Did i get a bum Thinkpad T41? (Update: She's going back to IBM)

[aphex]

Arrived this afternoon.....

Took nearly an hour to get into Windows for the first time (most of the laptops we set up at work take 20 mins) and once there everything was going unbelievably slow....

Rebooted a few times, each time taking nearly 15 minutes just to reach windows. Once in windows, loading applications was a nightmare. Clicking Control Panel only yielded a blank 'Control Panel' screen for close to 2-3 minutes before anything came up.

Called IBM tech support (my god, i spoke to someone in the US..... Very cool), and was told to simply run a factory restore because something must have gone wrong.

Well its been 'restoring' for close to 2 1/2 hours now. Its in back in windows and running its 'Factory Preinstallation'.

My question is, does the restore usually take this long? Think its something else?

 

[WackyDan]

Seems odd. My t41p took about 1.5 hrs to fully restore.

See how it runs after the recovery.... then if still slow... Update the bios. If that doesn't do the trick, call IBM and tell them you want a new TP.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: WackyDan
Seems odd. My t41p took about 1.5 hrs to fully restore.

See how it runs after the recovery.... then if still slow... Update the bios. If that doesn't do the trick, call IBM and tell them you want a new TP.

Im up to 3 hours now... Still slowly Installing Applications.....

 

[Yzzim]

That doesn't sound good Either way you'll have to go through IBM tech support in order to get anything returned. Since it sounds like they still have a US based call center it shouldn't be that bad.

In the meantime, we'll blame all the problems on UPS :|

 

[aphex]

Just got off the phone with tech support again... He's pretty sure its either a bad hard drive or IDE cable... Nevertheless, shes going back

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: aphex
Just got off the phone with tech support again... He's pretty sure its either a bad hard drive or IDE cable... Nevertheless, shes going back

 

[aphex]

Its still going.... My lord

 

[aphex]

Well i just called and spoke to 2 tech support guys....

One of them was the most un-enthusiastic guy i have ever spoken to in my life. He made me pull out the ram from under the keyboard to check to make sure its the right model. It was, he said the only thing he could do was ship me a recovery cd and i could try reinstalling again. 5 Business Days to ship a damn cd.

I called back and spoke to another rep and told him i wanted to just get another system. Unfortunately that dept is closed till monday morning.

Anyone know if there is any chance IBM would ship me a new laptop before recieving theirs back? Im starting school VERY soon and since i laptop is required for all classes, i would be pretty screwed if i didnt have one....

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: aphex
Well i just called and spoke to 2 tech support guys....

One of them was the most un-enthusiastic guy i have ever spoken to in my life. He made me pull out the ram from under the keyboard to check to make sure its the right model. It was, he said the only thing he could do was ship me a recovery cd and i could try reinstalling again. 5 Business Days to ship a damn cd.

I called back and spoke to another rep and told him i wanted to just get another system. Unfortunately that dept is closed till monday morning.

Anyone know if there is any chance IBM would ship me a new laptop before recieving theirs back? Im starting school VERY soon and since i laptop is required for all classes, i would be pretty screwed if i didnt have one....

Not sure about that.... though you could "easy serve" it to a repair center - you get it back guaranteed in 72 hours or less.

Every time I've gotten recovery CD's from them it's only taken overnight or 2nd day. Of course.... I live within a few hours of RTP, NC>....

If he thinks it is the drive, have you tried re-seating it?

 

[WackyDan]

Plus --I don't think recovery cd's will solve the problem.

 

[aphex]

All they had me do was check the model and reseat the ram.

 

[aphex]

Interesting.....

Was able (after about 10 minutes of loading) to pull up System Info..... Shows my processor is only running at 538mhz (its a 1.6ghz Pentium-M)

Checked in the bios and it shows that while plugged into A/C the processor will always run at Max CPU (its already set that way). Im wondering if thats the prob....

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: aphex
Interesting.....

Was able (after about 10 minutes of loading) to pull up System Info..... Shows my processor is only running at 538mhz (its a 1.6ghz Pentium-M)

Checked in the bios and it shows that while plugged into A/C the processor will always run at Max CPU (its already set that way). Im wondering if thats the prob....

Did you update the bios as suggested?

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: WackyDan

Originally posted by: aphex
Interesting.....

Was able (after about 10 minutes of loading) to pull up System Info..... Shows my processor is only running at 538mhz (its a 1.6ghz Pentium-M)

Checked in the bios and it shows that while plugged into A/C the processor will always run at Max CPU (its already set that way). Im wondering if thats the prob....

Did you update the bios as suggested?

Can you update w/o a floppy drive?

 

[aphex]

Found the BIOS update utility, but it seems that im already running the latest bios...

Version 1RETC2WW (3.03)

UPDATE:

Was going to burn it to a CD on my desktop and try and run it on the laptop. But it takes almost 15 minutes to even load windows explorer, so i dunno how well the utility will run. Dont wanna fvck it beyond belief

 

[Garion]

Do the centrinos underclock themselves when they start to overheat? If so, you might check the Heatsink/fan, or just make sure that it's blowing warm air out of the right place.

- G