T61 and the end of the world? Not.

Thank goodness I ignored all the complaints in this forum.

I ordered a T61 anyway, and received it in 9 days. It's a great machine. Solid. No complaints. I've owned Toshiba x 1, Dell x 2, Compaq x 2 and HP x 2until now. I guess this is my 8th new business laptop. So far, the ThinkPad is the best one I've had out of the box, no question about that.

I like the fingerprint reader alot. There was surprisingly little bloatware on it, and you can take all that stuff out anyway, by doing a system restore from the hidden disk partition - that takes about 1.5 hours. I would not waste time doing a fresh install, you're just asking for trouble with drivers etc.

The power supply is tiny.

The offset screen is not even noticeable if you like looking at what is on the screen, not what's around it (hint...). The screen is just one hair dimmer than the screen on my old HP but it is not going to be a problem.

What else were people moaning about?

Keep it real, dudes and dudettes!

-------------------------------------------------------
XP Pro, 2.2Ghz, 2GB, 100GB 7200rpm Hitachi, 15.4+ screen, Fingerprint reader, DVD writer, Intel graphics + the big battery.

 

Smart guy! Reps.

 

People just like to complain. Some people even like to complain about their bathroom tissues...

 

Leakage and viewing angles were my only complaints, bad enough to send it back, but still- I agree the issues can get overblown around here.

Coming from toshibas and compaqs, I imagine you are quite pleasantly surprised. Congrats, and glad you like it.

 

I noticed a smudge on the cover when it came back from repair.
I don't know what they were thinking to send it out that way.

 

I'm glad your machine is great!
But you can read for yourself about the numerous build issues (with pictures included).
If the problems are not present on your laptop, doesn't mean that the don't exist.

 

I woundn't discount so easily the legit ones.

 

I agree with Unhooked. If your notebook took 50 or 60 days to arrive instead of 9, you wouldn't be so happy. If your notebook froze every 10 minutes, bluescreened a few times an hour and corrupted the boot sectors of your hard drive forcing a complete restore to factory settings every 3-5 days, I doubt you'd be very pleased.

There have been numerous legitimate well-documented issues with the T61 since it's release. I would venture to guess that the only reason Lenovo has taken steps to fix issues with the T61 are because of the tremendous number of people who had problems and the tremendous number of complaints they received.

 

I'm glad to hear yet another positive review! I've been on the verge of cancelling my order with all the complaints going around, but I'm going to wait it out and see what I get.

 

I'm typing on a T61 that went to the repair depot the same week I got it. It then spent 4 weeks getting worked on only to come back to me as broken as it left. Now I have to *fight* to be able to return this lemon without paying a 15% restocking fee. Ridiculous.

If yours works well, more power to you! be glad! be thankful! mine's crap and i've had enough.

 

The shipping delays were not good. I think we all agree on that. And there is no way that 100% of shipped items will be trouble free, and I was not implying that at all.

I do think that some of the problems are self inflicted - especially those who like to tinker with the machine instead of leaving it alone to do it's job.

As for "numerous legitimate well-documented" issues, I don't see any - except for the shipping delays and that has been solved now except for some short supply items (and that is being communicated up front).

 

Try out this 130 post thread about Blue Screens right here on Notebook review:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=137242&page=13

Self inflicted? I don't think so. Dozens of people had computers that locked up right out of the box. Lenovo took my T61 back with no restocking charge after their technicians concluded that they had no idea what the problem was (for me and the dozens of others). My mistake? Well, I ordered a computer with Vista and turbo memory. Of course, the very reason to get a T61 is the Santa Rosa platform, and a keystone of the SR platform is turbo memory. My mistake I guess.

BTW, Lenovo also posted a patch from Intel that specifically addressed Blue Screens While on Battery Power for the T61/X61/R61. My senior service rep and I had a long discussion about this. They then retracted the patch after finding that it didn't solve the blue screen problems. THIS WAS ALSO WELL DOCUMENTED. X61t users at the tablet PC forum came to the same conclusion - that their brand new Lenovo's were locking up and crashing while on battery power. These are not isolated incidents. They are not user inflicted.

If you're not convinced, there are several other threads regarding T61s locking up while on battery power and when attached to a docking station.

So, if you were lucky enough to not order Vista, or turbo memory, or a docking station, then congratulations. But don't be an ass and try to blame the user. These are among the NUMEROUS WELL DOCUMENTED problems with the early T61s.

