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1. Jeff Mikowitz November 22, 2007 11:58 pm

   Jared, I visit your site almost daily and had no idea I’d find the ideal suggestion for a Christmas present for two people by reading your blog.

   Pure genius in your writing, I have a 5 year old son that my wife and I were planning on buying him a computer he could ONLY use with us watching over him. Laptops are fragile but your idea is just perfect because he can sit on the couch next to us or in the family room while we watch a move or something. Very clever idea you had for your children, one I had not thought of.

   BTW I too have a family member in construction that lost thousands of dollars worth of records after his laptop fell from his truck crashing the drive. I’m going to point him to your article this evening.

   You saved me a bundle with this post pal, $300 is a lot less than I had planned on and this looks to be a better option. Thanks Jared and keep up the good blogging.

2. Jared Ritchey December 3, 2007 1:56 am

   Hey, glad it worked out Jeff. I’m actually getting two more since I found ways to upgrade the CPU to a 2.2 range and with a GB of RAM its plenty fast for casual work when I travel.

3. Tim December 7, 2007 9:04 am

   Jared, I bought an IX250 on ebay for my 2 yr old son for Christmas. I got it today and started loading games and movies but one of the key features I was excited about was not working.

   The touch screen software seemed to be installed but the drivers for one device was not wanting to install. The device having a problem is now considered a ‘unknown usb device’ and when i try to reload the software from itroix.com it still does not work.

   Is there something I’m just not doing right? I’ve looked all over the internet to find these drivers and i stumbled upon your blog. Just wondering if you could help.

   OS: Win2K SP2

4. Jared Ritchey December 7, 2007 9:14 am

   Tim if you downloaded the drivers from my download area you may have noticed that the IX250 driver is in two places for the touch screen. The reason for this is that both IX models use the same driver but install it in different places for some reason.

   I think what happens is that when you load the OS the drivers can get substituted by the OS and with these machines that wont work. Then when you try to install the device driver, it rarely overwrites or updates as it should.

   I’m guessing you have the CD ROM for the Itronix (they run about $70 on ebay) so loading the OS is easier?

   What I’d suggest is downloading a copy of CCleaner from http://ccleaner.com and using it to first, clean the system up because laptops are usually resource poor and this tool keeps your system nice and clean, and second, uninstall the drivers using CCleaner. If you restart the machine, windows should detect the device again “TWICE” and it may call the same device two things as it happened in my situation. Just be vary careful and look in your device manager to be sure you install the correct driver.

   Simply point WindowsXPSP2 to the driver location when it asks for it. That is what I had to do to get my USB to work (which is a USB and not USB2) and then I followed with the touch pad (different from touch screen) and last the touch screen driver. Yours may or may not have come with a touch screen stylus, but to test it you can just use your finger to test it once you load the drivers and restart the machine.

   Let me know how it goes.

5. J Jenkins December 9, 2007 10:19 pm

   2007-12-09 THANKS FOR YOUR HELP !!!!

   Jared, I recently purchased an Itronix 250 off E-BAY. Due to the USB-1 ports inability to support a webcam, I installed a COMPUSA PCMCIA USB V2.0 CARDBUS with two USB ports. However, I was having trouble with this device as only one port seemed to be recognized as a USB-2.

   I contacted the manufacturer by e-mail and was told that I had to disable the built-in USB-1 from the BIOS as the USB-2 could not be used with a USB-1 on the same machine.

   I could not find any way to do this by entering the BIOS setup, so I disabled the built-in USB-1 port thru “device manager” - not realizing that the touch screen uses this port for the mouse emulation.

   For several weeks I have not been able to use the touch screen until my brother-in-law found your blog a few hours ago. Although I had gone to the video manufacturers web site and downloaded and installed drivers for this device I was still unable to get the touch screen to work.

   After reading your write-up, downloading the drivers and installing them, I was immediately able to use the touch screen without restarting the computere. This process took only a few minutes !!!!

   Thanks again for your greeat help !!!

   Do you know if the USB-1 port can be ugraded to a USB-2 on this computer? If you have any ideas, please let me know.

