Would u say that a used T42P is reliable ? + Things To Check

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p78 · #31 Post by **p78** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:12 am

Wow that's really awesome tips Johan ! I am so glad I found this forum with such dedicated, nice, helpful and excellent people ... this is now a big reason why I want to buy a T42P

By the way I've added a link to your 2 above very helpful posts in the first post and changed its title so that people can find them more easily ...

p78 · #32 Post by **p78** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:58 pm

Quick update : I am now the owner of a T42P and I absolutely LOVE it ... feels like a really good laptop ... better than I expected !

Thanks all for the very good tips !!

#33 Post by **Johan** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:22 pm

- just a further small hint, mentioned for the sake of completeness:

If buying a used ThinkPad (and most importantly if buying from someone how is not a very technically/knowledgeable person), then it may be a (very!) good idea to ask the seller to also verify that all BIOS passwords and other security settings are cleared. OK, but... how many of these are there? Many! And not the hint: It is easy to "remotely" guide the seller (or yourself, if possible) through all the passwords if using the BIOS simulator - ThinkPad R50/p, R51 (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), T40/p, T41/p, T42/p - see for yourself!

Hint: The F1/F3/F5/F6/F9/F10 and ESC-keys on your keyboard won't work with this simulator; use your mouse and click on these key-fields at the bottom of simulator screen.

Very nice and useful "toy", by the way, this simulator!

Best regards,

Johan

ThinkPad · #34 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:26 pm

Congrats on the purchase, you will enjoy it for many years to come

lada · #35 Post by **lada** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:38 pm

Hello guys,

sorry for inconvenience and maybe posting to a bad thread (I'm new here). I've read instructions on checking a used Thinkpad machine a few postings back. There're mentioned checks of display. I have an offer on a used T42p with 15in Flexview display, but from images it seems it has many dark spots (not bad pixels or subpixels, but clusters of them a little dimmer). You may see yourself. My question is, is the display damaged (TFT layer), is the backlighting tube damaged, is it just dust (which can be cleared), or what? Would you buy notebook with such display? Otherwise, specifications of the rest satisfy me. I've seen the same on a macbook pro display which got repaired. Can this be repaired/fixed?

Picture
http://aldebaran.feld.cvut.cz/~xmyslik/IMG_3069.jpg

If you know a better thread to post this question, let me know - post a link. But I'm directly responding to a post with buyer's guide a page before.

ulrich.von.lich · #36 Post by **ulrich.von.lich** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:04 pm

They look like dust specs inside the screen. I have them on my A31p's flexview LCD, and they can not be cleaned without disassambling the LCD. If you have this machine in hand, you can try to clean the screen to see if those are inside or outside the screen. The amazing Flexview LCD is probably the only reason that some T4 machines are still more desirable/expansive than the newer T6 series. It'd be a pity to have some dust specs behind the screen but so far as I know it's a common issue among Flewview LCDs. I think that whether you should buy it or not depends on how much those dusts bother you and the price you are paying.

djThinkbad · #37 Post by **djThinkbad** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:16 pm

I said yes cause I am living Proof and my laptop is too

ajkula66 · #38 Post by **ajkula66** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:59 pm

Have these (dust specs) on 2 out of 3 A31p machines. Also...

On a T43 15" SXGA+
On a T43p 15" UXGA
On a T60p 15" UXGA....

I'd say 30% (at least) of all FlexViews are affected by this pest...

None on a A30p
None on A31p # 3
None on R50p...

All of these are currently in my house, although not all of them are owned by myself. If anyone can come up with the logic behind any of this, I'd appreciate it...

#39 Post by **KristianJ** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:54 pm

I have a couple of imperfections on my T42's Flexview that look like very small hairs - no dust specks though. I'm picking up a T42p this afternoon with the UXGA, and will be keen to know what its LCD is like (the seller on eBay stated that it had no dead pixels, which is a good start).

jimmy274 · #40 Post by **jimmy274** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:33 pm

I've had these on a T23 while still using XGA screen. The new screen I bought for T23 (SXGA) had none, until I changed the backlight (and the dust came in) - I've tried really hard to clean all the layers, but there were still 5-6 spots of dust I couldn't clear.
Nothing special really - I was so stunned with the new backlight that I've forgotten all about spots. From time to time I did notice them, but they didn't annoy me at all. I would buy it if I was you.
@ajkula66
George, I think that some of the FlexView LCDs used in those Thinkpads that you mentioned have a bit loosened backlight assembly (the whole plastic thingy behind the LCD) and that might be the reason that dust came in. Either that, or someone has changed the CCFL in those screens and this someone did not do it in a "clean" room (I guess most of the normal laptop service shops don't own them, since they are quite expensive) - It's very hard to change a backlight without some dust coming between the layers.

ajkula66 · #41 Post by **ajkula66** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:45 pm

The T43p that I was referring to, with dust specs, has left the owner's house for the first time a week ago when it was brought to me for evaluation.

