IBM Thinkpad G41 - Restoring A THICK Pentium 4 Laptop!
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- čas přidán 19. 03. 2022
- I bought an old IBM Thinkpad G41 laptop off of eBay. It's quite a chunky beast featuring a 3.33GHz Pentium 4 processor with hyper threading. Join me as I test and clean up this notebook from 2005. #vintage #laptop #restoration
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Hope you enjoyed the video :) What computers do you want me to cover in the future?
How do you install minecraft on old computers? I bought minecraft but when i try to install it is incompatible
An eleitebook 8560p
buy cheap untested "junk" from ebay and try repairing and selling it. (maybe even profits)
@@dasims It's very dependent on the OS and hardware compatibility. I couldn't get it running on this Thinkpad for instance. Largely due to the GPU I believe.
Elitebook W series is somewhat iconic, as it still has decent performance for today use and is pretty strongly made
Im sure some school is still using these... lol
I wouldn't be surprised. IBM ThinkPads were built to last :)
Even some companies uses windows xp
My school has prehistoric pcs, theres even one with windows 98 on it.
I think older version of Windows is more friendly than the newer version 🤣🤣🤣
It's on windows XP, some companies still use windows server 2003, windows 98 etc
ibm was sadly one of the only computer companies that truly had real upgradability
Frankly, working on laptops from it's age and thereabouts (when they ALL just HAD to have an optical drive, or else it would suck), it's not that uncommon to have socketed CPUs, 2 RAM slots without soldered crap and a HDD behind a decent door, heck MXM video cards. Even the WLAN cards could be replaced....if you wanted to flash a custom BIOS or buy from the vendor.
It just went downhill fast when someone decided that it was oh-so-important that it's thin. As if the thickness really changed much in what you could bring along it on a bag, much less during use.
@@Kalvinjj it has gone downhill I'll agree but imo it's also become easier to do maintenance on current laptops where you just need to pop open the back panel with most models that aren't thin and light allowing to replace most parts other than the cpu and gpu, I wish socketed mobile chips made a come back tho
@@b1rd1e81 True thankfully there are some models still that you just pop one big panel and replace anything but the CPU/GPU. It's obviously not all lost, and the one thing that thankfully is left in the past is the failing north bridges from overheating/bad BGA soldering. Have an HP one here that had this chronic issue with it's north bridge/GPU chip that had bad cooling and BGA soldering issues.
Nowadays since it's all on the CPU or separate GPU chip, they kinda have to be decently cooled (granted this part is sometimes wishful thinking), can't have a dying north bridge and happy CPU without a clue about the cooling problems there.
Not just upgradability but repairability too. You've had service manuals etc and more importantly every part had a FRU partnumber so you could easy order pretty much every single part of the laptop
I put the date at 2008 when Steve Jobs pulled the Macbook Air out of manila envelope. The entire laptop industry save for gaming, engineering, and rugged use copied them.
MY DAD HAS THIS ONE! I used this computer when I was younger to play some games. My dad still has it back at the old house. I think I’ll pick it up for myself
ThinkPads really were dad laptops, if you weren't a business person but still had a ThinkPad you were likely a dad
@@Themadpatter520 yess true. i really remember playing roblox at native resolution with aero turned on while still getting 25s at my dad's thinkpad.
Your dad has probably been waiting for you to realize this. Also, remember to visit your parents more often.
@@steriftes my dad had one and I can't for the life of me remember what model what it was all I remember is I ripped the track point off and it didn't end well for me 😅
@@Themadpatter520 Seriously, my dad have a Thinkpad and an Ideapad
You had Minecraft on the desktop but didn't play it on this beast of a machine! I wanted to see some 4FPS action!
hi sal
Sal!
yes
SalC1!!!!!!! For 2b2t!!! 🥺
Sal you gay bruh?
Fun fact, the USB ports deliver power, even when the laptop is powered off. Had to do this once in a storm when I'd lost power and needed to charge my phone. Had the G40 and its weird 4-pin power adapter. Pretty sure it still works.
will try this😂😂😂
@@supergirl1386 Let me know how it goes!
