Awaiting Delivery Thread

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Champ · #1 Post by **Champ** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 8:46 pm

So who else is waiting for their thinkpad?

I'm getting mine sometime January

I missed it being in stock by a few hours

andyli · #2 Post by **andyli** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:02 pm

I am as well. Rep said it should ship sooner than the date on the website (which keeps getting pushed back)...

Not exactly thrilled right now, because the website said "two weeks" but right now, its about a month...

Champ · #3 Post by **Champ** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:17 pm

I can't even get to the website since I only have a order receipt number and not a customer or order number. :@

lol. The phone person said to call back in January for a more up to date assement. Keep in mind that's 3 weeks away as it is. I think they're not telling me a date since I said I want to cancel if it takes too long :s

texasdiver · #4 Post by **texasdiver** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:23 pm

Ordered a T42p on 12/20. When the order went through the web site showed 2 weeks but when I first checked my order status it showed estimated ship date of 1/7. Each time I've checked the order the date slips, 1/10, 1/12, and today it was 1/13. Now I'm afraid to check it again!

Of course if they wait until 1/9 or later to ship it will go on my next credit card billing cycle which will be nice.

Now I"m just looking through ebay for docking stations, extra batteries, and all the other stuff.

What bag you guys going to use to carry your new machine? I have an ancient Tumi bag that has gone through 2 Dell laptops and I think it's about time to find something new since the zippers no longer work. Been looking at the Trager and Tom Bihn bags but haven't picked one yet.

Champ · #5 Post by **Champ** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:46 pm

I'm just going to be using a targus backpack and targus Koshin bag that's $20 at ibm epp prices =)
I really like Targus since their lifetime warantee is pretty much lifetime and their manager in Canada is great.

andyli · #6 Post by **andyli** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 11:33 pm

Ordered a T42p on 12/20. When the order went through the web site showed 2 weeks but when I first checked my order status it showed estimated ship date of 1/7. Each time I've checked the order the date slips, 1/10, 1/12, and today it was 1/13. Now I'm afraid to check it again!

I ordered a T42p on the same day. I see the same dates as well.

I can't even get to the website since I only have a order receipt number and not a customer or order number. :@

Did they not send you an e-mail confirmation? The Customer Number is on the order confirmation; otherwise, call them and ask them for it and just be like, I'm missing the Customer Number.

#7 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:13 am

ok, i'll join the "i ordered" litany..

i ordered some T42p 2373Q1U about the first of the week and they shipped just today..

Champ · #8 Post by **Champ** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 10:31 am

hehe morrow has a good distributor relationship =)

they told me they'll ship my order pending confirmation of pricing and availability. I'm guessing i'll get another e-mail with that info soon

#9 Post by **RonS** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:13 am

I also ordered a T42p on December 20th (2373Q4U) with an estimated ship date of Jan 9th. Checking IBM's order web site, it says that I ordered it on the 21st, but the shipping date has moved up to Jan 3rd.

The Q4U is the same as the Q1U except it has the new Intel a/b/g wireless rather than IBM's version.

pointfielder · #10 Post by **pointfielder** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:17 pm

I ordered my 2373KXU a week ago. Even though the expected ship date
was second week of next month, it shipped today.
A pleasant Christmas surprise I guess!

sethstorm · #11 Post by **sethstorm** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 6:30 pm

Sounds like IBM ought to move the 2 week date to 1 week by what I'm hearing here (or they're very conservative with time estimates) - ordered mine (2373HVU) on the 24th, yet a 1/19/05 projected delivery date. The only bad part is that I had to settle for Atheros (wouldnt have minded the option to delete that so I could put in my own in) to keep it well under $3000.

andyli · #12 Post by **andyli** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:08 pm

Mine (2373-HVU) is still scheduled for 01/13/2005. Order date was 12/20/04.

Besides having the IBM/Atheros Wi-Fi card not making it Centrino, is there any other significant hit (perhaps to battery power?)

sethstorm · #13 Post by **sethstorm** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 1:59 am

andyli wrote:Mine (2373-HVU) is still scheduled for 01/13/2005. Order date was 12/20/04.

Besides having the IBM/Atheros Wi-Fi card not making it Centrino, is there any other significant hit (perhaps to battery power?)

