Big thanks to Ridge for sending over this wallet and for sponsoring this video! Definitely consider checking them out if you want one for yourself :) ridge.com/PSIVEWRI
Great vid, one small correction: the daughterboard at 5:16 does not contain both the CPU and GPU: It is in fact a mobile module cartridge (MMC-2) processir board containing both the Pentium III CPU and Intel 443BX northbridge chip. I bet you could swap this out fairly easily for a faster processor module if needed. The plates are actually just pressure fitted onto posts: they can be pried off and pressed back down fairly easily.
It can be upgraded to 500MHz for sure. 650/750/850MHz may be an issue because of Speedstep. It was an issue with the 600X models that didn't originally come with a 650MHz CPU.
The “Baseball” screensaver was great. My dad always had that one on our living room Gateway 2000 PC. He also had a ThinkPad very similar to this one. What a nostalgic video.
Great restoration as always! I have IBM Thinkpad 390E, probably a little bit older than your laptop, I think they have the same graphics card. It's amazing how they're so different in the access to the hardware. Unfortunately, my unit condition is much more worse.
This video is awesome. I have a thinkpad t30 from 2002, it runs windows 2000, with a 60gb hard drive and 512MB RAM. I really like the design of the old devices- and the keyboards!
Eversince I got my Thinkpad E14 Gen 3 laptop earlier this year I've been fascinated with these things. This is honestly my favorite computer I've ever owned. The keyboard is so satisfying to use. It's really cool to see Lenovo kept IBM's excelent design going.
I used to have a stack of these 390s both in the x and e variety. I can tell you that some of them had "Trident" video adapters that were 4mb dedicated and they actually ran windows xp pretty decently for being pentium 2 and 3 machines. The docking station I once had for them was AWESOME, it gave you more everything including cardbus sockets and it was these laptops that gave me my life long love for laptop docking stations and docking technology!
This video brings back me in my childhood in 2014-2015 when I had an old Thinkpad computer with a rotative screen and a pen and I remember I spend my days on this computer chatting with my friends on some virtual worlds, watching my first animes or drawing random things on Paint. That was the good old days…
I'll agree, the hinge design like that on plastic laptops isn't great. But IBM and later Lenovo improved it with the magnesium-alloy body paired with the two pegs.
My oldest Thinkpad is a T22 from around 2002. That screensaver named the 60's was supposed to represent how one saw the world when on the drugs like LSD at the time. And I loved the Mystery screensaver and theme. Ran it a lot for my daughters as they loved it.
I have an ThinkPad 390X, too. It has the Celeron 400MHz, 128 MB RAM and a very big hard drive with 80 GB. My hinges are OK, they are not cracked. Unfortunately one of the foldable feets are missing. But it's a good retro laptop, it has floppy and CD drive in the same device and it has excellent input devices. Got mine from eBay for about 20€.
"Laptops have come a long way" True, but with multiple sacrifices like reduced port selection, non-removable batteries, and soldered components that used to be user upgradable in some cases.
I watched a video about this sort of thing about an hour ago which describes a business strategy called planned obsolescence. The title of the video is call "This is why we can't have nice things". The whole point of them making batteries irremovable is to force you into spending a lot more money on a whole new laptop. It's so wasteful.
that hinge design is WAY better than some of the more modern hinges. that thinkpad's hinge is screwed directly into the laptop metal chassis, on most modern laptops, its screwed into the plastic top or bottom case...
I picked up a old IBM ThinkPad A21m, its in very good shape, it came from a local seller who was cleaning out his attic, he was selling other branded laptops as well as a lot, but i bought only this thinkpad because its was in such great shape, no wear what so ever, so i think i am very lucky with this one! It has a 800mhz pentium 3, 256gb of ram and a 100gb ide hard drive, its slow, but it has a ati rage mobility m with 8mb's of dedicated memory and plays 3d games very well, and i modified the thinkpad a bit, under a flap, i found that the build in modem and ethernet happened to be on a mini pci card, so i took the laptop appart, i installed some wifi antenna's from another machine, and i replaced the mini pci ethernet card with a wifi card, so now, this laptop has build in wifi which works great under windows 2000, and for the ethernet solution, i have a xircom one like you have, but my card has 2 additional rj12 plugs, one for data and one for fax, and the red color of the xircom card matches the black and red theme ibm had going on their thinkpads up to this day with lenovo's thinkpads. Great laptop i must say :p
Yep, the 390 series Thinkpad definitely have a flaw in the hinge area. I bought a 390E from Ebay (it was intact in the pictures) and when it arrived, the hinge part and the plastic was completely destroyed. So I had to send it back and get a refund. Many of the 390s I see have broken hinges (especially the left hinge). A sad design flaw. I don't think other TPs have this sort of issue
The model sequencing was: three digit base model number; next revisions: E, X, and finally Z. So 390, 390E, 390X, 390Z (but I don't think it ever got to 390Z). D suffix was used in the earlier models = CD drive. C for colour (earliest models only). Lower case "s" for dual Scan screen (only seen this with 701C/701Cs).
