Info on my new T40 2373 EU1

[Goldberry]

I recently purchased a T40 2373 EU1 and have some questions. The unit is exactly as the specs indicate from the factory.

Some history about the unit. I purchased it from an employee of a major accounting firm who provided the following info.

He received it from the firms lottery. It seems when their laptops warranties are up they replace the machines and offer them to employees for a very nominal price on a lottery system.

He indicated to me that it is their practice to completely wipe the hard drive clean before handing them over. It is then reloaded with XP pro. No recovery disks were available. There are thinkpad programs installed and a thinkpad configuration section in the Control Panel. All the blue FN keys seem to work. There is an XP COA sticker and serial # on the bottom

Can someone tell me if there is a way for me to check to see whether there is a hidden partition and if I ever had to reload XP what would I need to do.

Is it possible to also tell how good the battery is? I installed Notebook Hardware Control program and it gave the following info on the battery. Capacity 44310 full 48140 wear level 7% made by Panasonic. I tested it and used it for 2 hours 35 minutes before it reached 20% remaining. This seemed to confirm the 3 hours 5 min of time NHC shows when the battery is 100%

Can someone also tell me how satisfied I would be if I tried to use it to watch a DVD from the computer hooked up to a TV. Would the TV appear grainy. Any specific settings and what is needed to hook it up?

So far I am very pleased with this computer. My previous laptop was a Compaq armada m700 which I still have and also was excellent but just too slow for todays uses.

[ulrich.von.lich]

Can someone tell me if there is a way for me to check to see whether there is a hidden partition and if I ever had to reload XP what would I need to do.

Press the blue Access IBM button at startup, if it responds then there is a hidden partition. You can go to the predesktop area settings in BIOS to make it visible. It can also be accessed by using a Ubuntu live CD. It usually has the label named IBM_SERVICE. If you want to restore the hidden partition in the future, you can create recovery discs using ThinkVantage R&R software.

Is it possible to also tell how good the battery is?

All the information you need can be found in ThinkVantage Power Manager. Your battery seems ok. Panasonic makes better batteries than Sanyo IMO.

Can someone also tell me how satisfied I would be if I tried to use it to watch a DVD from the computer hooked up to a TV.

You can connect your T40 to a TV using a S-Video cable and a Scart adapter. But don't expect too much.

Help it helps, and welcome to the forum.

Cheers,
Tony

[bill bolton]

He indicated to me that it is their practice to completely wipe the hard drive clean before handing them over. It is then reloaded with XP pro. No recovery disks were available. There are thinkpad programs installed and a thinkpad configuration section in the Control Panel. All the blue FN keys seem to work. There is an XP COA sticker and serial # on the bottom

Its probably been loaded with a corporate SOE (Standard Operating Environment) when new, which would have blown away the factory configuration. Now, after wiping the disk clean, it will have had a "domestic" version of the SOE installed for home use by employees.

I'd be extremely surprised if there is any recovery partition in the SOE image.

And if I ever had to reload XP what would I need to do.

You would need an XP installation CD. You can get one from Microsoft for a small number of $$, by explaining to them that you have a COA on your ThinkPad but no media to re-install from.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Goldberry]

I believe Bill is correct. I went into the predesktop area and it shows the partition as disabled/empty and available for use.

With regards doing a complete reinstall of XP pro if I can get an installation disk from anyone, as long as I use the serial number on the COA should I be OK and it would be registered?

Tried hooking up the laptop to my TV using svideo to svideo and switching to TV in display properties. Computer Screen comes up fine but if I play a dvd using WMP or WinDVD I get no picture just a blank screen where the movie is. Anyone have a suggestion?

[bill bolton]

With regards doing a complete reinstall of XP pro if I can get an installation disk from anyone, as long as I use the serial number on the COA should I be OK and it would be registered?

Unless you get an OEM installation CD, the COA key will not allow you to do an install. However, if you can get any working retail key, you can use a retail installation CD and then change the installed key to the COA key (there may be an extra step in there somewhere, but it is definitely doable).

Tried hooking up the laptop to my TV using svideo to svideo and switching to TV in display properties. Computer Screen comes up fine but if I play a dvd using WMP or WinDVD I get no picture just a blank screen where the movie is. Anyone have a suggestion?

I've never needed to do this, so I don't know the answer, but this has certainly been covered here on a number of previous occasions. Do a search in the T4x forum on S-video.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Goldberry]

For anyone who ends up following this thread re hooking up s-video to tv to watch a DVD here is a method posted here by GomJabbar which worked for me.

The only thing I did different was hooked up s-video while TV off and Laptop in sleep mode.


http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=29818

1. Turn laptop on and plug in S-Video cable to ThinkPad.
2. Turn TV on and plug in S-Video cable to TV.
3. Set the TV channel to S-Video input (may be called rear input, front input, or something similar), just like you would do if you were hooking up a VCR or DVD player to the TV with an S-Video cable.
4. Right-click on an open area of the desktop and choose Properties > Settings > Advanced > Displays tab. You should see a red button on the top left of the TV panel in the settings box. Click on the red button, and it should turn green. If you do not see the red button, then the signal is not coming in from the TV via the S-Video cable.
5. When the button is green on the top left of the TV panel, click on the button just to the right of the green button, and adjust the settings if needed.
6. Click on the Overlay tab > Theater mode options.... button > under Overlay Display Mode, click on Theater Mode. If you click Same on all, you should see your video on both the laptop and the TV.