my coworkers think i am irrational...

[izod13]

...because i am determined to rip apart my T30 2366 in order to upgrade it instead of just going with a Tiger/NewEgg $300-400 lap top special. Then i found this site and realized i am aparantly not the only irrational one out there.

I've had this lap top for about 4 years now and it has served me well, but the engineer in me (BSME, desigining electromechanical switches and connectors for 10+ years) just wont let me take the "easy" way out by buying new. So i did a little surfing and came across this site and i have been lurking for a few weeks now becasue I havent really needed to post anything due to the majority of my questions already being answered in previous posts. I never would have thought that there would be this much enthusiasm over a 7 year old lap top model!

Anyway, i figured i would introduce myself and my T30. So far i have upgraded to a 160GB 5400rpm hard drive (w/ a fresh XP install), updated to the raised 26R7892 RAM cover, installed a 39T0384 wifi card, removed the blue HD shock absorber and added a single 1gig PC2700 dimm.

It's alot like building a hot rod (another passion) but cleaner, easier and a WHOLE lot cheaper.

Planned upgrades:
Although the consensus says that the 2.4Ghz processors run hotter, for $20 i picked up an SL6VC chip and 91P8908 fan/heatsink just to do it. It is honestly fast enough with the 1.8Ghz P4-M chip but i cant resist the potential to max out this board. Of course this includes ventillating my PCI cover too. If i notice a significant increase in operating temperature or decrease in battery life i will just sell them on ebay i suppose.

then i plan to repair my defunct 2nd dimm slot. After reading about this problem, i examined the SMT terminals using a stereo microscope and sure enough 10 of the solder joints have been broken. So one day soon i will be tackling this problem.

when the T30 has been pushed to its limit i might dig up my 760ED! still runs... if i recall correctly its got a 166mhz CPU, 2gig HD, 64 meg RAM and a CD Rom Drive!! dont know what i will do with it though. Used it to interface with my '87 Turbo Buick years ago. Not sure what i will do with it now. Maybe i will see how Ubuntu runs on her

Anyway, i just wanted to thank this forum for existing and all of its contrubutors!

[archer6]

...because i am determined to rip apart my T30 2366 in order to upgrade it instead of just going with a Tiger/NewEgg $300-400 lap top special. Maybe i will see how Ubuntu runs on her.
Anyway, i just wanted to thank this forum for existing and all of its contrubutors!

Greetings and Welcome to our Forum!

It's great to hear you are going to "hot rod" your T30. ThinkPads make great linux machines, I have a couple of mine running Ubuntu, Debian, and a couple of other distros. Ubuntu is a great place for you to start due to it's popularity, there are great forums and all kinds of help here as well. Enjoy your "project" and the forum.

Cheers...

[konstantin.neo2]

I share your enthusiasm.
I am also upgrading my T30 from 1.6GHz,256MB,30GM to 2GHz, 2GB, 160GB plus wifi card and an additional battery.

Abusing your engineer background I would like to tempt you to investigate about battery pack rebuilding. I have ordered a spare battery to have this one for experimenting.
At the first glance it seems as simple as swapping the individual cells but digging more, it reveals that the charger controllers is "intelligent" and can refuse to charge and it is counting the chargers as the printer heads count droplets, requiring some interfacing to the controller and resetting some bits.

[mgo]

...because i am determined to rip apart my T30 2366 in order to upgrade it instead of just going with a Tiger/NewEgg $300-400 lap top special. Then i found this site and realized i am aparantly not the only irrational one out there.
Planned upgrades:

Anyway, i just wanted to thank this forum for existing and all of its contrubutors!

Regardless of what others think, are you having fun with your project? Good! Carry on!

I own four ThinkPads with four hard drives for each, including solid state drives. When I tell others about my inventory, they sort of look askance and slide away.

But all these things keep my 71 year old brain agile. ThinkPads allow for easy hard drive swapping, and that versatility makes experimenting all the more fun.

