Thinking about an X31 ...

Message

brainpicker · #61 Post by **brainpicker** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:02 am

zyphria... Even if the warranty isn't onsite IBM pays the shipping cost both ways.

JHEM · #62 Post by **JHEM** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:33 pm

kodell wrote:(Are we 1 for 3 in this thread?)

No.

Got a chance to open the box this morning.

Briefly, a solid A- laptop. Still has the plastic overlay on all the icon strips.

Has an Intel 2100 WiFi card installed. Display is perfect. Keyboard and palmrest are as new. Even has the filler card for the SD slot!

Shadow on the top of the lid where a label has been removed, other than that no obvious scratches, dings, etc.

Standard poor packing job, although the inner box was small enought to prevent a LOT of movement.

Upgraded to 1GB of RAM and installed a spare 7K60 HD. Presently running R&R after installing the recovery CDs.

Further reports as changes warrant. Film at 11!

Update: Been downloading and installing upgrades from IBM/Lenovo for almost an hour! Haven't started to check MS yet though, hope to have everything available on CD from my MSDN subscription.

Regards,

James

stickman · #63 Post by **stickman** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:57 pm

Wow, that's great. Mine is on its way... I hope I'm as lucky as you.

CHood · #64 Post by **CHood** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:24 pm

I only see B grade 1.8 P M machines available now.

one has what is described as "dim spots"

Is that the LCD or the case?

pianowizard · #65 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:47 pm

Did anyone order a B grade X31? How good (or bad) does it look?

hadoken · #66 Post by **hadoken** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:06 pm

no more grade B X31s. I see X30's and I am toying with the idea of getting one though it is not as good a deal as the X31. It's a bad deal relative to Ebay if you get a crappy grade B, but if it is decent then it might be an OK deal

pianowizard · #67 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:26 pm

There were about 10 B grade X31's several weeks ago and I almost ordered one of those.

coolname1 · #68 Post by **coolname1** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:05 pm

pianowizard wrote:There were about 10 B grade X31's several weeks ago and I almost ordered one of those.

my Grade B unit will arrive tomorrow. I will update you guys with the outcomes.

kodell · #69 Post by **kodell** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:40 pm

Received 2nd Grade A unit ... looks pretty much unused - I would rate it an "A", no stuck pixels otherwise pretty much the same as the first one.

RS_003 · #70 Post by **RS_003** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:26 am

JHEM wrote:
kodell wrote:(Are we 1 for 3 in this thread?)
No.

Got a chance to open the box this morning.

Briefly, a solid A- laptop. Still has the plastic overlay on all the icon strips.

Has an Intel 2100 WiFi card installed. Display is perfect. Keyboard and palmrest are as new. Even has the filler card for the SD slot!

Shadow on the top of the lid where a label has been removed, other than that no obvious scratches, dings, etc.

Standard poor packing job, although the inner box was small enought to prevent a LOT of movement.

Upgraded to 1GB of RAM and installed a spare 7K60 HD. Presently running R&R after installing the recovery CDs.

Further reports as changes warrant. Film at 11!

Update: Been downloading and installing upgrades from IBM/Lenovo for almost an hour! Haven't started to check MS yet though, hope to have everything available on CD from my MSDN subscription.

Regards,

James

Are you still going to test the A/B/G card where I had so much problems with?

JHEM · #71 Post by **JHEM** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:56 am

RS_003 wrote:Are you still going to test the A/B/G card where I had so much problems with?

Yep, just not sure when I'll get to it.

The "honeydew" list is a mile long as my eldest daughter's baby shower is here this weekend and I plan on getting out of Dodge on the first stage heading out of town!

Regards,

James

#72 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 7:59 am

James:

my eldest daughter's baby shower is here this weekend and I plan on getting out of Dodge on the first stage heading out of town!

