T60 disappointed

Hi All,

Got my T60 today after almost a week of delay in custom. I have to say that I'm somewhat disappointed. Let me say a couple things.

1. I notice that there is a missing ID clip on the bottom of laptop, which the message says that it's embedded under keyboard? I have no idea what this means and hopefully someone can shed some light. I just don't understand why there is a couple holes under the laptop.

2. When I turn on the computer, it took almost 10 min to convert the FAT32 format. Again, being a computer idiot, I have no idea what this means. All I know is that my toshiba never did that when I first brought it.

3. The space bar is elevated on one side. Can this be fixed easily?

4. The fan is always on even though I am not running any applications.

5. I heard many of you rave about the keyboard. I am typing on it right now. What exactly is so special about it? In fact, I noticed that some keys are less firm than others (ie. shift key, return key, and other keys on the side) The quality of the keys are not consistent.

5. The plastic wrapper for the battery and other accessories seemed like they being used. They look like old plastic bags.

Overall, I suspect that my computer was either used or not well built. It just doesnt feel that new to me and I paid 2 grand for it.

I am going to give it another week to decide if I want to return it or not.

any inputs are appreciated
chris

 

I would return it and get a new one. If the new system has the same problems then ask for a refund.

I have never heard about those problems but definetly exchange it because if your disappointed the first day you have it then it will get worse in the future.

Im guessing someone had your system, messed it up, returned it and IBM gave you the used system.

 

The Fat32 wackiness is caused by their recovery system, and its needs to have everythign in fat32. Just an annoyance when it converts over.

The space bar and the other keys being odd hints that maybe your machine got stuck with one of the worse of the 3 different styles of keyboards.

Fan needs to run even if just slowly all the time to keep the machine within a certain temp range. With so little mass for the heatsink, it can't "save up" the thermal energy like a desktop unit, and shed it off at a slower rate. If it is more than a little purr while putzing around, it might have an issue where some bios settings caused the fans to stay constantly throttled up.


If you want to really check out the system build follow my little guide.

1. Move the lid up and down using one hand on the far left and then on the far right. On mine this slight strain showed itself in a bad screen hinge that was a bit loose and would squeak like hell.

2. When moving the lid up and down, have the laptop on a flat hard surface. As you are moving it, pay close attention to the hinges. On mine the left side was quite loose, and would move around while the one on the right side was perfectly solid.

3. Start watching some movies, or other type of thing that might produce "widescreen" bars on the screen. Pay attention to any possible backlight leakage from the upper or lower edges. Also use this time to inspect the screen for dead pixels. Movies always seem to throw them out to me, since they look so out of place.

The wrappers on all the included junk has always seemed a bit on the "used lunchbox recycle bin" style to me. I am wondering if it might be from sitting around in the warehouse so long, and just getting some wear and tear between them being made, and getting shipped with a customers system. Since most of the accesories are cross compatible, they might have been around for many months before your laptop was put together.

 

thanks for the inputs.

how about that little odd strip on the back of the laptop where it says "FCC TAX ID" where it looked like a bar code has been stripped off? There are a couple small holes where I can see the inside of laptop.

 

Where was this laptop purchased from? IBM directly.. or another place? The small holes on the bottom are drains for the keyboard incase something is ever spilled.

 

Yes directly from lenovo.

I guess that odd strip in the middle of laptop is common, but still looks out of place.

I did notice that there is drill hole on the upper right corner of back of laptop (just next to the battery) that appeared to be missing a screw. It's quite obvious. Do you have that too?

chris

 

The T60 I received last week has been nothing but perfect for me. I've had absolutely no problems whatsoever and the build quality has been excellent.

If you're not satisfied - send it back and request a brand new unit. Nothing wrong with that at all considering you bought it directly from Lenovo. I've heard a sketchy story about somebody perhaps receiving a used unit before. Call it in and they'll make it right.

 

Seriously, do your own home work before any kind of ranting and bashing.
One great thing about thinkpads is the availability of detailed service manual downloadable from IBM/Lenovo. The hole you were talking about doesn't have a screw in there in the first place. If you look closely, you will figure out that a screw in that place would secure the ultrabay device.

 

I believe he was asking for advice on what he thought was a refurb and may well be a refurb unit, and there's nothing wrong with that and is in no way ranting and bashing. if everyone listened to your advice and I'm glad no one does, no one would post in forums like this anymore.

 

I am not interested in any form of online fighting, but did you notice that this guy was trying to blame lenovo for lots of things he thought were wrong but turned out that's the way it is supposed to be.

