Took the plunge - new X40

Message

DavidNZ · #1 Post by **DavidNZ** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 3:26 am

Having previously used a 770ED (a parting gift from the consultancy firm i worked at) then an R32 (purchased in Aug 02), I've just taken the plunge and bought a 23718EM.

Have read through quite a few posts here, so will be curious to see if...

1. I get the "shhhhhhhhhooook....shhhhhhhhhooook" sound that one user posted

2. the 1.8 drive whines like a banshee

I'll post back when I take delivery (in about 6 days - coming from Australia).

In the meantime, aside from thinkpads.com, what are other folks' fave sites TP-related?

Cheers

David
Dunedin, New Zealand

cynic · #2 Post by **cynic** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 5:56 am

The "whines like a banshee" part... I don't think anyone's ever said that. I think the only thing that people have said is that it makes ticking sounds.

Which btw, I supposed was the WinXP optimization process. After conditioning a X40 for about a week it slowly stopped ticking.. so I'm fairly sure I was right as to what the sound was. (When I write "conditioning", I really mean using it 24/7 for a weeks running one process or another to do a burn-in and see if anything breaks.) I think those who don't stress a laptop from the get go will take a little longer to get it to the same point (maybe a month since I couldn't imagine a lot of X40 users doing power-computing on them as that is not their intended purpose.) Alas, I was only setting up and taking care of that X40 so I had to give it up to the owner after they got back from out of the country.

I haven't checked the other sound on that laptop. For some reason, I want to guess it has something to do with the locking mechanism to the dock (rear left-side; like rolling tumblers in a lock) or to do with the docking mechanism (either the slot holder underneath or the insertation points.) The next time I see the X40, I be sure to shake it around a bit

(which should be in about 8 hours)

DavidNZ · #3 Post by **DavidNZ** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 3:10 pm

Hi cynic - you're right - no-one said whining like a banshee. Little too much embelishing on my part. What was noted was that there was a high-pitched squeal. That's what I'll be interested in 'listening' for.

Interesting re: conditioning. I've done that to new speakers/headphones, so may have to try that. I use this cmd line everyone once in a while:

rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

I've found it works a bit to keep things quiet if I find my HDD activity is a bit higher than normal. Dunno really...

D

plucky duck · #4 Post by **plucky duck** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 10:48 pm

The HD on the X40 should be the same as the one on the X31, no?

I'm not aware of any squealing or noises coming out of the 40GB HD from my X31.

JHEM · #5 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 11:04 pm

plucky duck wrote:The HD on the X40 should be the same as the one on the X31, no?

No. The X40 series uses the new 1.8" sub-notebook HDs rather than the standard 2.5" laptop HD.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/c4k40/c4k40.htm

They're only available in 20GB and 40GB sizes as yet, but that will be changing soon.

Regards,

James

DavidNZ · #6 Post by **DavidNZ** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 6:20 am

Well, my 23716EM was delivered this morning, with an additional 256MB SODIMM for good measure.

Have to say, my first reaction was along the lines of "my gosh this thing is small." I honestly thought at first that it was a bit TOO small. But, after typing away for a bit, it's not so bad. But any smaller and it would be just too small. The keyboard will certainly take some getting used to. I don't rest my palms on the palm-rest when i type so this isn't so much an issue for me.

Spent the better part of the afternoon installing software, configuring services and generally tweaking. Not a hitch after installing quite a few programmes, so I was quite impressed. Got quite a few recent patches from our IT guys, so saved me from downloading them from Windows Update.

My machine doesn't make any strange noises (see my first post above), but every now and then the HDD makes a 'chunk' sound which usually gets me thinking about whether it's long for the world!

Overall, I'm pretty impressed. I'm half-thinking of getting the 4-cell Li-ION battery for traveling as the 8-cell certainly adds the weight.

DaMaN · #7 Post by **DaMaN** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 6:53 am

If you sell the 8 cell battery, send me an email as I am in search of one. I can be reached at: dmarti4444@comcast.net

Thanks, David

plucky duck · #8 Post by **plucky duck** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:59 am

Any pictures comparing the X31 to the newer smaller X40? Wonder how much smaller it is compared to my X31 as I thought mine was already pretty small, although I'd prefer if it was actually a tad lighter.

em500 · #9 Post by **em500** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:19 am

plucky duck: The Japanese site Thinkpad Love has pictures with the X31 and the X40: http://www.aichi.to/~thinkpad/tpx40/ They're near the bottom of the page.

DavidNZ or any other X40 owners: how often does the fan run? I have a 600X and an X20 and the fan come on quite often, even when I don't do anything processor-intensive.

G-Man · #10 Post by **G-Man** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 11:53 am

plucky duck,

Go to the IBM site and click "X Series 3D tour." There is a nice size comparison of the X31 and X40.

Regards,
G-Man

akeskira · #11 Post by **akeskira** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:22 pm

The release of LV & ULV Dothans is way too close now (was it 7/18?). I'm itching to buy an X40, but deep down I know I *must* wait for the X41. Hopefully IBM will release an updated X40 the same day

Any rumors out there?

Antti

DavidNZ · #12 Post by **DavidNZ** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:48 pm

DaMan: will probably keep the 8-cell, but just travel with the 4-cell. That could change, but that was my plan at any rate. Thanks for the interest, though!

em500: fan doesn't seem to run too much, even in a relatively warm room (i.e., my office at the University). Here at home, where the house is always cold (no central heating in New Zealand for the most part) because we're in the dead of winter, the fan doesn't run much at all, which makes sense I guess. Fan operations are invariably tied to the BIOS, and I think I've heard that some BIOS fixes have curtailed fan operations (not on the X40, but other machines, and maybe not even ThinkPads).

I thought about waiting for the Dothans as well (and our IT guys even suggested it), but in the end you basically just end up chasing your own tail. There will always be something that comes up immediately after you purchase something. My justification was simply that this machine will be with me at least three years, at which point Longhorn will be available, as will 64-bit LV chips with hugely impressive battery life. Or at least I hope!

Guest · #13 Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 6:22 pm

cynic wrote:The "whines like a banshee" part... I don't think anyone's ever said that. I think the only thing that people have said is that it makes ticking sounds.

Which btw, I supposed was the WinXP optimization process. After conditioning a X40 for about a week it slowly stopped ticking.. so I'm fairly sure I was right as to what the sound was. (When I write "conditioning", I really mean using it 24/7 for a weeks running one process or another to do a burn-in and see if anything breaks.) I think those who don't stress a laptop from the get go will take a little longer to get it to the same point (maybe a month since I couldn't imagine a lot of X40 users doing power-computing on them as that is not their intended purpose.) Alas, I was only setting up and taking care of that X40 so I had to give it up to the owner after they got back from out of the country.

I haven't checked the other sound on that laptop. For some reason, I want to guess it has something to do with the locking mechanism to the dock (rear left-side; like rolling tumblers in a lock) or to do with the docking mechanism (either the slot holder underneath or the insertation points.) The next time I see the X40, I be sure to shake it around a bit (which should be in about 8 hours)

This conditioning is this what people usually do when they get a laptop? It really makes sense in that you should find out what is going on with the computer in the first 30 days. Running it 24/7 seems good but how does everyone else condition their laptops.

Took the plunge - new X40

Took the plunge - new X40

Conditioning your laptop?

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