You must know that, all of you, Thinkpad lovers, huh ?

[WarMachine]

Hello, everybody !

I just wanted to share my excitation with you.

Today, I will get my seventh Thinkpad, an "old" X20.

I'm soooo excited I can't even sleep.

HMM, Cleaning kit, Screwdrivers, CDs and floppy drive... Everything is ready !!!

Even if I'm 32, I'm like a 10 yo kid on a 24th of December, waiting for Santa.

I suppose you're like me when you're waiting a new laptop, no ?

When I talk about that to my friends and at work, I suspect they don't understand how addictive can be these little puppies.

The other day, a guy even told me "When are you buying a true PC ?"

And this guy is THE geek by definition. He buys news components every two weeks or so. When you buy a Core 2 Duo that you will keep for a long time, he sells the one he owns after 2 weeks because he can't overclock it like he wants and because he wants to try another. NASA would be jealous if they knew what PC he has, and this guy is only surfing forums and benching his PC... We all know that he would sell her mother just to have 10 more points with 3DMark 2006 !

Not my kind of thing (having the ultimate CPU, the ultimate grphics card, and so on...), but I respect...

So, when he says that I must buy true PC, I think he must consider me as a weirdo.

In fact, I don't bother, and I think that's pretty funny. As they all know, at work, that I love old machines, they ask me when they want to know something about SDR-SDRAM, Windows 95 or 98, DOS, old CPU compatibility and specs...

What do your relatives, friends and so on say about your Thinkpad mania ?

Do you think Thinkpads are the only laptops to generate such passion ? I've never heard of a similar thing for other brands.

If I don't imagine an Acer community , but a Toshiba community, or a Vaio (I hate these things) commmunity must exist, no ?

(H minus 5 !!! )

W.

[tfflivemb2]

I get the exact same responses from some friends of mine.

I have NEVER overclocked a single machine before. I really just love collecting these older machines, because they seem to be standing the test of time...

[carbon_unit]

I remember overclocking back in 1999. I had an Abit BP6 and two Celeron 366's that clocked right up to 500 easy as pie. That was an awesome computer back then. Windows 2000 ran great on it but BeOS was amazing on it.
Since then I have decided quality beats quantity any day. That is why I use Thinkpads.
In my repair shop i fix many different kinds of copmuters. Everything from Emachines to Dells, Hpaqs, Gateways, Homebuilts, etc. Both laptops and desktops. I still smile when I use my Thinkpad.

[gator]

because they seem to be standing the test of time...

God, they do. Every thinkpad I look has that same timeless, classy appeal .... it is very hard for me not to judge other laptops when I have seen the very best (atleast in my eyes).

I really aprpeciate older thinkpads for thier design and performance. No other computer manufacturer made such good laptops consistently .... I own a 600X and it is SO amazing even today. People just cannot beleive that it is more than 7 years old!

[WarMachine]

A friend of mine, who lives near Spain, repairs a lot of machines, installs Windows on them...

He had numerous laptops in his hands, and he says that thinkpads are very special. He wouldn't buy one, because thre are expensive, but he loves them too. He has an X41 @ work, and he says that those are the most resistant laptops. He works in a pharmaceutic group, and there is a lot of micro dust... Laptops generally stop functionning very quickly (he told me that he had 2 HP out 10 that broke in one week). And still no problems with the thinkpads...

I told him to have a look at the Panasonic Toughbook, which would be highly appropriate for his job, but they're really really expensive... So, Thinkpads are the most interesting deal...

Quality of thinkpads is not a legend.

as the build quality is the first thing I look for in a laptop, Thinkpad is obviously the better choice to make.

I prefer having a tank which will last, than a Formula 1 which will break after a few rounds...



W.

[NS]

Ok, to admit my true status..

I have worked part time in Singapore (repairing laptops) and to be frank about the statistics; HP/Compaq appeared top in the list (key caps start popping out one by one much faster than you can blink your eyes ), followed by..

Appeared top in the list (laptop repair -- hardware problems)... daily statistics:

1: HP/Compaq (40%)
2: Dell & S.V
3: Toshiba
4: Asus & Acer
5: Thinkpad & Fujitsu (<2%)

Those thinkpads which were brought in for repairs are just the LCD CCFL replacement (more than 6 years of daily usage) and just some thermal grease replacements.. We seldom have those hinge problem, keyboard problem and those common problems faced by other laptops..

**All statistics listed in this post are true and accurate at the time of posting**

Not all laptop brands are listed.

[wearetheborg]

Ok, to admit my true status..

I have worked part time in Singapore (repairing laptops) and to be frank about the statistics; HP/Compaq appeared top in the list (key caps start popping out one by one much faster than you can blink your eyes ), followed by..

Appeared top in the list (laptop repair -- hardware problems)... daily statistics:

1: HP/Compaq (40%)
2: Dell & S.V
3: Toshiba
4: Asus & Acer
5: Thinkpad & Fujitsu (<2%)

Those thinkpads which were brought in for repairs are just the LCD CCFL replacement (more than 6 years of daily usage) and just some thermal grease replacements.. We seldom have those hinge problem, keyboard problem and those common problems faced by other laptops..
.

1. Number of Dells/HPs sold is probably way more than thinkpads.
2.Thinkpads typically have a 3 year warranty, and are serviced mainly at IBM centers.
3.Dells/HPs have a consumer line which fail more often.

My experience with thinkpads in our group is high failure rates by years 3-4.
See also
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=32267

Personally, I've owned a dell inspiron and a T30. the inspiron is still alive after 7 years, survived a fall to ground.
The T30 is dead after 5 years, and no fall.

[tfflivemb2]

My experience with thinkpads in our group is high failure rates by years 3-4.
See also
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=32267

Personally, I've owned a dell inspiron and a T30. the inspiron is still alive after 7 years, survived a fall to ground.
The T30 is dead after 5 years, and no fall.

Sorry, but that poll doesn't hold water for me. You have to keep in mind that there were only 46 people that voted in that poll....that's 46 people that came to a site looking for information, most likely because they had a problem. How many people are still plugging away on their thinkpads?

Furthermore, I have a whole fleet of Thinkpads (roughly 25) that support the fact that they still run after a long period of time. The ones that I have that died, were generally the result of physical damage or something silly like a dead hard drive.

Here is a partial listing of the older systems in my collection:
701CS
560
760
770
755
360p
750P
730T
380

All of these work, I might have just purchased them stripped, but they were certainly operable. Here is a slightly outdated pic of my collection.

I have worked on 400+ Thinkpads, and most were problems resulting from the end user, not the Thinkpad itself...usually software and viruses. Yes, I have had a few that were Thinkpad related problems like the "Blink of Death" in a T20, and a few "pulsing fans" in the T23s, but that is because I sought them out, to try to learn how to fix them.

[pianowizard]

I suppose you're like me when you're waiting a new laptop, no ?

I've owned over 40 laptops (28 Thinkpads) and I still get excited about each new acquisition.

Do you think Thinkpads are the only laptops to generate such passion ? I've never heard of a similar thing for other brands.

Apple is another one.

I have NEVER overclocked a single machine before.

Me neither, though I've underclocked two Packard Bell desktops.

1: HP/Compaq (40%)

From what I've read, there is a huge difference in quality between HP Business laptops and Compaq laptops. I don't think it's fair to lump them together.

[kensplace]

The poll mentioned earlier is a bit harsh, to it a defect can be a single dead pixel.....

[carbon_unit]

Personally, I've owned a dell inspiron and a T30. the inspiron is still alive after 7 years, survived a fall to ground.
The T30 is dead after 5 years, and no fall.

I have a 10 year old 760ed still going strong (well as strong as it can), it looks like it has been to hell and back but it still runs. I have a pile of dead Dells, Hpaqs, and gateways at work that are all less than 10 years old. Based on that I draw a different conclusion than you do. We all have different experiences.
All companies are going to make a dud here and there. It takes more than a small sampling of a few units to determine which line is better.
Almost all companies make some good laptops but they are expensive, Most consumers buy the cheapest laptop they can get. You get what you pay for.

[WarMachine]

It takes more than a small sampling of a few units to determine which line is better.

Ab-so-lu-te-ly !!!

We had a client who had bought an external case for his HDD, and he had to return it twice, because he had problems with it (don't ask me what problems, I don't remember).

We sell lots of this case, and, even if it's a low price one, we don't have much problems with it (less that 2% of RMA).

But this guy was terribly angry because of the two consecutive problems.

He sent us a mail, and I had to answer... No need to say that it was a bloody answer.

The guy had extrapolated, by reading the comments about the product on our site (ca. 100 comments, at this time), that we had 15% of faulty cases, because ca. 15 comments were bad.

My answer was based on the idea emmited by Carbon Unit in the previous post.

That was the gentle part of the answer.

For the fun, the bloody part of the answer was because he wrote that :

- As the product is defective, the guy wants to see a lawyer. (a product he payed 9.75€, FYI )

> For me ? [censored] !

- Our direction must smoke the carpets, if we sell such [censored] cases.

> [censored] again !

- He supposes that the Taïwanese who delivers the cases must promise sexual taïwanese specialities to our guys, so that we accept such a product.

> [censored], and degrading...

- His grandfather wouldn't wan't to use this case for his candies.

> Again and again... Buuuuuuuuuullshit !

My answer (translated grosso modo, english is not my native language) :

"The pertinence of your toughts will not solve the problem about this case. So, I won't consider them...".

I've never had news of this guy !!! I suppose the case finished in a trash...



W.

[ambientscape]

LOL!!