How did you fell in love with Thinkpads ?

[DrThinkpad]

Now that it's almost over, I remember when I bought my T40 in 2005 when I bought my T40...

I was broke, I was young (I was 13 actually), but I always liked my things to be built to last. So I bought this T40 knowing it would last a good 2-3 years before breaking/being outdated. I bought second hand with a 40GB HD, 1.3ghz Pentium M and 256mb of RAM. I had then no clue what these numbers meant. I figured later. Always in need for more speed, I added another GB of ram a year later. Seems now ridiculously simple, but it then seemed like something big... a few months later I wanted a full 2GB of RAM and then fan started to make noises (as I leave my laptop on 24/7/365. It has been on for nearly two months without rebooting now...). For the first time ever, I then disassembled my whole T40. What an adventure was putting everything back on after ! But I had 2GB of RAM and a new 1.7ghz Dothan Pentium M. I changed my 2100B to a 2200BG as a final upgrade. I've been afraid for so long that my beloved laptop was running on borrowed time because of the now famous GPU issue ! Well it has been running for now 5 years straight : there isn't a single day in these years I let my laptop alone. It traveled with me pretty often needless to say. And I'm impressed. It has been said fragile, but to me, I treated it well and it has been a good workhorse. Even the LCD is still good at full brightness ! No reddish hue, but takes a few seconds reaching full brightness. It is now indeed running on it's last legs, but then again, those last legs knowing my luck might end up being pretty long...
I had a T400 for a few days. It felt solid, but it felt different. I will probably keep my T40 as long as it's gonna be able to do MSN/homework/YouTube/Streaming/Surfing. Since I now know it's able to run W7 without so much problems, it should be for a long while...


And you, how did you discover Thinkpads ? What was your first "workhorse" ?

[dr_st]

My first Thinkpad was the T42 2373-F7G, purchased in Spring 2005.

Before purchasing I had no clue whatsoever about Flexview/IPS screens, resolutions, etc. I just got lucky picking out this particular model, and only later understood all the differences.

I immediately loved the keyboard (well, the lack of Windows keys was a bit discomforting, but Keyboard Customizer fixed that), the trackpoint, the screen (of course), as well as the useful software (Power Manager / System Update / Thinkpad Configuration). Although I did not grow fond of some other pieces of software, like Access Connections, Fingerprint software, Recordnow, etc., and ended up uninstalling and not using them.

I learned to appreciate the Thinkpad quality and service when I had keyboard changed twice for something I caused by mistake, and had the screen changed for a minor defect, no questions asked. The DVD burner also, predictably, became finicky at one point, and they replaced it with a slightly better model (from T43).

The laptop is still going strong (knock-on-wood) after 5+ years. For about 2.5-3 years it was my primary computer (while I was living at the campus dorms during my studies), and when the addition of new machines (some Thinkpads) eventually became unnecessary in my daily computing, I gave it to my sister, who is now using it as her primary system, and one that she now takes to college every day. During the last 2 years I had to change a couple of minor things (fan, hard drive, and battery), but as long as the core components keep functioning, I won't retire this one.

My experience with my T60 has been no less pleasant. For a while I was worried thinking about there being no worthy replacement to it when it's run its course, but looks like the new laptops (T410/T510) are a step in the right direction after a couple of generation of bland, horrendously designed machines. Still no IPS screens, though.

There are also worried about service quality declining, here in Israel I don't feel most of it yet - service is still provided by IBM and is still stellar. However the cost savings start being evident on the small things: recovery media which they used to distribute for free to your door now costs about $35, and a courier costs extra; testing an out-of-warranty machine to determine cost of repair used to be free - not anymore. Then there is the new policy on broken plastics which has come up on the forums (haven't got a chance to test it yet).

So, I am still very fond of Thinkpads, but I am wary, and I view other brands open-mindedly, and will consider all my options when it's time for my next personal laptop purchase.

[frankiepankie]

My dad had a T30 from his company, that was my first meeting with a ThinkPad.

I liked it from the beginning, and when i was in the market for a personal laptop (going to college) i bought my own T40. After that an T42, a second T42, R61e, A21m, T61, R51

[Tasurinchi]

I learned to appreciate the quality of Thinkpads late, years after using many of them in my daily jobs. Originally I considered IBM notebooks to be just overpriced toys. It was about 2003 when I moved to a new company and I got a T30, this little tank survived lots of abuse from my part as I was doing a lot of travelling, (it even fell from an overhead bin in two occasions, luckily it was inside my bag). I've learn then to appreciate how hardy and good built it was. It never let me down and was always working fine when I needed (well, it crashed a couple of times, but it was XP's fault).

