IBM ThinkPad T41: Retro in 2019

/ laptopretrospe1
curiouscat.me/LaptopRetrospec...
Today we look at a T41, the first IBM era ThinkPad to be featured on this channel. Due to the age of the processor in this unit, running Linux is a bit challenging, so we went back in time and installed Windows XP. While a great machine, this is somewhat a "retro-computing" example. Do you still have a T41? What do you use it for? Tell me in the comments down below.
{Epic Battle} by Twin Musicom (twinmusicom.org)
Edit: I incorrectly called the S-Video out port a PS/2 port.
T41 Drivers:
download.lenovo.com/lenovo/co...
Maintenance Manual:
download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub...
Looking for the product featured in this video? Always try to buy locally for the best deals, but if you cannot find one, you can try these Amazon links below. Purchases made through these links help support the channel.
Amazon US: amzn.to/32LJFVr

[@simonhorak]

one thing everyone is overlooking is that he played it with a trackpoint. what a legend

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Haha. Thanks for noticing my efforts. 😁

[@MF175mp]

It's actually good for playing in many cases

[@Chaoticmass]

the trackpoint is great for gaming, it's basically a tiny joystick. way better than trackpad

[@gutter_onion7855]

I just ordered a x220t, and now I'm watching all thinkpad videos on KZbin in anticipation of it arriving. Great video as always. I miss the original IBM "RGB" logo on the lids of these beasts.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Awesome stuff. I hope you enjoy your tablet when it gets there!

[@kickpublishing]

These definitely have a second life for people who intend to write a book or paper and want an awesome keyboard and zero distractions from the web and apps. Who can name me one single feature added to apps like word processors, spreadsheets or even basic design apps in the last 20 years that anybody gives a shit about? So why are they now literally 500x larger in storage and require 100 times more hardware resources to do the same shit. This makes for a great distraction free retro work machine.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Interesting way to think about it. I'm sure many will be looking for exactly that.

[@MF175mp]

@@LaptopRetrospective there are many features that are great but no one knows them 😁 speaking mainly about Excel.

[@brassNvinyl]

This is actually a great point! I agree completely.

[@hawkeye454]

😍 This Thinkpad is so aesthetically pleasing. GREAT VIDEO!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It's pretty awesome. I wished it worked better with modern stuff but that just makes me look forward to the T60.

[@hawkeye454]

@@LaptopRetrospective that's why I love my T60...has that old school look and feel but is running Windows 10 and is totally usable for light tasks.

[@ugh.idontwanna]

It's a nice vintage you've got there. IBM released drivers for Win XP, 2000, Me and 98, as well as OS/2 and as long with that ATI chip, it's able to run a lot of software from quite a period of time.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Quite true. If it were mine I'd probably throw Debian Linux or some other variety on it. Just to get some modern use out of it. Or leave it as is and use it for older games with compatibility issues.

[@MF175mp]

@@LaptopRetrospective it's not good for anything other than retro programs, even youtube videos don't play any higher than 240 or 360p because the Radeon doesn't understand any of the codecs that YT has

[@MF175mp]

I have a T43 upgraded with the mighty M780 processor and maximum RAM and win7. It's slow AF, I don't know if it's actually that bad performance or if I need an SSD for windows 7 to be faster. Anyway I might downgrade to XP Pro and downgrade my T21 to win98SE, their respective original OSes.

[@DanijelTurina973]

I'm quite nostalgic about this one, had it for years running Ubuntu Jaunty and used it for literally everything.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah I've read it runs older versions of Ubuntu with no issues.

[@DanijelTurina973]

@@LaptopRetrospective I tested something on a T43 recently, but I'm not sure which version; I *think* it ran Precise 32-bit, maybe even Trusty. I actually ran Win10 on it but it was so slow I don't recommend that to anyone. My T41 died from overheating and I gave up on T43 when the battery died and it was too slow for modern websites.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@DanijelTurina973 yeah these machines are awesome but when we go back this far, they start to show their age.

[@Chronick0fee]

Song choice was immaculate

[@shenanigan87]

Hah, very nice machine and thanks for showing it! I can perfectly understand not wanting to remove any rubber feet from such a pristine unit. And I did actually play through most of Half-Life using only the TrackPoint on my father's T30...

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Haha, that's awesome!

