Thinkpad T42p 2738

[competentfake]

I'm looking to buy an old laptop for light use, no gaming or anything, and I found an old Thinkpad T42p 2738 for $75. If I have my facts straight this notebook was released in late 2005 and was top of the line with a price tag of around $1600. A friend of mine told me Thinkpads were built like tanks, and were very durable, but I am just wondering how old is too old with these models? I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

[lukee]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

This is a real stand-in of the classic ThinkPads with the first generation of Intel Centrino technology. It is represented by 4:3 LCDs, most of them had very populars FlexView displays and are equipped with standard ATA hard disks. "p" models have better graphics aimed to OpenGL engineering. Better durability was provided from T6x series -> Lenovo roll cage technology was introduced in that models as well as SATA hard disks and these ThinkPads are very good priced at these days. Any choice (T42p/T43p/T60p) will be a very good! Good luck!

Please be noticed that T4x series suffered by the GPU solder problem, search the forum for more info.

[ajkula66]

If the machine is complete and works with no issues (make sure to watch a good portion of a DVD movie, go on youtube, do something graphic-intensive), $75 is a steal.

Good luck.

[Think-Machine]

If the machine is complete and works with no issues (make sure to watch a good portion of a DVD movie, go on youtube, do something graphic-intensive), $75 is a steal.

How would you possibly watch a DVD movie on a T42p? They didn't have special video decoding hardware in the GPU in those days. The CPU (Centrino) is about as fast as an Atom, and Atoms are useless for HD video.

[ajkula66]

Think-Machine wrote:

How would you possibly watch a DVD movie on a T42p?

Actually, quite easy. Plop in the DVD, choose the appropriate program and enjoy...

They didn't have special video decoding hardware in the GPU in those days.

I've got no idea what you're referring to, and doubt that you have either. I've been watching DVDs on my ThinkPads since the T23 days...

The CPU (Centrino) is about as fast as an Atom, and Atoms are useless for HD video.

Huh...Centrino is a platform, *not* a CPU...Dothan-cored Pentium M processors used in T42/p are more than fast enough for such (essentially low-end) applications...

Please do at least a *minimal* amount of research before posting...thank you...

[ParatoOptimal]

I've found most Pentium-M CPUs to blow away Atoms.

[Think-Machine]

So you guys can actually watch DVDs on your T42p. I am delighted to hear that, since I have a T42p also, and would love to learn how it is done. I never even tried DVDs since I use Linux and there is not much / any Linux software to play commercial DVDs, and more importantly because I thought (hopefully incorrectly) that it would not work on my machine.

Here are two snippets of information people told me so far:

1) Atom netbooks cannot play HD video without stuttering because they are too slow.

2) A Pentium M notebook is about as fast as an Atom netbook.

I guess the second statement is not quite true according to what ParatoOptimal says. I did some research on anandtech and indeed it says the Pentium M "runs circles around" Atom. So I guess statement #2 was not totally accurate.

As DVD playing goes:

Actually, quite easy. Plop in the DVD, choose the appropriate program and enjoy...

Did IBM actually ship those TPs with suitable software? I don't remember having any pre-installed, though I hardly ever use Windows anyway.

Now back to my statement about video decoding hardware:

I've got no idea what you're referring to

This statement on anandtech in a recent review of the T42 (which you might enjoy reading, btw) is what I am referring to:

About the only area where the T42 truly struggles compared to modern laptops is in handling HD video; sadly, the Radeon 9600 has no video decode acceleration for H.264 content, so even standard YouTube content can feel a bit choppy, and forget about HD videos. Going fullscreen on SD YouTube (and other Flash videos) definitely struggles, but not to the point where I'd say it's unwatchable—but again, forget about the HD videos.

Sorry for saying Centrino, of course I meant the CPU which is present in a Centrino machine, hence a Pentium M.

[ParatoOptimal]

Windows Media Player in Windoze 7 will play DVDs.

Ubuntu has SMPlayer and Movie Player just to name two.

VLC Media Player is free and works in Windows and Linux
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[Neil]

DVD movies are not HD. A t42 is probably weak for HD content, but I have played DVDs very smoothly with software decoding with most anything from a 500MHz PIII CPU on up. Even with Linux.

Think-Machine must be too young to remember DVDs, and meant to say the Centrino platform is too reweak for BluRay, which is totally true. And impossible with Linux unless you first rip and decode the disk before playback.

[dr_st]

DVD movies are not HD. A t42 is probably weak for HD content, but I have played DVDs very smoothly with software decoding with most anything from a 500MHz PIII CPU on up. Even with Linux.

This is true. I would make a distinction saying that a T42 would not suffice for most 1080p movies (full HD), but would handle almost all 720p (HD ready) just fine. DVDs of course are even lower resolution and far less sophisticated codecs - it will not even break a sweat.

I've found most Pentium-M CPUs to blow away Atoms.

I concur.

And just a small side remark:

This is a real stand-in of the classic ThinkPads with the first generation of Intel Centrino technology. It is represented by 4:3 LCDs, most of them had very populars FlexView displays and are equipped with standard ATA hard disks

Flexview displays were only on the 15" models (SXGA+/UXGA resolution). None of the 14" models had Flexview displays.

[ajkula66]

Think-Machine wrote:

Did IBM actually ship those TPs with suitable software? I don't remember having any pre-installed, though I hardly ever use Windows anyway.

Yes. It's known as WinDVD and has been a part of a factory pre-load on most ThinkPads for the past decade, at least in the U.S...

This statement on anandtech in a recent review of the T42 (which you might enjoy reading, btw) is what I am referring to:

I never said anything about playing HD video in this thread, so while you might've been thinking about that, your post referred to playing DVDs which is a completely different ballgame...

[Think-Machine]

I never said anything about playing HD video in this thread, so while you might've been thinking about that, your post referred to playing DVDs which is a completely different ballgame...

Exactly that was my mistake. Since I never play video DVDs, my fuzzy knowledge of them was limited to "some rotating disc with scrambled video with high resolution", and somehow I (incorrectly) equated the latter with HD. Now I learned from you guys and wikipedia that DVDs are limited to 720x576 resolution. Sorry for the confusion.

WinDVD and has been a part of a factory pre-load on most ThinkPads for the past decade, at least in the U.S...

Nice. Thanks.

[kge420]

Can't go wrong with VLC.
my $.02