When I left that company 2007, the IT guys were nice to me and let me keep the T30 (the company was merged with another one, who was using Dell as notebook provider). I've maxed her a little and was using different Ubuntu distros with her without any issue (the infamous memory slot problem never happened to me).

From then on I started lurking this forum and joined several years later after I purchased my X41 in Japan (February 2009). Since then my collection has grown and I hope it will keep growing (have to keep convincing my wife)

[Norway Pad]

When I started working at a milk processing plant in 2000, I got my boss' old Thinkpad, a 360CS to use for PLC programming and as a terminal for our controllers. In 2002, I got a brand new T30, which was a major step up. Still, the Thinkpad was just a thing that the company owned and I used, nothing more. Then in 2007, I wanted to buy a laptop that was my own, that I could install and save whatever I wanted on. Since I had a really good experience with Thinkpads, I chose to go with one of them. So I found and bought a used T43 Flexview. And at this point, I really started to love and like these laptops. The T43 was such a reliable, good laptop, and just a really good overall experience. Looking back I am so, so glad I bought the T43, instead of some older T4x, as this was before I knew anything about loose GPUs.

Luckily I kept my first Thinkpad, the 360CS, and I in recent years I bought a T42 that my mom is using. When I left my job in 2008, the T30 had to go back, but earlier this year I bought a T30 again. And finally I chose to upgrade the T43 to a T60.

[mediasponge]

I was issued the A31p by a previous employer. It replaced a really old Dell P-III laptop. The change was like, Wow! Impressive graphics on the A31p, and really well built compared to the Dell. With a dual-boot into RHEL, I could actually run live demos of Linux-based software, albeit on small designs. I was given the laptop as part of a contract to support the last customers when that company closed up operations. When my wife started taking classes, and wanted to move beyond her desktop, the IBM went into service as her primary. She later bought her own (HP lemon), and the youngest daughter used the A31p for her so-called music. When the HP lemon kept dying, the IBM served as the backup or "loaner" machine while the HP lemon was down. The HP lemon has been replaced by a Sony, so the IBM is back in flyable storage again. The IBM has had the MB replaced, due to the typical Ati GPU problems. I was mostly impressed with how much this thing could do in an era when laptops couldn't do much. Time marches on. Other than the amazing 1600x1200 display, the rest of it is underwhelming by today's standards. A great machine, in its day.

<rant>BTW, "HP lemon" is one word. The HP dv6xxx series had so many problems, it was not only the subject of a Warranty Extension Program by HP, it is also listed in a class action lawsuit against Nvidia.</rant>

[SHoTTa35]

I really fell in love with Thinkpads when I got to use a T40. I had and used Thinkpads before (T20-23) but i swapped it for a Dell Latitude C610 that i really loved. I think at the time i was just younger and couldn't afford the Thinkpad but the latitudes were cheap(er). I went to a temporary data entry job and they had T40s at the desks for us to use already all hooked up. I remember spending most of the day just drooling at the thing and researching discounts on eBay and the like to get my very own. These were some of the lightest and thinnest machines I ever saw (before I knew about the mobo flex problem) and i just had to have one. I even tried talking my boss into buying one from him after the project was over, didn't fall for it.

About 6-9 months later i ended up getting one of my very own from some off lease sale. I think it cost me $500+ at the time but i jumped on it (pissing off my GF in the process, big fight) but it was mine and i loved the thing. I ended up getting a T41 after that as well then a T42 and a T43 for a short while before getting another T42. I then went to FL to visit family yrs later and got a T60 (2007-66U i think) in FL for $700 with advanced mini dock brand new! I had both the T42/T60 for a while till I eventually parted with the T42. The T60s performance and build just won me over. Then times got tough and I sold my loved T60 only to buy a T61 a few months later after things got better. Ended up selling the T61 some time later also and was without a Thinkpad for about 6 months! I ended up getting a T400 (June 2010) and sold that. I liked that system too but of-course the T410 was out with it's "Symetrical Display" (shouldn't have been off-centered in the first place Lenovo! [censored] T61!) so i sold the T400 and got the T410 in July for $700 brand new. Killer machine and super fast but it was just kinda on the chubby side. I wasn't gonna go back to the T400 for sure and i didn't need all the extra power the T410 had so here i am with a nice and slim:

T410si (see signature specs) - I love this thing!!!

