A22p floppy interface - ultrabay?

[larrystotler]

The A22p has a builtin floppy like the other A series machine.

What interface does this use? Is this actually an Ultrabay 2000 interface? If it is, could it be modified to use other Ultrabay 2000 interfaces, like an IDE or SATA? I'd love to be able to add a 1TB SATA to this old machine, and would like to be able to use the DVD drive as well.

If anyone knows, or if they can point me in a direction, I would appreciate it.

[AMATX]

You're so far behind on the tech curve, it's hard to say.

What I'd recommend is that you get a PCMCIA/USB 2.0 card and use a cheap external DVD drive through that, and then you can add a second hard drive via the Ultrabay.

I'm not even sure an A22p can handle a 1T size drive. Seems I vaguely recall having to format larger drives on more modern boxes before I could use 'em in the A22p ultrabay caddie/slot. Not sure about that, but something's ringing a bell about A22p limits on formatting larger drives.

Been too long since I've dealt w/A22p to remember it all.

The A31p was a real step up from the A22p; worth considering if you just wanna be stuck 10 years in the past

[Brad]

Unfortunately it is not an ultrabay interface.

It has been awhile since I had one apart. IIRC there was a small ribbon cable for the floppy connection.

Another hard drive in the ultrabay makes sense.

Brad

[larrystotler]

You're so far behind on the tech curve, it's hard to say.

You should see my 390X with a 750 P3, X21 with a P3/700, and the 380XD with the Pentium 233MMX then. I also have a Powerbook 3400 with a 180Mhz 603 chip as well.

What I'd recommend is that you get a PCMCIA/USB 2.0 card and use a cheap external DVD drive through that, and then you can add a second hard drive via the Ultrabay.

I'm not even sure an A22p can handle a 1T size drive. Seems I vaguely recall having to format larger drives on more modern boxes before I could use 'em in the A22p ultrabay caddie/slot. Not sure about that, but something's ringing a bell about A22p limits on formatting larger drives.

I run Linux on it and have the 320GB Western Digital in it with no problems(largest IDE available unfortunately). I have the Ultrabay 2000 IDE adapter with a WD250GB in it and it's bootable as well. I'm planning to get the SATA adapter and a 1TB. Shouldn't have any issues with it since I run Linux.

The A31p was a real step up from the A22p; worth considering if you just wanna be stuck 10 years in the past

I'd have to disagree. The most crippling thing about the P3 in the A22p is that it has the 100Mhz fsb and 512MB RAM ceiling. The A30p with the Tualatin would probably be as fast in many things as the P4 based A31p. It's fast enough for what I do. I've debated getting the A30p or A31p, but the A22p works great and I have a 6600mAh battery in it that lasts 3+ hours with no power saving other than the Speedstep and slight dim of the screen. Using Linux is much faster than XP. I even have 2000 running in Virtual Box.

My next upgrade will probably end up being a T60p with the 1600x1200 screen at some point. The Core/Core2 is much better than a P4.

The funniest thing about it is that I have the Dock II, and the hard drive benches at 40MB/s in it, but maxes at 28MB/s in the A22p because the Dock has a newer hard drive controller in it.

[larrystotler]

Unfortunately it is not an ultrabay interface.
It has been awhile since I had one apart. IIRC there was a small ribbon cable for the floppy connection.
Another hard drive in the ultrabay makes sense.Brad

It does. I have an A22m that's in pieces that I want to play with and see what the pinout is.

What I was hoping for would be if someone had a tech sheet on it or something.

Thanx

[rkawakami]

Greatly off topic...

@larrystotler: Welcome to thinkpads.com! ...after lurking here for at least 5 years (Joined: Sun May 14, 2006)

[ajkula66]

larrystotler wrote:

What I was hoping for would be if someone had a tech sheet on it or something

Not likely. We're talking about proprietary information here, regardless of laptop's age.

Even if you were to locate a correct pinout that would enable you to hook something up instead of FDD, what transfer rates do you expect to see? From today's standpoint, downright abysmal for sure.

The A30p with the Tualatin would probably be as fast in many things as the P4 based A31p.

Please define "many things"...because I'd beg to differ, and seriously so.