I've got an ibm 390E and I think the IDE controller is failing, because I can't install windows, the installer fails to copy some of the files. If I try installing windows on the hard drive with another PC, when I put the hdd back into this ibm, then it doesn't let me install any applications and soon after it fails to boot.
The occasional stutter I noticed on 3D games could easily be the use of a slow hard drive. I remember having a laptop 20 years ago and while it was pretty damn fast in everything, the drive was the reason behind such stutters. I actually added a USB 2.0 drive to it which improved it a lot. Weird. Completely fixed the issue when I got one of the first, or the first?, 7200rpm drive for laptops of the time. Cool video.
i got a t61 a 2007 laptop got windows 10 running on it, 4gb of ram and an ssd. Very poor to use, bad and even struggles loading web pages and word. But i love it.
I find a Magic Eraser works well on these old Thinkpads. I've made them look SO much better by using that and a little bit of water. Don't go too crazy with it, but a little bit should go a long way
Hi, I've got a 390E, exactly the same case. Mine has a pentium 2, smaller screen and does 640x480 max. Could you let me know more about the internet xircom card. Mine doesn't have any card and it's a pain using usb to transfer files.
3:25 He sounded like the guy who did the 90s ad thing I don’t know why I thought that but if you listen carefully from the time stamp above you’ll understand why I said it
I might do a video on my channel about mine. I have a thinkpad 390 that was upgraded with a 300mhz PII, 512MB of memory and a 64GB MSATA drive in an IDE caddy. I love that thing dearly and is my goto retro system due to space issues.
Well the ThinkPad 390 series weren't their top of the line laptops, as such the build quality is definitely not that great. That kind of hinge design works well if you have metal support on the bottom like the case on many Dell Latitudes at that time, but unfortunately this thing doesn't have it. As a result the hinges definitely feel quite weak even on mine which had no cracks. I have owned a 390X just like that but I actually find it quite boring compared to the ThinkPad 600 since my optical drive doesn't work either, so I ended up selling it for really cheap (which I regretted)
I have that very machine, working, along with many other beauties. I have been told I am a hoarder, or junk collector. I am neither, well maybe I am but for good reason I have saved them. They will be some of the only truly usable machines before long.
Big thanks to Ridge for sending over this wallet and for sponsoring this video! Definitely consider checking them out if you want one for yourself :) ridge.com/PSIVEWRI
Looks painful 😂
Hey! you NOT supposed to play duke nukem 3d with mouse, so of course it will be hard with touchpoint
no
you finally got verified 🎉
Hackintosh it!!!
That Windows 98 startup sound, yes: It manages to be soothing and ominous at the same time. A minor masterpiece.
I am gonna find a way to make my ASUS TUF Gaming A15 to boot up with that sound
You need start up changer and also need to enable in the settings “Play startup sound” which is off by default but can be ticked on
"With the help of this Ethernet card, which is faster because it is red..." that's amazing. 😅
*RED*
Red represents that it's faster aka normal ethernet card is 10.2 gigabit per second and red one is 17.2 so ye
I have that exact internet card
@@vertyyy8234 I was today years old when I learned that red is ACTUALLY faster. I want red now!
Wait until somebody says that it wont make it faster. Lol
RED MAKES EVERYTHING FASTER!!!
The screensaver was called "The 60s USA" because, well... there was a lot of recreational hallucinogenic use at that time lol
You're probably right 😂
Great vid, one small correction: the daughterboard at 5:16 does not contain both the CPU and GPU: It is in fact a mobile module cartridge (MMC-2) processir board containing both the Pentium III CPU and Intel 443BX northbridge chip. I bet you could swap this out fairly easily for a faster processor module if needed. The plates are actually just pressure fitted onto posts: they can be pried off and pressed back down fairly easily.