Never repaired. Never smoked around.

Almost the same goes for the T43 I've been referring to.

My T60p has been bought from the original owner, barely any wear, never repaired. One nice-size dust spec.

I'm still not getting it...and I've gone through a fairly high three-digit number of FlexViews...

Good observations, though, jimmy274...

thinkpadlover07 · #42 Post by **thinkpadlover07** » Thu Jan 31, 2008 12:52 am

I'd just like to chime in here since I own a T42p UXGA that I bought from another member of this forum (syedj - great transaction, but perhaps a little bit inaccurate selling details, if not intentionally). However, it came from him with this same exact problem with dust specs BEHIND the screen, which he unknowingly did not tell me about. It also had the motherboard flexing problem where it would reboot without warning and then would not boot up at all.

So, I sent it into Lenovo Executive Relations, hoping that I would get better depot repair service than Solectron, last December. I included a very detailed letter about my studies on this forum regarding dust specs being a very common (or at least very vocal) problem among Flexview customers, as well as the infamous T4x motherboard problem.

I got it back over a MONTH after I sent it in, about 3 weeks ago. The screen and motherboard were both replaced - it came back seemingly fixed with NO dust specs behind the screen, and I was happy...for a week. Then, I realized that one faint one appeared and then 2 other faint ones appeared (about where the Trackpoint touches the screen), but I was puzzled because I use a Radtech Screensavrz cloth, so I know it can't be from the keyboard. Now, the spots are quite noticeable and there is even a STREAK of dust. And these spots are quite big!

So, instead of possibly sending in my Thinkpad for repair again, I'm just going to live with it, or at least wait a little longer to see what happens. The screen really is quite amazing, and the spots are really only noticeable on a uniform color background (Pixel Buddy is a good program to test).

But, it seems that these spots are inevitable. And I have not heard a definitive response from anyone regarding why!

My 4-year-old R40 has never and still does not exhibit this problem with dust (definitely bright spots, but that goes for almost every old LCD that travels).

I'll try contacting Lenovo to get a straight answer.

Hope this helps.

ragefury32 · #43 Post by **ragefury32** » Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:30 pm

Hm. Personal experience, I have a T42p as my personal data center machine (I also play a little Battlefield 2 with them once in awhile), and 3 T42s as part of a laptop fleet that I managed for end users. The 42/42ps are extremely reliable if they are carried carefully and treated with a little TLC. Overall I would say that as long as you replace the original HDDs (drives wear out after a few years), swap new batteries and make sure that they are padded and handled like any bit of expensive delicate equipment, they are extremely reliable.

Hell, one of my end users left his T42 out in a storm (he was in a sidewalk cafe in Lower Manhattan) - I just replaced the keyboard and off it goes again. They might return to me a little worst for wear, but they'll always work.

That being said, I accidentally slid a hard drive into a T42p the wrong way and it snapped something inside and damaged the main board, which ended up having to be RMAed in warranty, so be careful!

induktor · #44 Post by **induktor** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:03 pm

Hi
I have one T40 and one T41, both use for my work, I had the T40 for about a year (get it on ebay, used, no warranty), and about a month ago I buy the T41.
Both replaced hard drives for faster ones because 40 gig old hitachi where slow as h@ll.

About two months the T40 started to show garbage on the screen, I can see it on both VGA and S-Video output so it was clearly a video ram problem, however the machine works perfectly (even if I can barely read what's showing on the screen

).

I decide to replace motherboard, I found a new one on ebay, and replaced it by the hardware manual instructions.

Worked perfectly for about a month and suddenly, the machine turn off and now when I turn'em on i get 1 long beep and 2 short ones (motherboard problem).

I roll back to my older motherboard with the video ram problem and everything worked again.

So, after 2 motherboards with the video problem (even when I take a good care of my machines) I cannot say that they are rock solid anymore (and I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am, not because my machine failed twice, but because I cannot longer trust this machine, and for me and my job, trust in my tools are everything).

I always had a blind trust for IBM Thinkpads, I owned several models, all excellent, fast, robust, all I could ask from a notebook computer.

my T41 is working perfectly so far but I'm starting to loose confidence in it

after my experience with the T40.

There is one think that call my attention, when I disasemble the T40 to replace the motherboard, I notice that the bottom case is very very light and very easy to twist, maybe the fault is not in the technology but in the bottom case, too thin.

I decide to remove the two rear legs that lift the machine a little because I notice that when i type a bit hard the machine twist down in the center, removing those legs, the rear part lies flat on the desk and I think that's better to avoid the casing twisting and further mobo failure

indkt.

lada · #45 Post by **lada** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:22 pm

I dug about this issue with video and it's GPU being in a place which gets easily twisted from underneath. You can bake (re-solder) it with a heat gun or bake it in a hot-air over (NOT MICROWAVE!).

