I currently have a 701C, two 701CS, an R52, a T420, and a W530 at home. I've also got the Thinkpad Slate Tablet (first Android tablet) and the Thinkpad Tablet 2.
Every year a new model comes out with new quirks but by and large they just work and hold up well.
My daily use laptop is a Thinkpad X240. I like it. I wasn't a fan of the new keyboard design at first, but I've gotten used to it now. I've also gotten used to the new touchpad design, though I wish the trackpoint buttons were physically separate.
My last three laptops were all thinkpads as well. I started with a T40, then got a L412 and now the X240. So yeah, I'm a fan of thinkpads.
I've also gotten used to the new touchpad design, though I wish the trackpoint buttons were physically separate.
The good news is that they will in fact have physical buttons on all future models. Even the upcoming refreshed Helix is claiming to have physical buttons.
I've also gotten used to the new touchpad design, though I wish the trackpoint buttons were physically separate.
The good news is that they will in fact have physical buttons on all future models. Even the upcoming refreshed Helix is claiming to have physical buttons.
O rly? Certainly will be interesting if they follow through on that.
I have something like 20-odd ThinkPads around. Models include 370c (486DX, 640 x 480 256 colour TFT!), a 760EL (Pentium 133, 80MB RAM, has the keyboard that lifts up on an angle) variations of the 380 series (Pentium 150 through to Pentium II 300 in various configurations), A20M (Celeron 500 or 600Mhz I think, 320MB RAM), and currently typing on an upgraded TP Edge E530.
The earlier ThinkPads were rather fiddly to pull apart, i.e. the 486s had their motherboard split in two at different heights with a connector in between. They were easy to lift open the keyboard and access the hard drive, RAM, etc. without ever needing a screwdriver.
I've lost count of the amount of them I've had, but it's been at least 12 years usage. I once had a Toshiba Satellite. It was ok but I soon went back. Currently on an x230.
From memory: 2 240s, T23, X31, T60. X201 and X230. I'm sure there's another but I can't remember.
I hope nobody minds if I bump this thread a little bit...
So I received IBM ThinkPad X23 fairly recently from a friend. When I was asking about good Windows versions for the thing earlier, I did mention that it's in an okay-ish state. I don't mind though; so long as it can turn on and run Windows, I can manage.
I haven't had time yet to use it extensively, I only went to the stage of installing the stock operating systems, the drivers and nothing else. From my experience so far,
- Windows NT 3.51 is useless (no drivers available) plus NewShell Beta 2 broke the Task List (can't open; opens the Start menu instead).
- Windows NT 4.0 works like a charm, and I can finally hear its sounds! (VMware emulation doesn't support sound).
- Windows 2000 works pretty well, just that the setup process had a confusing step about dial-up area code(?).
- Finally, a fresh install of Windows XP ran sluggish, despite the laptop being "Designed for Windows XP". Try Windows FLP later, maybe?
Despite the setbacks, I can already appreciate how it's built. Sure, it's heavy (especially with an extension/dock/whatever which I don't know how to detach), it may be a little slow, but I can understand how good it was to have then. Laptops sure used to be a "luxury item" last time, now not so much.
NT 4.0 can get sound in VMware, just edit the vmx file (close vmware itself before doing this) and add this line
sound.virtualDev = "sb16"
then go to the control panel, multimedia devices, add a new soundblaster /pro / 16 device, just hit continue on the hardware settings, it should work with the defaults.
Hope this little 'bump' isn't a big problem...
I've got this old x41 Tablet. Thing barely works: Backlight's failing, speaker's crapped out, and I'm not sure if the touchscreen cable is plugged in right anymore.
Still being used after 9 years.
We had a few X41 tablets in like 2005 at work. Their little baby half sized hard drives were adorable, their performance and XP tablet were pretty meh. Their pen was good enough but still pretty rough.
I remember a firmware update for their digitizer, it would help prevent the cursor from jumping the hell around during high CPU utilization (even when nothing was touching the screen).
What really amazed me was when I ran LH Build 4033 on it for some time. That OS pretty much kicked the crap out of XP in almost every aspect.
I was thinking of replacing it with an x61T back in '07/08, but I really saw no need as it wasn't my primary anymore. (used mainly for some manga drawing or videos) I may eventually ebay it or haul it off to get an x230.
As much as I've loved my thinkpads, I've always had problems with them.
My first laptop was a thinkpad t42. I loved that laptop so much, but it had an 11 gb hdd, that was so bloated with crapware that when i got it, it only had 2 gb free. That's barely enough to install Halo CE.
My laptop before this current laptop, was a thinkpad t400, it had a fan problem, overheated, and almost caught fire.
