LGR - Restoring an IBM ThinkPad 380XD

Sanguine Games

Yay for videos! ... I'm trying to remember the model # for that ginormous docking station that was available for Thinkpads. It was big enough to have its own half-height bay, and it had two enormous speakers that were semi-circles on the side. It came with its own monitor stand (made of metal, to support that 17" boat anchor you owned). Have you ever seen this thing? Please advise. And keep up the great videos.

Naoki Saito

Makes me think that I've got an old Toshiba that i should sort out, though it's got a passive lcd and thus it's pretty yucky lol

OverSoft

I was always in awe of Windows 95 being able to share the soundcard with DOS games that talk to it directly. Seems magical to this day. And ofcourse loved the IBM nipple, never understood why other companies did not include that thing.

QUiKSR20

To this day Thinkpads still hold a place in my heart, One of my favorites was the ThinkPad Z60t currently my daily laptop is a X230 and I love it, Modded with 8gb ram + Samsung SSD its a beast of a laptop for my needs ( I dont game ) I love the minimilistic industrial design.

LGR

Yeah, it's what I did when I ran the computer network in high school as well! Always made a lot more sense, especially for the Compaq Presario 425 machines we had with no CD drive

Foone Turing

I used to do PC repair (in Hendersonville, NC!) and we'd always do that C:\win95 trick. It was just simpler. Users would always misplace their win95 CD-ROMs anyway. We'd copy it over, then install from there (so that Windows would remember the location and not prompt in the future)

Matthew Scott

Hurray, it's showing up now. Not sure why not before. Off to watch it now 😀 Thanks Clint!

LGR

It's working fine on my end! Just be sure to play it through the Patreon page player, not the email link :)

Matthew Scott

Aw shucks, it's showing 'video unavailable'

LGR

Happy to hear it :)

LGR

They really are, I've always enjoyed working on any that I've come across! Curious if Lenovo kept the modular tradition going when they bought them out, but somehow I have my doubts.

LGR

If they were compatible with Windows 95, absolutely

LGR

Pretty much any decent laptop from the mid to late 90s will do that quite nicely, it's worth looking into for sure!

LGR

Yep, it sounds good with RealSound! Well, as good as the PC speaker gets at least

LGR

Of course; it never had OS/2 Warp on it before this, only Win9x

floverSaeu09

Pretty cool!

Rob Caporetto

Lovely job on the restore. Do have to love how well the crew at Big Blue designed it. I gotta ask… in terms of messing about with programs using the PC Speaker, did you try anything like the Access RealSound games on it? I guess hearing how it sounded with Keen kind of got me wondering how those might have sounded coming out of something a bit more powerful compared to internal speakers of the mid-90s!

Library of Context

Win95 rather than OS/2 Warp?

Justin Dotson

I'll always love the win95 startup sound

Terry Lee

Fond memories indeed.

TheLemonOfTruth

I have one in the same 380 series of Thinkpads, the 380Z, Just a lovely device, runs all my Windows 98 games like a dream.

Reed Hansen

I too have one of these machines. Testament to IBM's craftsmanship of these machines, that they're still around and functional today.

We have the same yellow screwdriver set XD

Made myself an LGRwich and going to enjoy this and my food...what a great evening

Gary Leigh

Getting ready to run Windows 95 for the first time... yeah, I hear you there. :)

Rick Green

This is straight up ASMR. I love it.

Yoshizard64

Haha, Clint you stalking me? Last Wednesday I found an IBM-era Thinkpad (newer model, a T41) at a thrift store and here you are now with a similar device.Mine needed a major cleaning, but came out pretty well. I installed Windows 98 SE on it and runs pretty great. Nice to finally have a dedicated PC to play old games instead of having to find a million work-arounds to get them to work on modern system.

This was wonderful

Desmo

Thinkpads are so great. Very easy to service. Very modular. And they use quality parts.

Teemu Pekkanen

would you have use for a pcmcia wifi card? I got a couple. Also 3G pcmcia too...

A cheapo laptop that runs Win95 and DOS games? Damn, I kinda want one.

BastetFurry

And you don't even need to let it run trough. In my personal opinion letting it run to 20% is sure enough that the memory is good.

Bastien Nocera

My hardware checklist includes a "memtest86" run as well. I don't expect you to need it to run it on a gaming machine, but hey, paranoid :)

Mat Cooper

I have literally just sold a 380ED on eBay, a great machine, decent soundcard and with a pcmcia lan card very use-able. Sadly space constraints meant it had to go. Mine also made that weird noise with a duff battery. It didn't have the easy removable HDD though, so you got lucky there as it's a pain to take apart.

Bryndal Dwyre

I still have my original Win95 disc packed in a box somewhere along with Win98SE.

Leigh Beattie

Thanks for the video, surprisingly pleasing to watch someone clean a computer. The installation of 95 brought me back a bit there, although I didn't install it till 2001 :\

LGR

They are always a pleasure.

Anders Enger Jensen

Mmmm Windows 95 Startup sound and Canyon.mid! 💖

LGR

Nice! The 300 series in particular is quite fun to me

LGR

EDIT: Looks like it's "PS2 HVEXP ON," but it does provide image distortion as I mentioned in the video. Thanks!

Martin Ravensholt

My dad has the 760ED - and there's a TRS program you can load or a driver, that will upscale lower resolutions. I'm sure there must be something similar for the 380XD.

I hope you don't brush your teeth with a woodgrain toothbrush! Those splinters in your mouth, man! :D

I love classic Thinkpads. I have a 385ED and a 390. Both in perfect shape.

Anders Enger Jensen

Three likes and it's still not processed yet. You got some dedicated followers. :D (Just love it!)