[ltp] Second handed T43 issues (already bought): advises for tons of
doubts and questions, please
Miguel Daniel Rodríguez Magarzo
linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:49:07 +0100
Hi here, list.
I've been following the thread called "tpfand configuration for an
X200s" with a lot of interest. Let me tell you why, if you don't mind..
While the thread grew I received a second-hand T43 thinkpad that several
days before I saw into an very active Spanish website about
second-handed goods.
The item looked like impeccable according with the photos the seller
sent, its stated features sounded very good: a Thinkpad T43 1.86 GHz
proccessor, 1 GB RAM, video card with 256 MB, high resolution screen
(1400x1050), wireless, bluetooth, fingerprint, 60 GB hard disk,
CD-RW/DVD unit, charger and cord, and a good large duration battery.
Besides, he told me that it had had a soft usage. :-) All for 300 € plus
shipment costs (about 10 €).
Actually I've had owned a Thinkpad T42 for more than three years, time
during it has been my best prefered gadget by far, becoming since them
into my daily computer and still continues there in the highest of the
ranking, well..:-)) how to say that I love it? Maybe because of those
reasons or impressions, here now with this transaction I tended to think
erroneously that this would end up being a good business, for just 300
euros I didn't mind very much about its previous usage and even whether
all the "specs" the seller said would be really true or just maybe good
approximation.
What I was looking for was:
-Another laptop, Thinkpad modeled, preferably T or X series.
-Second-handed, not more than 300-350 €.
-High screen resolution (not the standard 1024x768), this would imply a
good graphics card.
-Decent wireless card, as much powerful as I know about thinkpads.
The remaining features could be aside.
It seemed a good chance for my purpose, so I accepted. Nevertheless,
there was several "cons":
- Payment would be "cash on delivery" (without the right of opening and
inspecting the merchandise before to decide to get it or not). That was
a high risk. Probably there wouldn't be possibility of giving it back.
-The machine was already out of warranty clearly: more than 3 years old
(though its look was fine indeed).
-The man seemed unable to tell me the model number, he didn't find it
over the foot surface, etc. but he sent me some photos he took over a
window of the Windows XP where there could see the properties of the
graphics card, with 256 MB. Wow!
Well, the laptop arrived and I started some (first funny, then
unpleasant) "Private Investigations" (sic).
Let's see..
1st- Aspect was very good indeed. Surfaces, keyboard, back, etc. was
almost impeccable. No scratches, no signs of wear by usage either.
Beautiful. Good.
2nd- Press power button. Microsoft O.S. starts. Works. No fingerprint
locks or similar. Wireless was fine. OK, shutdown.
3rd- Linux Live CD, partitioning (erasing everything existing there).
Then Linux install (Ubuntu). First an 8.04 Hardy, then an 8.10 Intrepid
by upgrading the previous one. Stupid, I know.. but it was from DVD-rom
and the second version arrived after the first installation were made.
Wireless here works too.
4th- Advices from Ubuntu panel, more or less after translation... "The
battery could be damaged. Your battery has a capacity very low (11%),
which means that it maybe either could be old or be defective." BAD!
Let's try: I disconnected the power supply cord, the laptop started in
battery mode and it would last about 10 minutes! That was all!
5th- The screen (14 inch.) is working at 1400x1050 but it has nothing to
do with the screen (15 inches) showed in the T42. Nothing. Apart from
the size (sustantially bigger, believe me..), my T42 had (has) a very
good quality, it can be seen from many angles (above, sides, etc...) and
always is O.K.; Nevertheless, I had problems to see the screen of the
T43 correctly, even been placed just in front of it (because of its
reflections), so when I placed the sight with angles, I was unable to
see anything but a hard reflection. Finally, I managed (learned) to move
back the screen sheet enough accordingly with the environment lighness.
In summary, bad screen quality. Nothing, nothing to do with what I knew
until then...
6th- Sound. There is no sound!. How can it be possible. None system
sound event. I tried some system tests, nothing. Checked drivers and
configuration..., nothing seemed wrong there (I had the another thinkpad
configuration to compare, since it runs another Ubuntu system too).
Though, doing a lspci seems it detects something as sound. I don't know.