6. Jared Ritchey December 10, 2007 1:53 am

   I use a PCMCIA card for my USB2 but I have the ITRONIX IX260 and had the same issue. I purchased two external laptop hard drives with those little tiny caddy units from Tiger Direct and at first I couldn’t get them to work until I again, visited Tiger Direct and just purchased a USB controller card which seems to work WITHOUT the need to disable the USB1 Driver.

   I tested the card in my daughters computer (IX250) and you are correct, this does look like it needs to be disabled in the BIOS. I’ll work on a solution and post it in the morning.

7. Joey December 25, 2007 9:32 am

   Oh wow I have been trying to find software for the IX250. I just got 2 for under $250 !

8. Chris December 29, 2007 9:57 pm

   Hello there, I just read that you were able to upgrade your ix250 to a 2.2ghz processor. THAT IS AMAZING! As I am looking at one of these for my truck, I would LOVE to get any information at all that you would have on the upgrades available that you’ve found. At the going price for these things, and the readily available cheap upgrades, I’ll have to pick up three or four!

   Thanks

   Chris

9. Ronald C Barton December 30, 2007 8:23 am

   I have a IX250 and I need either a DVD or CD writer for this unit. Can you help me.
   Thanks
   Ronald Barton

10. Jared Ritchey December 30, 2007 11:36 am

    Chris; the laptop was the IX-260 not the IX-250 with the CPU upgrade. The board for the IX-250 isn’t capable of being updated as best I know.

    Joey; Yes I did as well. I managed to find a few internal radio cards too instead of using a PCMCIA for my wireless internet. A guy on ebay has an alternative that works inside the itronix for $60

    Ronald C Barton; The CD/DVD-R I have is from a HP computer that is the same model and make or should I say design that fits the Itronix CD bay. Since the CD/DVD-R is made by the same company for both Itronix and HP in Spokane Washington (both companies were based there) I believe that software is also compatible. Ebay is where I’d look.

11. Joe January 8, 2008 8:35 pm

    Do you know what to do with the yellow radio wires, one goes up to the screen, and the other is sitting next to O2 card, I am waiting for a RIM card to see what it can do as well. I’m not really interested in the wirless cause my card doesn’t stick out anyways. thx

12. Jared Ritchey January 18, 2008 10:13 am

    Joe you want this;

    Itronix Internal WI-FI Kit

    The yellow wire isn’t used for anything outside of a docking station if its the one I’m thinking of.

13. David January 25, 2008 11:56 am

    I am considering upgrading from an ix250 which I presently have to an ix260 that comes without a hard drive or cady. Do you have any suggestions for either adapting the ix250s HD/cady to the 260 or another alternative? Have you tried using an external HD with any of yours? If so, what is needed?

14. Jason Riley January 29, 2008 5:48 pm

    Joe, the Yellow wire goes from the RIM card to the external antenna on the top/right of the screen(if equipped).

    Also, Jared, a note on the IX250’s upgrade ability. Max Ram is 512MB consisting of (2) Low Density 256MB PC100 SODIMs.

    Processor can be upgraded to a Pentium 3 Mobile 1GHZ (SL53S). That is the limit due to 100MHZ Front Side Bus and Socket type.

    When upgrading the processor, to achieve full speed, you must go into the BIOS. And under the Power Management Section and set it to PERFORMANCE under “Greyscale (SP?)”.

    CD or DVD drives. In order to boot from the CD drive it must be a Teac 24X, or the DVD offered by Itronix. Once Windows is installed, however, you can change out the Teac 24X in favor of a DVD burner.

    Hope this helps somebody.

15. Jamey February 29, 2008 10:50 am

    I have an Itronix IX260 with a hard drive that is going bad, can anyone help me find a compatible replacement? I can’t really take it apart right now to get a model number for the current one, as it is in use as a POS machine.

16. Jared Ritchey February 29, 2008 11:14 am

    You can replace the HD with an IBM shock proof drive. Its the one I updated to and it works fine.

17. Jamey March 14, 2008 9:24 am

    Thanks Jared this is exactly what I was searching for.

