A31p - New owner - Recommendations, please.

[SIRIUS]

Hello.
I wanted to thank all on this forum who left a response to my last post re:
A22m upgrade questions.

After considering all the recommendations, I purchased an A31p 2653 AU5.

This laptop came with WIN XP pro installed, but no COA or disc.
I do own a legitmate copy of WIN XP pro from my A22m.

A user account is already set up (previous owner?).
I am concerned about password(s) loss/retrieval.

So here are my questions:

1- Is there a "new owner protocol" (windows reg, etc.) suggested when one purchases a used A31p?

2- How can one check, locate, retrieve, change, and/or back-up any previously entered passwords, if there are any?

3- Which program is recommended to save/back-up the programs already installed, in case I crash?

4- I am Wireless connecting at 11MBs. What is the best wireless upgrade available now (100MBs card)?

I hope this laptop's performance will excede that of my A22m.
I like Thinkpads.

SIRIUS
This forum is great!
Thanks for all the assistance!
You know who you are!

[schen]

I'm not certain about password retrieval or anything like that, but if I bought a used machine and was the owner of a copy of Windows XPP, I think I'd do a "clean" reload. Mainly for "piece of mind" and knowledge of where exactly that machine is from a software standpoint...among several reasons.

As far as backup is concerned; I'm currently a big Acronis fan after using it to clone my wife's A30 onto my old 60Gb drive. It's supposed to be an outstanding piece of software for backups as well. Not to mention, that at $50, is just cheap for what it offers.

On the wireless front, you can go all the way up to 108mps without resorting to a PCMCIA card. You can go with one of the Atheros chipped Mini-PCI card in your machine combined with a router using Atheros chipped AP, you'll have 108mps connection speed. Personally, I use the D-Link DI-624 as a replacement for an old Linksys 802.11b (11mps) AP. It connected right up at 108mps as soon as I set it up. If you go to the Atheros website you'll find a listing of a variety of manufacturers that use their chips.

Good luck. Let me know how it goes.

[lithium726]

Yes, but in the MPCI slot he is restricted to the cards on IBM's whitelist, which are going to be just -b cards, like the T30. Course, he can apply the no-1802 fix.

[underclocker]

Someone should sit down and do some compatibility testing, on the A31 and other older TP's, some internal wifi cards work without the BIOS hack.

I added a generic Intel b/g card to an A31 and did not get any errors. It works fine.

[schen]

A compatibility list would be awesome! Unfortunately, it'd take somebody that has access to A LOT of cards, or maybe a poll with a field that people could report on which cards they've had success with. Personally, I don't mind running the 1802 hack, but I know some people don't.

[lithium726]

anything prior to the P4 does not have a whitelist, which is why it works fine on the T23/X30/A30

[schen]

Someone should sit down and do some compatibility testing, on the A31 and other older TP's, some internal wifi cards work without the BIOS hack.

I added a generic Intel b/g card to an A31 and did not get any errors. It works fine.

Apparently, someone forgot to tell this A31 about the "whitelist"

[zone]

Someone should sit down and do some compatibility testing, on the A31 and other older TP's, some internal wifi cards work without the BIOS hack.

I added a generic Intel b/g card to an A31 and did not get any errors. It works fine.

Depends, seems that your A31 had recent BIOS hence no 1802 error. In other hand my A31p with recent BIOS had 10C9 error with Atheros based card, fortunately there is fix for that...