IBM ThinkPad T42 (2373CYU) - My firsthand impressions...

[Chun-Yu]

Well, the first one I started peeling off at room temperature, but it started to leave a bunch of sticky stuff, so I grabbed a hair dryer, heated it up, and it peeled off pretty easily, leaving only a trace of stuff. I then kept pressing and removing the now removed sticker on the residue until I got most of it off. I then heated the Windows sticker and removed it the same way. There was still a very tiny bit of stickiness left (there wasn't really any adhesive visible, but the plastic still felt a little sticky), but that went away by itself after a bit (it's right under your wrist, so it gets rubbed off eventually). Now the left side of the palm rest is just as smooth as the right side.

[dclee012]

haha sticker removal 101...
now you too, can rub your thinkpad all you want

[dcdomain]

Can also use a little bit of Goo-Gone afterwards to remove the rest of the residue.

[cynic]

I ended up marring the surface of the palmrest when I used Goo-Gone. The surface was clear of stickers, but where the Goo-Gone had touched the palmrest it had changed textures (it was very smooth and matte verses the kind-of shiny textured surface.) After about 2 days of dealing with that, I realized I wasn't going to be happy unless I ordered a new one. A new palmrest (with touchpad built-in) cost me about US$14 plus about US$13 shipping (don't ask me why 'cause I'm still confused.) I still have the original palmrest with marred finish if I ever need it.

[K. Eng]

I just rubbed the glue until it all pealed off. The stickers were already pealing badly because my palms kept rubbing against them during daily use...

A couple months later it all looks fine. Not a bit of glue residue left!

[GoyoNeuff]

Hi All,

Are those 3D Mark 2001 @ 1024x768x32?



K.

[agiambro]

Hey all,

I bought my T42 over a month ago and since then I had my 80GB harddrive fail. I just got a new one but I am concerned with a flickering noise I hear from the drive.

This is a similar noise as my other harddrive.

As I am reading this page I hear a very faint and subtle clicking noise from the harddrive. Anyone know what this is, are you all experiencing this as well.

And yes, I am hearing this noise when the harddrive is NOT running. I could be sitting on a webpage or MS Word reading a document and I still, on occasion (every 30 seconds or so) hear this noise.

Anyone???

[BillMorrow]

could this be the infamous fan noise..??

had a 600E once that did drive seeks from time to time that drove me nuts..

never could figure it out or stop it..

[ian]

Someone recently suggested, on a different thread, that this drive seek noise is "normal" for a while whilst Windows tidies up the hard drive - I personally have my doubts, but bow to his superior knowledge. Naturally I'm now a little concerned as I've ordered a similar (2373-CWU) unit from Bill and I don't want ANY funny noises...

[agiambro]

The noise is definitely coming from the HD on the bottom right hand corner of the palm rest.

Don't read into this too much because on THIS harddrive the noise is VERY subtle, but I am a bit picky so I certainly hear it when it does it.

The HD that failed made a similar noise, but MUCH louder. At that time, I spoke with ThinkPad Hardware Support and they told me to run PC Dr's HD scan. That resulted in an error, so they told me my HD was failing.

This new drive passed all PC Dr HD tests and all seems well (except for this noise). Perhaps it is XP Pro tidying up? :-\

Any other ideas, or any others hear this same type of noise coming from their T42 80GB 5400RPM HD?

Thanks for the input all!

[ian]

My 2373-CWU is virtually identical to yours (I ordered more RAM) and Bill says she's shipping today - as soon as she arrives here it'll be full scale testing time - I'll keep you posted, but I'll be very concerned if I can hear any noise at all.

I recently replaced the 20G HD on my trusty T21 with a 40G - both Travelstars - and there's no noise

Fingers crossed.

[agiambro]

Ian,

I was reading other threads in this forum and came accross this one:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=noises

This guy wrote a great review/comparison of some ThinkPad models. He also noted a "noise" quite similar to the one that I am hearing... here is his excerpt.
"...As for the 60GB 7200RPM HDD in general, I think I must have had a noisy/vibrating early model in my T40p, because the 60GB HDD in new T42p doesn't make nearly the noise or vibration of my T40p 60GB 7200RPM HDD. And there's only slight clicking/clacking upon WinXP login, leading me to believe it's just some of Windows XP's optimization of the startup files v. something inherently wrong with the hard drive. After a minute or so after logging in, the drive is quiet, with the very faint hum of the drive spinning in very quiet rooms, etc. While I miss the extra 20GB of the 80GB HDD, running systems side-by-side with 80GB 5400RPM and 60GB 7200RPM HDDs makes a noticeable difference. The overall system responsiveness is noticeably better with the 7200RPM drive. Given that Hitachi/IBM have addressed some of the vibration/noise issues (apparently), I'm very happy with the 7200RPM drive..."

This makes me feel a bit better (if he knows what he is talking about). I am led to believe that this occasional flickering noise may go away after a week or so.

Other than that noise my ThinkPad T42 is AMAZING!!

[ian]

The guy who wrote that review had the luck/chance to be able to compare the two machines side by side, which we don't ! It's SO subjective isn't it - I think we're so tied up with the perfection etc. of the unit, we forget sometimes that there are whirrs and clicks which will inevitably occur - let's face it after a few weeks use we'll have probably forgotten them, or at least 'blocked' them out anyway - the only thing that bothers me really is the fact that one 'could' have a bad disk (they DO happen).

As you say, it's probably best to wait and see, or rather, listen !! Let's just hope it doesn't drive us crazy in the meantime...(although for that, I'm a length ahead already...)

[HKILP7M8]

Ajambro, how do you like your CYU?
I noticed you got the extra 512 MB, How's it run like that? I'm getting mine tomorrow, I'm looking forward to playing with my new toy. I purchased additional memory as well. I hope I don't have any problems, I would hate to have to return it.

[Conmee]

Agiambro,

Never assume I know what I'm talking about... lol

Anyhow, I'm very happy with my T42p and the 60GB 7200rpm drive. There's still the occasional disk access upon logging in, and every now and then and I hear the drive do something, but for the most part, it's quiet. And compared to my T40p 60GB drive, the T42p 60GB makes much less noise/vibration, definitely.

I read somewhere else in this forum that someone mentioned it was WinXP 'optimizing/defraging' the the startup/OS files, and that after a week or so, the noises decrease or stop altogether. However, when I have a chance I'm going to load Linux on the drive and see if a non-Windows system makes the same noises, just to try to isolate the cause... is it OS or hard drive.

As for the CYU, I liked it alot, except for the dead pixel mine had. I also thought the fan was a bit louder/running more than the fan in my T40p. The only time my T42p sounds like the CYU I returned is when I'm playing games or running benchmarks and the fan is on full. But again, I only had the CYU for about 10 days before returning it, and my memory could be fading. lol The keyboard and palmrest, however, feel definitely more solid and superior to the 14" models without doubt, IMHO.

Daniel.

[fschnidi]

hello

sorry, my english-skills are not the best. well i'm not shure about the scentece

"feel definitely more solid and superior to the 14" models without doubt, IMHO. "

does that mean the 15"-palmrests or the 14"-ones feel more solid?

thanks alot

flo