CMOS battery connector / Thinkpad 600

[reddyreal]

Hi all,
I recently inherited an old Thinkpad 600 from my Dad who hadn't touched it in years. However, the computer wouldn't start properly and it looked like, from the error messages, a dead CMOS battery.

When I went in to replace the battery, after succesfully removing the old one, I accidentally pushed off the CMOS battery connector on the system board.

I have no soldering experience on mobos nor the tools to tackle this.

1) Is this worth repairing if take it to a shop or send it away? Seeing as I got this for free, I'd like to spend less than $100 on a new connector or system board.
2) If I want a lightweight (not in terms of weight but in terms of the amount of bells and whistles) Thinkpad with just wi-fi, an ethernet port, a CD drive, 512 MB RAM and a keyboard equivalent to the 600, where do you reccomend I look? I'd love to keep it around $300 or less.

Sorry if the second question is answered in this forum - I saw a lot of contradictory information when I was browsing here. Thank you in advance!

[Phazer]

I've had so/so luck soldering it back on. Can you see the "pads" where it's supposed to go? If so, do they still have a little solder on them? If the solder pads where wiped/pulled from the board, I don't think it's possible. I don't know about yours but my T22 connector actually slid underneath two opposing 90* brackets and was held in place by the terminals being soldered. I slid mine back in place and touched a soldering iron to the terminals and reflowed the solder that was still on the terminals and the board.

[ZAGNUT]

even if you pulled the pads off the board then it can still be fixed by soldering the battery wires directly to the PCB traces. not something you should try as your first soldering job but if you remove the board and take it to any friendly technician it's a 30 second job. if you find a super friendly technician then it probably wouldn't cost anything at all.




dave

[Wingnut]

Considering you can buy 600 motherboards for $20, I wouldn't spend more than that to have yours repaired. Having said that, however, I am reluctant to suggest to anyone to put any money into a base 600 when the 600E's or X's are not expensive and have a lot more potential to upgrade than a 600.

If you decide to fix your 600, here is an example of a $20 MB: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0238212977

But keep in mind, that this one is from a 51U that has a 13.3" LCD. If yours is the smaller 12" or 13" model, this MB is not compatable as the inverters are different. What is the type of your 600?

2) If I want a lightweight (not in terms of weight but in terms of the amount of bells and whistles) Thinkpad with just wi-fi, an ethernet port, a CD drive, 512 MB RAM and a keyboard equivalent to the 600, where do you reccomend I look? I'd love to keep it around $300 or less.

For $100, you can have a much nicer computer than a 600. The 600E or 600X are much better as they can be upgraded a lot more than a 600 (CPU, RAM, etc). And you can buy complete 600E's or X's for under $100 on E-bay. They can be upgraded to faster CPU's and max RAM for under $200 total. But, they are not wireless or have an Ethernet port built in. You would need to use a PCMCIA card for each of those requirements.

If you want to spend over $200, then my suggestion is a T23. You can buy them for around $200 and can max them out for around $300. Some have built in wireless and they all have built in ethernet. As for the keyboard, you won't find anything better than a 600 series I'm affraid.

[reddyreal]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback! I'm not totally sure what the solder "pads" are, but all I see are the two metal divets where the connector was once attached. It's a pretty tiny area so I enquired around and it looks like it would cost around $100 to get this mobo fixed here in Chicago.

I hate to see a perfectly good piece of hardware (the body, the RAM (256 MB), the CD drive) go to waste over one tiny connector, but it looks like it makes the most economic sense to simply buy another computer.

Wingnut: I have a 2645-51U with a 13.3 LCD. It has a Pentium II MMX.
-Is this a good CPU to run on a light Linux distribution?
-If so, and I wanted to swap out the CPU on the "new" computer I get on Ebay with my current CPU, is this a really hard project to undertake? I've installed CPUs on my desktop mobo before but never touched the daunting hardware of a laptop.

I absolutely adore the Thinkpad feel and keyboard so I'm really happy to see this whole community that feels the same. I started bidding on some other Thinkpads with bad CMOS batteries that are under $50 and figure I'll try my luck. Thanks all.

[reddyreal]

Hey Wingnut,
Do I have this straight:
600x's come more loaded up front, but the 600e's can be upgraded to the exact same hardware?

