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I bought a broken T40!

T40/T41/T42/T43 Series
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beko1987
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I bought a broken T40!

#1 Post by beko1987 » Thu Dec 21, 2017 6:52 am

Not content with my little vintage 240, I spied this on ebay the other day, and after reading all the helpful info on here, decided it could make a fun project, so hit buy it now!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IBM-THINK-PA ... 2749.l2649

I'm going to try the oven method first, and basically see what happens! I'm less sure what to do with it if it works than if it stays broken, so watch this space! Ebay says it will arrive next week, so it'll be the new year before I do much with it! At least they showed it turned on so I know the screen and general machine does work.
Thinkpad T40
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w0qj
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#2 Post by w0qj » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:53 pm

Wow, hope that you will successfully get a full refund!

The eBay seller webpage did clearly state that it was in working condition...

Good luck!
Daily Driver: (X1E3) X1 Extreme 3rd Gen | mobile broadband (WWAN)
Current Thinkpads: X1E3 | X1E1 | X1C10 | X1C9 | X1C4 | X1C3 | X230
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RealBlackStuff
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#3 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu Dec 28, 2017 3:13 am

That could indeed be a bad ATI Radeon 9000 GPU, I assume that's what you hope for.
I doubt baking it will do you any good, you need reballing for that.
In any case you can replace the motherboard with any T40/T41/T42/R50/R51 mobo and reuse all other parts.
You can also put in a "newer" T43/R52 mobo, but that requires different CPU and RAM.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#4 Post by beko1987 » Thu Dec 28, 2017 6:07 am

It arrived today! Poor thing is filthy, and has a bit of damage to the wrist rest by the optical drive, but I'm not fussed about that for now!

First thing was to plug it in and confirm that the screen is indeed as garbled as it was on the ebay listing. I then hooked it up to an external display and that was garbled as well (just incase it showed the LCD was gubbed and not the GPU). I tried the wedge trick quickly using some post it notes and that did nothing...

Yes, my main aim with this is to try popping it in the oven and seeing if that fixes it, I've read about it a few times. For the price I paid, I'm not too fussed if it doesn't, as I now have 2 x 512mb sticks of RAM and an 80gb IDE hard drive I can find a use for, and buying those individually would cost more than the whole laptop.

Infact I have even less idea of what to do with it if I get it working than if it stays broken... It was just cheap, and I fancied a play!

Quite curious as to how it's ended up in Buckinghamshire, UK from Berkley, California! Came from a nanomanufacturing place called SINAM if that rings a bell with any US members? Luckily the power supply is 100v - 240v so I can just plug a UK figure of 8 cable into it.

Will have a look this weekend and see what can be done
Thinkpad T40
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beko1987
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Posts: 76
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Location: Oxon, Britain

Re: I bought a broken T40!

#5 Post by beko1987 » Fri Dec 29, 2017 6:23 pm

Well, I've learnt lots tonight.

I've learnt how to take a Thinkpad T40 apart, it's fantastically easy to do with the manual! Mine has been bashed at some point, the top bezel has a corner missing, and the metal reinforcer behind the battery is cracked. But Meh, not it's biggest problem.

It's biggest problem was the idiot who forgot/didnt think to take ALL the stickers off before lobbing it in the oven for 6 minutes... Sticker curled and took many tiny components with it. RIP System Board...

I then learnt how to reassemble the whole thing so as not to loose anything, have 2 screw leftover that came from by the bluetooth chip somewhere, and one in the wrong place by the slimbay cage...

I also, thanks to Ebay, and £17 later have a T41 working system board heading my way...
System board assembly, ATI M10-64,
Gigabit Ethernet with security chip for
T42
v 2373-3Ux, 3Vx, 3Xx, 3Yx, 8Xx, 8Yx,
8Zx, 9Tx, 9Ux, 9Vx, 9Xx, 9Zx, AYx,
BUx, BXx, BYx, CUx, CVx, CWx, CXx,
CYx, JXx
v 2374-3VU, 3Xx
v 2378-DXx, EXx, EYx, FVx
v 2379-DXx
93P4158 N

My old board was 93p3842 which I can find no reference to in the service manual. No idea wether the board I bought is a downgrade or not but TBH it can't get more downgraded than it is now...

