New T43, and SO Disappointed.....

[bvaughn]

First, make sure that SpeedStep is enabled. The ThinkPad should have a program called ThinkPad Power Manager. Make sure that CPU speed is set to "adaptive." This means that the CPU will run at full speed only when necessary.

Where do I find that power-manager function? I have a T42p. I can find a program called ThinkPad Configuration [Start->All Programs->Access IBM->ThinkPad Configuration], which has a "Power Management" menu option, which has an "Advanced Settings" choice, which displays a multi-tabbed dialog box called "Power Options Properties" -- and nowhere among the tabs for that box can I find a way to select CPU speed.

There is no other reference to power management on the list of programs.

[jdhurst]

If you don't like the machine, dump it (quickly). My T41 works near perfectly in every respect. Considering I have fallen on it and broken the LCD and case and dropped it on the floor with no damage, I am *really* happy with it (no, I am not accident prone).

I have set up T42's for clients and they gush over them. It is creating repeat business they are so happy.

I have never had the opportunity to set up a T43, but no doubt, I will and will report accordingly.
... JD Hurst

[GeorgeP]

Biosales, I think your best bet is to return your machine. It seems like there are lot of things you don't like about it. You may want to avoid machines with the Sonoma chipsets, in general. I've heard of similar fan noise problems with the HPs and Toshibas using Sonomas.

That said, there are steps for quieting the fan down. Many are mentioned above. Other things you might try are setting the wifi antenna at "best power savings" (since the wifi antenna generates heat and can trigger the fan, and underclocking the GPU (in addition to the CPU) with CHC). My T43 runs very quietly after taking these steps. But I agree, the machines should be quieter without having to tweak them.

G

[beeblebrox]

If you don't like the machine, dump it (quickly). My T41 works near perfectly in every respect. Considering I have fallen on it and broken the LCD and case and dropped it on the floor with no damage, I am *really* happy with it (no, I am not accident prone).

I have set up T42's for clients and they gush over them. It is creating repeat business they are so happy.

I have never had the opportunity to set up a T43, but no doubt, I will and will report accordingly.
... JD Hurst

I think, the T42 series was the best in line of the T-series so far. I have been using my T40p for over a year now, and am very satisfied (after some sever problems within the first 2 weeks... fan, motherboard replaced etc.). We have hundreds of notebooks in our company, and a few days ago I had to work on a "borrowed machine", a t43.
I must agree with Steve007, with Sonoma it is very different. Noisy (I didn't have time or software to fool around with settings), hot and the battery didn't last long. I didn't like the keyboard, it was weird. Never thought, that Thinkpads would differ that much...

General accepted opinion in the industry is that Sonoma is a first (missed) shot by Intel. They blew it with their new power-hungry PCIx chipset. I had a talk with Intel folks last week and learned that the next generation Yonah stuff will be much better designed and cooler to run (we'll see...). They mentioned that Sonoma had some real unexpected power problems.
So my personal "lessons learned" was: never buy a 1st. generation product. It is always "Banana" -hardware/software that is ripe after a long time.
I decided to keep my trusted T40p until next year 2nd. release of Yonah.

[mysbca]

One last question...how come I can't brighten the display when on battery to the same level it's at on AC power? I know, I know...it'll cut into battery life.

Go to Thinkpad Configuration -> DISPLAY -> LCD -> set brightness to HIGH.

[mysbca]

I paid over $2400 (minus tax) for this machine,

What else did you add to it? Extended warranty/Thinkpad Protection? The list price for 2686m5u is only $1829 before tax.

[egnatius]

I have to agree with biosales. My previous Thinkpads were an A21m and a T30 which proved to be very solid and reliable machines. I now have a T43 (2668-ES1) and I have to say that I am underwhelmed by its quality. Yes, it's lighter and much thinner than the T30 but I can't believe how hot the palm rests and the touchpad can get. The CPU temperature hovers around 60°C all the time while doing light tasks like word-processing and web browsing. As far as I can remember my old T30 never felt warm to the touch (at least near the palmrests) even while gaming.

Add to that the fan noise and the infamous 2010 error (yes I was unlucky enough to buy an aftermarket HDD which was not supported) and I have to say that I have been disappointed by this purchase.

[Navck]

All PC's are full of cheap Chinese crap - it's the IBM software, chassis & support that make them stand out from the pack. It's never been about performance. Intel are partly to blame here as everyone relies on their chip sets and it doesn't help when they release a dud.

Hey hey, watch it. My parents are Chinese.
AND before Lenovo was here, IBM was made in China still, infact look at a nice T30 and see where its made from

[syhead]

I love my T42...

anyway... have you considered the Acer 8X00 series?

[biosales]

So I've been working on this TP off and on all day. Now I'm really annoyed, because as day goes into evening and my surroundings get quieter, this dang thing has gotten louder.

