====================================================================== IBM THINKPAD SERIES FAQ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Maintained by Sean Chou (schou@uiuc.edu) Disclaimer: I am not an IBM employee and do not represent IBM in any manner. Although I try to be as accurate as possible, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. The Thinkpad mail list and I do not claim any responsibility for whatever may occur as a result of this FAQ. The organization of this FAQ is major parts centered and separated by dashes, sections separated by dashes with the section head in all capital letters with the subhead in standard type. ====================================================================== SECTION HEADINGS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A. FAQ Info B. Hardware C. Audio and Multimedia D. Expansion E. Operating Systems F. Known Problems G. Where To Go For: ====================================================================== TABLE OF CONTENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A. FAQ Info A.1. What does does this FAQ cover? A.2. Where can I get this FAQ? A.3. Who maintains this FAQ? A.4. When was it last updated? B. Hardware B.1. Machine Specs and General B.1.1. What are the various Thinkpads? B.1.2. What CPUs do Thinkpads use? B.1.3. What are the dimensions and how much do they weigh? B.1.4. Is the floppy/hard drive/battery removable? B.1.5. How easy is it to take out the floppy, hard drive, and battery? B.1.6. Is there a reset button? B.1.7. Can I shut off the hard drive while leaving the screen on? B.1.8. Why are the keyboard letters and symbols are starting to come off. B.1.9. How can I secure my Thinkpad? B.1.10. How do I get rid of the password I set in BIOS? B.1.11. Can I format high density (2MB) floppies to 2.88mb? B.1.12. What's Thinkpad proven? B.2. Trackpoint B.2.1. What's the Trackpoint I, II, and III? B.2.2. How durable are the Trackpoints? B.2.3. How can I improve the grip of the Trackpoint II? B.2.4. What can I do about the Trackpoint II "drifting"? B.2.5. Can I increase the speed of the Trackpoint under OS/2? B.3. Power Management and Battery B.3.1. How are the power management and other BIOS features accessed? B.3.2. What type of battery does it use and what's the average battery life? B.3.3. Can I shut off the screen's lighting to prolong battery life? B.3.4. Is it possible to completely turn off the screen of the TP750 to save battery power but still use the unit? B.3.5. Is it possible to "hot-swap" my batteries? B.3.6. How do I suspend? B.3.7. What is hibernation? How do I hibernate? Does it work? B.3.8. Can I turn off that annoying/embarasing beeping noise when my TP750 goes into hibernation? B.3.9. How can I read the battery capacity from a program? B.3.10. Do the Thinkpads all use the same batteries? B.4. Video and Screen B.4.1. What's the Active Black matrix? B.4.2. Is it normal for the TFT screen to look faded out when viewed from an angle? B.4.3. I don't like how the screen dims when it's unplugged. B.4.4. What video chips do the Thinkpads use? B.4.5. What are the various screen size? B.4.6. Is the monochrome screen upgradeable? B.4.7. When I turn on my Thinkpad, I get a flickering effect for a while and then it goes away. What's wrong? B.4.8. How can I prevent my screen from looking "squished" when I'm running in graphics mode? B.5. PCMCIA (see PCMCIA file) B.5.1. What PCMCIA modems have been used successfully? B.5.2. What PCMCIA network cards have been used successfully? B.5.3. What other PCMCIA cards have been used successfully? B.5.4. My PCMCIA light stays on all the time. B.5.5. How do I get my PCMCIA devices to work? B.5.6. Can I use my flashcard from my Palmtop or Newon? B.6. Pentop (TP750P only) B.7. MWave card B.7.1. What is the MWave card? B.7.2. Where do I get the updates? C. Audio and Multimedia C.1. General Questions C.1.1. What audio chips do the Thinkpads use? C.1.2. How is the multimedia component? C.1.3. What are the exact measurements for the audio line-in and line-out? C.1.4. Is the built-in speaker used for all sounds? C.2. Crystal Semiconductors C.2.1. What is the crystal semiconductor audio chip? C.2.2. What machines use the crystal semiconductors audio chip? C.2.3. What drivers are available for the crystal semiconductor audio chip? C.2.4. Is there a text-to-speech utility? C.2.5. How do I get my games working with the sound? C.3. MWave Card (Audio only) C.3.1. What is the MWave card's audio component like? C.3.2. What machines use the MWave card? C.3.3. What drivers are out for the MWave card? C.3.4. How do I get my games working with the sound? C.4. CD-ROM C.4.1. How can I get a CD-ROM connected to my Thinkpad? D. Expansion D.1. Ports and Docks D.1.1. What external connections does it have? D.1.2. Does it have a dock or port replicator? D.1.3. How do I use the EPP port? D.1.4. A device which is connected to my serial port doesn't work. D.1.5. What type of SCSI connector does the dock II have? D.1.6. How can I get a SCSI connection to my TP? D.2. Memory D.2.1. What's the maximum RAM? D.2.2. What's the difference between DRAM and DIMM chips? D.3. Hard Drive and Floppy Drive D.3.1. What hard drive sizes are available? D.3.2. Is the removable