After all, I'm a little bit disappointed with my T42p

[ndee]

Before I got my Thinkpad, I only heard good things about IBM notebooks. A friend of mine, recommended me a Thinkpad. In his class, after one year, the Dell notebooks all had problems, but not his Thinkpad. I also heard other good stories about IBM notebooks. So now, 1.5 years after my purchase, I'm a little dissapointed.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

That was back in April, the screen acted funky and in the end, the motherboard had to be replaced. The same thing happend to a friend at school which had a T42, after about 1 year of use.

So now, the next problem comes up. My DVD drive: When I want to watch a DVD, I have to press the drive against the notebook, because otherwise, the vibrations are so loud, that I can't enjoy the movie. That started just some months ago and it's getting pretty annoying. It's not only while watching a DVD, also whenever the drive is accessed. I'm sure IBM/Lenovo will fix that problem for free while under guarantee, but it's still annoying. I have to drive to the IBM center and also pick it up. If I send it, it'll take a couple weeks or so I've heard from another friend who had to send in his Thinkpad(took about 4 weeks til he got it back).

Now I'm wondering, is there just a hype about the Thinkpads or did I just have too high expectations?

[BBB]

My t42p is on its way back to have its motherboard replaced after the USB ports decided to go on strike. Also, mine buzzes as you describe, but only seldomly.

I made the (reluctant) decision to buy an IBM based on the reputation they seemed to have, and I'm also a bit unimpressed. Never had a lick of trouble with three Macs, and one Sony.

[pae77]

If you expected your machine to be perfect and never require service, then yes, your expectations were too high. It is not unusual for TP's to have a few problems requiring warranty service over the years. That's what warranties are for. That is why I like and only purchase machines with the three year warranty that most T series come standard with.

If you go play with a Dell (or any other non ThinkPad laptop for that matter) for an hour or two, I think you will quickly see that your TP is, in most respects, a superior machine to what else is available in the market. But no, they are not perfect and they may require service from time to time. Still wonderful machines imo.

[ndee]

If you expected your machine to be perfect and never require service, then yes, your expectations were too high. It is not unusual for TP's to have a few problems requiring warranty service over the years. That's what warranties are for. That is why I like and only purchase machines with the three year warranty that most T series come standard with.

If you go play with a Dell (or any other non ThinkPad laptop for that matter) for an hour or two, I think you will quickly see that your TP is, in most respects, a superior machine to what else is available in the market. But no, they are not perfect and they may require service from time to time. Still wonderful machines imo.

Yeah, I think my expectations are just too high. I know that the Dell are quality-wise nowhere near where IBM is IMO. I like to compare the IBMs with the Powerbooks actually. Do you think the quality of the IBMs and Apple Powerbooks are on the same level?

[christopher_wolf]

All the Thinkpads I have had in my Life are still running, even the 701C Butterfly, which is a Decade old now, still boots up to Windows fine on battery and can even connect to the internet, so can my T20...This is *way* more than can be said for the Majority of Windows Laptops out there, especially Dell and HP (ugh), except for Toshiba which have been pretty good so far. IBM and Apple are pretty High-End Laptops; remember though, if there is a problem, you can't just expect it to solve itself and then give up when it doesn't. IBM has always listened to Customer Feedback and has bent overbackwards, much like Apple, to serve the User Base....Sometimes, this doesn't always make the two companies money, but it is a Good thing they do and they should keep it up. I have had around 10 Laptops over the course of 12 Years; I can say without doubt that IBM and Apple have the highest quality...I would be crazy if I said that about Dell or HP. Part of this is how the user responds to the computer as well, if you don't care about maintaining it, although Thinkpads require very little Maintenance, you will find the natural outcome of neglecting something. It isn't Hype that Thinkpads are excellent Laptops, rather, it is reall experience and nominal expectations from Professionals and others who have use them over many years. I can't say I know what the Service is like outside the US, because I have only experience of what it is like inside the US, but I have never had to send in any of my Thinkpads for service, if they needed something...it was a user-capable job and they responded as predicted. My first two Laptops were a PowerBook and an IBM 701C Thinkpad, and they both had excellent quality...IMO, IBM and Apple are at around the same quality level when it comes to their Laptops; which is why I have a Thinkpad and a Powerbook

EDIT: [censored], I started writing when I saw the original two posts, and now two people already posted before me; Ah, Well....