My £10 potential bargain is now at £27, oops. Was looking at faster processors earlier too, although that's on the back burner now! Found a 1.6ghz Pentium M, 1GB of ram and a Phillips 2.4/5ghz wifi card, and a modem/Bluetooth card. No idea if the hard drive works. Also, right at the end, I noticed the keyboard is in the US layout, which seems obvious considering where it came from. Not a huge issue though...

So, until this new board arrives, the project is paused
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RealBlackStuff
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#6 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:01 am

Your new mobo is a slight improvement!
You went from ATI Radeon 9000 with 64MB GPU-RAM to ATI Radeon 9600 with 64MB GPU-RAM.
For a fairly complete list of T4x/R5x mobos, see my website: http://theboardroom.info/ibm_list.html

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#7 Post by beko1987 » Sat Dec 30, 2017 4:40 am

Wonderful, that's not so bad then! Plus, being from a large (going by their feedback) seller if it doesn't work I can send it back!

Once it works it'll come apart again anyway for a good cleanup, and I'll see if it's worth spending another £10 on the few plastic parts it needs. I did find out that the power brick fits my old 240,which was kissing its one so that's handy!

Ive browsed your site before, it looks very familiar! Thanks for putting such good info out there, I can see alot of dedication! I'm a bit out if my league with thinkpads, I'm a vacuum collector myself so know how geeky one can get with these things!
Thinkpad T40
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Thinkpad X60 Tablet
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RealBlackStuff
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#8 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sat Dec 30, 2017 4:44 am

Tube or Hoover?

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#9 Post by beko1987 » Sat Dec 30, 2017 5:35 am

Hoover. I read posts about people with 100+ thinkpads and don't laugh inside, because I have 100+ hoovers. Must do one tonight, might play with my little thinkpad 240 inbetween though!
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#10 Post by beko1987 » Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:23 am

Some progress! My T41 board came yesterday, so after dinner I got down to fitting it. Despite stern words it refused to fit itself

Image

So apart it came (much easier the second time) and I made use of the anti static sofa and anti static carpet

Image

Soon I had this

Image

Image

Image

Then 20 minutes later it was time to turn it on and see what happens, and the feeling was mixed

Image

Positive, it boots, negative, the screen is still doing that.

I nearly put it away and went to bed grumpy, then I remembered to check the VGA, so out came a cable, on went the telly and

Image

Fantastic, one issue solved! (I got garbled rubbish through the VGA with the old board.

Got stopped in my tracks though

Image

Some googling reveals this is a common issue and I need some sort of whitelist. Meh, that can wait. I popped it apart and had the Phillips wifi card out, back together again and

Image

Oooh. Got presented with a login prompt for someone called Rupert, but luckily the Admin account was unlocked so...

Image

And it booted up into a well used XP Pro install! (800x600 on a 50" LCD was a bit horrible, but I cant be bothered to install the graphics drivers yet) Runs nice and quick (it's a 1.6 with 1gb RAM), I confirmed the trackpad and keyboard worked, poked about with the LCD connector just in case and put it away and went to bed. It seems to have the original IBM install too (lots of IBM utilities, turning the ThinkLight on popped a message up etc) and I'm sure I saw a restore partition during my brief flick through.

Going to take the LCD apart and see if it's a simple connector issue, but posting the above on the Retro Machines facebook group, a lovely chap said he thinks he has a cannibalised Txx in his shed, which he will look for, so if that's cheap enough I might grab that off him and hopefully sort the LCD out and the bits of trim and stuff I need for the case.