hard drive a standard 2.5" hard drive? D.3.3. Can I get a third party hard drive? D.3.4. What are the specs for the floppy dirve? D.3.5. What do I do with my old hard drive after I've upgraded? E. Operating Systems E.1. DOS E.1.1. Can I move the IBMVESA directory? E.1.2. How do I get more memory with the PCMCIA drivers loaded? E.1.3. Why do I keep getting serial transfer errors? E.1.4. Why do I keep having problems with QEMM and my TP750 machine? E.1.5. Why is WordPerfect for DOS is crashing my machine? E.1.6. What DOS games work with the Crystal Semiconductor audio chip? E.1.7. What DOS games definately do NOT work with the Crystal Semiconductor audio chip? E.1.8. How do I get my game to work with the Crystal Semicondutor audio chip? E.2. Windows E.2.1. How can I stop getting "out of memory" errors? E.2.2. When I exit Windows, my system crashes suddenly. E.2.3. How can I comment out audio in my system.ini? E.2.4. Can I use the 32-bit disk access and 32-bit file access? E.3. Windows NT E.3.1. Does it run? E.3.2. What limitations are there to running NT? E.4. OS/2 E.4.1. Does Warp work with the Thinkpads? E.4.2. Why are my seamless windows messed up? E.4.3. How do I change resolutions on my external display? E.4.4. Can I use my PCMCIA device under OS/2? E.4.5. Why doesn't suspend work? E.4.6. Why do MIDI files keep crashing my system? E.4.7. How do I get a MIDI file and system sounds to work together? E.4.8. How can I make the pointer more visible? E.4.9. Does the TP750 support the IBM ScreenReader 2 program to provide speech access to OS/2 for blind users? E.4.10. Why does my machine crash when I come out of suspend? E.4.11. How do I increase the speed of cursor tracking? E.4.12. How can I use my whole screen in an OS/2 full screen box without vertical expansion? E.4.13. How do I hibernate under OS/2? E.5. Linux E.6. Other E.6.1. Does NetBSD work? (How to make NetBSD hobble along) E.6.2. Does SCO Xenix work? E.6.3. Any other OS's? F. Known Problems G. Where To Go For: G.1. Drivers G.1.1. What are the latest drivers? G.1.2. Where can I get them? G.2. Release notes G.2.1. Where can I get the latest IBM release notes? G.3. Technical help G.3.1. What's a good source of tech info for the TP750's? G.3.2. What documentation is there on the TP750? G.3.3. Is there any on-line documentation? G.3.4. How do I know what is Thinkpad proven? ====================================================================== THE FAQ PROPER ====================================================================== A. FAQ INFO ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A.1. What does does this FAQ cover? This FAQ covers the Thinkpads dating from the introduction of the Thinkpad 750 series. To the writing of this FAQ, this includes the TP750, TP750Cs, TP750C, TP750CE, TP750P, TP360, TP360Cs, TP360C, TP755, TP755Cs, TP755C, TP755CE, TP755CsE, and TP755CD. A.2. Where can I get this FAQ? It can be ftp'ed from the "official TP Mail List ftp site" provided generously by Chris Hanson at: ftp-swiss.ai.mit.edu in the directory /pub/thinkpad/faq A.3. Who maintains this FAQ? Sean Chou. Email me at schou@uiuc.edu with any corrections or comments. A.4. When was it last updated? ====================================================================== B.1. HARDWARE: Machine Specs and General ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.1.1. What are the various Thinkpads? Model CPU Screen Notes ------- --------- ------------------ ---------------------- TP750 SL/33 9.5" mono TP750Cs SL/33 9.5" dual scan TP750C SL/33 10.4" active TP750CE DX2/50 10.4" active Limited circulation TP750P SL/33 9.5" mono Pen-top model TP360 SX/33 9.5" mono TP360Cs SX/33 9.5" dual scan TP360C SX/33 9.5" active TP360CsE DX2/50 9.5" dual scan Mwave TP360CE DX2/50 9.5" active Mwave TP755 DX2/50 DX4 9.5" mono TP755Cs DX2/50 DX4 9.5" dual scan TP755C DX2/50 DX4 10.4" active TP755CsE DX4 9.5" dual scan Mwave TP755CE DX4 10.4" black active Mwave TP755CD DX4 10.4" black active Mwave; internal CD-ROM B.1.2. What CPUs do Thinkpads use? See B.1.1. The 486SL/33 chip is a 3.3 volt CPU that DOES include a floating point unit (coprocessor). The DX4 machines are upgradeable to DX4/100. B.1.3. What are the dimensions and how much do they weigh? B.1.4. Is the floppy/hard drive/battery removable? Yes, and furthermore, the floppy can be replaced by a number of other modules. IBM has a cellular modem and TV adapter available. They have also made the specs available in hopes that third party developers will make new modules although I know of none to date. B.1.5. How easy is it to take out the floppy, hard drive, and battery? This is one of the "neatest" features of the TP750 series. The keyboard flips up like a car hood and everything is accesible. I've even tried it with the machine on with no ill-effects (although the machine does auto-suspend). You can change batteries without shutting down simply by lifting the keyboard and switching batteries (a built- in NiCad battery will keep it powered while changing batteries). B.1.6. Is there a reset button? Yes, it's between the video port and dock port in the back of the machine. Get a paper clip and push the button in the hole. Tim Noonan reported an interesting piece of information to me. I