T42 2378FVU keyboard flexes a bit + few issues. But love it

[oraclejock]

I got my T42 a few weeks ago. I of course love it. Everything feels solid and well built. I used to have a Dell D600 which really was a low quality laptop. I remember thinking when I first got it 2 years ago how it looked and felt so cheap but I found myself trying to convince myself that it's a Dell so it should be good. How wrong I was. Left palm rest area got very very hot just for having laptop turned on for 2 or more hours, and not doing anything. No real disk activity and still it got very hot. And than there was the flexing keyboard. The whole keyboard flexed except in the middle where it was probably mounted on. Any how enough complaining about Dell. With my T42, I had the disk going for hours as I was moving data over into it and the top part of T42 never got hot. Just a bit lukewarm but not hot. BTW I upgrade my HD to 80G 5400RPM from 40G.

I heard IBM T42 has liquid cooling system. Can someone point out where I can find our more about that?

Now let me list a few minor minor complaints. These issue shouldn't let anyone avoid T42s. They are superb laptops.

First the keyboard near Arrow keys was moving up and down enough to the point where I could hear the keyboard base hitting the chassis. I checked with other T42s we have at our office and didn't find that problem. I tried reseating the keyboard a few times (I had taken it out earlier to upgrade RAM) thinking I did something wrong. Than I noticed a thin strip of foam between the keyboard and the inner chassis, may to keep the keyboard rigid. I guess mine wasn't thick enough. Anyhow I ended up fixing the problem by stacking 2 business cards together and stick them under the Arrow key area. Now the whole keyboard feels solid.

One more complaint I have is not with the laptop itself but the connection between the laptop and Mini Dock II. The act of docking T42 with the docking station seems so primitive (as you may already know you line up the arrows and press down the laptop) compared to docking a Dell laptop. The other problem is that after you dock it the connection seems flaky, mainly due to the poorly designed docking mechanism. You have to use enough force to make them dock properly and this you can figure out only after a few practices. I know T42 LCD case is constructed not to flex but I don't see why IBM can't make a docking station more user fiendly. More than a few users at my office came to me complainig about flaky video/ethernet connection when using docking station after they first got the laptops. The problems got fixed when I undocked and redocked the laptops. They hadn't used enough force when pushing it down to dock. I really would like to see IBM come up with a docking station where there is a guiding groove that lets you line up the laptop easily with the docking station for docking.

One last complaint or maybe a feature request is turning on/off wireless card with in IBM Access Connections. First, I love how well IBM Access Connections works so well, even checking off 'Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings' automatically. In case you didn't know, turning this feature on can cause confusion when connecting to a WiFi router as it automatically connects to the one with the best signal strength which isn't what you want necessarily all the time. I'd like to have IBM Access Connections turn off the the Wireless Card when it's not used for a particular location profile. I prefer to turn off WiFi when not used for security and power reasons. For now I end up manually turning off the WiFi card. However I think the WiFi card powers back on automatically for location profiles that require WiFi connection. I need to check this to be certain.

In the end, I love T42. I hope Lenovo doesn't ruin it. I was seriously checking out Apple PowerBook at Fry's yesterday, in case IBM Thinkpads are ruined...

Title: Senior IT Engineer.
Real life duty: Assistant for Execs with their gadgets.

[Elhabash]

No liquid cooling, as far as I know (not in the T40 for sure). Would be cool, though, but probably with a tradeoff. Maybe someone knows more...

If you turn off the Wifi card, it will turn itself on again when you manually switch to the profile. Otherwise Access connection will automatically switch to the appropriate profile, provided it exists. I really like that program.

And the flexing keyboard and palm rest... long story, many posts. I guess there has to be some bad points somewhere. I wouldn't notice those two things on a Dell.

Maybe Lenovo builds on IBMs reputation for quality and all is well.

[daeojkim]

Funny. I have fvu as well but mie does not flex at all near the arrow key.

May be something is lose or may be too tight?

[pufftissue]

Well, about the keyboard. I was skeptical about the Thai vs the China keyboard, and I just got the same model last week. There were rumors that the China keyboard had since been modified again. Well, I got the newest China keyboard, and from comparing that keyboard to my T41 keyboard 1 year ago, the keyboard is definitely better. Just has deeper key travel and generally a pleasure.

I got the Thai keyboard put in anyway, and I must say that this keyboard is quieter, maybe the keys don't travel quite as deeply as the new China keyboard, but overall, it has the old Thinkpad feel to it. I prefer this Thai keyboard the most, like most people. The difference is there, but compared to this T42 that I had out of the box, it's not an out of this world difference. I remember that the 600x notebook's keyboard was better still, but this one appears to have pretty much come close.

As an FYI, the keyboards really are differently made. You can't stick a key on a Thai keyboard and put it on a China keyboard. I took off one of the keys, I got to see the inner workings of the keyboard. The little surface is totally different, with the China one seemingly hvaing more spring to it. The Thai keyboard I still prefer though, I don't know why. But at least now I know there is an objective difference in the keyboards. The Thai keyboard's lettering is also higher quality if you ask me. It's good stuff. Both are still the best keyboards on the market, with the apple powerbook being really nice as well. I missed this keyboard when I went on to Dell for a while. Now I'm back.