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ADVICE ON SELLING T30

T20-T23 Series and T30. NOT for T25-Retro.
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DrGrafix
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ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#1 Post by DrGrafix » Tue May 01, 2012 12:36 pm

Hi... I haven't been around for a while, but I'm back seeking advice on finally selling my Thinkpad that I bought off a member here when it was like a year old. Its a T30 Pentium 2.4 with the now faulty memory bank, so I'm running on only 512M of RAM. This T30 has the SXGA+ 1400 X 1050 resolution, and it also has the upgraded wireless G internal wifi card as well as a upgraded 60 Gig HDD. I have the original shipper from IBM with all the serial numbers stickers still on the box, and the WXP license stickers are still on the T30 itself. I would include a smaller black IBM usb mouse, and a nice ballistic nylon notebook bag, power supply with velcro tie, and I'll include the 1GIG (2 pcs) memory as well as anything else I can bundle with it. Cosmetically its a 9/10, never been abused or bounced around. While I did the Wireless G upgrade, I never had the courage to do the memory bank fix but I'm sure it can be done. Its a solid machine with awesome graphics, and enough storage for most people.

So I'm curious as to what I should ask/expect on eBay or should I sell it here? I can provide pictures and of course would do so if it went on eBay. Thanks for the advice.

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

dr_st
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#2 Post by dr_st » Tue May 01, 2012 1:07 pm

It's as high end as T30s go. You can even ask for around $100 IMO, although the bad RAM slot may be a turnoff. If you had a 1GB in a single RAM stick it would be much better.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#3 Post by DrGrafix » Tue May 01, 2012 6:15 pm

Hmmm... I was hoping for at least $150 since its not really "broken" just I agree that the 1Gig stick would solve the problem. Is it important if it has software like Office or Photoshop or whatever?
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

ajkula66
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#4 Post by ajkula66 » Tue May 01, 2012 7:09 pm

You'd have to get the slot working in order to get $150, or anything close to it.

People who buy vintage ThinkPads expect them to be in excellent physical and working condition. Yours fails the latter request.

Otherwise it's just another parts machine in most people's eyes...regardless of all the goodies involved.

Nowadays $150 gets you (at least) a T43 which will leave every T30 in dust in any performance contest. Look a bit harder or add a few bucks and you've entered the T60 price range...

So, you have to be offering it it as a Classic.

A non-fully-functional-Classic is extremely different to sell for any amount of money.

Been there and done that many more times than I dare remember.

Good luck.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#5 Post by DrGrafix » Wed May 02, 2012 11:41 am

Well... the good news is that my son dropped off the T30 this morning. Turns out he bought a 1Gig stick and its inside, plus I have the two half-Gig sticks. Bad news is he had installed his MC WXP Home on it, and removed it to transfer over to a desktop he just built, and now its looking for a CD with XP Home to update it. I don't know if I still have the XP Professional backup CD laying around. But I was glad to hear its got the max memory in it.

Going to have to dig around and see if I can find that XP Pro backup CD or figure something else out.

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

Scott H.
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#6 Post by Scott H. » Wed May 02, 2012 12:52 pm

DrGrafix wrote:Going to have to dig around and see if I can find that XP Pro backup CD or figure something else out.
If you can't find the CD, I would personally wipe it and install Linux.

You're wanting to sell the machine and you can download Linux for free. With Linux, you can state that it has an operational operating system on it and take pictures showing it physically working. If the buyer wants Windows, they can easily wipe the drive and do the installation with their program disk.

Either way, do not forget to mention the memory slot issue when selling it.

Good luck with the sale,
-Scott H.
*** I don't SUFFER from InSaNiTy... I ENJOY every minute of it!!! ***

A couple of T23 Thinkpad Laptops, and an IBM NetVista Desktop.

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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#7 Post by DrGrafix » Mon May 07, 2012 7:47 am

Wouldn't I be more likely to sell the T30 with WXP on it than Linux? And of course I will mention the memory slot plus the extras I am including (IBM Thinkpad Mouse, Nice Case, extra memory, etc.)
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

ajkula66
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#8 Post by ajkula66 » Mon May 07, 2012 8:27 pm

You can pick up a T30 recovery disk set for a few bucks in the forum's Marketplace.

My opinion that the bad slot issue needs to be resolved before any serious sale can be completed still stands, though.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#9 Post by DrGrafix » Wed May 09, 2012 8:07 am

I ordered a full set of T30 recovery CDs this morning so I'll get _that_ taken care of as soon as I get them, restoring the WXP with the service packs as well. I will take a look at the memory slot and the solder connection. IIRC, its usually some cracking in the solder that causes the problem. I have a pair of magnified swing down glasses, and a fine point Weller bench soldering iron with adjustable temperature. Maybe I'll give it a go and see if I can make it whole again LOL.