Guess it'll be going back. What a hassle.

I'm not sure I feel right about spending good money on a T42 at this point. I already have a 2yo Compaq....why spend more money on year-old technology, no matter how great it is?

[K. Eng]

Good manufacturing and bad manufacturing can be found all over the world. Just because something is made in China does not mean it is "cheap."

All PC's are full of cheap Chinese crap - it's the IBM software, chassis & support that make them stand out from the pack. It's never been about performance. Intel are partly to blame here as everyone relies on their chip sets and it doesn't help when they release a dud.

Hey hey, watch it. My parents are Chinese.
AND before Lenovo was here, IBM was made in China still, infact look at a nice T30 and see where its made from

[biosales]

I paid over $2400 (minus tax) for this machine,

What else did you add to it? Extended warranty/Thinkpad Protection? The list price for 2686m5u is only $1829 before tax.

Extended warranty, extra Slim Bay battery (or whatever it's called), DVD burner, 1GB RAM, extra AC supply

[K. Eng]

Yeah, it sounds to me like the machine just doesn't fit you. In any case, perhaps next year there will be offerings that meet your needs. This year's offerings weren't all that exciting...

Next year there will be dual core processors with virtualization, more efficient chipsets, Serial ATA becoming common in mobiles, PCIe expansion cards, etc. Battery life should get better in the new machines.

Guess it'll be going back. What a hassle.

[padpad]

The T43s already have Lenovo lable on its back, while T42s have not.

[egnatius]

Yeah, it sounds to me like the machine just doesn't fit you. In any case, perhaps next year there will be offerings that meet your needs. This year's offerings weren't all that exciting...

Next year there will be dual core processors with virtualization, more efficient chipsets, Serial ATA becoming common in mobiles, PCIe expansion cards, etc. Battery life should get better in the new machines.

Guess it'll be going back. What a hassle.

Not to mention those new Z series Thinkpads that are coming out in September. Widescreen displays and better multimedia capabilities... *drool*

[tom2517]

So I've been working on this TP off and on all day. Now I'm really annoyed, because as day goes into evening and my surroundings get quieter, this dang thing has gotten louder.

Guess it'll be going back. What a hassle.

I'm not sure I feel right about spending good money on a T42 at this point. I already have a 2yo Compaq....why spend more money on year-old technology, no matter how great it is?

Why don't you consider a ULV from other brand (I don't remember IBM use ULV chipset for T-series). Those intel chip sets runs cool, even the LV chipsets are up to 1.7 or 1.8Ghz now.

[Rhino]

The T43s already have Lenovo lable on its back, while T42s have not.

My T43p says IBM, not Lenovo. No Lenovo badging anywhere, just IBM and ThinkPad.

Why don't you consider a ULV from other brand (I don't remember IBM use ULV chipset for T-series). Those intel chip sets runs cool, even the LV chipsets are up to 1.7 or 1.8Ghz now.

I do remember seeing ULV IBM Thinkpads for sale on the site. I forget what model, but I am 99% sure they have them for sale right now. Although the max cpu speed I saw for these models (if I remember correctly) was something like 1.2GHZ.

[Greg Gebhardt]

If you are not happy, just return it. I have a friend with a Sony that has the same processor and it is louder than my 43.

I still can understand what the bother is with some fan noise. I can only hear mine is a dead quite room and am quite happy. You can return your 43 and try your luck with another brand.

[Inky]

However, I foresee being extremely aggravated by this fan. And being a perimenopausal female, I don't need any more extreme aggravation. The last thing that got me extremely aggravated is now living across town...

LOL!
My recommendation is to get a T42. I recently got a T42 (model: 2373 M2U) and I absolutely adore it.
Since I'm sensitive to fan noise, I looked for a ThinkPad that would give me what I need in a quiet machine. I documented my entire decision making process in two threads, and even though the subject line focuses on selecting screen sizes, I think you might find the post helpful:

UPDATE on 14.1" Vs. 15" screen dilemma.

-Inky

[fefland]

I realize this thread is a couple weeks old, but wanted to chime in with my dissatisfaction. I ordered a T43 (2686-DGU) and was displeased. For me it wan't fan noise, as mine was actually quiet. For me it was the excessive heat, keyboard issues, bad pixel, and DVD tray not opening. I have had a Thinkpad in the past and was very pleased. I felt that the issues I had coming from factory were unacceptable, so arranged for return. I reordered the model again and when I received it, the stickers were crooked (very), two adjacent stuck pixels, very flexy keyboard, noisey fan, and hot. The fact that Lenovo thinks that bad pixels are normal, that they have assemblers slapping on stickers carelessly, and the fact that they use flexy, noisy keyboards makes me question their attention to detail and quality. I know that Thinkpad build design is superior (to me) then others. There needs to be good execution though when manufacturing. I think Lenovo is dropping the ball with respect to that.

