Lenovo and UPS Pull off the Hail Mary

I ordered a T60 last Monday night. There were about 30 hours when my rep and I didn't know if I was going to get the last unit in stock. I did and it shipped out Thursday (the rep said I would likely get it on 12/26, Tuesday). So, on Thursday I see this from UPS:

INCHEON,KR 12/21/2006 10:56 P.M.
THE AIRLINE OFF-LOADED PACKAGES CAUSING A DELAY

HK 12/21/2006 1:46 P.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Obviously, this is not what you want to see. Then, I see no updates until this morning (5 days with no info). Then, I wake up this morning and see this:

DALLAS, TX, US 12/26/2006 6:28 A.M.
OUT FOR DELIVERY

12/26/2006 6:04 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN DALLAS/FT. WORTH A/P, TX, US

12/26/2006 5:42 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN

12/26/2006 5:19 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN LOUISVILLE, KY, US

12/26/2006 4:27 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN

12/26/2006 1:56 A.M.
IMPORT SCAN

So, I don't have it in hand yet but it appears that I will have the new T60 TODAY (as it is "out for delivery").

Nice Hail Mary for the Touchdown.

 

Awesome, although don't count your chickens before they hatch -- I had UPS tell me a Latitude D420 was out for delivery this summer and they "lost it" during that time. I think more along the lines of it fell off the back of a truck or made it to a UPS employees house, but whatever. Hopefully you get yours okay and this all works out okay, let us know!

 

Something akin to this.

 

Similar to the people coming home from Best Buy with a bowling ball in their tv box.

 

By the way, I have skipped lunch (and am starving) so that I am here when the package arrives.

In return for my dedication, I would appreciate one of you computer geniuses suggesting a internet security/AV/firewall to use instead of Norton (which, I think, comes with the T60). Also, any preference for a DVD-R brand? I can buy some really cheap at compusa but I don't think they are dual layer.

Thanks.

 

For DL, get Verbatim.

For everything else, Taiyo Yuden, unless you don't like buying online, in which case get Verbatim.

I usually get my stuff from supermediastore.com. Also, check CD Freaks Bargain Basement for sales on blank media.

Malia

 

Thanks Malia. Nice figure.

And for Internet Security/AV/Firewall?

 

Do I want the DVD-R or DVD+R? I have the dual layer drive on the T60.

 

There's a thread on security in the software sub-forum. It's a matter of personal preference, I suppose. I don't use anything currently.

It doesn't really matter + or -. There are subtle differences, CD Freaks and VideoHelp are good sources to learn about them, but unless/until you care to spend enough time to find out what's what, just get whatever's on sale. I like inkjet printable media, even though it's a tad more expensive, because it has smooth white unbranded labels, which leaves room for Sharpie. Oh, and those special $5 media markers aren't worth it, so just use Sharpie.

Malia

 

Thanks again. Off to do research.

Why don't you use any internet security/av?

 

BREAKING NEWS

Lenovo T60 delivered at 3:04 CST. Opening box now.

This is great.

 

Congrats!


I'm currently not using P2P and I don't download anything from sources I don't trust. Since I'm using a wireless router, I already have a hardware firewall, so I'm good.

I plan to install Norton Enterprise when I get around to it 'cause a buddy of mine swears it's the bestest thing in the world 'coz it doesn't bog down system resources like the consumer version - and he hates inefficiency with passion so I trust him on that one. I used Norton that came with my lappy for a while and it really helped me out when I was using P2P, so I actually bought an extra year when the trial ran out, but when I eventually formatted (prophylactically), I had no more need for P2P, so I didn't reinstall.

Malia

 

ok...so basically no p2p, no porn and your IS is safe?

 

I always wonder if anybody here uses ZoneAlarm Pro. It seems to be pretty good to me, I plan to use that when I get my new system.

Somebody in the forum also suggested DeepFreeze, which seems interesting to me. Anyway, like Malia said, it is up to your preference, although in my opinion, there are some AV/firewall that are not good enough and you shouldn't use it.

 

OK. I don't even know if I am addressing these in the right order...but, I am currently reviewing (per a digged post at digg.com) which xp services to turn off.

So far, it looks like the following should be disabled:

alerter
application layer gateway service
automatic updates
background intelligent transfer service
clipbook
cryptographics services
distributed transactions coordinator
error reporting services
help and support
indexing services
(still reading through the post)

Also, every website I go to causes XP to ask me if I want to password the site (or some such)..getting really annoying

Finally, my intel ABG wireless does not get the same signal strength from my wireless router as does my netgear PCMCA card inserted in my 5 year old inspiron 8000. However, I do not notice any loss in bandwidth (weird).

Other than that, it is obviously lighter, faster and prettier than the 5 year old dell.