 

"DO" point out the "lots of things"
I dont see him blaming Lenovo in anyway? If any, even with the drain holes, he was simply asking that he did not understand "WHY" there are a few holes there, if someone come here and post "why there are holes at the bottom of the machine" they are blaming lenovo i guess. If everyone is so knowledgeable about computers, why do they even come to this forum.

All comes down to one thing: what are you so mad at in life renhui?

 

I'm with the behavior police. The original poster appears to be anal retentive and likes to blame others for his own inadeqacies and weaknesses. The follow up posters have successfully debunked most of his complaints about the T60. What's with the Dell guy posting on the quality of a Thinkpad. That's like buying clothes at Walmart and comparing the quality to clothes from Nordstrom. Nordstrom being the Thinkpad and Dell being the Walmart clothing.

I see little difference between the Lenovo Thinkpads and the IBM Thinkpads. Many people have complained about Lenovo's execution of Thinkpads but I think these complaints are warrantless.

I do think Thinkpad customer support is pretty much worthless though. I think most customer care today is as well in almost all industries.

 

2 things, people speak up when they want to complain, so don't be surprised or angry at people who post complaints. Second, know what and why you're buying something before you buy it. If you want a laptop, know why it is you're buying a Lenovo/IBM laptop before getting it and know the difference between these systems and those made by Acer or Dell.

my reasons for purchasing a T42 in the past and thinking about a T60 in the future:
1. The trackpoint, outside of the burdensome mouse, there's nothing better for one-handed navigation.
2. reliability, my friend's dell 600m died on the day his warranty expired, my T42 has been going strong for 2 years now.
3. Quality, my T42 has fallen off my laptop countless times now, no damage. With the T60's full roll cage, magnesium/titanium casing, and active protection, there's no question I'll have the same protection and ease of mind if I got one.

Outside of those factors, there's no difference between a thinkpad and other laptops. Also please realize that a thinkpad is a computer, not a commodity, you buy one and use it if you need a computer, not if you want an aescetically pleasing ornament.

 

Sorry to butt in, folks, but jeeeez....let the guy ask his questions, or find something else to do. If you're so stuck up that you can't accept that other people don't know as much about computers as you do, then why are you even here? To boost your fragile egos?

Once you get overly protective over a computer manufacturer, you know it's time to get a girlfriend.

 

Err.. thanks for all your spirited inputs. I didn't mean cause such ripples. I admit I'm quite a computer idiot and am constantly constipated. But seriously folks, I happen to believe that most of questions I asked are not too obvious even for an incredible idiot.
This was my first IBM/Lenovo laptop which I returned earlier. There was nothing majorly wrong with it, though I can point out a few minor problems.

1. I found out that my battery can never charge to 100% (stays at 95%) no matter what I do.

2. Bad keyboard (mentioned before) The question is: Shouldn't they at least take a look before they sent the machine off? My space bar is severely crooked. It's the very first thing I noticed. Actually it's pretty hard not to notice it even with a quick glance.

3. When I created my own "battery/screen brightness settings", the laptop starts to beep constantly
whenever it goes to standby mode. The problem goes away when I change the setting for "power source change" or when I switch back to IBM default. This is a mystery to me. Personally, being a computer idiot, I think they just messed up.

4. Oh yes the hole(s). I browse through the manual quickly and I didn't find anything on the FCC ID stripe or the screw for the removable dvd/cd rom. Again, being a weak minded person, I have to rely on the you geniuses to figure them out.

5. I didn't mention this before. But when I got the laptop, the left side grill was popping out slightly. I had to push it back in so there would be less flexing.

So there is it. My laptop did work fine. I was able to browse porno and do some simply programming using SAS, but it just doesn't deserve the 2k price tag. Like many other things made in china, it's quite unpolished.

 

Oh I almost forgot. Besides T60, I also need a gf desperately.

 

Save the confusion, refund the notebook and find another manufacturer; do some more research while you're at it so you know exactly what to expect.

 

At first I thought that too. First mine was stuck at 95 and at 97%. I was going through help or lenovo online, I exactly forgot where I saw it. If battery doesn't go below certain %, it won't start charing for maximizing the battery life.

If you go below that % then it does charge back to full 100%. I will try to look it up tonight once I go home and post the link.

 

I have to agree that people are over exaggerated.overrated regarding IBM's keyboards. I had a T60 and I don't see what so special about the keyboard besides the fact that it doesn't flex. Otherwise, I think it's the same as other keyboards out there.