I have ordered a used T42p which has a newer revision of motherboard (post Dec 2004) and I'll see if it fails. Being a hardware guy, I can live with it, because re-soldering is possible, I design electronics (pcbs...) and I know how can those things be fixed.

http://www.technotaste.com/blog/thinkpa ... mment-2903
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=56468
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=180

This thread is about DIY resoldering the motherboard.
As far as I can say, it is possible.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=57021

Here's howto do it in a toaster oven
http://www.instructables.com/id/Toaster ... ering-BGA/

And here're temperature profiles - i.e. how long to heat and to what temperature, and how to cool it down (not too fast).
http://smt.pennnet.com/articles/article ... _id=247127

Please note old T40s are not RoHS (without Pb - Lead) compliant so they can be resoldered with lower ttemperature (upto 235 deg celsius). Newer RoHS crap is typically resoldered at upto 260 deg. celsius.

Typical tin/lead peak reflow temperatures are 205°-215°C. Lead-free candidates reflow at 217°-221°C. Target peak reflow temperatures for lead-free solders are between 235° and 245°C. Figure 1 compares typical tin/lead and lead-free reflow profiles and process windows. In response to tighter lead-free process windows, component suppliers are re-qualifying components to higher maximum exposure temperatures, as prescribed by IPC/JEDEC J-STD-020. With these higher exposure temperatures, lead-free process windows remain tight. ICs and BGAs must be reprofiled for lead-free rework.

sjthinkpader · #46 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:44 pm

These "dust specks" may be damages to the BEF (brightness enhancement film). Some LCDs have one BEF and some have two. Some are easily damaged thru the back side.

Before they removed the two rib structures in the T2x LCD cover, many LCDs have damages by these ribs. IBM finally removed these ribs in late T22 and T23 covers.

DrThinkpad · #47 Post by **DrThinkpad** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:58 pm

I bought my T40 just a few months back and contacted the previous owner... sounds like my T40 is a lucky number/has been treated with care as it's going on its 6th year with the factory mobo

Utwig · #48 Post by **Utwig** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:09 pm

Appart from obvious check:
- USB ports (they fried when I plugged my iPod Shuffle in my T42p, replaced motherboard under warranty, this might be connected with faulty USB bluetooth module which hasn't worked since I bought the laptop used 1.5y ago.).
- BT module, check if it works, didn't work from start in my T42p untill they replaced motherboard under warranty.
- Fan.
- LAN ports.
- make sure you get either recovery partition or recovery media.

If it has been treated well, it's reliable: I always carry it with two hands or closed under shoulder, always use padded bag to carry it, when outside work or home never loose sight of it. I use microfiber cloth and water to clean LCD.

For about 6 months I used to cycle daily with it in a backpack to work and I carry it on a daily basis.

Mine is a 2373-HTG

losmeme · #49 Post by **losmeme** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:52 am

I started having a problem with my T42p, but not a restart. The screen doesn't blank out, it just freezes. The only workaround is holding the power button for a hard reboot.

Once the machine is off, it doesn't always restart right away when the power button is pressed. It might take 20-30 seconds for the battery light to come up, at which point it will restart no problem.

This has happened while using the laptop on my lap, but it has also occured once while the machine was sitting on a table, and wasn't moved.

Is this related to the GPU chip problem. Possibly the first indications that it is going south? Event viewer shows nothing out of the ordinary.

Thank goodness this machine is still under an on-site warranty until April 23rd. Anyone got any pointers on what to tell IBM so I can get a new motherboard?

lada · #50 Post by **lada** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:46 pm

Tell them its video freezes and restarts or freezes completely plus problems with battery. They are used to this kind of problems so a motherboard change is an obvious solution... Try to find some bad pixels on your screen or dust behind it (in the case of IPS FlexView screen) - they might change it as well, at least it's good to try it out before warranty expires. BTW warranty can be extended to 4 years if it is only 3. New screen has a new lamp which eventually wears out. You may also consider complaining about low intensity of backlight, they might at least change the lamp if a TFT display is ok...

ajkula66 · #51 Post by **ajkula66** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:04 pm

They will NOT change a LCD because of dead pixels, they MIGHT do it because of dirt, and will DEFINITELY change it if you complain that the screen has lost brightness.

BTW, the warranty can be extended (in USA) up to five years.

Good luck.

EricRC · #52 Post by **EricRC** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:30 pm

If you buy it from a trusted seller,then my answer is yes.

Would u say that a used T42P is reliable ? + Things To Check

Would you say that a used T42P is reliable ?

Hint: Use BIOS-simulator to help seller clear ALL passwords

LCD of a T42p (15in. flexview)

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