It's progress though! Half tempted to boot it back up again, install TeamViewer and pop it by the router with a cat5 and play with it remotely. Or just leave it under the bed for another day
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
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beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#11 Post by beko1987 » Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:04 am

This may or may not be a good idea...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Job-lot-of-6 ... 2749.l2649

Hopefully, the bare minimum I can get is:

UK Keyboard

Internal metal chassis (mine is snapped)

Keyboard Bezel (mine is snapped)

Upgrade the CPU from a 1.6 to a 1.8ghz

A working WIFI card (the one currently fitted isn't on the whitelist so it wont boot with it fitted, cba to flash a whitelisted BIOS to it yet)

3 missing screws

Since the keyboard bezel is £4 on it's own, it seems good value (postage aside, I've man math'ed that out of my head...) There might even be a good screen, but I wont get excited about that yet. No idea about the rest, I'll give it all a good look over before condemning it, but in a way I hope they don't all work, the I won't feel compelled to keep them, and can part them out/turn them straight back around on ebay!
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

kfzhu1229
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#12 Post by kfzhu1229 » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:54 pm

beko1987 wrote:
Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:04 am
This may or may not be a good idea...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Job-lot-of-6 ... 2749.l2649

Hopefully, the bare minimum I can get is:

UK Keyboard

Internal metal chassis (mine is snapped)

Keyboard Bezel (mine is snapped)

Upgrade the CPU from a 1.6 to a 1.8ghz

A working WIFI card (the one currently fitted isn't on the whitelist so it wont boot with it fitted, cba to flash a whitelisted BIOS to it yet)

3 missing screws

Since the keyboard bezel is £4 on it's own, it seems good value (postage aside, I've man math'ed that out of my head...) There might even be a good screen, but I wont get excited about that yet. No idea about the rest, I'll give it all a good look over before condemning it, but in a way I hope they don't all work, the I won't feel compelled to keep them, and can part them out/turn them straight back around on ebay!
If you get those parts separately, it is gonna be expensive as hell. If you come in good luck and found a dead machine like how I found a dead T41p with SXGA+ display for just CAD$15, it is gonna fix everything.
If you cannot, still I recommend you to just get another T4x working as that will be cheaper (I sold my perfectly working T42 with 14.1" SXGA+ for just USD$80), if you buy in this forum.
As for things like broken keyboard bezel, just forget about it. Otherwise if you keep spending on those nickpicks, you can even buy a IPS Flexview T4x with that money!
As for CPU, flash that white list BIOS and get a Dothan 90nm 400mhz FSB based CPU (later version of BIOS support Dothan 90nm processors). That is gonna be a hell lot better than upgrading from Banias 1.6 to Banias 1.8.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

beko1987
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Location: Oxon, Britain

Re: I bought a broken T40!

#13 Post by beko1987 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:27 am

Will type it up fully later but it was a VERY good buy getting all thescrap laptops! In short, I have a fully working, no missing screws and improved T40!

Also included in the box is a T400 and T61, both have issues but both look identical, will have a play with those and see what I can do, and a T42 and T43. T42 has a smashed screen but boots, T43 doesnt boot but has a good looking screen. Again, will have a play

Will get last night typed up first though, I'm very happy!
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#14 Post by beko1987 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:01 am

Right, here we go! I had a £19 box to open

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZV

Inside was nicely packed, might use this to store the Thinkpads in for now until I come up with something better...

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZB

Emptied it all out

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZt

The T40 in the centre was the donor, it didn't boot at all with RAM added.

Other bits (didn't go through it all fully, didn't want mission creep!)

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZZ

The T400 does post though, but has a dead backlight. Hoping the T61 screen fits, as the T61 is quite smashed case wise

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZs

So I got my finest hammer, and stripped the donor T40 down fully!

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZi

And ended up with a nice pile of bits to swap

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZF

I then stripped my T40 down to it's component parts, and started replacing bits starting with the Slimbay latch

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZh

Metal structure

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZx

VGA cable assembly (may as well be picky when I can be!)

