> From: Randal Whittle
>
> The fan crapped-out on my T42p. Unfortunately, its about 5
> mos. out of warranty. Thanks to a list member who had a
> similar issue some months (year?) ago, I found an inexpensive
> source for a new fan for $50 at www.thermalfx.com (someone
> posted that here way back--thank you!). It sure beat the
> $500 price IBM/Lenovo was telling me...
>
> At any rate, although I'll be fixing this, this is the first
> time I've been bit outside of warranty. Somehow over the
> last 13-14 years of TP ownership, I've always replaced my
> machines within about a 3-year period so if something went
> wrong, the warranty dealt with it.
You can buy additional warranty coverage if you want. I think it costs about
$170 for a year's coverage on an out-of-warranty machine. They say they have
the right to inspect the machine before issuing the warranty extension, but
in practice they never do, and once they issue the warranty you are covered.
> So I'm considering buying a new TP. And I was shocked to see
> that apparently the T61 (seems to be the natural replacement)
> carries only a 1 year warranty?
> Whatever happened to the 3-year warranties on the higher-end
> notebooks? Can you buy additional warranty time?
Yes, it's an extra $120 for 3-year EZ-Serv, or $220 for 3-year onsite. You
can also get 4 or 5 years. The warranty options will show up on the second
page of the system configurator on lenovo.com.
> While I'm at it, are there any X-series aficionados,
> particularly with the Tablet versions? Anyone who remembers
> the 701C "Butterfly" (I owned one) can't help but remember it
> fondly. I thought maybe the X might be a viable option,
> since I can't think of a particularly strong argument to
> carry around the extra bulk of even the thin/light T series
> if you don't especially need to CD/DVD drive all the time. I
> can just get the base for that occasional need.
>
> So I get to thinking of maybe skipping the T61 and instead
> going to the X in the tablet configuration. Any comments?
> I'd sure like to here 'em.
The X61 Tablet is very nice, especially with the SXGA+ (1400x1050) display.
I installed 64-bit Vista on mine, using the Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD for
64-bit and copying the activation information from the factory preload using
the activation backup tool. I posted some notes on this a few days ago.
BTW, order the machine with Vista even if you think you want XP instead.
They offer XP for an extra charge, but my machine came with XP recovery
disks in the box. Or you can order them from technical support under the "XP
downgrade" program. That way you are licensed for both XP and Vista on the
machine. Be sure to make your Vista recovery CD+DVD set before running the
XP recovery if you go that route. You can use a USB burner for both these
tasks.
The UltraBase is nice to have if you want to run a second hard drive at full
speed (faster than a USB hard drive) using the UltraBay adapter, but it's
not essential.
Also order Microsoft OneNote with the tablet. It's only $20 if you get it
with the machine. I actually prefer EverNote for most note-taking, but for
$20 it was worth getting OneNote to have it on hand. They both have good ink
support.
The SXGA+ display for the X61 Tablet does have two quirks: It picks up hand
oils more readily than the other tablet displays, but breath fog and a soft
cotton dishtowel cleans it up nicely. Also the display has just a bit of a
sparkly quality in light areas, apparently because of the same coating that
makes it pick up hand oils. The upside is that this coating makes it easier
to see the display in daylight.
-Mike
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Received on Tue Nov 13 18:01:14 2007
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