Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I picked up a thinkpad X31 a couple of months ago and have enjoyed using it however I have been thinking about upgrading to a SSD HDD and perhaps installing windows 7 so was toying with the idea of getting an X60s instead. Anyway the other day at work one of the Bosses brought in an X60s for me to 'fix' for his wife (bluetooth turned off ) and was so impressed that the next day I bought one off ebay

Anyway one of my first tasks I think is to get the WWAN working, I am in the UK and could get a vodafone PAYG sim card but they are quite expensive for data access and I already have T-mobile dongle that is very good value. I have tried googling but am not having much luck and also tried the search here without much success but can someone point me in the right direction for unlocking the WWAN card so it will work with my tmobile sim?

I just do Internet Connection Sharing from my phone over bluetooth. It works just as well, I don't have to worry about carrying anything extra with me since I always have my phone anyway, it's cheap, and it keeps my USB ports free. If that's an option for you, that's what I did and haven't looked back.

Oh yeah, and welcome to the prestigious X6x owner's circle!

thebully wrote:... can someone point me in the right direction for unlocking the WWAN card so it will work with my tmobile sim?

You have three options:
1) If your card is SIM-locked (I say "if" because there exist locked and unlocked "flavors" of that Lenovo card), then use DC unlocker to unlock your Sierra Wireless MC8775 card:
http://www.dc-unlocker.com/supported_mo ... ra_aircard

2) Use the unlocked Lenovo MC8775 card (FRU #42T0931). As you see below, it costs less to buy an unlocked card than to unlock a locked card!
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=Unl* ... m270.l1313

3) Install a modified BIOS which will permit the use of any WWAN card; then install and use any unlocked WWAN card.
Note: The problem with this option is that you need the drivers and a "connect" program for the card you select, and Dell software installs only on Dell machines, HP software installs only on HP machines, etc. However, if you use a Sierra Wireless MC8775, then you can use Sierra Wireless's generic 3G Watcher program:
http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/siteco ... neric.ashx
Below are non-Lenovo unlocked Sierra Wireless MC8775 cards:
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=Unl* ... m270.l1313

Thanks for the advice it sounds like the best option then is to get an unlocked card if my current one is not unlocked already.

I am just wondering what will I use to dial if I use a non vodafone sim card in the laptop? Will the current ibm utility work with the unlocked card?

thebully wrote:... what will I use to dial if I use a non vodafone sim card in the laptop? Will the current ibm utility work with the unlocked card?

If you use the unlocked Lenovo-branded card (FRU #42T0931), then the IBM utility will work. Further, the Sierra Wireless 3G Watcher utility will work with any MC8775 card.

Use 3G Watcher to start, and see how you like it -- it is simple, elegant, totally pain-free. There is no compelling reason to use any other program.

Thanks I will give that a try

On another note, I am getting about 1 hour 30 minutes on the used 2200mAh battery that has come with the laptop. How long should the 2200mAh battery last when good using the laptop for standard tasks web browsing etc?

I bought a cheap 6 cell battery from hong kong for my x31 and that lasts about 3 and a half hours.

I have seen this battery on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0457233000

it has a 3 year warranty and says it uses high quality Japanese cells but is about the same price as the other ones from hong kong.

I'm using a 5200mah battery made by Denaq. It cost me $75 on ebay and lasts almost 5.5 hours with wifi on, bluetooth off, and screen down to 50% brightness.

gongo2k1 wrote:I'm using a 5200mah battery made by Denaq. It cost me $75 on ebay and lasts almost 5.5 hours with wifi on, bluetooth off, and screen down to 50% brightness.

Hi that doesn't sound too bad, atm I am looking on ebay and am really torn between buying a 2200 or 2600mAh battery or the big 5200mAh battery like what you have.

Thing is I really like the fact that the machine is light weight and slim looking, and I don,t want to use a battery that will turn it into a beast and as heavy as my x31. How much extra weight bulk does the big battery add? I currently have an old IBM prismatic battery in here that is totally flush with the machine and I like it but it barely lasts an hour and a half. I would be happy with 3 hours, also how far does the non prismatic battery stick out the back of the machine is it enough to look out of place?

