Thinkpad T40 $499 shipped, no rebates

Q

qfour20

Limp Gawd
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May 17, 2005
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I just found an IBM Thinkpad T40 (pentium M 1.5ghz, 512Mb DDR, 40Gb hdd, dvd/cdrw, 14.1" screen) for $499 with "free shipping" if you choose the budget slow shipping (I paid $11ish for 2 day shipping).

http://www.buy.com/prod/IBM_Thinkpa...1_XGA_512MB_DDR_40GB/q/loc/273/204229262.html

From what I gather, these are machines that sat in IBM's warehouse unused and IBM is clearing old stock. I am very excited, as I had a T30 (earlier revision of this chassis) that was a workhorse, so this one should do quite nicely. I used the excuse that I needed a PC for the kitchen with the wife, YMMV.

Should work out very well for a web / email / mythtv (standard def only) / mp3 jukebox / warwalking machine.

I will post more info once it comes in.

-q

*ninja edited to include link to deal... duh!!!*
 
I'm retiring T40's at work as they come in from the field... they're definitely great laptops, even after 4 years; they work great and are fine for anything except gaming.

I think you might find out that they're coming with only 256MB of RAM unless they've been upgraded. Running the SKU at Lenovo.com shows 256... I hope I'm wrong though.
 
Their own specs page also says 256MB installed.

How's the warranty? Doesn't look like it has one, unless you shell out $100+ for the extended.
 
pc299 said:
I'm retiring T40's at work as they come in from the field... they're definitely great laptops, even after 4 years; they work great and are fine for anything except gaming.

I think you might find out that they're coming with only 256MB of RAM unless they've been upgraded. Running the SKU at Lenovo.com shows 256... I hope I'm wrong though.
Click to expand...

IS/IT i take it?

I am, and I love the T series. We have many T42's and T43's in use, in fact wish I still had my T43 over the Dell D820 I got in the last rotation. We IS/IT guys get the newest and 'best,' but the ThinkPad, even slower and older, is a better laptop.

Hands down the best keyboard you will get on a laptop.

Only issues are too few USB's. The T60's fixed this.

If this has the warranty from Lenovo, be prepaired to shit your pants if there is an issue.

When I do a warranty request on their website, I typically get a call back within 30 minutes depending on the time of the day I do the request. After a few questions(I already have everything tested they would want me to and entered into the service request), they give me a case # and tell me the box will be there tomorrow to put the laptop back in for shipment to them for repair.

Dell? Ha, their 'gold service' is me wasting hours over the phone with someone that has NO CLUE what to do and just reads whatever question their screen tells them to ask me. After an hour or 10 they finally tell me a service rep will be in the next day to replace a faulty screen.

We still have a few T40's(get rotated down to 'lesser' rolls, like from programmers and implementers down to support and QA). Great laptops, well built, thin, very easy to use, and IBM's 'bloatware' software is actually very useful!

Thumbs up from me on this lappy, add some ram and it is good for home use for a year or two.
 
These lappies are tanks. I have one right now that I am reconfiguring for a friend.


edit: Just bit. Now I have more laptops than people in my family and 2xmore desktops......hmmmm.
 
$499 is very overpriced for this machine (i have one actually). It's very old, slow, small low-res screen (14 1024x768), no integrated wifi, and a number of other minor annoyances. You should be able to pick one up off of ebay for around $200.

They were great laptops... 4 years ago.
 
Are you talking about OSless machines, or have prices dropped last much since last november? Then with windows installed $200 would get a p1-200, $300 a p3-800-1100 depending on ram capacity, hd size, etc.
 
can you link to this 200$ ibm t40 plz. i would love to get a 200$ lappy that has the same specs as the one from buy.com. EXACTLY the same specs....
 
I was considering selling mine on ebay, and saw them going for around $200 on ebay when i looked. These were prices that people were actually buying them for, not the asking price.

Mine has 768mb, 35gb, 1.5ghz P-M, Radeon 7500 (32mb?), no wireless, dvd, xp pro. If i were lucky, i'd get about $250-300 on ebay.

But... you can get brand-spankin-new laptops for $500. What's the point of buying a 4-year old laptop? Besides, you might ahve to buy obsolete parts for it at some point, and there is a market for replacement parts so you may get skewered.
 
venm11 said:
I was considering selling mine on ebay, and saw them going for around $200 on ebay when i looked. These were prices that people were actually buying them for, not the asking price.

Mine has 768mb, 35gb, 1.5ghz P-M, Radeon 7500 (32mb?), no wireless, dvd, xp pro. If i were lucky, i'd get about $250-300 on ebay.

But... you can get brand-spankin-new laptops for $500. What's the point of buying a 4-year old laptop? Besides, you might ahve to buy obsolete parts for it at some point, and there is a market for replacement parts so you may get skewered.
Click to expand...