[@ProperlyPsychotic]

I love the older thinkpads!!! I have a T420 which is from 2011 so its not as old as this model but it's quite nice.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah the T420 is still very usable.

[@joeyscleaninglady2877]

I loved my X41 Tablet other than the PATA drive... The T41 was the business though back in the mid 2000s. Would love to see someone do a teardown of the old school Made in USA thinkpads vs the ones made in mexico/china/internationally etc

[@wilou62]

Hello, Nice machine and nice review ! :) Those T4x are wonderful machines. But not without flaws. The problems with the wielding of the graphics cards are very annoying over the years. And on the aftermarket, you don't how the machines were treated, so it's a lottery when buying one. :( I bought a T42 almost when it was announced. Always going strong (even if I had to change the screen twice - blacklight failure). I also have a T41p with an SXGA+ screen. I put an SSD in it, absolutely wonderful (and also running fine). And I received yesterday a T43 (the collection is now forty machines, yay ! :) ). I was expecting an SXGA+ unit, but the seller did a mistake and I received a XGA model. I think I will live with it, as the rest of the laptop is litteraly like new (and I still could install the T41p screen on it if I want). I hope to have a quick reply from the seller to find an arrangement. The T43 has a Radeon X300 and is a late model, manufactured in september of 2005. I think this machine will not risk much with the GPU failure (it was more on earlier models). But not a reason to use it like a savage. I will be as gentle as I am with my other laptops. I promise ! As you said, a nice machine if you love vintage, but it can be used for modern tasks as a server. I still use my T41p and my T42 daily to listen to music, one of my X31 has a 7 years uptime as a proxy server and I have also an X61t which serves as a Dokuwiki server (with an uptime of ca. 3 years). It would be a waste to let those machines unused just because they are too old. Oh, you forgot to mention the infrared sensor on the left front of the laptop. ;) Can be very useful too to transfer little files. :) Thanks for the video ! :) W.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for the post and sharing your experience. That's quite a nice collection it sounds like you have! Yes, I did miss pointing out the IR module.

[@ted-b]

Very similar to my R50e, which I bought new in about 2005. It was the cheapest Thinkpad you could buy. It had a 1.4 Celeron M and 256mb ram. The XP experience was underwhelming! I upgraded it, over time, with a Pentium M 1.8 and 2 gigs of ram. I now have a 120gb m-sata in there in a ide drive caddy thing. Mine has the Intel Extreme 2 graphics chip. I recently got a NOS keyboard for peanuts off the 'bay. I still love it dearly and the battery even holds a charge. With the MyPal browser you can still have a surf. :)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Haha, that's awesome!

[@hellbenthorse]

Nice one! I have a T42 with a Pentium M 765 2.1ghz cpu and 2gtb ram. It currently has a PATA ssd and runs Gentoo linux. Great fun little machines!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Very nice indeed. I bet the SSD helps a lot.

[@hellbenthorse]

@@LaptopRetrospective Indeed it does! It is night and day on these older machines :)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@hellbenthorse Working on one a machine with Windows 7 and a mechanical drive keeps that perspective fresh.

[@briani7858]

i have one of these. i installed a pentium 745 and linux mint LMDE. its barely functional on modern internet but it does work. as a result i keep it around and use it from time to time.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah, probably a stretch to use it in a modern context.

[@MF175mp]

I installed XP Pro a month ago and the Windows Update was back online. Only installed the Wi-Fi driver manually so far, it came with the USB Wi-Fi adapter I bought and worked great. Nothing like Windows 98 and older where even PC cards and USB don't work without installing a bunch of drivers.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Careful taking it online. Not a lot of protection for that OS left.

[@MF175mp]

@@LaptopRetrospective I used my phone to share the Wi-Fi, no sweat I don't think it can infect my phone and it doesn't matter much if the ThinkPad would get some viruses. Also I don't use it for any casual browsing as it's slow AF. Only download some files from trusted sources occasionally.

[@voca-chan7953]

I love my Thinkpad, I use it everyday

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Me too!

[@TechDave]

Gotta love the bile in ur voice when ur said "fun experience" hahahah

[@LaptopRetrospective]

No acting here. You get the real deal.

[@PolakeXD]

I still use this ThinkPad and the battery is still very good. It's running Void Linux (based on Arch Linux)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Glad to hear you've managed to keep it running and thanks for your distro info.