My old t440 had this! Used it like a big powerbank lol
Almost every laptop or PC have this function...
@@Gerrrciunot with some newer laptops. The option to charge devices while it’s off via USB is either available when it connected to power or you have to go to the BIOS to turn it on there.
I would have been curious to see how well Linux Mint from 2019 performed on such an old latpop. Making a case for old hardware used with modern software.
I tried it on this same machine actually. It runs like crap, I ended up on an older ubantoo release
I am curious as well.
Tried Mint in as-old machines but there are many drivers missing... Then you need to go back to older Mint/Ubuntu releases but you won't have the latest software... Well, you can't have everything with a machine that old!
It's not just digging through the old archive driver packages in the repos, it's the fact that x86_32 was largely depricated from the desktop linuxsphere. You can use one of those dedicated 'old pc' distros if you're fine with the weirder web browsers that never work
@Sylvia Campbell I only mentioned it because it was shown in the multi-boot menu early in the video, showing the previous owner was running Mint 2019.
0:29 Due to the Thinkpad's modularity, IBM (later Lenovo) decided to make "mods" for the drive bay, some of them being: extra battery pack, CD/DVD, second HDD, etc. (Especially in the IBM era ones) so basically the owner gave you 2 mods: the CD drive already included inside the laptop and the CD/DVD writer that you showed
My first computer was a Dell modeled after a ThinkPad.
@@CoasterMan13Official Yeah later Dell and HP copied the modularity of the thinkpad with their Latitude and Elitebook
@@Mr_L1n4x yeah. Believe it or not, I still have my Dell D630. It still works. I have Ubuntu MATE installed on it.
Sadly newer thinkpad don't have the modularity anymore
Yes, even Lenovo applies the same modularity concept on Y400 and Y500 laptop with additional GT 650M GPU drive bay dock to enable SLI on those laptops. It produces GTX 760M performance (on 3DMark benchmark and SLI compatible game), therefore surpassing Alienware M14X R2 (which is supposed to be the true 14" gaming laptop at that era). Once I owned Y400 laptop with SLI GT650M and it felt so amazing to be able to run Metro Last Light and CoD Ghost with perfect 60 fps high setting 768p.
I've always loved Thinkpads and I still recommend them to everyone. This machine was from the golden age though - The IBM branded systems. Don't get me wrong - since Lenovo have taken over the thinkpad range, they've done a good job keeping the standard high and they are still great machines. IBM though seemed to have a magic touch. Even my first thinkpad 600 (with a pentium 2 cpu) not only was as hard as a patio slab but was very fast and very stable for the hardware. IBM proved these machines through the ceiling making them compatable with everything and damn near indestructable.
Best Lenovo era ThinkPad I've had is my P50 , solidly built and easy to work on
P4 laptop, fire hazard and good portable space heater. I want one.
As an owner of a G40, it’s actually surprisingly cool and quiet. 60c max temp and barely audible. It’s primarily due to that gigantic Heatsink. This was super hot for it’s time but these days consider that 45w mobile processors are handled by much smaller coolers since they have much higher potential max temperatures. Since these P4’s would’ve died horribly well before touching something like 90c, most systems of the time aimed to keep the processor at sub 65c
That is such a beautiful system, and I love the blast from the past on the thickness, even if it is twice as thick as my first laptop. Seeing expansion ports again really brought on the nostalgia. XD
Nice man. Just picked up an old HP a few months ago with a P4 processor in it as well. Works great but could use a little cleaning, but when I saw that chunky boy at the thrift store for $20 usd I had to do it
What an epic machine! It looked brand new after that thorough cleaning! I'd play so much rs on this if I had one.
I love these old laptop videos. Made me start looking for laptops for free/for trade to fix up.
It would be great if a company that makes laptops could apply the same design of the Thinkpad G41 to a gaming laptop. With today's technology and with how thin the components are now, you could easily put a processor and a desktop gpu with the dimensions of this laptop and still have a good cooling system.
