Got a T43P

[malch]

Howdy to the forum. I just received a used T43P. Everything seems to work on it.
I have to learn how to make the screen more readable. 1600x1200 has very small icons and text.
Burning the recovery disks at the moment.
Bought a 320 gb sata hard drive for it after I make the "pata to sata" mod.
The only thing I dont like about it so far is the lack of a paper user manual.

[Neil]

Greetings, and welcome to the forum! An SATA modded T43p is a nice machine!

IMHO, the best way to make fonts more readable, without loosing screen real estate, is to choose a larger global font. Another option would be to use a lower DPI setting, which makes everything look bigger. I just wear my glasses and enjoy beautiful hi-rez screen.

I suppose you could print a copy of the on-line manual, if you really want paper.

[sarbin]

welcome!

there's no pdf user guide, as i recall - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides- ... D=UM002042
instead, install this (Access IBM, on-pc user guide), if you don't already have it - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS001339

and, a few add'l links to help get you going...
setup guide - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides- ... D=UM002110
service & troubleshooting guide - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/guides- ... D=UM000361
driver matrix - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... D=HT035703
hardware maintenance manual - http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-58791

[malch]

Found the hardware manual and printed it but couldnt find a pdf of the users on line. I havent figured out how to print out a html users manual.
Working on readability ...
I pressed on a bunch of spots on the keyboard and wrist-rest trying to make the solder balls fail but it's ok so far.
oops sarbin posted while I was typing.

[ajkula66]

Don't stress over GPU/SB failures.

Keep the unit on 24/7/365 and never let it go to sleep, just turn the screen off when not in use to preserve the CCFL.

Welcome to the club of SATA-modded T43p owners.

[malch]

"Don't stress over GPU/SB failures."
I stress. There have been a lot of failures. I wonder if anybody has a list of FRUs of failed M/Bs.
Maybe just one FRU fails. Mine is # 39T5637.
Thanks for the setup URLs sarbin

[ajkula66]

I stress. There have been a lot of failures. I wonder if anybody has a list of FRUs of failed M/Bs.
Maybe just one FRU fails. Mine is # 39T5637.
Thanks for the setup URLs sarbin

Define "a lot" in percentage.

You'll have a very difficult time finding anyone (apart from Nick Paton aka poshgeordie in the UK who re-balls boards for living) on this forum who has gone through more T43/p units than myself.

This far, I've had one GPU and two SB failures along with one machine that died out of the blue without warning. And I mean died as in completely failed to show any signs of life ever again.

The oh-so-reliable T60/p generation has returned a *significantly* higher failure rate in this household.

Yes, a T43/p can fail.

Just like anything else built by human hand.

That's why I had advised you not to stress over it in the first place. If it fails it fails.

Not just one design - let alone one FRU - can be deemed problematic. The machines that failed on me had almost nothing in common.

The advice that I've given you is an empirical one. Keep the laptop on, and the temperatures stable. TPFC is your friend.

These are the fabulous ThinkPads. Second on my list of all-time favourites.

Enjoy yours.

[lophiomys]

now you made me curious.
What is your all time favourite?

[ajkula66]

now you made me curious.
What is your all time favourite?

A31p, hands-down.

Apologies to OP for taking his thread off-topic.

[Adda]

Don't forget to check out IBM_ECW

[malch]

Are IBM_ECW and TPFC compatible? Tried IBM_ECW before I took the laptop apart. I would like the fan to run slowly all the time.
Sure tell this laptop is negative pressure. Dust in the pc card,usb and audio ports. The fan sucks air from inside the case and expels it straight out.

[Adda]

IBM_ECW can control the fan just like TPFanControl.