It can be upgraded to 500MHz for sure. 650/750/850MHz may be an issue because of Speedstep. It was an issue with the 600X models that didn't originally come with a 650MHz CPU.
The “Baseball” screensaver was great. My dad always had that one on our living room Gateway 2000 PC. He also had a ThinkPad very similar to this one. What a nostalgic video.
ThinkPad + Eucoliptus oil = Psivewri
Let me open it with my tick knife. Always like that
I like how the design has barely changed
did he just switch to a perfect american accent for a second wtf
Time?
@@siddhoot 3:24 I think
I'm so used to the way he speaks, I didn't even realize it!
(I'm American.)
Recently restored my old Thinkpad 570E, and let me tell you. The Windows 98 startup sound is terrifying at 3 AM
Watch out dude
Yes it is
I don't believe that
@@NepgearGM6.1 what don’t you believe?
@@Junkob101 that the Windows 98 startup sound is terrifying
Personally, I would have left that Quantas sticker on it. That's a bit of that laptop's history right there.
2:23 MAN, that takes me back.
It's wonderful to see a notebook that old actually getting restored. They are still reliable nowadays.
Great work! ☺️
Great restoration as always!
I have IBM Thinkpad 390E, probably a little bit older than your laptop, I think they have the same graphics card.
It's amazing how they're so different in the access to the hardware.
Unfortunately, my unit condition is much more worse.
This video is awesome. I have a thinkpad t30 from 2002, it runs windows 2000, with a 60gb hard drive and 512MB RAM. I really like the design of the old devices- and the keyboards!
Using this Ethernet card, which is faster
*because it’s red*
Like Char Aznable's MS-06S Zaku II?
69 likes lmao
red is sus
I always love your old laptop restoration videos.Keep the Good Work up man.your style of making video is just great man.
9:45 Oh man, HOVER!!! I loved that game! Haven't seen it in well over 20 years
I cant stop watching your videos. I love watching videos like these. Thank you for makin this type of videos.
Just bought a thinkpad 390 thanks to this video. Great machine.
Eversince I got my Thinkpad E14 Gen 3 laptop earlier this year I've been fascinated with these things. This is honestly my favorite computer I've ever owned. The keyboard is so satisfying to use. It's really cool to see Lenovo kept IBM's excelent design going.
I used to have a stack of these 390s both in the x and e variety. I can tell you that some of them had "Trident" video adapters that were 4mb dedicated and they actually ran windows xp pretty decently for being pentium 2 and 3 machines. The docking station I once had for them was AWESOME, it gave you more everything including cardbus sockets and it was these laptops that gave me my life long love for laptop docking stations and docking technology!
This video brings back me in my childhood in 2014-2015 when I had an old Thinkpad computer with a rotative screen and a pen and I remember I spend my days on this computer chatting with my friends on some virtual worlds, watching my first animes or drawing random things on Paint. That was the good old days…
I'll agree, the hinge design like that on plastic laptops isn't great. But IBM and later Lenovo improved it with the magnesium-alloy body paired with the two pegs.
I don't own a Thinkpad but those laptops are great because they are a strong build series of laptops.
You know you're going to have a good time watching the videos he makes
These Thinkpads were my favorite laptops. As a typist, these laptops had a full keyboard and it was a joy to use.
5:48 Psivewri spitting some rhymes
Lol
Yoo he do be rapping dho
Watching on my Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Love the old Thiccpads!
My oldest Thinkpad is a T22 from around 2002. That screensaver named the 60's was supposed to represent how one saw the world when on the drugs like LSD at the time. And I loved the Mystery screensaver and theme. Ran it a lot for my daughters as they loved it.
I have an ThinkPad 390X, too. It has the Celeron 400MHz, 128 MB RAM and a very big hard drive with 80 GB. My hinges are OK, they are not cracked. Unfortunately one of the foldable feets are missing. But it's a good retro laptop, it has floppy and CD drive in the same device and it has excellent input devices. Got mine from eBay for about 20€.
11:31 2D accelerators dont need cooling ussually. And chip next to cpu is chipset 100%.
The screensavers are my favorite part of going back to classic versions of Windows. Makes me sad Windows 10 buries them.
