Thinkpad 701CS upgrades

[hideki]

Hihi

Just joined as this seems to be a pretty active thinkpad forum o.o

I'm aware of the disk possibilities for this machine, however

Can I upgrade the CPU?

Is it possible to replace the DSTN display with a TFT display from the C? (I have a line going up half the screen towards the bottom right)

Given that I just got this machine on eBay for £20, I'm not complaining, it's for a 64HDD system, but it'd still be handy to know

Incidentally, how do I go about using the floppy port as a printer port and can I use it for parallel and floppy at the same time?

(it was bought to replace an old compaq slt 386 that was running my 64HDD system)

Thanks

[AlphaKilo470]

For the CPU, you can upgrade by replacing the motherboard. From time to time, there are AMD 5x86 133mhz motherboards floating around on eBay that you'd be able to perform an upgrade with.

You should be able to replace the DSTN screen with the TFT from a 701c but I'm really not 100% positive on that.

I've never heard of the floppy port being used for paralell and I don't think that can even be done.

[hideki]

Hihi

Thanks for that, but..

I've never heard of the floppy port being used for paralell and I don't think that can even be done.

It can, it's in the BIOS as an LPT port and it's the only port without the docking stick

I'm guessing there's an adapter, but whether both can be used at once...

[madmax]

It can be done but... the plastic bevelware? and connecting
cable are different.( The bevelware has a slightly different
hinge assembly and the LCD cable at the LCD end is different...
MB connection is the same.) So if you buy a complete LCD assembly
you should be OK. One note the plastic on 701's will probably be
fairly brittle WARNING. As noted from other posts disassembly
of the unit requires a T1 (torx) screw driver. Take your time.

Good luck
madmax

[hideki]

Hihi

Ahh, aye, I'm always careful but it's not critical anyway since the fault isn't very visible on a black background which 64HDD has, improving the CPU speed would be more useful

I remember on machines of this era, I used to get away with changing the oscillator to squeeze more out of the chip (Most DX2/50 chips will run at 33(66) or 40(80)), without taking mine apart, has anyone tried that, or better yet, are there links/jumpers on the board?

It's not /quite/ managing C64S 1.1 at full speed and I really want that working so I can test software on the emulator before running it on my real 128 over 64HDD (Starcommander can run c64 programs with that too)

It's working atm but with a bloody awful frameskip and I'm certain it ran full speed on my old DX2/66 -.-

Thanks ^^

[dsvochak]

The 701 shipped with 2 cables for the parallel connector: one for the floppy disk and one to attach to a printer. Apparently the cables were sold as a "Cable Pack" which was Part # 10H4069. The MultiPort II (p/n 10H4021) attaches to the rear of the machine and contains a printer port. There may have also been a "Dock II" but I don't know what ports were included.

The only way to use the floppy disk and a printer at the same time would be with the MultiPort II.

[hideki]

The only way to use the floppy disk and a printer at the same time would be with the MultiPort II.

Ahh, that's exactly what I'm doing now, thanks, I would have made my own cable if needed mind -.o

Anyone got any thoughts on the CPU speed I mention above?

[madmax]

I don't know or rather haven't seen posted of anyone modding
oscillator frequency... have heard good things about MB upgrade...
possible BIOS support for USB and cardbus, larger RAM support
than the supported 40MB stock limit... sounds a little to advanced
a modification for average Joe's like me.

Let us know how it works out.

madmax

[hideki]

I don't know or rather haven't seen posted of anyone modding
oscillator frequency... have heard good things about MB upgrade...
possible BIOS support for USB and cardbus, larger RAM support
than the supported 40MB stock limit... sounds a little to advanced
a modification for average Joe's like me.

Let us know how it works out.

madmax

Well, I used to do these things to old motherboards it wouldn't have mattered if I fried, I'm a little loathe to do it to my new 701CS! it only has 4MB but it's only running DOS programs and even with a large smartdrv there's still 1.5MB left, lol, so 4MB is fine

I did just get hold of a few dos utilities to change the VGA frequencies so it can be displayed on a 1084 (15KHz/60Hz I think it said, it should really be 50Hz but it'll do) so the screen probably won't be an issue anyway

Thanks for your help people anyway