If I remember correctly LTT had a video last year where someone had made a laptop exactly like that
There's been at least one company making such a beast for every generation of Intel CPU. They tend to be quite niche products though, even for gamers... even more so now since you can just use a conventional laptop + eGPU. Mobile CPUs have come a long way since the machine in this video, the GPUs haven't quite caught up though, they're still heavily gimped compared to desktop versions.
I could be wrong, but I am quite certain that even among mobile workstations with desktop CPUs, they still use mobile GPUs, usually on an MXM card which means they are technically upgradeable, but still gimped.
The Clevo X170 is pretty close to just that. Still has an MXM GPU, but it's got an LGA 1200 socket and a Z590 chipset. You can put an 11900K with a 16GB RTX 3080 inside, run about 40 minutes on battery lol
But they won't get enough buyers
Pipes. Pipes was the best screensaver. As a kid I used to find the animations on my Dad's PC fascinating. I also remember being really disappointed the he got a new computer... and then the pipes animated too quickly to follow properly.
The ThiccPad's use of a desktop P4 shows how messed up the Prescott architecture is. The Pentium M on the other hand was based off the Pentium III's P6 architecture which would later be the basis for the Core architecture.
I remember seeing a Pentium M powered notebook for the first time and being so impressed. It was one of those ultra light Dell ones (Latitude X300 IIRC), running at 1.7GHz, sipping power, but performing really well for office work. The Pentium 4 really was a dud.
@@44Bigs Hence the pejorative nickname "PresHot" for them Pentium 4s.
@@blakegriplingph I worked in a computer store during the transition from Northwood to Preshot... we sure used a lot of those Zalman heatsinks to keep the high-end builds from melting down... seems strange right around the same time the scrap price of copper started to go through the roof 😂
Always love me some classic thinkpad videos…
“When I was young I had lots of fun simply watching the screensavers” 🤣 psivewri you are a legend mate
He is not wrong tho. Win XP had some amazing screensavers. I remember 1 that was an aquarium , it had the sounds of 1 as well. I miss XP...
I like the bubble one on the screen
Thanks for sharing. I have just traded for an IBM X32 with my old Sony mobile phone. I followed your routine and cleaned the keyboard thoroughly with alcohol. I also fixed my left arrow key problem and fan error by removing a couple of tiny dust after removing the keyboard.
I reinstalled Windows XP Professional. Interesting enough, I don't install any fancy screen savers like I did, and just use 3D Text with reflection, showing some self-encouragement like "Never Give Up!". Great screen saver and I love it.
Very nice restore and overview. I love older technology, its so interesting how much technology has changed!
Those old P4 and Athlon XP based laptops ran hot like crazy and used so much power,but i really liked the idea of CPU upgrade being possible and it would either work with a mobile version Pentium 4 or the Desktop version just like the one in the video. I also have a desktop CPU based Pentium 4 laptop that only had around 600 hours of use for its whole life.
check out clevo laptops, desktop processors in laptops
@@wheeI Heh,the Pentium 4 laptop with the desktop CPU that i have is actually a Clevo :)
im pretty sure every person who uses a thinkpad like this in 2022 uses Linux, it is just so much better than Windows XP in every way. You get a modern, secure operating system that can run up-to-date software reasonably fast even on old devices like this. Linux Mint 19.3 seen in the video is still supported and updated.
It's a P4 why not put xp on it for old games ect
@@Devilmonkey6674 why not both? (As the owner clearly did)
ThinkPads in general - Linux just _suits_ them. Sure I absolutely hate Winblows 10 so there's some slight bias but ThinkPads deserve Linux.
@Xidolf Jitler You clearly haven't used any Linux distro for over two decades. You can easily install one and just use it these days. Customisation isn't mandatory.
Ironically you're saving much more time under Linux than Winblows. No forced updates, nothing breaking just because you looked at it funny.