I read online that these T30's can actually use more than 1Gig but because there were only 500mb sticks available at release, thats why they said 1Gig max. Is that true or just an urban rumor? If its true and I can get that slot working, I'll try installing 1.5Gig using two (2) sticks (1Gig & 500mb).

Next I have to get the driver for the wireless G card that is in the unit as it is not an OEM driver. Once I get finished, this will be a nice T30 again... cosmetically its a 10, it has all the best upgrades, and the display is pretty awesome, so that should be a good selling point.

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

ajkula66
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#10 Post by ajkula66 » Wed May 09, 2012 8:27 am

Yes, once you have both slots working, the machine will take 2GB.
...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Cheers,

George (your grouchy retired FlexView farmer)

One FlexView to rule them all: A31p

Abused daily: T520, X200s


PMs requesting personal tech support will be ignored.

Neil
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#11 Post by Neil » Wed May 09, 2012 1:13 pm

@-DrGrafix -- You are probably much better with a soldering iron than I am, but a word of caution. Be very careful with that RAM slot fix! I tried it once and must have created a solder bridge somewhere that I could not see, because on first power it burned up an IC chip on the motherboard. Totally destroyed an otherwise functional (single slot) board. Sometimes, it's just better to leave well enough alone.

Just my $.02, YMMV and so on.
Collection = T430 - T500 - R400 - X300 - T61 (14" WXGA+) - R61 (15" SXGA+) - T60 - X40 - T43p - T43 - T42p - A30P

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#12 Post by DrGrafix » Thu May 10, 2012 3:46 pm

Neil wrote:@-DrGrafix -- You are probably much better with a soldering iron than I am, but a word of caution. Be very careful with that RAM slot fix! I tried it once and must have created a solder bridge somewhere that I could not see, because on first power it burned up an IC chip on the motherboard. Totally destroyed an otherwise functional (single slot) board. Sometimes, it's just better to leave well enough alone.

Just my $.02, YMMV and so on.

No... thats good advice and thank you. I wouldn't use a large soldering iron as I have a Weller adjustable temp soldering station with interchangeable tips. One thing I might try in the interim would be shimming it. In googling the memory issue, some people have had success with shimming the memory slot or card (not too clear LOL) with pieces of Post-Its? Is there a good visual tutorial on either the solder or shim method?

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#13 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu May 10, 2012 6:19 pm

Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#14 Post by DrGrafix » Fri May 11, 2012 4:20 pm

Woo-Hoo!!! Sat down this afternoon after reading a gazillion soldering posts for T30's and broke out the magnifier headset and the Weller Soldering station. Using a large needle and very gently pushing from the side, I determined that two (2) connections were bad, looking down on the bottom, it was the two on the far right. Used another needle to apply a micron of flux just in case... and then used the 1/16" chisel point, pressed down gently and counted to three. Re-checked and it looked good.

So I swapped the 1Gig stick over, put back the battery, and booted into bios. BINGO 1024MB! Shut her down and plugged in the 500MB stick in the opposite slot and tried again... 1536MB! Put back the memory cover, tried again, no problems.

Image

So now I'm waiting for the set of restore CDs, and I'll get it back to a functioning WXP Professional OS with SP3. Last thing to do is to get the Wireless G driver and get that working.

Image

Anyone recognize this puppy? Model WM382200BG

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement. I'm going to go have a cold beer now LOL.

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

Neil
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#15 Post by Neil » Fri May 11, 2012 4:45 pm

Congrats!! Job well done! What a difference it makes to have the right tools, and steady hands (I don't have either).
Collection = T430 - T500 - R400 - X300 - T61 (14" WXGA+) - R61 (15" SXGA+) - T60 - X40 - T43p - T43 - T42p - A30P

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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#16 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri May 11, 2012 5:25 pm

Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

wolfman
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#17 Post by wolfman » Fri May 11, 2012 5:33 pm

Nice job OP!
Thinkpad L14 gen 2 | AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850u | 64gb RAM | 1tb SK Hynix P31 Gold | Intel AX210
Desktop: AMD Threadripper 1950x | 64gb RAM | 512gb Samsung 970 Pro + 1tb Crucial SSD | Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | Dell S2721DGF
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DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#18 Post by DrGrafix » Mon May 14, 2012 12:03 pm

This may sound dumb, but I can't figure out exactly how to use the wifi with my Apple Airport Extreme. The T30 is asking me for a WEP network key. SHouldn't I be able to logon to the network with a simple password? Its been so long since I used a Windows XP setup with Wifi I'm in the dark LOL.

