The Story of the IBM Thinkpad T42, Were Thinkpads Perfection? - Tech Retrospective

We review the Thinkpad T42 released in 2004 as well as the entire IBM Thinkpad line. These IBM Thinkpad T42s are great for retro gaming and for modern productivity tasks while offering supreme build quality and a great design.

Get Social:

[zamansmail]

I am using T42 everyday. Upgraded RAM to 2 GB. Upgraded OS to Windows 7 Ultimate. Works great

[ry-rmwo]

The T40-T42 series are well-known for the BGA solder joints between the ATI GPU and motherboard failing. A combination of being a very thin laptop for the time allowing some flex and the transition to lead-free solder. The T43 moved to DDR2 and SATA, but regrettably the southbridge (if memory is right?) located in a same location has a tendency to break loose.

[NewsmakersTech]

Thanks for watching! Have you used a thinkpad before? Where?

[Rivenworld]

Got myself a T60 running XP with all of my older games, love these machines.

[corneliubogdan]

Love the video and the model! I had T21, T42, T60, X301, Z61, T410 (still have it), T430 (still have it), T440 (still have it), T460P and now X1 Extreme Gen 2 :) Never switched to something else although I had contact with Dell, HP, Apple, etc.

[pjoter]

NGL, that is a pretty great video!
As a person with pretty good knowledge in the lineup since I'm addicted to thinkpads currently having 25 of them I can tell you made some slip-ups, but still I really liked it

[TechDave]

I found one of these left by a bin like 3/4 days ago.. planning on cleaning it up and fixing it if I can.. current plan: fresh thermal paste and full teardown and clean, 2gb ram, new battery, msata ssd (in adaptor) and slap fresh windows XP on it.

[sheadreamer]

What can I use to replace the windows button I need it so bad but I can’t figure out what button is the one for that one

[jacobjones]

Interesting note, the display on these is way brighter in person than what comes across on camera

[TheRetroRaven]

Got my self a T42 that I have somewhat "restored".
Changed the BIOS battery. Downgraded the RAM to 512MB, as Windows 98SE had issues with 1GB (kept freezing).
Installed a DeLock IDE2SD adapter, with a 32GB SD-Card. Works fantastic.
But I can only use it for native Windows 9x games, as anything that requires DOS only works with PC-Speaker. The built-in Crystal Audio something something doesn't support DOS and neither emulates a real Sound Blaster under DOS :(
Besides that, it's an awesome machine.
Also got a T61, which I plan on restoring and probably also use for some games...

[timlocke]

The T42 came out in 2004 so, as of 2020, it is not yet 'over 20 years old'.

[AceH.-jkkn]

i still use my T-42 for some 2000's games & office 2000

[abundantYOUniverse]

I still use my T40 every day! Its in perfect condition too.

[fryingule]

But how to connect a mouse? None of my usb mousees work in win98 and this notebook does not have a ps2 port...

[jobadirk]

That Windows startup noise! So nostalgic!

[iranouspolaris]

This line and Lenovo IBM T series are and were the rarest and best laptops ever made period.

[NomadicDmitry]

I have the same T42 and also IBM T61. Cool machines! :)

[spavatch]

T42 serves as my main gaming machine, I enjoy older games a lot, probably even more than contemporary games. It handles most turn of the century titles just fine but for some reason GTA III is bordering on being unplayable. Unless you point your view slightly down, avoiding viewing the whole landscape, it dips down to 10-20 FPS even at 640x480x16 with everything turned down to -1. I know Mobility Radeon 7500 is not the most powerful GPU out there, nor the best suited for gaming, but hey, it's more or less period correct and it's backed up by a CPU well over two times faster than the game recommends so what the hell! In contrast, Mafia game, being more or less similar both in genre, complexity and age, works brilliantly. Did any of you T42 guys experience the same thing with GTA III or is it just me?

[bettyjones]

I would be interested to see if this machine is truly OS/2 compatible have you thought about doing an install video?

[Russell]

I have the highest specced version, How about I cover it on YouTube since it's rare af