would appreciate any confirmations for or against this: "I can't easily confirm this, but it seems like that if your config.sys or autoexec is totally stuffed that the resent buton can temporarily load from ROM resident versions of these files. I wondered why my machine was booting into windows after using the reset button while my autoexec.bat file had windows remmed out." B.1.7. Can I shut off the hard drive while leaving the screen on? Why would I want to do that? Well, because you can save a TON of battery life by not using the hard drive. Also, you can enjoy deathly silence. There's multiple ways to concievably do this. One is to set the timer so that the hard drive spins down after a short amount of time (while your screen stays on). John Kim has suggested using RAM drive when using small programs (or if you have a lot of RAM). On a similar note, you can always use a PCMCIA Flash RAM in place of the hard-drive. Joe Bormel stumbled upon a nice trick. There is a shareware program called COLAP (short for color laptop utility) that runs in DOS or a dos box in windows on dos. It has an option for toshiba machines, /T, that enables you, even on the tp750, to press RIGHT-SHIFT with DEL keys to turn off the hard disk. In addition, it can dim or brighten the VGA screen by altering vga color pallate. Joe has reported that this works under OS/2 as well in a DOS box. And, Tim Noonan points out that using a cache helps to reduce hard drive access significantly. B.1.8. Why are the keyboard letters and symbols are starting to come off. This is a problem some of the Thinkpad 750 series had. The keyboard paint was apparently sensitive to certain elements and would eventually get rubbed off. If you possess one of these keyboards, contact IBM for a new keyboard. B.1.9. How can I secure my Thinkpad? There are power-on and management passwords, as well as a hard drive password, which are effective in keeping people out of your info. There is a security loop that is located on the hard drive which can be used to secure the computer to a table or some other location. Also, Randy Whittle has suggested a motion detector which was designed for the Thinkpads that will sound off a loud alarm if armed. It can be set to various time delays, alarm times, etc. You can reach the makers at: SonicPro International, Inc. 5201 Great America Parkway Santa Clara, CA 95054 (408) 982-2568 Finally, and perhaps ultimately, Martin Smith (and many others, including myself) whole-heartedly recommend SafeWare. For $250 per year, they will insure you up to $10,000 for your computer, peripherals, and software. Insuring computers is all they do. Their number is 1-800-848-3469. or 1-614-262-0559. Also, if you think that your home insurance covers you, better call them up and make sure since many companies do NOT cover computers (especially if used for business purposes). B.1.10. How do I get rid of the password I set in BIOS? Type in your password with a space after it. B.1.11. Can I format high density (2MB) floppies to 2.88mb? Yes, but it's at your own risk. I've done it and a number of others have done it with no problems. However, there have also been reports of data loss with bad sectors forming after a period of extended use. B.1.12. What's Thinkpad proven? It's an IBM-implemented program to test items for their compatibility with Thinkpad machines. You can get the list from ====================================================================== B.2. HARDWARE: Trackpoint ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.2.1. What's the Trackpoint I, II, and III? B.2.2. How durable are the Trackpoints? I use my machine for about four-five hours a day on the average in OS/2 which is very mouse intensive. I've had no problems with it in the long time I've had it. I did, however, recently replace the rubber cap with a new one (the old one was just getting too mushy). However, Bruce Reed has reported that one of his friends managed to break his Trackpoint II after playing X-Wing intensively and agressively for 3 weeks. The device did not physically break, but it just stopped functioning. Needless to say, don't do anything silly like that. Get a joystick or external mouse. Yet again, OTOH, Stanley Wasserman had a Thinkpad 720 which he owned for about a year. He let his two kids play with it and it never gave out. The Trackpoint II does however drift slightly on occasion. This is normal and due to the way the TPII handles movement (or maybe recalibrate?). B.2.3. How can I improve the grip of the Trackpoint II? IBM has said that the "cat's tongue" tip for the Trackpoint III will also work with the Trackpoint II. This tip has a rougher feel so that you get improved traction. A number of people on the mailing list have said that they the stuff that people use to make their fingers sticky so that they can turn pages faster (or count money). If your tip is very old, it will also get mushier and lose it's form. Try using a new tip. B.2.4. What can I do about the Trackpoint II "drifting"? There is nothing wrong with your Trackpoint. This is normal and appears to be the way the Thinkpad recalibrates the Trackpoints. B.2.5. Can I increase the speed of the Trackpoint under OS/2? 1) Get a copy of Rodent v1.00 or higher. 