ThinkPad 380Z - Upgrades

[TP380Z]

Hello Everyone,

I bought a 380Z a few years ago because I needed a computer with a serial port. Since it was equipped with an ethernet card, I thought I probably couldn't go too far wrong for $100.

Some specifics:

• Model: 2635-HGU
• OS: W98SE
• Storage: 4 GB
• RAM: 64 MB
• Ethernet: Olicom GoCard OC-2220 (wired)

While not particularly fast, it works well enough for what I need. However, as these computers get older, parts get harder to find so I thought I might as well get any upgrades if they're still available and not too expensive. I've also found the Lenovo driver site and downloaded 380Z drivers, utilities, and manuals to create an installation disk of my own.

I find that it's handy now to travel with a laptop as it's useful to look things up in my room rather than the public computer in the lobby. Many hotels have in-room internet but it's not usually wired so I can't plug in my GoCard. Wireless cards aren't that expensive but most seem to require W2000 SP4. I have this OS but am concerned it would make my computer even slower.

Some questions:

• How much slower would my computer run with W2000 & 96 MB RAM than W98SE & 64 MB? W2000 & 160 MB RAM?
• Would W98SE run significantly faster with more RAM?
• Where is the best place to buy RAM?
• The original BIOS supports a maximum drive size of 8 GB. The latest BIOS doesn't indicate that larger drives are now supported but many people here have larger drives with the latest version (IGET30WW). What is the largest drive size supported with the latest BIOS?
• Are there any free drive overlays that still work with the 380Z? Would there be a size limit with a drive overlay?
• I have been trying to find a driver for the GoCard. I found some but I'm not sure which, if any, is the best one. Checking my current driver properties, it looks like it might have been included in W98. Is a driver for this card actually built into W98 or W2000?
• All of the PCMCIA cards available today seem to be Cardbus. The manual states my computer has Cardbus but also mentions v2.10 PCMCIA cards and Cardbus is apparently v5+ PCMCIA. Would a Cardbus card work properly in my 380Z?
• Would a wireless N adapter be noticeably faster than a wireless G adapter while browsing with a broadband connection?
• If I had to reinstall W98SE, would the 380Z work mostly fine without the additional IBM drivers?

[TTA]

I have a 380Z on my desk so I figure I"m qualified to answer.
Bump your ram, can't hurt
Crucial is a great place to buy, 18004memory is good too but it may be used ram
Not sure what size drive I have (I use mine as a thin client/terminal) but yea you could pop a 250GB in there with a drivemanager
The 380Z supports cardbus, I have a cardbus NIC in mine now
Wireless N? sure for internal network access but the net coming into your house is only so fast, The one in my 380Z is 802.11b
I hate to admit it but I used a set of WinME 1200i recovery CD's on my Z and they picked everything up.
Tecnicallly I suppose this machine would take 2k or XP but mine doesn't see the web, only Win2003 server so updates and stuff are not my concern.

[jdhurst]

Another thing you can try is to find a T30. They are available inexpensively. T30's will run Windows 2000 or Windows XP just fine and will take 2Gb of ram. They DO have serial ports which is why I suggest one. ... JDH

[dsvochak]

•How much slower would my computer run with W2000 & 96 MB RAM than W98SE & 64 MB?

My experience with a similarly speed 560X is, if all the unnecessary services etc are disabled, W2k is at least as fast, if not faster, than W98.

I would consider jd’s suggestion. There may not be much of a cost differential between a complete T30 and parts for your machine.

[TP380Z]

Thanks for the replies. I like using the 380Z but the T30 is a good suggestion. I'll keep an eye out for one. I don't want to spend very much on upgrading the 380Z but wouldn't mind to spend a few bucks if it'll make a noticeable difference. The wireless NIC is a nice-to-have as the GoCard works well enough.

I was surprised at how expensive 128 MB of RAM can be. The supplier I found is diahmemory, which has 128 MB for $58.98:
http://www.diahmemory.com/ibm-thinkpad- ... k-ram.html

I tried Crucial but they don't stock anything for me (Crucial's 380Z Memory). 18004memory's 380Z memory is significantly more expensive ($79.20 for 128 MB).

