Reviews of Thinkpad T43p...?

I have an ibm thinkpad T43p...
Anyone have one of these ?
and what do you think of it ?

thanks...
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"Etop Udoh" <> wrote in message
news: m...
>I have an ibm thinkpad T43p...
> Anyone have one of these ?
> and what do you think of it ?

Not sure what the "p" stands for.

I have been using my T43 since 2005... I more or less like it. Nothing's
perfect.

As for gripes.... two little ones (but EVERY computer I have owned since
1985 has had one or another annoying quirk... no exceptions)

1- This T43 CD drive has the nasty habit of popping open in anticipation of
receiving a disk whenever there is no disk in it. In recent years, I tape
the drive door shut to avoid damage to the extending drive. Nothing I have
tried works to avoid this.

2- This T43 no longer readily recognizes the second (bottom access) memory
chip. It will recognize that memory chip from time to time, but there is no
way of predicting that, and whole issue is pesky because it takes upwards to
5 minute to clear, power off, swap chip and power up again.

3- Generally slow to open PDF documents these days, either one or two memory
chips.. upwards of a minute. Mystery.

But as I said, every computer machine has it problems... at least these are
little ones.

Ange

Angelo Campanella <> wrote:
> "Etop Udoh" <> wrote in message
> news: m...
>>I have an ibm thinkpad T43p...
>> Anyone have one of these ?
>> and what do you think of it ?
>
> Not sure what the "p" stands for.
>
> I have been using my T43 since 2005... I more or less like it. Nothing's
> perfect.
>
> As for gripes.... two little ones (but EVERY computer I have owned since
> 1985 has had one or another annoying quirk... no exceptions)
>
> 1- This T43 CD drive has the nasty habit of popping open in anticipation of
> receiving a disk whenever there is no disk in it. In recent years, I tape
> the drive door shut to avoid damage to the extending drive. Nothing I have
> tried works to avoid this.

might be a bad optical drive. I had this happen before- the drive would
just open for no reason or during any random movement of the laptop. A
replacement drive fixed that. The unit acted as if I hit the eject button.

"Cydrome Leader" <> wrote in message
news:ilrbt5$8jj$...
> Angelo Campanella <> wrote:
>> 1- This T43 CD drive has the nasty habit of popping open in anticipation
>> of
>> receiving a disk whenever there is no disk in it. In recent years, I tape
>> the drive door shut to avoid damage to the extending drive. Nothing I
>> have
>> tried works to avoid this.
>
> might be a bad optical drive. I had this happen before- the drive would
> just open for no reason or during any random movement of the laptop. A
> replacement drive fixed that. The unit acted as if I hit the eject button.

That sure describes my problem....
Very irritating. Taping the door shut helps a lot.
Only disadvantage is that I now hate to open it up for use because re-seated
tape won't hold.
It needs a new strip of 2" wide packing tape every time...

se la vie...

Thanks,

Ange

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Angelo Campanella wrote:
> "Etop Udoh" <> wrote in message
> news: m...
>> I have an ibm thinkpad T43p...
>> Anyone have one of these ?
>> and what do you think of it ?
>
> Not sure what the "p" stands for.

'Performance'. They have much more powerful graphics chips with more VRAM,
faster CPUs and hi-res monitors.

> I have been using my T43 since 2005... I more or less like it.
> Nothing's perfect.
>
> As for gripes.... two little ones (but EVERY computer I have owned
> since 1985 has had one or another annoying quirk... no exceptions)
>
> 1- This T43 CD drive has the nasty habit of popping open in
> anticipation of receiving a disk whenever there is no disk in it. In
> recent years, I tape the drive door shut to avoid damage to the
> extending drive. Nothing I have tried works to avoid this.

I'll bet you dollars to dog eggs it's an OS / software problem. That
certainly doesn't sound like hardware.

> 2- This T43 no longer readily recognizes the second (bottom access)
> memory chip. It will recognize that memory chip from time to time,
> but there is no way of predicting that, and whole issue is pesky
> because it takes upwards to 5 minute to clear, power off, swap chip
> and power up again.

Get a fine-tip soldering iron and re-flow the contacts where they join the
planar. It's a known fault across a few models.

> 3- Generally slow to open PDF documents these days, either one or two
> memory chips.. upwards of a minute. Mystery.

Are you using Foxit of that piece of bloatware crap Acrobat? If the latter
then that's the problem. It's a stupid size on disc takes bucketloads of RAM
and, without the power of a 1980s supercomputer (a Core 2 Duo or better)
takes ages to open a file.

> But as I said, every computer machine has it problems... at least
> these are little ones.

.... and mostly fixable. :-)
--
Shaun.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also
into you." Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"~misfit~" <> wrote in message
news:imfffq$6s6$...
> Somewhere on teh intarwebs Angelo Campanella wrote:
>> "Etop Udoh" <> wrote in message
>> news: m...
>> 2- This T43 no longer readily recognizes the second (bottom access)
>> memory chip. It will recognize that memory chip from time to time,
>> but there is no way of predicting that, and whole issue is pesky
>> because it takes upwards to 5 minute to clear, power off, swap chip
>> and power up again.
>
> Get a fine-tip soldering iron and re-flow the contacts where they join the
> planar. It's a known fault across a few models.

Not sure which contacts to reflow. They are mainly out f sight on and
under the the mother board. It can't be the memory chip because it happens
for all chips I have tried.

Ange

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Angelo Campanella wrote:
> "~misfit~" <> wrote in message
> news:imfffq$6s6$...
>> Somewhere on teh intarwebs Angelo Campanella wrote:
>>> "Etop Udoh" <> wrote in message
>>> news: m...
>>> 2- This T43 no longer readily recognizes the second (bottom access)
>>> memory chip. It will recognize that memory chip from time to time,
>>> but there is no way of predicting that, and whole issue is pesky
>>> because it takes upwards to 5 minute to clear, power off, swap chip
>>> and power up again.
>>
>> Get a fine-tip soldering iron and re-flow the contacts where they
>> join the planar. It's a known fault across a few models.
>
> Not sure which contacts to reflow. They are mainly out f sight on
> and under the the mother board.

They are all on the bottom side of the motherboard (planar), each side of
the SODIMM socket. Granted they're very fine, being two rows of 200 contacts
in close proximity and, to gain access to one side of them the planar needs
to be 'bare'. It's not hard to know which ones to re-flow as they're
essentially the same spacing as the contacts on the SODIMM and there's a row
on each side of the socket.

However they're very small so a steady hand and good eyesight (or preferably
an illuminated magnifier) is needed.

> It can't be the memory chip because
> it happens for all chips I have tried.

Yep, got that last time you said it. ;-) That's why I mentioned that it's
not unknown for the RAM slots to 'go bad' and that sometimes re-flowing the
contacts to the planar can fix them.
--
Shaun.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also
into you." Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche