Indestructable 2611-472

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dave · #1 Post by **dave** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:12 pm

I just heard a story that I am sure many ThinkPad users will enjoy regarding the durability of ThinkPads... at least the 1472i model.

I had bought my son a 1472i (2611-472) a few years ago when he was in college. As soon as I got it, I had removed Win98 and done a clean install of W2K, and it ran fine with that.

After a couple of years the 6.2 GB hard drive died, so I got a bigger one from Bill at ThinkPads.Com and changed it with his help on directions to get it apart (since that with that model it is not intended by IBM that you can change the hard drive).

Then that hard drive died just after the three year warranty ran out, but Hitachi came through with another one to replace it free in spite of the expired warranty since I explained how it had actually died before the warranty expired by a couple of months but he didn't know what was wrong until I went there for his graduation from college and retrieved the machine to have a look at it.

Finally he finished college and went to flight training for the Air Force in Mississipi, and while he was there it quit working, so when I went to attend his graduation from Flight Training, I brought it back to Hawaii with me to trouble shoot it, and discovered that the keyboard had failed, so I bought a keyboard for him from IBM Parts, and maxed out the RAM at the same time mostly because Norton Ghost Recovery CD wouldn't run with less than with (I think it was 256K of Ram).

Since then, he has been using it with a wireless network card in his cardbus slot for internet access, and carrying it all over the world.... he is flying C-17's for the Air Force now... and he just told me on his last trip he had his ThinkPad just sitting on top of his bag under his seat in the back of the C-17 while he was deadheading back on the last leg of the trip, rather than in his waterproof Pelican computer case where he normally carries it while travelling, and the person who was landing made a kind of rough one unexpectedly and his Thinkpad went flying out from under his seat, across the cargo bay, bounced off a container, then flew all the way up to the front of the cargo bay and slammed against the cockpit bulkhead and came to rest.

The loadmaster picked it up and brought it back to him, and...... it turned on and it works perfectly and was completely undamaged!!

I'll bet there is not another brand of notebook that could survive that!

pianowizard · #2 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 4:02 pm

The I series was actually manufactured by Acer and is supposed to be the least well-made Thinkpad line. If you are impressed by its durability, you would appreciate the "real" Thinkpads even more.

dave · #3 Post by **dave** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:01 pm

pianowizard wrote:The I series was actually manufactured by Acer and is supposed to be the least well-made Thinkpad line. If you are impressed by its durability, you would appreciate the "real" Thinkpads even more.

OK I guess that shows I am wrong then. If it is made by Acer, then I suppose the Acer machines probably could take that kind of abuse also then.

I do have 770ED that is nearly 7 years old and still going strong, and while I have carried around the world for the first few years and it held up well, I never subjected it to that kind of smashing around, and the last three years it has turned into a desktop machine permanently residing in it's docking station.

gearguy · #4 Post by **gearguy** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 6:29 pm

pianowizard wrote:The I series was actually manufactured by Acer and is supposed to be the least well-made Thinkpad line. If you are impressed by its durability, you would appreciate the "real" Thinkpads even more.

You'd probably be suprised at just how many parts of the various Thinkpads were not actually made by IBM...

Believe it or not, thinkpads are not the be all and end all of laptops, regardless of what people may think.

pianowizard · #5 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 6:59 pm

gearguy wrote:You'd probably be suprised at just how many parts of the various Thinkpads were not actually made by IBM...

Would you provide some examples? Obviously, the processor, motherboard etc. aren't made by IBM/Lenovo, but what other parts aren't made by IBM/Lenovo?

gearguy wrote:Believe it or not, thinkpads are not the be all and end all of laptops, regardless of what people may think.

So, in your opinion, what brand is the "be all and end all of laptops"? Are Thinkpads not the best laptops available just because you have a broken T22?

christopher_wolf · #6 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:23 pm

gearguy wrote: Believe it or not, thinkpads are not the be all and end all of laptops, regardless of what people may think.

This seems quite a bit like a certain form of baiting...*hint hint hint*

Also, most Acer machines aren't built like that nor do they have that kind of a reputation at all. Which is one of the reasons that Acer didn't make any other Thinkpads besides the i Series.

furiousmonkey · #7 Post by **furiousmonkey** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 2:16 pm

If they were made by IBM or another company, they must of had there reasons why they chose or were chosen to represent the IBM logo.

My friend has a 1400i series 366mhz, and took it all over the world and back, it still goes strong. I bought her a 1300i series with a 750Mhz P3 and all the same we have placed the 1400i in a sort honored position, they will never part from it.

I enjoyed your story, and I have to say, I dont think I would own another brand of Laptop, even if it is made by acer, or put together by small church mice, in aleaky chapel.

losmeme · #8 Post by **losmeme** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:20 am

Dave;

What a great story!

Although all the parts possibly aren't manufactured by IBM, they are engineered and designed by IBM.

After reading about your sons experiences, I have to say that ThinkPads are the "Top Guns" of the laptop world!

All best wishes as he admirably serves our country. Nice to know he is backed up by such an amazing machine.