i1300 Multiple Questions and Tale (sorry)

[roonyj]

I have an i1300 (P3-750 Mhz, 256 MB, 20 GB, CD/CDRW, 10/100 Ethernet NIC , 13.3, Windows 98 SE) with a tale and several questions.

I bought a nearly identical machine about a year ago that had several problems -- tinny broken sound, instability, inability to recover fully from sleep, overheating. After trying to fix it the seller (USANotebook) sent me another. The hard drive of the first machine was carried over. This one has the same problems -- except for the overheating (so far). I've had a several thinkpads and none has been as problematic as this model. SO my questions are:

1) Is there something wrong with the i series?

2) Can I upgrade to Windows XP and would that solve anything?

3) Is the tinny broken sound -- even on things like the Eudora "You Have Mail" alert -- a system problem?

4) IS the 256 memory OK? I read elsewhere that the i series is supposedly limited to 192. Norton Utilities reports a problem with the memory, the same problem it reported on the previous machine. USANotebook pooh-poohed this Norton result. But I do seem to have limited memory, and get messages to close programs in order to run others.

Thanks for any help you can offer. I love the site.

[AlphaKilo470]

For the overheating, I would first look at the system fan. Get a can of compressed air (or if you have an air compressor in your garage, use that with the blower nozzle attached but make sure pressure isn't too high) to get every spec of dust out of the fan and vent. Keep air blowing in and use different angles until you hear fan spin freely and see zero dust left.

For the broken sound, open up the volume control program in Windows and try turning down the wave volume and system volume a little bit.