[ltp] Second handed T43 issues (already bought): advises for
tons of doubts and questions, please
Miguel Daniel Rodríguez Magarzo
linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:55:28 +0100
El jue, 18-12-2008 a las 03:26 +0000, Richard Neill escribió:
> Dear Miguel,
>
> Ouch - that sounds like you had a bad time.
>
> Look here for the specs that your machine probably should have:
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T43
>
>
> > video card with 256 MB,
>
> That sounds highly improbable for onboard RAM. Could it possibly have
> been the AGP aperture that you saw, i.e. letting the graphics card
> access some system main memory?
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ATI_Mobility_Radeon_X300
>
Yes, for sure.
>
> > a good large duration battery.
>
> 3 years just standing on a shelf will kill a LiPo battery! You should
> expect to replace it - not too expensive on eBay.
>
Actually, I had some extra battery before. The matter here, in this
buying, was another..
[On the other hand (nothing to do with it), I'm against eBay rules, so I
do not use that service. US eBay is strong enough, but there isn't
almost movement in many countries (where it should be..), just because
there are other much more popular second-handed on line "solutions".]
> >
> > 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...
> >
>
> Can you be more specific? Is this to do with brightness, contrast, or
> viewing angle? Have you cleaned it? New backlight?
> [It it possible it's a 3rd party replacement screen?]
>
-I'd like. I'm afraid this information is difficult to relate. Here is
when a sight is worth more than one thousand words.
-Yes, it has to do with brightness, contrast _and_ viewing angle. The
last is what makes wrong the others.
I mean, while you're placed just in front of the screen, stacked into a
good position..., contrast, brightness, etc. are O.K. Maybe cold colour
(too much brilliant the "whites"..), but close to O.K.
On the other hand, if you move (stand up for example), angling enough,
the problem appears: very bad quality. You won't be able to describe
what you're really viewing.
-The laptop came absolutely clean, believe me. Its look was impressive.
The screen is completely clean.
-Backlight? I don't know which light are you talking about. Sorry.
-Replacement. Perfectly possible. I'm sure this would be much easier
than a motherboard replacement. :-) and..., if the latest is even
probable, why not the first?
For example, in the website where I fished this unit I've seen that
there is also a guy promoting himself as being able to assemble LCD
screens, it seems that he even manages several sizes, etc.
I just can say that (at least the frame of the LCD) is from IBM, since
it's the typical format, details, etc.
> > 6th- Sound. There is no sound!.
>
> There are quite a lot of ways to accidentally mute the sound - that's
> probably all that's happened. The various volume controls (application,
> PCM, Master, Hardware buttons) are all in series - if any is zero, it's
> silent. Try also plugging in headphones, if you think it might be the
> speakers. Install a full-featured mixer program (eg gnome-alsamixer),
> and play with all the sliders. Also, the hardware volume buttons.
>
The trick was in the latest that you point (keyboard buttons).
I think I tried everything you suggested here, but for some reason I
didn't pay attention just to the latest, when you say about "the
hardware volume buttons". Maybe just I didn't associate what you were
talking about to anything. My fault. :-P
> >
> > 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.
>
> If the fan is that bad, you might want to try cleaning it out with a can
> of compressed air. If you're hearing a whine from the mains
> power-supply, spend $30 on a replacement. See also the thinkwiki page on
> how to make a T43 quieter by modifying the internals.
>
I opened it again, this time in order to replace the interior RAM module
(512MB -> 1GB), so I took the opportunity to clean all that, not only
the fan. But, sincerely, it was much pretty clean yet. For example,
there were no that typical ball of fluff on the fan blades, no. BTW,
this could support the theory about this unit has been refurbished, MoBo
replacement, etc. who knows.
I've tried some things from the thinkwiki page:
* As I've already pointed into another email today, BIOS was updated,
but nothing better became.
* Another solution I tried was install (adding its repository) the
ThinkPad Fan Control with its GTK interface. Nice. But couldn't touch
(modify) anything there without enough knowledge. It's using the
"generic" fan profile. I'm afraid I would be unable to create a
personalized profile for this T43 (without strong assistance and help).
So, this way is in dead point.
* Thinkwiki also offers a script to run, but I think that it should be
adapted (to each particular condition) before. I am unable to do
"scripting". I am just a single end-user.