I ordered a replacement battery for it because I figured C$39.90 was worth the added flexibility. They must have sent someone to Bolivia to mine the lithium as it's been back-ordered for well over a month now.
http://www.intelligentbatteries.ca/Prod ... =N00400835

As for W2000, from what I've learned so far, it won't run very well with the 64 MB I have right now. If I decide to splurge on more RAM, I'd like to think that W98 would also run better if/until I get around to installing W2000.

As for BIOS, I checked mine and it's 97H4127, 7/15/98. Lenovo's 380Z BIOS history only goes back to 09-11-98 (for v1.00 - IGET23WW) so I'll definitely have to flash the BIOS for a new drive.

[TTA]

Oh yea you will pay for 128MB EDO I didn't mention it (foregone conclusion) but it's also used in Dell CP's and I believe Tecra 8000's it's just not worth buying unless you can just pull it from a shell (eg dead laptop)

[Unknown_K]

Find a Wireless B card (PCMCIA), they can be had for next to nothing and will work all the way back to Windows 3.1.

Wavelan cards are decent for example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WaveLAN-Turbo-11Mb- ... 0550036257

Using a faster spec card yet still dealing with DSL or a cable modem will not speed anything up (plus you don't have issues with OS and drivers). The laptops IDE drive will probably only do 5MB/sec max anyway so even a 100Mb ethernet card will not run at max speed.

Win98 SE is what I run on my 380Z, 4GB of HD space is just fine for what I do with it. 64MB of RAM is good enough for 98SE.

[TP380Z]

What kind of hard drive fits the 380Z?

How much could I expect to pay for a used 128 MB stick?

[Unknown_K]

380Z uses a IDE drive (NOT SATA), not sure what the BIOS supports but I figure why use anything bigger then a 30-40GB drive.

Somebody has a 128MB EDO SODIMM on ebay for $29.95 shipped but it is pretty large and I don't have my 380Z here to see how big the opening is to see if it looks like it would fit. Next cheapest normal size SODIMM is $45 shipped.

[TP380Z]

I knew that the 380Z uses PATA IDE drives but wasn't sure if it requires a 2.5" mobile hard drive. Although there would be a 8 GB maximum drive limitation without a BIOS upgrade, would any of currently available drives work up to maybe 128 GB? (See TigerDirect 2.5" IDE Mobile Hard Drives).

As for the RAM, I think you're referring to TOSHIBA 128MB EDO SODIMM 144 Pin PA2054 U Equiv. It does look a lot bigger than mine. The 128 MB RAM for a Toshiba Tecra seems to be different that that for a 380Z (see Tecra 128 MB vs 380Z 128 MB). However, memory for Dell Latitude CP appears to be the same as memory for the 380Z.

[Unknown_K]

2.5" laptop drive

[TTA]

I knew that the 380Z uses PATA IDE drives but wasn't sure if it requires a 2.5" mobile hard drive. Although there would be a 8 GB maximum drive limitation without a BIOS upgrade, would any of currently available drives work up to maybe 128 GB? (See TigerDirect 2.5" IDE Mobile Hard Drives).

As for the RAM, I think you're referring to TOSHIBA 128MB EDO SODIMM 144 Pin PA2054 U Equiv. It does look a lot bigger than mine. The 128 MB RAM for a Toshiba Tecra seems to be different that that for a 380Z (see Tecra 128 MB vs 380Z 128 MB). However, memory for Dell Latitude CP appears to be the same as memory for the 380Z.

I'm sure your right on the ram, I used to buy every Dell CP with 128MB sticks from my local asset managment place (ie computer recycleing center) but they are very few and far between now. The Tecra 8000's were great for the MMC1 400MHz CPU's those memory sticks and CPU's back in the day were worth more than the laptops you pulled them from. Dell CP's can be turned into CPi's with a BIOS mod but that's another story fpr a Dell forum LOL

[TP380Z]

An update on my 380Z.

I did a successful BIOS upgrade to version 1.08 - IGET30WW and it was quite straightforward. I then installed Windows 2000 with SP4 and the W2000 video driver. Windows 2000 works well and I don't find it any slower than W98SE.

