Thinkpad A31p just purchased from Ebay - Specs?

[Kowalski]

Hallo to everyone,

I am a Thinkpad fan since the famous 600 ( i still own one, upgraded it and handed over to my wife for home use ). Two years ago, i purchased a A30 from Ebay (2652-NS1) and loved it! I put on 1 gig of Infineon chip Rams, changed a somewhat faulty keyboard, threw in a PIII 1.2Ghz and a A31 PIV fan ( copper one ). I also got a 80gig 5400 disk and a DVD/CDR Combo. Great machine, amazing LCD.

Now i just purchased a A31p ( Ebay ofcourse ) for a really great price 3 day ago ( 355 Euros + 25 Euros shipping from Germany - isn't that a bargain or what? ) and i am looking around for the full specs of the machine, in order to make a list of all wishful upgrades i want to plan. The SN is 2653-AG5. I would really be obliged if anyone could give me info on this, as i already checked the tawbook.pdf ( it's not in there ) and the lenovo site just gives very little information ( almost generic ).

I have in mind to upgrade the RAM to 2gigs, add a 100 or even 120gig 7200 hard drive ( is there anyone with 16mn buffer? ), A faster wifi controller since i 'll be using in collaboration with my adsl wireless router, a faster CPU ( than the 1.8ghz one already installed ), any cooling option available for both CPU anf Gpu ( not to mention the northbridge of course ), a DVD-+R drive, bluetooth ( if not available in the above configuration ) and - if available - a Gigabit ethernet CDC to upgrade the 10/100 ( if this can be acomplished ).

I am asking for any help you can give me on the above. Thank you very much in advance.

Friendly Regards - and sorry for the long post,
John

[tfflivemb2]

Hi. Welcome to the Forum!!

If you enter your machine's info here, you will see that your specs are:

Product support

Product: ThinkPad A31p 2653-AG5 [change]


Operating system: All [change]

Original description: Based on 2653-N6G: P4-M 1.8GHz (512KB), 256MB RAM, 60.0GB HDD, 15.0 UXGA(1600x1200) TFT LCD, 8x4x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, Wi-Fi wireless/Modem(MPCI), Ethernet(CDC), IEEE 1394, IBM Secure Chip, Bluetooth(CDC), TV out, Li-Ion battery, Win2000

[JHEM]

Yassou John,

Welcome to the forum.

Nice A31p purchase!

Here's detailed info on how to change the CPU!

The better cooling fan you want from the 2GHz model A31p is IBM part number 62P4092.

Any 1GB PC2100 or PC2700 memory stick will work in the A31p, so feel free to shop for sales, although name brand memory is alwas preferred.

Regards,

James

[Kowalski]

Yiassou James, Kalimera! ( Goodmorning this means ),

it seems like you've either been in Greece in the past, or you happen to know greeks

Thank you both you and the other friend ( first answer ) for the feedback. I managed to find a "connection" of the link given above to check the specs, with the tawbook.pdf and understand the internals of this specific model. It seems like a nice configuration.

As for the fan, i already picked one up from ebay two hours ago ( right after i saw your post ) with the FRU you mentioned. It's the same copper assembly i 've put in my A30 in order to act better under heavy load.

Would you have something in mind to suggest about Memory Brand and latency timings, Hard disk@7200, and a specific model of wireless a/b/g CDC in order to ensure good reception and coverage?

Thank you again for your time, all of you!

Best Regards
John

Efxaristo! ( Thank you ! )

[JHEM]

Yiassou James, Kalimera! ( Goodmorning this means ),

it seems like you've either been in Greece in the past, or you happen to know greeks

Both! Have visited several times and have some Greek friends here in the US and in Elleniki. Although with a name like John Kowalski, you would appear to be a visitor yourself!

Would you have something in mind to suggest about Memory Brand and latency timings, Hard disk@7200, and a specific model of wireless a/b/g CDC in order to ensure good reception and coverage?

As I wrote earlier, the A31p isn't fussy about memory and will happily use any !GB PC2100 SO-DIMM you can find.

WRT HDs, I prefer the Hitachi 7200RPM units, either a 7K60 or a 7K100, but there are other good HDs available and price will often be the determining factor in a choice.

WRT WiFi, I prefer the Atheros based cards over the Intel ones for fewer problems and better range.

Regards,

James

[Kowalski]

Thank you James!

apparently, Kowalski is just my account name ( taken from an older book by Clifford Stoll " The cuckoos' egg" where - as far as i remember - Kowalski was somewhat of a mad scientist ). My real name is absolutelly Greek ( Not Onassis of course, neither Zorbas )

As for the memory, disk and wifi, i'll get PC2100, branded as i had some problems with noname in the past, Hitachi will do the job as for the Disk, probably a 7k100 and if this could be found, with 16mb of cache ( i had a Toshiba one 2 months ago with 16mb cache, 100GB, still 5400rpm ), and Atheros will complete the panel.

I'll keep you informed on the upgrade status, as soon as i have all things in hand.

Another issue i saw being discussed is the ability of all or some of the 400mhz bus CPUs to increase bus speed @533mhz just by jumpering two pins on the socket. Is this applicable to A31p?

Thank you!!

John

[Kowalski]

At last, laptop received yesterday afternoon.

Optical Condition, almost new. Funtionality, almost great, except some problems that i have to add, were mentioned by the seller.

- Screen seems to become a bit yellowish on the right hand side, especially at the bottom right side. Not something very easily identified by first look, still it exists and can be easily realised.

- Sound Card present, still, even if the system hardware manager does not refer any problems with the sound card, no sound coming out of the box. When i try to play a sound file i get the message no sound card present. I downloaded the latest drivers to install, but just before ending installation i got a message "Sound Driver Could not be found. Please try again", and the setup stops.

- The laptop has a strange Mini pci wifi/modem combo by Actiontec FRU 12P3863 (802MIP 3A i think) that i can not seem to find drivers anywhere. Lenovo claims that this card was an option for X31 machines as well as the A31 ones. No driver found. The only thing found when googling around, was on HP site from a laptop model that had this card on. Not working though...

Except for the above, the laptop runs great, and not in higher temperatures than my older A30 as i thought it would.

Any suggestions on the above matters are - of course - welcome.

Regards
John