General inquiry about T4x series for rebuilders

[Carl63]

Hi Gang,

Been running one T41 from 2004 extensively and now have picked up a pretty good overhauled one of same vintage. Love early thinkpads(all I know) and want to fix first machine. Will need several items eventually. Hoping some of you experienced tinkerers can tell me to what extent one can still get new parts. I.e, there are a lot of parts out there both on and off Ebay that are advertised as new, but what are the chances? Haven't the T41's been out of production since about 2006? Most immediately, in addition to a keyboard, I need a fan and see several offers for new, yet there is one company that seems to make a living just repairing fans! So which parts do you think it is still possible to get new?. And who is trustworthy? If that last is forbidden, would appreciate personal notes off group. Thanks

Carl

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.
A list of Thinkpad parts, plus illustrated instructions how to replace them, is available in the individual HMMs, see here: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail. ... MIGR-39298

Spare parts for most Thinkpads are still available, quite a few of them are NOS (New Old Stock).
Other parts are still in production, because there is enough demand for them.
The best source for spare parts is our Marketforum, followed by eBay, followed by IBM/Lenovo.
Lots of spare part warehouses, with sometimes ridiculously high prices!
Post a WTB (Want To Buy) or LF (Looking For) ad in that forum with your requirements.
The Marketforum may not always be cheaper, but the parts are at least as described, and from trustworthy sellers.

[Thinkpad Lover]

Hi Carl, what is the type/model number of your T41? For example "2373-75U", found on the back to the left of the Serial Number.

In my humble opinion, fully tested, genuine O.E.M./original I.B.M. parts will usually perform as well/better than any "new" non-O.E.M. parts you might take a chance buying. Having rebuilt/resold dozens of these using used O.E.M. parts, I would say you can't go wrong with original I.B.M. parts once they're fully tested and from a reputable seller. In most cases, they will cost less than "new" non-O.E.M. parts and actually work better. Original I.B.M. T41 batteries, AC adapters, memory, fans, palm rests, LCD screens, CDRW/DVD drives, and internal wifi cards are all readily available and inexpensive. I have bought/re-used/sold all of these parts many times without any problem. Plus, you will be helping to recycle and save the environment As for keyboards, you can't beat the solid feel/comfort of an original, authentic T41 NMB Keyboard. Do a search on the Forum and you will see why the original NMB Keyboards are so popular.

As I said, the key is to make sure you buy from a knowledgeable and reputable seller who fully tests his items. Be careful as some sellers on Ebay, for example, don't seem to know what they're doing and will waste your time/cause you a big hassle with the wrong parts, inaccurate listings or items not as described. Also, some Ebay sellers list items as "Fully tested" or as "working" when they haven't truly tested anything at all. So seeking a referral of some of the more trustworthy ones, as you are doing, is very wise

Daniel.

[ichhabegedroppen]

Hi Gang,

Been running one T41 from 2004 extensively and now have picked up a pretty good overhauled one of same vintage. Love early thinkpads(all I know) and want to fix first machine. Will need several items eventually. Hoping some of you experienced tinkerers can tell me to what extent one can still get new parts. I.e, there are a lot of parts out there both on and off Ebay that are advertised as new, but what are the chances? Haven't the T41's been out of production since about 2006? Most immediately, in addition to a keyboard, I need a fan and see several offers for new, yet there is one company that seems to make a living just repairing fans! So which parts do you think it is still possible to get new?. And who is trustworthy? If that last is forbidden, would appreciate personal notes off group. Thanks

Carl

Hi there, my advise for acquiring parts for your Thinkpad would be to keep an eye out on ebay for your model being sold as spares or repairs. its a little hit and miss as to whether much of what you will get will work, but i have got a collection of about 15-20 fully working CD/DVD drives from Thinkpads i have have bought off ebay. also you will quite often be able to get a complete set on neat perfect plastics for the price of a single palm rest (bar the back of the screen which is often scratched or worn). If your looking for internals, like Thinkpad Lover said, the OEM IBM parts rarely fail and i have used many parts from broken or damaged Thinkpads and had no problems other than a X61 tablet battery fail, and a T41 fan have a 10 minute death and then resurrection.

The last thing i would say is don't forget to keep an eye out for corporate businesses selling old Thinkpads. They often have a store room full of never opened genuine IBM spare parts that have been forgotten about, and if your lucky, you might be able to get them for free.

[Carl63]

Thank you all for the replies and excellent ideas. So glad to hear that there are still many new oem parts around. Now, if I can just find the time to track them down! If anyone has particular trust in any particular dealer please let me know. Anyone know about this "notebookpartsmart"? The market forum looks cool, I hadn't noticed it at first.
The thought that original used oem parts in good condition are better then new non oem seems valid, but of course the problem is even a reputable dealer/refurbisher often can not judge how much use an item has had, and it is hard to see how many items can be refurbished, even among the items that are often claimed to be so. For example, I have had only one brief look at my short fan, but it did not seem like the bearings were accessible, even just to relube. I must be wrong there. And the keyboard has those impossible rubber plungers. But I will study the archives here more.
Can someone please tell me if there is a reliable, not easily counterfeited way to acertain that a part, once received, is oem? Only had my old machine apart briefly once and neglected to look for stampings etc.
The idea of buying old parts machines is great and I'm going to follow up on that, if cheap enough, to the extent I can with my limited storage space(and budget). Should be fun though.
My old is a 2379 dku. Short fan 91P8393. Seems like only the long fans are available new.
Newest is a 2374 QU6. Oddly, this model # is not mentioned in the Hardware Maintenance Manual.