[@daviditten2861]

If remember correctly, the port on the left side is an s-video port (not ps2) which was used to connect a tv screen.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yes, that's correct. My error.

[@masterpeak4053]

T43 in 2019 anyone ? I use a T43 with intel graphics as my mobile daily driver, it has Debian 9 installed, I use it for web browsing, schematics viewing, writing documents, light virtual machines and Linux gaming ! I think this computer is still capable of doing useful things today, if you set it up right you can watch videos in youtube at 1080p in Linux. Although mine has a weird problem, it seems like the GMCH has solder joint problems because when I try to turn it on I have to bend the laptop for it to start running, so I leave it on all the time. I dont know if I am unlucky because I read that the intel board is not prone to that kind of failure, I would like to know if someone has experienced this too. This was a really long comment haha, I rarely comment on youtube videos but today I felt like it xD. Good video and keep doing fine, thanks for your content, I would like to see you trying to do some real stuff with this T41 ;]

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thabks for taking the time to comment and I'm glad you are getting use out of your T43. Any suggestions for this T41? I hope to hear from you more in the future!

[@masterpeak4053]

@@LaptopRetrospective @@LaptopRetrospective Well the first thing to do is to upgrade to 2 GB of ram (That's a must), you could try an IDE to mSATA adapter and put in an SSD as someone in the comments suggested, and you could also upgrade the CPU but that wont help much really, though I believe you can try overclocking it www.notebookreview.com/news/pin-modding-and-overclocking-a-pentium-m-guide/ It would be really interesting to watch a video about overclocking the T41 (Beware because you might destroy the motherboard and CPU haha) and maybe run Linux in it, Puppy Linux is a good choice as well as Debian with LXDE or Lubuntu maybe.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@masterpeak4053 Good suggestions. If it was mine I'd try it but I don't want to risk it with someone else's kit. Great info for others though!

[@masterpeak4053]

@@LaptopRetrospective haha no problem !

[@PolakeXD]

I use it with Void Linux. It's very impressive, how good this laptop still is. My T43 was previously owned by my dad, then it was given to me and I installed Ubuntu on it which was the beginning of my Linux journey 😂 The only thing that I upgraded, was the HDD and WiFi card. I also tried to hack the hardware so that I could connect my Nvidia GT 420 OEM GPU to this laptop but I failed to get the logic board schematics and I didn't want to experiment around with testing the PCB traces or do some experimental clusterf*ck that could damage this beautiful workhorse

[@FMeng]

My mom had one, I used to play red alert 2 on it, with that little red dot 🔴

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Excellent choice.

[@tedarmavan]

This model, when I googling, has very rare reviews with hi-res image on every site, same thing on T42

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It was well liked.

[@TechDave]

One last thing: Google "snappy driver installer" it's about 15gb but its a godsend for installing drivers automatically on XP machines..... I almost feel Abit bad telling you... Also: ide to msata adaptor wud be a godsend also in this device Also: props for having halflife on disk!!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Sounds like I should have talked to you sooner. But in this case, I didn't have the drive space, we are talking 6GB in the drive that worked.

[@TechDave]

@@LaptopRetrospective ahh fair, it only installs the drivers from the 15gb collection of drivers, good to know for the future tho I guess! I usually put the program/driver pack on a USB and install direct from there. Came across the software on a channel called Phil's computer lab a year or so ago

[@miskoma3882]

Neat

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It is, when you get it working. 😁

[@thearthisyours]

Hi. My T41 worked just fine before I dropped it from my bed, side fallen on the floor first. It does not turn on with power lamps blinking, but after i push some keys it is turned on and it works fine. But it’s turned off suddenly when it has impact on some part. What do you think is the problem?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Was it plugged in? Does it do this both on battery power or plugged in?

[@charles13moto]

Good video. However, this isn't the second T-series Thinkpad made, as there was the T20 series and the the T30 (which I had back in the day). Otherwise, this should work with Raspbian OS, as it was build on the x86 architecture and should be able to be run off a USB drive. Also, you I take it you didn't have another DVD or CD drive to replace it?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yes, you are correct. I added a text card with the correction. Thanks as well for the suggestions for operating systems. Also, you are correct that I didn't have a spare drive, this one is on loan.

[@mikepxg6406]

The reason I have one of these is just fun….

