A few questions on the X40

[em500]

Hi all, I own an X20 at the moment, and I'm considering to buy an X40. I have a few question which I hope X40 owners can answer.

1. According to some posters the 1ghz ULV version has no fan, just a heatsink. Can anyone confirm or deny this? My X20 has a fan which comes on quite often. It's almost silent, so I only know this if I place my hand besides the fan. For those with a ULV X40: does a fan blow during the POST on startup? AFAIK, all thinkpads with a fan do this. If the ULV has no fan, I think I'll get that one, otherwise probably the 1.2ghz. I've seen the hardware maintenance manual. The LV and ULV have different part numbers for the heatsink/fan, but both do mention the fan.

2. Has anyone succesfully booted the X40 from a USB memory key? If so, which brand? I'm pretty sure the IBM memory key will work, I'm mainly interested in other brands like Sandisk, Lexar, Transcend. I believe the IBM is a rebranded M-Systems DiskOnKey, so I assume other DiskOnKeys will also boot. (I intend to install a small Linux distribution on a USB key. The missing information is which USB-flash disk boot devices the X40 BIOS supports booting from.)

[csv96]

Don't know about booting from a memory key.

The X40 1.0ghz ULV has NO fan. The only sounds you'll hear are from the hard drive.

[eriqesque]

on the 1.2 does the fan have the cyclying noise problem.

[em500]

> The X40 1.0ghz ULV has NO fan. The only sounds you'll hear are from the hard drive.

How did you know this, did you open the case? Or seen the IBM FRU? I'm sorry if I sound incredulous, but $1500 is a lot of money to me, so I really want to make the right choice here.

[csv96]

It's in the hardware maintenance manual. The ULV version of the mainboard only has a heatsink for the CPU.

[em500]

> It's in the hardware maintenance manual. The ULV version of the mainboard only has a heatsink for the CPU.

I've read the HMM (ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... 3n6189.pdf), as stated in my first post. I can't find what you're saying. The first relevant page is p.94: 1120 Fansink (pdf page 98). This is the same for the ULV and LV versions. The other relevant pages are p. 121 and 123 (pdf p.125 and 127). The pictures are the same for the LV and ULV (heatsink with fan). The FRU numbers are different, with the descriptions
- Fan Assembly ULV (Module Heatsink ULV) 13N5808
- Fan Assembly LV (Assembly Heatsink LV) 13N5327
So how did you deduce that the ULV doesn't have a fan while the LV does?

[eriqesque]

Well I have heard that there is no fan on the 1.0Ghz Models also
But this website has taken one apart and from the looks of this pic there is indeed a fan on the 1.0Ghz models.
http://www.aichi.to/~thinkpad/tpx40/tpx40_15.jpg

[csv96]

- Fan Assembly ULV (Module Heatsink ULV) 13N5808
- Fan Assembly LV (Assembly Heatsink LV) 13N5327
So how did you deduce that the ULV doesn't have a fan while the LV does?

That's actually what I was looking at. So if the picture above really is from a 1.0ghz unit, then there probably is a fan. Sorry from the wrong info.

But even if there is a fan, it will probably never turn on under most conditions. On the 1.2ghz LV Pentium M, the fan only turned on when the processor speed was set to "Max" and very rarely turned on when the speed was set to "Adaptive". The 1.0ghz ULV Pentium M uses even less power.

[em500]

OK, thanks for clearing that up. The pic probably is from the 1ghz, I read the description on the Japanese site. Very interesting site btw, lots of detailed pictures from many TP models. It's the first link if you google for "thinkpad love".