My X1 Carbon purchase was a bad idea

[PsychBiller]

My beloved T40 has served me well for many years, but it's time to move on. I ordered an X1 Carbon with touch screen and Windows 8.1 Pro. It arrived in about five weeks.

The 2560x1440 resolutions screen feels short, if you will, probably in part because I'm so used to the T40's aspect ratio. But it gets trickier than that. At such a high resolution, they play some tricks so you can read the text under icons and such. But it doesn't always work as intended. There are times were text is too big and gets truncated, and heaven help you if you try to read a command prompt window. Get out your magnifying glass. After uninstalling Norton 360, I was unable to run the Norton Removal Tool for a more thorough cleanup until after I rebooted in "low video resolution mode." Bizarre.

Many have complained about the touchpad. I find it very difficult to do things like resize a window where you would normally left click and drag. It feels inaccurate to me, yet I am a devoted touchpad user on my T40. Windows 8.1 has a much lower mouse resolution (whatever that means--apparently important in gaming), and I wonder if that is some of the problem.

On the plus side, this sucker is FAST. It has an i7-4600U chip running at 2.70 GHz with 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

I've tried to keep an open mind about Windows 8.1. The touch screen is nice, and I use it some. But I have discovered what may be an honest to goodness bug in Windows itself that is driving me batty. Lenovo will not help me with this EXPLORER.EXE crash even though I paid for Priority Support. Their troubleshooting skills are far less than my own. A rather curt supervisor told me that once a problem gets to the point of not being fixed by restoring back to the factory image, they recommend that the customer return the system! I was positively speechless. Lenovo needs to get the X1 Carbon out there where people can see it and get the WOW factor. Giving up and returning the system is rolling over and playing dead awfully fast.

Currently, the lack of support and unwillingness to satisfy the customer are being escalated in a couple of different ways that I hope will pan out in the next day or two. If not, I think I will pack it up and return it. It's gonna break my heart.

I just don't know what to buy to replace my T40. That thing is a workhorse, but it's creaky and cracked and runs XP and has had more upgrades than it was worth to keep it going. I use my laptop for applications, not watching movies (well, occasionally) or playing games. I'm open to suggestions. My super duper business work machine is a W520. That's too big for a personal machine that is carried around some.

If you care to read the gory details, I'm working through these two threads:

http://www.eightforums.com/bsod-crashes ... 2-dll.html
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Windows-8-a ... -p/1509360

[RealBlackStuff]

If you like a small portable, I would suggest an X201 (12.1", 16:10) or the (slightly older) X301 (13.3", 16:10) and return the X1C for a refund.
There are lots of complaints about that X1C.

[Ibthink]

@PsychBiller,
sounds like some serious software problems.

About the resolution problems: It seems Windows isn´t ready yet for these super-high resolutions screens. Have you already tried to disable the Windows scaling? Maybe that could solve at least this one problem.

If you want an alternative, I would strongly suggest the T440s with FHD IPS. You can order it with Windows 7 and no Touchscreen. It has the same footprint as the X1 Carbon, only a little bit thicker, but also has more features, like a traditional Dockingport, VGA and Ethernet, a removable battery etc.

[PsychBiller]

Thank you for the suggestions, gentlemen. I am 98% sure that this system is going back for a refund. It's quite a shame.

[600X]

Highly interesting, the new ThinkPad Yoga which I received for testing displayed the same error after a few weeks: explorer.exe kept crashing.

As for alternatives, if you want something that can keep up with the build quality of the T40 (and even surpass it), the X301 is a great choice. Poeple who prefer classic ThinkPads seem to like it quite a bit. (I should know )

If you need more power though I think RealBlackStuff already said it all, the X201 is a good choice as well.

[PsychBiller]

Sorry to hear about your EXPLORER.EXE crashes. There are some documented causes and workarounds, but what I found was something new. The most common seems to be third party shell extensions. Disabling some or all of them helps. Search for "EXPLORER.EXE crashes" on support.microsoft.com and www.eightforums.com.

The X301 looks like it was a nice machine. If I could find one in excellent cosmetic shape, I wouldn't care if I have to buy a hard drive or Windows 7 Pro. The stuff from the salvage sellers look pretty beat up.

I did return the X1 Carbon, and am waiting for Lenovo to refund my money. I'm actually looking at a new Dell Latitude (gasp) because they have models with buttons on the trackpad like a ThinkPad should. Don't know if I can bring myself to buy a Dell, even in the business class, though. I've never been a fan.

[ideal-pc]

Personally I use a T410 with an SSD & love it! It's 14" screen is big enough & yet doesn't make the system too heavy. I refurb & resell loads of Thinkpads. I used to get loads of T40's as well as T41's, t42's & T43's through, don't see many of em anymore though. These days it tends to be T410, T420 & T430's (yes it's me selling the T430's on the marketplace, shameless plug over ) I also get loads of X201's & even a X220 which I found pretty impressive. I love the X201's except for the fact if you want optical it has to be separate or a dock which is why my favourite is my trusty T410. You could pick up a T4xx for £250 used & save yourself a bucket load & they have loads of power too!!

[w0qj]

+1

[Edited: 16:10, my bad!]
I upgraded to a T410 (16:10 aspect ratio) also with SSD, from a previous T42 (4:3 aspect ratio as you know).
The T410 was the last "T" generation to have this 16:10 aspect ratio.

The T410 comes with Win7 which arguable is still better than Win 8.1 from many users.
T410 is thicker than X1C, but it's got four (4) USB 2.0 ports among other benefits!

Personally I use a T410 with an SSD & love it! It's 14" screen is big enough & yet doesn't make the system too heavy. I refurb & resell loads of Thinkpads. I used to get loads of T40's as well as T41's, t42's & T43's through, don't see many of em anymore though. These days it tends to be T410, T420 & T430's...

[RealBlackStuff]

The T410 screen ratio is 16:10 (not 12:10).