[ajkula66]

I'm quite happy to say that I still use the very first ThinkPad I was ever exposed to...

What I'm not happy about is the fact that it doesn't belong to me, never has and never will.

It's an ancient T20 with a 650Mhz P3 CPU and a 13.3" XGA LCD, 2647-21U, owned by my employer.

So yes, I got into ThinkPads pretty late in life...but I sort of made up for it, I guess...

After a couple of thousands of them, there are favourites and less-than-favourites, just like in any other area of life...

There's a couple of them that I now regret parting with, but that was always the case over the course of my existence, only the objects of interest and affection changed...25 years ago it was guitars, then classic cars and now ThinkPads...

Another thing that I see changing in the near future is the likelihood of my next new laptop being a ThinkPad...for the first time, I'm seriously considering spending some very serious money elsewhere...but we'll see...

[pianowizard]

I had quite a bit of free time tonight, so I decided to bite the bullet and share the extended version of my story (and I typed all of this on my HTC Touch Pro2, which has the best keyboard among smartphones):

I was very impressed with the first Thinkpad that I bought, a 600E, which quite a few Thinkpad fans continue to regard as the finest Thinkpad ever made. My first laptop was a Dell Inspiron 8200, which I got in Aug 2002. I picked that because it had the most computer for the least money. But I greatly regretted the purchase, because it weighed much more than I had expected, at 8.08 lbs. Prior to that purchase, I knew virtually nothing about laptops and had no idea that some of them could be so big and heavy. I tried carrying it home once and right after getting home, I made up my mind to buy a second laptop that's smaller and MUCH lighter. Having just spent over $1,700 on that pseudo-portable computer, I wanted something much cheaper, so I decided to find something used. A colleague recommended compgeeks.com (now geeks.com), and they happened to have a fairly cheap ($403) 13.3" laptop that weighed only about 5.5 lbs, so I bought it. When ordering that, I knew nothing about the Thinkpad brand, but of course I knew that IBM was a top PC maker and so I expected this to be a good product. And it didn't disappoint: it's extremely well built, had an elegant design, and was far more portable than the Dell. Somehow this 600E had a Windows 2000 COA sticker (which shouldn't have been offered until the 600X), and so I chose to install Win2K on it, which made me favor the 600E over the Dell even more, because the latter had XP and at that time, XP was still quite new and was kind of buggy.

After becoming a laptop owner, I started paying more attention to other people's laptops, and realized that lots of them also had Thinkpads (my institution's computer store sold only Thinkpads and Macs then). I noticed that some of these Thinkpads looked even prettier and weighed even less than my 600E -- one of them was definitely an X24, and several others were probably T40's. So I did more research on Thinkpads and became fascinated by the various models. Then, I discovered that many Thinkpads were available through eBay, and many of them were quite affordable. So, in May 2005, I bought my second Thinkpad, a 240 -- I chose that because it was the smallest Thinkpad that had ever been sold in the U.S. It was this 240 that led me to this forum -- I think I was doing a Google search for the maximum amount of RAM that could be installed on it, and one of the hits was a post on this forum. This 240 got me hooked on tiny ultraportable laptops, and so just five months later, I bought a more modern ultraportable Thinkpad, an X20. Then, that Christmas, someone who used to sell lots of brand-new Thinkpads on this forum (brainpicker, I believe) had a nice X40 for sale, and his price was almost 50% off IBM's list price. The specs were amazing: even lighter and smaller than the X20, had a much larger hard drive, and of course much faster. So I bought that and sold the X20 to my cousin, who still has it and uses it everyday!