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZg

Then not alot else for now, I did clean the CPU though

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZO

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZM

Haven't swapped them yet, the donor T40 was a 1.3ghz model, and the Tx that holds the 1.8 may yet live, so will leave that for now. Plus reading Mr KHZFU's comments above might make me have a re-think about processing power.

I bought this to do my PC when I got it, but 2 years on have not got round to it... So dug it out for this

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZY

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZG

Then popped the Heatsink on. All the foam strip around the heatsink chassis is worn off, a future job though, and as this machine won't be hammered, possibly not too important yet

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZ0

Grabbed the Intel wifi card from one of the other machines, as I need to whitelist the BIOS for it to take the better (2.4/5ghz) Phillips WIFI card it came with, but want it working for now

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZp

I then took a massive chance and fitted the unknown, untested screen from the donor. It can't be any more broken than the old LCD was, so meh. Swapped the outer LED trim round too as it was missing on the new screen

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZv

Trim now! Non broken keyboard bezel

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZn

Then the wrist rest, as that was broken too (hadn't noticed that, lucky I had a spare!) Is also less worn than the old one, the trackpad is now not shiny!

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZC

After that it was just re-assembly,replacing some of the missing screws along the way! Then a deep breath as I popped the battery back in, pushed the button and...

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZ4

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

Fantastic! It was 12.30am by this point, so elated, I lobbed everything back in the box, and binned the remains. Can't be bothered to sell these bits, their so cheap on ebay from sellers with big postage accounts that even if I give it away postage will cost more. Plus I don't know if it works, and don't want to start hoarding stuff

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZL

And that was that! This morning, I fired her up, and started the recover process to wipe Mr. Rupert's life from the drive and start again

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZR

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZE

https://www.ultraimg.com/image/nnZf

And here we are! I am where I should have been when I bought it! I suppose we should look at costs...

Original T40 - £16.99
New System Board - £17.99
Parts laptops - £19.99 (cost will go down if I can get any of the other machines working)
Total - £54.97... oops

Still, I know how a Tx series laptop works now, and it needs to come apart again at some point for a good scrub of the plastics! And it's been a fun week or so

Still to do:

Find the board and graphics drivers for the T42 board
Find the Wifi card drivers
Remove the bluetooth antenna from the old dead screen and fit it to the new screen
The heatsink fan is a bit noisy, so that needs oiling (kept the heatsink from the donor laptop for now incase I need the fan)
Another strip and clean
Have not swapped the keyboards yet, will await the status of the laptop it's currently fitted to
BIOS whitelist. I know it exists, but have not found it yet

At least I can perform the XP POS hack tonight and actually use it on my lap!

It's been emotional chaps, thanks for reading and bearing with a newbie!

Cheers

Sam
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#15 Post by beko1987 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:42 pm

kfzhu1229 wrote:
Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:54 pm
beko1987 wrote:
Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:04 am
This may or may not be a good idea...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Job-lot-of-6 ... 2749.l2649

Hopefully, the bare minimum I can get is:

UK Keyboard

Internal metal chassis (mine is snapped)

Keyboard Bezel (mine is snapped)

Upgrade the CPU from a 1.6 to a 1.8ghz

A working WIFI card (the one currently fitted isn't on the whitelist so it wont boot with it fitted, cba to flash a whitelisted BIOS to it yet)

3 missing screws

Since the keyboard bezel is £4 on it's own, it seems good value (postage aside, I've man math'ed that out of my head...) There might even be a good screen, but I wont get excited about that yet. No idea about the rest, I'll give it all a good look over before condemning it, but in a way I hope they don't all work, the I won't feel compelled to keep them, and can part them out/turn them straight back around on ebay!
If you get those parts separately, it is gonna be expensive as hell. If you come in good luck and found a dead machine like how I found a dead T41p with SXGA+ display for just CAD$15, it is gonna fix everything.
If you cannot, still I recommend you to just get another T4x working as that will be cheaper (I sold my perfectly working T42 with 14.1" SXGA+ for just USD$80), if you buy in this forum.
As for things like broken keyboard bezel, just forget about it. Otherwise if you keep spending on those nickpicks, you can even buy a IPS Flexview T4x with that money!
As for CPU, flash that white list BIOS and get a Dothan 90nm 400mhz FSB based CPU (later version of BIOS support Dothan 90nm processors). That is gonna be a hell lot better than upgrading from Banias 1.6 to Banias 1.8.
Regarding CPU's, from this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_I ... 22_(90_nm)