Keep em running, don't ever surrender!

Carl

[ajkula66]

Not all models appear in the HMM, sometimes you have to look at the "root"...

ThinkPad T41 (2374-QU6)
Based 2374-8RU: P M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 16x10x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD(slim), option, Modem, 1Gb Ether, UltraNav, Sec Chip, 6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP Pro

BTW, I have a short fan just sitting and doing nothing, in great shape. PM me if interested.

[Carl63]

Hi George,
Must admit your reference to a root goes right over my head. Where do you get this HRU? Do you know the history/amount of use on your fan?

[ajkula66]

Reference to the "root" has to do with the base model that a particular sub-model is based on. In your case, the "root" would be 2374-8RU

If you were to look in the HMM, you might see that a part fits 2373-xxx but not 2373-xyx. To verify what the "real deal" is, you have to go to this page:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/default.page?

and throw in your machine's 7 characters...the rest is cake.

As for the fan, it's a working pull that's been sitting in a box for a few months, likely from the final batch of T42s I had last autumn. Some of these machines were not pretty enough and got parted out...that's about it.

[Temetka]

As a fellow T4x lover, I can back up most of what the other users have stated. O.E.M. parts are best.

I've owned many T4x units, sold and repaired a ton of them during my days as a bench technician and helped out my friends with their laptops as well. These machines are sold and look great. Sure some may have an issue with the GPU but IME it has been limited to early models. The last few T42 and T43's that have come my way have been rock solid with no issues. The T43 this post is being brought to you by for instance is pure awesome and was acquired in trade for my old X41T from another forum member here.

There's just something about the T4x line of Thinkpads that appeals to me far more than any other laptop I have owned. The only other machines I love just as much are the Powerbook G3 Pismo and the Compaq Armada M300.

With regards as to where to get parts from I would hit the marketplace first. You can generally find almost any part you are looking for from there. I have also had luck by ordering some parts from IBM as well. E-Bay would be my absolute last stop, mainly due to a lot of their policy changes over the last year or so.

[Carl63]

Many thanks George, I've got the scent now. But to all I ask, how does one know they are holding an OEM part. Just removed the keyboard again and nowhere does it say IBM or Lenovo, nor does the fan(fukikawa?) or graphics. Dimm does say IBM. I have seen offers online of "factory direct" parts. Agree Ebay is safest, second to forum marketplace, but new Oem is sparse there. Also wonder how one opens the fan to lubricate. Maybe those tiny little things are screws and i need a magnifier to see it.

Regards to all. This is the coolest forum.

Carl

[Carl63]

Thinkpadder,
I've been a very infrequent Ebayer, but i remember Ebay promises to cover the loss in cases of fraud. What sort of policy changes have occurred?

[Carl63]

Hello? Where did everyone go?

Well, maybe I bored everyone, but could someone please answer my question of 8/14? That is, everyone recomended I insist on oem parts, so I asked how I could recognize such when I am sent stuff, since even my current do not usually say IBM or lenovo on them. Also, is the phrase "factory direct" commonly taken to mean oem?

[ajkula66]

Here's the deal: "factory direct " for anything of this vintage is nonsense.

IBM will sell you a part with 90 day warranty for at least double the price of eBay.

Whatever you buy on feebay, pay with *credit-card-backed* PayPal only.

On a whole different note: there is *NO* money to be made bu rebuilding T4x series. If you want to build a couple for your own use, that's a whole another ball game.

Good luck.

[Carl63]

Thanks for that. Yeah, just want to fix up one or two of these. Maybe they're obsolete and all, but i like em and anyway the wide screens they have pushed on everyone suck big time. Really haven't had time to research the whole parts thing enough. A couple of people posted that there were still a lot of new oem parts sitting around in warehouses and i thought "factory direct" might refer to such, but apparently you believe such items are near impossible, and there are a lot of cheap new knock offs, not oem, new but still inferior to used oem, that is if you get one without too many miles. Still don't know had you'd know the real thing though.

Things are getting tough. Seems like we're heading into someting long and mean, and i'm tired every day.

Luck to you also

[ajkula66]

Think about it this way...

The very last T4x units rolled of the assembly line almost five years ago. In PC world, that's a very long time.

IBM still has quite a few parts in stock. They're not inexpensive, though.

Half or more of the sellers that offer "factory direct" items are charging more than IBM does. I always wonder what factory they are referring to...

Vast majority of these parts were made in China to begin with.

The only thing I'd stay away from are third-party batteries since I've had zero luck with those. Lenovo outlet gets T4x/R5x batteries on occasion and they're likely the safest - if not necessarily the cheapest - source.