Advice on Japanese Laptop

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ambientscape · #1 Post by **ambientscape** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 10:35 pm

I'm planning to get one Japanese market Thinkpad (S31) but before that I have few questions to ask fellow frumers here:

1. Can I reinstall the OS to an English ones?

2. Is the keyboard the same with the QWERTY keyboard system?

3. Can I get software updates from the IBM website?

Thanks

#2 Post by **AlphaKilo470** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 11:06 pm

From my understanding, if you install English Windows on a foreign laptop, it'll function alright with the exception of not being able to use the foreign language characters of the keyboard unless you install a language pack.

However, for Englsih only, the computer will still be fully functional. If I'm not mistaken, the QWERTY layout applies to almost all languages.

AIX · #3 Post by **AIX** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:12 am

It seems it is QWERTY; take a look at this pictures:

http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:S30

dmar · #4 Post by **dmar** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 3:58 am

Ambient,

Sorry I can't answer any of your questions. But I do have some of my own regarding your S31 pickup.

1. Where are you getting it from? Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, elsewhere?
2. What's the relative price range?
3. Please tell me your findings if you're successful/not successful with the installation of the English OS.

I'm asking these questions because I'm sifting through a bunch of S30's in China, and have only stumbled onto one S31 thus far. I think the owner is asking too much for it (~575USD) w/o the external Optical or floppy. Anyways, I can always drive down the price, but don't really know where the sweet spot is for the S31s.

Thanks!

ambientscape · #5 Post by **ambientscape** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:42 am

dmar wrote:Ambient,

Sorry I can't answer any of your questions. But I do have some of my own regarding your S31 pickup.

1. Where are you getting it from? Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, elsewhere?
2. What's the relative price range?
3. Please tell me your findings if you're successful/not successful with the installation of the English OS.

I'm asking these questions because I'm sifting through a bunch of S30's in China, and have only stumbled onto one S31 thus far. I think the owner is asking too much for it (~575USD) w/o the external Optical or floppy. Anyways, I can always drive down the price, but don't really know where the sweet spot is for the S31s.

Thanks!

I'm going to get it from Japan.......but before getting into this thing, I need to do research first on the problems. I'm not sure whether its worth for me to get my hands on those. Will the local IBM centre be able to service it?

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:08 am

You can download all IBM drivers and software without a problem, except certain commercial software such as WinDVD, Sonic RecordNow!, DLA, PC Doctor for Windows, and maybe a couple of others.

Downloads and drivers Product: ThinkPad S31

Advice on Japanese Laptop

Advice on Japanese Laptop

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