Thing is the 5200mAh battery is only a little bit more expensive than the 2200 about a couple of beers worth

Batteries is on of the biggest flaws in X6*s. I have a prismatic battery on my X61s; it is light and flush (in this sense it is far superior to ordinary X6* 4-cell battery), however it lasts just about 2 hours, which is a way too short for me. 8-cell battery lasts ffor some 5 or 6 hours depending on circumstances, but the bad thing is that it adds about 200g and it sticks out considerably. The best option for X6*s series, I think, is a 8-cell battery for reserve edition. It is a slightly smaller than ordinary 8-cell version and does not make your laptop thicker.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 68216.html

I bought one from this seller some 5 months ago and so far it works without flaws.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Battery-IB ... _Batteries

Eudoxus wrote:Batteries is on of the biggest flaws in X6*s. I have a prismatic battery on my X61s; it is light and flush (in this sense it is far superior to ordinary X6* 4-cell battery), however it lasts just about 2 hours, which is a way too short for me. 8-cell battery lasts ffor some 5 or 6 hours depending on circumstances, but the bad thing is that it adds about 200g and it sticks out considerably. The best option for X6*s series, I think, is a 8-cell battery for reserve edition. It is a slightly smaller than ordinary 8-cell version and does not make your laptop thicker.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 68216.html

I bought one from this seller some 5 months ago and so far it works without flaws.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Battery-IB ... _Batteries

Hi I saw the 4600mAh batterys along side the 2200, 2600 and 5200mAh, I assumed that the 2200mAh are prismatic and that the 2600 and 5200mAh ones are the ones that stick out the bottom (cylindrical).

Are the 4600mAh batteries the ones that don't stick out the bottom i.e the reserve edition type?

thebully wrote: Hi I saw the 4600mAh batterys along side the 2200, 2600 and 5200mAh, I assumed that the 2200mAh are prismatic and that the 2600 and 5200mAh ones are the ones that stick out the bottom (cylindrical).

Are the 4600mAh batteries the ones that don't stick out the bottom i.e the reserve edition type?

Yes, this battery (http://cgi.ebay.com/Original-Battery-IB ... _Batteries) has flat bottom which doesn't add thickness to your X60s or X61s. It doesn't fit in non-s types (X60 or X61).

I'm also thinking of buying additional battery, because my original 2200mAh lasts just 1,5 hour in X60s. Did anybody buy a claimed original Lenovo battery from seller like this? -> http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT

Non genuine batteries are very cheap but wear fast. I had 5200mAh in X60 and the capacity went down noticeably. My current original 2200mAh in X60s is 4 years old with 320 cycles and still on 80%.

marYn wrote:My current original 2200mAh in X60s is 4 years old with 320 cycles and still on 80%.

A Panasonic-branded one, I presume?

Hi just thought I would post an update

I downloaded the Dc-unlocker client and it detected my Sierra Wireless 8775 card and said it was locked. Following the post I read I bought 15 credits for 15 Euros (much cheaper than a new unlocked card from ebay) and then ran the unlock and it worked.

I can now access the Internet using T-Mobile without the dongle The only slight annoyance is that I bought 15 credits when I only needed to buy 10 but I am not too worried.

I ordered a 5200mAH battery so will see how bulky it is if it is too bulky I will try and sell it on ebay again and go for the reserve edition version.

I ordered a 5200mAH battery so will see how bulky it is if it is too bulky I will try and sell it on ebay again and go for the reserve edition version.

You will see, that it is really bulky - it ads some 0.5 to the bottom of your laptop. The good thing, of course, is that it lasts reasonably long.

Eudoxus wrote: You will see, that it is really bulky - it ads some 0.5 to the bottom of your laptop. The good thing, of course, is that it lasts reasonably long.

I used to have this large battery with my X60 (non-s) and it was like using a mobile phone. I charged the laptop over night and during the day or afternoon I could work with it in the house anywhere I wanted. Now I have X60s with a small battery and I am must have the battery charger around.

I unlocked my x60s-1704 (what is the '1704'?) using dc-unlocker, and also use the big battery which is great. Had it for ~ 3 years now; a great machine. Put the 80GB Intel SSD in; speeds it up a little. Put in 4GB RAM; shows up as 3GB and that speeds it up a bit too.

I found that with a T-Mobile SIM the installed Voda software would unsuprisingly not work (you can send texts with it but that's all ) and the general Sierra software could not be located, IIRC. But the supplied IBM utility called Access Connections supports the unlocked radio just fine and that is all I now use.

I use the built-in GPRS/3G radio less than I used to since the ridiculous mandatory "data bundles" for EU usage. I like to pick up short emails on my phone (Nokia E51) and don't want to buy two data bundles, so I use the phone as a modem for the laptop, over bluetooth. This works very well.

