How satisfied are you with your T2x?

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linux_inside v2 · #1 Post by **linux_inside v2** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:07 pm

Hey guys, i have a T21 type 2647-8AA

Gotta say, out of any of the machines ive owned, I love thinkpads the most
This is my second thinkpad, the former being an A22P and out of all the machines i've owned this is the most solid.

It's probably around 5 years old now and still looks good as new, well besides the ram and mini-pci covers which are losing rubber because it is bubbling. oh and the lid is a bit too weak for my liking (the ability to affect the screen with touch on top of the lid scares me lol)
but besides that, i can't see anything wrong with it!

I've owned two Compaq Presario's, one being a K6-2 400mhz a model 1645 iirc and a presario 700ap but they were pretty poor with the build quality

not to mention the most linux compatible laptop ive used to date.

*hugs thinkpad*

what about you guys?

#2 Post by **schen** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:02 am

I bought my first ThinkPad (701c) based on engineering and design, but kepted using them due their build quality. I spent some time managing IT departments much of it involving purchasing and managment of inventory. During this time, I spent quite a lot of my time working with and researching different manufacturers. This included mostly Dells, HPs, Compaqs, Toshibas and Sonys as well as some lesser brands. Over that span of time, I also became familiar with ThinkPads of the 500, 600, 700, T, A and X series and came to the conclusion that they were the best laptops for the money. Combining features, performance, support and build quality.

To this day, we use 2 ThinkPads in our house and 6 other members of our family use various models as well.

betabill · #3 Post by **betabill** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:06 am

I presently have 3 T-2x series ThinkPads, all are reconstructed with used parts I bought on Ebay. I just purchased a Compaq V2403 for a Christmas present for my son, after removing all the Compaq spam the V2403 still dragged it's feet, and I felt more content owning three 5 year old ThinkPads. Only thing I miss on the ThinkPad 2x's is more than 1 USB port and of course USB2.0.

I have an almost new AMD64 system at home which rarely gets used since I got my first ThinkPad working.

linux_inside v2 · #4 Post by **linux_inside v2** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:17 am

betabill: yeah mine are reconstructed from spares

makes it all more worthwhile

i built my sister an A serie, dunno which one but the chassis is similar to my 2647 t21 (i.e not the chunky a series) could be the A22p or something

i'm hoping to pick up a mainboard for my t20 with a dead mainbord and i need a screen cable too, i really love these things to bits

and i used to work on them back in the day ( a few months ago ) while i was working at a pc shop (where i got the 2 t21's and amalgamated them to create my laptop)

best built laptop ever! now i am trying to get all the UltraBay 2000 options, i picked up a floppy the other day at a swapmeet, hoping to get the hdd and battery now, and also trying to get the port replicator.

i've often found myself cleaning this thing alot, which i never do with my eMac or my AMD64 Gaming box and of late i have been using this more thanks to the wonders of WiFi and playing with linux on it

#5 Post by **schen** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:28 pm

Mine have been cobbled together as well. My brother is the real ThinkPad mechanic in the family. My last two machines have been standard T22 and T23 that he put the SXGA screen in

. We had a variety of A2/3x as well as the T2x and I have say that the T series have been my absolute favorite laptop of all time. I've got all the Ultrabay devices as well, but tend to not use the Zip250 or the SuperDisk very often. IMHO the battery and HDD are well worth getting. We've also accumulated a variety of Docks and Port replicators that are used regularly. If you are interested in a full-blown Dock with or without matching Monitor Stand 2000, let me know. I have an extra.

pmurray63 · #6 Post by **pmurray63** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 1:42 pm

Well, I loved my T23 the five months that it worked, until the screen went dark a few weeks ago. Now I'm in the "do I put more money into this or just cut my losses" mode. Not sure how up I am for trying to fix it myself.

Update: I bought a screen off eBay and replaced it myself. It has a couple of light spots the seller didn't mention (grumble), but my T23 is back in action again.

