T61 Satisfaction Poll (Regardless of shipment)

Well. I don't care about the shipment. Just want to know the machine's quality such as comfortability, strength, weight, professionalization, heat, noise and the build quality.

 

10/10...

 

Is this the 51st poll about this subject, or the 52nd? I seem to have lost count.

 

Oh sh*t. Then don't reply to this thread. I'm super sorry....

 

I voted for #2 and while I wouldn't say 'regrets' I am a little disappointed with the build quality.

 

#2 and my regrets are the following...

wish i had gotten the 7200 rpm hdd instead because i think it would help with load times and this long long time that im waiting for my backups to restore...

and bluetooth. i had a usb dongle just laying around so i didnt get it built in ... but now im sorta wishing that i did so i wouldnt have to plug it in and worry about it getting broken off all the time...

 

1. I was disappointed with the build quality.
2. The amount of room that the bs programs take up. 160 GB hard drive with 83gb free with just the programs loaded.
3. When I called Tech support I spent half the day trying to get them to acknowledge I had 3 year next day onsite + damage protection.
4. When I finally got done with that, the 1st tech told me that it was Vista and to call MS.
5. The 2nd told me after 15-second conversation, “I’ll issue a return authorization.”
6. I called Lenovo and they want to try something first.

My complaint had to do with the extremely sluggish speed. It takes 15 seconds to load almost every program I try and open. I have an old Dell in the basement with 512 memory and it works faster than a dual core 2 2Gg Santa Rosa, 2 GB Ram and 1Gb hyper ram on the hard drive.

I didn’t go to Target and buy a discount pc, I thought I was buying the best.

Back to Mac Pro Book.

 

Donna,

I love how you're contemplating going "back" to the MBP. With that in mind, which of the MBP did you own, which are you thinking of getting, and how did that fair for you?

Sorry to take this thread off topic, for a single post, and I would like to see you start a new thread in the "Apple" forum to let us know.

As for the T61 ... I have seen them, used them, and though don't own one but I love everything about it. From build quality, to speed, to the options that you can have it come with. Sorry that yours didn't turn out so good.

 

Maybe she didn't mean "back to" literally, but back to as in the decision process? Other options.

 

Donna, yes my T61 is very slow too. I haven't timed it yet but it's definitely the type of machine that you launch a program and then make a call or something hoping that it's running when you get back.

This is my first Vista machine so I have no idea if all computers running Vista are this slow or what.

Also, I'm getting to the point of down-grading my build-quality to 'garbage'. Besides all the loose plastic panels, now some of my keys make a sound like crunching cellophane when pressed. My 2 year old cheapo Averatec had much better build quality, I guess it wasn't time to "upgrade"!

 

juslius and donna, how much RAM? i

 

Like Donna said in her post - 2GB

 

wow something's definitely wrong then. That sucks.


So what'd you decide?

 

How fast was the computer before any programs were installed? What kind of processes are running in the background? Is there any thing you can turn off at startup? Have you tried doing a memory test just to make sure the memory isn't faulty?

 

I think the slow speed has something to do with both Vista and the numerous bloatware that lenovo installed. I had the same problem before I clean-installed XP. Now it's fast as light.

 

Are you sure you got a 160GB HD? Mine is the 100GB and I also have round 80G available.

 

Mine is the 160GB and I still have 130GB available (XP).

 

I have 2GB and the T7300 processor and a 5200rpm 60GB HD, no Turbo Memory. I cannot tell you how p!ssed I am with this POS! I almost always buy cheap laptops because I consider them to be disposable if you use them all the time. I've killed or had stolen 4 laptops in 17 months. This time I decide to treat myself and get a ThinkPad instead of a low-end consumer PC and Lenovo sends me this?

I admit that I'm upset but I promise you that I'm serious when I say that my 2 year old cheap-as-dirt Averatec has fewer physical problems now than my 4 day old T61. Not to mention that it's 4-5x faster!

I better stop ranting and post this, this thing has been on for nearly 10 minutes and it should be BSODing anytime soon. I guess I'll have to take my nasty old Averatec out of service yet again to bail out another failed replacement.

 

my t61 was a dog out of the box, did a modified recovery and then tinkered with the startup items and its smooth as butter.

