X300 and Lenovo site

[wallythacker]

Greetings all!

I have recently re-discovered Lenovos and can't believe how incredible these machines are. As a past owner of Toshiba, Viao, Acer, Asus, Dell et. al IMO Lenovo are miles ahead of the competition.

Now to the crux of my problem. I own several machines, a pair of x230T, an x131e, and finally my beloved X300. At the Lenovo site, after installing the Lenovo service bridge on my X230T and x131e, the machines are correctly identified and automatic updates work properly.

Not so with my X300. My serial number isn't even recognized, which I find really strange, so I can't get the site to perform updates, show drivers, etc. Even using google and trying to track down data on my x300 the results are lacking compared to my other models. Do I have an x300 with an issue or is the support for the x300 lacking compared to my x230T/x131e?

TIA for any help you can offer.

PS. Even though the x300 doesn't compare power wise to my other models considering the era it is from, I'm amazed at the features it has, the size and incredible light weight, the general ergonomics, a burner!, the beautiful screen with a great resolution, etc. I can plainly see why it was a premium model back in the day. I've read it retailed for $3000 or so. Is that correct?

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.
Drivers etc. here: https://download.lenovo.com/eol/index.html

[ajkula66]

PS. Even though the x300 doesn't compare power wise to my other models considering the era it is from, I'm amazed at the features it has, the size and incredible light weight, the general ergonomics, a burner!, the beautiful screen with a great resolution, etc. I can plainly see why it was a premium model back in the day. I've read it retailed for $3000 or so. Is that correct?

They were supposed to be MacBook killers, but failed to accomplish that mission. I'm glad that you like the screen but most people - myself included - were not crazy about it, and that's putting it mildly. As for the original retail, yes, it was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $3K.

Very well-built little machine nevertheless. One of the "expensive-feeling" ThinkPads IMO.

[shawross]

I am still using my X301 and for most things it still does the job. The screen is an interesting one but I am happy with it and I use calibrate display colour in windows to tune it. Basically all my other setups are desktops or docked laptops. I have been using the X301 for 5 years and I am not ready to pass on it yet.

[mikemex]

I'm typing this on my X301. I've got the SU9600 version with 8GB of RAM and the original Samsung 64GB SLC drive. Middleton's unlocked/SLIC/DualIDA BIOS. I still think it's the nicest thinkpad ever. It's got the traditional clamshell design for the lid, lid latches, decent keyboard, high resolution tall (16:10) screen and all the administrative stuff that makes a Thinkpad (such adjusting the charging threshold for the battery). It's one of the few models with 3x3 MIMO antennas. And on top of that, it's very lightweight and well constructed.

However, it's not without it's faults:

1) It's dog slow for anything too demanding and it's not surprising: the X30x series was never a great performer, even when it was released. Lenovo selected an ULV chip (which is appropriate for the kind of machine) but it did so at a time ULV chips simply sucked. You have to keep in mind that this was right before intel switched to modern, integrated Core platform with CPU/NB/GPU all in one package. This alone cut several watts of power consumption and improved memory access and graphics performance greatly. The Penryn / Montevina platform consists of two chips: the CPU itself (10W) and the NB/GPU (12). So 22W overall.

Having said that, it's still very useful in 2021. I can watch youtube videos without a problem (4500MHD has video acceleration) and, if you use Firefox + NoScript, the CPU is more than enough for regular browsing (most of the time CPU usage is under 10%). Actually, I'm yet to find a task I can't do with it; with the obvious exception of heavy data processing.

2) The screen has horrible viewing angles and contrast. I recently cleaned my screen with isopropyl alcohol and some of it got sucked into the screen. Then I realized there is really nothing wrong with the screen itself: on the parts the alcohol was sucked in, it improved light transmission and the colors were vivid and bright. So my theory is that, being the very first generation of LED displays, they didn't quite nailed the backlight design and materials (screens have layers of difussing material and a final light insulating one). I bet the screen is so thin, you can see light from the back when it's on (it shouln't). Which leads me to believe that refurbishing the screen with better materials would lead to a much more decent image quality.

3) Battery could last longer. This is right on Lenovo. Thinkpads with battery on the front have always had poor capacities. It sacrifices the ability to use an extended version that protudes from the laptop to get more juice. Mine is the original one, manufactured in 2009 and still holds 37 Wh. 125 cycles.

All in all, I believe that if they had waited until Sandy Bridge to release the X300, people would have had a much different opinion about it.

[600X]

The X301 is one of my favourite ThinkPads ever. I think only the 600X beats it out. I had my screen replaced with an AFFS unit a while ago, which at least made it useable.

These days I've gone back to using a desktop but I still cherish my ThinkPad collection, with my X301 being one of the crowning jewels.

Also in terms of expensive feeling, the X301 and X1 and very similar in case anyone is looking for that kind of experience but with a faster CPU.

[axur-delmeria]

Also in terms of expensive feeling, the X301 and X1 and very similar in case anyone is looking for that kind of experience but with a faster CPU.

Too bad the X1 has the chiclet keyboard and a screen with even less pixels than the X301.

[mikemex]

The X301 is one of my favourite ThinkPads ever. I think only the 600X beats it out. I had my screen replaced with an AFFS unit a while ago, which at least made it useable.