I have only owned one ThinkPad in my life, a ThinkPad 760XL I had bought 2-3 years ago for $15 at goodwill. It was in wonderful shape for its age, no scratches or keyboard wear, even the battery held a charge. Ended up selling it for $75 a year ago. I like the ThinkPads made before IBM sold to Lenovo better though, I have used a few Lenovo's owned by various neighbors and the IBM ThinkPads just feel better built than the newer Lenovo ones, though I do like the Lenovo's also.
As much as I've loved my thinkpads, I've always had problems with them.
My first laptop was a thinkpad t42. I loved that laptop so much, but it had an 11 gb hdd, that was so bloated with crapware that when i got it, it only had 2 gb free. That's barely enough to install Halo CE.
That's not exactly a problem with the laptop itself. You could have wiped the OS and started fresh or possibly upgrade the hard drive.
Got an X200 Tablet for my birthday. Upgraded it to Windows 8.1. lt feels like a desktop in terms of build quality, despite it being a Lenovo, and not an IBM. l feel like I'll be using this for years to come.
I've had a T400 for about four and a half years (bought used, but still under warranty). In school I used it mostly as a desktop companion, for work and taking notes in class (and my primary machine for a little while), nowadays I mostly use it for web browsing/couch surfing/remote desktop client but it's been fine for all of those uses.
Ugh. I just love this little thing. It's taken literally no lasting damage since I got it. My only regret is that I managed to pick up one configured without Bluetooth (fixable) or a webcam (not so fixable). I put in an SSD and upgraded to 4GB of RAM and it runs Windows 8.1 fine, I've had Windows 7, 8, and various Linux distributions as well, everything completely supported all of the hardware.
My first laptop was a ThinkPad 390X and I've been using them ever since. From the 390X I went to a A30p, then a T60p, and finally my current W500.
I pick up older units whenever I find them cheap and have a small collection. Besides the a fore mentioned models I have the following: A21p, 380ED, 760EL, 765L, 560, 600, T21 and a R51.
I've had a T400 for about four and a half years (bought used, but still under warranty). In school I used it mostly as a desktop companion, for work and taking notes in class (and my primary machine for a little while), nowadays I mostly use it for web browsing/couch surfing/remote desktop client but it's been fine for all of those uses.
Ugh. I just love this little thing. It's taken literally no lasting damage since I got it. My only regret is that I managed to pick up one configured without Bluetooth (fixable) or a webcam (not so fixable). I put in an SSD and upgraded to 4GB of RAM and it runs Windows 8.1 fine, I've had Windows 7, 8, and various Linux distributions as well, everything completely supported all of the hardware.
It wouldn't really cost that much to add the webcam. You may need a new LCD cable, front bezel, the camera itself, and the bluetooth adapter attaches to the cable as well. If you're interested I probably have a couple bluetooth adapters leftover from when we had W500 at work, you'd want to check if your LCD cable has the connector for it or the camera.
I'm curious if people here with old ThinkPads (>10 years old) still maintain them at least to some extent. Recently my ThinkPad's hard disk started clicking, I arranged to get it replaced this Sunday.
In terms of space it's a downgrade from 30 GB to 20 GB, but I can handle it.
In the past 6 months I added the 701C and 750Cs to my collection, rebuilt the 701's battery pack, had to solder on a new CMOS battery. The 750Cs had a detachable cmos but its pinout was different than a modern one, so had to do a little splicing, haven't attempted surgery on its battery pack yet.
My R52 (2005) has also received upgrades in the past year, bumped the CPU to a higher speed Pentium M.
So yeah, I keep upgrading / repairing them as needed.
As for hard drives, on the older ones a future project will be exploring CompactFlash to replace their IDE drives.
When I was just starting off with computers, this guy I got a win2k CD from sold me a win98se thinkpad for around $20. It was neat because its drives were in a dock, meaning when you popped off the dock it as pretty slim, even by today's standards. The drives also slid out of the dock with the flick of a switch. Sadly, I was dumb back then and tried to load 2k on it, causing the machine to barely function. I hadn't discovered isos or the wonders of disc burning so I gave the thing away. I wish I remembered the model name...
Sounds like you had a 5/2 series slimline model. I don't think anything before the 570 had that kind of dock (unless the earlier 5s fit in the big docks that the earlier bricks had), so it's kind of weird if you had a 570+ that wouldn't run Win2k reliably.
It depends which of the 200 series it was, I know from experience that the 240s were more than capable of handling windows 2000, hell I ran XP on one for a couple of years (mmm 128MB RAM).