* Thinkwifi also talks about the thinkpad_acpi module, inside the
kernel. It is correctly loaded (tested through lsmod). In addition, I
added the line "options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1" (without quotes) to
the /etc/modprobe.d/options file. Rebooted. Then I try commands like:
echo level 4 > /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
and so on, but nothing happens. A "cat" over /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
continues showing the line "level: auto" and the fan speed is not
altered; so, it seems that this module doesn't affect to the fan
control.
> >
> > 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.
>
> IBM are unhelpful here. They market the machines by model number (T43
> etc), but refer to them by type number such as "2669 2345".
>
> > 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?
>
> The BIOS should have some useful info. But don't necessarily need to
> panic. You *might* benefit from re-flashing the BIOS with the latest
> version.
>
Otherwise, haven't I could? Doesn't make sense.
> >
> > 10th- A live CD good for these situations: "System Rescue CD". It comes
> > with a hardware recognition tool, called Aida.
>
> Ubuntu's tools "lshw" and "lshal" are as good as anything you'll get
> elsewhere. See the man pages.
>
With this experience, I've realized about that. I knew lshw, but you
know what..? as many other powerful unix/linux command line tools,
end-users tend easily to forget them (sadly).
>
> > A) What explanation could be in order to someone erased the serial
> > number of the laptop?, e.g. why?
>
> It is conceivable that you have received a stolen item. However, there
> may well be a more rational explanation.
>
Yep.Yep.
> > 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?
>
> Try asking the seller about its history.
>
The seller is not a particular, but someone that lives just from selling
second-handed laptops (as far as I know). So, his reputations would be
compromised if he recognized a "bad" origin about some of his goods. To
sum up, he told me about "totally normal" circumstances. I didn't press
asking too much, since it's not up to me; I've discovered that,
actually, he doesn't know what he's really selling (in detail), he's
unable to appreciate e.g. different qualities when they are not evident
enough, but I'd say in favour of him that he tries to maintain centain
honesty; e.g., after my repeated complaints about the unit (by phone),
the other day he offered me to give it back in the same way (cash on
delievery) and cost; I think that's because he's absolutely sure he
would sell it again in a few days.
> >
> > 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
>
> Call up IBM and ask about the service history of the machine. The system
> board number, and MAC address should let them find out whether they know
> anything.
>
:-) I would have to have a lot of time at the moment (to do some kind
of things).
>
> > B) The battery is dead for sure, isn't it? The seller cheated me.
> Yes, no.
>
No (cheated me)? What do you mean, please?
>
> > 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?
> Dying backlight?
>
Backlight? I have no idea about how works an LCD panel, its mechanism,
but I doubt that. In my opinion, it just seems a quality problem.
> >
> > 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:
> Don't panic. I think it's the standard AGP aperture thing. (This is
> usually a BIOS option)
>
>
:-)
> > E) Sound. Doing another CLI typing lspci -vv (no pipe to "grep audio",
> > sorry..:-)
> > According with all the above, here I don't understand why there is no
> > sound :-(
>
> It looks like the hardware is working fine. I bet you've just got it
> muted somehow.
>
:-)
> >
> > F) The noisy fan. There are values about fan speed and some sensors of
> > temperature:
> > What to do, please?
>
> First, clean it with compressed air. Make sure you have all the power
> saving stuff working.
Actually, I used a vacuum cleaner (carefully). Despite it didn't need it
at all (as I said before).
> Then try:
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_build_a_T43_southbridge_cooler
>
Sorry. Too much for my schemes.
> >
> > 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).
>
> You have a winmodem. Set aside for now - you can fix it, but do the
> other stuff first.
>
I don't care about the modem. :-)
> > * 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?
>
> Shared memory between the graphics card and the main RAM. I guess the
> BIOS has the AGP aperture set to 64 MB? (Don't worry about the
> difference between 64 and 67).
>
Understood. :-)
> > * I don't think this T43 have bluetooth, could I check it?
>
> lspci, lshw, or lsusb
>
Already found. (See another post I sent previously).
> > * Does the fingerprint work in Linux. How I could just to check it?
> > (I've never tried such a thing).
>
> Yes it works - see thinkwiki. Personally, I prefer sticking to passwords.
>
:-)
>
> > I'm sorry for the extension of this; if someone is annoyed, my sincere
> > apologies.
>
> That's OK. You tried all sorts of things, and you provided all the
> information needed to diagnose the problems. Nobody minds reading a
> longish post if it's informative. I hope that's helpful.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Richard
>
>
Thanks a lot. You're answers were really useful to me. Now, thanks to
you and others, I have an idea more precise about what I have, what I've
bought.
Best regards