2) Modify your config.sys to look something like the following, DEVICE=C:\OS2\MDOS\VMOUSE.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\POINTDD.SYS DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\RODENT.SYS RESPONSE=2 DPI=640 MOUSE=PS RATE=20 DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\MOUSE.SYS TYPE=RODENT$ REM DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\MOUSE.SYS 3) Tune the rate, dpi and response switches to suit your tastes. 4) Send money to the author of Rodent. 5) Send Scott Stratmoen thanks for finding the solution. He also adds that you may want to tune the tracking speed in windows via the normal Windows method. However, note that there has been mention that this might cause problems with your APM under Warp. Let me know if anyone figures this out. ====================================================================== HARDWARE: Power Management and Battery ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.3.1. How are the power management and other BIOS features accessed? "Some, like power-up passwords are only available through the EasySetup mode accessed by pressing F1 during a power-up. This is a GUI system with a range of hardware configuration options. "Most power management features can be accessed at DOS in Windows and under OS/2. In addition to menu access under dos using the PS2 program, full command line access for all settings is available. PS2 -? and one of the appendixes in the Reference manual document most of these commands." -Tim Noonan B.3.2. What type of battery does it use and what's the average battery life? The Thinkpads use a Nickel Metal-Hydride (NiMH) smart battery. These batteries adjust their expected "time left" based on past usage history. I'm not sure if the Thinkpads use the same batteries though. Please see the roadwarrior FAQ for questions regarding battery memory effect, longevity, and other general notebook battery questions. The average battery life differs depending on your use. However, average battery lives are reported below for various models: TP750 TP750C B.3.3. Can I shut off the screen's lighting to prolong battery life? Nope. That would require a transflective panel which none of the Thinkpads feature. (Apparently, a transflective panel would be much less bright than a normal LCD of comparable power consumption since the reflecting part would absorb the backlight.) - Ken Inoue B.3.4. Is it possible to completely turn off the screen of the TP750 to save battery power but still use the unit? Through the ps2 set-up program it is possible to disable the LCD screen if an external VGA monitor is connected. If you don't want to have an external screen connected, however, for example if you are using your ThinkPad with a speech synthesiser, then type "PS2 cover off" at the DOS prompt. This disables the resume function of the switch to the right rear of the unit that is depressed by the screen when its closed. This setting stops the unit from suspending but still disables the screen for improved battery life. It is best to use a small strip of cardboard in the slot where this small switch is situated to disable the screen. You may wish to use the "ps2 sound off" command to stop the various beeps that are generated by depression of the cover switch. If you don't do this you will hear a beep each time the unit realises the cover switch is depressed. -Tim Noonan B.3.5. Is it possible to "hot-swap" my batteries? Yes, if you are having problems, then you are probably pulling out your battery too fast. After lifting the keyboard, wait for a few seconds (the screen blanking does NOT mean the Thinkpad has gone into suspend yet) before swapping batteries. -Randy Whittle Also note that if the ps2 cover switch setting is set to off that lifting the keyboard will not suspend the machine (this also allows you to shut or disable the screen without shutting the computer off). -Tim Noonan B.3.6. How do I suspend? You can use software, the FN+F4 button, or push the little button on the right edge of the machine just above the area between the PCMCIA slots and PS/2 connector. B.3.7. What is hibernation? How do I hibernate? Does it work? Hibernation is an ultra power-conserving state. First, a hibernation file is built that is equal to the size of your RAM plus one meg. When you want to hibernate, hit Fn+F12. All the info in RAM is saved onto disk and the machine shuts off. Next time you start up, it starts where you left off. In theory, it's a great idea; however, execution has proven to be more thorny. Hibernation has been one of the buggier areas in all Thinkpad models on all operating systems. B.3.8. Can I turn off that annoying/embarasing beeping noise when my TP750 goes into hibernation? Yes, go to the Sound applet under OS/2 or Windows and click on the 'Power Control Beep' under the Alarms section. Under DOS, use th PS2.EXE program and go to sound options and click on the 'Power Control Beep' option or type 'PS2 beep off'. B.3.9. How can I read the battery capacity from a program? "One way to do this in DOS is to use APM BIOS. The APM specification version 1.1 (by Intel et al.) is on CompuServe PLUGPLAY forum; the 750 supports version 1.0 but if I remember correctly the battery