I have quite a few ranging from three from the 755 series plus docking station to an X200 and some pre-Thinkpad 'notebooks' like the P70 and L40SX. All pre-Core cpu notebooks are dual-booting OS/2 and Windows 1.x to 3.x. The 61 series are either multi-booting various flavours of Linux, BeOS and eComStation except one T61 which is running OSX 10.7. I prefer to pick up an cheap Thinkpad for some retro computing fun rather than futz around with emulators.
Comments
Every year a new model comes out with new quirks but by and large they just work and hold up well.
My last three laptops were all thinkpads as well. I started with a T40, then got a L412 and now the X240. So yeah, I'm a fan of thinkpads.
The good news is that they will in fact have physical buttons on all future models. Even the upcoming refreshed Helix is claiming to have physical buttons.
O rly? Certainly will be interesting if they follow through on that.
Have a leaked slide!
The earlier ThinkPads were rather fiddly to pull apart, i.e. the 486s had their motherboard split in two at different heights with a connector in between. They were easy to lift open the keyboard and access the hard drive, RAM, etc. without ever needing a screwdriver.
From memory: 2 240s, T23, X31, T60. X201 and X230. I'm sure there's another but I can't remember.
So I received IBM ThinkPad X23 fairly recently from a friend. When I was asking about good Windows versions for the thing earlier, I did mention that it's in an okay-ish state. I don't mind though; so long as it can turn on and run Windows, I can manage.
I haven't had time yet to use it extensively, I only went to the stage of installing the stock operating systems, the drivers and nothing else. From my experience so far,
- Windows NT 3.51 is useless (no drivers available) plus NewShell Beta 2 broke the Task List (can't open; opens the Start menu instead).
- Windows NT 4.0 works like a charm, and I can finally hear its sounds! (VMware emulation doesn't support sound).
- Windows 2000 works pretty well, just that the setup process had a confusing step about dial-up area code(?).
- Finally, a fresh install of Windows XP ran sluggish, despite the laptop being "Designed for Windows XP". Try Windows FLP later, maybe?
Despite the setbacks, I can already appreciate how it's built. Sure, it's heavy (especially with an extension/dock/whatever which I don't know how to detach), it may be a little slow, but I can understand how good it was to have then. Laptops sure used to be a "luxury item" last time, now not so much.
sound.virtualDev = "sb16"
then go to the control panel, multimedia devices, add a new soundblaster /pro / 16 device, just hit continue on the hardware settings, it should work with the defaults.
Old Thinkpads? I've owned a 600E, and an R40. The R40 is long gone. The 600E still works fine.
I've got this old x41 Tablet. Thing barely works: Backlight's failing, speaker's crapped out, and I'm not sure if the touchscreen cable is plugged in right anymore.
Still being used after 9 years.
I remember a firmware update for their digitizer, it would help prevent the cursor from jumping the hell around during high CPU utilization (even when nothing was touching the screen).
I was thinking of replacing it with an x61T back in '07/08, but I really saw no need as it wasn't my primary anymore. (used mainly for some manga drawing or videos) I may eventually ebay it or haul it off to get an x230.
My first laptop was a thinkpad t42. I loved that laptop so much, but it had an 11 gb hdd, that was so bloated with crapware that when i got it, it only had 2 gb free. That's barely enough to install Halo CE.
My laptop before this current laptop, was a thinkpad t400, it had a fan problem, overheated, and almost caught fire.
That's not exactly a problem with the laptop itself. You could have wiped the OS and started fresh or possibly upgrade the hard drive.
Got an X200 Tablet for my birthday. Upgraded it to Windows 8.1. lt feels like a desktop in terms of build quality, despite it being a Lenovo, and not an IBM. l feel like I'll be using this for years to come.
My little bro got the old Dell laptop.
Ugh. I just love this little thing. It's taken literally no lasting damage since I got it. My only regret is that I managed to pick up one configured without Bluetooth (fixable) or a webcam (not so fixable). I put in an SSD and upgraded to 4GB of RAM and it runs Windows 8.1 fine, I've had Windows 7, 8, and various Linux distributions as well, everything completely supported all of the hardware.
I pick up older units whenever I find them cheap and have a small collection. Besides the a fore mentioned models I have the following: A21p, 380ED, 760EL, 765L, 560, 600, T21 and a R51.
It wouldn't really cost that much to add the webcam. You may need a new LCD cable, front bezel, the camera itself, and the bluetooth adapter attaches to the cable as well. If you're interested I probably have a couple bluetooth adapters leftover from when we had W500 at work, you'd want to check if your LCD cable has the connector for it or the camera.
In terms of space it's a downgrade from 30 GB to 20 GB, but I can handle it.
My R52 (2005) has also received upgrades in the past year, bumped the CPU to a higher speed Pentium M.
So yeah, I keep upgrading / repairing them as needed.
As for hard drives, on the older ones a future project will be exploring CompactFlash to replace their IDE drives.