Summarize what parts I must swap out to get perfect T42

[pufftissue]

Hello,

It's sad, but I know I'm going to be anal enough to bug IBM when I get my T42 to make sure it's perfect.

Please summarize what I need to replace under warranty to make sure I've got the top-notch what I paid for in the first place T42.

1. Thai keyboard (I have the freakin' China one, no offense, I'm Chinese) 08K4986 is my FRU
2. Is the Samsung LCD good or bad or the only game in town now?
My FRU is: 11P8348 and from prior posts, it's Samsung, which I am not sure is good or bad. I have just bought this laptop 1 day ago, so it should be a "newer" Samsung screen rather than one of the older ones, although I'm not sure if there's a difference. Do i want the ID Tech one?
3. Swap out for the long fan? I have the 2378 FVU, and is the fan even an issue on any model of the T42 anymore? It was horrific on the T41 I had, and it was swapped out with a long one (at my cost), and that made the problem way way better. Will I have to do that again?
4. Swap out the palm rest? I remember my T41 creaked with the trackpoint buttons on the left and on the left palmrest for certain. I just thought that was par for the course. But apparently not?
5. Anything else? Get the Sony battery, although I've heard it's really not any better?

THANK YOU all.
Getting a new laptop is such a pain for people like me, but on the otherhand, I definitely feel like I should get exactly what I paid for.

[zzyss]

You ARE getting what you paid for. All that other stuff is l33t rubbish that won't make one iota of difference in the Real World. I doubt they will change it for you anyway.

[skanky]

i hope they dont change all that stuff for you. why should they unless the parts are genuinely broken?

i'm sure lots of people have a chinese keyboard and not report any problems with it etc etc.

[Steve007]

It's sad

Yes. Yes it is

[Steve007]

You ARE getting what you paid for. All that other stuff is l33t rubbish that won't make one iota of difference in the Real World.

That's what I was thinking.....

[p0ser]

Its very likely that all that assembly and disassembly can wear on certain parts and you may develop new and creaks and fit issues that you did not have before. I'm sure other people share similar experiences to some degree.

[Daver]

Also something I id not expect. Replacing my palmrest to get rid of the trackpad changed my driver.

Apparently it switches from driver UltraNav to the "TrackPoint only" driver, and that changes the behavior of the middle button.

I like the UltraNav middle button behavior better, and I'm considering going back to the UltraNav palmrest with the TrackPad disabled like I used to have.

-Daver

[kevinh]

Daver,

How does the behavior differ between the two palmrests? Thanks.

Kevin

[Daver]

It's hard to describe unless you've used a T22 or such in the past as I have. I recognized the same old Trackpoint driver immediately because I've used it before.

They are two different drivers, from two different companies. The scrolling icon is different. UltraNav can scroll diagonally, Trackpoint cannot. Trackpoint seems to have a bunch of compatability problems with apps, too. Until recent versions, Mozilla didn't like Trackpoint scrolling. Same with my MS eMbedded Visual C++. UltraNav worked fine.

In any case, I think I've resolved my issue. I forced the UltraNav driver in my device manager. I am somewhat spooked by the IBM warnings not to install the UltraNav driver on Trackpoint-only models, but so far so good.

-Daver

[RoadHazard]

It's hard to describe unless you've used a T22 or such in the past as I have. I recognized the same old Trackpoint driver immediately because I've used it before.

They are two different drivers, from two different companies. The scrolling icon is different. UltraNav can scroll diagonally, Trackpoint cannot. Trackpoint seems to have a bunch of compatability problems with apps, too. Until recent versions, Mozilla didn't like Trackpoint scrolling. Same with my MS eMbedded Visual C++. UltraNav worked fine.

In any case, I think I've resolved my issue. I forced the UltraNav driver in my device manager. I am somewhat spooked by the IBM warnings not to install the UltraNav driver on Trackpoint-only models, but so far so good.

-Daver

I've changed out the palmrest to the plain one but I didn't notice anything different in the behavior of the middle button. Maybe that's just because I don't use the applications you mentioned. Anyway, I think you should be fine using the UltraNav driver because the driver on my machine is the UltraNav driver that I installed before I removed the touchpad.