Have some questions about my "new" T23

[goofyGAguy]

Morning all. Yesterday I received a T23 I won on eBay to replace my recently passed T21. While the difference in speed is amazing, I do have a few issues.

I think most important is the fan. It almost never runs! When I first booted it up, it ran for one HOUR ( I wasn't doing anything but web surfing) before the fan came on and ran for about seven minutes. Another forty-five minutes went by before the fan came on again.
Meanwhile the bottom left part of the laptop is getting quite warm. Does this sound right for the T23? The T21 fan ran at least three times this often.

Also, the description box in the auction clearly stated that Windows XP was installed on the laptop, but when I booted it, lo and behold,
Windows 2000 is on instead. Would this be cause to ask for a refund or replacement? Many thanks.

[tfflivemb2]

You could try installing MobileMeter to see if your temps are really of any real concern.

[dorronto]

You could try installing MobileMeter to see if your temps are really of any real concern.

I agree. MobileMeter is an excellent program...

Use it on all my laptops....

Ron

[dsigma6]

I also have mobmeter running to monitor my HD temp and CPU frequency, while I use tpfancontrol to run the fan once a specific temperature is reached (50C) in my case. If I'm doing something intensive, I'll keep the fan on level 6 until I'm done, which keeps the CPU quite cool.

Google tpfancontrol or find it in the utility threads. I was quite disspapointed with the fact that the fan wouldn't come on until 82C was reached, or if the temp was above 65C for an extended period of time. That's the reason I'm ditching my T20, as I need to have control of the cooling.

As to the OS discrepancy, it's not what it said it was, so send it back if it bothers you. The T23 XP discs will ask for the serial number, so you can't just install it like you would W2K.

By "bottom left" of the laptop, I assume you mean underneath the pentium/windows stickers on the keyboard bezel, which would be your HD. I had a psycho HD in my R40 that went up to 80C...watch out for that!

edit: Would you mind posting the item number so I can see what the OS deal is? Or PM if you'd like.

[rkawakami]

I think most important is the fan. It almost never runs!

Could be possible that the previous owner applied some Arctic Silver 5 (aka thermal grease/paste) to the top of the processor so that there's better heat transfer onto the heatsink. I noticed that when I've used some of that stuff, that the CPU temps do decrease a little bit. It's in the order of about 5-10C so it may be enough to keep it below the fan turn-on threshold.

Just to make sure that there's nothing wrong with either the fan or the temperature sensors, you can grab a copy of PC Doctor for the T2x series and run a couple of tests on those components. As it turns out, there was a thread about a T23 fan about a month back:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=31668

where I've posted the info on PC Doc.

[BruisedQuasar]

Morning all. Yesterday I received a T23 I won on eBay to replace my recently passed T21 -- the auction clearly stated that Windows XP was installed on the laptop, but Windows 2000 is on instead. Would this be cause to ask for a refund or replacement? Many thanks.

Yes, you definitely have a real complaint. My advice is to email the seller about the discrepancy. Wait a few days for a reply & send the email again. If you have no reply or you do not get an offer to negotiate a sensible way to make you whole within ten days, I would file a complaint with eBay. A negative feedback is also in order but you can be retaliated against with negative feedback from the seller. Shady users and shady sellers use feedback as a weapon. The rare occassional when I must give Negative Feedback, I do what I call sniper feedback. Feedback ends 90 days after the sale closing. You can time feedback so the seller cannot retaliate.

I do not consider return the item at your expense, compensation, especially if the seller charged excessive shipping to begin with.
I would go a charge back or Paypal refund of the sale price. If the seller just made a mistake, a charge back is better for both of you.

For what its worth, I'd go for some compensation but I think you are better off with W2K. Its yours. XP is much bigger and not as fast as W2K. With the auto updates XP will get slower and slower.
You can clean reinstall W2K in 20 minutes and auto install drivers and updates at the Lenovo-IBM site.

[goofyGAguy]

Sorry for the delay in responding; been a long day.

OK got Mobilemeter installed and have been watching it closely for about an hour. The Temperature reading has been fluctuating between 47 C and 54 C, and the HDD #0 between 47 and 49. Does that sound Ok? I have no clue.

dsigma6, I looked into tpfancontrol , and it seems like that utility would be way beyond the scope of my abilities to implement. From what I read it seems like it would only work with XP anyway. And by item number I assume you mean the eBay auction number? If so, here it is: 140045506639. Don't know how to make it a clickable link, sorry.

Ray, whoever owned the unit before me apparently has already installed PC Doctor! I will run it soon and report what it finds, if anything.

As far as returning the laptop, it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle. I would almost certainly have to pay shipping both ways, and there's no guarantee I wouldn't wind up with something worse.

Thanks everyone, it's been a big help.

[rkawakami]

Ray, whoever owned the unit before me apparently has already installed PC Doctor! I will run it soon and report what it finds, if anything.

If you are referring to PC Doctor for Windows (accessable off of the Start Menu), then I don't believe that version will contain tests for the fan or temperature sensors (at least they aren't in my version on an A31). What I am talking about is the DOS version of PC Doctor.

PC Doctor is/was supplied by IBM as part of their standard system software package. On some systems the DOS version was supplied as well. If you don't have the DOS version, then you can obtain a copy from the thread I specified.

[goofyGAguy]

If you are referring to PC Doctor for Windows (accessable off of the Start Menu), then I don't believe that version will contain tests for the fan or temperature sensors (at least they aren't in my version on an A31). What I am talking about is the DOS version of PC Doctor.

PC Doctor is/was supplied by IBM as part of their standard system software package. On some systems the DOS version was supplied as well. If you don't have the DOS version, then you can obtain a copy from the thread I specified.[/quote]

It would appear you are correct.