status interface should be the same between 1.0 and 1.1. Please be careful about some of the APM BIOS calls that control system power state, as improper use of these calls can result in system crash (the APM BIOS calls were not meant to be used by two power managers). I am afraid that currently there is no easy way to do this in OS/2 without interfering with the operation of the standard power manager." -Ken Inoue B.3.10. Do the Thinkpads all use the same batteries? Good question. Someone? ====================================================================== HARDWARE: Video and Screen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.4.1. What's the Active Black matrix? What's the official description of this? B.4.2. Is it normal for the TFT screen to look faded out when viewed from an angle? Yes, especially when viewed from above or below the optimal level. It's not nearly as bad to view the screen from the sides as it is to view it from above or below. B.4.3. I don't like how the screen dims when it's unplugged. There's an undocumented switch for the PS2.EXE program to control brightness levels. It's 'PS2 BR N' for normal (plugged) brightness and 'PS2 BR E' for the economic brightness. Various users have reported a battery life loss of anywhere from 15-20 minutes less to 30 minutes less. This switch was first reported to me by Andrew Houghton. B.4.4. What video chips do the Thinkpads use? Thinkpads, like most notebooks, use the Western Digital 90C24 chipset, aka "Rocket", not to be confused with the Western Digital 90C31, which is their top-line chipset and also nicknamed "Rocket". They are both accelerated and supposed to be compatible with the Paradise chipset (which wouldn't take advantage of the acceleration hardware). The 90C24 is an 8-bit card and cannot display 16-bit or 24-bit colors. -John Kim They all support 640x480x256 onscreen and 800x600x16, 800x600x256, 1024x768x16, and 1024x768x256 on an external monitor. There is also a VESA TSR for DOS. The sych rate is adjustable between 56, 60, 72 Hz for any of the above modes. B.4.5. What are the various screen size? See B.1.1. B.4.6. Is the monochrome screen upgradeable? Yes, you can upgrade the TP750 to the pen or color screens when, or if, the upgrade becomes available. However, the upgrade seems to be much more expensive than the difference in price at last check. B.4.7. When I turn on my Thinkpad, I get a flickering effect for a while and then it goes away. What's wrong? This appears to be a known problem with some older BIOS. Contact IBM for a new BIOS or download it from the NSC BBS. The latest BIOS is version 1.04. B.4.8. How can I prevent my screen from looking "squished" when I'm running in graphics mode? "This is normal. The LCD is 640x480. Normal 25 row text mode is 640x400 pixels in resolution, and most graphical games are at 320x200 and 640x350. A monitor will automatically resych this to make it fill the entire screen. An LCD can't do this so you end up with a blank space 40 pixels high (75 pixels for 640x350) on both the top and bottom ends of the screen. "To alleviate this effect check to make sure that vertical expansion is on. Use the PS2 program under DOS, the Thinkpad applet under Windows, and the Display applet under OS/2. If you don't like the font under vertical expansion, there are several DOS utilities available with better fonts. A demo copy of one of these (Ultravision?) shipped with your ThinkPad." -John Kim ====================================================================== HARDWARE: PCMCIA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.5.1. What PCMCIA modems have been used successfully? This is by no means a comprehensive list, but rather a list of the most popular trouble-free cards used by members of the mailing list. AT&T Keep-In-Touch Megahertz XJ1114 Megahertz XJ2114 B.5.2. What PCMCIA network cards have been used successfully? B.5.3. What other PCMCIA cards have been used successfully? B.5.4. My PCMCIA light stays on all the time. This is normal. The PCMCIA light indicates that there is a card in the socket and that card and socket services are loaded. Power is no more than 10mA so it's nothing to worry about. -Mike Anderson, IBM Rep on CompuServe Thinkpad forum B.5.5. How do I get my PCMCIA devices to work? This differs depending on the operating system that you use. Under DOS/Win and OS/2, install the Thinkpad Utilities disk. Under Linux, you will have to compile PCMCIA support into the kernel. B.5.6. Can I use my flashcard from my Palmtop or Newon? Yes. There should be no problem with this as long as you have PCMCIA support properly configured. Randal Whittle reports that he had to load the the PCMCIA Phoenix support that came with PC-DOS and its PCMATA.SYS to enable his flashcard, although I don't know if there is a problem using EasyPlay drivers. ====================================================================== HARDWARE: Pentop (TP750P only) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== HARDWARE: MWave card ---------------------------------------------------------------------- B.7.1. What is the MWave card? B.7.2. Where do I get the updates? ====================================================================== AUDIO AND MULTIMEDIA: General Questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C.1.1. What audio chips do the Thinkpads use? The TP750 series, TP360 and TP755 series (excluding the E series, i.e. TP360CE and TP755CE) all use a proprietary audio chip designed by Crystal Semiconductors. The TP755 and TP360 E series (TP755 and TP360 CE CsE) use the IBM MWave card for it's audio. I've also heard that at least one of the Thinkpads (perhaps those with MWave cards) are hardware register compatible with the Soundblaster chipset. C.1.2. How is the multimedia component? The Crystal Semiconductor audio subsystem is 16-bit and can sample at up to 48 kHz (that's CD quality). The following emulations are supported for game play (or other use): 1) General MIDI mode 2) Roland Mode 3) Adlib Mode 4) Sound Blaster Mode 5) PC Speaker Mode It sounds decent (subjectively speaking, of course) through the PC speakers. External speakers will get you better noise but at a price of more luggage. The MIDI reproduction is a bit tinny and SoundBlaster (as well as other sound cards) emulation works but may skip a bit and slows down the system. I don't know how the Mwave cards sound. C.1.3. What are the exact measurements for the audio line-in and line-out? Both audio jacks are stereo, 1/8 inch mini-jacks. The audio out jack will take headphones. Maximum headphone speaker output is 1.5 mW into 32 ohms. Max output level is 1.9 V peak-to-peak @ 75 Ohms. The input jack is software programmable; mic or line input. Sample rate is 5.5-48 kHz. Mic input: gain 32-54.5 dB; input level 4 mV p-p @ 9 kOhms Line input: input level 5.3 V p-p @ 8 kOhms Mic and line input can be toggled through software. C.1.4. Is the built-in speaker used for all sounds? Yes, unless you have speakers or headphones connected to the machine. All sounds, including DOS (OS/2, Windows, or what-not) beeps are directed through the built-in speakers. ====================================================================== AUDIO AND MULTIMEDA: Crystal Semiconductors ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C.2.1. What is the crystal semiconductor audio chip? "The CS4248 is a mixed signal integrated circuit that provides 16-bit audio for computer multimedia systems. The CS4248 includes stereo audio converters and complete on-chip filtering for record and playback of 16-bit audio data. The CS4248 combines conversion, analog mixing, and programmable gain and attenuation to provide a complete audio subsystem in a single 68-pin PLCC or 100-pin TQFP package. The CS4248 includes an 8-bit parallel interface to the industry standard ISA bus. "A complete register mapping is included in the data. There are also device drivers available for Windows 3.1 and NT, as well as diagnostic software. The Monologue software is also available in the Crystal data book (apparently it was a joint development by Crystal and First Source)." -Andrew Stevens The CS4248 audio codec from Crystal Semiconductor is functionally equivalent Analog Devices AD1848 rev. K chip. The phone number to Crystal Semiconductor (Austin, TX) is 512-445-7222. C.2.2. What machines use the crystal semiconductors audio chip? The TP750, TP750Cs, TP750C, TP750P, TP750Ce, TP360, TP360Cs, TP360C, TP755, TP755Cs, TP755C. C.2.3. What drivers are available for the crystal semiconductor audio chip? IBM has put out drivers for Windows 3.1 that support all standard Windows fare (WAV and MIDI). DOS drivers are also available as well as "game" drivers that basically allow for emulation of SoundBlaster, MIDI, Roland, and Adlib. OS/2 drivers are available that will support MMOS as well as "game" emulation in a DOS box. Win-OS2 sounds are supported by the OS/2 drivers. C.2.4. Is there a text-to-speech utility? There is a program called Monlogue. A DOS and Windows version exist and should come with the Audio disks. C.2.5. How do I get my games working with the sound? ====================================================================== AUDIO AND MULTIMEDIA: MWave Card (Audio only) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C.3.1. What is the MWave card's audio component like? C.3.2. What machines use the MWave card? C.3.3. What drivers are out for the MWave card? C.3.4. How do I get my games working with the sound? ====================================================================== AUDIO AND MULTIMEDIA: CD-ROM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- C.4.1. How can I get a CD-ROM connected to my Thinkpad? This is really a matter of getting either a SCSI connection or gettng a CD-ROM that can go through the parallel port. To get a SCSI connection, see D.1.6. There are a number of parallel port CD-ROM drives. There is the Microsolutions backpack CD-ROM. However, they have no support for OS/2 and do not plan on supporting OS/2. A newer drive called the Gator provides a parallel port CD-ROM drive AND a SCSI adapter. ====================================================================== EXPANSION: Ports and Docks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- D.1.1. What external connections does it have? The Thinkpads all have two type II PCMCIA slots (or one type III), an unidirectonal/bidirectiona/enhanced parallel port, a serial port, a PS/2 port, a dock port, and an SVGA