AdventuresInJunkLand

Nice! That sounds like a good system.

Thanks! Yeah I love simple solutions.

Yeah just made a basic recording of it, the first part is me playing it with a bow, the second is me plucking it. Sorry about my lack of violin skill! https://soundcloud.com/rustyelectrons/cigar-box-vi...

That video you captured is great! It's fun watching the balloon pop.

Yeah it can be a pain getting Linux to work right with wireless cards. I have a cheap USB wifi adapter I use with computers when I can't get the WIFI working in Linux. Another thing you might try is to look up which particular card your system came with and then google around to see if anyone has figured out how to make that particular card work with Linux. Good luck!

This is great advice! Thanks for sharing your tips!

I have had luck installing various Linux distributions on Macs before. I just installed Ubuntu Studio 19.10 onto a 2010 Macbook a while back. So on a 2008 it might be possible. I have instructions in my instructable on how to make a bootable USB flash drive. Just back your data up, make a bootable USB flash drive with Linux on it and hold the option key while the mac boots up and you should be able to choose to boot from the USB drive. Choose the option that lets you try Ubuntu without installing, just to see if it at least kinda works. I am working on an instructable about fixing up older Macs so stay posted for that. Sorry for the late reply! Good luck!

SSD's are almost always a great upgrade from an old spinning hard drive. It's so much fun trying out all the different flavors of Linux, I usually look around every year or so to see what new distros have emerged. Have fun!

Thanks! Yeah I never quite know what I'm going to get while messing around in Paint. Kinda reminds me of analogue art in that way.

Thanks! Yeah it was fun putting this together. Now I have to think of what to do next!

I'm not sure, do you mean the display or screen doesn't show anything when you turn the computer on?

I not sure, but it does sound like a fuse might have blown. You can double check that the computer is starting up normally by plugging it into a vga monitor. Usually you can tell a backlight fuse is blown because you can still see a very dark image on the screen when the computer is running. You might have to shine a light on the display in order to see the image. I would also double check that the display cables are fully seated on the motherboard. If you do a google search for "x201 no backlight" the "thinkpads forum" website has some good suggestions on what you might try. Replacing that fuse looks like some tricky soldering!

This laptop does not have a battery installed. I wanted this project to be as cheap as possible, and I don't need to use the computer away from a power outlet so I left battery purchase/installation out of the instructable. At this point I think it would be hard to find a new genuine battery for this computer. So the cheap generic batteries off Amazon or Ebay might be the only option.Yeah I would assume any 10 year old laptop that sill has the original battery in it, will need a battery replacement(if you need that functionality).Thanks for the question!

It is usually possible to move parts from one case over to another(as long as they are the same model). I think your repair is possible!I only meant that when looking for laptops to fix I generally avoid broken cases because it sometimes indicates that there is internal damage to the motherboard or screen. As motherboards and screens are usually expensive I would not get that particular one to fix. All that being said minor case damage or hinge damage can be fixed, it's just sometimes not easy.I would try looking up hinge replacement tutorials(on google or youtube) for that laptop. Sometimes you can replace a hinge without total dissasembly of the laptop. Otherwise you might have to completly dissasemble the laptop in order to transfer the parts. I would start by looking up motherboard re…

It is usually possible to move parts from one case over to another(as long as they are the same model). I think your repair is possible!I only meant that when looking for laptops to fix I generally avoid broken cases because it sometimes indicates that there is internal damage to the motherboard or screen. As motherboards and screens are usually expensive I would not get that particular one to fix. All that being said minor case damage or hinge damage can be fixed, it's just sometimes not easy.I would try looking up hinge replacement tutorials(on google or youtube) for that laptop. Sometimes you can replace a hinge without total dissasembly of the laptop. Otherwise you might have to completly dissasemble the laptop in order to transfer the parts. I would start by looking up motherboard replacement tutorials and screen replacement tutorials for it. They should give you a general idea of what you might have to do. Some manufacturers have service manuals online for their laptops. You might try searching for a service manual for yours.Thanks for your feedback. Good luck with your repair!