[pae77]

Yeah, I think my expectations are just too high. I know that the Dell are quality-wise nowhere near where IBM is IMO. I like to compare the IBMs with the Powerbooks actually. Do you think the quality of the IBMs and Apple Powerbooks are on the same level?

I really can't say anything about that from personal experience because I have never used Apples.

[ndee]

All the Thinkpads I have had in my Life are still running, even the 701C Buttefly, which is a Decade old now, still boots up to windows fine on battery and can even connect to the internet, so can my T20...This is *way* more than can be said for the Majority of Windows Laptops out there, especially Dell and HP (ugh), except for Toshiba which have been pretty good so far. IBM and Apple are pretty High-End Laptops; remember though, if there is a problem, you can't just expect it to solve itself and then give up when it doesn't. IBM has always listened to Customer Feedback and has bent overbackwards, much like Apple, to serve the User Base....Sometimes, this doesn't always make the two companies money, but it is a Good thing they do and they should keep it up. I have had around 10 Laptops over the course of 12 Years; I can say without doubt that IBM and Apple have the highest quality...I would be crazy if I said that about Dell or HP. Part of this is how the user responds to the computer as well, if you don't care about maintaining it, although Thinkpads require very little Maintenance, you will find the natural outcome of neglecting something. It isn't Hype that Thinkpads are excellent Laptops, rather, it is reall experience and nominal expectations from Professionals and others who have use them over many years. I can't say I know what the Service is like outside the US, because I have only experience of what it is like inside the US, but I have never had to send in any of my Thinkpads for service, if they needed something...it was a user-capable job and they responded as predicted. My first two Laptops were a PowerBook and an IBM 701C Thinkpad, and they both had excellent quality...IMO, IBM and Apple are at around the same quality level when it comes to their Laptops; which is why I have a Thinkpad and a Powerbook

EDIT: [censored], I started writing when I saw the original two posts, and now two people already posted before me; Ah, Well....

You are lucky to own two notebooks But thanks for your info, I appreciate that.

[DIGITALgimpus]

Most computers have a problem or two over their lifespan, but Thinkpads tend to be pretty good. My personal favorite thing is IBM/Lenovo stands by the warranty. I kept my A31's warranty extended, and in August had some problems... they tried to repair it, but couldn't get it done. It took a while (supply issues) but they eventually got me a T43 as a replacement because they couldn't fix mine.

I'm pretty sure Dell won't do anything like that. I know Apple has (I know someone who had the same experience as I did, but with Apple).

As far as quality goes, Thinkpads are about on par with Apple Powerbooks. IMHO Apple's slightly higher in quality (they scratch, but they don't break), but both extremely good quality. IMHO the only two laptops I'd recommend to anyone.

[davidspalding]

I've played with a few TPs and a couple of Powerbooks (I still have an antique 5300 which I was going to do ... something ... with; such a lovely keyboard, wish I could recycle it). Powerbooks are built well, and are superbly reliable, but you have to watch out on updating them. My ex's Powebook G3 (400 mhz) was great with MacOS 8.x, but when we upp'ed it to 9 to run Quicken, suddenly the DVD player software was kaput. Apple just wouldn't support it. Other things kinda got left behind as well; gee, THANKS Apple. We finally rolled it back to MacOS 8 for stability.

That butterfly keyboard ... some may've snickered, but you have to hand it to IBM for some of their innovations. Composite covers (the T in the T line, so I'm told), the Trackpoint "eraser head" pointing device, blue "scroll" button, back and fwd buttons hugging the arrow keys, "Thinklight" keyboard illumination,... The list of great IBM innovations is pretty long.

Oh, let's not forget that up to the T4x line, TPs continue to sport full-sized CTRL and ALT keys. There are some of us out there who truly use them, and can't stand "Windows" keys on the keyboard crowding out more useful keys like SPACE, FN, and the arrow keys. The new Zs are cute, but their keyboard finally caves into fashion. One of the reasons I didn't get one.

I have an old HP OmniBook 800CT, which is still working reliably. It's due to become a little Linux server soon. Too bad HP doesn't engineer products as well as the old OmniGo/OmniBook line. The 800 was a little dynamo, in a package the size of a hardcover book, and still works hard for me.

