Classic ThinkPad Device Driver Matrix pages

[ThinkDan]

I've been playing

The 'drivers' snapshot linked above is missing much for the earlier machines, e.g. 360, 370, 700, 701, 720, 750, 755, since it faithfully replicates the useless Lenovo pages. No criticism intended, that's just what was available when it was archived as Lenovo were about to dump the old support pages.

As a nostalgic nod to the old IBM Personal Computing Support website pages I remember using in the 1990's - specifically TPOPSYS and then TPAD-MATRIX - I've put together a similar tabulated matrix style of download resource for the older machines. It links to the original downloads from the various IBM PCCBBS archives; as a convenience I've unpacked the DOS-only* self-extracting diskette image .EXE files into .IMG and/or .ZIP files, plus created per-model ZIP archives containing all the drivers in one download. I've also linked to User's Guides, HMMs, etc, in the per-model tables, and converted some of the old RETAIN tips (where available) to .PDF so they are readable again.

Here's the link

Thus far I've included:

PS/2 N33, L40, N51, CL57
ThinkPads 340, 345, 350, 355, 360, 370, 500, 510, 600, 700, 701, 720, 750, 755, 760, 765
PS/Note 425 (ThinkPad 350 rebadged)

As you see, there has been some mission creep, e.g. 600 and 760 are well catered for on the drivers link above, but I enjoyed trawling through the PCCBBS files to work out exactly what was there, and in the process gaining a better understanding of sub-model hardware differences (e.g. 600 vs 600E vs 600X) so added them to the list. I might add the 560 and 770 on the same basis. The 310 will not be included

Enjoy!

* well, DOS, OS/2, 32-bit Windows XP or earlier. Not always readily to hand these days

[dr_st]

That's very nice. Thanks for sharing!

[Bondi]

This is awesome! Thanks for the drivers matrix and especially for the ZIP files! It's much more convenient to have them. The self extracting files require a real machine and don't work in DOSBox.

[astral]

Beat me to it! I was just working on adding some of the early ThinkPad files into my website's driver database the other day

I wonder, does anyone know of a source for the drivers for the Japan-exclusive ThinkPads? After digging through the wayback machine, I got as far as finding the big file list on the IBM Japan website, but seemingly no one has archived the FTP they were on, unfortunately.

[ThinkDan]

I wonder, does anyone know of a source for the drivers for the Japan-exclusive ThinkPads? After digging through the wayback machine, I got as far as finding the big file list on the IBM Japan website, but seemingly no one has archived the FTP they were on, unfortunately.

That's exactly where I ended up. Also the same with RIOS, for some of the JP-only models and the 235 and PC110 - references to a defunct ftp site but no archives.

The archives of the IBM PCCBBS are incomplete, have a look at things like (IIRC) tp-nls and there are a bunch of files missing, specifically (as you have found) the JP model stuff. ALLFILES.TXT (or its equivalent) lists a pile of stuff for the 535, duplicated in English and Japanese, but they are not in the folders indicated. I even gambled on buying a 535E restore CD from Japan recently, but quite reasonably it only contained the JP software.

[solidpro]

I find with things like the 530CS, 535 and stuff like the S30 I end up either hoping for the best 'with windows' or cobbling together what I can find using specific general hardware drivers.

I also recall the 755 is the biggest nightmare because there are so many different hardware variations, especially the 'big' step change between early 755 and later 755, and then it's a pain in the backside with the earlier machines that almost everything forces you to get an extraction file to a DOS machine, to make a floppy, to take the floppy to the destination computer, to run the installer again. I've often thought about building a page with all the original extraction files already unpacked and re-zipped back up again - perhaps with a simple notice for the occasional disk which needs to be 'refstamped'.....

[ThinkDan]

I've often thought about building a page with all the original extraction files already unpacked and re-zipped back up again

That's what I've done - at the top of each model page is a link to the ZIP file archives of all drivers/downloads for that model. To take the example of the 755, there's a ZIP for the early models - 750-755.ZIP - and a ZIP for the later, enhanced models 755-ENH.ZIP and MWAVE.ZIP*. Each of these has all the drivers and disks in both unpacked folders for direct installation, plus .IMG files for transferring to diskette, bootable (and refstamped!) where the original was without having to run the original .EXE file in a proper DOS environment

* Ah, I've just been reminded that I haven't packed and uploaded the MWAVE.ZIP - it's a work in progress!

[dcfbf]

Thank you for the work you've done!
Though I have no memory of the 90s, (I wasn't even alive) I now can get drivers for my 760ED
...only thing: I don't have a floppy drive nor floppies for it.

Hope you can support the 760 series with the prepackaged driver matrix collection soon.
I'm really trying to not have to buy floppies and an external floppy drive. They're overpriced
I've even gone so far as to transfer everything over IR.

Sorry, bad reason for asking you to do more work.

[Mr tom]

Just for the revcord, the 760ED, like many other ThinkPads of that era, accepts CardBus card readers,
provided they are compatible with the rather picky BIOS.
This allows for faster data transfer than via IR. It can even boot into DOS from such a card reader.
Of the many I tried, only one was compatible, and that one is now broken (sob!).
Similarly, the even rarer CardBus HDDs work, perhaos the fastest option to transfer stuff.
IIRC, Windows 95 and later versions refuse to boot from an installation on a CardBus HDD,
again IIRC because they are flagged as removable drives.

[Bondi]

Thanks for he matrix one more time, ThinkDan It really helps a lot to have the unpacked files.
Any plans to add a zip file for TP 560?