Hey guys, I'd just like to tell you about my A31 and my R40!

Both the laptops were once written off , but I got hold of them and improved them, these were the specs they came with:
A31
.Windows XP Pro SP3
.17.2 GB HDD
.768 MB RSM
.Pentium 4 1.6 processor
.No Wi-Fi or PCMCIA cards etc (the previous owner didn't have wireless)
.A missing left hand arrow key!!

R40
.Windows XP Pro SP3
.16.00 GB HDD
.256 MB RAM
.Pentium 4 1.6 processor
No Wi-Fi or PCMCIA cards etc (same previous owner, never had wireless)

As some of you may know my R40 is sadly dead, but thanks to this forum I've been given some advice to get it back up and running viewtopic.php?f=5&t=83188

But I have been able to upgrade my A31. I have already sourced some other written off laptops that were officially DEAD (one HP and one Fujitsu) and I nicked the 40GB HDD's in both of them. I now have replaced my IBM 17.2 GB HDD with a Fujitsu 40.00 GB HDD and I've also got a HP 40.00GB HDD.

My current specs at the time of posting this message
A31
.40GB HDD
.XP Pro with SP2
.768MB RAM
.Intel Pentium 4 - 1.6
.Still no wireless or PCMCIA - hoping to buy this and other accesories (see below!!) after Christmas when I'll hopefully have some more money!

R40
Same as before, only DEAD!!!, but will be running, maybe tomorrow or sooner!!

What I plan to to do my A31!

.Add Wi-Fi/PCMCIA card (at the moment having to use a long network cable to connect to the internet/network etc...will be better once I get the PCMCIA card!)
Plan to get this card (note I do live in the UK!!!)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-BELKIN-PCMCIA ... 33570c0f87

.Insert another 40GB HDD using the UltraBay expansion slot on the side of the laptop. I have another hard drive (the 40GB HP drive), so all I need as a 2nd HDD caddy which can also bought off eBay!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IDE-2nd-HDD-Caddy ... 3efb53a468
(I know the postage is a rip off but it's the only one on eBay and I would like to add nother drive!!)

.Upgrade my RAM from 768MB to 1.0 GB!! At the moment my A31 has 1x 512MB RAM chip and 1x 256MB RAM chip. Once I get more RAM (another 512MB's), will remove the 256MB chip and replace it for a 512MB chip.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/512MB-PC133-144-P ... 518e608a9e
Probably will be able to a cheaper chip than this!!

...and then it will a pretter good laptop I'd say, well, better than what it was!!
But because I've been given advice on how to get my R40 up and running, I'll be concentrating on that today!!

I will post pictures of both the laptops probably either later today or tomorrow.
Cheers!
A31

OK got the pictures all up and running!

A31


The IBM ThinkPad boot screen on my A31


Missing left arrow key here


Lid closed, though not fully closed1


It is an A31


It runs XP Pro SP2 at the minute, that's my desktop PC you can see in the background (pictures below under "Thinkpad 8177")

R40


My R40, not working at the moment - but it will be one day!!


Quite a bitm slimmer than the A31


Left: R40, right: A31

Not a ThinkPad but oh well, my PC (IBM ThinkCentre 8177)
If you look carefully, you'll notice that there is no floppy drive in the slot. That's because it replaced the floppy drive for a 400GB HDD!!!, much more useful I think!



Don't think i'll post much on here before Christmas...main things start after Christmas!!
A31

Thanks for the nice pics.

Love those oldies.

A3x, T30, R3x, R40 and X3x series, even though some of them have very different hardware, are all siblings when it comes to design - distinguishing features are the thin silver steel hinges (replacing the old black plastic ones on older models) and the peculiar cut left corner (lower left of the LCD, back left of the base). What is with this weird corner?

Awww... I love that your making a project

I have an old R40 that I bought dead (did put the LCD to good use tho-transplanted into my R51e). Tried troubleshooting the R40 but it's a no go. The motherboard is history.

Keep at it. I love the pics btw

Did you see in the link the description to my R40 hep page, if you haven't tried that method you could perhaps try it?? I'm going to try it at the weekend, see if it works. If it doesn't, then sadly, for the R40, my motherboard is unforetunatly like yours, history!!!

My system specs for the A31 - 22/12/09
Take note of the RAM and the Service packs!
(twirled bits are blocked out names!)

