Refurbished IBM Thinkpad

[calyco]

So I just received my refurbished Thinkpad T30, not exactly pleased in the condition it came in. First off there are little scuffs and scratches on the case and battery, not deep but a few blemishes here and there that definitely shows signs of usage. That is of course expected to a certain extent since its refurbished. A few questions I have though for the Thinkpad owners:

Is the hard drive supposed to be this loud? To give a comparison the Zalman 7000aclu heatsink I had in my old desktop was even quieter. Im not quite sure how the internal parts are laid out in the laptop but Im almost positive its the HD since clicking sounds come from the same place (left palm rest) when accessing data. Even though I think its the HD the noise actually sounds more like a fan constantly spinning.

Overall the build quality is pretty solid, everything fits nice and snug ie. battery or when the lid is closed. The only problem is when I press my finger on the back of the lid I can actually see where the pressure is being applied on the screen (only slightly though when looking at the desktop). Is this supposed to be normal? That didnt even happen with the old Dell Inspiron 1150 I had which is supposed to be a cheap build compared to the Thinkpad.

 

[fbrdphreak]

I think the flexibility in the screen is "supposed" to be there, so that on impact the screen flexes a little bit instead of cracking anywhere. My T42 does the same thing and while it is disconcerting, I wouldn't worry too much about it. In regards to the hard drive, I couldn't tell you. My 40GB 5400RPM is pretty quiet. Check out http://forum.thinkpads.com and browse the T series section, you might find your answer there.

 

[TheCanuck]

If it's a continuous noise coming from the hard drive then it's most likely the bearings are shot. I had a 20GB travelstar that started exhibiting that after it was about a year old. I contacted IBM and had it RMA'd. Did you get it refurbished from IBM or some other place? Doesn't sound like you got a particularly good one. Personally, I would try to get my money back.

IBM makes good laptops, but often the ones that you can buy used have had the crap beat out of them. How much did you spend on it anyway? I think that model comes with a P4-M 1.8ghz /ATI 7500...if those are the specs then it's not worth more than $800.

 

[uOpt]

What model?

Refurbished shouldn't look used, so much is clear.

Is that on ebay? Which seller?

I just got a R40 and it's impossible to hear. Has a Toshiba harddrive, though.

 

[calyco]

Picked it up at Overstock for $800 with a 1.6ghz. It came with a 90 day IBM warranty but when I checked it on ibm.com it says the laptops actually covered up to September of 2005 so I guess I got a decent deal considering I didnt want to pay $1500+ for the new models, dont need all that power since I dont game much. Thanks for the confirm on the screen fbrdphreak, just wanted to make sure theres nothing wrong with my unit, anyways now that Ive messed around with it a bit its only one spot roughly the size of a quarter where it actually does that. I think Ill extend the warranty through IBM so I wont think too much into it.

 

[calyco]

Would it be a good idea to play the occasional game on the Thinkpad - ATI Mobility Radeon 7500? I just tried and it can run MOHAA on low settings, 1024x768 but the vent gets hooot, almost too hot to touch. Bad idea?

 

[Paperlantern]

if its getting hot, that laptop isnt cooling properly. I repair laptops for a living, and as a benchmark i run them at 100% load for hours to be sure they wont lock up or shut down, and a properly cooled processor in a laptop should never get "too hot to touch", or at least the heatsink shouldnt, the die might, but not the heatsink. If its used, they may not have cleaned out the dust in it, rather jsut checked to be sure it worked and then resold it.

The LCD panel in that model is not padded much and will show motion to the touch on the back of the lid... its not meant to be pressed on while in use. The hard drive might be one of the ibm or hitachi models, some of whitch have a middle range pitch running sound, it is very annoying, i agree, and i have had to replace drives under warranty due to customer complaints, it should be covered if you dont like it, get it replaced.