port. In addition, they have a line-in and line-out port for the audio. The TP750 series have a 16450 UART on the serial port. The newer models (TP360 and TP755) have 16550 UARTs. The TP755CE and TP755CD also have a video in port. D.1.2. Does it have a dock or port replicator? Yes, it has the Dock II which is mobile itself (weighing 6.2 lbs.). The Dock II has one 5.25" drive bay, one expansion slot, a SCSI connector, and high fidelity speakers built in. It also includes an external keyboard connector. Also, there are two port replicators. The first one is simply a port replicator (for the convenience of plugging lots of devices in). The second port replicator, in addition to replicating the ports, also includes two more Type II PCMCIA slots. There have been various problems reported on the mailing list about the Dock. The main problem has to do with the non-standard SCSI connection. D.1.3. How do I use the EPP port? To access the EPP port, set the LPT port to LPT2 in EasySetup (although LPT1 is still used by the software). D.1.4. A device which is connected to my serial port doesn't work. Be sure that the serial port is getting power. Check your power applet under OS/2 and Windows or, under DOS, type 'PS2 serial on', or use the menu options. You'd be surprised how many people do this! D.1.5. What type of SCSI connector does the dock II have? The SCSI adapter on the dock II is a non-standard connection. However, there is a cable available from IBM (part number 32G4143) which can provide the traditional Centronics connector. D.1.6. How can I get a SCSI connection to my TP? The Dock I comes with a SCSI port. However, several people on the mailing list have reported problems with using the SCSI port. IBM has a cable, part number 32G4143, which has the wierd 60 pin connector on one end and a more traditional 50 pin centronics style connector on the other. - Keith Moore (unconfirmed) There are two primary ways to get a SCSI connection besides the dock -- a parallel to SCSI cable or a PCMCIA SCSI card. Trantor, as well as some other companies, offer parallel port to SCSI cables. The Trantor cable comes in three model -- 4-bit, bidirectional, and EPP. Both the 4-bit and bidirectional cables have throughputs that may be too slow for any high-speed application (such as a quadruple speed CD-ROM drive or hard drive). See D.1.3. to see how to use the TP's EPP port with the Trantor EPP cable. Also note, Tim Noonan has reported that the Trantor drivers must be added to the _end_ of the CONFIG.SYS instead of the default installation to the _start_ of the CONFIG.SYS. Otherwise, the drivers will cause hangs during boot-up and the EPP will not be able to be properly accessed. Once properly connected, everything is reported to work well. Note that there are drivers for DOS/Win as well as OS/2. There are a number of PCMCIA SCSI cards that offer fast SCSI-2 support. The ones I know of are New Media, Future Domain, Adaptec, Future Domain, and IBM. If you are never going to use any OS beside DOS/Win, any of the cards will probably do. However, if you ever plan to try out or if you currently use OS/2, you are limited to the IBM card for now. Adaptec and Future Domain claim to be making OS/2 drivers, but so far I don't know much about them. New Media has said they don't plan on supporting OS/2 at all. ====================================================================== EXPANSION: Memory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- D.2.1. What's the maximum RAM? The maximum amount of RAM on the TP750 series machines is 40mb RAM. The original specifications listed 32mb, but that was because of the lack of a 36mb IC-DRAM card. D.2.2. What's the difference between DRAM and DIMM chips? ====================================================================== EXPANSION: Hard Drive and Floppy Drive ---------------------------------------------------------------------- D.3.1. What hard drive sizes are available? There is a 170mb, 340mb, 520mb, and 810mb hard drive available. D.3.2. Is the removable hard drive a standard 2.5" hard drive? D.3.3. Can I get a third party hard drive? Sigma Data is at least one of the OEM manufacturers of the hard drives shipping in the 355, 360, and 75x series. Therefore these drives have the exact same specifications as the original IBM drives. IBM fully supports these drives, including maintaining them under the terms of the ThinkPad warranty. Since they are the OEM manufacturer, the drives come in the same case, same connector, etc. The only difference is that there is a Sigma Data label on the case... Here are the part numbers: Capacity IBM Part Number Sigma Data Part Number 340M 66G2849 QED/TP750-340 540M 84G2150 QED/TP750-540 810M 84G8250 QED/TP750-810 Sigma Data 17 Newport Road New London, NH 800-446-4525 -Robert George The Thinkpad mail list has secured a discount deal with Sigma Data. Mention the Thinkpad mail list discount when you order from them. D.3.4. What are the specs for the floppy drive? The TP750x has a 2.88 floppy. The diskette drive controller is configured to be compatible with PS/2 Model 30, the first AT bus PS/2. -Ken Inoue The TP755 and TP360 have a 1.44 floppy. But I don't know what the controller is based on. D.3.5. What do I