pixelatedscraps wrote on 2021-08-08, 09:17:I managed to pick up a Thinkpad 755CD with floppy drive and original manual at a good price ($60). Upon boot up it displays a fl […]
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I managed to pick up a Thinkpad 755CD with floppy drive and original manual at a good price ($60). Upon boot up it displays a floppy disk icon and indicates the F1 key to be pressed - nothing happens of course as the hard drive has been pulled! It’s also missing its original AC power adapter.
Apart from a new HDD and power adapter, is there anything else apart from a leaky CMOS battery I should look out for with this unit? Cosmetics look pretty decent for its age but the battery of course doesn’t hold a charge.
Can one still find new / third party power adapters and batteries for the 755CD?
This will be the oldest lap-computer in my entire collection if I can get it working.
I used one as my main machine in the mid 2000's. I had an iGo generic power supply for it at the time I bought at Radio Shack for like, $80. There might be some decent Chinese replacements or used OEM units. You kind of have to hunt for them though because ThinkPad stuff tends to go for a bit these days, usually.
If you want a battery I'd look for that Lithium Ion version, they made these with NiMH and Lithium Ion (I put a new Lithium Ion battery in mine when I got it, 2 hours time). - Just for a cross reference for part numbers - http://www.elec-shopping.com/laptop-batteries … nkPad%20755.htm - $62 at that site, might find better on e-bay or elsewhere.
As for what I use now...currently I'm trying to tweak and tune my NEC Versa M/75 into something that did not exist - the NEC Versa M/75HCP - a High Resolution Color (800x600) with Touch/Pen. And I just ordered a Panasonic Sound/SCSI card for it to give me at least OPL sound for the DOS Games that use it. It'll be really cool to use this thing for pixel art with a pen, as well as play old DOS games on the go since the battery works, and I've also brought one of the 30 year old NEC ones back to life (and the runtime keeps getting longer the more I use it). I might also put new cells in the other two I have if they don't keep growing in runtime as well (complete drain then re-charge). A touch-screen convertible laptop with WiFi, OPL, WSS, and SB Support w/ a SCSI feature, and a dock - were basically looking at the Microsoft Surface of 1994 here. I use Cisco Aironet WiFi cards tethered to my phone for internet when on the go, and it uses so little of my data plan I can use it like that a lot in a month.
