So I got my T400s

Over a week early. I am psyched. But I just noticed that is has a 5-1 media card slot instead of an Express card 34 slot. I must have miss clicked when ordering and when I reviewed the setup I assumed the express card was included in the 5-1 slot.

Needless to say, I am pretty pissed. Is there anything I can do about this?

 

Since you've already opened up the box, they automatically charge you a 15% restocking fee. However, if you call up Lenovo customer service and explain to them the situation, I'm sure they will do something for you.

 

If your only other option is a 15% restocking fee, it would probably be cheaper to buy the part and swap it. Assuming it's a simple straight swap, which I'm pretty sure it is (check the maintenance manual first).

 

Buy one from eBay, and sell the old one on eBay.

 

I am under the impession these machines are very plug and play, which is why I bought it. I am going to research the matter an will most likely swap myself.

Onto the next question. Is it normal that this laptop makes a slight buzzing noise? It does this when I have the power cord connected and the sound gets lower when I turn the screen brightness down. So I am assuming it's the screen. Is it normal?

Either way I have been tooling around on the machine for a while and I love it so freaking much.

 

Yeah, the buzzing is an issue with Thinkpads for a long time now. A lot of them only do it on battery power.

 

When I ordered my T16 I was advised strongly by members on this board to get the express card slot instead of the reader. Well seems like for practiacal purposes the reader would be more useful. Don't fret if you have no real need for the express card slot.

 

I still love this laptop. My only concerns are the Express card slot, the slight buzzing which seems to disappear and return occasionally (Even when it is buzzing though, it's drowned out by ambient noise and not even audible enough to bother me) and the fact that my system takes a long time to start up. Also there is a fair bit of flex to the lower left of my function key which is slightly irritating, and directly under the function key, and above it.

One thing I love is how light it is. The 14 inch screen is perfect for me, and the unit is super light and portable. Another feature I love is the smooth hinges on the lid and how easily it opens and closes. My old unit I needed to pry the lid open, and force it shut because of the cheap plastic lid hinges. The red touch doohickey and the touch pad are awesome. I hate touch pads but the one one this T400s with the little bumps, it's so smooth and easy to use.

There are a lot of things I love about this laptop that far out weigh it's few quirks.

I am deffinetely going to look into swapping out the 5-1 reader with an express slot when I swap out the hard drive to solid state, and add more RAM.

I have one final question, well two actually. Can anyone refer me to a laptop backpack for this unit? And how durable is the unit, should I be babying it or what? My other system was so freaking frail, I am not sure how to treat this thing...thanks for your help.

 

The buzzing is a general issue with the CPU platform and is not exclusive to ThinkPads. Long start up can usually be blamed on a bloated installation. Which OS is installed on your laptop and how many processes are you running?

Expect the T400s to be very durable even if it is a slim version of the T400 series. It is a ThinkPad after all, with all the durability benefits of such.

 

Swiss Backpacks are the best for laptops IMO. They are SO comfortable you'll forget you're carrying have a laptop, two textbooks, etc. etc. I only regret not having one for the first two years at college.
They are a little pricey, but if you just bought a T400s I assume you know how to spend more for quality.

As far as "babying" your laptop, what I would be most concerned about is theft, not damage. Thinkpads are TOUGH. They're not invincible, but can take more than any other laptop in their "class."

Thinkpad 400 vs. Water-and-weight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeTiNndRAmM

 

Everyone says that the buzzing is not brand-specific but it seems to be louder in thinkpads. On a macbook pro, none. Zero. Zilch.

 

I'd suggest getting a sleeve as well, so it's not just banging around in your bag. I love the sleeves I recently got from Waterfield.

 

Nope, two thinkpads here. No whine whatsoever. Can't even hear any noise from them in a libary.
Also, CPU operates in the GHz range. If you can hear them then you must have superhuman hearing. It's from the inductor on the motherboard. It's one of those blatant misconceptions everybody seems to have, and I can't be bothered to explain it to every single person.

 

my t400s buzzed like crazy under vista. now with windows7 it doesnt buzz any more, which suggests its a power management issue.

 

The fact that my X61s only buzzes on battery power has me thinking the same thing. It should be interesting to see how the X200s compares, and with your findings, I'll try it with a bunch of different operating systems. Windows 7 alone, with it's fine grained power management settings, might help nail things down.

 

I bought the Timbuk2 'Q' after much research. It was the best non-bulky laptop backpack I found, and the most reasonably priced that fit my storage needs. The laptop pouch is very padded on the bottom, and there is decent padding to the front and rear. There is significant room left inside the laptops dedicated slot to fit a sheathed laptop. So I am going to get a sleeve for my unit as well.

I love this backpack because the power brick has a dedicated pouch that is low to keep the center of gravity of this pack from being whacked. Plus a secret pouch, and tons of storage for all 'my' needs. I bought it at Eastern Mountain Sports, and got 20 dollars off by opening a credit card. I had the cash up front, but I wanted the 20 bucks off. So I will pay it off tonight. I bought a medium sized S-carabiner to attach my mug/canteen to, and a case that clips to the shoulder strap for quick access to my cell phone and other small knick knacks while traveling.

I remember reading about a sleeve called the Z-shock or something, it was supposed to be the best sleeve out there. Do we have any contenders?

I have a nagging question. How durable is the power cord? I noticed that my power cord wiggles inside the plug. My friend was telling me that the power plugs are very fragile and I should be careful, so I am kind of paranoid about this fact, especially since I just dropped nearly 2k on this laptop.

Last note. The buzzing has disappeared entirely. Not sure why, or how.

 

I believe you are thinking of the Elecom Zeroshock sleeves.

 

I have a T400s also and I have the same buzzing issue. I actually sent it in and they replaced the fans and that didn't fix it. I've come to terms that its merely the CPU in certain states. I use CPUGenie to undervolt and that seems to help the buzzing from being too audible.

Its definitely louder on battery though.

T400s is an amazing machine. Get a SSD in there and it will be even better.

 

Couldn't agree more.

 

Ah, yes, thank you!

Ok, the buzzing returned. I did some research and by turning my allowable CPU speed to the highest setting it disappeared. I hope there are no negative repercussions to this.

I do plan on maxing out the RAM and adding an SSD as well as swapping the 5-1 card reader for a express card 34 slot.

I just discovered the Thinklight while fidlding around with the function keys and I have to say I am more amused with it than I should be, haha. All the bells and whistles come to mind.

One qualm I have is I cannot for the life of my figure out how to use the fingerprint reader to log onto websites. It's really bumming me out.

 

The ThinkLight is a lifesaver for me and a very practical feature. It enables you to light up the keyboard, whilst being in a pitch black room. Unlike backlit keyboards the Thinklight also serves as close ambient light to minimize strain from the screen (even if you have turned down brightness to minimum) in very dark surroundings. Especially on the long haul flights during night time, I use the Thinklight rather than turn on the seat light.

As for using the fingerprint reader for web sites. Simply install the Fingerprint reader software and the ThinkVantage Client Security Solution software.

 

Yeah, all that stuff is set up. I just can't get it to associate passwords on websites with the fingerprint reader. I can't find any way to do it manually and I get no prompt when I type in passwords and user names on websites.

 

There's a Word or Office conflict with the PW Manager when using W7. Forgot the fix but think its deactivate then reactivate. Maybe someone else here recalls the specific way to fix.

 

Ah, I see. I would like to know this fix very much.

 

The T400s has LED backlight, why would you really need the thinklight? Does it use less battery then the screen?(well that would be obvious but I'm still asking)
When you have the brightness at his highest you don't really need the thinklight LED ftw

 

Re-read what I wrote, try it out and then ask again. The purpose is as I described before and rather the opposite of what you are describing. In a pitch black room many people will strain their eyes even at lowest screen brightness regardless of screen type. Thinklight helps offset this as it increases the ambient light.