[ltp] CDR Drive for 770 TP

[Jim Harvey]

Mendel Cooper wrote:
> There has, in the past, been some discussion about a CDR drive for the
> 770-series Thinkpad. Someone even tried to transplant a laptop CDR drive
> into a 770 CD drive case, but without success, if I recall correctly.
> The matter was dropped with the consensus being that a 770 TP wouldn't work
> with a CDR drive, nohow and never.
> 
> However . . .
> 
> This popped up on eBay earlier in the week:
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3449043086
> 
> Someone sold a prototype CDR drive for a 770.
> 
>     -----------------------------------------------------------------
>     IBM Thinkpad 770 770E 770X 770Z CDRW Drive:  Very Rare.  No other  
>     sellers on eBay has this product, nor anywhere else on this planet
>     that we can think of!
>    * CDRW Drive 8X4X24......8X Write 4X
>    * Re-Write 24X Read
> 
>     ---
> 
>     ... maybe this was one of the trial CDRW drives that was supposed to
>     come out to production but never got passed the trial / completion
>     stage. . . .
> 
> So, maybe it isn't hopeless after all.
> 
> What I'm really wondering is whether it's possible to make an adapter cable,
> to attach between the floppy/CD connector on the 770 and a regular, full-size,
> CDR drive. You can pick up a new CDR drive for a desktop for not much more
> than $20 nowadays. Just think of the possibilities.
> 
> A challenge for all you Thinkpad hardware hackers out there.

Wow, went for $139.  It looks like a kludge, drive doesnt match the mounting 
shell at all. The auction says Sony in one place, Matsushita in another. Sure 
would like to have that for about a half an hour to take it apart.

The drive in my 770 has a flat flexible printed cable coming out the back 
instead of a connector. I have never seen a CDR drive with such a cable.
-- 
  After Armageddon, there will be only three things left: Kudzu vines creeping
  over the ruins, Cockroaches feasting on the blackened ashes, and somewhere
  an IBM PC saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore -- Abort, Retry, Ignore -- Abort... "
  Jim Harvey - WB8NBS/9 - Naperville, Illinois - Linux on a Thinkpad 770Z