I'm looking on Ebay and not sure what I should be looking for in differences between the 600e and 600x machines.

Thanks again for your help!

[reddyreal]

also...
The Thinkpad wiki says the 600x has "battery problems."

Is that just referring to the OEM battery you get or is it referring to the 600x's battery management system?

[Wingnut]

Hey Wingnut,
Do I have this straight:
600x's come more loaded up front, but the 600e's can be upgraded to the exact same hardware?

I'm looking on Ebay and not sure what I should be looking for in differences between the 600e and 600x machines.

Thanks again for your help!

There are way more qualified people here to answer your questions, but i will tell what I know from my limited experience with the 600's.

A 600 has a MMC-I type CPU. So the highest you can go CPU wise with a 600 is 400mhz. They are on E-bay for around $30. The 600E & X have MMC-II CPU's and can go as high as 850mhz, but at that speed, they are quite rare & expensive. You would also need to have a speed stepped 600X to be able to use the full 850mhz. But a or 750mhz CPU should be asy to find for under $50. But most of the 600X machines have 500mhz processors anyway.

Not to confuse you, but another thing to consider is the speed step in the later 600X machines. unless you do a small hack to the CPU, it will run at (I think) 150mhz less than what it is rated for if you do not have a speed step MB. but that is a whole other topic.

So to sumaraize, if you can find a newer 600X for under $100, you can still keep your 600 as a donor for parts. Since it is a 51U, you can swap over the LCD & keyboard to any 600E or X. Depending on what RAM you have in the 600, it might be compatable as well. The 600's use pc66 sticks, but would also work with pc100 sticks. The 600E & X can only use pc100 sticks, so you would have to look at your RAM in the 600 to see if it is PC100 or not.

Finally, you could always buy the MB I listed above from E-bay. It is the same as the unit you have now, so for $20 + shipping, you could fix your dead 600 and use it as a spare, or sell it on E-bay as a working unit. They go for around $50-$75 depending on the condition & RAM, HD size, etc. that way, you will be recycling the rest of the laptop and only scrapping the bad MB.

Hope that helps.

[SAE140]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback! I'm not totally sure what the solder "pads" are, but all I see are the two metal divets where the connector was once attached. It's a pretty tiny area so I enquired around and it looks like it would cost around $100 to get this mobo fixed here in Chicago.

I hate to see a perfectly good piece of hardware (the body, the RAM (256 MB), the CD drive) go to waste over one tiny connector

I think it's a helluva shame to condem a working motherboard just because of a missing connector. If all else fails, I'm sure the board (or even the whole computer) would still be wanted by someone 'as is'. For someone who can solder ok, it doesn't present a problem.

Suggestion: DON'T approach a high street computer shop for a repair - you'll end up paying serious money. Instead, try and make contact with your local HAM (Amateur Radio) club. Ideally, the kinda person you're looking for is an old-timer, someone who was brought up soldering all his own stuff - this kind of person will happily solder you a couple of flying leads onto the pads for the price of a smile. Pity you're not local to me (East Coast, Britain), 'cause I'd happily do this for free while you wait.

If you saved your old battery, strip away the tape and prise off the thin metal connectors with a blunt blade. Then have the flying leads from the board soldered directly to these. Then, simply replace the battery whenever necessary with a plain cell and wrap tape around the battery to hold the connectors in place. As you do this, ensure that there is no chance of the cell being short-circuited.

Colin

[tfflivemb2]

If you want to spend the money shipping both ways, I'll resolder it for you for free...unless someone else on here is in the Chicago area, and might be able to do it for you.

OR, I might be able send you a 600 base (with a 233mhz CPU) for the same price as the one above, but I'll include shipping for free. I believe that the base that I have is a 51U...but, I'll have to check.

Also for the record, I just picked up 5 600Es, some with HDs and decent ram for an average of $45 shipped each...though none had an AC Adapter. Plain 600s aren't really worth more than $50 on eBay unless they really do have a decent amount of ram, or large hard drive. (Note: on Friday nights and the weekend, anything is possible for prices, because people get into bidding wars without researching first)

You have PLENTY of options.

[reddyreal]

Just wanted to finish up on this topic and let everyone know I bought a 600x for about $70 with shipping. I'm having some trouble getting it up and running but I'll save that for another topic. Thanks everyone!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=021