Restored my X40... (Finally!) *PICS*

[Tasurinchi]

Hi Everybody!

Finally I had the time and all the components to restore my X40, which was in terrible state (check this thread to see the original status).

Basically I rebuild it. The previous owner left the little lady in terrible shape and to bring her back to glory I had to buy an upper case, bottom case, keyboard, RAM, LCD cover and a new LCD, (LCD and upper bezel bought from Forum member Phil_123, both products in excellent state! Thanks Phil!).

To put everything together I had to go through every single page of the HMM. At the beginning I was thinking this will be a hell of a PITA job, but Lenovo/IBM did a great job with these HMMs and even a rookie like me could follow each step with almost no problem.

Still the previous owner had another surprise for me: note the broken left hinge


More detailed:


Originally the hinge was tightened using a black tape, I did not have any tape apart from a cheap office transparent tape. So I just put it back in the LCD bezel. I did a mistake with the BT cable and some minutes later it fell from the screen after assembling the complete LCD in the LCD Bezel So BT ain't working for the time being, but I don't care that much...


Question to the TP experts. I will look for new hinges, but can this improvised solution do any damage?

This is the old LCD, looks like someone spilled coffee or coke on it. How it managed to get there is a mistery to me...


After assembling everything I got scared when my X40 took very long to pass the BIOS screen, basically because after taking off the backup battery the bios settings got lost. After reentering the settings the first boot still took very long. But after that Linux started without any issues. Originally, this TP came with a defective HD so I'm using a Toshiba MK8025GAL, I forgot how silent this HD is!

I'm more than happy now that the X40 looks like new again! I still have to replace the broken hinge and put the cables in the right place, but I'm not in a hurry to do all the disassembling again, it was a nice experience, but I hope it won't repeat too often


It was late when I was finished so I could not take any good pictures of my restored TP, but after the happy end I tough I could celebrate with this:




Cheers!

Tasurinchi

[RWDPLZ]

Nice job! I love taking them apart, fixing them, and putting them back together again.

[Tasurinchi]

I love taking them apart

I also like it, but the LCD disassembly was quite tough, I had to be very careful taking out the LCD bezel. Luckily there are plenty of threads here dealing with that and I read that the bezel is kind of glued with some kind of double tape.

Apart from that the rest is quite straight. And as I said in my OP the HMM is a great help. IBM/Lenovo figured out an excellent way of documenting the hardware maintenance...

Cheers

[Temetka]

Congrats on the partial rebuild!

I would replace that failing hinge on the left ASAP simply because I think it might be placing too much stress on the right hinge when opening and closing.

Also I wanted to congratulate you on your choice of drink. I bet that tastes (d) good.

[Tasurinchi]

Congrats on the partial rebuild!

Thanks Temetka!

I would replace that failing hinge on the left ASAP

I don't want to know how long the previous owner had taped the broken hinge, but I did already order new L/R hinges from Ebay. As far as they arrived I will replace them immediately! I hope they arrive within the next two weeks. I'll try not to use the X40 that much...

I bet that tastes (d) good

Oh yeah! That's definetely a fine one

Cheers!

[RDR]

Great job! And a proper celebratory beverage! I am fighting with an x61t and windows 7 so I resorted back to my x41t to check emails and type this!

X41 just keeps going even after the x61t died!

[Tasurinchi]

And a proper celebratory beverage!

That was actually one more motivation to finish the job properly

I am fighting with an x61t and windows 7

Sorry to hear that... Software or hardware problems?

[RDR]

Unknown at this point. It has multiple BSOD's happening. All pointing to either a driver or ram. Stripped out ram, not it. Took an image of the disk and saved it away. Then totally re-installed the basic Win7 system (both 64 and 32 bit). When the video driver kicks in, then she BSOD's with either an NTFS or DRIVER error. Ugh..... Staying with my x41t until an x200 walks in and tempts me. Way too costly for now. And I had both an X41 and X41t. Sweet little boxes!

As a side note, I upgraded my 41t with the Lenovo 60gb SSD. WOW, faster and longer battery life! Good deal all around.

Now for a Port and a good Cuban!

[Tasurinchi]

And I had both an X41 and X41t. Sweet little boxes!

Yeah! Real Netbook killers... That's why I went the long way of rebuilding this machine, they're gorgeous!

I'm also always lurking for an SSD, but I still find them pricey somehow, maybe if Kingspec update their controllers (and keep the price range) will go for them. I also like trying the old fashion HDD way

Now for a Port and a good Cuban!

That's the right attitude!

[RDR]

Decided that the x41t will be my tablet in the *year of the tablet* thanks to Apple. It is relatively quick enough to do development work ( I am a .net programmer / web designer by trade ) and light enough to travel to clients. I need nothing really over powering as I am the slowest part of the development effort. With all my programming *stuff* loaded (SQL tools, .net studio, high powered editor) and the Office suite, I am oly using about 33gb of my 60gb SSD. Have 2gb ram usable which also works. Remote monitor for home work and other various tools (dropBox is a killer app!) to allow me to work at home away form my servers and their power, and it just may work out! Will let you know.

A while back I had the x41T for casual use and a T400 for serious power for development. I really never pegged the T400 and thought I'd try to compile a few of my heavier programs on the x41T. About an extra minute. Hmmm.... Acceptable. Last night I wrestled with the X200 as a total tablet / development box, but then looked at the prices. Wow.

Ok, the X41t has the 1.8 drive. Ok, I picked up the Lenovo SSD for $80. 60gb is fine. And it is BOIS supported so it's 5.9 score in the performance assessment is fine. And I have the 60gb HDD as backup just in case, so all is good.

[Tasurinchi]

I picked up the Lenovo SSD for $80

Wow... that's an incredible price... and then no annoying 2010 beep. I should start checking ebay more offen.

[RDR]

Yes, no annoying beep! and the good feeling that the x41t knows about the drive! Just turn off defrag, and follow all the normal SSD guidelines for tuning that are mentioned in this form ad-nausium.