You can put in 2 x 1GB = 2GB total. The official IBM documents tell you that the A31 supports only up to 2x512MB, but that's simply because when those docs were published in 2002, 1GB modules weren't available.

can you, really! if so that would be brilliant!! Has anybody tried this as it sounds really tempting, costs more but - oh well. I get a good laptop at the end of it!

Just to show you the hard drive changes, here is the new one (not the exact one, but that one that is going in the UltraBay) and the old original IBM TravelStar 17.2GB one...


Yes I edited the picture on paint!!

The expansion slot in my IBM... - currently only has a caddy for a floppy drive, but when I buy a 2nd HDD caddy off eBay, I'll be able to insert a second 40GB drive into the UltraBay. You can also add things like a second battery (was thinking about this but seeings as I don't go out and about with the A31 that much seemed rather pointless), a second CD-DVD player, 2nd hard drive, things like that.... It has an IDE/pata connecter that the far end of the port.





You may be able to see that down that expansion bay that there is an IDE connecter.
(note the broken bit of plastic under my Mic, Speakers and Headphones port!)

and finally, with the caddy inserted in...

Somehow think I might have to buy a new one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6C-4A-Battery-for ... 19b8b38e3c as my current battery lasts no longer than 40 minutes (if I'm lucky an use minimum programs) and it is overheating and therefore resulting the system to start up at varied times, but NOT actually starting up, it just flashes the lights constantly, there are two ways of solving this 1 - remove the battery and leave it to cool 2 - plug in the AC adapter, wait for the system to start. When you get to the log in page, just shut down the laptop and leave the ac adapter plugged in. But seeings as it is fairly pricey compared to some of my things I want to buy for my A31 (£23.00), the Wi-Fi and the RAM and the 2nd HDD caddy will all have to come before this as my current battery is fine for what I need it for at the moment. Read on another topic on this forum that when you buy a new Li-ion battery the full charge capacity increases by approx 10 mins bu then quickly decreases down again. My A31 is a 2002 laptop and therefore the battery power may have dropped quite a bit. To solve the battery issues (the ones about it not lasting for no more than 30 mins usualy, 40 if I'm lucky!) I've defragmented my drive and enabled the screen to darken when the AC dapter is removed from the laptop. I found a really good website - "top 15 ways to save battery power on your laptop" - here is the link http://www.friedbeef.com/top-15-ways-to ... tery-life/. At least the battery in the A31 is doing better than the battery in the R40!!!

See this thread for more info.



If cost is an issue, then get just one 1GB module for now and replace your current 256MB stick with it, so you end up with 1.5GB total. Later, when you get lucky and come across a really cheap 1GB stick, buy it to replace the 512MB stick.

Milestone today, guys!
Got the PCMCIA card for xmas!! Installed it all on the A31 and can now connect wireless!! Here are some pics...







Now awaiting to buy...
.2nd HDD caddy
.maybe a docking station?
.maybe another battery?
.more RAM!

...doing a few things today. Just installing Vista Ultimate Upgrade on the A31...that will be good once done! And also to say I don't have the R40 anymore, the only bit I have it of is the IBM HDD it came with the and side USB/speakers/mic cover which the HDD attaches to.

Hmmm.. curious to see how your Vista Ultimate will work on your A31.

Working fine but DEFINITELY need either another 512MB or 1GB chip of RAM! Just installing 99 updates for Vista after waiting for about hour and a half for them to download! Good to see that my wireless is still working brilliantly with Vista (was unsure of compatibility), but by doing Upgrade rather than clean install I still have all my drivers and files etc (not that I had many files on there anyway, as my IBM ThinkCentre PC has all of those on it!)

Proof that I have Vista...and it works!


(edited on Paint, Photobucket's in built editor doesn't want to work today!)

So, yes - definitely next thing on the list is RAM!

Update!!!
Now got an 80GB HDD I got today to replace my current 40GB (I've now noticed how the HDD capactiy is doubling each time, 20GB, 40GB, 80GB!! What next?? 160GB?) and I'm scrapping Vista on my A31 as a) it is ins't licensed (only realised this yesterday as I installed the same copy on my PC a few months ago) and b) as RAM is quite expensive and 768MB is enough for XP which is good, I'm sticking with XP.

But now that I have lots of HDDs spare (a few 3.5" and now 4 2.5"), That now means I can have a 40GB in the ultrabay once I buy myself a caddy? That means about 120GB storage all together, which is pretty decent!

Was wondering when you would come around to ditching Vista for the A31

turns out I only had it for a total of 2 days! Wow! (but XP Pro is better on the laptop and the installation disc I have includes SP2).

