Thinkpads Forum

I had a kind of bizarre episode with a seller on eBay while buying an R51 where I ended up having to have the R51 repaired, but the seller sent me a 240x (2609-61U) as compensation.

So I received the 240X in the mail today. It needed a HDD and A/C adapter both of which I had, so it got it up and running without much of an issue since I have a full set of W95 FDDs. I've never seen a 240 "in the flesh" much less held one, so it was a bit of a surprise. I really like the form-factor a lot. And (at least with W95) it's speedy.

Now I need to decide whether I want to go through the hassle of getting it to recognize the full 40Gb of the HDD, and load W2K without a bootable optical drive etc., or should I sell it and buy a X Series machine to be a emailer, companion for my DSLR rig.

I'm open to opinions and any guidance. Oh yeah, it has 192Mb of RAM, and the extended battery. The only thing I really don't like... the SVGA screen res.

If I consider selling, how much would this thing be worth?

The 240X I have has no problems recognizing the full 40GB drive installed, and W2K SP4 runs fine w/ 192MB!

The only hassle was installing W2K on the machine - the 240X only uses a proprietary CD drive by IBM only. I pretty much had to swap HD's from my X30, copy the W2K installation files, then swap it back into the 240X to start the installation.

It wasn't pretty, but it did the trick. If I could recall the process I would tell you but that would be a long long post.

(I had Xubuntu 7.04 on the 240X as well, but my Linux is not up to par.)

Oh, and WIFI isn't that hard to install on it either.

Edit: Pretty much "a keeper", as its a fun lappy!

emoticonartist wrote:The 240X I have has no problems recognizing the full 40GB drive installed, and W2K SP4 runs fine w/ 192MB!

The only hassle was installing W2K on the machine - the 240X only uses a proprietary CD drive by IBM only. I pretty much had to swap HD's from my X30, copy the W2K installation files, then swap it back into the 240X to start the installation.

It wasn't pretty, but it did the trick. If I could recall the process I would tell you but that would be a long long post.

(I had Xubuntu 7.04 on the 240X as well, but my Linux is not up to par.)

Oh, and WIFI isn't that hard to install on it either.

Edit: Pretty much "a keeper", as its a fun lappy!

Not true, the 240x will work with any drive that uses a PC card interface, as a standard Addonics Pocket CD-II drive case that came with my Acer 313T and that I "upgraded" with a DVD-R nb drive pulled out of a broken Toshiba NB. Only problem, it needs an external power brick since it does not draw power from the TP.
You can find these drives pretty easy on ebay, they are also pretty cheap.
I booted Win 98 and installed it with this drive. No prob.

I'll take it if you don't want it...it's a really excellent form factor and it seems very well-built. Granted, I can only speak from my limited experience with a plain-ol' 240, but I'm sure it's a similar story.

Personally, I'd keep it, but if you want to sell it be expecting about $150ish. I saw one on Craigslist for $100 but that was the exception to the rule; there was also one for $180 up at the same time (which is still up, by the way, but $180 seems a bit high).

It seems like it could be a really nice machine once you got it up and running.

I used to be a 240(X) fanatic! But the limitations of screen res, USB 1.1, awkward CD setup, so so DVD playback, hard drive limitations and short battery life finally got the better of me.
But as an emailer and for basic use it will be fine. It will even take XP pretty well, in spite of only having 192 MB.
I personally ended up with an X40 with a CF hard drive and media slice. It's lighter (about the same with the slice) and only about a 1/2" wider and longer than the 240 series.
Tim S

Congrats on your latest toy!

I used to be a 240 series fanatic, and the only version that I've never owned is 240Z...but someday, one day...

My main objection to 240X is that it doesn't have enough battery life to be a true blue "on the go" machine, and the resolution gets a little difficult to bear with after a while...but that's just me.

A mint example with a proper hard drive, good battery and upgraded RAM will bring you anywhere from $130-175 depending on who's buying.

Hope this helps.

I had these once, but for sure, the battery is way too small. No lasting power. Also the 240 has an 800x600 screen, and the 240X has an 800x599 screen, which is a beggar for Virtual Machines.
... JDH

As a DSLR companion, I think having a lappy with USB 2.0 would be pretty important. Seems like a netbook would fill that roll a little better than an X series. But if you are one of those people with a huge backpack full of lenses, size probably isn't a huge factor.

I just got hold of one of these - like some of the earlier posters have mentioned it's a solid, fun laptop. I think you could smash an eeePC to pieces with this laptop and it wouldn't have a scratch

Not sure about use with a DSLR though, the battery life and screen size might get to you even after you have added a USB 2 card


I had no CD or Floppy drive, so took HDD out and installed Windows + Ubuntu on another laptop before switching the HDD back .

Had lots of pain doing this! Ubuntu was 100% happy from the start, but the only way I could get windows to run was to format the HDD then copy all the files from the old 12GB disk. The thinkpad just will not boot windows unless there is just one partition on the drive.

But that said, it's running XP OK now.