[ltp] Second handed T43 issues (already bought): advises for
tons of doubts and questions, please
Miguel Daniel Rodríguez Magarzo
linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:30:20 +0100
El jue, 18-12-2008 a las 00:22 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
escribió:
>
> On Thu, 18 Dec 2008, Miguel Daniel RodrÃguez Magarzo wrote:
> > 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...
>
> This T43 of yours doesn't have a brightview screen, or if it ever had
> one, it was refurbished and replaced with the cheaper TN pannel.
I suspect that..
Just a piece of info: if I push a little with a fingertip over the
screen, it behaves like it would be a sort of paraffin, I don't know how
to explain such a disappointing experience, the screen surface bends
smoothly over all the path of the fingertip. It's like it would be soft
plastic.
My T42 screen, in comparison to the T43 one, is much harder, no bends
when pushing softly over it. It's a well-fixed surface, like if it were
glass (as expected).
Returning to the T43, high resolution is there indeed, good pixels, but
image quality, as already said, is really poor, because of its
reflections when angling the user.
BTW, bright screen is set to "normal" in the BIOS.
> I can assure you my 15" T43 has a marvelous brightview screen that is
> just as beautiful as the ones for the T42 and T60, and vastly superior
> to anything currently shipping on any laptop from any vendor (they
> only use TN crap nowadays).
I believe it.
>
> > 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.
>
> T43 is a LOT picky about some of the ALSA toggles, like headphone
> sense jack, etc. Run alsamixer in an xterm (or some other suitable
> not-dumbed-down ALSA mixer that shows *ALL* controls), in the full
> view, and see if you can't coax it to produce sound by messing with
> the toggles.
>
I think I did almost everything everyone could imagine at this point;
nevertheless, it was suspicious that there were no sound even at start
up, either from the BIOS nor when booting the system.
At the end, when I was absolutely tired of this problem (and almost
convinced that the respective hardware was damaged)..., you know?
Googling one more time.., found a short post in a short thread over a
forum: a guy saying that he solved the sound problem of his T43 by
pressing a sound button that his T43 had. Jajajaja!!! Funny. Jajaja!!
Mysterious button at the back? Nop! I stared at the keyboard: it was
unconceivable that I overlooked those three little buttons right next to
the "Access IBM" button. They were there... in both laptops!! but I had
forgotten its existence. How I could...!
Sound works. Just by pressing one of those buttons the sound came
forever. -1 for me, +1 for the T43 from now at this.
> > 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.
>
> The T43 is clearly audible in a silent room, yes.
> the quiet woosh of the fan will still be there, and it will still
> pulse a little every 5s (which is very annoying, as it keeps reminding
> you that it is making noise).
>
> If you want to get rid of the pulsing, use thinkwiki's solutions (fan
> control scripts).
>
I'd like to get lower the fan speed, just that. I think it isn't
behaving correctly, since it goes to high revolutions from the start,
when pressing the On/Off button.
Here, I suspect I'm far to the solution. Everything I tried gave me
nothing in return. I mean, software solutions suggested by the thinkwiki
page.
> > odd. Having a look, I didn't see anything strange, so I covered it back
> > again.
>
> If you can enhance the thermal interface (read: artic silver 5 or
> something equally good, that DOES NOT REACT TO METALS), you might
> manage to convice the T43 to keep the fan on the lowest setting or
> off. It is silent enough at that level.
>
I wouldn't like to do certain things inside it; actually, I won't do
anything related with interior "tuning" in order to cooling it, sorry.
Just because I don't feel much comfortable at those matters.
> > 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?
>
> Badly repaired or badly refurbished, or stolen. I hope it is not the
> last one.
>
> > 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
>
> Lenovo can track it for you, contact them. And on the thinkpad forums
> (ask google), you can find threads with instructions and link to an
> ibm utility to properly enter the missing DMI data, if Lenovo locates
> it for you.
>
Not tried this yet. I haven't had enough time. I'm not specially
interested either..
> BTW: Go to thinkwiki BIOS pages, and check if there isn't an update.