do with my old hard drive after I've upgraded? Forwarded by Eli B. Charne: --- From: echarne@liege.ics.uci.edu (Eli B. Charne) Subject: 2.5" Notebook drive adapter for desktop systems Date: 10 Feb 1995 12:58:20 -0800 Organization: UC Irvine, Department of ICS I have a few adapters that allow you connect 2.5" IDE Notebook drives to a standard IDE connecter. The adapters include a mounting bracket for the 2.5" drive that will slide into a standard 5.25" drive bay. This is great for being able to backup your notebook drive, or in case you've bought a larger notebook drive (like I did), you can still make use of the old drive. The price is $20 + 2.90 shipping. --- I don't know if any more are available or where he got them from. ====================================================================== OPERATING SYSTEM: DOS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E.1.1. Can I move the IBMVESA directory? No. E.1.2. How do I get more memory with the PCMCIA drivers loaded? Use OS/2. (Gratuitous plug) Short of that, you should watch what you load. Don't load drivers for things you don't need. Also, experiment with the amount of RAM you exclude. Most of the times, people have gotten by with excluding C000 to C0FF. Also, be sure to use a high memory manager such as Ramboot (PC-DOS), Memmaker (MS-DOS), QEMM, Netroom, or 386Max. E.1.3. Why do I keep getting serial transfer errors? John Kim first reported that the fueldos.com TSR provided with earlier versions of the TP750 utilities disk caused excessive loss of characters as well as bad packets. This has been confirmed by many other sources. Don't load the TSR at all if you use Windows primarily. If you use DOS frequently, then use the fueldos.com from version 1.31 of the TP750 Utilities disk or a higher version. Randy Whittle has also reported that the Windows fuel program _can_ cause problems in certain cases. Specifically, he was using an external v.32bis from his serial port with Procomm Plus for Windows. E.1.4. Why do I keep having problems with QEMM and my TP750 machine? See the file called tp_qemm. E.1.5. Why is WordPerfect for DOS is crashing my machine? "I don't know if this will fix your problem, but the TP750 has a problem with all of the rapid cursor features in DOS wp5.1 and wp6.0. It will sometimes hang the machine. You can start WP with "WP/nc" to get the normal cursor speed. When you get into WP, got to setup and turn off fast cursor. The default is 50cps, change it to 'normal'." -Douglas Diamond E.1.6. What DOS games work with the Crystal Semiconductor audio chip? E.1.7. What DOS games definately do NOT work with the Crystal Semiconductor audio chip? E.1.8. How do I get my game to work with the Crystal Semiconductor audio chip? ====================================================================== OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E.2.1. How can I stop getting "out of memory" errors? E.2.2. When I exit Windows, my system crashes suddenly. E.2.3. How can I comment out audio in my system.ini? E.2.4. Can I use the 32-bit disk access and 32-bit file access? Yes. The TP750 series is fully compatible with 32-bit disk access. The main problem occurs in portables that power down the hard drive while a write is in action. The TP750's (being fully APM compliant) won't power down as long as the hard drive is being used. 32-bit file access from Windows for Workgroups is entirely compatible also. -Randal Whittle (who quoted Herb Chong of RIME) ====================================================================== OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows NT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E.3.1. Does it run? E.3.2. What limitations are there to running NT? E.3.3. How's OpenGL work on the Thinkpads? ===================================================================== OPERATING SYSTEM: OS/2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E.4.1. Does Warp work with the Thinkpads? E.4.2. Why are my seamless windows messed up? E.4.3. How do I change resolutions on my external display? E.4.4. Can I use my PCMCIA device under OS/2? E.4.5. Why doesn't suspend work? E.4.6. Why do MIDI files keep crashing my system? E.4.7. How do I get a MIDI file and system sounds to work together? E.4.8. How can I make the pointer more visible? E.4.9. Does the TP750 support the IBM ScreenReader 2 program to provide speech access to OS/2 for blind users? E.4.10. Why does my machine crash when I come out of suspend? E.4.11. How do I increase the speed of cursor tracking? E.4.12. How can I use my whole screen in an OS/2 full screen box without vertical expansion? E.4.13. How do I hibernate under OS/2? ====================================================================== OPERATING SYSTEM: Linux ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== OPERATING SYSTEM: Other ---------------------------------------------------------------------- E.6.1. Does NetBSD work? (How to make NetBSD hobble along) E.6.2. Does SCO Xenix work? E.6.3. Any other OS's? ====================================================================== KNOWN PROBLEMS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== MORE INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------------------------------