URGENT: Opinion on whether to buy this - t42 used.

[sundarpn]

Thinkpad t42.. planning to buy this used..

Original description: Processor 1.7 GHz, P M 735, 1 GB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HDD, 15 inch SXGA+(1400x1050) TFT LCD, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600, CD/DVD Multi-Burner, IBM 802.11a/b/g wireless(MPCI), Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), UltraNav, Secure Chip, 6 cell Li-Ion battery.

Asking $1200. Its 1.1 year old. 2 Years warranty left. Batteyr warranty is over

-This not Centrino,
-and I think the DVD writer is slow and does not support DVD +R, only - R. I am not sure id it is DVD-RW and if it supports DVD dual layer burning.

-There is no recovery CDs. I have to get that from lenovo Support. $50 for that.

-I talked to IBM support and gave them the serial: they said that there is nothing like warranty transfer. If I buy it the warranty is valid for me. Also said that if there is a warrant repair that I do not have to spend anything.. they take care of the expenses to mail it to their service center etc.?

- If I get the recovery CD's from IBM, will that be full XP pro? I mean will I be the legal owner of XP pro too?

Wanted to check with you guys asap.
I asked for 1100... but the owner is not ready as of now.

For $1300 I can probably go for a dell 6000D with almost same specs.. So in a dilemma.

Also If i got to check this used t42 out - what do I check for any software I can use to check?

[RonS]

Sounds like a great deal to me. It's better that this isn't Centrino. Centrino means that it would have Intel WiFi, but the IBM a/b/g wireless is much better.

You can use Access Thinkpad to create your own set of recovery CD's, assuming that that feature hasn't been removed by the current owner. Either way, I wouldn't let that be an issue.

If the machine has been treated well, then I'd say go for it.

[GomJabbar]

You can use Access Thinkpad to create your own set of recovery CD's, assuming that that feature hasn't been removed by the current owner.

Sorry to say, that's not true.

You can burn only one set of Recovery CD's. The software will not let you make another set. I have read though that if you restore to factory state, then you can make a Recovery CD set again.

Restoring to factory state would require that the service partition is in place and usuable. From reading the posts on this forum, there are a number of people that remove the service partition to gain hard disk space, so it may not be there. If you press the blue Access IBM button at the beginning of the boot sequence, it will enter the service partition - assuming it's there and not damaged.

[brainpicker]

For $1300 I can probably go for a dell 6000D with almost same specs.. So in a dilemma.

What? You are thinking about NOT buying this T42 because you can get a Dell with the same specs for MORE money?!? What the heck am I mssing here? Not that I would even consider a Dell, but I would pay a premium for an IBM/Lenovo over ANY other brand with similar specs. If it is what you say this is a nice machine and I for one would pay the seller the $1300 you want to spend on the Dell. At $1200 it would be on a desk in my house already!

Yak

[Kyocera]

Sounds like a deal. Whether the pre-desktop is there or not, $50 dollars is cheap for a complete recovery of a crashed system.