[Michael1980]

You would be crazy to buy a Powerbook now, it is the most troublesome revision for years.

TPs are not exactly what they used to be in the T23 days (I did not have earlier models, but apparently they were even better).

Generally, the quality of all laptops has gone down somewhat.
IMO IBML, Apple and Sony (and maybe some Portege/Tecra Toshibas) still make the best laptops out there.

[christopher_wolf]

Agreed, the newer HPs aren't anywhere near as good as the Old Omnibooks; I know, since I have a 233MHz Omnibook and a, now defunct, 2.0GHz HP ze57XX Series..Really, the Omnibook did much better in ust about everything. The updating issues with PowerBooks is, more or less, related to Apple itself. They stay with something for awhile, provide excellent support, but when they roll out an update, they slowly withdraw all ties with the former product as an incentive for their Users to migrate slowly from one system to another. IBM does this to some extent as well, but not as much. The Butterfly keyboard just shows you that IBM has, and always will, pay attention to problems and come up with well designed engineering solutions. Another good example is the HPA Pre Desktop Area.

This doesn't mean, however, that IBM always jumps on the latest new "fads." A good example of this is the X41 Tablet. When Tablet XP came out, everybody was so excited to use it...and promptly, quite a few companies came up with slapped together Tablets that suffered from amazingly ridiculous problems. Then, a few years later, when things had calmed down somewhat, Toshiba rolled out theirs...and it was better; then, at last, IBM came out with the X41 Tablet, which became so popular that they have had issues with shipping them due to high consumer demand. Some people have claimed that IBM isn't innovative, that is not the case. Remember that in 1992 and 1993, IBM actually had some very good Tablet PCs (700T, 710T), then Apple came out with the Newton. Did these take off at that time? Not really...but they were *far* more innovative than just about anybody else bothered to be. Same with the TransNote and others; that is, until, the Feel Good era of the late 90's came along and we got loads of ideas that were "innovative" but didn't make the slightest bit of sense.

Also, I am very glad that I don't have a "Hard" Windows Key on my Keyboard...that is *NOT* an Option for me. I simply configured my right Alt key to act as the Window Key and have not had any problem thus far.
A Windows key is essentially wasting valuable keyboard space for something that does a *very* simple task in only one OS. What if you want to install BSD? Linux? What then? You still get stuck with a physical windows key there. Which isn't the brightest thing to do.

For me, sticking with IBM and Apple for such a long time has paid off big time; as an investment, I can say *nothing* bad about it all, I have always gotten the job done with either a Thinkpad or a Powerbook,

[kyrotech]

Modern ThinkPads T4x are not near the durability of old ThinkPad 600X.

Lately Ive seen many 600X's, most with 256 RAM and 40 GB hdds, running fine and even with some battery charge left

And between the T43 and the T40, the T40 is a stronger model.

Some will fail and requiere service, but that 3 year warranty helps a lot.

And yes, a ThinkPad will always be a ThinkPad...

[christopher_wolf]

My 701C still holds an hours worth of Battery Charge

[ndee]

Thanks for all the info!

Well, called IBM the other day and the guy told, they might just send me a new DVD drive, if it's true, I will change the topic title

Cheers!

[davidspalding]

Having spent a couple of hours working with an X41 Tablet (the 6SU machine type, I recall), I can that this is one hardware innovation that's probably better than the OS that's running it. Most I've worked with think that Windows XP Tablet edition is either due for a little evolution, or will be sort of atrophied.

I'm concerned about that hinge. I could probably have broken it easily. Not that a proud owner would, but still ... I think it should be a bit bigger, heftier. Aside from that, the buttons on the screen, the size, would make this a superb eBook reader. Maybe in 5ive years they'll be down around $1000.

I'm with you, Berkeley, on that Windows key. The new Z series have the windows keys, and ... nope ... I don't believe the keyboards are any wider. Frankly, I'm a LOT more productive with full sized ALT and CTRL keys on both sides. I only use 1 or two of the Windows key combos. If they had more, or you could customize them (duh! that's an idea, why hasn't Redmond come up with that).... Like WIN + Z to launch the screen saver ... WIN + I for Internet Explorer ... I like the WIN + L to "screen lock," why'd they stop there? Numbskulls.