I don't know if Lenovo has fixed the issue. Many people probably do not know that they have faulty computers because they keep their computers plugged in all the time. When people start heading off to school next month, and try to use their computers in class, they will be in for nasty surprises if Lenovo hasn't solved the problem.

You should feel lucky if your T61 flawlessly, that hasn't been the case for a lot of people, and it's also ridiculous that people purchasing a new computer should have to feel lucky that it works properly. But don't be a smug ass and try to blame the people that paid good money and got screwed.

 

I understand your frustrations pelihu, I've seen all the problems you've gone through. I was right there with you waiting almost 2 months for my computer to arrive. Then I got it and realized it as locking up while on battery. Luckily, I never had gotten any blue screen. I would just get random freezes. Disabling the turbo memory and uninstalling some of the thinkvantage software worked for me.

One thing I would like to say is that it's not lenovo's responsibility to come out with a driver that will make the turbo memory work. I do blame them for not testing out the turbo memory properly to find this problem before it was shipped.

I know you returned your laptop, but I would just like to know what steps you took to get rid of the blue screens.

1) Did you try doing a clean install? I got my computer to stop freezing on battery before the clean install but my system does feel more stable after the clean install.

2) Did you try the method listed on the intel website:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/cs-025783.htm

"If you are experiencing performance degradation or timeout errors, one of the following workarounds may help resolve the issue:


If available, install updated firmware for the device.
Delete the iastor(v) Parameters registry key by using the following steps:

1. Go to Start » Search.
2. Type in RegEdit and hit the Enter key.
3. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaStor(v).
4. Right-click on the Parameters key under iaStor(v) and select the Delete option.
"

 

so what brand lcd and keyboard did you get?

 

I don't know and I don't care. However, if you would like to know, tell me how to find out that info and I'll post it here.

 

1. I did do a clean install, to the extent that I could. I do not have a separate copy of Vista, and of course, Lenovo doesn't provide one. The bottom line is that and end-user that purchases a computer loaded with an operating system should not have to scrounge up another copy of the operating system to get his computer to work. That asinine. A new computer should work - if it doesn't then the manufacturer should fix it. Lenovo's response to me, multiple times, was that they were unaware of blue screen problems (a blatant lie - they came up with a non-working driver for it) and that they didn't know how to fix my computer.

I was forced to re-install the operating system on my computer because after one blue screen, the boot sectors were damaged and the computer could not recover. I was able to de-select virtually everything that wasn't necessary and I was very happy with the re-install (the first time I did it). Little did I know that Thinkvantage was (likely) part of the problem. I didn't think to omit that, but then again, those features are part of the reason why I chose Lenovo so disabling them doesn't make as much sense as, say, a computer that doesn't crash because of the factory loaded software. Fortunately, I didn't have anything important yet on the computer - of course the reason for that was because it was only 2 days old.

2. I didn't try that solution. It wasn't available by the time Lenovo told me to send my computer back. I tried everything else, and I would have been happy to try this before sending the computer back (seriously, what a hassle) but I didn't see that on any of the public forums.

If the solution works, that's great. I guess it's the type of thing that Lenovo can include in one of their system updates. However, I will say that it's totally ridiculous that an end user must edit the registry in order for the computer to not crash very 10 minutes. People that browse this board are probably capable of doing that, but seriously, can you imagine trying to talk your Dad or grandma or whatever through it?

But, as I posted elsewhere, I liked the computer and was very happy with it, except for the fact it crashed every 10 minutes or so and corrupted the boot sectors on the hard drive twice in the week that I had it. Pretty much, the only thing I did while I had it was load software, reload the operating system, load software, reload the operating system, load software; and I browsed the internet a few times. I would have been more than happy to keep it if Lenovo could have solved the problems, but their tech support didn't know of a solution (maybe they still don't), and each time I called they told me they were unaware of any problems. They asked me to send my computer back for repairs, but I told them that was just plain stupid. I didn't buy a refurbished computer, I don't want it in for repairs a week after getting it.

Truly, what makes me mad about this thread is that people are trying to blame the buyers for Lenovo's problems with the software load, hardware conflicts, crashes, clueless customer support and lies. The buyers are not at fault! If a plane crashes through your neighbor's roof and seriously injures him, do you walk over and tell him it's his fault for living in that house? Do you tell him that your house is just fine, so the fact that a plane hit is because of his own doing? That's what some of the jackasses here are doing. Nobody asked for a computer that crashes and blue screens. Just because your computer does not have problems doesn't mean that they don't exist.