"Upgrade" T42p to T43?

[Non-Thinker]

My t42p appears to have bit the dust for real. I just got through getting the display fixed, upgrading to a 250GB hard drive, buying more memory, and adding a DVD RW drive, then the motherboard decided to fail completely. Worse, it is erratic--sometimes it will run for an hour, sometimes for 5 minutes, sometimes it won't complete booting Win XP, sometimes it gives me my favorite "long-short-short" beep sequence ("motherboard or memory") and sometimes it doesn't respond at all when I turn it on. As much as I have loved it since 2004, I'm afraid it's time to move on.

I don't want a wide-screen (call me a Luddite, I don't care), I don't want a netbook, I don't want to spend a lot, but I do want pretty good graphics, and I can get a refurbished T43 for a great price; my question is, how many of my old parts can I transfer over from the T42p to a T43? For instance, I'd like to be able to reuse these:

Quick-connect Base (74P6733--everything but slots and drive spaces)
Backup batteries
Memory cards
DVD R/W drive
250 GB drive

From what I understand of the T4x architecture, everything should work OK plug and play, except that the bigger HDD will need to have the system transferred onto it, which I've done before. But, can anybody confirm this, or do I just have to take the chance?

thanks for any suggestions!

[richk]

Everything but the memory will work.

[Binh]

Is your T42p screen 15" UXGA FlexView ? If it is, I'd buy a new mobo (see the MarketPlace forum) instead of buying T43 with regular screen.

[underclocker]

Sorry to hear about the problem with your T42p. Please review the following threads;

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33952
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=57021
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=65505

It is possible that your are experiencing the common loose graphics chip issue. (Press and hold down the plastic bar between the space bar before and mouse buttons before powering on the machine to confirm the issue - this puts pressure on the GPU. Your machine should run until you release the pressure and move or flex the machine.) If so, there is a company that will fix it for a reasonable price, see link below;

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72974

Regarding your original question, you can do the swap and use everything but the memory (although, new memory is very inexpensive for the T43, maybe $10 per GB!), and the PC Card cage (T43's had one PC Card and one XPress slot - I'm not sure what will happen if you plug in the old cage, but I would guess that only one PC Card slot will work). The third, minor issue, will be a hard disk error with every boot up, due to the non-IBM issue hard drive. A setting in the BIOS will permit the error to be automatically bypassed after a few seconds, but it will appear. This will be true for both T43 and R52 mobos.

Also, you will have to do a complete reinstall of Windows (assuming that's your OS), if you want a proper install. You can swap drives between T40/T41/T42/R50/R51's but not with T43/R52's. Good luck.

[yak]

Also note that you will get an error message upon bootup in T43 if your HDD is not from Lenovo. Check the sticky for more info.

[Non-Thinker]

Thanks to everybody for the great suggestions. Yes, I do have a 15" UXGA Flexview machine, and I would be extremely happy to save it somehow. I've tried pushing on the graphics chip (directly, since I have the machine all taken apart), and YES, lo and behold the beast works fine as long as I press on it. I read about the fix, and it might just put my baby back in business.


Meanwhile I went ahead and ordered a T43, but no regrets, as it was only $400 and change, and I won't mind having an emergency backup notebook computer available. Even if fixing the graphics chip doesn't solve the first problem, everybody's advice about what to expect when reusing my parts will make it easier to get back to making my living on the road. Did I mention that I'm pretty happy about this development? Did I say thank you?

[Non-Thinker]

Update: I just got my T42p back from Superior Reball, and everything works perfectly. I can't thank the forum members enough for putting me on the right track here.