Thinkpads Forum

My first thinkpad laptop was a 380XD with a 266mhz pentium and a TFT display. Unfortunately the laptop seized to display after a few years. (We suspect the DC/DC card broke.) At this time I was able to get another 380XD from ebay for $50, but this had a pentium 2 233mhz with the HPA display (horrible picture quality and bad refresh rate). Now that no one has been using this computer for about a half year I'm thinking about transfering the TFT monitor over to the pentium 2. I'm wondering if this transfer is feasible or if the parts are incompatible?

Also while I'm at, could the processors be interchanged between the two computers by an chance? If so which would technically be the better processor?

The model for the pentium is 2635-AAU and the pentium 2 is 2635-EAU. The pentium is already in parts so I can get the FRU #s if needed.

Thanks.

Swapping the screens could work, but I've never tried it. You'll need to download the Hardware Maintenance Manual for both computers anyway, so look up the part numbers.

On the CPU swap, the answer is no -- the motherboards have different chipsets.

AAU: 266 MHz Pentium I, 430TX chipset
EAU: 233 MHz Pentium II, 440BX chipset

You're limited to Windows 98SE since there are no XP drivers, so I would hesitate to put any money into these.

--Paul

Thanks. In the manual the screens don't reference being for a specific model, so I'll report back on my findings.

Paul Pennington wrote:You're limited to Windows 98SE since there are no XP drivers, so I would hesitate to put any money into these.

I stopped using Windows a long time ago. The working 380XD is already running Ubuntu Linux with Fluxbox. (Literally took a day to install.) Works great for browsing the web, but the screen is horrible.

Edit: The TFT monitor seems to be working just fine.

The CPU-Swap should work. The chipsets are different but they are soldered on a swappable PCB (together with the CPU). You can replace the whole Module with chipset and CPU on it because the Module with the Pentium I and the TX chipset has the same socket (MMC-1) as the module with the Pentium II and the BX Chipset. You replace the CPU and the chipset when swapping modules.

The Pentium I module with TX chipset looks like this one (~120 KB each picture):
bottom:
http://www.sandpile.org/impl/pics/intel ... c1_bot.jpg
top:
http://www.sandpile.org/impl/pics/intel ... c1_top.jpg

The Pentium II module with BX chipset looks like this one (~70 KB each picture):
bottom:
http://www.thg.ru/cpu/20001107/images/m ... wcache.jpg
top:
http://www.thg.ru/cpu/20001107/images/mmc.jpg

Processor and Chipset are under the metal plates on the second picture.