IBM Thinkpad 600E
I recently recieved a DOA IBM thinkpad 600E from a relative. This particular PC has a 300mhz processor and 128MB of memory. Not bad for its time (1999). If I remember correctly, this particular model was sold for around $3000 originally. Today it Ebay’s for about $250. I knew there was a reason I don’t buy cutting edge hardware.
So its ‘DOA’, but I’m not going to give up on it yet. After booting the thing and checking the error code given, I was pleased to see that the problem was a dead CMOS battery.
After a bit of googling, I was able to find a replacement battery for $10 and it was delivered today. Replacing the battery is really quite easy:
- Remove the CD drive from the bay
- Unscrew the plate covering the memory
- Pop out top memory chip (optional, but gives you a little bit of room to work)
- Unplug existing CMOS and remove it
- Plug in new one
- Damn your hands for being too big while sticking the head of the battery under the clip
- Screw it all back together
- Replace the CD drive.
It took me about 10 minutes, and I’m not very mechanically inclined.
After rebooting you will see another error code, do not panic. It simply wants you to reset the date on the laptop.
And hooray! You now have a working Thinkpad! I’ll try to put some pictures up later to help with the instructions.
Next, I intend to wipe the harddrive and install xubuntu on it.
To be continued….
Xubuntu you say? Hm.. I feel lucky enough to installed FC4(FC5 and over just..freezed it) to the same model.If you figure out howto… give us a hint or two!
The install of Xubuntu worked straight out of box. I never figured out how to get the sound working in it, but I recommend it. I also tried Dsmn Small Linux on it, which also ran without a hitch. Damn Small Linux ran faster, but I didn’t like the interface.