I then replaced my TravelStar 4 GB drive with a Fujitsu 30 GB drive I found for less than $10 (including shipping) on eBay. For some reason, the installation would not work with the NTFS file system but FAT32 worked fine. The only issue I have with the Fujitsu drive is that the drive's cassette cover does not fit over the the corners of the drive. The cassette cover fits into the corner dimples of the drive with 3 prongs and the dimples are a slightly different than those on the TravelStar and I will have to file down the prongs to fit.

The major problem with continuing to run with W2000 is that very few browsers support it now. I installed TheWorld browser and it seems to work well enough once I added gdiplus.dll to System32 folder. TheWorld browser can share favorites with IE6 and either browser works well enough on sites like wordreference.com.

[Tasurinchi]

I have Opera in several oldies from my collection using Win2K. It runs really well. Last installation was in my A20p and it's surprisingly fast!

[TP380Z]

You must be referring to an older version of Opera as the latest version is showing the minimum requirement is Windows XP. I wanted to try TheWorld browser as the current version supports W2000 up to Windows 7. I was trying to avoid older versions as I thought they might have trouble with modern web pages (IE6 seems to crash regularly).

[Tasurinchi]

You must be referring to an older version of Opera

Yes, sorry. I used good old google asking for the best browser for Win2k and Opera was in first place. Still worked really fine...

[Medessec]

Opera honestly I think is the one browser that plays the nicest with older machines...

As for your 380Z, those are some impressive upgrades-it's good to see you really want to keep it going. I have a couple of 770s, which can kinda be related as the 700-series counterpart to the 380.

Windows 2000 was a very smart move-I love Windows 98, but I kinda like being able to plug in Flash Drives and not have to tell Windows what driver to use.

However you should indeed try out a T30 when you get the chance, provided you find one with a fresh install, they'll fly compared to a 380Z/770 anyday. Plus they're lighter, batteries go for $20-$30, they have the ThinkLight(lamp on the lid that lights up the keyboard), and they have the UltraNav(Trackpoint AND Touchpad). They also have much better, more efficient processors and ATI Radeon 7000, so basic tasks are always struck down like nothing. I have 2 in at the moment I plan to sell soon-they both run Windows XP SP3.

[TP380Z]

On jdhurst's earlier advice, I did pick up a T30 (Type 2366, 1.8 GHz, 512 MB,RAM, 40 GB drive) a couple of years ago through Kijiji. The hard drive just crashed this summer (all clatter, no go) and I replaced it with a 60 GB 7200 RPM TravelStar drive I found on eBay for $15. One of the members here helped me out with T30 recovery disks.

Since the 380Z still works so well, I installed Office 2003 on it so the kids could use it for working on assignments without the distraction of sites like YouTube. I might still get a 128 MB RAM stick later on.

I could still use some help with getting my GoCard configured.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=107507

[Medessec]

I did a quick google on the card, and there doesn't seem to be much on drivers... in fact, your inquiry on THIS forum, was on the first page in my google search. Says quite a bit about how rare the card is.

I imagine if you do some deep digging, you may find the driver, but otherwise your only hope of finding it is through some disks or floppys with the drivers(usually no chance of that).

HOWEVER- I got a very obscure Wi-Fi card awhile back, and there was absolutely no driver for it under the card's brand... however I found out the card actually utilized a Broadcom chip under license, so I simply fetched the standard Broadcom Wireless G chip driver, and the Wi-Fi card worked like a charm. Maybe the same principle can apply to your Olicom GoCard...?

[TP380Z]

I was looking for the network configuration settings I would use for this card, which I expect would be similar for any ethernet card. W2000 doesn't show any problems for this card in Device Manager.

[Medessec]

Ah, ok. In that case- I'm not completely sure how networking works on W2000, but Windows should be configured to accept internet through Local Area Network, if you're connecting through a router.

If it works through Wi-Fi and other USB/internet devices just fine... it could be a problem with how Windows 2000's networking works with the card. Windows 2000 has dramatically different internet configurations... but if it picks up the card completely fine, it should work, W2000 is more accustomed to LAN or Ethernet connections.

I'm not an expert in networking... so I can't pinpoint the problem exactly... you'd have to see if anyone else more familiar with networking can help you.