#17
Post
by rkawakami » Sat Jul 28, 2018 3:26 am
As somebody who has gone through more than his fair share of T23 systems from eBay (last count was 58 machines), let me chime in with this:
1) Back when I was seriously collecting T23 laptops (about 10 years ago), the cleanest and cheapest SXGA+ systems I bought was for around $80-$90. Some were good right out of the box. Others had disclosed problems which in some cases were easily solved; like removing a defective MiniPCI combo (WiFi and ethernet) card. In fact, that was one of the reasons why I liked (and still do) the T23; some of the common problems had simple solutions. Others, like the infamous detached inductor(s) only required disassembly and some soldering time.
2) Nowdays even a fully spec'ed T23 (1.2Ghz CPU w/1GB, built-in wireless and SXGA+ screen) is barely capable of running Windows XP SP3. Possibly one of the many varieties of Linux would function better, assuming you could find one that still supports the ancient graphics processor. Firefox, and I believe Chrome as well, consumes so much system memory and along with the resource requirements of the various multimedia add-ons (Flash, Java, etc.), that even browsing the web can significantly slow the system.
3) The crack in the lower left corner is fairly common. I think I have had about a dozen systems with it. As was stated upthread, the only way to fix it would be to swap in another (used) plastic base. There's also a couple of other weak points in the bottom chassis; it tends to crack the thin keyboard bezel on both the right and left sides near the front corners of the keyboard. This is the usual result when a thin aluminum mounting bracket in the Ultrabay frame breaks. Repeated opening and closing of the lid then puts pressure on the bezel, which snaps.
4) My history on eBay has included some "bad" deals; mostly shipping-caused damage due to the seller not adequately packing the system. As to PayPal, it is a necessary evil in that in the early days of eBay, one could pay for items without having to use PayPal. And over the years eBay and PayPal has evolved into siding more with the buyer in a dispute, rather than the seller. Not to mention the increasing fees that sellers must deal with when using eBay. As my time on eBay has been primarily on the buying side (I have sold some high-end radio scanners and other electronics), I haven't been exposed to that end of the transaction as much as some other members here have. My opinion is that eBay and PayPal is still safer than Craigslist for buying and selling Thinkpads, but not as good as going through the Marketplace forum here. The "problem" here is that you tend to deal with a small group of people who are more "in the know" with what the system might be worth and are more critical with defects. Conversely, eBay offers sellers more eyeballs on an item and therefore more chances that the selling price could be higher. Minus all the fees of course...
Good luck with your sale!
Ray Kawakami
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) which can sometimes max out the processor.