Antonio · #7 Post by **Antonio** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 2:55 pm

I first started out with a Toshiba laptop, I dont rember the model number it was nice, but died, so I got myself a T23 and I love this laptop far better than the Toshiba was.
I am now myself am after a Full Docking station its a bit hard to come by here in the uk

Boricua65 · #8 Post by **Boricua65** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:19 pm

I started with the TP 600E and enjoyed its quality build. Then I wanted to get one a little faster so I got the A30. The d***n thing was too heavy for me, so I got the T22 and have been happy since. I replaced the motherboard because it was having memory issues. It is light enough to lug around, especially during lunch time (in front of my job, there's a wireless hotspot).

linux_inside v2 - I have a T2x series mobo if you are interested. I got it off eBay for a friend of mine, but it looks like he may not want it.

datasgirl · #9 Post by **datasgirl** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:21 am

i bought my t22 on ebay for parts... it has wierd issues but is otherwise a decent computer. i am proud to own a working computer that says scrapline on the bottom.....

djpharoah · #10 Post by **djpharoah** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:45 am

what i love about my T20 is that parts are so readily available and so is support ssince it was a very popular model.

-dj

t20user · #11 Post by **t20user** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:34 am

I love my T20 T22 and T23 laptops, but I question the reliability, in particular the video and motherboards. They seem to have problems a lot, but Im not sure if these are just from misuse as I have strictly bought used.

My first laptop was an NEC Versa 4050, built like a tank and never had a problem, in fact it still works to this day. Its just worthless with a 90Mhz proc. My second was a Dell CPI 266. That was a POS and I will never buy another mega-mass produced, same as your neighbors Dell laptop. Then I got a T20 then a T22 and then a T23. The T20 is great just a tad slow, the T22 was a mistake by the ebay seller so he let me keep it and shipped me the T23. It is heavily worn, but still my daily use machine. The T23 has bad mobo symptoms and I'm not sure what to do with it but cosmetically looks brand new.

MadMikeSS · #12 Post by **MadMikeSS** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:59 am

I picked up a T23 off ebay recently. This makes my 2nd laptop, my other being an old Compaq Armada 7730MT. Other than the HD going on that it, it's a solid laptop but way old now.

I bought my T23 because my father in law just picked up a T21 for use while he's on the road working and stuff and I was pretty impressed with it. So I started hunting down a Thinkpad for myself. I'm about to upgrade the memory and I'm looking into an HD upgrade also. I think I lucked out with this purchase too. This T23 looks like it was barely used.

I'm quite happy with my T23 at this point.

#13 Post by **schen** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:54 pm

I'll have to disagree with T20User on the reliability of the T2x series. I've personally run the course with all the machines in the T series, and found them to be extremely reliable. Various members of my family all have ThinkPads evenly split between As and Ts. So far, they've been pretty fail-safe as well. In my other life, I had to support notebooks by various manufacturers as well as ThinkPads including 380s, 560s, 760s, 600s, as well T2x, T30, and T4x. The reason I use them personally is my experience with their reliability and tech support.

On the other hand, I had lots of issues with Sonys, Compaqs and C Series Dells. And don't even get me started on the off brands like CTX and KTX! The only brand that I found to be close in reliability had been Toshiba.

Of course I'm not in your shoes, but I'm betting that you might have gotten some machines that have not been well taken care of.

djpharoah · #14 Post by **djpharoah** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:39 pm

it all depends from who/where you purchase your laptop.
i bought mine from my neighbor who was a university prof and he was selling it because he was getting a laptop from the university.
so my current T20 was in pristine condition.

-dj

t20user · #15 Post by **t20user** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:28 pm

I think you are right, I probably own heavily used machines or someone hacked into them one too many times. The only other thing I base my comment on is the number of posts I see about a bad motherboard or bad video. But maybe its just that I read the bad news too much.

Mechanically I find them superior to anything out there, and design is second to none. ALL Dell machines I have used are pretty crappy IMO.

T22 4me · #16 Post by **T22 4me** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 1:14 am

Although I have had a few issues since I reinstalled Windows;
and recently installed Linux;finding the issues where more windows issues than Thinkpad issues,

I still like my T22 as much now as the day I got it after buying it on ebay.......................I have never been disappointed in its peformance.
Its a portable computer;thats what I use it for.

Seen the latest "Snickers" commercials? "Its only satisfying if you eat it"
same thing applies.............................

