New thinkpad user

[cybercorsair]

Hi all I picked up a used thinkpad last month in aebay bid(my first time bidding on anything there) and I got the fallowing system.

IBM ThinkPad A31 Laptop P4 CDRW 15"LCD model 2652-C4U
* Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 1.6GHz
* 256MB DDR 2100 SODimms(one stick)
* 30GB hard drive
* CDRW drive
* Floppy drive
* ATi graphics radeon 7500 32meg
* Large 15" LCD
* 10/100 ethernet and 56k modem
* Working battery and ac adapter

Got all for $400 and it had been working great and I am looking for some part to add on or right now info on what I can add.

Have loaded XP Pro for the OS. and with all the other programs I loaded have about 19 gigs left on a 30 gig drive but want to know the max size HD I can load too.

I know the CD-rom bay and the floppy bay can be changed out as well as the CPU can be upgraded and all and I found a supplus shop that has some (ok a lot of them) 8X DVD rom drives FRU 27L4213 that work in my A31 but I'm not seeing that was suppost work but I will be picking one up as I need a DVD of some type right now to load large file dvds(non-movie dvds) i also plan on upting the memory as I do graphic work and Data Recovery work too and the system is working well not but I know memory will be a plus.

I am seeing something about using 2700 DDR SODIMMs not the 2100.. Is there a diffrents other than speed?


On CPU : where is a good place to find them for upgrading this A31?
I seem post on what speeds CPUs but would like to know where to get them.

Battery: this system batt suck on life but its a P4 M so I kind thought it would and it dose charge well but not a full charge as when I got it in the mail it had a 2 hour charge but the best I been able to do it an hour and half but this could be due to how I set battery Maximiser too and it said the battery is good and all other test say same but I tend to not run the sysgtem on battery unless needing to.

I will mostly be using this system for work as do Data Recover and this system seem to work well for doing moble scans on drives with USB case but was thinking can I use the second Hard Drive bay adaptor fro scaning laptop drives I will be doing recovery work on ? I have read the info on the Thinkpad site but it seem to be saying this for doing back up but I could be reading that wrong too.

Also want to know what can go in the slot in the bay were the modem and Nic card is? I knw on some modles you can have a wifi card there but I don't have the antena hook up so that is out. It would look like it could hold a memory card or some thing to that but I can't seem to find any more info other than the wifi card.

Ok well any help or ideas wood be of great help.

Thanks

CC

[FuguTabetai]

You can have up to two additional hard drives in the A31 or A31/p systems. I currently run an A31/p with an 80gig fixed drive, 80gig in the left bay, and 100gig in the right bay. If you get a hard drive adapter, you can just put in any laptop hard drive, so it is very flexible.

The communication daughter cards available for the A31 series are usually two of: ethernet (10/100 Max, haven't seen any gig-e), bluetooth daughter card, modem daughter card, or the bluetooth with modem daughter card.

For the bluetooth daughter cards you need to get a bluetooth antenna, there are some that are user installable under the keyboard. I've had trouble trying to get the driver situation sorted out with bluetooth on A31 or A31p systems, although I run Fedora Core 4 linux.

You can get a wireless card for your system, but you will have to install the antenna yourself. If you get the hardware manual, there are very good instructions for how to take the machine apart and install the antenna behind the screen. It took me about four or five hours to do the install when I ordered a wireless modem for my A31.

Good luck! I really love the A31 systems because you can shove 3 hard drives in them, put linux on it, and you have a small quiet file server. Since the A31/p even comes with a firewire port, you can add some external hard drives too...

[cybercorsair]

cool 3 drive.. that would be fun I could do a lot of work that way.

Thanks

CC

[cybercorsair]

Ok I just up the meory to 1gig which i thought bwas the max but some just said the max is 2 gigs...whats up the IBM site saids 1 gig?? is some o pulling my leg or what? and I haven't seen memory in the bus range we can use to get 2 gigs(we aca use 2100 to PC2700 but one gig sticks at 3200) Would love 2 gigs but that a bit out of budgit for now.

Ok all thanks

everyone is being very helpful

CC

Hi all I picked up a used thinkpad last month in aebay bid(my first time bidding on anything there) and I got the fallowing system.

IBM ThinkPad A31 Laptop P4 CDRW 15"LCD model 2652-C4U
* Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 1.6GHz
* 256MB DDR 2100 SODimms(one stick)
* 30GB hard drive
* CDRW drive
* Floppy drive
* ATi graphics radeon 7500 32meg
* Large 15" LCD
* 10/100 ethernet and 56k modem
* Working battery and ac adapter

Got all for $400 and it had been working great and I am looking for some part to add on or right now info on what I can add.