18. Chris March 16, 2008 3:16 am

    Hello again,

    I just picked up eight of these (IX250) for use in several service vehicles. All is going very well thanks to you and these drivers you’ve congregated in one place, but I do have one question (for now ). I just installed a DVD drive in one of these for DVD playback ( lunch breaks of course), and the playback is horribly choppy. Also like to be able to get a little better screen size than 600×800. Please help. PS…other than several having different sized hd’s, these are all 850mhz, 128mb systems with the 12″ touchscreen. Thanks

19. Jared Ritchey March 16, 2008 8:28 am

    Chris, thanks for your response.

    I have two of the IX250 models I got for two of my daughters because they are pretty tough and reliable. What I did with each of those is update the RAM to 512 and install OEM versions Windows XP Pro on each I got from TigerDirect.com

    The memory will make a difference with these computers that I can certainly attest to. Next, as far as screen resolution goes, I one of my girls machines and visited TV Okay and loaded an episode of The Family Guy and sure enough once it buffers it plays the video just fine.

    TV Okay

    I have the DVD in my IX-260+ and I tested some of our video tutorials that are on DVD for the Rapid Template Design Series and it loads clean with no choppy performance. My guess for your situation could be the driver and memory with worse case being a bad drive.

    I’ve just now uploaded the other drivers I had in archive I forgot about and you can get those once I activate the links in the download area.

    ~ Jared

20. Itronix Laptop Software Drivers | IX250 IX260 IX260 plus » Jared Ritchey Design March 16, 2008 8:38 am

    [...] get a lot of emails and traffic to the original post regarding the laptop drivers I had assembled.  After spending a great deal of time locating [...]

21. Lauren Hoen March 16, 2008 11:03 pm

    Thank you for this info. I’m researching different brands of rugged laptops and it is comforting to see you have the drivers necessary. Thank you.

22. Joe April 20, 2008 9:21 am

    Hello, Great information. However, the link to the IX250 Software Download doesn’t seem to work. Is it still available? Thanks in advance, Joe

23. Jeremiah June 10, 2008 2:31 pm

    Jared, I have had some similar issues on my 250 as Chris (march posting) with playing media (DivX, DVD, etc.). Everything runs fine, however, for the first few seconds, but when the CPU fan ramps up, it suddenly becomes choppy. Many games do this as well. It seems processor load and the subsequent heat may force the CPU to downclock or something. I thought it may just be an anomaly, but my friend bought the same machine, and upgraded it to a P3 1GHz in hopes of avoiding my problem, but he has the exact same issue. I am wondering if there isn’t a power management driver or software package that may fix this issue. It shouldn’t be terribly necessary to downclock a Celeron 850 for heat issues in a machine like this, I’d imagine, because it all seems well vented. If you have any info regarding this issue, I am sure many of us would be extremely grateful. Thanks for the great resource here as well!!! Your site has already been a lifesaver!

24. Eva August 13, 2008 9:43 am

    Jared,
    I have an ix250 also. It has 256mb RAM. Do you know if they came already loaded with 2 128mb or 1 single 256mb? Also - is the RAM conpatible with the ix260? I need 512mb RAM and am having a hard time finding it at a reasonable price. I’d like to use my GoBook outside for listing on eBay while my children play, but I can’t use it until I upgrade the RAM and load Windows XP. Please HELP!!!! Thanks. ~

25. Jared Ritchey August 14, 2008 9:45 am

    Eva the 250 I purchased had two 128MB sticks in it and when I got the IX260 it had 2 256MB RAM in it. I took those out and put them in the IX250 after buying to 512MB sticks on ebay for about $35 a piece. I’ve since added an internal WiFi radio and a docking station for my truck so I can mount it to the floor.

    The memory for these can be quirky so its important to note that you should not use error checking types of SDRAM as I’ve been told. I stick with the standard PC166 or PC133 SDRAM

26. Eva August 14, 2008 12:58 pm

    Jared,
    I’m a little confused. You suggested I go with the PC133 or PC166 SDRAM which is 168 pins. On 1/29/08 Jason commented to go with PC100 SODIMs SDRAM which is 144 pins. I’m not exactly sure what I am doing and don’t want to buy the wrong memory only to have to return it. I’m so glad to find your site. It is difficult finding information on the older Itronix models. Thanks!!!!!!!

