Evaluating a used T23

[eoghang]

Hello everyone; I am a first timer.
Let me first thank you for this forum and the professional way it is run.

I have used a variety of corporate issue laptops since '94 and without a doubt the Thinkpad was my favorite.

I am about to evaluate a T23 (P3 1.2GHz 60GB DVD/CD XP Pro) today and would like some guidance on what to look for. I will put it through it paces including internet access and battery only operation.

The laptop will be used for travel and accessing the internet via internet cafes around the world where pictures will be uploaded from a camera to a blog. Also medium to heavy use of audacity, itunes and watching DVDs.

After reviewing this forum I have come up with these questions for the forum:

How do I determine what speed the HD is?
will 7200 rpm be better than 5400 rpm for the use I described above?
How do I determine what size the video card is (8 MB or 16 MB or whatever) of this machine?
What about screen (SXGA, 1400x 1050) what should I be looking for here?
What else should I be looking for?

Thank you,
John
"on a quest to be a proud owner of a Thinkpad"

[Robbyrobot]

First of all, welcome to the forum

How do I determine what speed the HD is?
will 7200 rpm be better than 5400 rpm for the use I described above?
How do I determine what size the video card is (8 MB or 16 MB or whatever) of this machine?
What about screen (SXGA, 1400x 1050) what should I be looking for here?
What else should I be looking for?

HD speed: use PC-Doctor to determine the HDD type and look it up in the Internet. For what you describe, practically anything would be OK since the bottleneck is going to be the upload speed for your pictures. The 5400 rpm drives are OK for all normal applications and cost less (may also be quieter, if that's a consideration).

Size of the video RAM: PC-Doctor, as above.

Screen: 1024x768 would be normal and cheapest. The 1400x1050 screens are harder to find and comparatively expensive. Nice to have, but if I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about this point.

Anything else? In a T23, yes: some have a built-in WLAN, and differ from all the rest in that the display lid has plastic "windows" to allow better reception. It's not easy to add internal WLAN with good reception to an existing T23, although there's no problem with an external solution.

Otherwise you'd be well advised to look at the RAM: The T23 can take up to 1 GB and will naturally perform better, the more RAM you have in it. It requires PC133 RAM.

Have fun looking, and good luck!

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com! (You've come to the right place )

Regarding T23s... I have had some experience with them (ignore the snickers from the gallery). To answer your questions:

- hard drive speed can be determined by either looking up the model number on the internet, if it's not already on the drive's label
- 7200 rpm is faster to access files and MAY draw less power off of the battery; personally I would use the drive that has the least power requirement regardless of rotational speed (even using a 4200 rpm)
- all T23s came with 16MB SuperSavage video chips so as long as you are not planning to run any modern games on it, it should work for your stated applications
- T23s came with either an XGA (1024 x 768) or SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) screen. Things to look for are a reddish tint at turn-on (the backlight is getting old), white pressure spots on the screen that show up worse on a dark background. The best way to determine which one a particular system has, is to plug in the TYPE number into this site:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... OME-LENOVO

Note: there is no way for you to know if somebody has swapped out the display unless you can power it up and look at the screen. Entering the type number in the Product Number field at that site will tell you how the system was configured when it left the factory.

Here's some general things you should be looking for in a T23 (in no particular order)

- "the crack"; located at the front left corner, running from the edge of the hard drive bay towards the lid latch hole. Don't know why it's a common condition but I've seen MANY systems with this
- keyboard bezel cracks; located next to the Fn and right arrow keys, the thinnest part of the palmrest tends to crack when the system has...
- a broken Ultrabay guide rail mounting tab; notable when opening the lid, the back right corner will appear to "give" or flex more than 'normal'
- a tendency for one or more parts on the bottom side of the motherboard to separate, causing power up problems
- a tendency for a part on the top side of the motherboard to also separate, leading to a non-charging condition of the battery
- Note: both of these last two issues are probably caused and/or accelerated if you pick up the system with one hand by the front left or right corner; in other words, don't do that!

Now, even with all of that depressing information, don't let that scare you away from considering a T23. They are excellent machines if treated right. The top-of-the-line models are 1.2Ghz, 1024MB of memory, with built-in wireless and SXGA+ screens. They will perform quite well with Audacity (I use it myself) and light graphic editing work (Paint Shop Pro). They ARE a little bit slow if you run something like Adobe Creative Suite 2 on them, but if this is going to be a traveling website communicator, then a T23 should fit. Other systems to consider would be an X22 (slower CPUs; 800Mhz) or X24 (1.13Ghz CPU). Both of those can also be had with built-in wireless, but not SXGA+ screens (only 12.1" XGA on those). Oh, just re-read your requirement about watching DVDs... the X2 series do not have built-in optical drives. You would need the matching Media Slice to connect an Ultrabay DVD drive.

You can download a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4UYM3F

and software and drivers from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57669

This last site has links to obtain a copy of PC Doctor which Robbyrobot pointed out. I also host a version which can be burned onto a CDROM here:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso

edit: Added more info

[RealBlackStuff]

If you still have time, download SystemInfo here: http://www.gtopala.com/
Copy that onto a USB stick. It does not need to be installed, it runs straight off the stick.

[eoghang]

Thank you all for the advice. I did buy the laptop and am very happy with it.
There were no issues as described by rkawakami. However, the battery does goes from 98% to zero in less than 15 minutes. I don't think this is associated with loose parts on the motherboard.

I will probably buy a new battery on ebay or somewhere and also look into getting a new red pointer.

best regards,
John

[newmark]

I'm also interested in buying a T23 (or a T42) so thanks a lot, rkawakami, for the information.

I have some additional questions. There are some places that sell refurbished T23s, that were probably fixed by Lenovo - do you think they are worth buying? I'm not so sure if the quality of the new components is as good as the original ones in a laptop that has survived over time without any repairs.

Also, considering the problems you described, is it worth buying a T23 on ebay? I guess you'd have to ask the owner for several pictures, and you still cannot check everything you mentioned.

[Robbyrobot]

"Refurbished" T23s? Depends on how you define "refurbished", and Lenovo itself has a mixed reputation on this point. Frankly, I'd go by the reputation of the seller (check the Internet by searching for the name plus key words like "cheat", "dishonest". "false" and the like - no hits would be a good sign) and detailed descriptions/closeup pictures or even better if you can see the machine yourself before buying - or naturally get a money-back guarantee.

I've bought some stuff on Ebay and generally had pretty good experience, but have been cheated on minor stuff sometimes. Same thing applies here as above, though - check the reputation, and that means not only the Ebay feedback ratings.

My personal advice would be not to worry too much on a used T23 for, say $150-200, since that would be in the right ballpark and even if there are a few minor problems, as to be expected in a machine of this age, you won't be out that much - a total loss is very unlikely indeed.