You're just Microsoft's bitch if you continue to use their trash today.
even then its bad, i had 19.3 on my vostro 1520 with c2d t6670 and 2gb of ram, 160gb hdd, it wasent great and it freezed alot thanks to swap file, i have a t400 with arch and windows 7, 4gb of ram, p8600, new 47Wh battery, sure arch works well and 7 does too, and i can use the two without any problems
Seeing you play OSRS in this video made my day. What a classic game to be playing on this classic machine!
Its amazing seeing how something thats been left for years becomes shiny after a quick clean up alone
Y'know, you've got me hoovering and dusting out my computers too!
Oh man, I had one. What a flashback. THANK YOU!
WOW, and I thought my laptop was thick. I think I saw a guy in our small town still using his, it really amazes me how long these computers last!
My favorite WinXP screensaver is the 3D pipes one. I spent many hours just watching it!
Ah pentium 4. I remember i use my p4 as room heater during winter. And in summer it can be use as sauna room whileplaying game. Btw in 3rd worldcountry we still using this model coz i saw it on our online store
My favorite screen saver was the pipes. Those were always fun to watch.
Your videos are clean man keep it going!
i suggest looking at getting a 'denture brush' from the chemists for cleaning, they are usually cheap, got stiff bristles, and (atleast the one i got) has a set of bristles on the back shaped like a pick for harder to get to spots,
honestly, best brush for cleaning, as far as i can find
Thanks for spiking the prices for these things by at least 50% lol. I've been looking for a cheap one to upgrade for quite a while now.
ThinkPads are always gonna be scalped just from brand recognition alone lmao
Brings back memories. I love Thinkpads and I still use an X230 (in a X220 body) and recently found a B590 in my brother's office collecting dust. I brought it home and was glad that it boots using the X220 power supply. After replacing the HDD with SSD, putting the old HDD into a CD caddy for extra storage and fortunately finding an 8Gb RAM from another non working laptop, a got a new laptop. Now I'm using it more because of the bigger 15.6" screen
Loved seeing it be cleaned to like new condition.
4:55 That amount of thermal paste is just crazy.
Yeah, I'd probably put less on a modern xeon, and those things are huge.
i have no idea why he puts so much on it :D
I have the parts to a Vaio with a similar concept - only thing is, it has a lot less cooling. I cannot imagine the fire hazard that would be if someone had tried to run 3DMark on it!
If it’s the PCG-K series, then I had the bottom feel blazing hot just playing a small round of Angry Birds.
ThinkPads were amazing. In 2004 I was handed one by my mum and it was what lead me into PC gaming.
Well made video about a ThinkPad I have never heard of. And of course, the eucalyptus oil can't be missing :)
My favourite screensaver was the 3D maze one, with the animated textures. I could watch that for tens of minutes when I was a kid :D
Windows XP is definitely holding that processor back. If it's a 64 bits 2 Threads Pentium 4, it could definitely play CZcams in 720P.
Oh, and when you deal with Macs... please check out Dosdude1's amazing patcher!
Windows 10 used to run fine on these Pentium 4s on older versions like the 1607 anniversary update but now it's just too bloated with extra animations and candy crush.
Edit: just looked up the mobile P4 series and it turns out this one doesn't support Intel 64 or NX Bit, so Windows 10 and modern Ubuntu are out of the question.
@@Tom2404 This is a Socket 478 desktop Pentium 4.
@@aaaalex1994 actually not. There is no 3.33GHz desktop P4. They just happen to have the same socket and I can't really see a difference except for a slower 533MTs bus as opposed to the 800MTs bus on desktop and branding. Doesn't really make a big difference since Intel 64 and NX bit were only introduced on socket 775 anyway.
Came for the eucalyptus oil... was not disappointed
the welcome tune of Xp really hit me. Man those days. Daily after my school, I came back home and enjoying the Vice city
I remember looking at these G series on IBMs website around 2004. Love the looks of these!
Yesterday I bought a Sony Vaio PCG-K86SP with 3.20GHz P4, 768mb ram and Mobility Radeon 9200
On which OS is it?
@@aritradeb372 XP
@@kacpreusz9911 XP works with 768 MB ram?
@@aritradeb372 Windows XP hardware requitements are 64mb RAM, Intel Pentium class 233MHz cpu (does work on Pentium OverDrive wich is 486 platform), 800x600 SVGA graphics and 1.5gb hard drive space
@@kacpreusz9911 Okay, I was unsure about system requirements, thanks for the information
I bought a P3 one of these for a fiver at a car boot sale, much thinner I might add and it worked without any problems with windows 98 on it but I did install XP and used it for a good amount of time before giving it to my dad who carried on using it for another two years! Best five pounds I’ve ever spend I think.
As always, another wonderful video from Nathan :)
These are absolutely great when used on one's lap. Walking inside from a freezing cold, snowy winter day, it won't take long to get nice and warm.
Lmao but I always loved the Plus! for XP screensavers. Especially 'Nature." Just watching a flowing river reflecting trees, leaves floating down the stream. Quite soothing.
I’m pretty sure my grandpa still uses this lol
Please share a photo on twitter of that if you can!
I will try
He keeps it in his room
One hell of a machine, it seems more like a desktop replacement than a laptop. I would love to use one of these one day.
Man those P4s were heaters. We had a P4 Desktop from Dell I spec'd out for my family, mostly my brother when he was going into high school. It was a beast but really kept the room warm
CZcams recommending this video to me has unlocked memories of borrowing my stepdad's G41 when I forgot to bring my Aspire 5050 with me on holiday once. His had the basic 1024×768 display, though
(4:38) I really should do that the next time I clean my X250.
thats one thick laptop
I hope a eucalyptus oil brand sponsors you in the near future...or the brand which you always use "Bositor" I guess...sponsors you lmao...or atleast they thank you for your free advertising lol
Bosisto’s is a iconic Aussie brand with 100 uses...
Got a really bad cold 🤧 but your uploads are helping me cope 😁
"Pipes 3D" was definitely my favorite screen saver back in the day! Cheers
Your videos are great and showing old versions of Windows running are quite nostalgic but you should starting learning some basic Linux, you'd be surprised how usable those old machines are with some lightweight Linux distro! I think your channel will be even more interesting, reviving old hardware with the Linux magic :D
Also, connecting Windows XP in 2022 on the internet is very dangerous! I hope you have a separate internet for your testing, otherwise you risk getting some nasty malware on your network. Be careful, cheers!
thonkpad chonkpad
I would love to see your collection of old hardware. It must be amazing by now :).
I love the video bro I love all your videos and I love watching when you get a laptop From back in the day!
Windows XP laptops have this specific (good) style and aesthetic like no other era has
Just found your channel while scrolling the feed. Definitely loved it. Subbed instantly
I think this is basically the same model that I had in college and it had the built-in floppy drive, but no internal WiFi. It may have been thick, but it outperformed my other programming classmates laptops.
This was such a great laptop at the time , I had a few of these as they got retired from office work, I had a few models that had docking stations as this was built as an all in one office Pc in some models where it could be docked and taken home. I still purchase laptops based on the trackball . I find it the best way to manipulate a cursor over touchpads .
Just about my first Thinkpad. I loved that beast. :)
Wow, the good old days.....I used to deploy these to customers in the office and these laptops were top notch back then
Oh wow! Almost the same specs.
Had this processor on my very first PC! When was 12, I assembled my computer with used parts. The same Pentium 4 with 1,5 gb of RAM and a FX-6200 256 mb GPU. Was a beast for me! I was really proud of have it with my own money. Was my savings for more than a year that time
My favorite screen saver was johny castaway. I remember my dad picked up the floppy from this flea market when we were on our easter vacation trip to orlando florida one year back around 95 or 96.
I recently got an IBM Thinkpad R40; works just like how I thought it would. (That being well for older tasks)
Ran like hell until I noticed all the drivers after a factory reset were the Windows generic ones. Installed proper drivers and it worked *MUCH better*
Love the XP start up tune...
