Thinkpads Forum

The 560 series is not everyone's favorite here according to some threads I dug up using the search. Personally, I really like its clean slim and boxy look though. A real Thinkpad imo.
They are cheap and easy to find on eBay. Mine is a 560X with maxed out memory, keyboard and plastics in near mint condition. Two things are missing though:
- The pcmcia cover. I have hopes of finding one, here (have an ad in the marketplace) or on eBay.
- The IO port cover. And this is my question really, having this _not_ missing seems to be so rare that noone even mentions it when it's gone.

There's a post in the Thinkpad mailing list archive where someone claims to have owned 15 560-series Thinkpads and seen only one with the IO port cover intact. Are there collectors here who own a complete specimen? And is it really that rare?
I can imagine how it would be the first thing to go missing and most other types of Thinkpad don't even have a cover for the IO connectors (except 600, I think). But the clean looks of the machine really come out with every cover in place, I wonder if finding one is possible...

Some links:
- Post on Tp mailing list: http://stderr.org/pipermail/thinkpad/20 ... 10897.html
- 560/e/x/z with covers: http://www.aichi.to/~thinkpad/tp560/56012.jpg
- My marketplace ad: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

I've gone through 2 560E and 2 560X systems. A third 560E system is currently used by my father for programming two way radios. All these systems had their doors when I had first got them (2000-2003). The PCMCIA and floppy I/O door were held on by a flimsy piece of rubber which I believe was glued to the bottom of the laptop.... After a while the rubber would start to tear and then you would lose the door.

No real solution. What I ended up doing was putting a Xircom PCMCIA 10/100 card in there. It fills up the entire slot and the red accent matches the Thinkpad color scheme. Alternatively you could put both an X-Jack 10/100 card and an X-Jack wifi card and you'd have more connectivity options. Not sure what you can do about the I/O slot though.

I recall seeing the covers being sold on Ebay back in the day... I guess the supply's dried up.


Edit: I just realized that you're probably looking for the rubber cover that goes over the I/O plugs in the back of the machine. I had them for the 560X machines I owned. Believe you me, it was a pain to track them down in 2002. Like you I wanted my machines to be complete. I think they tended to get discarded because they weren't physically attached to the machine.

Edit #2: http://www.impactcomputers.com/46h4151.html

Ending in 20 minutes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0259803816

Supposed to have all covers. I have a 560Z but can't remember if it has the cover or not.

Thank you for the replies. I missed the auction, but the item wasn't sold. I have found some sources for the pcmcia and io cover, but shipping to the netherlands is prohibitively expensive.
I also found out the 570's (I have a 570 and a 570e) are also supposed to have this io cover.

http://www.aichi.to/~thinkpad/tp570/tp570_04.jpg

Since 2005, i have purchased 4 560 machines. 1 560e in December 2005, 1 560x in January 2006, a 560Z in April/may 2006, and 1 560z about a month ago in June. The only ones that included that cover were the 560e which i acquired through a friend for $20 about 6 months after he paid $80 for it (it was almost brand new) and my 560Z parts unit i just bought about a month ago. Before i saw that link i didn't know the 570 had one. I got my 570e from my uncle last year and mine didn't include one. I guess the only real way to find one now is to get lucky and just buy a system which happens to have one. It seems like ebay no longer has them.