Nice rescue! I have an IBM ThinkPad T42 with an Intel Pentium M 1.7 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, and an ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 32 MB AGP dGPU. I'd like to get a new battery, a CMOS battery, and a CF card with an IDE adapter for it at some point. The original 40 GB HDD still works, though, so maybe I'll install Windows 98 SE on it for fun.
Thanks a lot man! Those CF adapters can be tricky, though. Some Thinkpads have propriatery HDD interfaces (and you have to use another adapter), and the cards themselves have to be in fixed disk mode. Most CF cards come in portable disk mode, and although some can be switched to fixed mode with a special software, many of them can’t. Sometimes it just makes sense to keep the working HDD in, and if and when it fails you can replace it. It’s not like you need the solid state speed for most of these things, and the appropriate hardware sometimes makes it more appropriate 😊
hello! i have that same exact laptop, but i maxed out the ram and i have the 9600 gpu with 64 megs. really great and fun laptop, it's actually the last thinkpad with official 98 drivers. i removed the hdd and instead switched it with an ssd using an msata to ide adapter. the msata ssd works flawlessly and it's instantly recognized in its 128gb size. of course it's faster than a CF or the mechanical drive but it's capped by the ide interface. still, you might want to try that, the ide port in mine is just a regular mobile ide interface...
@@geo8046 That’s great! I’ll also be doing a video on those CF to IDE converters and the whole fixed/portable drive mode thing. Keep on rocking the old tech!
@@mikeallensonntag Hey, thanks for the feedback! I’m quite fond of them myself, I’ve collected quite a few models (new and old) and will be featuring them on the channel. As far as the community, I can see it’s alive and well just by looking at the comments 😊 And also all the available support online, drivers and so on. Very cool!
This was a good video! I am currently working on an X100e, having a dual boot with linux mint and zorin lite. I just got zorin downloaded, so I hope it runs well!
Thanks man, appreciate the comment! I haven’t played with Linux in a long time, so that’s definitely on the horizon for me as well. I don’t have much experience with newer Thinkpads, the newest one I have is from like 2005 lol. Great XP machine.
I usually use Ammonia free Window cleaner and car interior plastic spray or pledge to clean laptops, the difference is that window cleaner has soap and is a low concentration of alc(ammonia is bad so none of that), and the car interior plastic spray keeps it looking fresh, because the plastic looks dull without it IMO. it's not a huge deal but I like to use but yea can't complain for $5 for the HDD being bad and one key missing
@@JessicaFEREM Hey, thanks for the feedback! I also sometimes use window cleaner, especially to get rid of bulk of the dirt. I also have a water/vinegar/soap mix I like using. I have used some car products on plastics before, but I got the feeling they left the plastic feeling kinda “greasy”. I guess it’s just a shiny coating, but this laptop didn’t seem to be in such a bad shape, plastic wise. HDD is actually still ticking away, so I guess that’s just the way these old IBM hard drives sound lol. If it gives out, I’ll replace it with something solid state.
@@schvabek hey there, Koushik Shanbhag from this side, I'm a cs student currently exploring really old stuff, and wanted to get started with retro content, Do you have any old macbook and other stuff lying around that you can donate?
Hello! Very nice video! Could you give more details about the drivers you installed-chipset, graphics, audio(especially audio)? I recently bought a Thinkpad A20m, PIII 500 mhz, 128 MB RAM, the 12.1 inches screen variant, but it has XP installed. I also want to install win 98se and use it for retro dosgaming. thanks a lot man.
Hey, thanks a lot man! As I’ve said in the video, I’ve found all of the drivers on thinkpads dot com, just Google it. Find your model and you’ll find all sorts of drivers, but there’s only one set of audio/video drivers for I think 95/98, so you can’t miss. I didn’t try any other audio/video drivers, although I did struggle a bit with USB drivers. I ended up finding a resource somewhere with universal 95/98 drivers, but I can’t really recommend them, because they were flaky.