I presume by 400mhz only I need to look at the 400mT/s ones, not the 533mT/s CPU's? So the highest there will be a Pentium M 765 2.1ghz...

Doesn't seem that much of a jump, or does the architecture help a bit? Will probably max the RAM and pop a solid drive in first before going down the CPU route, will lob the 1.8 in if it becomes spare though.

Need to read up more on the whitelist mod, found a few bits so far
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

ajkula66
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#16 Post by ajkula66 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:55 pm

beko1987 wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:42 pm

I presume by 400mhz only I need to look at the 400mT/s ones, not the 533mT/s CPU's? So the highest there will be a Pentium M 765 2.1ghz...

Doesn't seem that much of a jump, or does the architecture help a bit? Will probably max the RAM and pop a solid drive in first before going down the CPU route, will lob the 1.8 in if it becomes spare though.
Correct, PM 765 is as high as one can go. Having said that...

If you prefer a stable, cool-running system PM 735 or PM 745 are cheaper and more palatable options IMO. Dothan architecture does help the performance a bit, but let's not forget that we're discussing 15 year old technology here.
Need to read up more on the whitelist mod, found a few bits so far
"No-1802" hack is all you need on a pre-T43 machine.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#17 Post by beko1987 » Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:12 pm

Marvellous, thanks! Will bear the cpu in mind, and get googling for no 1802 (I've read about that before I think!)
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

kfzhu1229
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#18 Post by kfzhu1229 » Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:51 pm

beko1987 wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:42 pm
I presume by 400mhz only I need to look at the 400mT/s ones, not the 533mT/s CPU's? So the highest there will be a Pentium M 765 2.1ghz...

Doesn't seem that much of a jump, or does the architecture help a bit? Will probably max the RAM and pop a solid drive in first before going down the CPU route, will lob the 1.8 in if it becomes spare though.

Need to read up more on the whitelist mod, found a few bits so far
By the way the 1.6Ghz CPU in your hand in one of the pictures is a Banias one, because Dothan ones have 2mb cache instead of 1mb.
Don't know if you already figured that one out yet, might as well point it out.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

Callahan
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#19 Post by Callahan » Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:52 pm

beko1987 ... thoroughly enjoy reading about your project, the pictures are great. I have learned a few things I didn't know.

Will keep following, if you post more.
...

thinkpadcollection
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#20 Post by thinkpadcollection » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:19 pm

How did you source these notebooks in bulk in one box? From ebay?

Cheers, Jason

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#21 Post by beko1987 » Sun Jan 21, 2018 6:12 am

Callahan wrote:
Sat Jan 20, 2018 3:52 pm
beko1987 ... thoroughly enjoy reading about your project, the pictures are great. I have learned a few things I didn't know.

Will keep following, if you post more.
...
Why thank you! Yes, will be more if people want it, I've got a thread in the x60 forum too!
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

beko1987
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Re: I bought a broken T40!

#22 Post by beko1987 » Sun Jan 21, 2018 6:12 am

thinkpadcollection wrote:
Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:19 pm
How did you source these notebooks in bulk in one box? From ebay?

Cheers, Jason
Yep, eBay. Thinkpad job lot brings them up
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

beko1987
Freshman Member
Posts: 76
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 3:53 am
Location: Oxon, Britain

Re: I bought a broken T40!

#23 Post by beko1987 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 5:54 am

I had some time with this last night, and fitted some cheap parts I bought!

