[ltp] Upgrading hard drive on T61

[John Jason Jordan]

On Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:34:43 +0200
Jens Rutschmann <Jens.Rutschmann@gmx.info> dijo:

> >> http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=34685&page=23
> > 
> > Thanks for the link. 
> > 
> > After spending half an hour reading the threads on that link I can see
> > that it would be pointless for me to replace the hard drive. 
> > 
> > When I bought my T61 I was aware that it was SATA-1 speed, but I
> > thought the limitation was in the hard disk. Now that I know that
> > Lenovo deliberately crippled the IBM controller I am bummed. I just
> > checked and it turns out that I bought this machine in spring, 2008. I
> > expected to get three years of life from it. I still can, but I will be
> > stuck with poor performance and no way to upgrade.
> > 
> > I am even more irritated at Lenovo. Crippling the controller was a poor
> > design decision, but bad decisions happen sometimes, especially in the
> > fast-moving world of computers. What I find unacceptable is their
> > attitude toward their existing customers. They are destroying the good
> > name IBM earned for the name "Thinkpad" in order to gain short term
> > profits. If I owned Lenovo stock I'd sell it, because in a few years
> > the Thinkpad reputation will be gone and they'll have nothing left to
> > trade on.
> > 
> > I also think Lenovo has lost a customer.
> 
> Did you also see this link?
> "INFO: Enabling 3Gbps mode on the ICH8M SATA Controller"
> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4882948#post4882948
> 
> Has been posted somewhere in the long thread.
> 
> Looks a bit like a hack... but since it seems to change the link speed only 
> until the next reboot someone could try it (I don't have a SSD yet and most 
> probably won't buy one until this is resolved).
> 
> Also this thread (which is still active) might be of interest:
> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?s=29516f2b00db5932da3f066d16a0f9cf&t=399772&page=11
> 
> Basically what these threads are telling us is that it only requires a rather 
> small BIOS change to remove the limitation.

Yes, I read all the links. And I do understand the BIOS issue and I did
read about the hack. 

I should also have mentioned that Lenovo has posted a BIOS update as of
May 27, 2009. I read the changes and there is still nothing about the
crippled controller. So they are still producing new versions of the
BIOS, but ignoring this issue.

In my case I was not interested in an SSD, although I know others in
this thread do want them. For me they are too expensive. I just wanted
a faster traditional disk.

I am just going to live with what I have for another year and a half.
Then I will buy a new computer. And it won't be a Lenovo product. That
is, unless Lenovo finally does the right thing and gives us a BIOS
upgrade that fixes the problem.