Some software resources for (testing of) your vintage thinkpad

[panips]

I was working on some really old laptops, and I got really tired of soldering work so I switched to the software part recently...

One topic that might have been discussed a lot is the BIOS updating without battery check. I spent quite a bit of time on it, packing/unpacking and debugging, until I saw some previous work. Per my testing, the battery check is straight forward yet unnecessary, and the patching solution could be simple. There is even some patched PE files available, and it should work for most thinkpads before 1997. I made one floppy and tested it on a 755CE, everything works fine. So I uploaded it here in case someone need to make their thinkpad up-to-date.

https://archive.org/details/755bios

This helps win95 to recognize mWave audio, which was also discussed a lot. After the BIOS update, win95/98 has no issues on the audio. If you need to test your thinkpad, I had an image of 4G CF card, with 3 different OS install which can be found here:

https://archive.org/details/VintageThinkPadImages

Also, for palm pc 110, it's not easy to get everything work in win95/98, they need different drivers. So I also put multi-boot image of PCDOS/Win95/Win98 here, including its original Personaware.
Making CS4248 and WD90C24 working is also tricky when installing win95 and OS/2. For testing purpose, there is the multi-boot image of PCDOS 7, OS/2 Warp3 and Win95 for 4G CF card. An extra partition makes it fitting 2GB size, too.
All has been tested using rufus and IDE-CF adapter.

And, there are some other images that might be helpful, i.e. 7x0T without Port Replicator or 350/330 with a defective fdd. I can also share the image with basic function for testing.

[finkmac]

Tried out that "patched" image on my 755ce... It doesn't seem to work. Still has that battery complaint.

[solidpro]

Nice work - I'll be certainly looking at some of this stuff and trying it out in the next few months....

[panips]

Tried out that "patched" image on my 755ce... It doesn't seem to work. Still has that battery complaint.

I, somehow, missed this reply but just fixed some issues so if you can try it again it should work.

Also updated some images like 750 bios update without battery check, trial version of Rhapsody for 760x/765x/560, and etc.