In local news...

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Published Friday, February 06, 2004 4:03 AM by RoyOsherove
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Comments

Friday, February 06, 2004 5:51 AM by Snorrk

# re: In local news...

I own a T40 and am quite happy. A few notes though..

Get higher resolution:
The screen is 14" and 1024x800 sux for f.ex. Visual Studio programming.

Prepare for wireless problems:
The integrated Intel Wireless 2100 3B adapter has some problems with low-end access points (http://support.intel.com/support/network/wireless/pro2100/sb/cs-006205-prd944.htm). The proposed solution did not work for me and I cannot connect to the AP at my brothers house.

No Windows key:
4 years ago I wouldn't have said it - but I miss the Windows key :)
Get the IBM keyboard customization utility and use it to set the right-side Ctrl-key to act as the Wndows key. It isn't used anyways and I'm getting quite used to using it for Win-R, Win-E, Win-d stuff.

Nothing is perfect and the T40 is a quality machine and I love mine quite much. Although I list the problems above they are minor compared to the defective-chipset = frequent-bluescreen problem I was having with my HP XE4500 and I truly recommand the T-line as sturdy, sleek and sexy ;)
Friday, February 06, 2004 9:34 AM by Patrick Steele

# re: In local news...

IBM ThinkPad's rock! I've got an A31. Had it little over a year now and I love it. Now the "A" series it not something you'll want if you're looking for portability or sleeknees. It's advertised by IBM as a "portable desktop" -- which is what I wanted. Battery life is only about 2 - 3 hours. But it's got a gorgeous 15" screen running at 1400x1050, a 40GB hard drive at weighs close to 8 lbs (kind of heavy!).

Our internal IT manager swears by IBMs. We even have one here that a salesman accidentally backed over with his SUV. Crushed one side of it and just about destroyed the LCD screen (all cracked) -- but the damn thing booted up!! Only about half of the screen was visible, but we were able to plug a PCMCIA card in and pull the data off (the side that got crunched destroyed the port on the internal network card).

Now he uses it as a prop. When a new employee is getting a laptop he walks in with this damaged one -- before they get a good look at it he stumbles and drops it on the floor (trying to get it to bounce off a desk or chair for maximum shock effect!). Goofy IT humor... :)
Friday, February 06, 2004 9:38 AM by Roy Osherove

# re: In local news...

Patrick: huh, good one. I heard they were rock solid but I didn't know they were *that* solid!
I'm still thinking whether I want the T41p (portable) or the R50p (portable desktop) which is more like what you bought - 15" screen and all. I'm really in a dilemma.
Friday, February 06, 2004 12:17 PM by Randy

# re: In local news...

I've got a T41/1.6GHz with SVGA+. I've been pretty happy with it - I upgraded from a Sony Z1A/1.3GHz - with a couple of issues. I bought a new HD for it (a 60GB version of the 40GB that it shipped with) and installed XP from scratch: some of the IBM drivers have issues, most noticibly the Batterymizer, WiFi stuff, and HD protection software. While I was getting crashes often when coming out of standby, once I tweak these or removed them, I've had no crashes.

On the flip side of that IBM has send me parts to try to trouble shoot this problem: I'd call them as late as 5pm and have the part shipped to me by 11am the next morning - 18 hour turn around time! On top of that, the design of the T40/41 is simple awsome - parts are easy to swap out and interchange and upgrade. Once the crashes were sorted out this has become one of the best notebooks I've ever had.

And of course, if you're used to having a Windows key on the keyboard, you can remap other keys to get back that fucntionality - IBM gives you a utility or you can use a remapper (like the one I wrote).
Friday, February 06, 2004 1:25 PM by Alex

# re: In local news...

A few years ago, I owned an IBM Laptop and I swore never to buy another one. Last year i bought an Acer Travelmate 801LCi and just have to say: I love it ;-)
The resulotion of 1400 x 1050 is very good for working with VS.NET. The battery runs 5 h at least and the performance is quite good (and i only have the 1,3 ghz version), also i boosted my ram up to 768 mb.
(be careful: the memory expansion slot is still used when being shipped with 512mb, the only thing i disliked).

just my 2 cents - keep on bloggin' ;-)

Alex