That's how my love affair with Thinkpads started. I continued to be obsessed with ultraportables for quite a while (which led me to buy a 12.1" laptop that was even lighter than the X40, the Toshiba Portege R100, even though it wasn't a Thinkpad). But at some point, I started to view multiple documents side by side on my Dell Inspiron 8200's 15.0" SXGA+ screen and realized that multitasking in this manner greatly increased my productivity. That initiated my next phase of obsession: high-res laptops. First, I got a T43 with 14.1" SXGA+, which was followed by an A31p with 15.0" UXGA, and shortly afterward a Dell Inpirson 6000 with 15.4" WUXGA. Then, I accidentally learned about the 15.0" QXGA panel that could be installed on the R50p. I looked up info about it on this forum, and found that one person had done this mod before. After finding out from him what parts I needed for this mod, I bought an R50p, a QXGA panel and all the parts and built my own QXGA R50p. I was so impressed with the super-high pixel density that I built another one just several weeks later. But of course, the R50p is a pretty heavy and bulky machine (though not as bad as the Inspiron 8200), and so I wanted something lighter but with a higher res than SXGA+. That's how I got inspired to put a Dell Inspiron 4100's 14.1" UXGA panel into a 14.1" T42. Then, I wondered if I could transplant the R50p's QXGA into a 15.0" T43p, and succeeded as well. I was the happiest man alive: I had the lightest Thinkpad with a UXGA screen, and the lightest Thinkpad with a QXGA screen (and it's IPS!).

But this love affair didn't last forever. The main problem was that I found the vast majority of Lenovo's widescreen Thinkpads very unsightly. At the same time, the opposite trend was true for some other manufacturers' laptops: as they became widescreen, they actually started to look nicer -- I especially liked many of the Dell Latitudes. Secondly, after playing with many non-thinkpads at retail stores, I found that their build quality was improving rapidly, and quite a few of them actually felt more solid than the Thinkpads. So, last month, when it was time to replace my i Series 1124 and 14.1" UXGA T42, I decided to get the HP Mini 5101 and Dell Latitude D820 listed in my signature. Now, for the first time since Sep 2002, I don't own any Thinkpad, at least not a functional one -- I took the RAM and HDD out of the T42 to get it ready to be sold for parts locally. A bit sad, but I really like this HP and Latitude very much, admiring them every time I walk past them. The Latitude is especially pleasant to work on, both functionally and visually. I am sure an ugly widescreen W510 wouldn't feel the same way.

[dr_st]

The Latitude is especially pleasant to work on, both functionally and visually. I am sure an ugly widescreen W510 wouldn't feel the same way.

We have a D830, which is visually identical to the D820 at the lab, and a number of T410 units. I find the T410 nicer looking actually. The W510 is similar, except bigger and wider. The Latitude is quite nice itself, but it does have the plasticky look, and if it is in any way similar to the old Latitudes, it is expected to eventually start showing pretty bad signs of wear (corners etc.). Overall, to me it just does not look as elegant as the Thinkpad. The new generation Tx10/Wx10 has nothing in common (as far as exterior design goes) with the previous ugly Tx00/Wx00 models.

Here are pictures of the D820 and W510. I find them both quite nice:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/ ... 7245e6.jpg
http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/pi ... sp?f=50410

[pianowizard]

The W510 is similar, except bigger and wider.

Speaking of "wider", I think the trend of Dell Latitudes becoming better-looking as they went widescreen may have been reversed by the move to 16:9. I have looked at photos of the latest 16:9 Latitudes and they seem to look too wide. For example, the Latitude E6500 looks significantly nicer than the current E6510, at least judging from the photos.

Here are pictures of the D820 and W510. I find them both quite nice:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/ ... 7245e6.jpg
http://www.notebookreview.com/shared/pi ... sp?f=50410

Having the screen centered was definitely a huge improvement over the earlier Thinkpads, but I still really dislike the areas flanking the keyboard of all 15.4" or 15.6" Thinkpads, including the W510. Those areas somehow look more natural on the D820, though they also look kind of ugly on the Latitude E6510. And I still haven't gotten used to Lenovo's white "Thinkpad" logo, which looks rather amateurish IMO.

I may appreciate the looks of the W510 and other widescreen Thinkpads more if I had never come across 4:3 Thinkpads before. But the reality is I have owned dozens of 4:3 Thinkpads and liked their looks very much, and when I look at a widescreen TP, something just doesn't feel right. On the other hand, I always detested the appearances of the D610 generation of Latitudes, and the contrast between those and the D620/D820 generation enhanced the appeal of the latter.

[dr_st]

It's more than just the centered screen. It's also the absence of visible antenna grilles, the much nicer-looking speaker grilles, more consistent and symmetric design everywhere, smoother curves, single part palmrest/ bezel with no gaps, a much nicer battery design (applies to 14" models, 15" had it alright all along).