A20-setka, lepo! Ja vec neko vreme pokusavam da nadjem A30-tku, koja je takodje bazirana na Pentium III, ali sa mnogo boljom grafickom (Radeon Mobility 7000, cini mi se?) Nazalost imam samo A31 (Pentium 4 M), i cini mi se da su one i bile najpopularnije u Srbiji. Steta, posto NetBurst arhitektura stvarno nije namenjena za laptopove, ma koliko "Mobile" bila. Super video, imas sub! Edit: inace, to sto HDD tako zvuci i ne mora da znaci da crkava, vec je to normalno za IBM TravelStar-ove :-) (ali svejedno preporucujem da pokrenes CrystalDiskInfo i Mark da budes 100% siguran)
@@jamiedoesstuff4877 Pozdrav! Hvala puno za sub! Ako se ne varam, imam na nekoj hrpi i jednu tridesetku koja čeka da dođe na radni stol :D Ali, iskreno, danas mi specifikacije (od memorije do grafike) malo znače kod ovih starijih laptopa. Zbog toga se ni nisam potrudio upgradeati memoriju ili HDD. Što se njega tiče, je, čuo sam ja i puno gorih diskova koji su još dugo vrtili. Imam čak par onih IDE na CF interfacea, pa ako ikad rikne, možemo složiti novi video o tome :D Hvala puno na podršci i komentaru, drago mi je vidjeti i našu publiku u komentarima! 😊
@@schvabek A jeste, za DOS je A20m neuporedivo bolji od generalno cele 3x serije, posto ona nema DOS-kompatibilni zvuk i generalno losiju Win9x podrsku (tipa chipset nema bas dobre drajvere, SpeedStep ne radi kako treba ponekad i sl.) Doduse, meni licno vise odgovaraju ovakvi sistemi posto sam ti vise Quake III, Unreal Tournament i GTA III, Max Payne lik. Sve te igre rade na 9x sistemima, ali nekako sporije, i ponekad cak i kresuju, sto ne mogu reci da sam ikad video na NT-baziranom Windowsu. (mada kresovanje je cesta pojava na 9x-u kako god okrenes :-)) Meni je RU-vid random preporucio ovaj video, pa sam tako i saznao za tvoj kanal. Takodje mi je drago videti da ima nasih koji se bakcu sa ovakvim stvarima! Vecina ovde smatra stare kompjutere smecem pa zavrse na deponiji ili ostanu u nekom podrumu punom vlage. Ovi koji ih ne smatraju smecem ih prodaju za 500 evra kao "SUPER RETKOOOOO RETRO", a ono obican Wintel iz '94. Bio sam 2018. na meetup-u retro kompjuterasa, vecinom su bile C64-ke i sl. mikrokompjuteri iz 80-tih i par konzola, nista sto me bas zanima iskreno. Dalje nisam cuo ni video nista o takvim okupljanijma, tako da mislim da je scena isuvise mala u Srbiji da bi moglo biti nesto redovnije. A kako je kod vas? Ima li dosta retro hardware-a i kompjuterasa?
@@jamiedoesstuff4877A je, ako si “dosljedan” oko toga, onda treba imati barem po kompjuter za svaku eru. Ali za sav ovaj poslije “ozbiljniji” Windows gejming mi treba desktop, ne mogu baš na tim malim ekranima od laptopa, sve da ih vrte odlično. U Hrvatskoj ima dosta retro scene, igre i konzole su više mejnstrim, ali ima i za kompjutere dosta ekipe. Možeš pogledati udrugu Retroinfo, oni često izlažu po Zagrebu i okolici, a u Rijeci je Peek and Poke muzej, ista ekipa s kojom sam si dobar. Što se cijena tiče, jasno da su ove prastare stvari od 286-486 i ranih Pentiuma dosta skuplje, ali od ove ere (kasne devedesete, rane dvijetisućite) ima još, pogotovo desktopa. A meni je osobno ta era najbliža. Mac pogotovo. A preprodavača uvijek ima, al tko njih šljivi 😂 Živio, evo, ako imate tamo kakvu zajednicu retro fanova, slobodno proslijedi video, reci da se kolega preko puta pokušava probiti kroz algoritam 😂
I was also curious about the temps, but the unit didn’t seem to get very hot during operation. I did hear the fan running. In any case, I’ll come back to it because the CMOS battery needs replacing, so I might open it up if it’s not too difficult and clean the fan a bit :) Thanks for the comment, appreciated! 🤘
@@Windforce6Man, thanks so much! I started posting just a couple of months ago, and I’m really enjoying it! There’s a whole lot more content coming up (about fixing up retro consoles/computers) and I really appreciate the support! If you can, I would really appreciate if you’d share and like my other videos! Looking forward to interacting with you in my comment section! 🤟🤟
@@Graham5133 Hey, thanks a lot for commenting! I get these old computers from a local recycler who scraps them for precious metals. I also sometimes get good deals on local auction sites.
@@anthonybush3134 I know a guy who gets them in large quantities from companies getting rid of their old inventory. He scraps them for gold/silver, but let’s me know when he has a cool laptop or something similar. He usually sells them to me for parts, as is very cheaply. Sometimes they need a little fixing, or I leave them for parts, but sometimes they just work. I also get them at a local auction site for a very reasonable price.
Huh lad where ya from ( Ik somewhere from balkans) haha. Fella bosnian overe here with x200 x220 and t430 and im trying to get my hands on x60 for 2 yers xD
I get these laptops from a recycler, who scraps them for parts. He usually lets me know when he has something interesting, and sells it to me for cheap, as is, for parts. Sometimes they don’t work, but it’s usually fixable.
@@schvabek I wish they had something like this here in Germany. I hate good things (like IBMs of course) just going to scrap instead of fixing it and giving it another life. Do you know about recyclers in Germany?
@@mantasbalcytis6535 Yeah, it sucks. I mean, you can always go to your local electronic recycler place (try finding out where the closest one is) and ask them if they have any old computers. Try making a deal with them, I guess. The guy I get my laptops from buys them off in large quantities from companies getting rid of their old inventory and then scraps them for gold/silver and other precious metals. I think he even told me he ships some of the board to Germany. I also get my stuff at local online auction place, but that (like eBay) sometimes gets ridiculous, because of the recent popularity of retro gaming. But many times slightly newer laptops go for just a few euros.
