Bought my first Lenovo Thinkpad, a W530, some questions.. :)

[alexvader]

Hi

I have bought this machine... and i plan to install Linux on it... so I have some questions before i proceed :

1. I am running out of battery, this is my first discharge... so... how long do i need for my 9 cell battery to make a full charge, befoe i use it again...?

2. Can I have my battery in the laptop while being connected to AC power supply ?

3. I made my repair disk, in order to properly restore W7 to factory default... is this enough or do i need to create a system image as well...?

Thanks in advance for your answers... I am now the proud owner ot the best laptop in the world...


BRGDS

Alex

[Neil]

Hi there Alex, welcome to the forum!

1. It will probably take a couple of hours to reach full charge, but you can use it any time before that with a partial charge.

2. Sure! You can use the laptop while it's charging, no downtime, no waiting.

3. Usually a restore disk is enough, but if you have the means to make a system image, then by all means, do so! A little extra insurance is always a good idea. Another good idea, after you have both means of recovery, is to test the recovery media to make sure it works before you need it down the line.

You have a very nice ThinkPad there...don't let it keep you up all night!

[alexvader]

Hi Neil

Thkz for your answer...

I will sleep well this night... Have a taeKwonDo training tomorrow

Anyway, this weekend will be spent installing a linux distro in this lappy... bought the full 32 gigs of RAM for it... I work as Design Engineer in Wartsila in Finland... so this lappy will mailny be used for simulations in Computational Fluid Dynamics, and Finite Elements...

I only use open source packages, which i have compiled and packed from source as debian installable packages... like OpenFOAM, Code Aster, calculix, or BRL CAD...


Would be awesome if i could install debian squeeze in it, instead of having to install another distro ( because of HW compatibility issues... ), and having to compile and repackage everything again...

BRGDS

Alex

[sarbin]

congrats on your new machine! sounds like a monster!

to add to Neil's comments...
regarding your item 2: many generations of thinkpads actually throttled the cpu speed if you ran the machine with the battery removed. if this is still the case, you'd be losing computational power, and from the sounds of it, you don't want that!

for Neil (or anyone else): can you comment on whether current generation thinkpads still exhibit cpu throttling running without a battery?