As previously mentioned, I’m trying to venture into mobile Linux. After Laptopshop sold me the bogus base station which didn’t have CD or FDD, I ended up wandering around eBay in search of a CD drive that would fit it.
Then of course once I’d procured one, I realise it was too new (i.e. the firmware needed updating) and so needed a floppy drive (to boot from in order to update the CD firmware). So more eBaying ensued and now I’m finally in a position to get the floppy & CD working and to load Linux on the thing. All this hoo-ha is necessary because the 570 is too old to have integrated ethernet and so can’t boot off a network.
The real plus of the whole experience, though, is that I now know a great deal more about this little laptop than I ever did previously. I’ve even managed to navigate IBM’s atrocious website to find the various bits of information I need. (Re the website, it’s only really bad if you’re looking for support info about older models as I was, otherwise it’s not too bad 
) And because I’m a kindly soul (and wouldn’t remember myself if I didn’t blog it), I’m going to post the relevant info here:
Firstly, the precis. The IBM Thinkpad 570 takes the following:
- Floppy Disk Drives: Teac (FRU 05K8989) or Sony (FRU 05K8990); it’s shipped with a Sony FRU 05K8973
- Floppy Drive Cable: FRU 05K2844
- Ultrabase: P/N 12P4018, FRU 12P4017. In theory this can take a CD drive (or similar) in its UltraSlimBay on the left and a FDD or extra battery on the right
Secondly, here are all the info links that you might have to trawl the IBM website and other places for:
- Thinkpad 570 Overview
- 570 System Specifications
- Product Information for the IBM 570
- Important Documents for the IBM Thinkpad 570
- System FRU Parts List for IBM 570
- The Thinkpads Forum has many answers, but search before you ask! Most questions have been asked before
- Via the site above, I found this fantastic full manual of everything (Warning: PDF and it’s only really 1992-2001) ; there is also the original Hardware Maintenance Manual available from IBM (which is fairly useless)
- 570 Ultrabase Overview
- Options for the Ultrabase 570
- Details of how to update CD firmware for newer, faster models.
