Restoration of an IBM Thinkpad 701C Butterfly-keyboard laptop

https://blog.jgc.org/2023/12/restoration-of-ibm-thinkpad-701c.html

by jtwaleson • 2 years ago

106 43 2 years ago

blog.jgc.org

Clubber• 2 years ago

Thinkpads used to be the best laptops and the only ones I would buy. They've cheapened out in the last decade or two, like most things, unfortunately.

NikolaNovak3• 2 years ago

I keep buying used T480 / T580 machines (last generation with easily swappable external battery, and also still easy to change battery and drive etc), and will keep my T25 (it has the good keyboard!) for as long as I can.

jtwaleson2• 2 years ago

Oh wow, the T25, I'm jealous :)

I used to own the 701C that JGC restored and was super happy to see what he did with it! Now that I've owned that legend my wish-list still contains: T25, W700ds, Thinkpad 15th anniversary edition and the TransNote.

ssl-32• 2 years ago

I'm more of a T530 fan. It's the last 15" Thinkpad that doesn't have a numeric keypad taking up space, and I've seen it reported that it is also the last one that IBM had a hand in designing.

Some folks have successfully integrated the T25 keyboard into T480 machines, which is definitely in the realm of a clever hack.

makerdiety• 2 years ago

Desktop computers are more modular than laptop computers are. It's much easier to replace a desktop computer's keyboard than it is to replace a laptop computer's keyboard. Power supply too. And monitor.

Why are desktop computers first class citizens compared to laptops when the mobility of laptops is kinda better than the mobility of desktops?

falcrist3• 2 years ago

IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo in 2005, so your timeframe correlates with the laptop division no longer being part of IBM.

Not that Lenovo is a bad company persay, but IBM was historically a company that focused on corporate sales and Lenovo is a company that seems to target the consumer market. As far as I can see, individual consumers are much more price sensitive than corporations. That would explain the steady decline in quality.

I'm certainly not an expert, so there are probably other valid explanations. Unicomp bought IBM's keyboard manufacturing division (or at least the equipment used to build model M keyboards), and experienced a decline in quality simply due to (allegedly) not updating the old tooling until fairly recently.

dijit• 2 years ago

What I find interesting is that the decline definitely exists but it's slow.

I might have expected something like 2-3 years until Thinkpads would be essentially toned down consumer devices, but it's nearly 20 years later now and Thinkpads (while certainly not legandary any longer) are still quite serviceable business laptops.

dabber• 2 years ago

Not that Lenovo is a bad company persay

The argument can certainly be made though. At least regarding their consumer laptop decision circa 2015 when, in addition to the quality issues, they were shipping the Superfish ad-ware which was installing a notably insecure self-signed root certificate to deliberately Man-in-the-Middle HTTPS connections so it could inject display ads. See:

- https://marcrogers.org/2015/02/19/lenovo-installs-adware-on-...

- https://blog.erratasec.com/2015/02/extracting-superfish-cert...

Throw84949• 2 years ago

I had my fair share of IBM and Lenovo laptop repairs. They were OK, but far from best. Firmware was locked to certain (expensive) RAM modules and HDDs. Expensive motherboard replacement on first sign of troubles...

Panasonic Toughbook and Toshiba were better.

AshamedCaptain• 2 years ago

ThinkPads had some nice things, like the keyboard, but durability was never one of them. Whenever I open a laptop I still do this weird hand dance in order to try to use the minimal amount of force required. An habit I acquired after a handful of broken hinges in the 90s...

Croftengea• 2 years ago

I love the last photo. AOL, chef's kiss.

shove• 2 years ago

I did telephone tech support for Thinkpads in the mid 90s. It was a bit of a rare treat to actually take a call for the 701c because they were generally pretty solid. “Hello and thank you for calling the IBM PC call center. My name is ___, may I get your name and telephone number please?” … 10 hours a day, 4 days per week.

chx• 2 years ago

This was a comment trying to help with the sleep battery.

It got downvoted therefore it is removed.

snezhinka• 2 years ago

This was a comment trying to help with the sleep battery. It got downvoted therefore it is removed

Did some snowflake get triggered /s

sombragris2• 2 years ago

The HN title is misleading. This is an IBM ThinkPad 701C.

I thought this was some kind of restoration of something related to the old, vacuum-tube IBM 701 computer of 1952 vintage. The only hint I had that it might have been the iconic ThinkPad was the "butterfly keyboard" phrase.

The linked blog post makes it clear that this is indeed a ThinkPad and not an old 701.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_701

arp242• 2 years ago

That does not look like a laptop to me.

sombragris2• 2 years ago

Of course. I wondered "was that some portable version which was developed later for some purpose"? Such as for example, DEC developed "desktop VAX" boxes and such.

threeio• 2 years ago

I loved that laptop/keyboard back when I was a lowly tech support guy. I can't tell you how many major hotel execs had it ;)

mmcgaha• 2 years ago

The first time I saw that laptop was in the bar at a Hyatt. I am sure the lady thought I was a doofus but she was gracious enough to show it to me and let me open and close it a few times. That machine evoked the same feeling of quality that I only got from a few other devices; I put it in the same class as a hp15c, psp or iphone.

rjmunro• 2 years ago

It would be good to include a video of it working, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChlD_ZfpPdw

jgrahamc2• 2 years ago

Yeah. You're right. I kind of ran out of steam preparing everything for that blog post.

isaidthis2• 2 years ago

Thoroughly enjoyed the read and your coverage of the process. A couple questions: How pleased were you with the final texture and finish of the paint after your process? Seems it would be tricky to emulate the original rubberized finish with spray paint. I'm considering a restoration of an old ThinkPad with similar issues. Any steps you would do different or recommendations you would make for someone who is considering a restoration?

dylan604• 2 years ago

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the meeting where this idea was proposed. Was the initial laughter severe? Was it muted? Was it not laughter but actual "hmm" while thinking about it being a good idea? Like how many follow up pitches did it take?

I've been a part of meetings with pitches on how to solve something where I've been shot down and weeks spent on other ideas only for them to fail ultimately coming to my original suggestion to work. It is very satisfying. I'm guessing the person(s) that came up with this might have had a similar experience.

eschneider• 2 years ago

That's just a lovely resto. :)

1970-01-01• 2 years ago

I've used and still own several early ThinkPads. The keyboards from this ThinkPad era are unmatched in overall tactile quality.

jtwaleson2• 2 years ago

Different tastes I guess. As the previous owner, I've tried the exact keyboard from the blogpost quite a bit, and have been using ThinkPads for the last 20 years or so. I really enjoy the chiclet keyboard on my T14s g2. Sure, some things were nicer on my T400 (7 rows, media buttons), but the really old ones from 1992 and 1995 that I've also owned were much less nice to type on.

UncleSlacky• 2 years ago

Agreed - I keep a T23 as a distraction-free writing machine.

intrasight• 2 years ago

Brings back a memory of my buying a used one of those for my father back in the late 90s. I think he used it as a backup computer of sorts.

darren• 2 years ago

At one point I had a portable keyboard for my palm pilot that used similar folding tech. The keyboard when folded was very small - about the size of an iPhone in a large case.

I'm surprised nobody has released a bluetooth version of this keyboard for the iPad, I know I would buy one.

mips_r4300i• 2 years ago

Congratulations on the huge job! Especially stripping the rubberized paint. Very fortunate that enough parts could be salvaged to make a working unit.

I am in the middle of refurbishing some Sony VAIOs as well. These most commonly have LCD polarizer failures.

Restoration of an IBM Thinkpad 701C Butterfly-keyboard laptop

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