ThinkPad 3GHz [[ alledgedly]]

[Ian Smith]

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008, Gary Kline wrote:
 > On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 01:09:45PM +1100, Ian Smith wrote:
 > > On Fri, 10 Oct 2008, Gary Kline wrote:
[..]
 > >  > 	I just bought the last pre-Lenovo [?] IBM ThinkPad.  I would have
 > > 
 > > Gary, what model & type is it?  Exactly?  Doesn't sound like a T43, they 
 > > have a touchpad I think, and - we've been here before - I haven't heard 
 > > of any single-core Thinkpads clocked faster than about 2.2GHz.
 > 
 > 	It's a G41.  --if i said t43, my mind was *thinking* "g41"; too
 > 	often i'll be thinking one thing but my fingers type something
 > 	else, maybe close, maybe not!  (yes, i am way short on sleep
 > 	again:)  (*mumble*)  I'll need help it turning the laptop over
 > 	and getting the full model, type, &c. 

Fair enough.  Well I'd never even heard of the G-series before, so it's 
news to me.  I see they do sport a Mobile P4 from 3.06 up to 3.46GHz. 
Best reference I found is: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:G41

 > 	Anyway, in case you need some (clearing my throat) "fertilizer",
 > 	I can send you what i've scraped off.  

Thanks all the same, but we have chooks here for that ..

 > >  > 	And if so:exactly how.  It *is* old-fashioned as some reviewers
 > >  > 	wrote in '05, but it has Only the trackstick or stictrak to move
 > >  > 	the pointer.  No scratch-and-sniff pad where I'll rest my palm.
 > > 
 > > I'm waiting for some guinea pig to try an Adesso Easy Cat external 
 > > touchpad on one (U$40 or so).  I've asked several times, but noone so 
 > > far admits to having tried one of these on any FreeBSD box.  I gather 
 > > that at a minimum they emulate standard PS/2 or USB mice, with tap, 
 > > double-tap and drag and possibly right-click-tap, out of the box.
 > 
 > 	By touchpad I'm assuming you mean that thing you scrape with your
 > 	fingernails, correct? Or maybe pressed your fingers?  I've tried
 > 	that on my daughter's Macbook and i just don't have the
 > 	dexterity.  A few weeks--nay, a few days-- of cursor-moving that
 > 	way: man, the guys in white coats would have to haul me away.  
 > 	Exactly why somebody doesn't make a keyboard with a mouse-curse
 > 	track-stick on it, I don't know.  Mose buttons could be beside
 > 	the space bar.  Think of the kilometers of saved travel-time going 
 > 	to from mouse and keyboard.   --starting to rant, sorry--

That's the one.  For years I've done most of my day to day work on a '99 
Compaq 1500c laptop that refuses to die, though its second keyboard is 
getting sloppy, but it has the best touchpad I've used including several 
more recent laptops including MY daughter's Macs.  I'm still not ready 
to move to my T23 for day to day work despite its excellent keyboard, 
after quite regular attempts at being at least half as productive with 
its TrackPoint.  People keep telling me that I'll get used to it ..

Maybe I'll just have to be my own guinea pig, though it's now ~A$100 ..

 > >  > 	Built-in wireless and built-in cable jack.  
 > > 
 > > Before you wipe anything you could boot off disc 1, or -bootonly, and 
 > > save a dmesg so we can see what all the hardware is, though given the 
 > > model and type numbers, someone will likely already have [had] one.
 > 
 > 	I'll poke around on web and on computer.  It's heavy for a
 > 	"portable"; 11 lbs to ship, so 8or 9 probably. Did I mention that
 > 	I had the guy upgrad to a 120G drive and 2GB of DDR?  

No, but that's good.  Yeah it looks pretty chunky, hardly for the lap, 
still it'll use a lot less power than a desktop and likely last forever.  
I see options include 3 screens, either Intel or NVidia video, 2 wifi 
adaptors (both Atheros based, should work) and 2 Broadcomm LAN adaptors.

 > >  > 	So: should I just drop in 7.1-R or Ubuntu-XYZ over the Windows
 > >  > 	or what?  The ONLY use I'd ever have to use W is to play my
 > >  > 	French CD's. O/wise it's useless.
 > > 
 > > If the HD has plenty of room, you could shrink the doze slice down to 
 > > enough to boot and use it if need be, maybe 4-6GB for XP, using one of 
 > > the various tools such as Partition Magic.  Depending on its model, you 
 > > may need to boot windows to do the BIOS and Embedded Controller updates, 
 > > though many more recent(?) models have bootable ISO images available.
 > 
 > 	Mmm.  The more I think about it, the less use I have for anything
 > 	M$.  I mean, there are few people alive as ch--thrifty as I am.
 > 	But I ain't stoopid enough to waste hours -> days to run an OS to
 > 	play my French CDs.  

Well do check the IBM/Lenovo site regarding its BIOS and EC versions, 
and be sure to install the latest ones, especially regarding ACPI, as 
you'll probably want to run powerd to keep it running cool when idle.

Ah, just downloaded the Hardware Maintenance Manual referenced on that 
ThinkWiki page to add to my collection .. gotta love IBM manuals .. and 
see that a) some actually went up to 3.73GHz, whee, and b) it has a 
floppy drive, which may make BIOS upgrading less tedious, though you may 
still need to make floppy/s on a 'doze box (eg this one before wiping?)

All in all, it looks like a pretty useful sort of machine, if you're not 
planning to cart it around too much.  Can I ask what you paid for it?

cheers, Ian