Thinkpad 750C - newbie help

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shaunzetec · #1 Post by **shaunzetec** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:14 pm

Hi all,

Bought one of these from a guy today for £20 (I'm in the UK) and am just looking to find out a bit more about it. I would be grateful for any comments on the following:-

(i) It's got Windows 95 and the C-drive is telling me it has 2GB capacity and the RAM is 20MB. Does this mean it's had a substantial upgrade?

(ii) The seller said it has capacity for a CD Rom drive and there's a large slot in the right-hand side. I'm not having much luck tracking down a compatible drive, does anyone have any tips?

(iii) I haven't a manual, is there anywhere a manual can be downloaded?

Many, many thanks for any help.

#2 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:12 pm

If it's a 750C, then no, you can't get a cd drive for it. The oldest ThinkPad to have a CD drive is the 755CD.

As for the hard drive, yes, it has been upgraded as 2gb drives didn't even exist on the consumer level when the 750 series was in production.

IBM's support site should have a manual.

whizkid · #3 Post by **whizkid** » Tue May 31, 2005 7:27 am

IBM's site does not have a manual for the 750 series. It's too old, and predates the web... and maybe PDF too. I have a 750P.

The machine has 4MB built in and one RAM card slot under the floppy drive on the left, under the keyboard. You can find 32MB cards for the machine, but nothing larger.

If you're up to it, you might run fdisk to see how large the drive is, or see if there's any space after the C partition. The 750 will use up to 8GB of hard drive space, but hard drives newer than the one already in place will have to be modified to work.

shaunzetec · #4 Post by **shaunzetec** » Tue May 31, 2005 2:52 pm

Thanks guys,

Someone else gave me this info:-

"I'm sure you can use an external unit via the parallel port or scsi port
if it has one."

Does that make any sense based upon your experience?

Many thanks

Shaun

whizkid · #5 Post by **whizkid** » Tue May 31, 2005 3:01 pm

You can attach a CD drive to the parallel port. You will never be able to boot from it, but you should not need to.

There is no SCSI port. You can add one, and you may be able to boot from that. It is difficult and expensive to find an external SCSI CD drive and PC Card controller card.

You may also need a DOS driver for the parallel port model, depending on your needs.

What do you plan to do with the machine?

A network card is a much simpler solution, once you have the right OS installed.

shaunzetec · #6 Post by **shaunzetec** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:08 pm

Thanks for that, I think I'm slowly getting there (laptops are new to me!). The machine is for my son who is 9. Really only for word-processing, basic educational software and simple games etc.

Oddly enough I came across this drive at the following link which is claimed to be compatible with a 750 9545 machine.

http://www.impactcomputers.com/02k0493.html

I guess this is an error. In addition when I actually contacted the same firm for advice on a compatible CD Rom they sent me this link!

http://www.impactcomputers.com/pa2657u.html

However based upon what I know now I guess these are misleading and I would have to use the parallel port method.

Can I ask about graphics also - currently jpeg and bitmap images won't display propery and W95 settings won't upgrade in display settings. I guess this means I need an upgraded graphics adaptor?

Thanks for all your help.

whizkid · #7 Post by **whizkid** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 5:11 pm

If laptops are new to you then you might be in for a rude awakening. The CPU in that beast is a screaming 33MHz 486. No drivers were released for anything past Windows 3.1, but some of them run on Win95.

The best display you can have is 640x480 with 256 colors, from my memory, even though the chip should be able to do 640x480 with 24 bit color. I don't know if the driver was ever made to do that.

If your machine is not displaying correctly, then re-installing the video driver may do the trick. If you still have trouble, PM me and I may be able to get Win95 running on my 750P again. (It's running Linux right now.)

And I'm sorry to say the only way to get a better video controller is to buy one inside another laptop and use it there... and put the 750C on the shelf.

#8 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:51 am

What I'd do with the system is run DOS/Windows 3.1 on it and use it for word processing and/or playing all those old computer games you have laying around (if any.)

When I first got my 380 back in November, the first thing I did was load up all my old software and games that my Athlon was to new to run.

Another thing you might be able to do is get a network card and/or modem and use the machine for e-mail. It'd also be good for keeping any kids and/or siblings (if you have any) away from your desktop when you need it.

whizkid · #9 Post by **whizkid** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:39 am

I plan to use mine for file and printer sharing.

#10 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:44 pm

These things also make good terminals. Pentium laptops with 800x600 displays or better work best for this but I'm sure anything with at least a 486 and a color screen would work. If you have a wireless network and Windows XP on your desktop, you can get Windows 95 installed on the laptop then install the Microsoft Remote Desktop client on it and enable Remote Desktop on your WinXP computer. Now you'll be able to use your desktop in any room of your house. You'll also need a PCMCIA (not cardbus) Wireless card for the laptop.

Thinkpad 750C - newbie help

Thinkpad 750C - newbie help

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