Well, there is that issue I'm hearing about the battery size(sticks out if you have the 9 cell type), and that Atheros card requiring not-so-open drivers for Linux usage (I'll leave anything deeper than that in issue to the linux forum)

texasdiver · #14 Post by **texasdiver** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:20 pm

andyli wrote:Mine (2373-HVU) is still scheduled for 01/13/2005. Order date was 12/20/04.

Besides having the IBM/Atheros Wi-Fi card not making it Centrino, is there any other significant hit (perhaps to battery power?)

I ordered the exact same model on the same day and as of this morning was also showing a ship date of 1/13. But just this evening I got my email confirmation saying that the laptop has shipped. On the order status web site it still shows me a ship date of 1/13/2005 so they are obviously way conservative on that. But it also now gives me a serial number for my machine which I didn't have before. But no tracking information yet.

As for the Centrino or not Centrino, who the F*** cares? Did you really want to have that Centrino sticker on your laptop next to the Windows XP sticker and the Intel Inside sticker? First thing I do is scrape off all the stickers. Seriously though, I haven't heard of any battey power issues or differences between the different WiFi cards.

andyli · #15 Post by **andyli** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:21 pm

Shipped tonight, according to IBM. I also have a S/N for the unit and tracking will be available in the early morning.

(Tracking is always the next day, it seems; I got the same thing with the dockstations).

I leave the stickers, only because they aren't in my way. IIRC, the "Intel Inside" and "Centrino" stickers make up one sticker, not two.

I posted before in the "backordered" about what I should do first after getting the unit, besides making the recovery and rescue CDs. BIOS updates, Driver Updates, System updates. I heard IBM provides a program that makes updating easy from these boards... what is it called?

Moogle · #16 Post by **Moogle** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:46 pm

I ordered mine (T42p ... 2373-HVU) either December 15th or 16th... And I'm sitting typing on it now. I think it shipped the 20th and got in the 22nd or 23rd.. (I was away on a trip)

I guess I got in before the big order rush...

Champ · #17 Post by **Champ** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 1:23 am

I bought on the 16th.. oh well

texasdiver · #18 Post by **texasdiver** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:38 am

I have a tracking number now. It only shows that it was entered into the system in Hong Kong. At least I assume that's what HK stands for in the UPS tracking system.

NathanA · #19 Post by **NathanA** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:33 pm

Mine shipped today!! Woo-hoo! It's arriving by 2nd-day air direct from Hong Kong.

Question: It shows a serial number on the order status page now, but strangely enough, the serial number appears not to be valid on either the parts lookup page or the warranty page. Does it usually take a little while for the serial number to work on these pages?

-- Nathan

Champ · #20 Post by **Champ** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:51 pm

look likes IBM is selling stolen goods

naw jking. i'm sure it takes a bit until it's actualy amde or somehting

computeerrgghh · #21 Post by **computeerrgghh** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 7:20 pm

hehe I ordered a 2378FVU on the 26th, it originally said ship on 1/19/05 but it shipped 12/29/04 and i received it the next day

Champ · #22 Post by **Champ** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:58 pm

hmm I must be one of the rare ones that gets a really late ship date and IBM doesn't beat it lol

My estimated ship date is now 01/06/2004. Considering they only start deliverying on the 3rd.. with 1 or two day turnaround.. they might even slip on that :p

gengar · #23 Post by **gengar** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 10:16 pm

I ordered my 2373HVU also on December 20th. It originally had a ship date 1/5, then 1/13 the day after, but shipped on December 27th (26th in Hong Kong) and arrived on the 28th.

NathanA wrote:Question: It shows a serial number on the order status page now, but strangely enough, the serial number appears not to be valid on either the parts lookup page or the warranty page. Does it usually take a little while for the serial number to work on these pages?

I don't think that's unusual; my warranty was not scheduled to start until 1/5 (the original estimated ship date), so when I called IBM Support they had no record of my serial number. They did reroute me to a different division and I was able to obtain support.

Champ · #24 Post by **Champ** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 10:30 pm

what happens if your laptop breaks between that period? couild they deny your claim?

andyli · #25 Post by **andyli** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:13 pm

Are you pulling your start/end date of the warranty online? If so, what's the URL you are using to register your PC?

leesiulung · #26 Post by **leesiulung** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 12:24 am

Warranty lookup on IBM's website take about a week to go through their systems. In addition, if you have Thinkpad Protection it may not show up with the initial warranty information until later. This is what I was told by IBM tech. support when I had a misaligned hard drive cover upon thinkpad arrival... which makes you wonder what about Quality Control before shipment??? This is not the IBM I know, perhaps I regarded IBM to highly...