Your objection to the keyboard flanks probably does stem from them being a tad too wide, and this is probably why the new Latitudes seem ugly to you too. I am kinda with you on this one as well, but there is little that can be done - the transition to 16:9 is forced by the LCD panel manufacturers.

[pianowizard]

Your objection to the keyboard flanks probably does stem from them being a tad too wide, and this is probably why the new Latitudes seem ugly to you too. I am kinda with you on this one as well, but there is little that can be done - the transition to 16:9 is forced by the LCD panel manufacturers.

But if properly decorated, the keyboard flanks can look better. This is what happened on the D820: the gray border around the keyboard really helped.

[Norway Pad]

My wife has a D820 through her work, and this laptop actually isn't too bad, even though it's a Dell. It seems very reliable, and except from a dim LCD that needed to be replaced, it's been no issues during the 3.5 years she's had it. But I still think it looks cheap compared to any Thinkpad, mostly because of how the plastic surfaces turns after years of use. When they are new, they have a nice matte look, but once they get worn, they turn "shiny" and it all just looks like cheap glossy plastic. However, some of her workmates has some really nice, all black, Dell Latitudes. Not sure what number they are. But if the Thinkpad line one day should go away, and I was forced to buy something else, it would have been one of these.

When it comes to Thinkpads, I was really worried for a while when I saw the development through the T61, and later the Tx00 machines. It all went better with the Tx10 machines again, and with the T410s, we got a really nice slim one, that reminds me more about the classic T4x look than no one else. Maybe I'll buy one some day, even though I have to do extensive research on them first. Compact and slim isn't always good, when it comes to sturdiness, heat-build up and ventilation, which all in the end affects the reliability.

Uhm, somehow I think we drifted away from the topic of this thread.

[pianowizard]

However, some of her workmates has some really nice, all black, Dells. Not sure what model they are. But if the Thinkpad line one day should go away, and I was forced to buy something else, it would have been one of these.

These would be the successor to the D430/D630/D830 generation, namely the E4200/E4300/E6400/E6500 Latitudes. My HP Mini 5101 has a similar design as the E-generation Latitudes, which I find classier and cleaner than the Thinkpads (including the 4:3 Thinkpads). But not having touched any of these E-generation Latitudes in person, I have no idea how well built they are.

Compact and slim isn't always good, when it comes to sturdiness, heat-build up and ventilation, which all in the end affects the reliability.

Totally agree. My D820 is quite a bit thicker than the T4* and T6* that I had, but perhaps because of that, its palmrest feels cooler. Thin does look good, but if it negatively impacts reliability or functionality, I would rather have thick(er).

[Norway Pad]

These would be the successor to the D430/D630/D830 generation, namely the E4200/E4300/E6400/E6500 Latitudes.

You are right. I asked her workmate right now, and they have the E6500 machines. They seem well built at first glance, but I have never used one more than 5 minutes, and they are probably still too new to say anything about long term reliability.

[thinkpad1]

I am not in love with Thinkpads. Probably the only one here who isn't. Unforunately, my experience was awful and getting worse by the day. I should be retiring mine soon. Luckily, I didn't sell it as any new owner probably would have sent me a pretty nasty email.

I'm now getting blue screens (of death) and for an instant, I couldn't boot. I guess it's just a matter of time. Nothing works. The usb ports don't work and the recent usb cardbus card I have isn't much better. I tried to install two printers to no avail. I won't be buying another Thinkpad and will be boycotting Lenovo products in the future. They're Chinese-made and not anything different than others such as HP, Sony, Toshiba, whatever. They just go on the brand name of before when some of the line were decent business machines. Maybe T6x series is okay. I don't know as I haven't had one. But, I won't be taking any chances.

Now, I have to save up for a laptop and this is a bad time. I have a R50 I bought used but I expect that to deteriorate soon and there's a screen problem already but that was the fault of the previous owner as far as I know. My T41 is on its last lifeline. Anyway, yeah, not a fan.

Sorry to be so negative but this was my main computer for a while now. If all you had was a machine that did't work, you would be negative, too. It's now going to cost me money since I have to buy some parts to get my desktop working again.

I won't rain on anyone's parade from now on. Just an unhappy camper...sorry....can't help it.

