This IBM CrossPad Portable Digital Notepad is a great device for on-the-go note taking. It has been tested and is working, except for the pen (see below for more details). The notepad uses serial (RS-232) to connect to the PC for uploading notes and sketches.
It combines an electronic pen and a tablet base to record drawings, which you make on the paper tablet placed on the base unit. This makes for a very natural and intuitive drawing experience. The paper is not special and will work with most standard 8.5x11 inch pads. The paper together with the ink tip of the pen are simply there to allow you to see your sketches as you make them.
The Pen does not work because the AAAA battery corroded in it and damaged the circuit board inside the pen. The rest of the system works. It was tested using the electronic Pen from a Seiko Instruments SmartPad (see my other listing), which uses an identical protocol. All of the pictures that show it working used the Seiko Instruments Pen.
The software was installed in a Windows XP virtual machine as I could not get it to install on Windows 10 (64 bit). Perhaps you can get that part to work (maybe it would work with 32 bit). So the screen shots were from this device connected to Windows XP.
If you have a CrossPad that has failed, but the Pen still works, this would be ideal for you. There are eInk (Digital Notepad) pens available, but I did not want to get one on speculation of a sale. The damaged CrossPad pen is included if you want to try repairing it, but I tried and failed (albeit I did not put much effort into it).
If you want this with the Seiko SmartPad pen I used for testing, send me a note and I will sell you that Pen separately. Of course, this means that I cannot sell the SmartPad as fully working, so the price would have to account for the loss of the SmartPad sale. If you like the technology, You could buy both and then you would have two working tablets, if you shared the pen. I'm flexible.