IBM ThinkPad 770 success story \ VOGONS

IBM ThinkPad 770 success story

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First post, by oeuvre

Posted on 2017-10-16, 18:44

oeuvre Offline

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Posts: 3231
Joined: 2015-03-31, 13:31
Location: USA

Hi,

I bought a 770 on eBay for relatively cheap as it was listed for parts/not working. Seller never got around to testing it. He sent it quickly and I powered it up with a spare 72W IBM adapter. No beep/post/video. Ripped it apart, put it back and this time it gave me long beep then 2 short ones. Reseated the video card and it booted up fine. It came as a complete system, just no power adapter. The CMOS battery is dead (ordered a replacement) and the original drive had bad sectors (tossed in a spare hard drive I had lying around).

Specs:

IBM ThinkPad 770 9548-40U
200MHz Pentium MMX
96MB RAM (32MB soldered on, 32MB + 32MB sticks)
1024x768 screen
Trident Cyber9397 2MB video
Crystal CS4237B audio
15GB hard drive with Windows 98SE installed

After fixing it up, gave it a thorough clean with magic eraser + some isopropyl alcohol and it looks much better. As always, here are some pictures

https://imgur.com/a/QDZLF

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7

Reply 1 of 5, by jaZz_KCS

Posted on 2017-10-18, 09:20

jaZz_KCS Offline

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Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 721
Joined: 2017-08-10, 11:43

Very neat!

I recently did a rather similar resurrection with an 760ELD + ED. Both were not showing any life except power LED. No post, no video, etc... But after a complete disassembly and reassembly the ED turned on and gave me a successful POST. I thereafter successfully transferred the ESS1688 from the 760ELD into the 760ED, substituting the awful Mwave DSP+Modem combo, which worked flawlessly.

I still have a multitude of original batteries (all have ~85% max storage capacity left) and a whole bin of harddrives for it, although I use SD adapters.

Reply 2 of 5, by oeuvre

Posted on 2017-10-18, 14:55

oeuvre Offline

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Rank: l33t
Posts: 3231
Joined: 2015-03-31, 13:31
Location: USA

oh man, mwave 🙁

Those were disgusting! Do you have any pictures of your 760?

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7

Reply 3 of 5, by jaZz_KCS

Posted on 2017-10-20, 17:02

jaZz_KCS Offline

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Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 721
Joined: 2017-08-10, 11:43

oeuvre wrote:
oh man, mwave 🙁

Those were disgusting! Do you have any pictures of your 760?

Will get back to you with some...

Reply 4 of 5, by Unknown_K

Posted on 2017-10-20, 18:14

Unknown_K Offline

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Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1300
Joined: 2013-04-22, 18:59
Location: Youngstown, OH USA

I collect Thinkpads and the 770 series are pretty nice.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 5 of 5, by oeuvre

Posted on 2017-10-21, 12:50

oeuvre Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3231
Joined: 2015-03-31, 13:31
Location: USA

What else do you have?

Also got MS-DOS 6.22 + WfW 3.11 + Windows 98SE playing nicely together via System Commander 7. Fun machine, runs like a charm. Just needs new CMOS battery

EDIT: Figures this is my 701st post 😜

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7

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