Looking for info on the Thinkpad 240Z

[Thinkpad Maniac]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone had some more information of the IBM Thinkpad 240Z, aside from it being like a 240X with an XGA resolution screen, and that it was released in the Asia-Pacific countries. It seems to be quite rare these days especially in North America. Was it ever available in Australia? Did it have any English language recovery discs? What was the CPU clock rate? How long was it in production for?

I think it was released in 2000? Also is there a hardware maintenance manual available for it in English? There doesn't seem to be a lot of information available about it online.

[pianowizard]

Some had 500MHz Celeron, while others had 600MHz Pentium III. Some models had an internal Ethernet port. Thus, it was kind of similar to the S30 and S31, but is even harder to find. I once had a cheaper version of the 240Z, called the i Series 1124. I still regret selling that, because it's probably the rarest Thinkpad model ever.

More info in Japanese here:
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDo ... _locale=en
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDo ... _locale=ja
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_240

[madicetea]

What was the difference between the cheaper i-Series and the Thinkpad 240Z?

[Thinkpad Maniac]

Some had 500MHz Celeron, while others had 600MHz Pentium III. Some models had an internal Ethernet port. Thus, it was kind of similar to the S30 and S31, but is even harder to find. I once had a cheaper version of the 240Z, called the i Series 1124. I still regret selling that, because it's probably the rarest Thinkpad model ever.

More info in Japanese here:
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDo ... _locale=en
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/ShowDo ... _locale=ja
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_240

Thanks for the info. Too bad that page is only in Japanese. I believe you said in some previous post that you didn't really like the S30, and S31 when you received them as you didn't like the look of them, i.e. 240Z looked better. I personally like the look of the 600, 570, etc. series ThinkPads. I had a 600X, it was very solid, I love the design. The 240 series retains that design to some degree albeit compactly. I like that as I like small portable items. Too bad that the 240 is pentium ii based, that can't handle much if anything these days, it would have difficulty with even legacy software. The 240X is a bit more powerful being pentium iii based, still it only can have 192 mb of RAM, and the screen resolution leaves a bit to be desired at 800x600 SVGA. Not totally sure how much the 240Z can handle in the way of RAM. I'd assume it can handle a light installation of XP just fine. I'm sure YouTube at any resolution would essentially be unplayable though. I recall having a Dell C610 that I salvaged together some years ago, having a Pentium III 1.2 GHz CPU and about 1 GB of RAM, with an ATI Radeon 16 MB video chip, it could only play 360p videos with stuttering in XP SP3. It'd only be useful for legacy software, and games, and maybe some very light tasks. It's a nice little machine though, would love to own one some day...

[Thinkpad Maniac]

It's 6am here and I'm not feeling it at this exact moment, but I could try searching around later today and would be able to translate materials if needed.

Wishing you best on your hunt.

P.S. If you were to post this as a "want to buy' in Marketplace hoping one of us Japan peeps have one for sale, (not to discourage you, but) you would be sadly mistaken. Anything rare and Asia-Pacific region is really hard to find - it's not in stores even in Akihabara (I took some time last week to check), and it sells maybe once a season max for insane prices on Yahoo Auction. For example, there was a model 220 that went up to 230 USD a model 235 that went straight up to 500 USD. I bid on both when they started at closer to 10% of that value, but there are hardcore peeps here who will drive the prices up (and I'm a student who isn't willing to put that much effort into my IBM Thinkpad collection).

That said, I'll keep a sticky note on my wall behind my computer to remind you if I ever do see a 240Z out there in the wild.

Thanks, if you could translate some of that page it would be great. There is very little information on the 240Z floating around the thinkwiki site also does not have much information on it. I'm only looking to get some information at this point. Even ThinkPad models 240, and 240X are rare here in North America. They pop up in for parts condition on eBay, but the shipping to Canada is like 40 CAD, and sometimes costs more than the laptop, whereas in the States it is quite cheap, or free sometimes.

I'm not looking to get one at the moment as I'm planning on moving to Europe in the Fall this year, and don't want to have to take lot's of luggage with me; I'm reducing to an absolute minimum. Once I settle in, I'd like to get a 240X, or maybe a 240Z as a retro ThinkPad. I saw one on sale at a Japanese website somewhat recently but the price was something like 200 CAD or more. When I decide to start buying I'll probably be willing to settle for a 240X as they tend to be much cheaper, and easier to find (I've only seen the 240Z on sale like once or twice online). The S30, and S31 models can fetch a pretty penny as well!

[RealBlackStuff]

If you follow the HMM link at the top of each Forum page, you'll find an English manual for 240 and 240X (but not 240Z).

In German there is also this info: http://thinkwiki.de/240

http://ps-2.kev009.com/pccbbs/mobiles/240usref.pdf (06-22-99 ThinkPad 240 User's Reference that shipped with the system)

[Thinkpad4by3]

I wonder if someone could take a 240X mobo and swap the CPU? 850Mhz 240? Ask 51NB to put a Core i7 in it ?

[zephray]

I got a 240Z several years ago. The keyboard was bad but I replaced it with a 240 keyboard and it works fine now. Mine comes with a 600MHz PIII, internal Ethernet, and an XGA screen. It uses the same sound card and graphic card as the 240X and operating system, drivers are basically directly compatible. But due to the Japanese keyboard, I still recommend installing and using Japanese version of Windows. Though it is possible to install an English keyboard, but they are not easy to find.

[Thinkpad4by3]

They arent direct from an english 240?

[BillMorrow]

the 240 was a dandy little thinkpad..
i have one in my archives of old thinkpads..
great keyboard..
never found an affordable 240Z to play with though i did look for one..

AND, surprise for myself, there on top of the 240 was a pristine PCMCIA cover for a thinkpad 701C..! very rare..

[Thinkpad4by3]

AND, surprise for myself, there on top of the 240 was a pristine PCMCIA cover for a thinkpad 701C..! very rare..

Didn't everyone throw those blasted things out?

[pianowizard]

I got a 240Z several years ago. The keyboard was bad but I replaced it with a 240 keyboard and it works fine now. Mine comes with a 600MHz PIII, internal Ethernet, and an XGA screen. It uses the same sound card and graphic card as the 240X and operating system, drivers are basically directly compatible. But due to the Japanese keyboard, I still recommend installing and using Japanese version of Windows. Though it is possible to install an English keyboard, but they are not easy to find.

You can simply replace it with a 240's or 240X's US English keyboard. That's what I did for my i Series 1124.

[zephray]

You can simply replace it with a 240's or 240X's US English keyboard. That's what I did for my i Series 1124.

Well I guess probably WorkPad Z50's keyboard is also compatible? Haven't tried yet, but they looked the same (except different labels on function keys). By the way, I think one "drawback" of an English keyboard is the lack of a Caps Lock key (it is replaced by a Tab key I think), the Japanese keyboard does not have this problem.