Testing and Cleaning an IBM ThinkPad 380Z Laptop - Car Boot Sale Find!

Here's another one of the sub-£2 laptops I picked up earlier on in the year, namely an IBM ThinkPad 380Z.

As you can see the lid is dirty and there's a great big scratch on the screen completely and utterly ruining it :(

On top of that theres a crack in the corner of the screens bezel and there's something nasty and disgusting on a couple of the keys.

There are also some very strange markings and dents on parts of the laptop but I have no idea what they are.

After gathering up my laptop cleaning gear, I got down to giving this latop a thorough cleaning...


One thing I have learnt from doing this video is that going forward, even if I'm not making a YouTube video, I shall start recording anyway as for those of you who have seen the video will know that whilst air dusting the laptop a spring shot off across the screen that basically stopped the power button working!  Luckily I spotted this whilst I was editing the video and found the spring under my screwdriver set and it's now safely in a small plastic bag and Sellotaped to the laptop!

As you will see from the photos below, it's a hell of a lot cleaner than when I started but the weird and wonderfull markings and dents are still there - looks like something acidic has touched the laptop but no idea what.

Because it has no Hard Disk Drive or HDD Caddy, it's covered in scratches and strange dents and has a few cracks in the case I have labelled this one up as Spares and Repairs - you can't win them all, beside for £1.90 it's well worth it for the parts in case I get another one of these that requires a floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive :)

Testing IBM ThinkPad 380D Laptop - Car Boot Sale Find!

As it cost me under £2 at a Car Boot Sale earlier on in the year, it's not surprising this little beauty did not come with a power adapter, not to worry though as I just so happen to have a box of geniune adapters 'just in case'...

First things first, time to check the voltage on the power adapter I have to ensure it doesnt damage the laptop:

It's the correct voltage so we're good to go!


As you can see not only did the laptop power on, but it has a working hard disk drive in it with what appears to be a relatively fresh installation of Windows 95 on it!

Overall the laptop is in very good condition, although there is some damage to the bottom right-hand corner:

I was pleasantly surprised to see Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (just about) runs on this laptop even if the playing back of videos was a but jerky it was still playable.

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Specifications:

CPU: Intel Pentium 150MHz (P150)
RAM: 16MB
Optical Drive: 8x CD-ROM
Floppy Disk Drive: 1.44MB
Graphics: 1MB Neomagic NM2093 MagicGraph 1282V
Audio/Sound: Crystal Audio (SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 Compatible)

Scanning 21 IDE Hard Disks For Errors

Today I have spent most of the day watching Doctor Who with Martha Jones as the companion whilst scanning 21 IDE hard disk drives I purchased off of eBay for errors and bad sectors:

• 10 Dead or Alive But Clunking and Not Detected By Windows
• 2 Alive and Just About Kicking But Had Some Bad Sectors
• 9 Passed With Flying Colours!