Old ThinkPad 760-LD with issues

[cadillacmike68]

Hi, i have an old 760-LD (9547-U31). It has 2 HDDs, 2 AC adapters, 2 batteries, CD, floppy - a complete set with OS2 and winblows 95 on the respective disks. Yeah its old, and the batteries are toast, but it would be a fun thing to get working again. Problem is i forgot the power on password years ago, and after i jumpered a set of pins it it it cleared the POP but notwwhen it loads DOS from a floppy, it just reboots every time possibly at the loading of command.com.

Any ideas on resurrecting this machine? if not I may put the components up on the want to sell section if that's allowed. Are the batteries capable of being resurrected - or would they have to be re-celled.

[ozzymud]

When at the dos boot is is rebooting? What dos is on the floppy? If 6+, can you get to an F8 prompt (menu if 95+ dos)? Ultrabay floppy or external? Is there a hard disk attached (try without)

I have a firly sizable collection of 760's running everthing from the original factory restored 95 to the newest Debian Linux. I use CF cards for hard disks on an adaptor and have been pretty lucky buying "good" batteries for em so far. So yea, I agree... fun

Selling is allowed in the Marketplace

I have seen some batteries that will begin to charge after being plugged into mains for a while (hours), and some that wouldn't even start to charge. That said, even when they do take a 100% charge... that 100% is often only minutes. The 760 is capable of using a Ni-MH battery pack (finally got one, but it holds a nice charge, so not tearing it apart yet), or the common Li-Ion, these are tricker to rebuild, but both are possible.

Just finished re-celling a 701 a bit ago, was pretty easy: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=96366

Anyhoo, if they will at least try booting a floppy, seems there is good hope...

[cadillacmike68]

I'm working from memoer since i'm not at home.

I'm using PC Dos 6.x I think 6.3 the boxed one from IBM (used to work for IBM). the floppy is the ultrabay floppy that originally came with it.

I can't remember when its rebooting, I'm familiar with F5 and F8 and will do that. I can also take out the HDD.

I'm thinking the machine should be basically sound, otherwise it would not start loading DOS.

Batteries, 1 is a NiMH, the other is Li. both seen dead as doornails. I think i left them both plugged in overnight last year, but they were still at zero% on the 760's littly battery LCD across the top of the keyboard.

I'll **ck acound with it over Ind Day weekend. I'll also locate that jumber and maybe someone can tell me what i did to it (might not have been the right jumber!!!)

[ozzymud]

There are 3 passwords you can set on the 760... BIOS, POP, and hard disk... the latter 2 would put you SOL... the 1st can be cleared with the little white jumper in the ultrabay (just to the left of the drive commector) (P.S. the internal speakers use the same plug and come in handy to jump the connection )

The hard disk password is the reason i suggested booting without the HD in it, and the F8 to partially check the condition of the floppy/disk (could be a bad drive or disk).. nice part about this is you can replace the HD with a $2.33 CF2IDE adaptor and a $10.99 4GB CF card (which you can format/sys/set active partition in another machine to make it bootable )

Yea, I'd agree, can you make it into setup as well (hold F1 during boot)? Normally if you can get there, all else is minor.

[cadillacmike68]

There are 3 passwords you can set on the 760... BIOS, POP, and hard disk... the latter 2 would put you SOL... the 1st can be cleared with the little white jumper in the ultrabay (just to the left of the drive commector) (P.S. the internal speakers use the same plug and come in handy to jump the connection )

The hard disk password is the reason i suggested booting without the HD in it, and the F8 to partially check the condition of the floppy/disk (could be a bad drive or disk).. nice part about this is you can replace the HD with a $2.33 CF2IDE adaptor and a $10.99 4GB CF card (which you can format/sys/set active partition in another machine to make it bootable )

Yea, I'd agree, can you make it into setup as well (hold F1 during boot)? Normally if you can get there, all else is minor.

Hi,

I did not password the HDD - (i do on my T20s and T30s). I don't remember if i PWd the POP, but after jumping that block (i think that was the one i jumped) it would start to boot DOS, then re-boot. If i had a stuck POP then DOS would not boot - or would it ??? I will try F1 at boot and see what i get.

[ozzymud]

Sounds like the way I think it works.

But definately getting it down to base hardware would be my 1st guess. Then I would hafta point fingers at the floppy disk, then floppy drive.