27. Jared Ritchey August 14, 2008 1:47 pm

    I pulled out my memory modules and that is correct, they are 144pin mem modules.

    In your IX250; You may have MM-KINGMAX, SODIMM, 256MB, 266MHz, CL2.5 which is compatible with SDR 256MB PC100, PC133 and PC150 which is what I have. I upgraded my IX260 to 1GB which is the most it will take.

28. glynn August 21, 2008 10:01 pm

    Hi Jared ,excellent information you have put together here.I have an ix250 with an internal CDPD modem ,do you know where I can get info or parts to upgrade to something more usefull and where is a good source for a compatible AC charger .
    Thanks in advance

29. Jared Ritchey August 22, 2008 12:24 pm

    As I understand it the charger for the dell dimension or the HP prodigy series work well.

    I have an extra one here if you need one. I’m sure it works.

    I know for sure that the batteries in this are identical to some that are used in DELL computers but they have no shelf life. So, finding a replacement is not easy.

30. Jay August 24, 2008 8:42 pm

    Jared, I just purchased 2 IX260 and both have the GPS loaded on them. My question is do you know of any mapping software that I can download that will work with the built in GPS? Also do you know where I can get the two locks that are on the top of the screen that lock it down to the pins when you close the lid?

31. L.Troutman September 3, 2008 11:03 am

    Thanks for your site and your willingness to share info and help others!I recently purchased an IX-260 off of Ebay as a project without a hard drive or caddy&connector (which I haven’t received yet and am assuming the worst regarding the HDD connector/cable).I read your comments on the IBM hard drive above but wondered if you had a work around for a connector or can share/suggest (a compatible cable,connector,etc)- the means you used to connect your HDD.I’m not too concerned about the caddy as I feel I can work something out to cushion the HDD. Any information or interchanges that would work will be greatly appreciated!!

32. Larry Urban September 4, 2008 6:08 am

    Jared just got into reading your blogs. Just bought 2 ix260 without the HD, caddy, or connectors. Would like to know where I might find them? From what I can tell they are pretty hard to find. Any information would be helpful. Thanks,

    Larry

33. Eric Ellermann September 11, 2008 9:23 pm

    Jared,
    Great write up! I just purchaced a 260 off of ebay. It said it had not HD when I bought it, little did I know the seller ment the caddy and all! I can not find caddys for sale anywhere. Do you know off hand if the 260’s? If they are, I can just get a wrecked 250 off of ebay to solve my problem.

    Thank you!
    Eric

34. Eric September 15, 2008 9:34 am

    Great write up! I just purchased a ix260 off of Ebay. I found all of your drivers you pieced together extremely useful, Thank you! I have a question on the CPU upgrade you did on yours. Is there anything in particular I should look for when I go to purchase a faster P4? There are a TON of them on Ebay, but I am unsure what route to go. Is there a particular number or pin arrangement I should look for?

    Thank you for your time and info,
    Eric

35. Jared Ritchey September 16, 2008 4:43 pm

    Okay some very important information about these okay.

    For those of you who ask about the following; GPS with Itronix, Battery, Caddy, and Update to features.

    1) The Itronix IX250 and IX260 have nearly the same main board with only a few important differences beginning with the bus support and ending with the Wi-Fi capabilities. I purchased every one of my IX250 laptops for about $100 each and I gave them to my kids because they are great for surfing the web, have 800×600 resolution, have touch screen monitors, can take a beating just shy of sinking them in the bathtub and they are easy to repair.

    2) Everyone seems to be seeking Hard Drives for more room. The simple fact is that these laptops will take a standard HD if you dont intend on beating it up. If you want to spend the extra 70% then get an IBM Rugged 2.5 HD which will set you back about $200 for the 80GB model. I purchased mine via TigerDirect and it cost me just shy of $200 and according to the system settings it registers at 77GB.

    3) WIFI for IX260 not IX250. I purchased an internal kit for a G band wifi on ebay for about $60 and its so easy to put in a one armed monkey could do it. I built mine so when I’m at the school picking up my girls I can sit in the parking lot and check my email with the campus WiFi. I’ve actually driven down the road and used skype for long distance calls in areas that have good coverage for wifi like the street market or even the university.

