From: Gerald C. Delsescaux (jd_at_eighthwave.com)
Date: Sat Oct 03 1998 - 00:06:59 EDT
If anyone could give me some feedback, it would be appreciated.... I have a
new TP 600 with a 4gb drive which randomly makes a light "tonk" sound.
Sometimes it doesn't happen, other times it randomly occurs every 10 to 30
seconds (in this case, under DOS -- can't remember under Win98, which was
cleanly installed per IBM's web instructions).
It's not disk swapping (e.g., normal read/write sound) and it's not an evil
sounding grinding or whining (e.g., disk crash)... just a clean little
middle-toned sound like "plonk" or "tonk." A mechanical movement perhaps?
Is this normal? Is the drive recalibrating or resetting? Do the new drives
just sound like this, or is there something I can do to prevent or decrease
it? (It does get irritating after awhile).
The drive seems fine (no errors reported in any fashion), but I feel like
I'm having bad luck in general with this Thinkpad:
** the COM1 serial port would not function out of the box (took two phone
calls & over three hours to convince IBM tech support that it really didn't
work). The laptop is currently being serviced in Memphis (but they told me
to pull the drive -- they weren't interested in looking at it??)
** the keyboard will sometimes beep when typing very quickly (with no other
system activity) -- this also happened with a floor model I played with. Is
this a normal keyboard buffer overrun? (If someone says yes, I'll feel
better ) No real problem... just worrisome if there's not an explainable
reason.
* I'm experiencing the "boot to IBM logo screen, beep twice, reboot to IBM
logo screen, then continue booting normally" problem described in the IBM
website ThinkPad forums. IBM tech support had no ideas. Is the laptop
rebooting whenever BIOS is updated or system status changes? (Note: no
PCMCIA cards installed, no docking station, a clean Win98 install per IBM's
website instructions, extra 32 mb installed, updated to BIOS 103)
In short, can someone cheer me up by saying these are all just normal,
"cosmetic" issues and that I didn't end up with a lemon? I realize that
*all* electronic devices can suffer from "infant mortality" problems --
it's the nature of the beast, but I'm really growing to hate this ThinkPad
-- bad first impressisons. (OK, OK, I'm overreacting.) I really want to
like this thing, and maybe some kind words and similar experiences would
help. Any feedback would be appreciated!
Many thanks,
Jerry
jd_at_eighthwave.com
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