[HN Gopher] Project Butterly: restoring and preserving the IBM T...
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Project Butterly: restoring and preserving the IBM ThinkPad 701
Author : lproven
Score : 98 points
Date : 2022-12-14 13:21 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.701c.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.701c.org)
| jtwaleson wrote:
| I have two in non-working condition, pretty beat up. If I can
| make someone really happy and they want to restore them, feel
| free to send me an email. I wanted to do it myself for the last
| 10 years it so but realistically know I won't. I'm based in NL.
| krylon wrote:
| I have one of these. It's so adorable.
|
| Unfortunately, mine has no builtin CD-ROM, floppy drive,
| ethernet, serial, or parallel port, so I have no way to get any
| data onto or off the thing. It has Windows 95 and Office 95
| installed, and that is it. Looks like it's been hardly used.
|
| I keep it around for the nostalgia boost, but I can't do anything
| with it.
| trasz2 wrote:
| >Unfortunately, mine has no builtin CD-ROM, floppy drive,
| ethernet, serial, or parallel port
|
| So it's like modern laptops? ;-)
| krylon wrote:
| Kind of, but without WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB.
| unwind wrote:
| Does it have USB port(s), then? Windows 95 might handle that if
| patched/updated properly, I think.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| The 701c predates usb :)
| quercusa wrote:
| Could you use a PCMCIA wifi card in it?
| krylon wrote:
| Hypothetically, yes. But I am not optimistic about Windows
| 95's ability to deal with wireless networks. Also, you end up
| in a situation where you need a working network interface in
| order to download the driver for said network interface.
| bombcar wrote:
| If you can remove the hard drive you could probably copy
| data to it directly, including drivers for a PCMCIA
| ethernet card.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| How was that thing ever useful? Did the previous owner have
| some peripherals with which to move information in and out of
| the thing?
| ndespres wrote:
| It had an external docking station with more standard ports,
| I/O breakout ports to connect accessories like floppy disk
| drives, built-in modem, and PCMCIA add-in cards.
| jaclaz wrote:
| It had PCMCIA and a kind of parallel port for an external
| floppy, but this latter was a proprietary connector for which
| adapters (and I seem to remember also docking stations)
| existed:
|
| https://en.ysrl.org/butterfly/review.html
| justinsaccount wrote:
| Sticking an official looking IBM label complete with (r)s onto a
| new battery made from scratch seems like a bad idea and a way to
| get sued.
| nehal3m wrote:
| Amazing, not only beautifully restored but beautifully presented.
| A true labor of love.
| dddddaviddddd wrote:
| See the sliding keyboard in action:
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=ChlD_ZfpPdw
| ggruschow wrote:
| Impressive paint & decal restoration. I've spent a little time
| trying to restore some of these finished before and given up.
| This gives me hope. Maybe I'll try again.
| GekkePrutser wrote:
| That was an amazing machine for its time. I remember it well. In
| those days a laptop was a luxury, I was a computer science
| student and only 1 of the fellow students I knew had a laptop! We
| just used our own PCs at home and the computer rooms with PCs or
| X Terminals.
|
| I wish I had one of these. I guess finding one is even harder
| than restoring it.
| thedougd wrote:
| I had one of these for a while in the 90s. It brings me joy that
| someone is working to preserve some of the artifacts. It was
| incredibly compact for the time. I later added a 1.5mbps wireless
| network card for maximum benefit.
|
| The sliding mechanism worked flawlessly. I never had issues with
| jamming or breaking. The golden era of Thinkpad was when design
| in Japan.
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| How is key response at the edges?
|
| I've done laptop repair since before the 701 but I've never run
| across one. A bit bummed at that.
| lproven wrote:
| I've still got one. That's in part why I posted the link.
|
| The typing action is great, on all keys from centre to edge.
| dlevine wrote:
| When I was in high school, one of my dad's coworkers had one of
| these. It had OS/2 Warp in addition to Windows, and I helped him
| clean that off to reclaim some hard disk space.
|
| It looks like there aren't that many of these still floating
| around. Glad to see that people are keeping them alive.
| lproven wrote:
| Whoops! Project _Butterfly_ , not "butterly."
| [deleted]
| tom_ wrote:
| Also one for the file marked "Projects Called Butterly":
| https://uk.saputo.com/brands/butters-spreads-oils/utterly-bu...
| lproven wrote:
| My typo in the submission, I fear. :-(
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