how long did your thinkpad last you?

Got this T61p in June 2008 and had the gpu error this weekend. Over the years I replaced the battery and adapter and also added new thermal paste when she started running abnormally hot a year ago. Other than those issues it is a very solid laptop and I'm sad to see it go.

 

My first Thinkpad just hit the two year mark, and it's going real strong. No hint of trouble yet. Knock on wood.

Ironically, although my first Thinkpad has been by far the best laptop I have owned (more so than any of my Macs in recent memory), it will probably be my last traditional laptop. I realized that I probably could do what I need to do with a Surface or similar tablet with a docking solution. It is crazy to think how quickly technology has advanced that I can contemplate a future without any desktop, laptop or traditional PC.

Hence, I will try to use my Thinkpad until the wheels fall off. I really do love my Thinkpad and will look long and hard at a Thinkpad branded tablet once I need to replace the x220. In the meantime, I plan on playing around with a Surface 2. I love technology!

 

I've been using my T60p since July of 2006, so over 7 years. I use it as my *only* computer, ten+ hours a day. Had a couple of minor southbridge issues, but nothing too serious ... until recently. For the past couple of months I've been more frequently system "freeze-ups", where everything just stops and I cannot use the keyboard or mouse -- nothing works. It's totally frozen. Only remedy is to do a hard shut-down (which I *hate* to do).

I'd like to find the cause of these freeze-ups. Could my hard drive be getting old or could this be a software problem?? I am using Google desktop with some now discontinued widgets (graphical clock and system monitor). I have also done file clean-ups and hdd defrags daily.

Anybody have the same problem or some educated guess??

 

Run memtest 86 on your RAM.

Run the HDD test utility which is available in BIOS

How's your battery?

 

Battery is original (Panasonic) and it's held up amazingly well. I seldom run on battery, virtually always plugged in. My battery monitor app shows it's charged to 97-100%.

 

Panasonic is the way to go, always has been.

Run those two tests that I've suggested and report back - but I'd advise starting a separate thread for troubleshooting issues on that T60p of yours...

Good luck.

 

Bought My R61i in 2007 From Circuit City, It was a display model. It has been very reliable and the only laptop I use since then. I just don't want to change. Upgraded the processor from a T5250 1.5Ghz to a T8100 2.1 Ghz CPU. Also bumped the Ram to 4GB and the HD to 640GB and Installed a Wireless N Card. This has been my baby from the start.

I have never turned off the laptop ever since the day that i bought it other than replacing hardware, always been on stand by, so i am glad that even after that stress it still serves me well.

 

I love my T60p and if I could get it upgraded with a new planar (new video card, newer, better CPU, something to fit it for 64-bit and more RAM) for a reasonable price, I would keep using it. Love the Flex-View screen, can hardly bear TN screens. <sigh>

Mimo3G, how do you use 4 GB of RAM ... how did you switch over to 64-bit???

 

Btw, I did run all those tests you mentioned. Did the vid test twice, once for 70 minutes and another time for 242 minutes -- no freezes. (I do get some very thin horizontal lines at the bottom of my screen, like they are mimicking the taskbar outline (ghosting?), but it is very intermittent, happens once every couple of weeks; started about a year ago.

I have between 65 and 69 processes running after start-up.

 

You can install a 64-bit CPU (T5500/5600/7200/7400/7600) but you'll still be limited to 3GB of RAM. You need to hack your frame and install a planar from a 14" (4:3) T61 to be able to use 8GB RAM.

R61i discussed in the post above yours natively accepts 8GB RAM and C2D CPUs.

 

Flex-View are not that good by today's standard, tbh. Modern high quality TNs can beat them for pretty much anything other than aspect ratio and vertical view angle. Most TNs are terrible though.

 

This holds true *only* if one is capable of not moving their head at all while looking at the screen.

All the measurements that are oh-so-popular nowadays such as gamut become meaningless of you move your head 2cm and the colours become washed out...

There are better options than conventional IPS/AFFS screens seen on older ThinkPads nowadays, but I'd be hard pressed to find them within the realm of TN panels...

 

It is not much about moving head as it is more horizontal ,the problem is can anyone open their laptop same angle everytime?

I try to calibrates my oh so famous b156hw01 v7 and the color temp si just?! '() by the lack of vertical view angle. If I view it at the same angle as the puck (that is 90 degree to the screen, prefect) but i usually open it up to 100 to 110, it just go so yellow. There is a reason why they put tn at so high color temp?