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's a good reason. 👍

[@catfree]

You should take a look at the IBM T60

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Hope to one of these days.

[@catfree]

@@LaptopRetrospective ikr, I've been trying to find a brand new one for months.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@catfree Best of luck on your quest!

[@catfree]

@@LaptopRetrospective UwU you too !

[@oinkey]

That XP install had to be painful! Good that it's not a Prescott Mobile Pentium 4 :P

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It wasn't the most fun I've had with a ThinkPad.

[@oinkey]

Yesterday, I installed XP on my 2004 ASUS laptop (typing it from now) and it's quite a capable machine nowadays.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@oinkey Find a good web browser?

[@oinkey]

@@LaptopRetrospective Old Google Chrome works fine. KZbin playback at 360p on a 3.2ghz Mobile Pentium 4 was nice enough for me.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@oinkey Glad to hear it.

[@v1ncend]

i use snappy driver for installing all drivers, even on xp

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah, a few people have pointed out this miracle method and I wish I knew about it sooner. 😁 Next time.

[@groki9572]

I have one here with me, it runs a PuppyLinux Beaver. It works quite well, navigates easily through the web --the only caveat is that you gotta stream videos with a dedicated program-- and won't crash or freeze at all. I'm using only 1GB RAM. Yeah, no joke. Amazing machine to run with Linux.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Never heard of that distro. :-D

[@groki9572]

It's a somewhat famous distro, Puppy Linux has been for many years synonymous with the Linux distro to go if your equipment is really old and you don't want to mess with difficult customizations. It works out of the box and has this interesting approach to data storaging, it runs the system totally on RAM and saves every change and costomization in a storage file along with your documents and whatnot. It has been losing popularity with the appearance of other distros focused on old machines like Bodhi, AntiX or Linux Lite. Btw, I tested with success in my T41 AntiX and Linux Lite, besides Puppy. Never tested Bodhi tho, but I'm almost sure it would run like a charm also.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Interesting! Good to know..I wonder how old it will go?

[@groki9572]

@@LaptopRetrospective Here in KZbin you can check a guy running Puppy in a PIII machine without a HDD. It's said that it can run in processors as powerful as 600Hz.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks.

[@pixelPlex]

Ah the Pentium M CPU. My first ThinkPad was the T42 (the T41's successor) which had the horrible Pentium M CPU. One of the worst things about the CPU is that some of them didn't have the PAE CPU extension, which is needed to install and run a modern Linux distro. Unfortunately with the ThinkPad that I had the CPU extension wasn't present, which meant I was stuck with Ubuntu 10.04, unless I used Ubuntu 12.04 with a custom installer. Turned out that Ubuntu 12.04 was very slow and crash prone with the infamous Unity desktop, so rolling back to a earlier version (10.04) wasn't so bad after all.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yep, I'm in the same boat with this one and to me these old devices really shine with Linux.

[@hellbenthorse]

I've had success in using the forcepae kernel option in the past.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@hellbenthorse Yes, that is an option but since it was a loaner unit I wanted to play it safe.

[@ZakWilson]

I wish I could get a screen that tall on a modern laptop.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I know right? The Surface line is the closest with 3:2.

[@Ashton_783]

Same the display could be a literally blurry but overall good

[@Benguiatboy]

Nice vid!! The T42 came out after this one?? Or T42 is older thank this?? Because it doesnt have a trackpad!! only trackpint.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

T42 is newer. I think they were available in different palm rest configurations but I'm not 100% sure I'm remembering that right.

[@Jimmycozad1980]

I have the Same Unit Running my Fav OS of all time Windows ME 80gb hdd added a new battery waiting on a Optical drive as the current one is Borked.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Very cool, what do you use it for?

[@Jimmycozad1980]

@@LaptopRetrospective MAinly DOS gaming. My frst laptop was an IBM Thinkpad windows 95 I think the PC was a 386 or 486 was not a Pentium had less then 16 mb ram no sound driver loaded pc speaker only. when you ran game like Blood or Duke Nukem 3d you had to run it in Smallest size possible or it would lag.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Those were the days.