    4) Lots and lots of people email me about drivers, my apologies but I forgot to upload them, please let me know if I forgot any!

    5) Good old Itronix GPS and Mapping. Here is the skinny about this. It works and it doesn’t work! The way to make it work is simple. Get glue on GPS receiver and glue it to the back of your flat screen just opposite of the wife antenna. I use the Garmin sensor and my oldest daughter uses the Pharos sensor. I went with Pharos only because she just turned 16 and has a car which sits in the sun most the day. Since she leaves the receiver permanently affixed to the dash board it was a concern so price was a motive.

    6) GPS software? Well it will work with any compliant device driver GPS system that supports Garmin including Microsoft Streets and Maps (old version I have) or the turnkey solution that uses the Garmin software (Its not for me.)

    Please use the contact form if I missed anyone regarding the software and I’ll hook you up with the drivers I’ve got.

36. Jared Ritchey Design » Update Itronix IX-250 and IX-260 GPS September 16, 2008 4:46 pm

    [...] my post located here Itronix Laptop I outline some important “basic” stuff regarding the GPS configuration and Hard Drive [...]

37. Fred Kern September 17, 2008 3:43 pm

    Jared-
    I have been reading here and still have not found the one answer I have been looking for…what is the workaround for the HD caddy on the IX260? I have like many others a IX260 with no HD and no caddy…I understand that the HD is a normal laptop HD…is there a workaround? Thanks for all the great info!
    -=F

38. Guy Tenet September 23, 2008 1:46 pm

    Hi Jared,
    WOW ! Great work putting everything together, Thanks again, It was a BIG help. I used your collected drivers, works excellent, I was missing the touch screen driver - well I had installed from some other site but never work.
    Now I have situation where I bought the IX260 without a hard drive or caddy and also bought a Hitachi 80GB but when I looked at the MB interface its entirely different than anything I know, kind a centronics.
    My question is How do we attach a regular IDE44 drive into the IX260? Do we need any cable adapters or any special connectors which we can buy? Any HELP is deeply appreciated. I have been stuck on this for about 2 weeks now and cant afford $400 drive from Itronix.
    Many Thanks
    Guy Tenet

39. L.Troutman September 23, 2008 3:43 pm

    Jared, regarding the hdd issue for IX260s, if you don’t have a hard drive caddy and connector (if the computer didn’t come with them i.e. the hdd and caddy were pulled)- that is the problem everyone is dealing with. Did you have a caddy and cable/connector? If not how did you connect the hdd you purchased to the mother board? It looks as if some type of oem hdd cable would possibly work (plug into main board connector) but no seems to know which one or they are not willing to share that information(manufacturer #,model taken from,etc.).Information from GD-Itronix (that’s General Dynamics-Itronix and not what some people may think) and HP (for the NR3610 which is a relabeled IX260) is virtually non existant - no manuals,parts lists ,etc. Once more, did the IBM hdd you purchased come with any cables,carriers etc that allowed it to be connected to the main board connector in the IX260? Sorry to beat this issue to death but I’m just trying to clarify how you used/connected the hdd you purchased to your IX260. Thanks for your time and patience!!
    Best Regards :)Lee

40. Richard Pressl October 4, 2008 11:11 am

    Does anyone here have a spare HD caddy for the NR3610/GoBook III/NR3600/IX260+’s? We need it, and a CD/RW/DVD drive as well for a customer repair. Can you provide? Please advise. Thanks. BIZmarts: Business Equipment Resellers
    Att: Richard Pressl
    222 White Eagle Dr. POB 344, Waleska, GA, 30183

    (770)345-4663 - Voice -|- (678)522-3012 - Cell -|- (678)374-4653 - Fax
    rpressl@bizmarts.com -|- http://www.bizmarts.com

41. bizmarts November 1, 2008 11:55 pm

    How do you go about activating the “lights” in the keyboard on an IX260+

    I read that they have a NuGlow keyboard. Mine is white; but I don’t see any key marked for turning on the night light. Please advise.
    Thanks,
    -=rwp=- … Richard @ Bizmarts 11/2/08 - 12:55:46 am

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