These days I've gone back to using a desktop but I still cherish my ThinkPad collection, with my X301 being one of the crowning jewels.

Also in terms of expensive feeling, the X301 and X1 and very similar in case anyone is looking for that kind of experience but with a faster CPU.

You mean, the 600 series keyboard beats everything else (even those who have learned to appreciate the "classic" keyboard of the T420, would drop their jaws if they were given a 600X to type on). If I remember correctly, even the Trackpoint was better. It was just the fugly cap it originally came with what sucked; with a soft dome it was a delight to use.

Back in the day I had a 600E and I loved it. I loved it being built like a tank. I loved it having just about the optimal format, both for size and shape of the screen and the size of the machine itself. I loved it so much, I quickly went hunting for a 600X. And when I got my hands one one, I fully maxed it out. I do remember it came before WIFI was an option but it had a Mini PCI slot with a modem card you could remove to add a WIFI one (the chassis had enough space on it to fit the antennas too). I had a 3Com PCMCIA 10/100 Ethernet that retracted when not in use. I don't remember well, but I believe it had some amount of RAM soldered into the mainboard and two slots. So I either put 512MB or sightly above that. Not sure. But I do remember 256MB PC100 DIMMs was the most it could handle in each slot (512MB was on the low side for running XP).

Thing is, despite its virtues, the 600 series had many issues. Some were simple. For example, the flaps covering the ports were nice, but always ended up breaking, so basically useless. Or that the CMOS battery ran of of juice quickly and had to be replaced often. But some were simply outrageous, like the fact that the main battery just plain sucked. They didn't last long to begin with, but the main issue is that they were always failing. At one moment the power meter said they had 80% of charge left and the next it was completely depleted.

In a portable device, battery performance is not secondary, but a core consideration. That's why I politely disagree on the 600X being the nicest Thinkpad ever.

[600X]

Too bad the X1 has the chiclet keyboard and a screen with even less pixels than the X301.

The keyboard on the X1 is actually better than the X301, except when it comes to the layout. Since my X301 has the AFFS screen, the amount of pixels is actually lower (1280x800), but I'll take that any day over a TN panel.

You mean, the 600 series keyboard beats everything else (even those who have learned to appreciate the "classic" keyboard of the T420, would drop their jaws if they were given a 600X to type on). If I remember correctly, even the Trackpoint was better. It was just the fugly cap it originally came with what sucked; with a soft dome it was a delight to use.

Back in the day I had a 600E and I loved it. I loved it being built like a tank. I loved it having just about the optimal format, both for size and shape of the screen and the size of the machine itself. I loved it so much, I quickly went hunting for a 600X. And when I got my hands one one, I fully maxed it out. I do remember it came before WIFI was an option but it had a Mini PCI slot with a modem card you could remove to add a WIFI one (the chassis had enough space on it to fit the antennas too). I had a 3Com PCMCIA 10/100 Ethernet that retracted when not in use. I don't remember well, but I believe it had some amount of RAM soldered into the mainboard and two slots. So I either put 512MB or sightly above that. Not sure. But I do remember 256MB PC100 DIMMs was the most it could handle in each slot (512MB was on the low side for running XP).

Thing is, despite its virtues, the 600 series had many issues. Some were simple. For example, the flaps covering the ports were nice, but always ended up breaking, so basically useless. Or that the CMOS battery ran of of juice quickly and had to be replaced often. But some were simply outrageous, like the fact that the main battery just plain sucked. They didn't last long to begin with, but the main issue is that they were always failing. At one moment the power meter said they had 80% of charge left and the next it was completely depleted.

In a portable device, battery performance is not secondary, but a core consideration. That's why I politely disagree on the 600X being the nicest Thinkpad ever.

Apart from the port flaps breaking, I never had any of the issues you mentioned In any case my 600X has had a Dell board with an i3 in it for some time, along with a more modern display, so the only real downside on my device is the low resolution. I really liked the original 600X, but even with the 850MHz CPU mine had, it was essentially obsolete by 2012, so losing some original features like the good DAC is a small price to pay for actually being able to use it today. As a complete package, I can't think of a better ThinkPad. Still, I can understand if there are other devices you might like more. The A31p is very nice too for example.

[mikemex]

Apart from the port flaps breaking, I never had any of the issues you mentioned

Weird, because it's a well known problem.

In any case my 600X has had a Dell board with an i3 in it for some time, along with a more modern display, so the only real downside on my device is the low resolution. I really liked the original 600X, but even with the 850MHz CPU mine had, it was essentially obsolete by 2012, so losing some original features like the good DAC is a small price to pay for actually being able to use it today. As a complete package, I can't think of a better ThinkPad.

Never heard about that mod. Is there a place I can read more about it?

[600X]

Weird, because it's a well known problem.

Maybe I was lucky but I had 2 batteries back in the day and both worked reliably, each providing about 2.5h of battery life back in 2011. They were genuine IBM units. I was running Windows 2000 if that makes any difference.

Never heard about that mod. Is there a place I can read more about it?

It's one of two conversions built by el-sahef, an absolute ThinkPad mastermind. He pioneered mods such as the Quad Core T61 and many others. He wrote up a little summary here: https://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/21027 ... ost1947439