7th- (This was noticed just when I was leaving the room, switching off
TV, etc... and the environmental noise disappeared). What was that
zzzzzzzzz ? It was like if a desktop station were placed there and
running at its higher: it was the T43. Oh, no! How I couln't detect it
before? It was amazingly noisy! I supposed that it must be a fan, some
kind of main fan (such as desktop pc which have a good cooler over the
proccessor). I always thought Thinkpad's were absolutely silent, just
because my T42 do was. But I was wrong. That night I went to bed
frustrated, and thinking how much fortunate I had been when I bought the
T42 (second-handed too) almost four years ago.
8th- Next day I devoted myself to inspect the BIOS, I thought maybe I
could lower the noise level touching some items there (cautiously, of
course). Nothing clean. I abandoned here. Googling a litle, it was a bit
comfortable discovering that was a common problem in many T43 (from
2004). At this point was when I had a look here in this list. I opened
the laptop (for the first time in my life), after having watched several
videos in YouTube, from people opening Thinkpads and changing parts,
etc. Also, I downloaded the corresponding IBM-Lenovo hardware handbook.
Fortunately, I had some experience at assembling desktop PC's. The only
one thing I was searching were whether it was by change some kind of bad
assembly between parts or something similar; something very irregular,
odd. Having a look, I didn't see anything strange, so I covered it back
again.
9th- I forget to mention this before: the type of machine, its personal
number. At the back, it was true that there isn't anything apart from
the trace that it had been there someday. Though, in the plastic is the
model kind, 2669. So, T43 2669. That was all I knew. The most strange
thing was that in the BIOS, that info wasn't either; Oh! And the UUID
neither was (set to zeros). BAD. Why?
10th- A live CD good for these situations: "System Rescue CD". It comes
with a hardware recognition tool, called Aida. Now I had the chance of
booting it into one and another Thinkpad, and compare. Uff! Worse
suspicions became true. No kind of motherboard detected, so this implied
(I suspect) that many pci parts attached to it wouldn't be recognized
either. No kind of sound detected, from a large list of models and
suppliers. Graphics card wasn't 256 MB at all, its numbers were the same
as the T42 had (64 MB indeed). My Good!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions and Technical information (for those who are (still)
interested here (if any...) --------------->
A) What explanation could be in order to someone erased the serial
number of the laptop?, e.g. why?
Maybe it belonged to a set of gadgets confiscated by the police over
there, that then went out to the market or something similar, umm?
Would be there any way to know still that info?
This is the info that comes in the BIOS ROM:
2006-05-18 BIOS date
system board serial number VF07384F1DY
system-unit serial number -----------
CPU type Intel Pentium M processor
CPU speed 1.86 GHz
Installed memory 1024 MB
UUID: 000000000000000000000000000
MAC address (internal LAN) 001E37CB56EF
B) The battery is dead for sure, isn't it? The seller cheated me.
C) The screen: Anybody knows whether it could have anytime a better
quality? Can be possible such a difference between screens (in quality
terms) into Thinkpads from IBM?
D) The graphics card. I don't know really what I have there, regarding
to RAM memory. The seller told me about 256 MB. He showed me photos he
took, etc... but this is what tells the system, with lspci -vv:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility
Radeon X300]
Subsystem: IBM Device 056e
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort-
<MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Region 1: I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at b0100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at b0120000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA
PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [58] Express (v1) Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <256ns, L1 <4us
ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE- FLReset-
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
RlxdOrd+ ExtTag+ PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr- TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0
<256ns, L1 <2us
ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM L1 Enabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive-
BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
Capabilities: [80] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0
Enable-
Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
Kernel modules: fglrx, radeonfb
----------
What Aida (from S.Rescue Cd) says:
VIDEO ADAPTER
Video Adapter: ATI
3D Accelerator: None
Display Type: SVGA
SVGA VESA: supported
SVGA VESA Version: 2.00
XGA VESA: not supported
SOLLEX: not supported
Video memory: 65472 KB
SVGA VESA Memory: 65472 KB
Video Bios OEM string: 1988-2003, ATI Technologies Inc.
Award Bios OEM string: unknown
SVGA VESA OEM string: ATI Mobility Radeon X600
XGA VESA OEM string: unknown
----------
The latest values make me to think that there are 64 MB of graphic RAM.
BTW, these values are exactly the same I get with the older T42 (where I
know it has 64 MB RAM in its video card).
The model of card is here identified too, as Radeon X600.
