Thinkpads Forum

Hello
I have a Thinkpad i series model 1410, type 2611-410 that collects dust in my storage room.
It doesn't work so I know nothing about the laptop as what it can do. But it appears that it's got decent stand alone CD player and nice hidden speakers next to the screen.

I was hoping that maybe I could get it fixed to work as an internet radio station.
What's the lastest OS you could install on this laptop?
Does anyone have any experience with the particular PC?

Your expertice is greatly appreciated.

I have one of the series, mine is 2621, very similar tho. Once you close the lid it becomes stand alone cd player. Other than it's big and bulky it's pretty nice design. Mine has a night lite above the LCD where a modern webcam is. Crucial memory said my max is 512 ram. One thing I like a lot about the Thinkpad it is that many comes with miniPCI slot. Usually used for the modem. I take out the modem card and put in a cheap Wifi card and find a way to run antenna out. Mine is also only 433Mhz with 256mb ram. Run XP pretty well until I update to the modern updates such as sp3, ie7-8, etc.
Does yours look like one of these?
http://i33.tinypic.com/2ah8wt4.jpg

Admin edit: Removed inline image. Please keep them < 50KB and a decent size (1264x1008 doesn't even fit my SXGA+ screen).

WOW!
Thank you.

Mine looks like the one on the bottom right hand corner.
I got it from a junk yard. It doesn't work but it looks like a brand new.
It still has all the factory stickers on the palm rest and the keyboard looks like a brand new. No finger rubbing marks.
The only problem is that the LCD doesn't display anything when it powers up. I was thinking about getting a cheap hard drive and memory upgrade to see if it works. But for me, it would only be a worthwhile if it can run XP.

I don't know how different it is from the 1611 to 2621 but thanks to your experience, I'm tempted to see if I could get it fixed.
I don't know if mine has a mini PCI slot. That would be nice because I have a spare mini PCI laying around.
Have you ever tried to hook up your 2621 with the wifi router yet?

Yep, works fine better than 56k modem.

synergy wrote:The only problem is that the LCD doesn't display anything when it powers up. I was thinking about getting a cheap hard drive and memory upgrade to see if it works. But for me, it would only be a worthwhile if it can run XP.

Have you hooked up an external monitor to see if it outputs a signal? If so, you might just have a cable or LCD issue. I refurb'd one for my wife's grandfather a few years back and it ran W2K fine right up till the A/C jack developed a cold solder joint.

Here are the original specs for your machine:

Product: ThinkPad i Series 1400 2611-410

Original description: P 266MMX (512KB) 32MB RAM 3.2GB 12.1 SVGA TFT 20X 56K(Int) Win98

Thanks Neil. I wonder what the maximum RAM it could take.
Schen. I actually did try to hook it up to an external monitor but it didn't work.
I could hear hard drive spinning but nothing appeared on the either screens.

Could it be the LCD monitor driver problem?
At first I suspected a BLU or something related but the external monitor didn't work either.
But then again, unless something is very wrong, the screen should've shown something.

I'm more incline to think that it could be something more serious like faulty mobo.
I'm thinking about getting a new hard drive to see if it works.
Does the IBM Lenovo still have all the drivers, BIOS available for the i Series?

synergy wrote:Thanks Neil. I wonder what the maximum RAM it could take.
Schen. I actually did try to hook it up to an external monitor but it didn't work.
I could hear hard drive spinning but nothing appeared on the either screens.

I know this sounds simplistic, but did you try fn+F7 when you had the external monitor hooked up? It shouldn't be a driver issue when booting. To be sure, you can try safe mode since it just uses the basic 640x480 built into Windows and doesn't load the drivers. The boot screen should be the same thing.