New Old laptop

[Helping People]

hello


I've just purchased a "New, Old" IBM Thinkpad 760L Laptop online.
It says that it does not come with an operating system instaled and it has no CD drive.

What is my best option for getting one of the windows flavors (preferably 98) instaled?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

C-

[mankyway]

Simply- Buy yourself an external Cd-rom/ writer.

[Running_on_Wheel]

dont quote me on this but i doubt that laptop has the appropiate external drivers for the cd-rom

imho-maybe a dos boot disk w/ network drivers ... a patch cable (if you have a lan jack) and a machine w/ a shared cdrom or a os disk copied onto its hdd

[Helping People]

Yea, I thought of the external CD drive.
However, I'd rather not spend any more $$ on this thing than absolutely necessary.

Running_on_Wheel: It doesn't have a network card. What about the possibility of networking it to my desktop via the parallel port. I think I've heard of that being possible. Is that correct?
Would I need some sort of special cable? And how does one go about doing this sort of networking?

I'm looking for the Cheap alternative here.

Thanks for the replies
C-

oh, and where does one find a dos boot disk with network drivers?

[Helping People]

So,

How do I get an OS on this poor little OSless laptop?
Anyone?
...



C-

[jdc2000]

If you have a boot diskette or an old version of DOS, you could use the DOS Interlink program to transfer the Windows files from a CD-ROM drive on another PC to the hard drive. Try a search of these forums for 'Interlink' or 'interlnk' for posts on how to do this.

[Helping People]

okay, thanks JDC.
I will search VDR for "Interlink"

thanks for the point in the right direction.

[104456]

Cheapest way to install the installation files is to purchase a 2 1/2" to 3 1/2" drive converter and put it in your desktop computer as a slave drive whilst you load the windows install files
[Cost you about £7 plus the extra licence of course].
Put it back in the laptop and run the install from the harddrive.

[Helping People]

7 pounds?
...Well that's not very heavy at all.
I could lift that with one hand!

Just having a bit of fun with ya, 104456.
Thanks for the reply.
I'll look into a drive converter at my local PC store.

I also found the VDR topics that jdc2000 was refering to.

Thanks for the help all.
I let you know how it goes.

C-

EDIT:
I just found a drive converter from www.cablesnmor.com for $12.95
It may be a little heavier than that 7 pound one, but I got it anyway.

Thanks for all the help
VDR is the coolest!

Christopher

[104456]

12.95 USD United States Dollars = 8.09272 GBP United Kingdom Pounds

1 USD = 0.624920 GBP 1 GBP = 1.60020 USD

I was only £1.09 pence out

You could also look on ebay they usually appear in the computer hardware section on a regular basis.

Best wishes to you and yours for the forthcoming festivities.

[Helping People]

Thanks for the assist!

And absolutely all the best to you and yours as well, my British friend.


C-

[OPOVET2]

If you have not done already, I would suggest that you visit the IBM support site for thinkpads and get the various drivers for that model. Some of them are not contained in Windows 98. Also they have downloadable information on parts, etc.

TP driver matrix

[Helping People]

Hey, thanks Opovet2 for the point in the right direction.

Well, the laptop arrived, I am still awaiting the HD adapter so I can attach the HD to my desktop to transfer files.

I followed the link that that Opovet provided and downloaded the newest BIOS file, "sytpf130". I tried to instal it but when I get to the point where it asks for a blank floppy it appears to write to it for a couple seconds and then gives me the message "image file has been corrupted". I nearly $hat myself when that happened, but the machine still boots up normally. (whew). I tried another blank floppy and still get the same "corrupted image file message. hmmm. I need that updated bios to be able to run win 98.
-Anyone know how I can check to see what BIOS I am curently running? I don't get any info at POST other than a 40,000K memory ok message. And what I can try to be able to update my bios.
I ran all of the Thinkpad's internal testing sequences, and while taking a loooong time (20 min or so) they all came back okay.

Thanks for all the help

Christopher

Oh yea, I spent some time searching for an online version of the manual for this machine; without any luck. Does anyone know of where I might find such a thing?
Thanks!

[Helping People]

ok, I figured out what i did wrong with the BIOS update.
didn't read instrutcions completely...duh.


any pointers toward an online manual for this machine would be greatly appreciated.
I looked again this morning and just can't seem to find one.

thanks!

[OPOVET2]

I am not sure if there is a single user manual online there are a number of selections available:
1. try www.ibm.com/
2. select "support & downloads"
3. select "thinkpad"
4. select "notebook & PC companion"
5. select 760L family
6. select machine type "all"


When screen loads on left side will show a pick list. You will need to explore those to find online and downloadable info such as user guide, parts manuals, FAQ's, hardware info, issuses with installing windows 98, etc. Plenty of info to digest.