 

And how big a deal is such a hack?? I've played around with some of the internal components, re-greased my CPU, took a long hard look at my GPU, installed an additional RAM stick in the vacant slot ... stuff like that. I'm sure replacing the mainboard/planar is a lot more involved, but how much?

Also, where can I get a planar in good shape from a 14" T61 (can't use 15" ??)??

 

Got a T60 for 4:3 gaming that is still running strong, it has mainly been used as a desktop replacement and therefore the condition is almost like new. However my previous work machine T60 14" is also still working but pretty worn out due to a lot of travel, same thing goes for my T500 from 2008 which I am about to replace as it has started to making me insane

So yes in general thinkpads last for a long time if you take care of them, I am pretty sure my T60 15" will still be running when my T500 finally gives up. that being said I had another T60 that I bough 2nd hand which gave up 2 months ago and which I am now going to convert it to a T61 Frankenpad

 

Finally got round to restoring my ThinkPad T61 and replaced the cracked palmrest.



Ooops, I can assure that this happened before I stepped on it! Now its got a new Palmrest I thought it be nice to have a bit of nostalgic throwback to the earlier ThinkPads by adding the multicoloured IBM logo.

 

^^^^^ Nice and clean T61 you got there, congrats...:thumbsup:

On my "to do" list for this weekend is a planar swap on my trusty old A31p...my favourite ThinkPad of them all...

 

Nice! Where did you get that IBM logo palm rest? Also, any tips for tightening the hinges of the T61? Mine is having more 'play' by the day.

 

you can't really tighten the hinges.

 

You can just buy a sticker set for a few bucks on feebay and swap it out yourself, takes a minute. Just make sure to get the correct size.

Hinges are a *well-known* weak spot on T61/p and T/R 400. If they have gotten really weak, you have no choice but to swap them out, which is somewhat of a pain and I personally hate doing it.

 

As others mentioned I got the IBM logos from eBay via a friendly seller from Germany (they really do like their ThinkPads there). For the T61 you want the 18x30mm stickers to fit both the lid top and palmrest.

Pains to say but you will need to replace the hinge set which means disassembling the whole LCD frame. My hinges does wobble slightly but I probably get round to it some point later.

 

~Four years...Really heavy user.

I upgraded 8GB RAM and Hybrid HDD to boost it...

So sad the new TPs are so confusing regarding upgrading.

 

I've had my X220 for two years. I love it, but in the last few months, the lid switch and the then the fingerprint reader failed. These aren't fatal, but they do reduce its utility (esp. the lid switch, since I now have to manually make t sleep/hibernate). I should have gotten the three year warranty instead of one year with accidental damage.

 

This ThinkPad died too early.
Youtube

 

My T500 (Oct 2008) lasted until I sold it (working perfectly) on November 2012.
Screen was not as bright which was annoying and the battery was completely dead.

 

worth subscribing, 10/10

 

I have a R61i 15.6" widescreen from 2008 which is having its 6th birthday this month.
Comfortably running Windows 7.
No repairs.
Battery died two years ago.
Fan never cleaned or replaced; still barely trudging on but with good temps regardless.
The rubber cap of the left Shift key broke when I lent the laptop out.

I'll give it a couple more years but the hard drive will be the first component to break.

 

Still using my X120e from 2010. Granted she's on a lighter duty since I mostly work with my desktop.

Debating if I should replace her with a Yoga or Helix.

 

Have an early T61 (bought June 2007); now on it's 3rd mainboard (replaced 11 months past warranty on Lenovo's dime), last week replaced on my own dime with Intel GPU mainboard, 2nd fan, upgraded HDD (that 120 GB HDD could only pull ~28 MB/s avg....)

Bought a refurb W520 in August 2012; still 100% ok, except some battery wear (I think it's too much).

 

I've been using this T500 since 2009. It's certainly showing signs of wear performance-wise, but it still runs flawlessly. The only repair I ever had to do was get a broken USB port replaced, and Lenovo did a great job with it.

 

I've got my favorite Thinkpad - A31p - in early 2003, so it's going strong for 11 years. No problems and no repairs, only the battery is very poor, runs for like 10 minutes =) Using it as a second desktop machine, so not really a problem...

 

My favourite ThinkPad as well. A fabulous concept that one was.

Glad to hear that someone is still running theirs with no issues, both of mine are sickly.