First order though was ti flash the BIOS, and using the lovely thread about the very subject, made myself a DOS pen drive and pushed the do or die button

https://photos.app.goo.gl/a3sGJe1xAOeImu522

This worked!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3y5JsmIwKNNNhQum1

and it booted. So, a before shot of the specs!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7CUGLZIbVcxojDi12

Then I got the Phillips wifi card that was in the laptop when I got it, but it wasn't liked and would not boot. Wether someone fitted it and it's never worked, or the thinkpad suddenly just decided it didnt like it one day, I never know! I took the intel one out I fitted asa stop gap

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1e6BIL0hTII7kWCu1

And gave it a try! The hard drive is out here, hence the OS not found error, but it got further than the original error got it, which is nice!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hF5FSbXPv2EnCSM33

So next up, RAM. 2x1gb sticks replaced the 2x512mb sticks it had

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1krFqXhfuL2URI0u1

Then the 1.6ghz Banias processor got swapped for a 1.8ghz PM745 Dothan chip!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tUqS8hREQwazoKZw2

But did it work?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/56oZWdGPbBPdsb102

Sweet! But then it all went a little bit downhill... I had bought a very cheap 60gb M.2 SSD

https://photos.app.goo.gl/F0EgyNJsJbDWTcBp2

However, because I'm a massive fool, bought an Msata to IDE adapter...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WVkr34Qf7BuanAJu2

Which has obvious problems. So I need to order the right adapter on payday, then wait for it to come over from China... The original drive with BunsenLabs is back in for now, I'll be putting XP back on the new drive when it's done as I ran some benchmarks 'as it was', and want to compare them to how it is now!

Costs?

RAM was £6.25 delivered
SSD was £25.51 delivered
Msata adapter was £4.99 delivered (will keep that for now though incase I want to upgrade another machine, will just have to buy the correct SSD...)
CPU was £6.66 delivered

So not horrific. Nearly there with it!

Things to do:
The speakers don't speak... Not sure why because they did work, and no cables have broken. I have a few spare speaker sets to try though, and TBH it's not a massive issue as it'll sit on mute most of the time anyway...
Still got to have the screen apart to fit the bluetooth antenna
Still needs to all come apart again for a good scrub of the plastics
Buy the correct hard drive adapter!

The wrist rest has a split in it right under the trackpad too, however the unit itself isn't worn at all, and the split is inbetween 2 screw holes,and actually vanishes when it's all screwed up, so not goin to bother with that. All the screw covers are missing for the wrist rest too, but I imagine they will cost more than it's worth to replace.

Got to type my X60t update up next, and start a thread about my T400! Poor old 240 has been neglected as of late (because it's perfect already!)
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

kfzhu1229
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: I bought a broken T40!

#24 Post by kfzhu1229 » Fri Feb 09, 2018 9:07 pm

Seems pretty energetic about this.
Just keep in mind to keep track of your costs and your time. Those things easily slide by if you focus mainly on these computers.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

Saucey
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Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2012 9:22 pm
Location: San Diego, California
Contact:

Re: I bought a broken T40!

#25 Post by Saucey » Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:53 pm

kfzhu1229 wrote:
Fri Feb 09, 2018 9:07 pm
Just keep in mind to keep track of your costs and your time. Those things easily slide by if you focus mainly on these computers.
I thought that was the fun part about old ThinkPads and a hidden rule about being a TPF member. :)
Coffee, ThinkPads & Nikon Fan.

Current: PixelBook & Precision 7730
Old Favorites: A31p, T43p, T430s

beko1987
Freshman Member
Posts: 76
Joined: Mon Aug 21, 2017 3:53 am
Location: Oxon, Britain

Re: I bought a broken T40!

#26 Post by beko1987 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:00 pm

I'm not too fussed about my time, but I do agree I've spent way too much money on it already, with no real end goal...

Oops
Thinkpad T40
Thinkpad T43
Thinkpad X60 Tablet
Thinkpad X61
Thinkpad R500
Thinkpad X201

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