T-2x brain transplant

[Rletson]

The T-21 that died and revived itself last summer has gone comatose again, probably in need of having its inductors resoldered. It's a job I can probably do, but between the time and patience required and the possibility that the problem lies elsewhere, I'm thinking of just buying a replacement T-2x and doing a brain transplant with the donor's hard drive. (There are a couple places in Minneapolis with used/reconditioned T-2x units available at $100-120--better than fooling with the uncertainties of eBay.) It's an IBM-original Win2000 system--are there any gotchas I need to anticipate? I realize that changing the hardware environment is likely to set off some sort of Microsoft authentication process, but that's probably manageable. Anything else?

(Background stuff: I'm sticking with a T-2x rather than getting a second X-3x because I have all the auxiliary gear for the T-21 and that model is adequate for the word-processing work that is its primary gig. And I'll get around to repairing the dead unit eventually, but on my own schedule.)

[RoxyRose]

I think it should be fine. I've been using a ghost image with XP for T20-T22 and it detects any difference in hardware without problems. One thing I have noticed is T20/21/22 are not interchangeable with T23 and vice versa. Put their hard drive in a T23 and you will get a bsod at startup.

[rkawakami]

That's probably due to the major hardware (chipset and video) differences between the T23 and its earlier siblings.

@Rletson: If your system fails to power up and only flashes the hard drive LED when the power button is pressed, then you (or actually, your motherboard) has a case of the BoD (Blink of Death). If you stick with a T20-T22 system, then there's still a slim chance that whatever replacement you get could come down with the same illness. Latest theory is that there's a resistor that you can bridge on the motherboard and that will fix the BoD issue. I've not personally tried it so I can't vouch for its effectiveness.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 90#p458190

[RoxyRose]

I an happily say I've gone through maybe 20 T2x series in the last yr and not one had the blink. Long live the T2X series!