba power supply with the same parameters, but I had to make a tip to make it fit the Compaq. Unfortunately, it turned out that Compaq is functional and even loaded WinXP
I needed a connector for the Thinkpad, so I had to choose whether to take it from Compaq or Dell.
I decided to remove the connector from the Compaq and installed it in the Thinkpad, and I decided to keep the Dell because it looks like a Thinkpad

[astral]

if the i1200 interposer is the same as the inspiron 7500 one, why not just buy one for cheap on eBay?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255302190657

[Tom81]

if the i1200 interposer is the same as the inspiron 7500 one, why not just buy one for cheap on eBay?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/255302190657

I browsed this offer and at a similar price I bought a complete Dell 7500 in my country and I paid about 2 dollars for delivery. I paid similarly for the Compaq. On the other hand, it would be too easy to buy on ebay

[astral]

that's a dang good price for a 7500! i usually see them listed at around $100 or more... sucks because I kind of want one, simply because I think they're absolutely hideous. and are apparently pretty decent specs-wise. hideous...but apparently quite functional.

[Tom81]

that's a dang good price for a 7500! i usually see them listed at around $100 or more... sucks because I kind of want one, simply because I think they're absolutely hideous. and are apparently pretty decent specs-wise. hideous...but apparently quite functional.

I got a great opportunity, I was actually hunting for a connector, not a dell.
It is indeed large in size and horrible which is why I decided tostop it. Maybe one day I'll buy a docking station for it, then it will be even bigger and more horrible

[kfzhu1229]

that's a dang good price for a 7500! i usually see them listed at around $100 or more... sucks because I kind of want one, simply because I think they're absolutely hideous. and are apparently pretty decent specs-wise. hideous...but apparently quite functional.

I restored one myself I know those things can come with impressive specs. Mine came with the fastest Pentium II and came with a 15" 1400x1050 panel before IBM started putting those on A2xp families.
Unfortunately those things are notorious for hinge problems. Tiny wedge hinges. I had to do a lot of strengthening on mine before I was comfortable selling it off.
They also are notorious for having weird BIOS that give you a POST error for simple things like not having the hibernation partition set up for Windows NT4/98

As for the Thinkpad iSeries1200, I bought an HP Compaq nc6120 laptop complete in unknown condition. Upon delivery, it turned out that the HDD connector is only theoretically compatible with the Thinkpad 1200, but I practically matched it with a knife...
I decided to remove the connector from the Compaq and installed it in the Thinkpad, and I decided to keep the Dell because it looks like a Thinkpad

And yeah HP used the same interposer as 390X on practically all of their business class models from the nc6120 to the nc6220/nc6230 (do NOT confuse with nc6320 - that's SATA). HP also shipped those HDDs with a cable select jumper on the HDD for whatever reason.
the Compaq nc6220/nc6230 are nice machines basically the true competitor of ThinkPad T43 14.1 in every way, although it also has the infamous southbridge issue just like T43.
nx6110/nc6120 are basically prettier versions of ThinkPad R5xe and R5x families.

[astral]

Unfortunately those things are notorious for hinge problems. Tiny wedge hinges. I had to do a lot of strengthening on mine before I was comfortable selling it off.
They also are notorious for having weird BIOS that give you a POST error for simple things like not having the hibernation partition set up for Windows NT4/98

I've seen the failures on many ebay listings...darn stress cracks. Not surprised, but who at Compal (who made that thing for Dell) thought it would be a good idea to make a laptop with a screen bigger than the body of the laptop and then to put tiny hinges in it like would barely be suitable for a 12 inch laptop... let alone one that big.
Also, do you know whether those have the same cancerous Varta batteries that all the latitudes have?

[kfzhu1229]

I've seen the failures on many ebay listings...darn stress cracks. Not surprised, but who at Compal (who made that thing for Dell) thought it would be a good idea to make a laptop with a screen bigger than the body of the laptop and then to put tiny hinges in it like would barely be suitable for a 12 inch laptop... let alone one that big.
Also, do you know whether those have the same cancerous Varta batteries that all the latitudes have?

To be fair, the 15" ThinkPad A2x series also did exactly the former. They merely extended the palmrest plastics to make the chassis look like it's for 15 inches. It's just that the Inspiron hinges were the worst, literally can't get any worse than that.
Not only are the screen side tiny wedges (big failure point), but also the bottom side is also some tiny wedges that screws into the small metal stands (bottom half of the hinge covers) that then in turn screws into your chassis. if a 2 piece hinge design on plastic seem cheap enough already (i.e. wedge hinge + metal bracket), that Inspiron has 3 piece hinge design so plenty of room for things to go wrong. Doesn't help that they're pulled up extremely tight too and can't be loosened.
Later, Winbooks were also notorious for using wedge hinges that end up breaking the lid (and then Inspiron 2600/2650 took that design). Just on those things, at least the hinges aren't pulled up tight enough that the metal bracket would snap clean off as soon as the plastic gives up like what would happen on the inspiron 7500.
AFAIK these don't come with the Latitude Vartas. Although also for that the severity of it depends from model to model, later Latitudes have the vartas placed far away from any motherboard PCB.

[astral]

which winbooks are you talking about? the 90s models or 2000s? most of the 90s models have failures of some sort.
Some of the later 2000s winbooks used metal display lids that reduce the hinge failures dramatically.