[Muse]

I'd known about Thinkpad's great reputation for quite a few years before I bought my first laptop. I figured, "why not buy something that's apt to be high quality" for my first laptop. In November 2006 I saw a thread in a deals forum about great deals to be had on Lenovo T60s, and I dug in and did a bunch of research and worked up an order which included a 7% discount through Fatcash in addition to Lenovo's big discount. Got a 1953-CTO with Intel GMA950 graphics, SXGA+ 14.1 screen (1400 x 1050), a T5500 C2D processor, fingerprint reader, 1.5GB DDR2, 60GB HD and right now it's my only laptop, since the Acer Aspire I bought 14 months ago died a few weeks ago. The T60 is going strong, never a problem. Well, a few evidently minor lockups, maybe, nothing that repeated. It goes into suspend and comes out like a charm every time. The screen takes a few seconds to get bright, but AFAIK it's always done that. Still running Windows XP, never took "advantage" of the "free" Vista upgrade, and when I finally did try to do that the CSR told me I was SOL because my one year warranty had expired. Well, I figure to install Windows 7 on it soon, I already have the disk and have upgraded the DDR2 to 3GB.

My good luck with the T60 is helped by my habits: It rarely leaves my bedroom and it runs on the adapter, the battery generally resides ~40% charged in the refrigerator. It doesn't get rough handling, although it once bounced on a table after I failed to zip shut it's case in a rare instance where I went mobile with it. No perceptible damage on that occasion about a year ago.

Since my Acer Aspire has died, I bought a used T61 with WSXGA+ 15.4" screen, Intel graphics, 2GB DDR2, 100GB HD, docking station, all to arrive in 4 days. I'll move the 4GB RAM I put in the Acer (in anticipation of upgrading it to Windows 7 64 bit) to the T61. This will be a desktop replacement like the Acer. I'm seriously considering getting a 3rd Thinkpad, a T60 similar to my current one since the prices are down now and my experience with the one I have has been so positive. To me they seem like reliable no nonsense machines. There are many very negative reviews by people who have bought T61s, and I was appalled, to be frank, people who had horrifyingly difficult problems with Lenovo warranty support. My T61 will be out of mfg warranty, but is warranted by the seller as being freshly and professionally refurbished, and I hope my experience with mine is nothing like those of people who had problems with Lenovo's customer support. It could be that the lion's share of the T61 owners' complaints are with machines with nVidia graphics. I was advised in these forums to steer completely clear of any T61's with nVidia graphics.

[automobus]

The word 'light' (referring to weight) has been used a lot, but nobody said ThinkLight.

Backlit keys are mainly for looks, and also nice for those who do not know how to touch-type. But the ThinkLight is actually useful to me. Frankly, it could be improved with additional lamps, forming a row rather than a single dim point source. And even better would be to have brightness control. I have ended-up using a flashlight to view papers instead of using only the ThinkLight, but the concept is still great.

Also, gotta love TrackPoint, especially with three buttons. I feel like I must have seen other laptops with three buttons for the pointing device, but I cannot recall any specific models or brands. I call a touchpad with two buttons is a "third world" user experience. I want to find a tablet pen that can behave like three buttons. Anybody know about that?

Another must-have feature of the ThinkPad interface is the block of home/end/pgup/pgdn/ins/del. It's another feature I do not remember seeing anywhere else.

But before I ever even touched a ThinkPad, two Websites made me fall in love: ThinkWiki and this community. Yay for everyone!

[dr_st]

Also, gotta love TrackPoint, especially with three buttons. I feel like I must have seen other laptops with three buttons for the pointing device, but I cannot recall any specific models or brands.

Amen to that! The third button makes it 10 times more useful. I sometimes work on my old Compaq Evo without a third trackpoint button and the experience is incomparable.

You are probably thinking some of HP's business models that have three buttons for the trackpoint. However for some reason HP only puts a third button on their large laptops (15"+), not on the 14"- models. That's pretty stupid.

[dkerfoot]

Howdy all. I am new to the forum and thought this was a good post for introducing myself.

I am self employed. My business direction has changed, but back in 2004 when I made the leap from corporate life, I provided IT support for small businesses primarily as well as some residential. A local company specialized in refurbishing IBM products and resold them globally. I bought myself a refurbed T23 running Win2K and loved it. I was always more focused on the service side of the business, but when customers asked about laptops, it was good to be able to offer them reasonably priced high quality products as an alternative to the cheap consumer grade stuff that they saw in the big box stores.

I am out of the IT support business now, but I am typing on a T410 now (purchased new), have two refurbed ThinkCentre desktops in the house and am hoping to have my old T43p reballed to fix the "freezing unless squeezing" issue for my daughter's use.