I have one too, but I have an extra battery, a few chargers, docking stations, really nice bag, ect.
But mine has 1gb, 40gb,

So add it all up, and I definately think I could get $400.

Probably see it soon in fact, if nobody here wants it I will try to sell it on eBay or Craigs.
 
venm11 said:
But... you can get brand-spankin-new laptops for $500. What's the point of buying a 4-year old laptop? Besides, you might ahve to buy obsolete parts for it at some point, and there is a market for replacement parts so you may get skewered.
Click to expand...
Simple: the new $500 models are Kia's, whereas the used $500 models are more like Benz S-classes and BMW 5/7-series.
 
mavalpha said:
Simple: the new $500 models are Kia's, whereas the used $500 models are more like Benz S-classes and BMW 5/7-series.
Click to expand...
QFT.

I'm just very excited to get my hands on one. Outside of a toughbook, these things are just about the best warwalking machines I've ever touched. My T30 (well... my employer's T30) has been dropped from chest height onto cement 3 times, had an entire beer dumped right into the keyboard while running (pulled the battery out faster than I thought my reflexes would allow) and has perfomed a 2 hour data collection session from the top of a parking garage in light rain and still runs. Heck, it's not even *THAT* beat up from it.

My personal need for this machine is a workstation for the kitchen, and since it's an IBM, keyboard skins for it are readily available.

-q
 
The machine arrived this morning. It is in "almost new" prisitne condition. All protective stickers were already removed from the screen, but there were zero scratches and dings on the chassis, although the texture of the finish has worn off a bit on some of the corners. The keyboard looks as though it's had about one month's worth of typing done on it, and the "nipple" for the mouse-stick was brand new.

The machine shipped with 512Mb of RAM, I need to check if it's one stick or two in a little bit. I am very pleased with the notebook. Oh, of note, this machine has TWO pcmcia slots, not just one.

Other people's opinions may vary, but I think it's pretty [H]ot.

-q
 
qfour20 said:
The machine arrived this morning. It is in "almost new" prisitne condition. All protective stickers were already removed from the screen, but there were zero scratches and dings on the chassis, although the texture of the finish has worn off a bit on some of the corners. The keyboard looks as though it's had about one month's worth of typing done on it, and the "nipple" for the mouse-stick was brand new.

The machine shipped with 512Mb of RAM, I need to check if it's one stick or two in a little bit. I am very pleased with the notebook. Oh, of note, this machine has TWO pcmcia slots, not just one.

Other people's opinions may vary, but I think it's pretty [H]ot.

-q
Click to expand...
What length of warranty does this have, and is it through IBM or Lenovo, or some third-party? I'm looking for a lappy for a client. Did you find out if the memory is in one module or two? Also, what kind of graphics card and how much RAM? And is there a MiniPCI slot for a WiFi card?

Finally, can you let us know what kind of battery life you're getting?
 
I have a T42 and I have found out that there is a design flaw with the way the heatsink mounts for the radeon video processor. This is a known fact for other T42 owners. The problem leads to random system lockups because the video chip overheats.

I have IBM gold support on mine, and even had the motherboard swapped out, and still have the problem. That was before I did my research on the web and found other T42 owners that have the same problem. I understand that Lenovo fired their subcontractor that designed and made the assembly, but will not fix the problem.

You may want to check to see if the T40 also has this problem.
 
PICS!!! i want porn shots too, not some sissy "heres the laptop" pic from a mile away. :D that is, if your willin to show her off......
 
I'll definitely have to look into the issue about the video processor overheating... haven't noticed any oddities thus far, though. Thanks for the heads up, swetmore.

The machine shipped with 512Mb of RAM in it, with one empty SODIMM slot on the underside. I assume the 512Mb are installed in a socket under the keyboard, but I haven't looked yet.

My particular unit shipped with a cisco aironet mini-pci card installed for wireless. I have not yet verified, but I believe that this is the one that comes with a hardware channel hopper. SUPER SCANNING SPEED HERE I COME.

I got ubuntu installed on her (correctly) and everything seems to be working ok. I've got a lot of customizations that I need to do, so it will still take a while.

More info (and maybe some pics) to come soon.

-q
 
qfour, thanks for the info. How long is the warranty if you don't buy an extended one? And who is it through (IBM, Lenovo, third-party)?

EDIT: Shoot. Item is now listed as unavailable on Buy.com
 
Every Thinkpad T40 I see selling today is going for more than $300. I would guess most will sell for over $400 by the time the auctions are over.

Edit: Checked back to the last two I saw being auctioned. One went for $400.00, the other $442.00. Same specs Centrino Pentium M 1.5/512M/40G/CDRW-DVD
 
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