AIX · #17 Post by **AIX** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 2:48 am

I like (my) T22 - good machine, but I love my T41

edit:: after I bought my T41, I had two option: to sell the T22 or to keep it. I kept it and gave it to my wife. We sold the desktop. Happy family

#18 Post by **schen** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:09 am

When I left an IT job in Chicago a few years ago, I returned a T20, and a X20 along with various accesories. My wife left her job in consulting and returned her 600x. I thought my days working with notebooks were over since our new jobs didn't require much travel. A year or so later, my wife returned to school and I was able to get a 760ED for nothing. So I loaded it with RAM and a fresh OS so she could do papers in her recliner with it (pregnant at the time). I've been totally unable to get her out of that recliner for computer work ever since! At that time, we had a file server and each had a high-end desktop with 20" monitors.

Since then, the desktops have all gone, we have a moved through 3 generations of ThinkPads and have helped her sister, parents and 2 friends migrate to the little black boxes as well. My brother and his entire extended family use them as well.

I'm currently a teacher and use mine virtually every day in the classroom attached to a projector and a Smartboard. The kids love it. These older ThinkPads are just extremely additive and used ones are the best deal going for every day computer tasks!

MadMikeSS · #19 Post by **MadMikeSS** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 4:31 pm

AIX wrote:I like (my) T22 - good machine, but I love my T41

edit:: after I bought my T41, I had two option: to sell the T22 or to keep it. I kept it and gave it to my wife. We sold the desktop. Happy family

I like my newly acquired T23, it's nice to have a portable computer. But I would never give up my desktop in a million years.

I have put way more money into it and it's my gaming machine. I could probably gave the same hardware in a gaming laptop, but it would cost me 3-4 grand. And my watercooling just wouldn't fit in the laptop I don't think.

Gord K. · #20 Post by **Gord K.** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 4:46 pm

I was recently in the market for a used laptop with a little more power than my Compaq Presario Pll 300 machine. A local computer store had some refurbished machines including some T21's and I am now a convert. I have the 2647-8AU model. If, or when, I need a newer laptop the Thinkpads will be the first ones I look at.

Gord. K.

Temetka · #21 Post by **Temetka** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:59 am

I have a T23. I am very happy with it. It's very light even with 2 batteries and a wifi card in it. I love it's keyboard, and even more so, the thinklight. This machine is very durable. I have had an ethernet cable attached to it for doing some very large file transfers from my tower, and tripped over the cable. The machine fell about 3' to the ground. I feared it was all over with, some cracks in the case atleast.

There was no damage. None. It went to sleep when the lid closed. When I opened up the LCD if was thinking it would be cracked. Just as perfect as the day it arrived at my house.

I tripped over it again later on in the same day. Still no damage. I have since routed the cable along my office wall (home) to avoid any further incidents.

I only wish there was a T23 machine with a radeon chip and 32mb of vram, 16 is acceptable (as it's still better than the savage). Maybe USB 2.0.

djpharoah · #22 Post by **djpharoah** » Sun Feb 12, 2006 2:29 am

Temetka wrote:I have a T23. I am very happy with it. It's very light even with 2 batteries and a wifi card in it. I love it's keyboard, and even more so, the thinklight. This machine is very durable. I have had an ethernet cable attached to it for doing some very large file transfers from my tower, and tripped over the cable. The machine fell about 3' to the ground. I feared it was all over with, some cracks in the case atleast.

There was no damage. None. It went to sleep when the lid closed. When I opened up the LCD if was thinking it would be cracked. Just as perfect as the day it arrived at my house.

I tripped over it again later on in the same day. Still no damage. I have since routed the cable along my office wall (home) to avoid any further incidents.

I only wish there was a T23 machine with a radeon chip and 32mb of vram, 16 is acceptable (as it's still better than the savage). Maybe USB 2.0.

lol
might want to move your thinkpad off your tower.

jks
-dj

dsvochak · #23 Post by **dsvochak** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:31 am

t20user wrote:

The only other thing I base my comment on is the number of posts I see about a bad motherboard or bad video. But maybe its just that I read the bad news too much.

Other than this one, there aren't many threads about "I love my TP and there's nothing wrong with it".

My first ThinkPad was a 701CS. Between business and personal machines, I've still got that, a 560Z, a couple T21's, and 4 T23's. Some were bought new, some used. In 10 years of using TP's the only time I ever talked to IBM service/tech support was related to installing Warp 4 on a Compaq desktop machine.