 

I'll try and answer all the questions:

1. Yes I checked it is a 160GB HD
2. It didn't run much faster before loading programs. However, I had read that certain fixes were on the way via updates, so I moved forward.
3. I shut off what ever I knew was BS, Side bar etc.
4. Lenovo never called back yesterday as had been arranged. All I wanted was someone to tell me which programs to shut off or delete.
5. Yes I am sorry to confuse, I have a G4 Power Mac with 2 GB ram and dual processors, 4 years old and running like a champ. So I meant back to MAC. I had come real close to MPB 15" Santa Rosa 2.4 GB Dual Core 2, 2 GB ram.

**The only reason I stuck with IBM Laptop, believe it or not, is in a not for profit agency I volunteer at they use MS Publisher. I use Adobe CS3, which compounds my fear as that is a software that needs memory and how slow is this going to be? And will it even do it without crashing.

MACs tend to be a little slower, but stead as a rock.

I have left 14 messages for the "Critical Care Specialist" I was working with at Lenovo.... I should send them the definition of "critical."

 

And Yes I did a Memory test and it came back working fine (PC Doctor)

 

Panteedropper, is there a guide to what you did? I know nothing about computers so I'm always afraid to start removing things when I'm not sure what they are. I already axed the sidebar and now I've got all the ThinkVantage garbage in my sights along with Diskeeper. If I got rid of ThinkVantage, could I still turn Bluetooth on and off? What about the Wifi drivers?

 

Yes I second that, do you have a guide as to what you did?

 

Wow, guys I'm really sorry you guys are having these problems :-(
I was thinking of selling my 4 month old HP DV9000t 2 gh dual core 2...2 gigs ram..7200rpm..100gig hd...nvidia 7600 512mb vid card...17in panel for a t61. Now I'm having serious second thoughts! Let me know your outcomes.

 

Well it's only 30% of who are less than "completely" satisfied. Odds are in your favor. Go for it!

 

My T61 seems pretty fast definitely faster than my T43p. Bootup takes a minute or so under Vista but other than that it is fine. I have a 7200 rpm 100 gb drive which may be the difference. Other than that I have T7500 2.2 ghz, Nvidia 140m, 2gb Ram. The one regret I have is the 7 cell battery doesn't last me as long as I would like. Roughly 3:30 mins on avg. I really would like a 9 cell battery for it.

As for build quality I find it to be as good as my previous Thinkpads. keyboard is solid and the cellophane criticism from some others is the spill proof design and I think is nitpicking as after some extensive use I don't even notice it. I find it superior to the D630 that I received from work even though it is very close it is heavier and the build quality and looks do not compare. The keys give less response and more mushiness on the D630 and the trackpoint is less precise.

Those who are experiencing slowness are you using the turbocache feature? I've read mixed results and in some cases actually slow your computer. And also did you upgrade your ram yourself? The type of ram you have could also be slowing you down. And if you are using the SantaRosa turbocache feature are you experiencing slowness from using internet based apps?

 

I kind of regret buying it too. I expected a better build quality, and also my sound card is not working and cannot get it to function any way!!

 

I am satisfied with my T61. Build quality is good. The vista loading is a little slow, but other than that it is very fast. I have T7300,nvidia, and 512mb+2gb ram.

 

Well, I would say the building quility is on par with my 5 years old Dell Inspiron 8200. I can squeeze the space right below palmrest on both machines. On T61, the place above the door of DVD writer is extemely soft. Definitely worse than my 6 months old Dell Inspiron 1505. The only thing good is it comes in a compact package. My first one had dead pixels, and the replacement has audio problems and it's also on the way back to Lenovo. Now I am waiting for the arrival of my Dell M1330.

Sean

 

little niggling issues: seagate 7200 100gb drive dropping marbles noise. Integrated webcams lack of software support and crappy mic. No BSOD's yet on the T61, but a couple on the R61's...doesnt make for a comfortable break in period.

 

Not satisfied because my computer while running on battery constantly freezes up.

