my x31 saga

[pellicle]

Hi

I'm placing this post here in case anyone considers x31's as a laptop in future.

I have just had my 3rd x31 in a row die and I am now sure that these little beasties suffer from chronic motherboard weakness.

I still have and operate my 770 and x20 laptops (which is in my wifes "stress tester extrodinaire" hands). Unlike the previous examples (which have been battered daily and carried about regularly from Japan to Australia and India on trips and travel) my x31 has in contrast (especially after the first one failed) been treated with care and even has a nice zeroshock envelope it is carried in.

Because I have heard of the base flexing when using the ultrabase station I have perhaps used that on 3 occasions (now burning CD's via a USB external drive)

This last one was bought from Thinkpad world as a refurbished unit with 1 year warranty from IBM and another additional 2 years purchased (cover provided by Mack). I did not notice at the time however that there was no "mack warranty card" among the package and assumed that it had been registered by them (as indeed my IBM warranty had)

This turned out not to be the case and now (14 months after buying it) I have another dead x31 without warranty.

After my previous experiences with the x31's I specifically wanted a warranty because I was 1000% confident that I would be needing it.

So, if you're thinking of getting an x31 ... unless its really cheap, unless you have some solid reason for wanting one, unless it has 3 years warranty ... consider getting something else because I'm sure it'll be toast in no time.

BTW ... my reasons for wanting another x31 was that I have a lot installed on this little beastie (software development tools, photo editing, Nikon firewire scanner ... ) and I'm right in the middle of a project where I do not want to be fiddlefarting around with setting up a new machine. So I bought an x31 to expressly be able to swap out my hard disk and keep on rocking.

this proved to be less than a smooth transition as my integrated wireless card proved not to be compatible with my new x31 due to the 1082 cmos issue.

so, in short ... look for something else.

I'm up for an x24 for my next ultraportable ... pitty the batteries are an issue with them

[sjthinkpader]

Sorry to hear your troubles.

The WiFi card is just under the keyboard and fairly easy to swap with your old machine. I would and had purchased IBM/Lenovo warranty extension. Activation is really easy.

I have all these machines: X20, X24, X30, X32, X40, X41, X41t. We used several X31 in the office and one had the MB replaced under warranty a few years ago. Another one had the miniPCI slot go bad after 3 years warranty expired. All of them are still in service.

[VipFreak]

I've had an x31 for a while now. I got it used. It's been pretty solid. Sorry to hear about your problems though.

[tomh009]

Our X31 is now about five years old (bought new) and has not had any problems apart from cracks in the plastics (yes, I know how we managed to do that). I had another X31 before, and I know the new owner is still happily running with it. And a friend has two others he's using.

What exactly is the problem with your X31s?

Oh yes, the 1802 fix is quite easy -- just burn a CD, boot with it and it sets a bit in the CMOS to disable the wireless card check.

[pellicle]

Folks

glad to hear some aren't junk ... here's hoping my new one will be stronger

What exactly is the problem with your X31s?

well, each seems to have had different problems, but all seemed to point to the problem.

* while running suddenly resetting ... eventually doing this within 30 seconds of powerup (purchased in Japan in new 2004)

* lockups, resets, blue screens ... hassles could not get it to tow the line with win2k or Ubuntu ... all you had to do was move it and it'd go spaz (purchased from USA new in 2006)

* beep code indicating SIMM or motherboard ... currently using the same memory which was in that MB ... and have run memtest on it for upwards of 96 hours without a break in a working machine ... (purchased from the USA Thinkpad world refurb in 2008)


I'm an ex-electronics technician, so I suspected at first joints, so prior to spending the money all machines were carefully dis-assembled (using the hardware manual) cleaned and re-assembled.

Oh yes, the 1802 fix is quite easy -- just burn a CD, boot with it and it sets a bit in the CMOS to disable the wireless card check.

I've not been able to find a CD ... I assume that it is done with the card out then operated. I've downloaded a DOS .com file which I'll try tonight ... unless there are warnings about that ...

thanks for the support folks

[pellicle]

Hi

found the com file, put it onto a floppy and booted from that with the card out.

it said "ok"

so I put the card back in and bewdy it works!

[sojourner]

found the com file, put it onto a floppy and booted from that with the card out.

it said "ok"

so I put the card back in and bewdy it works!

Can you provide a link to this file?

[pellicle]

Hi

sure ... it was linked from this blog.

[pellicle]

For completeness, and in case anyone reads these threads, the very same X31 which I bought above has now just ceased operation. It seems to be a power related issue and I haven't fully given up on javi g a go at bringing of back to use.

So I did get great milage out of it, another 4 years.

To remain simple I have bought another X31 used so that I can just move over the hard disk and hopefully keep on going.

[jronald]

I have been through tons of x30's and x31's. My sons first machine was a extensively OS massaged extra battery installed that would run for more than 6 hours. It made it 3 years in a back pack to public school before he broke the LCD. Its been dropped, punted, shove and thrown in just about every county in North Carolina. Other than the LCD (hich he never took credit for) its never given a whimper.

I love the things
Ron

[pellicle]

"New" X31 arrived.

Memory, wifi and HDD transplanted : boots and runs

Praise be [insert your Gods name]!

[RealBlackStuff]

you got a PM