Have loaded XP Pro for the OS. and with all the other programs I loaded have about 19 gigs left on a 30 gig drive but want to know the max size HD I can load too.

I know the CD-rom bay and the floppy bay can be changed out as well as the CPU can be upgraded and all and I found a supplus shop that has some (ok a lot of them) 8X DVD rom drives FRU 27L4213 that work in my A31 but I'm not seeing that was suppost work but I will be picking one up as I need a DVD of some type right now to load large file dvds(non-movie dvds) i also plan on upting the memory as I do graphic work and Data Recovery work too and the system is working well not but I know memory will be a plus.

I am seeing something about using 2700 DDR SODIMMs not the 2100.. Is there a diffrents other than speed?


On CPU : where is a good place to find them for upgrading this A31?
I seem post on what speeds CPUs but would like to know where to get them.

Battery: this system batt suck on life but its a P4 M so I kind thought it would and it dose charge well but not a full charge as when I got it in the mail it had a 2 hour charge but the best I been able to do it an hour and half but this could be due to how I set battery Maximiser too and it said the battery is good and all other test say same but I tend to not run the sysgtem on battery unless needing to.

I will mostly be using this system for work as do Data Recover and this system seem to work well for doing moble scans on drives with USB case but was thinking can I use the second Hard Drive bay adaptor fro scaning laptop drives I will be doing recovery work on ? I have read the info on the Thinkpad site but it seem to be saying this for doing back up but I could be reading that wrong too.

Also want to know what can go in the slot in the bay were the modem and Nic card is? I knw on some modles you can have a wifi card there but I don't have the antena hook up so that is out. It would look like it could hold a memory card or some thing to that but I can't seem to find any more info other than the wifi card.

Ok well any help or ideas wood be of great help.

Thanks

CC

[tfflivemb2]

Not to double post, since I just posted a response in your other thread, but....

Yes, the max is now 2GB. It was the result of a recent BIOS update. When the "docs" were written, I don't believe that 1GB sticks were in existence.

[cybercorsair]

Ok thanks I just wan to make sure... So how do I find out if this system has the update bios? is there a verson #? also one of the sites i looked into memory for tis A31 said it test as a 1gig system? could need te update bios?

CC

[JHEM]

Go here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... OFT-UPDATE download and install the software Installer and run it when you're connected ot the internet.

It will download and install all of the updates for your system, including the BIOS update if needed.

Cheap name brand PC2100 1GB memory: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... te=dealram

Or, search here: http://dealram.com/prices/PC2100-DDR-26 ... 1/1GB.html

Regards,

James

[cybercorsair]

Thanks this will help even more....my wife is now blown away in what a deal I got on this A31.

with memory and HS space and just over add ons I can do.

thanks

George

Go here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... OFT-UPDATE download and install the software Installer and run it when you're connected ot the internet.

It will download and install all of the updates for your system, including the BIOS update if needed.

Cheap name brand PC2100 1GB memory: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... te=dealram

Or, search here: http://dealram.com/prices/PC2100-DDR-26 ... 1/1GB.html

Regards,

James

[cybercorsair]

I Just looked at the sites on the 1 gig sticks and I think I'll wait till some of that gose down the place where i got the ram said he'll buy back if i get the new ram from him when I'm ready plus he things he can find me the upgrade on the CPU when I am ready to.
thanks for the Update program info too the system running great and I even have things and buttens working I didn't before.
I had some of the programs I found wile searching the IBM site but not all. Still need to know everything that can be added to this system as I need itr for work and all.

Thanks you all for your help.

CC

Go here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... OFT-UPDATE download and install the software Installer and run it when you're connected ot the internet.

It will download and install all of the updates for your system, including the BIOS update if needed.

Cheap name brand PC2100 1GB memory: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... te=dealram

Or, search here: http://dealram.com/prices/PC2100-DDR-26 ... 1/1GB.html

Regards,

James

[FRiC]

If you decide to get RAM upgrade, you might want to check compatibility first, especially with larger sized ones.

DDR RAM prices have been going up slowly for a while now, while DDR2 prices are falling rapidly...

[cybercorsair]

I just wait till summer Price seem to drop around then.
my next upgrade will be the Hard drive bay or look around at P4 M CPU's
and see what the prices are going at right now. a faster CPU would bee nice.

thanks

CC

If you decide to get RAM upgrade, you might want to check compatibility first, especially with larger sized ones.

DDR RAM prices have been going up slowly for a while now, while DDR2 prices are falling rapidly...