Yikes

zyphria · #73 Post by **zyphria** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:59 am

IBM onsite service is coming out tomorrow and will probably replace the motherboard.

brainpicker · #74 Post by **brainpicker** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 10:37 pm

I'm jealous of all of you who got a REAL Grade-A Excellent X31 from them. How they could have messed up so badly grading mine is beyond belief. One would think the lack of LATCHES and a lid 1/4" off to the left would have tipped them off

- Yak

coolname1 · #75 Post by **coolname1** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 1:36 am

Oh man, just recieved mine today. So excited! I'm going ahead and throw out the good news first. The unit I got seem more like a Grade A unit insread of the Grade B I've ordered. Other than the dimmer display, everythings seem to be in perfect condition. I would rate this laptop 9/10 for its cosmetic condition and 8/10 for its funtional condition( dim display). I've been testing it for serveral hours now and everything seems to be working just fine. Mine did come with the Intel 2100 wirelesscard as well. The battery seems to be losing its charge though( about 2.5 hours). I was lucky enough to have the remaining Onsite warranty till the end of this year! I've contacted IBM regarding the display as well ! The bad news is that mine did not come with an AC charger as mentioned included in the description. I've contacted Retrobox through their Customer service # on their Website. The person answered the phone suggested me to call the PART Department instead( he seems nice though). I immediately called their Part Department and left a voice mail. Seems as if their is only 1 person that handles that Department( I could be wrong on this). I hope they call me back tomorrow!!(even though they had plenty of times to contact me back today).
Also, anyone is knowledgable about IBM onsite warranty? I was told by the IBM rep that a technician will come out sometimes nextweek(Monday-Thursday)...That seems kinda disapointing to me though since I'll be leaving of town the end of nextweek. I hope they be able to fix the LCD so I could it it along!.

pianowizard · #76 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 2:32 am

coolname1 wrote:The unit I got seem more like a Grade A unit insread of the Grade B I've ordered. Other than the dimmer display, everythings seem to be in perfect condition.

I remember that one or two units were described as having a dim display. Was this one of those?

zyphria · #77 Post by **zyphria** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:09 am

By the way, did everyone make a call regarding the packaging? When I initially called for my RMA I made it a point to indicate that it was pretty consistent across the board (pun intended).

Update: Tech came onsite, replaced mobo, but security chip is pitching a fit, so they'll have to replace it...again.

stickman · #78 Post by **stickman** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:06 pm

Well, my friend in NY got my laptop and he says it's ok, no scratches or anything noticiable. Bad news for me is that he already shipped it for me to Spain, but somehow he got it all wrong and shipped it through surface instead of Global Express Mail, so it's coming by boat

and it's gonna take about 6 weeks to get here (if it ever does).

superlyduper · #79 Post by **superlyduper** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:19 pm

I got an x31 grade a condition, excellent as far as I can tell. Used the 1802com patch to get a minipci wifi card in (tp-link from ebay, the guy said it was real IBM). Battery is 20 cycles, sanyo, 42.90w out of 47.52, first used 2005-03. How is the battery? Anybody know anything about the tp-link b/g card? (atheros chipset)

zyphria · #80 Post by **zyphria** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:06 am

Looks like the second mainboard is probably alright, though I am getting a near-constant low buzzing sound while running on battery. Not distracting, but moderately unsettling.

_erazor_ · #81 Post by **_erazor_** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:24 pm

stickman wrote:Well, my friend in NY got my laptop and he says it's ok, no scratches or anything noticiable. Bad news for me is that he already shipped it for me to Spain, but somehow he got it all wrong and shipped it through surface instead of Global Express Mail, so it's coming by boat and it's gonna take about 6 weeks to get here (if it ever does).

did you receive yours by now?

what about the others? your x31`s still working?

JHEM · #82 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:48 pm

_erazor_ wrote:what about the others? your x31`s still working?

My son "liberated" the X31 I had put aside for myself and that was the last I've seen of it. It's now his daily driver and spends all its time in his flight bag travelling around the US and the Carib in one of his "offices".

He's making good use of the Atheros a/b/g card I installed as almost all of the FBOs he visits have free WiFi internet access. He's mentioned on several occasions that he often draws a crowd of admiring pilots when he whips the X31 out of his flight bag, opens it up and is almost immediately online.

He says it's a little tank and can take more abuse than his ancient 600X, high praise indeed.

Regards,

James

stickman · #83 Post by **stickman** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:12 pm

Well, I finally got it after waiting almost two months for it.

It was well worth the wait. Mine was a grade-A laptop, wireless included (just 802.11b) and gigabit ethernet (I didn't expect that).

Battery is 3/5 of its original capacity, haven't tried to recondition it.

The laptop looked like new, I'm pretty sure nobody used the keyboard. There were just a few scratches on the cover, but I couldn't say if it was because of the long shipment or if they were there before.

Overall this was a great buy. I love my X31.

Thinking about an X31 ...

hmm

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