E) Sound. Doing another CLI typing lspci -vv (no pipe to "grep audio",
sorry..:-)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation
82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: IBM Device 0567
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
Region 0: I/O ports at 1c00 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at 1880 [size=64]
Region 2: Memory at b0000800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
Region 3: Memory at b0000400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot
+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family)
AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: IBM Device 0574
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 19
Region 0: I/O ports at 2400 [size=256]
Region 1: I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot
+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0m
----------
So the on-board pci sound card is there, although maybe not working.
The sound modules that are on:
nsen# lsmod | grep snd
snd_intel8x0 35356 3
snd_ac97_codec 101028 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 3072 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 78596 3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
snd_seq_oss 35584 0
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
snd_rawmidi 25760 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 54224 6
snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 24836 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9612 5
snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 56996 17
snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 8800 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
root@U
---------------
According with all the above, here I don't understand why there is no
sound :-(
With the "System Rescue CD" (Aida), there isn't Audio card present, none
of the large list is identified.
Though, the same pages for the T42 show a recognized card present: AC'97
(Intel).
:-(
F) The noisy fan. There are values about fan speed and some sensors of
temperature:
----------
:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
status: enabled
speed: 3645
level: auto
s:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal
temperatures: 38 38 26 42 27 -128 23 -128 35 45 38 -128 -128 -128 -128
-128
es:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
status: enabled
speed: 3668
level: auto
es:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal
temperatures: 38 38 27 42 27 -128 23 -128 35 45 38 -128 -128 -128 -128
-128
----------
On the other hand, I know that the script thinkpad_acpi is installed and
loaded its module:
------
es:~$ locate thinkpad_acpi
/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/misc/thinkpad_acpi.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.24-22-generic/kernel/drivers/misc/thinkpad_acpi.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-10-generic/kernel/drivers/misc/thinkpad_acpi.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/kernel/drivers/misc/thinkpad_acpi.ko
es:~$ lsmod | grep thinkpad
thinkpad_acpi 51836 0
nvram 9992 1 thinkpad_acpi
-------
Here I don't know if it would be enough to add the line you all mention
in the thread to the modprobe.conf file, and then managing that with a
CLI.
I've seen some suggestions in the thinkwiki website, but I haven't tried
anything yet. I'd like to reduce the noise; according with I've read
over there through the Internet, probably actually its speed hasn't to
do with a real necessity of cooling, but I don't know much about this...
Nevertheless, comparing with the (much more) silent T42, values:
------------
:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
status: enabled
speed: 3005
level: auto
es:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal
temperatures: 38 42 30 51 -128 -128 -128 -128
s:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
status: enabled
speed: 2944
level: auto
s:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal
temperatures: 38 42 30 52 -128 -128 -128 -128
es:~$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
status: enabled
speed: 2987
level: auto
----------------
What to do, please?
G) Another bad things:
* "System Rescue CD (Aida)" tells "modem not found" in the T43, while
the same in the T42, yes.
* Similar thing for the Motherboard ID:
a) T43: Unknown
b) T42: <DMI> / Motherboard name: IBM 2373JXG (the model of laptop).
* In the Aida's summary, the item belonging to the System Memory, where
should be 1024 MB, it says 957 MB (in the T43), which is some kind
strange. Why 67 MB lost?
* I don't think this T43 have bluetooth, could I check it?
* Does the fingerprint work in Linux. How I could just to check it?
(I've never tried such a thing).
H) At least, some good thing:
* A test to the hard disk, with smartmontools. It's OK.
root@ en# smartctl --info /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
Device Model: HTS541060G9AT00
Serial Number: MPB3LAXGJ70A6G
Firmware Version: MB3IA60A
User Capacity: 60,011,642,880 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
Local Time is: Mon Dec 8 10:54:05 2008 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
-------
root@ en# smartctl -t short /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in
off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in
off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 2 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Mon Dec 8 10:57:31 2008
Use smartctl -X to abort test.
root@ en# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining
LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 3800
-
------------------------------
root@U en# smartctl -H /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
--------------------------------------------------------------
root@ en# smartctl -t long /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately
in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in
off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 42 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Mon Dec 8 12:19:29 2008
Use smartctl -X to abort test.
root@ n# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.37 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining
LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 3802
-
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 3800
-
--------------------------
I'm sorry for the extension of this; if someone is annoyed, my sincere
apologies.
And if someone is willing to help me at some point, giving info or
advices, thank you by now.
Regards