How satisfied am I with my T2X's? Enough that I keep buying them instead of T30's or T4x's.

asiafish · #24 Post by **asiafish** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:19 pm

Except for the speed, which is inadequate nowadays, my old 700MHz T20 was probably the most reliable laptop I've ever owned. It was very solid and never missed a beat. I regret that I ever sold it.

While I love my current brace of TPs (T42p and X22), that old T20 will always be a great memory. The X22 is made just as well and the T42p, while of slightly cheaper (in my opinion) build, is just so incredibly fast.

So yeah I agree, those old T2x models are terrific.

cakesy · #25 Post by **cakesy** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:47 am

I have owned a variety of laptops, Toshiba Porteges, Compaq Presario, Apple Powerbook, NEC, but the Thinkpads are the best. The porteges were ok, because they were very small, but even a slower passed Thinkpad outpaced them. My current machine, a T23, is a real crowd pleaser.

PS. I will never buy a dell, no matter what.

lithium726 · #26 Post by **lithium726** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:43 pm

I love my T23, with on exception... that [censored] savage video chip. Yeah, it works, but its slow and makes the machine UNUSABLE when loading large images in Firefox. That chip was one of the main reasons I wanted a new machine... but all in all, I love the thing.

its been banged around quite a bit by me, bought it from a guy on anandtech and it was in pristine condition when i got it... needs to have some plastics replaced now, ive managed to cause some cracks just by really rough handling. any lesser machine wouldve already completly broken down under my usage habits.

i just ordered a refurb T40 from IBM, i LOVE it. thinner and better built than the T2x series, better screens, and more importantly than the pentium-m, the mobility radeon.

nmuntz · #27 Post by **nmuntz** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 2:18 pm

I have a T21 that I treat like a rented mule. I've maxed it out with 512MB ram , 80GB 5400 rpm drive, DVD-R/CDRW etc. I take it with me everywhere and it's never failed me.

Recently, it's started having problems where it doesn't suspend right, even with a new HD and a fresh OS install. I've ordered a T43 to take it's place. As someone else did, rather than selling my T21, I've sold my desktop instead. I think I have an emotional attachment to that machine.

kaotic504 · #28 Post by **kaotic504** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:56 pm

i love my T22. i still use it. i loaded XP on it and i'm happy. besides the issue i'm having with the screen, i love it. my gf uses it to write reports and surf the web. basically it has all the power she needs. i'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't have usb 2.0 integrated b/c i transfer data back and forth a lot w/ my pen drive. and i'd like to get wireless w/o losing the ethernet port. other than that, it's still a great laptop.

#29 Post by **schen** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:58 pm

In most cases you wouldn't lose ethernet (more likely the modem). It's dependent on which MiniPCI card you put in there. With the Atheros chipped card I put in, I have ethernet and wireless which is perfect since I almost never use a modem. On my wife's machine, her intel card lets her have ethernet, wireless and modem, but it's only a "B".

Of greater concern is having to install the antennas in the machine for an internal card. So it's probably a better bet to use a PCMCIA adapter instead such as the 3Com card that several forum members seem to have had good luck with.

BruisedQuasar · #30 Post by **BruisedQuasar** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 10:24 pm

I have owned and used every top of the line current portable PC. My first was a 27 pound Tandy V-20, fast in its day when the 8088 was king. The Tandy was solid and came with MS-DOS & Tandy's Deskmate on a chip, which made it lightning fast for its day. It had a huge 20MB hard drive. I've had top of the line Toshibas, Fujitsus, Compaqs (when Compaq was the executive's standard), Sharp-Timex, Sinclair Z-88 (a unique "tablet System" that ran on two AA Batteries, had intergrated business programs on a chip & three Gameboy like slots for adding memory and programs), and Dell.

I liked the Sharp and loved the Z-88 (1991) but I was not seriously impressed until I bought a refurbished T-23. Its adaptability, quality & amazing compatibility with Linux installers & configurators is truly unique.

I thought my highly adaptable, high quality Casio BE-300 PDA and HP Jornada 720 handheld were great engineering & manufacturing devices, until I got my hands on a Thinkpad four months ago.

How satisfied are you with your T2x?

How satisfied are you with your T2x?

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