Do I still have the same ThinkPad (not a serious post)

[zzyss]

Just wanted to relate the recent history of my ThinkPad T40, if only for historical purposes. Hopefully it might also contain some information that would be of use to somebody somehow.

I originally purchased my T40 a couple of years ago from an Education Special from Hong Kong, hence it is a custom model, the difference with the original source is less RAM (I had to add 256MB myself to make 512MB), normal modem instead of bluetooth modem, 802.11b wireless instead of a/b, 6-cell battery instead of 9 and lower spec processor (1.5GHz instead of 1.6GHz). The machine also came with a really good carry bag and sleeve. I was delighted with it, gave up all my desktop computers and never looked back.

Original product description (from Lenovo.com/support):
Product: ThinkPad T40 2373-HH5
Operating system: All

Original description: Based on 2373-92H: P M 1.5GHz, 256MB RAM, 80GB 4200rpm HDD, 14.1 SXGA+(1400x1050) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 9000, 16x10x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD(slim), Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 6c battery, WinXP Pro

A couple of minor quibbles at the time:

• One of the buttons rubs up against the screen and caused a mark. I tried using a cloth, but it just ended up making a larger buff mark. It's not really noticeable until you turn it off.
• The stupid Ultranav software keeps making fake dead pixels. The first time I came across this, I did some Very Bad Things to the screen to try to make it go away (I use a mouse, you see, so I never figured to hit the middle Scroll Button on the ultranav). The screen survived, and no dead pixels to this day.
• The hard drive was slooooooow. With 512MB, there was still a lot of churning.

I was a bit disappointed that it couldn't play the recent generation of games (eg. Half Life 2, Doom III, etc.) but that was small potatoes. It ran all of my old and favourite games just fine.

Upgrades:

• First upgrade was to take out both pieces of 256MB RAM and replaced them with 1 piece of 1GB PC2700. I know the T40 only takes PC2100 but I couldn't get PC2100's any more at the time. Churning was reduced a little, but didn't make too much difference in performance otherwise.

Later on, I managed to get work to pay for a huge raft of upgrades:

• 2GB PC2700 RAM
• 80GB 5400rpm hard disk
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2200GB
• Multiburner Plus
• ThinkPad Mini Dock
• New battery

Problems and repairs

I've sent this machine in to have the motherboard replaced for the common USB2.0 problem. When they gave it back to me, I found that they had damaged the screen (resulting in a clump of dead pixels). So I sent it back and they replaced the screen (all under warranty, mind you). So for the inconvenience of losing my TP for 2 weeks, I got the main system components replaced.

In addition to the above, I ran into a little bit of problem with MS Office and Adobe activation programs. Both thought that I installed onto another machine, so I had to reactivate. Windows didn't have any problem though, probably 'coz it's an OEM.

Another time, I accidentally poked my speakers into the little fan thingy above the audio socket, and I heard an audible cracking of plastic. Not sure what I broke, but it didn't seem to have any visible, or function effect on the ThinkPad.

I've popped out keys many times (mostly just to clean muck from underneath), and managed to put them back just fine, but when I was installing the Mini PCI card, I accidentally popped out the entire rig for my down arrow key. I spent probably the better part of an hour trying to get it back together. I succeeded in the end, but now that key is slightly lower than the other keys, although it still feels and functions just fine.

So yeah, at the end of all that, I practically have a brand new ThinkPad. The only thing original I still have is probably the CPU and the external housing. I would still love to upgrade the processor if reports are true, that I can potentially put a 1.8GHz Dothan or higher...

Thanks to the excellent Hardware Maintenance Manual, as well as the wonderful self-help installation videos, I've managed to do all of my own upgrades (RAM and Mini PCI card).

Seriously, I love my ThinkPad.

[zzyss]

Further comments (micellaneous)

• I found that the Multiburner Plus requires more effort to close (requires a good stiff shove) than the Combo drive.
• I've used both Intel PRO/Wireless 2100B and the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG with my WRT54G with absolutely no problems whatsoever. However, I did have to do a little bit of firmware juggling to find the optimal configuration.

By the way, the question I posed in the subject line is an obscure reference to "The Ship of Theseus" philosophical problem where the eponymous ship has its planks replaced one by one until the entire ship's planks has been replaced. Therefore, is it still the same ship as when it was first built?

[byron]

Just out of curiousity.... do you use hibernation? I had 2gb of memory in my T42 and it would only hibernate about 50% of the time. Apparently it's common with any XP installation (not just Thinkpads). I ended up getting so frustrated with the inconsistency of hibernation, I just took at 1gb of memory.

See this for more info on the hibernation problem.
http://www.ntwizards.net/2004/10/13/hibernate

[zzyss]

Just out of curiousity.... do you use hibernation? I had 2gb of memory in my T42 and it would only hibernate about 50% of the time. Apparently it's common with any XP installation (not just Thinkpads). I ended up getting so frustrated with the inconsistency of hibernation, I just took at 1gb of memory.

See this for more info on the hibernation problem.
http://www.ntwizards.net/2004/10/13/hibernate

No, my ThinkPad almost never goes off; when I close the lid it just goes onto standby. One other issue I haven't discussed previously, and this reminds me:

• Standby issue: I discovered that if you have Nero version 5 or prior installed, then you will only be able to stand-by once per boot (that is, if you try going into standby a second time, it won't). Solution was to upgrade to Nero 6, or to uninstall Nero altogether.

That reminds me too, I have Windows XP SP2 installed. I generally patch and update drivers once a month, so am usually running the latest of whatever.

[zzyss]

Just another update to my little saga:

The day before Easter, my TP started hanging for no reason (screen would just freeze up), and eventually got to the stage where it just simply refused to boot at all (turned on, and all that happened was the fans would run, but shows nothing but a black screen). Randomly, it would beep a series of 4 beeps repeated a few times, which I found indicates security chip error.

Anyway, had a read about the problem on the forums here, and determined that the problem is almost certainly due to flexing the motherboard. Some brief thinking revealed the culprit to be the way that I undock from my TP. I used a slight twisting motion, which likely caused the TP to flex, causing the mobo to fail.

Luckily, I still have a few months left on the warranty, so I sent it back in and they duly replaced the motherboard. Sadly, I noticed that they stuffed up the screen, in the same place again, but this time much less noticeable. It doesn't seem like dead pixels so much as some dust underneath the screen. I'll shortly be upgrading to a T60p anyway so I'll let it go this time...

[jdhurst]

My T41 has a different hard drive, more memory, a different CPU, a new screen (warranty) and now a new system board (warranty). Windows has never wanted to be re-activated, possibly because I never did more than one change at one time. ... JD Hurst