Thinkpad Transnote New OS Installation or Admin Bypass?

[cnjmills]

Hello Everyone!

New to the forum. I just picked up my first Thinkpad as a trade-in at my resale shop. It is an IBM Thinkpad Transnote 2675-61U. I never had one of these "back in the day" , but I like it enough to try to fix it up so I can use it for basic data entry, etc at my shop.
It powers up just fine although I don't think the battery holds a charge it does fine while plugged in. The pen is missing and there's no paper for the writing side, but I do have the stylus tips, anyways, on to the issues...

It boots up just fine, but I don't have the Windows 2000 Administrator password and neither does the person I got it from. Therefore I can't actually start Windows.

So I guess my only options are to either reinstall the OS, or bypass the administrator password. I have done some research and it seems that both of these options would be fairly easily accomplished if I had some sort of drive, CD, floppy, could boot from usb, etc, but what do I do when none of these things exist? Can I get to the OS and edit the files in DOS?

I've tried to get it to read an UBUNTU iso on a USB stick but to no avail.

I'm way out of my league here and would really appreciate any help. I really don't want to sell it, but if I can't fix it I may have to sell it "as-is" to someone more tech savvy than myself.

Thanks,
Chris

[Medessec]

?!

A Transnote is a very odd *First* Thinkpad to wind up with... the Transnote is a noticeably sought after oddball Thinkpad on this forum. It's one of my newer targets...

But to answer your question... it's probably better if you install a whole new operating system, Linux is fine. With a Pentium III and at least 64MB of RAM(It'd be nice to know what you have) you could get away with installing Windows XP or a very nice distro of Ubuntu. There's very few options with getting around the password of an NT version of windows.. and I'm not currently aware of any.

Sad you're missing the pen... that's not an easy part to come across. There is ONE sale on ebay now for a pen:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cross-Tablet-St ... 415a5f45f3

But no worries-the Transnote is still very nice and quite capable as a machine. It might take some googling and asking on here, and some work... but it'll be a nice machine to use.

Although I'd possibly contemplate trading your Transnote for one of my much newer T60 laptops...

Aside from that-welcome to the forum, and we'd be more than happy to help you out best you can with any Thinkpad dilemma!

[RealBlackStuff]

Get the XP LiveCD to get rid of that admin-stuff:
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/download.php

And some Transnote info websites:
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... IGR-4U4L7C
http://www.transnote.info/parts.htm

[cnjmills]

My problem lies in that it doesn't have a CD Rom drive, or a floppy drive, and wont boot from USB as far as I can tell. I have a copy of XP and Unbuntu on USB, I just don't know how to get anything on the hardrive without those things. Any Admin password crack also relies on a boot disc of some sort. No CD drive, no boot disc.

[ilakast]

Can you let us know what BIOS version is currently on the machine? Reason I am asking is because only the latest version supports CD boot-up, hence it would be futile to go down that road and buy yourself an external CD player (assuming that you don't plan to get a new battery, to update the BIOS).

Since it has a USB port, the least expensive solution would be to get an external IBM floppy drive, through which you could use plop boot manager to boot from a pcmcia usb port

[cnjmills]

It says BIOS version 1.00a (KVET27WW). Also someone mentioned the actual specs.

It has a Pentium 3 @ 600mhz
320 MB of Ram

Not sure about the Hard drive.

[ilakast]

It says BIOS version 1.00a (KVET27WW). Also someone mentioned the actual specs.

According to http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS001381 version 1.01 only got USB CD-ROM boot support. So only way I can think of is an external floppy drive.

[RealBlackStuff]

You can also download a later BIOS version 1.02 here: http://www.transnote.info/files.htm
I had a Transnote back in 2010 (sold since).
I first used a USB-floppy to update the BIOS.
And after that I used a USB CD/DVD to install Windows XP-FLP and other programs.
(see here for FLP info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fu ... Legacy_PCs).
XP-FLP is quite likely to still be supported after April 2014.
It's definitely the best OS for that little machine!
Dig very deep on the web to find it....

[cnjmills]

Awesome! Thanks Guys!

So it looks like my first step is a USB floppy drive no matter what. I'm glad the first step is an inexpensive one.
I'll keep you posted!