"Laptops have come a long way" True, but with multiple sacrifices like reduced port selection, non-removable batteries, and soldered components that used to be user upgradable in some cases.
ikr
bUt iTs tHiNnER sO iT fITs iN yOuR bAcKpaCk bEtTeR
I watched a video about this sort of thing about an hour ago which describes a business strategy called planned obsolescence. The title of the video is call "This is why we can't have nice things". The whole point of them making batteries irremovable is to force you into spending a lot more money on a whole new laptop. It's so wasteful.
that hinge design is WAY better than some of the more modern hinges. that thinkpad's hinge is screwed directly into the laptop metal chassis, on most modern laptops, its screwed into the plastic top or bottom case...
4:22 sounded like auto tune for some reason 😂 love the channel as well!
Bringing back memories❤️Thanks, Psivewri!♥️
old laptop keyboards are soooo much better than today
You can also use an ice cube tray for keeping your screws organized.
I love old laptops like these.
Nathan's been blazing it up
4:45 Apple designers definitely should watch this.
3:06 ah yes, I’m from the USA and I remember everything looking like a 2D reflective ball back in the day
very interesting and instructive video! thanks Nathan!
watched this on my 13 year old HP Compaq 6710b that still holds up in 2020 and has awesome sounding speakers on it
The mouse nipple was amazing and I would use one today. The Thinkpad was a very robust machine back then when it was actually mauufactured by IBM too.
That IBM desktop background is awesome. Can you upload it somewhere?
I'm sorry...
Right before 9/11, Psivewri to control tower: 9:21
:D
A lot of nostalgia in that laptop and it reminds me when I was a kid drawing on microsoft paint
Hi psivewri :) love your videos! from The Philippines 🇵🇭
You make the best videos
I'm watching this video on a Lenovo ThinkPad T420
T430
Love my T430 and T440p
Me on X220
I’m watching it on an IPhone 11 Pro
*420*
I had exactly the same model. The hinge will break if you keep using it. Apart form that, amazing machine for the time.
Love from Bangladesh. I never missed your any video since 2019
I love that ibm wallpaper at 1:44 can i get that somewhere? please?
I had an alarm for this
You beat me by 3 seconds. :)
Worked out great
Not for first comment but just so I could see it immediately
Thank you Psivewri, very cool
would be awesome if you would test out how linux distros would run on old machines.
perhaps something like puppy linux?
- over 20 years old
- purchased off Twitter
- shipping paid with a crap load of stamps
Ooh, this is going to be a good episode!
Try using a tool to hold the pointing nub so you can effectively clean it and paint it.
I picked up a old IBM ThinkPad A21m, its in very good shape, it came from a local seller who was cleaning out his attic, he was selling other branded laptops as well as a lot, but i bought only this thinkpad because its was in such great shape, no wear what so ever, so i think i am very lucky with this one! It has a 800mhz pentium 3, 256gb of ram and a 100gb ide hard drive, its slow, but it has a ati rage mobility m with 8mb's of dedicated memory and plays 3d games very well, and i modified the thinkpad a bit, under a flap, i found that the build in modem and ethernet happened to be on a mini pci card, so i took the laptop appart, i installed some wifi antenna's from another machine, and i replaced the mini pci ethernet card with a wifi card, so now, this laptop has build in wifi which works great under windows 2000, and for the ethernet solution, i have a xircom one like you have, but my card has 2 additional rj12 plugs, one for data and one for fax, and the red color of the xircom card matches the black and red theme ibm had going on their thinkpads up to this day with lenovo's thinkpads. Great laptop i must say :p
Thank you for posting a new vid 😊
That intro animation fits just perfectly.
Yep, the 390 series Thinkpad definitely have a flaw in the hinge area. I bought a 390E from Ebay (it was intact in the pictures) and when it arrived, the hinge part and the plastic was completely destroyed. So I had to send it back and get a refund. Many of the 390s I see have broken hinges (especially the left hinge). A sad design flaw. I don't think other TPs have this sort of issue
Great video❗️I remember when this came out, I was working for Compaq Computer Corp. 👨💻 and this was competing with our CPU’s
Awesome. Still have a Thinkpad 600E from 1999 sitting here and a Thinkpad T40p from 2003. :-)
Now I know how to pronounce psivewri
4:20
me: * takes my broken laptop to the service center*
the guy at service center: sorry we can't...