All you'll ever get to work in an A30p will be Tualatin 1.2 combined with 1GB of RAM, and that cripple of a GPU, Radeon 7000.

On the other hand, you can max out the A31p with a 2.6 CPU and 2GB RAM. As outdated as it may be for many applications today, Fire GL 7800 was nevertheless built on a newer base chip, and *significantly* better performing in any and all respects than 7000.

When properly set up, a maxed-out A31p will give early T4x units a run for their money. A30p can never even come close to that ballpark.

Don't get me wrong: I love all of these machines, and have many fond memories of my first high-resolution ThinkPad, which was A22p. Having said that, they are very old and best left as a relic running W2K reminding us of the long-lost days of low unemployment rates...

[larrystotler]

Please define "many things"...because I'd beg to differ, and seriously so.
All you'll ever get to work in an A30p will be Tualatin 1.2 combined with 1GB of RAM, and that cripple of a GPU, Radeon 7000.
On the other hand, you can max out the A31p with a 2.6 CPU and 2GB RAM. As outdated as it may be for many applications today, Fire GL 7800 was nevertheless built on a newer base chip, and *significantly* better performing in any and all respects than 7000.
When properly set up, a maxed-out A31p will give early T4x units a run for their money. A30p can never even come close to that ballpark.
Don't get me wrong: I love all of these machines, and have many fond memories of my first high-resolution ThinkPad, which was A22p. Having said that, they are very old and best left as a relic running W2K reminding us of the long-lost days of low unemployment rates...

Considering the FireGL was basically a Radeon 7500, which in itself is a die shrunk 7000, it's not much of an improvement. However, considering I don't make much use of the GPU in any machine, it's not an issue.

Anyway, I picked up an A30p & an A31p(although this one needs a screen). The A30p is a definate improvement over the A22p. The hard drive reads at 60MB/s, much better than the 28MB/s of the A22p.

The A30p runs very well using openSUSE 11.4. Almost as responsive as my X31 running XP. And I've only got 512MB in the A30p(have to pull a chip from another machine). Yes, it's not a Core2 machine, but for what I use it for, it's more than adequate.

As to many things, I was basing my post on a 2Ghz P4. The Tualatin P3 was able to compete with many P4s until the P4 got pas 2Ghz in most desktop applications. For media encoding & memory bandwidth the P4 was better. Also, the Tualatin had much better thermal & power usage than the P4s. I wasn't aware that the A31p could use a 2.6.

One thing I noticed is that I can't use an Ultrabay 2000 IDE & an Ultrabay 2000 SATA adpater in the A30p(haven't tried the A31p yet). The A30p doesn't seem to recognize the drives properly if I use both caddies in each bay when booting(having tried hotswapping yet). Was hoping to be able to use 2 1TB SATA drives in this as a mobile server. Any ideas why that is? I believe I have the newest IBM BIOS version. I can use both caddies if the machine is docked(I have a Dock II) with the second drive in the dock. Any ideas?

[ajkula66]

[
Considering the FireGL was basically a Radeon 7500, which in itself is a die shrunk 7000, it's not much of an improvement.

FireGl 7800 also sported 64MB of VRAM which was a pretty amazing at the time. Anyways...

Never got a SATA UltraBay to work in my A31p. Tried in more than one unit.

Some people use it on daily basis. No idea on what all of that is about...

[larrystotler]

FireGl 7800 also sported 64MB of VRAM which was a pretty amazing at the time. Anyways...
Never got a SATA UltraBay to work in my A31p. Tried in more than one unit.
Some people use it on daily basis. No idea on what all of that is about...

I was able to get the SATA caddy to work properly in the A30p. If you use the SATA caddy or the PATA in the right bay, it works fine. However, to use either caddy in the left bay, you have to set master/slave. ie, if you use the PATA caddy in the left bay, you have to set either drive to slave. to use the SATA caddy in the left bay, you have to set the onboard hard drive to slave. I don't use windows on this machine, so I'm not sure how it would affect it, but Linux works just fine.

Now I need to get 2 1TB SATA drives & another SATA caddy so I can have 2.3TB in my laptop.