[cnjmills]

So, talk about lucky. I found a copy of Windows 3.1 and Office on floppy the other day at a yard sale for $1, and an Original IBM brand USB floppy drive at a different sale for $.50. Now on to the updating of the Bios.

Can I run the Windows 2000 Admin Bypass crack from the floppy?

[RealBlackStuff]

No, you need a USB CD/DVD drive, such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Slim-Extern ... 2a1afd88c3
It only READS CD or DVD, but that's good enough.
This is NOT a burner, they cost more!

[cnjmills]

Working on updating the bios from the USB floppy, it's a first for me. Any pointers?

I have the file on the floppy, but it tells me to eject it when I try to reboot the machine.

[RealBlackStuff]

Once you have run the BIOS update, you can reboot and pull the USB plug when the screen goes black.

[cnjmills]

Well, I'm lost.
Can't seem to get it to work. I guess I've only flashed a bios once before many years ago and can't seem to figure out how to make this work.
You guys have been great so far.
Any place I can find step by step instructions of flashing my bios from a usb floppy?
Apparently it's trickier than I thought?

[cnjmills]

I've rebooted with the file in the floppy.
I've tried hooking up the floppy while in my Bios.
Not sure what else to do.
All other bios flashing tutorials I can find assume that I have a CD Rom Drive, which I don't....
Stuck...lol

[RealBlackStuff]

Get a USB CD drive anyway (burner or non-burner). It'll work with any PC or laptop.
And have you read any of the instructions here? http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS001381
It's all there....

[cnjmills]

Aha! Thanks that's exactly the link I needed. I read several others on the Lenovo site but never found the one with the Transnote on it!
perfect, thx!

[cnjmills]

Sadly I was doing it right. Getting the same message when I reboot with diskette inserted. "Remove Media..." Restart". It won't let it boot with a diskette in the drive.

Looks like she's for sale to someone smarter than me.

[Saucey]

If that thing is really a TransNote you could get alot of money from a machine of that time.
How much did you buy it for?
And are there others? I'm willing to drive to Arizona to get that thing.

[cnjmills]

I traded some things for it. And it's the only one. I would trade it or sell it . Sadly I have no clue how much it's worth.

[cnjmills]

Looks like $250-400 on eBay, 250 as-is for parts... But there's only 2 listed, guess that does make it pretty rare. Guess it is an odd first Thinkpad to end up with. Lucky me I guess..lol

[Saucey]

There are a couple more under sold listings.
But yours can boot, which is a great thing to know.
One pesky problem a ThinkPadder can diagnose.

Aye well good luck if you do sell it.

[RealBlackStuff]

I don't remember enough any more, but check in the BIOS settings, if 'flash over lan' or 'updating' etc. is ENabled or whatever.
Check all settings.
Also, check if BIOS startup is set for floppy first, and check if F12 pressing at boot gives you a choice of boot options.
Somehow I think you don't follow instructions exactly enough...

Another thing to look into, is if the CMOS battery is still working.

[cnjmills]

I had forgotten about the CMOS battery. I've had to repeatedly rest the time/date in the bios. Sometimes it stays reset, sometimes it doesn't.
I'll change it!

[ajkula66]

I had forgotten about the CMOS battery. I've had to repeatedly rest the time/date in the bios. Sometimes it stays reset, sometimes it doesn't.
I'll change it!

That might not be as easy as it seems. More than one CMOS battery and outlandishly expensive at that...

Good luck.

[cnjmills]

So far the "easiest" part of this whole ordeal has been the finding of the machine in the first place. Which is apparently a rare-ish occurrence. Nothing has been easy since.

[cnjmills]

Currently listed on Craiglist. $250 obo. Will try that for a couple days then eBay next week. PM of interested.

[robertosorio]

Chris,

I just inherit a Transnote model 2675-61U with the Product Recovery CD Rom (2 CD's) from Ibm and also a Software Selection CD from IBM. If I can copy them I would be more than happy to send you copies. Let me know.

Robert

[cnjmills]

Well, to revive an old thread. I finally got around to listing this old girl on eBay. Got super busy overt he winter. Thanks for all the help guys. She's still for sale.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111353034247?ss ... 1555.l2649

I did post in the marketplace as well.

[cnjmills]

Final price reduction. I've actually turned down offers higher that the new starting bid. *kicks self*

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111361808528?ss ... 1555.l2649