The XP laptops and PCs are giving me many nostalgia. I wish I could built one myself one day
Don't let your dreams be dreams. Nothing is stopping you.
Oh my, I have the ThinkPad G40 (the model just before this one). IBM only ever made 3 models in this series - the G40, G41 (what you have), and the G50 which was Japan only. I have 1GB of RAM in mine and it runs Linux Mint Debian Edition pretty well considering its age. It's slow of course, but not unusably slow!
Use to work with IBM of repairing these. this was the G series line marketed as the desktop replacement ThinkPads and were mostly for work at a desk hence desktop replacement. After lenovo took over the WXX series came out, the W700/W701 was the desktop machine replacement while they made travel sizes with W500, same body as the T500. The Earlier before G series was the IBM ThinkPad A20 to A31 machines.
I suddenly remembered how hefty this things are. Hated dragging this around when I borrowed one.
This reminds me of my Compaq pentium 4 I bought about 2005. It ran hot, heavy, and bulky. I had it for about 3 years. Still I used at work and weekends.
i don't know why but it's so satisfying for me to look at thinkpads. btw farcry's water animation is still cool.
I had the related G40 for many years as well. Made for a great space heater! Also remember it has its own themes, complete with unique IBM sounds
I have a G40 too. It's pretty cool!
The colored pipes are by far my favorite for screensaver from that time frame.
Great video as always!!
I've had two G40 fully upgraded and a few years ago I managed to get a G41 in nice condition for peanuts. It had a Celeron and a half metal / copper heatsink, so I took the all copper one from the 2nd G40 I had, and then installed the fastest Pentium 4 CPU the G41 can take. Temps on the P4 CPU with the old heatsink were 95+°C !! Once the all copper one was used, temps dropped to around 40+°C. There is only an Intel GPU in mine, so no Nvidia fun for me but I like having the floppy drive. I have an SSD in an IDE adapter and that works fine and delivers decent speed increases. I'm using the machine as an 80s / 90s retro gaming computer, as the square ratio screen is ideal for this, plus a USB adapter for my old Kemptson / Cruiser style joysticks.
surely it isnt only me, anyone else a sucker for old style laptops? not the internals, but the abundance of IO, no chassis flex, clicking monitor hinge locks, replaceable batteries.... man, if they sold this again with modern specs, I would buy one in a heartbeat.
Guy has teleprute videos in his recommentations. Truly a man of culture!
Loved the shot of you playing RuneScape
yesss xD
6:30 that sound so nostalgia, go home from school and open my pc and hear that windows xp welcome sound
I love the IBM trackpoints, wish more modern laptops had them, Much more precise and easier to use going down a bumpy road, or simular situation.
I've got one of these! Used it throughout high school with Linux loaded on it. I have plans to hook it up to a CRT and use it as a retro gamebox.
3:40 ooh, I like how the wires aren't taped down and are instead wrapped themselves
Oh that windows XP tourn on sound is always nice to hear
A mobile P4 processor was like a dream back then. I bet that laptop doubled as a portable heater in winter.
love the videos keep it up psivewri
My favorite screen savers was a tie between the maze one or the pipes.
I need someone like you to do this but with retro video game consoles.
My favorite screensavers as a kid were pipes and the maze. I even downloaded a modern port of the maze for my windows 10 gaming laptop even though screensavers aren't needed anymore lol.
the BEST screen saver from all the times is the man on the island..
I’ll be getting my old thinkpad back that I got free here in a bit. Monster little laptops, absolute little beasts
i remember my primary school had these exact laptops. Kids always popped out the batteries because how satisfying it was. It was also so slow (probably because kids used them), everyone kept clicking internet explorer hundreds of times because we though it opens faster but it opened hundreds of browsers and the laptop would crash lol.
I love the look of this laptop! I wonder if you could fit modern hardware into the shell.
wow, this is a proper cooling solution!
No hinges broken, amazing!
I love seeing computers I have never seen or heard of.