Will be testing and setting up stuff for hours and hours so if anyone has any must adds/deletes/etc feel free to pass them along.

I am not brave enough to reformat/partition/etc so I am primarily going through which xp services to turn off and then I will go to the control panel to remove unwanted software.

So far, so good

 

Another thing-

Downloading some updates from thinkvantage. It appears they are downloading extremely slow. Is the IBM server that slow or is this a problem with the intel card? It is downloading at about 250k/sec. I have a 6mb connection.

 

slow servers

atleast you have that 250k/sec connection... mine's a freaking 130k/sec. makes me mad when many users are on the line

btw, congrats with the new machine

 

Thanks paq...its going to take a while to get used to the new machine, xp pro (been using 2000pro for 5 years), figuring out what to shut off/uninstall, etc.

Is there a thinkpad enthusiast site other than thinkpad forums (which appears to deal more with technical problems than it does with tips/tricks/tweaks)

 

OK. So, I haven't stopped any services, uninstalled anything, etc. I have downloaded and installed bios uupdate and a few others from thinkvantage.

So anyway, I can't run windows update. I get an error message detailing something with the firewall/proxy settings. I have not touched norton or anything else. I googled and found a solution but it didn't work. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Also, I can't go to yahoo mail for some reason.

 

Update: It appears to be working now. Weird that I couldn't even use MICROSOFT update out of the box. Had to run several regsvr32 .dll's

 

I believe DVD+R are a little better overall, I understand that it is easier to append the disc. According to the tech's I've asked, once you burn on a DVD-R the disc is closed regardless of how much space is left afterwards. DVD+R lets you continue to use the space you haven't burned yet.

Even if I'm wrong, I'd still suggest +R...they came out later so I'm sure there are a few other tweaks that make it better.

 

I spent hours and hours trying to streamline the installation, turning off services etc... And I started to get into trouble with it. In the end I just left the ThinkVantage stuff alone, it's pretty useful really.

I uninstalled all the Norton AV and Firewall client software.

And I removed the following startup programs;

- AwaySch
- cssauth (Client security solution password management s/w)
- EzEjMnAp
- ISUSPM
- issch
- pdservice (Privatedisk service)
- PicasaMediaDetector
- launcher (Fingerprint s/w launcher)
- scheduler_proxy
- Adobe Reader
- Bluetooth

 

Well, I think maybe I should have stuck to the services that come running on the machine. I read an article on digg.com that details which xp services are useless resource hogs and I disabled them. Then I could not connect to the internet even though thinkvantage says everything is cool. So, I rebooted and now the machine thinks I never did the security setup and I can't get past the thinking/loading "checking the status of the embedded security/chip..." screen.

For those in the know, I disabled everything in services that had symantec in front of it as well as...

Alerter
Application layer gateway service
clipbook
computer browser
distributed transaction coordinator
error reporting service
help and support
indexing service
net logon
net meeting remote desktop sharing
remote desktop help sessions manager
remote procedure call locator
remote registry
tcp/ip netbios helper
terminal services
themes
uninterruptable power supply
workstation

I think it will probably be easiest to just do a system restore since I just got it today and have only run windows update.

However, I would like to know how to get the starting configuration to run far less than 500 MB of ram and a billion processes.

For what its worth...

 

So, while I am on hold for tech support if someone would be kind enough to post how to do a system restore so that my machine will be like it was 5 hours ago (new), please detail the steps. Remember, I will have to function key to stop xp from starting since it dead-ends at this security screen.

THANKS IN ADVANCE

 

Shortly after startup press the blue "Thinkvantage" button when you see a blue screen with the IBM logo on it. Hope that helps!

 

Yeah, I got lucky and somehow (b/t hitting F8 and the blue button) reformatted.

Since then, I have uninstalled symantec, updated thinkvantage and updated windows. I would like to shut down a bunch of services but am loathe to now that I have had to reformat.

Also, I am downloading adaware, spybot and AVG.

Will FINALLY get around to actually using the thing tomorrow. The wireless seems slow (although my connection to my router is at 100% . I have read countless pages about why this is happening as well as the billion ways people are trying to fix it. Headache city.

 

A bit late, I know, but when you're doing the reimaging, you can choose to do a custom install and not install symantec, google toolbar, or any of the other space-wasting junk.

 

I asked the tech rep about that. She said she was just made aware of that option in the past week or so and didnt know if it was as simple as deselectin those apps. I wanted to do that option but given the headache from before and not knowing how easy it would be to manually deselect, I chose the safer avenue (unfortunately). However, I have since uninstalled symantec. I know its not as good as a clean install, but I'll take what I can get. Now, if I could just have a resident expert come over and shut down all the unnecessary xp services without crashing the cpu.