[@pedrofrutuoso6564]

Well I love this video , I am holding 5 T42 , and I use them to test old Linux Distros , also got my hands on a X200s which I am going to libreboot , also have a T60 , X240 ( I'm selling ) , a T430S ( Maybe will sell , want a X230 instead of a X220 ) and my most up to date is a T13 Skylake ..( and I don't like the ultrabook thingy , so Ima sell) Love your vids can't wait for the one about express card to gpu

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for the awesome comment Pedro. Sounds like you've had some great successes. Hope to have that video out in the next little bit.

[@pedrofrutuoso6564]

U man , u are awesome , I've been around for a while and whenever I comment u answer , love dat , keep it up

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@pedrofrutuoso6564 You're awesome Pedro, don't forget that part. It's folks like you that get me excited to see a new comment roll in.

[@rcfriscoflyer]

This model just a bit antiquated for me I have t60 that is a good machine useable, fast, and clean for the stuff I do, I may put an antique Apple label on it just to see people’s reaction

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Agreed. I want to try a T60 sometime.

[@PhobosTK]

Just got myself a T40

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Fantastic, what will you do with it?

[@PhobosTK]

​@@LaptopRetrospective I'm not quite sure yet... A Win98/WinXP gaming device would be nice, but I'm also tempted to try the 32bit fork of Arch (as I was quite lucky and it ran almost perfectly on single core machines that I had to work with in the past) and maybe a flavor of BSD or two.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Let us know what you decide. 😁

[@niewolnikprowadzacego9537]

T41 vs t42 who better?

[@SalvageRestorationAndTechTips]

i have this computer, but dvd not working and i mus add more ram, have him about 20 years and almost dont use. Nice time machine

[@Faded4298]

Hi i just got a T42 for free. Its in perfect condition not one scratch, Also have the R52, T61 and Edge.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Wow, nice. That's a start to a great collection.

[@Faded4298]

@@LaptopRetrospective I also known the ThinkPad pretty much its whole life. Remember seeing it when I was still in elementary school (Same exact T42 I got).

[@Faded4298]

@@LaptopRetrospective Thank you btw!

[@Faded4298]

I just found the documents that went with the ThinkPad when it was new.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@Faded4298 Nice!

[@TechnoloG84]

that's how I got through college......12 years later i'm on a Thinkpad extreme gen 2.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

That's awesome. There's something special about machines like that.

[@TechnoloG84]

Laptop Retrospective makes you wanna get work done and be productive. Like blackberry’s used to do.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@TechnoloG84 Agreed!

[@Franeq09]

Found one T41 in scrap two days ago, and its working! Only thing is when i play sth on it after few minutes the screen is blurring. When you dont use it much, like listening to music - nothing happens with it. Whats the matter?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Interesting, what do you mean by "nothing happens"?

[@Franeq09]

@@LaptopRetrospective nothing happens i meant everything is working fine. Just wanna add - if the blurring starts, then i just leave the pc idle for 2 - 3 mins, and everything is going normal

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@Franeq09 very strange indeed!

[@ps5hasnogames55]

Letting you know: archive.org hosts restore images for the T41 so you can get the original IBM-customised install of Windows XP.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah this machine wasn't mine but definitely good info for others.

[@Abszurdista-fatalista]

I have one of these. It doesn't want to start up. Warm environment helped for starting up, but now it will not start at all.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Any signs of it getting power? What troubleshooting have you done?

[@iamdmc]

Aren't you forgetting about the T20 series?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I did yes.

[@eddieoconnor4466]

Can you do a full blown "expose'" on the T410 / T420 / T430 series/sets?.....

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I have done a few T430 videos. I haven't had the chance to look at the others yet. Anything specific you are looking for in an "expose"?

[@eddieoconnor4466]

@@LaptopRetrospective Not in particular no....just wanted to know all the specs and ins-and-outs of those devices. I plan on looking for a T-410 and a T-420 for someone...and even though I have my own (T-420) I never really delved into all the specs (Like...can the processor be upgraded from an i5 to an i7?....what's the man RAM it can take?...does it have a secondary SSD drive somewhere inside?) just things like that. No rush either...I guess whenever you get the opportunity. Great video by the way!...LOL!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@eddieoconnor4466 glad you enjoy my content. Go check out the T430 and T530 videos in the meantime. I go over upgrades and even do a few.

[@eddieoconnor4466]

@@LaptopRetrospective Will do!....thanks!!!

[@ArunNarasimhan_arun1997107]

My dad had one of these several years ago and used it until the CMOS battery died..it was a good laptop

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Shame that it stopped getting used after the CMOS died, very easy fix.

[@v1be2007]

for some reason every time im trying to install ati graphics drivers it says "setup was unable to find components that can be installed on your current hardware or software configuration" i dont know how to fix it, can you help me?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Are you certain you have the right driver package?

[@v1be2007]

@@LaptopRetrospective yes, im trying to install the same drivers as you on your video

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Have you been trying the drivers from this page? thinkpads.com/support/Thinkpad-Drivers/download.lenovo.com/lenovo/content/ddfm/T41.html Be sure to read each description carefully.

[@v1be2007]

@@LaptopRetrospective i have downloaded the setup from this exact website... right now im in the process of reinstalling windows xp, ill let you know if it helped

[@LaptopRetrospective]

And you've confirmed you grabbed the right driver package for your specific GPU?

[@s1201]

Hi! I've just got myself a T41, and did a clean install of XP. I'm using Snappy Driver Installer, but wireless doesn't work. Linux is working perfect. What else can i do? Thanks, sorry for my english...

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Double check to make sure a wireless card is present. What OS are you trying to use? Grab drivers from the link in the description/check Device Manager to see if you have any unknown hardware needing drivers.

[@s1201]

@@LaptopRetrospective I'm using XP Professional SP3. It has a wireless PCI card (Intel). Linux detects it automatically (download speeds are great), but i can't get it to work under XP. Thank you, i'll tinker a bit

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@s1201 gotta love Linux when it comes to drivers. Most of the time anyway. If you know the card, drivers from the link in the description should be fairly trivial.

[@s1201]

@@LaptopRetrospectiveI'm using Bunsenlabs Distro, it works fine, but it uses a lot of CPU... By the way, i have some spare parts of a T42, so i replaced the T41's processor with the T42. Is this ok, or i should have kept the original one? Thans again!

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@s1201 if it works then I don't see why you wouldn't.

[@Audiojack_]

Stick a Linux distro on it and have a perfectly modern system for another decade :P

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Finding the right distro for the hardware is always key. Debian seems to be the one guaranteed option for a processor of this age.

[@Audiojack_]

@@LaptopRetrospective There are ways to forcefully enable Physical Address Extension support on these machines, which enables most kernels and distros to run normally. Google "forcepae" and I believe there's atleast a guide for Ubuntu based distros available.

[@loulou6354]

There's no need for an outdated and now kinda useless OS such as Windows XP. There are lots of good lightweight 32 bits linux options outthere that are not outdated softwarewise and allow you to use these machines as legit daily drivers

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I hope to experiment more one day with a modern Linux OS on something like this.

[@TechDave]

Also: XP.... I feel ur pain in a very real way lol

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It was a real lesson on how spoiled we are by modern operating systems.

[@voca-chan7953]

I was lucky to have my laptop with the hard drive working, and has not been formatted so I can use the IBM restore thingy. Because finding, downloading, and installing every driver is tedious. I have the same laptop in the video

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Haha, nice. Thanks for sharing.

[@TrenchReynolds]

Half-Life 3 confirmed!!!! Except it only runs on XP.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Lol. Shhh. Don't tell anyone.

[@coelhocoelho-qn4tx]

try the zorin lite linux

[@LaptopRetrospective]

🤔

[@deejagers716]

my first laptop, i have it stil ... sleeps in the box :)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Cool, I'm guessing it still works?

[@deejagers716]

@@LaptopRetrospective afcorse, works perfect but dvd player not and missing 1 key ... I start to look for it, but they are expencieve

[@minungindah8917]

How to bios. Thank

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Are you asking how to update the BIOS?

[@infimus9559]

i have a quastion I have a T41 model aswell but cant install any drivers (i install them but no effect) and cant connect to the internet (ethernet/wireless doesnt work) any idea why?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Does it detect the wireless card? Have you confirmed one is on there?

[@infimus9559]

@@LaptopRetrospective there is, there was an ubuntu os installed before and it connected to wifi just fiine but i decided that i wanted the old xp experience and installed Xp on it

[@infimus9559]

@@LaptopRetrospective and im stuck with xp desktop with no internet connection and trying to find drivers that will work for past 3 hours

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Do you have the latest service pack?