[systemBuilder]

There exist T42's that are better than T43. I bought a T42 on a huge thinkexpress $600-off sale in august 2005 with ATI 9600 graphics, 1450x1024 display, high RPM 60 Gb disk, and multiburner - it was $1900 before software was added to it.

I spent a long time reading the forums and decided that I didn't want a hot, huge, T43 which wasn't really any faster, just +1 in the series. If I were you I'd send the T43 back and see if you can get a T42 or T42p with FireGL or X300 or 9600, although I think IBM has stopped offering the ATI 9600 on T42 since they ran out of machines whenever they did that ***grin***...

[lithium726]

I think also that t42/p serie would be better for persons that use their laptop only for office purposes (i mean not game/multimedia/encoding/...).

....why?

The MR9600 in the T42 is just as fast if not a little faster than the X300 chip in the T43, the i915 runs hotter than the i855, the up from DDR to DDR2 did a whole lotta nothing, the 400 -> 533 increase in FSB speeds is neglidgable since hte pentium M has never been bottlenecked by the bus...

So why is the T43 better for those who use it for gaming, multimedia or encoding?

[gunston]

I THINK (not to offend anybody) that the t43/p is the better in the t serie. Even if my t43p is noisy, i forgive it.
I think also that t42/p serie would be better for persons that use their laptop only for office purposes (i mean not game/multimedia/encoding/...).

I feel that the t43/p serie is too young at this time. But if in a future bios version we can disable the 2010 error message (for hdd) and if there is a way to avoid the t43/p blowing cold air, it would become a great machine...

BTW oooo people !!!! Avoid quoting a quote that quotes a quote. That makes threads unreadable

totally agreed with you,
Hopefully, IBM will fix the bios bug soon. because after reading all the threads above, i just felt like that my T43 isn't a good machine compare with T42 and T41.

[christopher_wolf]

It is just a message in any event (although an annoying one at that)

Doesn't make the T43 better or less than any of the other T4X Series Thinkpads.

Maybe IBM was being cautious, there is a SATA-PATA bridge in the T43 series and the controller is SATA as well; they could have been trying to warn the user of problems with HDDs from other companies that they foresaw as not working well with the bridge. Although I have put several HDDs in my T43 thus far and noticed no difference in terms of actual loss of performance because of incompatibilities with the bridge. That is the only way I can explain the 2010 error.

[danny_isr]

I think also that t42/p serie would be better for persons that use their laptop only for office purposes (i mean not game/multimedia/encoding/...).

....why?

The MR9600 in the T42 is just as fast if not a little faster than the X300 chip in the T43, the i915 runs hotter than the i855, the up from DDR to DDR2 did a whole lotta nothing, the 400 -> 533 increase in FSB speeds is neglidgable since hte pentium M has never been bottlenecked by the bus...

So why is the T43 better for those who use it for gaming, multimedia or encoding?

you ignoring the benchmarks like memory speed that the T43 knock down then T42. or anything that require CPU ,

The was a guy here that compare T42p 2.1 and T43 1.8. and for pure CPU the T43 was faster !!

About the x300 it all depends on the benchmark. on some the 9600 was slightly faster and on other the x300.

so DDR2 and the new FSB did improve the speed.

One thing to remember , there is never huge jump in performance between a model and the one that replaced it. it's always small steps . you need to jump few models to see a big jump

[gunston]

danny_isr,
yeah i totally agreed with you,
actually there was no big and obvious improvement between 2 model.

[nimativ]

t43 is made by lenovo(check the back label) that's why.
I have a t43 and i'm reasonable happy with it.....but gotta admit the attention to detail of previous thinkpads is kinda missing.

[christopher_wolf]

t43 is made by lenovo(check the back label) that's why.
I have a t43 and i'm reasonable happy with it.....but gotta admit the attention to detail of previous thinkpads is kinda missing.

What? The T43 is still part of the T4X Series...There is no "missing" attention to detail that I have seen. This is, quite frankly a myth. It was designed with the same R&D teams that went through the T42, T41, and T40...Nothing about that changed. And it was not the first system made by Lenovo (that was the Z60 Series) , it was labeled as such under the deal between IBM/Lenovo; yet the design of the T43 has strayed little, if at all, from the original premise of the T4X Series of Thinkpads.

[jhonyl]

What does a post from Aug 2005 is doing here at the top?

Well obviously, sending back the [censored] thing is no longer an option, and you probably have already solved all problems with NHC, and the Fan Control Program thread (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17715). Moreover now new buyers can get T60s, so this thread is so 2005.

[Hanson]

The T43 is "Manufactured for Lenovo" not "Manufactured by Lenovo".