 

Just got my T61 today. After playing a couple of hours with Vista, I did not even bother to tweak it. Now it is formating and waiting for a fresh XP Pro install and then Ubuntu. Now the regrets. Quality is not even close to my two T23s or even the HP nx9105, the plastic over the palm rest is horrible and thin, but I do not mind that all that much. What bothers me is the fact that the laptop seems slightly warped. The lower right hand corner stays slightly above the others. This is probably due to the bigger elastic foot underneath, I 'll try to trim it and see. I almost forgot, there is that terrible hissing sound coming from the CPU when on battery (would that be enough reason to return it ?).

 

ditto. called tech support, but i have to send it in for ibm testing before im able to return this POS. here's hoping they magically fix it, or even if they dont i hope i dont have to pay a restocking fee because most of my problems were out-of-the-box.

 

Man, I had narrowed my whole search down and decided on this model. A lot because I like the specs, and another good reason because I was under the impression that ThinkPads had the highest quality in the business.

All these threads about issues, HD noise, slow-as-hell performance, crummy shipping times and BSOD have really turned me off to these things.

Are we still living based on the IBM good ole days and assuming that just because it says ThinkPad it is still a great system? Perhaps Lenovo just isn't near the company IBM was/is??

 

My battery leaked acid and burned my fingertips. Now, I can barely type about how much I hate the Thinkpad T61. With all the dead pixels on my screen, I definitely understand all how 66.29% of poll participants hate the Thinkpad. Whatever you do, don't buy the T61.

 

I'm happy with my Thinkpad, build wise. But my gripes about it is that the screen viewing angels are really shotty, making it hard to get a good angel sometimes.

I know some people hate the light leakage but I really don't mind as long it doesn't effect the colors, which it doesn't.

I hate how they didn't inclue a Vista Anytime Upgrade dvd, without that disk, theres no way getting a clean install.

 

Ya, those angels can be pretty irresponsible sometimes -- not watching over people 'n all.

 

You can buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Anytime-Upgrade-NAmerica-English/dp/B000MFGVWE

Or here:
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=52607747&pfp=EXTERNAL

$5 shouldn't be too hard to swallow.

 

Hey! Don't you dare marginalize five whole dollars. That's five double cheeseburgers. That's five homeless people you can feed. What? You don't care about homeless people? Shame on you.

 

... and how are you helping Tailic to get a clean 64-bit install on his T61?

 

Who said I had to? You have no sense of humor and no respect for money either.

Tailic can get the Vista Anytime Disk by requesting it from Lenovo. I've read about people on these forums contacting their laptop manufacturers for these disks. It's all cross-promotion anyway. You can also download a copy of Vista via Bittorrent. It's only illegal if you use it without paying for a Vista license, but since you would have paid for one, you can use it as just the install medium.

 

I'm pretty satisfied except for the fact the battery power is drained much faster than what I was expecting from a 7-cell battery. When I bought the system, I was pretty clueless as to how much more battery power the Nvidia card would drain - I assumed it would be a minimal difference which was even confirmed by the sales rep I asked. If I had the option to re-do my configuration, I might choose to drop the discrete graphics card in order to obtain more than 2.5-3.0 hours of battery life (normal web browsing, WiFi on, half screen brightness)! I hope this doesn't turn out to be a problem; I won't know for sure until I start actually using it on a daily basis at the university.

With that said, I can't relate to any of the other problems mentioned here. The system seems sturdy, silent, the OS is rock stable, the screen is satisfactory etc.
The built-in speakers are crap though compared to those of a Dell Inspiron E1505.

 

Can I suggest that someone make this thread into a sticky? Or perhaps create another thread with a poll applying to all Lenovo laptops so that it would be comparable to the customer satisfaction polls here for Dell and Asus laptops?

 

(1) Screen is terrible (WXGA 15.4").
(2) 15% restocking fee to return.

 

After a long journey since August when I first got the T61, I can finally say I am very satisfied with the T61.

The battery life finally beats my T42: 6 cell battery at 6/15 LCD brightness, WiFi on gives 5 - 5.5 hours of runtime.

 

Your system sounds day and night from mine and I am running Vista.

Earlier I had an 1800 Mhz N100 running Vista Business and it was absolutely responsive.

 

I have a regret for choosing integrated graphics...

 

I am completely satisfied with my T61!

 

What a thread. I'm continually on the line between ordering a T61 and sticking with my Macbook. Guess I've got to read some more threads.

 

If you're on the line, have a look here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=196888