That was fun.. or, "They're ALIVE!!" (T41 *PIC*)

[rkawakami]

As I mentioned in another thread of mine, I have just completed triage on five T41 systems that arrived a couple of days ago. Bought as a lot of parts/repair units, the seller indicated that at least three of them powered up. Well, it looks like only two of them are booting at the moment . Through some swapping around of LCDs, palmrests, keyboards and bezels, I've got two of them working good enough to pass all of the PC Doctor diags. There's only a matter of finding some disk drives around here and loading up an OS. Will have to buy a couple of more spare parts to complete the two (2 HD covers and one Ultrabay Slim drive); one more of each if I can somehow get one of the remaining three bases to wiggle again.

Systems are 2674-327 and -SU9. Wish they could have been SXGA+ models, but oh well. Got three other -327 bases, stripped of memory, WiFi, hard drive and Ultrabay device which don't power up, two 14.1" XGA panels which both work fine (the fifth panel was already known to be broken), a keyboard (with the busted space bar), a palmrest (which I don't know if it works or not), two keyboard bezels and three "dead" batteries (that's what written on them!); one battery runs the system for just over an hour and the last one seems to be holding some sort of charge but I haven't tested it yet. And five new no-name carrying cases for each system. The eBay seller never mentioned them but all five laptops came inside their own case and all five cases were neatly packed in a huge box. All for $285 delivered - I got lucky. (Does this qualify as a post to the Good Deal thread?). Will probably keep these two around for a bit and make sure they don't have any "issues".

(1024x768 143KB)
(ignore the cat on the right That's Boo. Oh yes, and see that small white spot on the palmrest on the T41 on the left? The first keyboard I mounted in that system had the bad space bar. Wouldn't work on both ends but the middle was okay. Removed the bar and found that the left button is missing the rubber dome and the right one missing the dome and part of the frame. Swapped the keyboard out for the one that's in there now. Went through the PC Doctor keyboard diags and got near the very end and the "/" key felt really funny. Hard to press down. Popped the keycap off and that's what was underneath it. Tiny rock or maybe it's plastic. Can't tell with my eyes. Works fine now. Finally get to use a system that takes "cheap" memory and has USB 2.0! Yay!

[bill bolton]

Well done Ray!


Cheers,

Bill B.

[gator]

Ray,

I have a HDD cover+screw for the T4x that is lying unused ... pass me your address and I will send it across ... no charge!

[AlphaKilo470]

Is the cat functioning alright with the system? I'm still trying to find the correct drivers for mine.

Nice find on the T41s. I guess it was time to move to something newer than the T23. I just hope I don't see something like "13 T41s" in your sig a year from now.

[tfflivemb2]

(ignore the cat on the right That's Boo.

Ray, Ray, Ray....how many times do I have to tell you....you use an external MOUSE not a CAT!!!!

[rkawakami]

Is the cat functioning alright with the system? I'm still trying to find the correct drivers for mine.

The cats ARE the drivers in this house! Twice tonight as I was eating dinner, Harley, the male tuxedo, came up and whined at me to feed him (not table food; his bowl was empty).

I just hope I don't see something like "13 T41s" in your sig a year from now.

You and me both! Speaking of which, I gotta edit that thing right now... one 600X has flown the coop and there have been a lot of changes in the last several months.

Ray, Ray, Ray....how many times do I have to tell you....you use an external MOUSE not a CAT!!!!

I keep getting those two mixed up!

edit: Just noticed from the picture that I haven't turned the calendar over to July!

[rkawakami]

Well, after about a two hour charge on the second battery, the LED went solid green so I removed the AC adapter, booted PC Doctor and started the battery rundown test. At the moment it's been running for 130 minutes and the battery LED has been flashing orange for the last 20 or 25 minutes. Must be about time for it to shutdown soon. So for a battery marked "bad" on it, it doesn't seem to be all that bad in my book. It's not a worse case rundown since there is no hard drive installed, but with the processor, memory and DVD drive being constantly exercised for the last two hours, I'm happy.

BTW, these are the 6-cell batteries (FRU 08K8193 and 08K8195). Now I'm really curious as to their runtime under Windows....

Ah, at 135 minutes the low power alarm just sounded. Time to turn it off and start re-charging the battery.

[Stargate199]

That was a pretty good find. It will be interesting if you can get the other T41s working.

[pianowizard]

Congratulations on getting at least two of the T41's working so well! You can sell them and make quite a bit of money!

A31 and A31p (projects)

Doctor, are these your next patients? If you need a UXGA panel for the latter, I have a mint-condition one from my R50p that I can sell.

[rkawakami]

Doctor, are these your next patients?

Got a couple of T23s in line before the As. Currently the A31 has the loose video chip problem (boots about 75% of the time), one A31p arrived with a partial hole in the motherboard and the second A31p has the same intermittent video problem as the A31 but not as bad. I'm thinking about opening up both A31p systems at the same time so I can figure out what was damaged when the wrong screw was used to re-assemble the unit. If I can repair that area then I'll see what shape the rest of the motherboard is in. Both A31 systems with the video problem will need some work with a heat gun.