 

I have a T43. In the battery (power manager) lower right corner of the screen. If you click on this, you will find you have the option to set when the battery trickle charges your battery. You have the ability to set when the trickle charge starts. On Claus' T60 this was 95%. At 95% charged the battery reduces to trickle charge which takes hours to reach 100%. You also have warning beeps of which you can choose for various power level warnings.

There is nothing wrong with asking questions. However, when one jumps to conclusions about said quality of a laptop without factual evidence, this can ruffle feathers in some forum members.

With the birth of internet forums comes the birth of instant experts on any subject, not just laptops.

I am not an expert on anything. I am however, a golden god!

 

trickle charge? maybe i'm just dumb, but that doesn't make any sense to me. I think battery charge should be as fast as possible. Why would I want a laptop that takes hours to charge 5%?

gold rusts easily

 

batteries don't have a linear charge/discharge rate. The bulk charge (up to around 80%) can be done with high current (as fast as possible). To completely fill the batter you need to hold the voltage at some realtively high number and allow the battery to come up to that target voltage at low current. Then you raise the voltage and repeat. When using a small amount of current this is a trickle charge.

in terms of prolonging the life of the li-ion battery its not really doing much. lithium batteries prefer to operate around 70% SOC (state of charge).

just my $.02

/former hybrid electric vehicle engineer

 

You are right and it shouldn't. Though it may be true it takes longer to charge from 95% to 100%, it is only a little more time that is hardly noticed. So here are the two solution to the problem:

Solution I

1. Left click on the green battery indication on the taskbar and click on "Launch Power Manager".
2. Go to "Battery Information" tab and click on "Battery Maintenance" button.
3. Cilck on "Custom" and change the "Start charging when below:" value to 100% and keep the "Stop charging at:" at 100% itself.
4. Click "OK" twice to exit the windows.

In an short time you should see your battery charge to 100% .

Solution II (Which is what 99% of the ThinkPad owners do)

1. Unplug your power supply and run the laptop on batteries.
2. When the battery charge reaches below 96% (wait till it reaches 90% just to be sure), plug your power cord back in.

You should again see your battery charge up to 100%.

Why both solutions work I won't take the time to write here as it should be obvious by now as to why they work the way they work. If not, may be some other more patient fellow forum goer may take the pain to delibrate.

EDIT:
1. Regarding the issue with setting your own profile.... judging from this battery concern of your's, I am 99.9% sure that its a user error and not the system or software designers issue.
2. Regarding the Keyboard and other problems, I would suggest sending the system back to them and get a replacement. I changed my keyboard to NMB and IBM tech support will promptly send you the new keyboard, but you will have to replace it yourself. But again, judging from what you have written so far, i suggest you send it back to them and ask for an exchange.

 

I thought the same when I had the bad CHI... keyboard, which I of cource changed to the NMB. now its not just me, I have had friends exclaim WoW!! this keyboard is awesome without be mentioning a single good word about it

 

That's probably because you had a defective keyboard but most of people would satisfy with no flex keyboard unless they are really picky and wanted the overrated IBM's keyboard.

 

NOpe.... the keyboad I got first, the CHI... one was perfectly functional.. it just didn't warrent the so called best laptop keyboard that is often attributed with the ThinkPads. About flexing, all CHI... keyboards will flex on the right side of the keyboard ( a tiny little if you press hard).

The NMB is a keyboard is void of all the defects of the CHi... Picky or not, I am much happier with the NMB.

 

HaHaHa! (^_^) I hear you man, that's what I use all six of my laptops for!

I think IBM/Lenovo make great machines, almost got the X60 but wanted a webcam so I could talk/see to my GF while at work.
A co-worker has a nice T-60 in the lab, so far he loves it but I getting tired of him wanting to run benchmarks against my Sony. I just tell him now "Yeah, you have a bigger electronic penis". While he was playing with my Sony (or e-penis) he discovered I had a full GIG more RAM, now he's ordered more.

Oh, and PLEASE don't give me a neg rep point like you did with the other posters here that say you have a little e-penis. Mine is already small enough as it is (>_>)~sniff.

 

I noticed this battery behavior on my T43 and T60p too. I would say it is a feature actually prolong battery life by reducing the number of recharge cycle comparing to other notebooks without this feature.

When you repeat the usage pattern: AC on office, standby on road, then AC at home, Notebooks battery will drop 1 precent after a few hours' standby (it still needs power to keep current state). you will find your battery frequently be fully charged from 98%/99% to 100%. Li-ion battery doesn't have much memory effect like ni-cd battery but IMHO it would be good idea to reduce the number of recharge.

This feature can be turned off to make it act as other notebooks like previous post mentioned.