 

Got a T61p in early 2008. The battery lasted all of one year. The fan died around a year later and I replaced it and applied some Arctic Silver. It finally had a system board failure at the end of 2013. I would be fine using it today. Was in the stages of updating the BIOS to use an SSD.

Forgot the space bar died pretty early in its lifetime as well. When I replaced the fan I got a refurbished keyboard.

 

1/2009 T500 still going. I finally replaced the keyboard after the mouse keys quit working. I liked that they had duplicate mouse keys so I had backups lol. The space bar was not working either. Now the new keyboard via ebay is dead on the right side.

Still running Vista. Don't think the early T500 supports WIN7.

Looking for a replacement now. It appears it won't be a Lenovo.

 

They most certainly DO support W7 and it will run on any *00 series machine like a charm.

 

for all you hardcore Thinkpad guys/gals I ran across a user running a ThinkPad 701c from about 1995 on Monday ( almost 20 freaking years old !!! ) still going strong dual booting MS-DOS 6.2 and Windows 95 for SCADA programming. ( 80486DX-75, 20Mb RAM, 500MB hard drive )

I had to stop and check out that fully functional relic, an yes it did need the butterfly keyboard replaced a few times and has well exceeded the 25-30,000 times opened and closed. and has needed many a cell swap in its batteries

MY personal oldest daily driver is my X220 that the husband swiped but its only at 3 years going strong.

 

My W520 from May 2011 is still running strong. I used it for schoolwork and gaming for about two years, and now I've loaning it to a sibling for schoolwork, gaming, and Solidworks/AutoCAD. Will be getting it back sometime next spring though, when he gets his own computer.

Bought a X61t last year from ajkula66, and that's still going strong! though I somehow broke the Wacom pen a few months ago, so I need to replace that... Not sure exactly how old this X61t is, but I'm planning on running the thing until it dies, which seems to be sometime in the far future .

 

Good to hear.

PM me, have a spare, just have to locate it...

There's a YY/MM code on the same tag on the bottom that holds the serial along with the model number, but from my recollection it's late 2008...

 

Everyone of my 4 thinkpads is still working. These include one from 1999, one from 2010, two from 2012.

 

Most of the ThinkPads I have collected over the last 5 years have been sold or given to family members. I do have two remaining ThinkPads and they are the X200tablet (One Note and syncing- brilliant!) and a Frankenpad TR4050e. I use the Frankenpad as a print server which has been working out fine so far. I nearly sold my X200tablet however I discovered more about One Note and that was it- I decided to keep my X200tablet. So far it has been reliable and still elicits " Ooohhh you can write on it??!!"

 

My T61 is still alive after 6 years. I had to replace the screen once and the dvd writer a few times while it was still on warranty. I also had to replace the fan the power cord and the battery a couple of times.

 

X220 Tablet still going strong since October 2011. Coming up on 3 years, no issues other than battery wear at 31.5%.

 

I have a T61p that I purchased in the spring of 2008 that's doing well. I had the infamous heat problem with the nVidia discrete GPU that killed the system and required a motherboard replacement (under original warranty, thank goodness). I replaced the original Windows Vista 32-bit installation with Ubuntu 12.04 about a year ago and used the system for Android development. It's now in semi-retirement as I just purchased a T440p that's working very well for me.

 

Now that I've sold most of my ThinkPads I can actually come back to this thread and post a few words...

A31p (2002): Only the shell remains. Planar and LCD both replaced numerous times. Upgraded wireless card, RAM, HDD...double-booting XP and CentOS in retirement.

T42p (2004): Only the shell remains. Planar replaced twice, LCD once. Upgraded wireless card, RAM, mSATA SSD + adapter. Running Fedora 20 in semi-retirement.

R60E (2006): Original shell and planar. Upgraded LCD, CPU, RAM, wireless card, SSD. Never a problem with this one. Running W7 Pro 32, used by my twin boys.

T60 (2007): All original apart from upgraded RAM, wireless card and SSD. Fan replaced this past summer, no other problems ever. Running W7 Pro 32, abused by my Princess Daughter.

T61 (2008): Original shell and planar, everything else upgraded. Fabulous machine. Running W7 Pro 64, my daily driver.

R500 (2009): Original shell and planar, everything else upgraded. Never a problem with this one. Running W7 Pro 64, my wife's daily beater.

T410 (2011): Original apart from upgraded RAM and SSD, too new for us to comment on. W7 Pro 64