The ship date is always very conservative, all my orders from IBM has always shipped before the estimated ship date. I think the best way to figure out approximatly when you will get it is, find out what the expected time before they get in stock. This can usually be found on the "Quick Buy" option.

gengar · #27 Post by **gengar** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:31 am

Champ wrote:what happens if your laptop breaks between that period? couild they deny your claim?

They won't deny your claim - the division (Entitlement?) I spoke to was able to verify the warranty status. It's just that by default they don't start the warranty until the ship date. It's only a couple extra days, but I do consider that a benefit to the consumer.

Also, according to the person I spoke to, even if you start using support/warranty coverage before the ship date, it still lasts for the full period. So even though I got service on Monday the 27th, my warranty still goes through 1/5/08.

andyli wrote:Are you pulling your start/end date of the warranty online? If so, what's the URL you are using to register your PC?

I got my warranty date directly from the IBM person I spoke to on the phone. I don't know if it is available anywhere else.

Champ · #28 Post by **Champ** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:35 am

hrmm... how come IBM is not being conservative about my delivery date? January 6th is only 2-3 business days away :s

#29 Post by **RonS** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:28 pm

I ordered my T42p 2373Q4U (model has since disappeared from IBM's site) on December 20th. I've seen delivery dates
Jan 3rd
Jan 5th
Jan 9th
Jan 11th
Jan 12th

Every time I check, it gets later. I'm afraid to check any more!

NathanA · #30 Post by **NathanA** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 7:23 pm

It came! My KXU is here!

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the unit. When I first booted it up, I scrutinized the screen for dead pixels and was unable to find any, but after using it for a bit, I did eventually spot a couple, but I can only notice them if I'm looking for them. They're both dark blue on a pure black background, and just slightly lighter (but still working) than surrounding pixels on a busier/colored background. They're not in the center of the screen.

At this point, I don't think I could bring myself to send it back just on account of the dead pixels. I honestly don't think I'm going to be noticing them while using it, and I'd rather not go through the hassle of sending it back, ordering another one, waiting for it to arrive

, getting it, and then discovering IT has bad pixels (and perhaps they're even more distracting than my first one!), etc. My general rule-of-thumb for dead pixels is: Red == BAD (do NOT pass go, do NOT collect $200...return immediately), Green == depends on where it is (bright and at the center of the screen, eww; but dark and towards the side, maybe bearable), and Blue == not a big deal.

The screen itself is amazing. The pixels on it are actually not as small as I expected them to be...I'm sure I've seen displays with a higher DPI than this (maybe 1400x1050 @ 14" has smaller pix than 1600x1200 @ 15"?). As such, it is very readable, even with small fonts. And the viewing angle is WORLDS better than your average LCD (although there is still a "sweet spot"...it doesn't do away with viewing angle changes completely), and black is REALLY black, not a washed-out gray unlike other LCDs...compared to my 770 LCD, there is just no comparison.

And I don't know what you people who call the 15" T42s a beast are talking about. Compared to my 770, which is at LEAST 2" thick and 2-3 pounds heavier, this thing is THIN and light for its size. This is a really fantastic form-factor for a portable workstation-class machine. In fact, I'm sure that the screen accounts for most of its weight; the computer, when opened up, is ever so slightly "top-heavy"

The bottom base feels like it would weigh next-to-nothing if I tore the screen off.

It looks like I got the Alps keyboard instead of the NMB, according to the IBM Parts List web site. I haven't taken the keyboard out yet to verify. It's not as good as my 770 or 600 keyboards, no, but it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be given all the informal reviews on the web site. However, it is a bit mushier than I'm used to on a ThinkPad and there is a little bit of play on the right side of the keyboard near the arrows, so I'll probably be giving IBM a call in the next couple of days to have them ship me an NMB...hey, if they're willing to swap under warranty, why not try?

My main complaint? This might sound a bit silly, but it annoys me to no end that it came with a Touchpad that I will *NEVER* use. Even if I can disable it, I'd rather it not be there...its presence makes me feel like I've got less palm-rest space than I do on my other ThinkPads. You 14" T42 owners are lucky that you can swap out your keyboard bezel for a T41 sans Touchpad. I wish IBM would make an optional bezel for 15" owners who don't want the Touchpad.

Anyway, I'm going to have fun tonight!

-- Nathan

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