However, SP3 trashed the HD a year or so ago and cost me a lot of time. I tried more recently (having backed up with Trueimage) and it trashed the HD again, so I am sticking with SP2.

The x60s is a really great machine. Very solid, nice keyboard. Not a great-colour LCD but you can't have everything

peter-h wrote:I unlocked my x60s-1704 (what is the '1704'?) using dc-unlocker, and also use the big battery which is great. Had it for ~ 3 years now; a great machine. Put the 80GB Intel SSD in; speeds it up a little. Put in 4GB RAM; shows up as 3GB and that speeds it up a bit too.
)

I just got the x60s also with duo core 1.6ghz and was about to buy and ssd. Is it even worth it? would you say it's faster by 20%?

Easily 20% faster, yes. Some programs (which access a lot of files) are 2x faster or more. Also the HD will fail (not if) whereas an SSD "won't".

SSD+4GB RAM is very good. At work, I have just replaced a 7200rpm SATA HD and 2GB RAM with a 128GB Corsair SSD (3Gbit/sec SATA) and 4GB RAM and it runs a lot of stuff 2x to 4x faster. The Thinkpad won't see the same improvement, presumably due to limitations of the motherboard, but there still is a very visible general speedup.

I have used a 64GB Kingston SSDNow in a laptop at work recently and it is very fast especially the XP boot time it was this one:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/195355

I am torn between buying one for my X60s or buying one of these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/223458

Its a 500GB SATA2 7200rpm Western Digital Caviar Black drive the power consumption, heat, noise and vibration are supposed to be very low and it is a very fast drive cheaper than an SSD but with much more storage. The only thing is I have only ever used a 7200rpm drive in a notebook once before and it died in a couple of months but that was about 3 years ago and I think it was a seagate.

My Q is whether you need 500GB.

There is no way to fill up that much storage with anything worthwhile, outside of highly specialised work which one is unlikely to be doing on a laptop anyway. Kids will it up with garbage, and some adults fill it with movies

The other thing is that there is no way to back up that much stuff. I have a DLT tape drive in my PC here which can back up 320GB, and it cost a lot more than a new X60S laptop Of course you can back it up to another HD but then you have only the one backup - no multiple backups allowing you to go back say 1 year, to find a file which got trashed a while ago without you noticing.

A lot of people get seduced by HD storage, and one day it bites them.... they lose the lot, for ever.

I would rather have 40GB of fast SSD than 500GB of mechanical storage. And I can use the laptop for HD storing movie data produced from a HD camera generating 14MB/second. This is loads of storage. Windoze XP needs about 3GB; the rest is yours.

peter-h wrote:My Q is whether you need 500GB.

There is no way to fill up that much storage with anything worthwhile, outside of highly specialised work which one is unlikely to be doing on a laptop anyway. Kids will it up with garbage, and some adults fill it with movies

The other thing is that there is no way to back up that much stuff. I have a DLT tape drive in my PC here which can back up 320GB, and it cost a lot more than a new X60S laptop Of course you can back it up to another HD but then you have only the one backup - no multiple backups allowing you to go back say 1 year, to find a file which got trashed a while ago without you noticing.

A lot of people get seduced by HD storage, and one day it bites them.... they lose the lot, for ever.

I would rather have 40GB of fast SSD than 500GB of mechanical storage. And I can use the laptop for HD storing movie data produced from a HD camera generating 14MB/second. This is loads of storage. Windoze XP needs about 3GB; the rest is yours.

Hi

I see where you are coming from but I thought that when it came to mechanical disks the larger the capacity generally means that the data is more densely packed meaning that the disk would perform faster. They do those western digital disks in sizes from 160GB up to 500GB but I just assumed that the 500GB would offer the fastest performance due to platter density.

I was just thinking that if the 500GB 7200rpm disk had close to SSD performance than it might be handy to have the extra space when it is needed without having to rely on slower external drives etc.

TBH though I think I will just get an SSD as I am sure it will be noticeably faster than a mechanical drive and I want this notebook to boot faster

The sequential data rate of a modern HD is way higher than the O/S can handle. For example, I have a flight planning program (pilot) which loads up a 64MB database at startup. It takes about 10x longer to read and process this load than it would take to simply read 64MB off the HD in one sequential read.

An SSD scores on random access, which is always very slow with mechanical disks. Some apps show a dramatic (say 5x) improvement. Others only 2x or less.