> If there is, try to apply it. It is important for the T43.
>
Actually, I noticed that there was indeed (but not tried then).
Installed Bios Version: 1.27 (1YET62WW), BIOS date: 2006-May-18.
Available from IBM-Lenovo: 1.29 version (1YET65WW), from 2006-Sept-06.
Looking at the date proximity, I thought that maybe there was then a
really good reason to do an update from IBM, so I:
* Went to the thinkpadwiki.org and collect the respecting info.
* Made a bootable CD, an .iso image. BTW, as you must know IBM offers
two BIOS formats for each version: the non-diskette, and the diskette
one. Cabextract works when applying over the non-diskette .exe file,
according with my experience (I think the thinkwiki mess that point a
little).
* Did a BIOS update. The bootable CD iso worked as expected.
* Checked the new BIOS, but there were practically the same items. Just
a little modification, into the "Power" section, when
said "Adaptative thermal management", two items there:
-"Schema for AC" > set to "Balanced" (the other option is "Maximize
performance")
-"Schema for battery" > set to "Balanced" too.
* Didn't notice (unfortunately) any change in the fan behaviour and
noise.
So, to sum up, there was no solution through this.
BTW, I tried to update the Embedded Controller software too, but that it
seems it is up to dated.
>
> > 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]
>
> This is a 64MB part that can use on-board RAM to supply extra texture
> memory. It is a good GPU, actually, and quite well supported. Not
> the best gaming hardware at all, and it is a *mobile* GPU from 4 years
> ago, but it is quite good for other uses such as desktop candy or
> light gaming.
>
> > SVGA VESA OEM string: ATI Mobility Radeon X600
>
> X600? If it is a X600 (it might have the same pci id as the X300), it
> has 128MB or more on-board RAM, and still can use system RAM for extra
> texture memory. As I said, a decent GPU.
>
Aha... Good to know. But just curiously: In the T42, Ubuntu enabled by
itself "Desktop effects" (8.10 Intrepid), but in the T43, it didn't it,
where the graphics card quality is supposed to be much better by far.
Concerning X300 or X600, I don't know which one is. But yes, Aida
program said about X600 indeed. This confusion may be caused by the
hardware ID, as you point.
> > E) Sound. Doing another CLI typing lspci -vv (no pipe to "grep audio",
> > sorry..:-)
>
> > G) Another bad things:
> > * "System Rescue CD (Aida)" tells "modem not found" in the T43, while
> > the same in the T42, yes.
>
> This system rescue CD ain't the proper IBM one, and if it can't see
> your audio chip, it can't see the modem.
>
> www.linuxant.com has drivers that work just fine for the modem.
I can understand that match point. You're right. The problem came from
Aida.
On the other hand, actually I don't care about modem; I won't use it at
any circumstance.
>
> > * I don't think this T43 have bluetooth, could I check it?
>
> Linux will find it, if it exists and it is enabled in BIOS.
>
It was enabled in the BIOS, yep.
Well, for some reason it didn't appear on the system. All the packages
had been installed, but this software didn't come on visible. I even
plugged once a bluetooth adaptor and tried to connect with the phone (a
normal task in other circumstances), but nothing worked.
Then, the other day came to the problem back (without USB adaptors), and
realized that the bluetooth was inside indeed:
root@Ul # cat /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth
status: enabled
commands: enable, disable
root@U # hcitool scan
Scanning...
root@Ul # hcitool scan
Scanning...
08:00:1F:1D:59:77 GX15
root@Ul
--------------------------------------------
The fist scan was just to check if it did anything... When I see that, I
enabled the bluetooth in the phone, and yes!. That was enough (as
proof).
>From then, whenever the user panel comes up, the Bluez icon appears in
the systray (:-P Just curious..
> > * Does the fingerprint work in Linux. How I could just to check it?
> > (I've never tried such a thing).
>
> Works, and I don't know how to use it (mine doesn't have one).
> ThinkWiki knows.
>
Jaja :-) Yep, it has a lot of information (that one too, indeed!) and I
should to think them a lot too.
A thousand of thanks, Henrique.
Cheers