IBM ThinkPad R40 (2722-BDG) 06/2004 - Project

[kfzhu1229]

I was able to run no-1802.com and replace my faulty WLAN with the Intel 2200bg out of my dead t43p, and am typing this post on the a31p with Firefox ESR on Windows 7.

the battery is actually worse off than initially estimated. i'll keep it in the machine since it's not getting hot or anything, like some really bad T400 batteries I encountered.

Online chess is a no-go on the a31p.

Web surfing is a little less miserable if the browser window is shrunk to an 800x600 corner of the display. Full resolution causes system interrupts, which seem prone to sending the entire machine into a freeze. I'm pretty sure I'm giving the poor P4-M 2.0 ghz the most intense workout it's ever gotten.

old.Reddit actually works really good. Google search, eh, it works. Most other webpages should be avoided, everything is incredibly slow to load. Fooling around with this A31p is making Core 2 feel fast.

yeah I did try web browsing from time to time with my Dell Latitude C840, with a rare Pentium 4-M 2.5Ghz heater and also Ultrasharp UXGA display. It sure is getting lesser and lesser doable by the day. It could have like one bsod if I use it after laying dormant for a long time, but other than that I have no freezes or anything like that. With 8 cells of state of the art LG 18650 MJ1 cells on factory original BMS, the battery on that thing is like 1.25 hours for gaming, and 2+ hours for like web browsing. If I want the battery life longer I could always just load my other main battery (good but aging original cells) into the module bay and this thing will drain both battery packs simultaneously, giving the original cells much less strain.
So far my ThinkPad R40 is pulling similar numbers for battery life with its battery having 4 new cells 4 used cells, but it's got a 2.2Ghz P4-M and a much less power hungry generic LG 15" XGA screen from ThinkPad T4x. Yes the T4x/R5x 15" XGA displays are direct drop-in replacements, yet funnily enough the LG display that came with the R40 has EDID chip while the T4x/R5x LG displays do NOT have EDID chip soldered (hence why I did the swap so that that spare screen is useful on a non-thinkpad should I need that in the future).

If you wonder, the exact 15" model LCD situation on R40 is as follows:
If same resolution, the R40 screens are 100% interchangable with T4x/T6x/R5x/R6x 15" screens. The connector location is identical to these, rather than the A3x series. The R40 screen will even work on a T6x since it has EDID.
If you have XGA and want SXGA+ however, you will need a SXGA+ cable - I learnt the hard way cable modding on R40 is not ideal because the R40 cable is wire based rather than ribbon based cables of T4x/R5x, which means IBM cheaps out on the XGA R40 cables and leave the 2nd LVDS channel completely unhooked (except for ground wires), wiring those 8 long wires up with 32AWG wires is going to cost you almost as much in 32AWG wires as a replacement cable.
Then on top of that, if you have my version with the Radeon 7000, you will need to bridge across the 4 unpopulated protection coils (fortunately easily accessible, 2 under the graphics heat shield and 2 under the mPCI cover) on the LVDS lanes on the 2nd LVDS channel that is all unpopulated. So all in all, the resolution upgrade is much more work than I anticipated and I ultimately gave up on that.
Also, the hinge design on the R40 is different than all the T/A series you're used to. The hinge screws on these are hence very important in the structural rigidity of the hinges. Mine came with every single screw very loose, there are 2 screws under the hinge cap, 2 screws under the trim cover, and 3 hinge screws under the LCD bezel plus the 2 that go through the LCD bezel. Tighten the 7 hinge screws but leave the 2 bezel hinge screws just about tight - overtightening these will crack the LCD bezel. Read the HMM on how to correctly detach and reattach the LCD bezel - failure to do that will break the clips.

[TPFanatic]

I figured out the freezing issue. It was malware the a31p itself is fine.

[kfzhu1229]

Well my rebuilt R40 battery capacity seems to be topping out at almost exactly the 57Wh designed capacity (4000mah) of this thing. Again I did not use all lg mj1 cells, I used 4 lg db2 cells known good but kinda worn with a date code from November 2006. But for the lowered cost of rebuilding this battery, significantly cheaper than buying an aftermarket 8 cell replacement (if it exists at all) and extra reliability that comes with genuine name brand cells, that's definitely a win.
But ye it seems like IBM was either cutting corners with the battery cells or somehow was not competent at it, when Dell crammed 2250mah sony cells for 67Wh battery packs for their pentium 4-M latitudes, IBM was still using 2000mah stuff for both the A31 and R40 (though 2200mah for T30 it seems)

[TPFanatic]

Does anyone know was IBM's PC business already losing money by this time? I know A-series became unprofitable which is why it got replaced by G-series which as we know was outsourced (save $$$). Then T40-R50 being the same planar on the inside is an obvious cost-save. Maybe lower capacity cells is another?

[kfzhu1229]

Does anyone know was IBM's PC business already losing money by this time? I know A-series became unprofitable which is why it got replaced by G-series which as we know was outsourced (save $$$). Then T40-R50 being the same planar on the inside is an obvious cost-save. Maybe lower capacity cells is another?

Well I imagine some cost cutting were kinda mandatory regardless of the business doing well or not. The industry was changing rapidly at that time and even internal designs were changing too, for example changing from predominantly using steel brackets to keep the internal structure to the wide adoption of magnesium, and the likes of Dell and HP were drastically improving their game with the business class laptop markets