I've got my T40

[Sudevan]

I received the used T40 that I had recently bought. It is a great machine, solid and lovely. No dead/stuck pixels. It came with Win XP and I downloaded VLC. Tested it out with movies, music CDs and photo CDs -- everything works just fine. I can see why folks here are so enthusiastic about their Thinkpads.

A couple of questions for those in the know: First, is there a good product for removing scuff marks from the top cover? (I have a few small ones). I think it is some sort of rubberized material.

Second, are there PCI sound cards that might help with the speakers on this machine? I have a PCI, or mini-PCI slot on the bottom left side, and I am wondering if others have found it useful.

Regards,

[ctbenski]

Are these scuff marks very deep? If not, you may find them disappear or at least improve with rubbing them with your thumb.
The slot you mean is probably PCIMCIA, not mini-PIC.
There is a mini-PCI, but it is located inside the machine beneath the keyboard, and is most likely occupied already by a wireless network card.

You can indeed buy a PCIMCIA sound card, even with a SoundBlaster Audigy chip, but I if you really need that. Are you composing and MAKING music on the Thinkpad or do you just want to listen to music on better quality speakers? If the latter, maybe just attach some decent speakers?

[Sudevan]

Thanks, ctbenski.

I tried the Clorox disinfectant wipes and Armor leather wipes suggested by others in this community ( not in this Series ). They both worked fairly well. It looks much better than it did before I used them.

As for the PCMCI card slot, yes, I was thinking of using something like an Audigy card, if it would improve the quality of the sound, and provided such a card would not be prohibitively expensive. It's not a high priority, though.

Again, it is a great machine. I am at work right now, updating Windows and downloading some virus protection software for the T40. It works quite well, a bit slow on bootup, but I think I managed to fix that with some help from a tech person at my university. It's a year old so I have a couple more years left on the warranty.