I bought a bluetooth dongle from town today for the A31...BUT...when I got it home - DISASTER!! Wouldn't install the software properly, I think this is becuase I have a USB 1.1 ports on my A31 and the dongle probably supported USB 2.0. But I had a look around the house and found an old bluetooth dongle that supported USB 1.1, plugged it in and the drivers were all installed. With the dongle I bought from town, I put that in the front of my IBM ThinkCentre 8177 desktop PC. I connected the A31 and the 8177 using a passkey, and then connected my phone and my PDA to both the ThinkCentre and the ThinkPad, and there we are. A Mini bluetooth "neighbourhood" (as they call them!) detween my laptop, my PC and my phones!! Really pleased about that! This now means my A31 is a WiFi Bluetooth laptop, though not in built!! The WiFi is a PCMCIA and the Bluetooth is a USB dongle.

My PDA is a mIO Digiwalker A701 btw, it's quite old now (it has Win Mobile 5.0!). It doesn't have a SIM which means I cannot get to the internet (which I believe is a mobile version of the horrible Internet 6!) or make calls etc. I have a Vodafone VF527 for that! I just use the mIO for some of the cool features, like the touch screen, and I don't have an SD card for my VF527 but I have one for the mIO with the music on it. It's just a music phone now!

I have USB2.0 PCMCIA for my A21p.

I have a PCMCIA but it's not a USB 2.0 I don't think.
Also, XP put SP3 on for me yesterday, via Automatic updates

I've just ordered one of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-ThinkPad-A31- ... 4cecd93f64 some of you will be pleased to here! Should come sometime next week.

it's a docking station for my A31 as I now have countless external bits and pieces that I use and now my A31 is in a sort of permanent location. Should become very handy indeed! also (allegedly) has USB 2.0!

yesterday I made a small desk setup for my ThinkPad A31 (which is why I've ordered a docking station!)...here it is (the model RC speedboat in between the two speakers is an optional extra that I haven't yet (until now) seen on any desktop setup!)

Sorry, NO. The dock USB ports will always have the same USB version as the laptop that sits on that dock.
Your A31 is only USB 1.1, so the dock also is USB1.1
Remember, it's a port REPLICATOR.

Got the docking station -




Below: I used my spare charger to see if it fits, and it does (didn't come with AC adapter as item description states)



BTW - I'm not a professional photographer! The first two photos I just took with the dock on lots of sheets of A3 white paper!!!

I'll post some pictures of the laptop actually on the dock soon!

I had a dock for the R40/T30. It was very nice but the two USB ports in back became obstructed by the dock! If you have the PCMCIA 2.0 card that will definitely come in handy. One word about them though is they become very hot after awhile. Have you got a Flexview screen for your A31??? If not that would definitely make your setup very very nice! I'm on the lookout for a dock for the T400- but lol the price is quite steep! Enough to pay for utilities and gas to get to school for a month!

Back to topic. I love the older Thinkpads

Congrats!

I've now got the ThinkPad rigged up to Dock... and the Bluetooth USB is working fine!

Sorry, not my best picture ever!! Hopefully this one is better...

...and to show that the laptop is rised slightly to make typing easier (I think!)...


Note - I rarely use my battery as it gets annoying when you leave the laptop turned off, unplugged etc and then it drains itself out, and my laptop stays in the same place (which is why the bought the dock anyway) so I don't actually the need the battery either.

They do become obsturcted yes, but one of my USB's was dead and the other was shorting out... I don't think my PCMCIA card that I installed is a USB 2.0, I'll check!!

LCD screen is all original I think (can;t be enitrely sure as the previous owner may have done some "tweaking"!), what are the differences between standard LCD and FlexView?


See what you mean, a quick eBay search tells me that an Advanced Mini Dock for ThinkPad T400 is £48.99 which is roughly $77 USD! Would you really spend $77 / just under £50 on a dock? I spent £10 / $15 on mine lol! I think the trick is to wait until they get older and then you'll the see the price fall...

Completetion of this A31 is nearly here, I just want to try this on an old external PS/2 keyboard that I've just found... and maybe hock up a PS/2 mouse if I can find one laying around somewhere.

emeraldgirl08, here's a T400 dock, cheaper than $77!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-Por ... 3358f5b9e3

I'm sure though that if you type into eBay "thinkpad t60 dock" you'll find many other docks that are also cheaper and yet compatible with your system...

It's about £21.00 which is a fair amount of money for a dock.