Psivewri: Hold my eucalyptus oil
its my fist time hearing the correct pronunciation of psivewri
I used to have a 390e. XP didnt run too bad
I'm so early! Amazing videos, I absolutely love your videos! Keep up the great work
@Christian Grenier still early
Nice to see thiner bezels than on current production :)
Nice vid Nathan keep up the great work
Yes a nother IBM thinkpad video I really like these
MY FAVORITE CHANNEL PSIVEWRI THANK FOR YOUR VIDEO BLESS YAAAH
the seal in the background really greets me
I would totally have one of these as a writing PC!
I have the one either before or after this one (390e) but with a shattered screen and no sound. Has a working battery and was free so I don’t complain
The model sequencing was: three digit base model number; next revisions: E, X, and finally Z. So 390, 390E, 390X, 390Z (but I don't think it ever got to 390Z). D suffix was used in the earlier models = CD drive. C for colour (earliest models only). Lower case "s" for dual Scan screen (only seen this with 701C/701Cs).
when the "screen saver" use more processor power and battery than just simply leaving it on the desktop lol
Great video! I recently bought a Thinkpad 560X and 600E for $30 and have been working to get them fixed. Sadly the 560X doesn't turn on.
Nice. The 560 was super slim for the time. Both 560 and 600 models were still quality. 570 was part plastic crap, although not as bad as the 390.
F in the chat
@@thelettuceconsumer I got the 560x working with a new motherboard
I've got an ibm 390E and I think the IDE controller is failing, because I can't install windows, the installer fails to copy some of the files. If I try installing windows on the hard drive with another PC, when I put the hdd back into this ibm, then it doesn't let me install any applications and soon after it fails to boot.
The occasional stutter I noticed on 3D games could easily be the use of a slow hard drive. I remember having a laptop 20 years ago and while it was pretty damn fast in everything, the drive was the reason behind such stutters. I actually added a USB 2.0 drive to it which improved it a lot. Weird. Completely fixed the issue when I got one of the first, or the first?, 7200rpm drive for laptops of the time.
Cool video.
i got a t61 a 2007 laptop got windows 10 running on it, 4gb of ram and an ssd. Very poor to use, bad and even struggles loading web pages and word. But i love it.
As technology progressed creativity got left out in the wayside.
Would you consider uploading the restore CDs to archive.org? It is difficult to find all the drivers for old IBM stuff.
Crazy to think that this was just 21 short years ago
Nice, no battery error when it starts lol
I find a Magic Eraser works well on these old Thinkpads. I've made them look SO much better by using that and a little bit of water. Don't go too crazy with it, but a little bit should go a long way
Hi there! Got the same notebook and want to restore it and bring back to life. So can you upload the Recovery CD you got with yours?
The startup sound.. it feels like a drug 😂
I've watched many of your videos.
Where can I find a cleaning tool like yours? such as a spray , lens cleaning
thanks
House Screensaver giving me teletubby vibes
Hey Psi, can you upload that Thinkpad screensaver, please?
Hi, I've got a 390E, exactly the same case. Mine has a pentium 2, smaller screen and does 640x480 max. Could you let me know more about the internet xircom card. Mine doesn't have any card and it's a pain using usb to transfer files.
about that Quantas sticker, what does it mean to be chemically marked
3:25
He sounded like the guy who did the 90s ad thing
I don’t know why I thought that but if you listen carefully from the time stamp above you’ll understand why I said it
I might do a video on my channel about mine. I have a thinkpad 390 that was upgraded with a 300mhz PII, 512MB of memory and a 64GB MSATA drive in an IDE caddy. I love that thing dearly and is my goto retro system due to space issues.
Well the ThinkPad 390 series weren't their top of the line laptops, as such the build quality is definitely not that great. That kind of hinge design works well if you have metal support on the bottom like the case on many Dell Latitudes at that time, but unfortunately this thing doesn't have it. As a result the hinges definitely feel quite weak even on mine which had no cracks.
I have owned a 390X just like that but I actually find it quite boring compared to the ThinkPad 600 since my optical drive doesn't work either, so I ended up selling it for really cheap (which I regretted)
A video after long time
I have that very machine, working, along with many other beauties. I have been told I am a hoarder, or junk collector. I am neither, well maybe I am but for good reason I have saved them. They will be some of the only truly usable machines before long.