[emeraldgirl08]

Hi izod13 :wave wave:

Welcome to the forum!

I think you should not be surprised if you find yourself buying another Thinkpad on top of that T30

Have fun!

[jronald]

Battery ReCell:
At least on the A31 series, the battery controller will relearn the new cells, it still "thinks" the old date and the number of charges, but it does "control" fine and otherwise give good and accurate info after about 6 charge/discharge cycles with the new cells. I have several floating around now. The T's are a PITA to rework because of the internal configuration of the cells. Once you crack the first one apart and try to shove them all in correctly, you will understand. The long thin batteries are a cakewalk. It can be done on the T's, but I have one of them, versus 4 or 5 of the A's

Ron

[konstantin.neo2]

I have disassembled my T30 battery pack to learn how it is inside. 6 cells total, 3 pairs wired series. I removed 1 cell to measure and identify, it gives a 4v reading. There is little extra room in the battery pack, so if I get the cells with leads attached to them it will be hard to fit.

But how about the electronic part? Does it needs to be resetted or it will learn the new cells?

[t140568]

It's alot like building a hot rod

Easily the best thing I've heard all day. It fits perfectly.
And, Welcome!

[BruisedQuasar]

... i am aparantly not the only irrational one out there.
...just wont let me take the "easy" way out by buying new. re would be this much enthusiasm over a 7 year old lap top model!...Anyway, i just wanted to thank this forum for existing and all of its contrubutors!

Just a related aside. I too was thrilled when I discovered this forum. So thrilled, I bought a T-23. I had owned several high priced big brand laptops since 1990 but was unhappy with all of them. My $200 used t-23 was the first I not only liked but enjoyed.

I grew up surrounded by adults who like my father were true men of technology. He was a top Air Force Aviation expert. He never took a single college course but he held three engineering licenses, mechanical, electrical, & aeronautical. I loved listening to him & his buddies talk & watching them work on ideas & projects. I enjoyed helping my father design (he did that alone) and build a three-sided house-like workshop behind our house. Him & his friends were the kind of people who made America great.

I was shocked later in life when I discovered what an Automobile UAW factory calls a "machinist" or what people call a "mechanic" (really "parts changer" is more accurate). The men I knew as a boy could build any machine from scatch, from blueprints. They repaired their own wrist watches, Televisions, thought nothing of knocking out a wall and adding onto or even building a home. They did their own auto body work, modified a big station wagon into a car-with a truck bed. The list is long.

I was shocked even more 15 years ago when Digi-Tax software company (Ann Arbor) asked me if I would teach a U. of Michigan Computer Sci honors grad how to install & format a new hard drive. I had turned down their attempt to set me up as an independent small business (tax\book keeping service) computer consultant (from fear I wasn't "expert" enough), so they got an honors computer sci-grad but he had not been taught how to actually DO anything with desktop or laptop computers. I was perplexed. When I found he was all thumbs & incapable of doing anything hands on, I was astounded. He went on to graduate school and became a professor of information technology.

I had concluded that America had become a nation of extremely narrow "experts" who alone could not actually DO ANYTHING.

I was extremely delighted six years ago when I discovered a unique PDA community and later this forum and the HPC Handheld forum, another unique Internet community.

--Bruised

[cros]

Battery ReCell:
At least on the A31 series, the battery controller will relearn the new cells, it still "thinks" the old date and the number of charges, but it does "control" fine and otherwise give good and accurate info after about 6 charge/discharge cycles with the new cells. I have several floating around now. The T's are a PITA to rework because of the internal configuration of the cells. Once you crack the first one apart and try to shove them all in correctly, you will understand. The long thin batteries are a cakewalk. It can be done on the T's, but I have one of them, versus 4 or 5 of the A's

I re-cell'd my T23 battery pack maybe two years ago. I used 2.4Ah Samsung cells the capacity still exceeds the factory capacity even today. As you say, the controller slowly adjusted its view of the battery capacity over the course of 6 - 10 cycles. There was no need to reset/reprogram the controller.