-Doug

[Harryc]

Welcome to the forum Doug. Happy Holidays

[underclocker]

In 1992, as an IT manager, I had the opporunity to select, order and then open and use a ThinkPad 700C. That was all it took.

[Tõnis]

When I left that company 2007, the IT guys were nice to me and let me keep the T30 ...

That's great!

What I'm not happy about is the fact that it doesn't belong to me, never has and never will ...

But why not??? You'd think these companies would buy new ones once in awhile.


For me, it was just luck. I had an HP desktop running Windows ME (acquired ca. 1999) when it was time to get a laptop. Somehow I ended up choosing a Lenovo 3000N100. That worked great for two years until I dumped a really big glass of water all over the keyboard. I got it working again, but I couldn't get the Bluetooth to work according to my wishes -- it was probably just a driver/installation problem, and it would probably work even now, but that's another story -- so, being generally satisfied with it, I called Lenovo looking to buy another 3000N100. It was no longer being made. The sales guy mentioned ThinkPad. I said, "Hey, I want this thing to have a strong non-flexing keyboard like my 3000N100, as I use it in a laptop tray in my van!" He said, "A ThinkPad is what you want," and that the TP is probably more rigid and flexes even less than the 3000N100. I configured my R61 CTO and have been delighted with it ever since (about three years). A few times it has had problems that have proven to be minor. One was a fan replacement, the other recent one was a real scare -- couldn't load the OS from the partition. But even that proved to be a fluke; I reloaded from the recovery discs I had made, and it's working better than ever. I don't think there will be any going back for me, as I need a strong workhorse. The only other thing I would consider is a Panasonic Toughbook. An added note: the Lenovo 3000N100 that had the water dumped all over it is still working great, and it's in daily use by someone else in my household.

[Anniemoose98]

My first (and unfortunately, only) was a T60 2007-GAU.


My dad brought this fine machine home from work back when it was brand new (2007) and I fell in love. Being the person that I am, I decided to mess around with it. Ended up Blue Screening and I got blamed. Then I didn't see it for 3 years. Then, we moved, and his wonderful IT department let him keep it as they had upgraded to the new T500. He let me have it because he is an Apple person (Yes, I know. I don't like Apples either) A week later, the charger died. We ordered a new one (Along with a new battery) and I used it for another week. Then, it Blue Screened again. I ran the HDD test in BIOS and got the dreaded HDD Error. I ended up getting a new hard drive and putting Windows XP on it again (Only a Retail Version, Minus the Lenovo Junk)


I'm still lovin' this machine

[IBM]

My first ThinkPad was a T21 that I got from my uncle. Obviously used, and possibly overused. Noticeable cosmetic wear, and a lot of scratches on the surface. He gave it to me because he no longer had any use for it.

I just never thought I would have any use for it either. But I started to work on it, and cleaned it up a bit. Removed all the scratches on the surface of the lid, and put armor all on the wear marks and cleaned it up nice. I have had this T21 for 7 years, and it is still running strong on all of the original hardware.

10GB IBM TravelStar HDD
256MB SDRAM
S3 Savage IX 8MB
Intel Pentium III 750MHz
14" IBM TFT LCD
OEM Panasonic/IBM EL Li-ion Battery
TEAC 12x CD-ROM Drive

Nothing on this laptop was replaced, just cleaned and refurbished. The hard drive had several bad sectors and was professionally restored for free by IBM. (Thank you uncle for pulling some strings!)

I have several other ThinkPads: IBM ThinkPad T22, T23, T30, T40, T43p, R50, R51, T60 x2, X41, Lenovo ThinkPad T61. I also have a few no longer working ThinkPads: G40, T42, 600E, A20m, WorkPad MI552RT, X40.

I am planning on selling a few of them soon, after I do a bit of restoration to them, as far as cosmetic condition, most of them have a few blemishes, but nothing a little bit of TLC can't fix.

ThinkPads have always been my choice of laptop for any work deployment, I just absolutely adore their ability to operate in the harshest of environments and withstand so much abuse in a normal setting.

Which of my ThinkPads is my favorite? Without question, my T21, I just love how simple it is. It is my little buddy. I never leave without it. But I also carry my T43p with me most places too. The T43p and T21 are the best IMO.

Long Live the ThinkPad

Only by

IBM