[@infimus9559]

@@LaptopRetrospective yes service pack 3 (im not sure now if its the latest)

[@Chaoticmass]

that is a s-video port not a PS/2 port also not sure why you couldn't run linux on it, Debian should be an easy install. Still a great video. Thanks

[@Chaoticmass]

ah, I just saw someone else already commented about the s-video port. Anyway, don't want to be negative. Glad to see so many thinkpad appreciators here.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Hey no worries. I make mistakes and appreciate it when they're pointed out in a respectful manner. 👍 I need to learn somehow.

[@jinxider9510]

Hey dude where can I get those drivers for my ibm t41 I’ve looked everywhere

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Are you just looking for T41 drivers?

[@jinxider9510]

Yes.

[@jinxider9510]

May I get a link ?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

download.lenovo.com/eol/index.html

[@jinxider9510]

Thanks!

[@lainamitclaire]

Why would you black out the XP product key?

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It wasn't my machine, so it isn't my key to film.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

It wasn't my machine, so I didn't want to expose the key.

[@picchioknossus8096]

Try Pixel, Bodhi, Debian, or even the fat lubuntu. They all run ok.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Thanks for the info.

[@picchioknossus8096]

@@LaptopRetrospective if they complain about missing PAE support you can either use a kernel that doesn't use PAE or simply force the PAE option in the grub configuration. It always worked for me even on old think pads from 1998. Have a good day.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

The thought crossed my mind to force it, but when it's a loaner I play it safe.

[@mikebuck3624]

I have a Lenovo 3000 c100 it had a Celeron 1.5the which I upgraded it to a pentuim 760. I have found the following linux distro will work q4os, salix os, surprisingly Ubuntu mate 16.04 worked ok, sparky linux and the one I finally settled on peppermint linux 9.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@mikebuck3624 Thanks for the suggestions Mike.

[@jim2var2]

Peppermint OS 10 32bit , one ps3 controller + mame ,, nostalgia ,, i usally play street fighter hahaha 😂

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Nice!

[@daniidelrey]

I have one... the ram sucks and the battery too and I need a video for the battery :(

[@LaptopRetrospective]

What kind of video? Battery replacement is trivial.

[@daniidelrey]

@@LaptopRetrospective I just found one... sorry for interrupting:)

[@LaptopRetrospective]

@@daniidelrey no apologies necessary! Glad you have it sorted.

[@voca-chan7953]

You should've just burned restore CDs, Thinkwiki and Lenovo hosts the images

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Will do in the future. Especially if it's one of mine.

[@voca-chan7953]

@@jontyspeaks4037Cool, I have a T41 too I love it and use it all the time. I just wish it had better graphics and faster processor

[@voca-chan7953]

@@jontyspeaks4037 Yea, but the graphics can't be upgraded since it's soldered to the board, I already have the ATI Mobility 7500 anyways

[@voca-chan7953]

@@jontyspeaks4037 Maybe, I could be wrong

[@groki9572]

@Jonathan Adair, would you mind to share the links for download with us. I have one, but never was able to find those restore CDs in Lenovo's webpage.

[@sandrataveras524]

My name is Sandra and I want you to do me a favor can you tell me how do I do to get all that information about my IBM thinkpad laptop please

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Lots of ways but if you're just starting out I can give you a hand. You can reach me on Twitter or via email on the About page for the channel or visit my website and fill out the contact form.

[@sandrataveras524]

Okay I will contact you tomorrow around 2:45 p.m. and that find for you

[@sandrataveras524]

and my ibmthinkpad T41 is from the years 2004 and I want to know how many memory ram is used

[@EvertvanIngen]

Thats some huge background noise your mic is picking up.

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yeah, can't remember what was going on that day. I'm still looking for a better solution for audio than the mic built into the camera. Open to any suggestions you may have.

[@DanielDJCRO]

4:28 that's s-video not ps2

[@LaptopRetrospective]

Yep, the correction was noticed right after I uploaded.

[@mikv8]

It's not retro in any way, it's just old, outdated and retired. A laptop can be considered retro if it was released before year 2000. Well, okay, not beyond Pentium III era. In IBM lineup the latest models that were true retro are 770Z, 600X and 390X

[@LaptopRetrospective]

I suppose it depends on your criteria. For me it's mainly if can still be used for current day computing tasks.