T60 - first thouhgts

[alewis]

T60 arrived this morning.

I have to give some praise for the ebay seller, http://www.tier1online.com/ The T60 was described as Grade C - ie cracks in case and other cosmetic flaws. Well, if what arrived is Grade C, I can't imagine what Grade A is... this laptop is almost immaculate. I was astounded at the condition it is in.

Ok, first thoughts on the T60. I LIKE it Lighter than my T22, yet more powerful and obviously faster in all respects. I'm in two minds over the keyboard, it doesn't feel quite as solid as the T23, the keys seem a little "lighter" and make more of a clack when touch typing. Or what passes for it with thunder fingers here.

The fingerprint reader is gimmicky - I still cannot get it to do owt but return "bad scan", any ideas? There again, is it worth enabling - is it faster to use CTRL-ALT-DEL or use finger print?

14.1" screen, same 1024x768 res as my T22. Ok, its usable, does all I want it to do. But I use 2x 20" LCDs in 3200x1200 dual-head on my main desktop (and a third at 1600x1200 on another rig), so it does take some getting used to. Maybe I should have held out for a 1440x1050 model. Its not flexview/IPS, but it does me.

The Thinkpad Central control is ok, I might keep it. The Atheros wifi is ok (had a Netgear WG511T 108mb on the T22) But intend to replace it with a 802.11n card anyway, provided I can find one which Linux supports.

Running XP, so a quick dive into Partition Manager was needed to resize the disk to give me 10GB for Linux and Solaris.

All in all, its Thinkpad, and does exactly what it says on the can. I'm just getting used to having a reasonably fast dual-core CPU in a laptop!

[dr_st]

The fingerprint reader is gimmicky - I still cannot get it to do owt but return "bad scan", any ideas? There again, is it worth enabling - is it faster to use CTRL-ALT-DEL or use finger print?

Unless your logon password is really long and cumbersome, on most occasions Ctrl+Alt+Del will be faster than doing the scan slowly enough to register, then wait for it to process.

Then again, for my personal computers, I don't use any logon credentials at all.

[alewis]

Hmm. Ok, wont bother with that then. Does disabling it in hardware (once already installed) have any adverse affects, or 'gotchas' one needs to be aware of?

Also, is there a user manual anywhere? I can find hardware manuals, troubleshooting guides, but not a simple user guide.

[Dale H. Cook]

The fingerprint reader is gimmicky - I still cannot get it to do owt but return "bad scan", any ideas?

You need to use a smooth, steady scan when enrolling fingerprints, and the same type of scan when logging in. Also, if your fingertip is dry it helps to breathe on it before scanning.

There again, is it worth enabling - is it faster to use CTRL-ALT-DEL or use finger print?

As dr_st noted, it beats a lengthy or complicated password. Note however that unless a password is long and complex it is not secure. My T60 is used at a variety of businesses where I often have to walk away from it for a bit. I hibernate it when away from it, and it is much easier to reactivate it by scanning a print then by entering my long, complex and hard-to-hack password.

[twillis449]

I too recently purchased a so-called used T60 off e-bay (classed as condition A-). It had been used so much that the infrared port at the front still had the little transparent plastic wrapper covering on it! I don't have the fingerprint sensor on mine and don't care - I use linux about 95% of the time. On a previous thinkpad I owned which had the sensor i got the linux fingerprint software to work to let me into the computer, but then the gnome wifi applet always insisted that I enter my password before it would connect - so no win there! I have the 1400 x 1050 14.1 in screen and its very nice - brighter than the equivalent display on my T61.

[sktn77a]

You will need an IBM/Lenovo wireless replacement "N" card or you'll get an "1802" error on bootup. You can hack the BIOS to get rid of this error but there's always a risk when you do that........

[yak]

Congratz on your new machine. T60 is a fine ThinkPad, nicely sized, 4:3 display, roll-cage, dual core CPUs, DDR2 ram, SATA harddrive. I also bought one for my brother recently. Described as being in "good condition" turned out to be almost unused. You could only see a slight shine on the keys, the rest was immaculate. And since it had a French keyboard layout, we dropped a new keyboard in. What a nice view, a perfect looking T60.

14.1" screen, same 1024x768 res as my T22. Ok, its usable, does all I want it to do. But I use 2x 20" LCDs in 3200x1200 dual-head on my main desktop (and a third at 1600x1200 on another rig), so it does take some getting used to. Maybe I should have held out for a 1440x1050 model. Its not flexview/IPS, but it does me.

You mean 1400x1050 aka SXGA+. If you're ok with getting it apart, you may want to look for a T60 SXGA+ display. The swap is rather easy, you don't need anything else (inverter and cable are the same). Just don't get any other display, only specifically for a T60.