BTW, WXP Pro is installed although I have yet to install SP2/SP3. Maybe thats it? I have relative visiting me all the time who use wireless devices and they logon in 10 seconds once I give them the password. I've never had to give anyone a WEP code.

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

Neil
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#19 Post by Neil » Mon May 14, 2012 12:45 pm

You probably have WPA encryption with a passphrase, and XP before SP1 did not support WPA encryption. For best results you need SP3.
Collection = T430 - T500 - R400 - X300 - T61 (14" WXGA+) - R61 (15" SXGA+) - T60 - X40 - T43p - T43 - T42p - A30P

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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#20 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon May 14, 2012 1:26 pm

The problem here was that DrGrafix was skipping some of the instructions that came with the Restore CDs. :BAAAD!:
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#21 Post by DrGrafix » Mon May 14, 2012 4:06 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:The problem here was that DrGrafix was skipping some of the instructions that came with the Restore CDs. :BAAAD!:
OK, tell me where I went wrong... maybe I screwed up :(?

Windows XP Professional is installed, that seemed to go well from the three CDs.

I inserted the SP2/SP3 CD, then clicked on the XP-SP2.zip file (there is no XP-SP2.exe) and it extracted. The SP2 Setup Wizard window has been open now for roughly 90+ minutes and there's about a 5% blue bar in the upper, and a "performing Inventory" in the lower part of the window. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

When I look at the contents, there were 2 or 3 "Update" application files. Is there one specific file I should be using? If there is, give me the file size so I'll know which one because it doesn't display with an extension like update.exe.
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

RealBlackStuff
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#22 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon May 14, 2012 5:17 pm

Please check your PM.
And there are NO SPx.zip files on the extra CD, only self-extracting SPx.exe files!

In Windows Explorer, click on Tools/Folder Options, then on the View tab, and UNtick Hide extensions for known file types. Click OK.
That will show you the correct update.exe

This is my post # 10'000 (TEN THOUSAND!)
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#23 Post by DrGrafix » Mon May 14, 2012 9:17 pm

Dom...

Replied to your PM. Right now I'm letting it run its course bc I don't know how to speed this up. Its been trying to update for about 6 hours now and I've googled this and it seems its a common problem LOL. The blue progress bar is about 40-45% across. Hopefully SP3 will go quicker!

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#24 Post by DrGrafix » Tue May 15, 2012 8:16 am

OK its morning and supposedly SP2 finished installing during the night or it said so on the screen. I went to reboot and its been 45 minutes of trying over and over and still won't boot, so I'm tried to boot into safe mode with networking to see if I can get a an XP screen to come up. That doesn't work, I guess I have to do the DBAN/Killdisk all over and start from scratch again. I haven't been able to get a working screen up so I can delete the SP2 files as noted in the instructions. I will try Start Windows Normally although the countdown timer says it will start in 28 seconds but a minute has passed and now the progress bar is appearing slowly across the bottom of the screen. it seems extraordinarily slow still reading 28 seconds a couple of minutes after the bar appeared but bar seems stuck at maybe 5 spaces.

Something definitely wrong here and I'm somehow missing it? It should boot faster than this.

Mike :(
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#25 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue May 15, 2012 9:27 am

You may have a hard disk problem.
Installing the SP2 and SP3 should not take more than maybe 10-15 minutes each.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#26 Post by DrGrafix » Tue May 15, 2012 3:21 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:You may have a hard disk problem.
Installing the SP2 and SP3 should not take more than maybe 10-15 minutes each.
Well... SP2 done and SP3 is in progress. Once I get it done are there any diagnostics I can run to check the HDD?

BTW, congrats on your 10,000th post. That is a heck of an accomplishment and sign of dedication to Thinkpads.com!
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

DrGrafix
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#27 Post by DrGrafix » Wed May 16, 2012 7:08 pm

I've been reading a lot on the other computer while the thinkpad takes forever to boot and have found numerous instances of the same condition, many suggest its an incorrect BIOS. If someone has a T30 that runs like a deer, can you tell me what BIOS version it is? Thanks.

Mike
Former 760EL/A20/T21 Owner • Currently Reloading T30 2.4Ghz/1.5Gb Memory/60Gig HDD/SXGA+/XPP To Sell

RealBlackStuff
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Re: ADVICE ON SELLING T30

#28 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed May 16, 2012 10:27 pm

As long as you have the latest BIOS (2.10) and ECP (1.07) you should be fine.
There used to be a CD with PC Doctor diagnostics, but that seems to have been pulled by Lenovo, after they did not renew the license...
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

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