Anyone SATISFIED with his/her T61??

The stories here that people finally got their T61 but it turned out defective and is to be returned (at 15% restocking fee!) scared me. I certainly don't want to go through all the fuss only to pay $$$ to not owning one I would very much like to know if there are folks who haven't found any defects in their new T61. Any? Thanks in advance.

 

People that don't like their computers will come on here and complain. People that are happy with their computers usually don't com on here and express that feeling. That is why the majority of the stuff on here is negative.

 

Look at all the other manufacturers on this forum and it'll probably discourage you from buying a notebook all together.

 

A couple years ago (before Lenovo bought IBM) I went on a business trip in China and I saw someone there using a Lenovo laptop. It was very, very quiet, not hot, and the keyboard felt good. It was a Lenovo model that is no more in the market. It's the first time I saw a Lenovo notebook and it gave me very good impression, so I'm hoping that purchasing IBM will only make them better. I might want to wait for a month for the issues discussed to be solved before ordering my own, though I really wish to have it now.

 

This is true, but it's also true that, according to internal support statistics at IBM I've seen, the T61 has many more serious problems as a percentage of units shipped than any thinkpad before. Tho some of that is, no doubt, attributable to Vista. Even so, the defect rate for the T61 is many times higher than was for the T60 so it's not just Vista issues.

Well I'll see, I'm being given one by work shortly (all my laptops are from work).

 

lol.

that will save you money too hehe

 

Yes. I am satisified.

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T61, 15.4'' SWSXGA, T7700. Just installed 4 GB RAM

 

I'm very satisfied with mine. I formatted and reinstalled Vista Ultimate 64bit and it's blazing fast. the X3100 is very good as a GFX solution.

 

MDDZ and colm, thanks for your input

 

I am not thrilled. Probably Vista Premium, but with 2 GB of ram, one would think it would fly... My old single processor with 2 gb beats it hands down... If I didn't already purchase all the software, I would return it and buy a Mac Pro Book... I hear people say Vista Business 64 speeds it up... maybe I should consider...

 

I agree, almost nothing but complaints on all the forums.

acer forums - complaints about heat
dell forums - complaints about build/screen quality
hp forums - complaints fan noise, heat

Rest is mostly Vista related or random stuff.

 

So far so good. Haven't tried the wireless ABGN out yet, but everything else seems to work. I do have XP though and am still in the process of loading software and taking RnRs along the way. No BSOD yet (fingers crossed).

Seems fine, used an employer's T23 years ago (before they went Dell D600, now back to Z61t) and hubby currently is using employer's T42.

 

Well, I am certainly very happy with my T61. I got it last Tuesday and I love it.
I am running Vista and it runs like a charm. I did go for 3GB, which Vista clearly appreciates.
I also got the Turbo memory which, although I do not have hard benchmark numbers, does seem to improve the performance of my 5400rpm drive.

 

Yet my cheapo POS Inspiron has perfectly aligned panels as compared to a freshly built 4:3 T61 with a clearly pronounced irregular panel gap (lowspeed's machine).
I really wanted to buy a Lenovo in that particular configuration.
Not so sure anymore.

 

For 4:3, get a leftover 4:3 T60, its build quality seems better than T61. Also on a T60 you can get a much better quality IPS screen, which no T61 offers.

 

Thanks, I'll consider that option.

 

seems like vista is the culprit. i had some BSOD problems, i ran system update 3, updated a chipset driver and didnt get it anymore.

 

Agreed hands down

 

I like my T61 very much..its sturdy and solid.......

 

What about heat? Lenovo says T61 is the "coolest and most secure". Also is T60 much heavier?

 

The T61 is slightly thicker and heavier, unless you get a 4-cell battery which makes it slightly lighter. I dont think weight difference is an issue. But I dont like any extra thickness (that's a pet peev of mine)

The T60 had major heating issues with the GPU, until the merom refresh at least. The later T60's seem better.

For the T61, they put in bigger vent and fan. They'd better, because the T61's nvidia card uses more power and produces more heat.

One thing for sure, the T61 uses significantly more battery power especially with dedicated graphics & vista. That's unfortunate, and it reminds me of how the T43/sonoma was a step backwards from the preceding T42 (as most thinkpad bigots are aware).

 

I just recieved my T61 and am Extremely happy thus far:

Build Quality is as good or better than my T41,
Love the widescreen, etc.....

 

Well that settles it...ThinkPad Man gives T61 two thumbs up!

 

So the t 60's w/cd's ran hotter than those w/c2d's because of different graphics, or some interaction with the newer processors and gpu? I would have thought the core duos would have been cooler since they were only 31watts.

Then with the t61, if the bigger vents and fans are needed to compensate for the nvidia- I would think getting integrated graphics and the t7100 I should be optimistic about heat. I bet an R series set up that way (even thicker) is coolest yet. I'm weird, yeah I love thin, but I'll take a little more thickness and lower performance for any temp advantage I can get. To a point.

 

well ive been playing around with this laptop for about a day now and im pretty happy with it.

i think im going to install a fresh copy of xp though.. it goes slower than i would like it to and im under the opinion that it is all this thinkvantage stuffs...

 

I'm really satisfied with my 15.4" T61. It's the coolest laptop I've used, especially considering its size and power.

All the bugs I've been hearing about can be attributed to Windows Vista - combine a new OS and new hardware and what do you get? Yes, it's sad that the out-of-the-box experience is so bad.

I installed Ubuntu pretty quickly and haven't had any problems with the hardware whatsoever, despite problems with Vista. No crashes. No strange kernel messages.

The build quality is excellent, WSXGA screen is excellent, and the battery power is excellent (average 5 hours or more with a 9-cell).

 

Very unsatisfied. And will be until the crazy Chinese men who are holding it actually send it to me.

 

I installed a fresh copy of 32-bit vs 64 bit. Is there that big of a difference? Should I install 64-bit since I have it or are there still any major issues with it being fully compatible with the T61?

Thanks in advance!

 

I've read about many problems with the T61 and Ubuntu over at ubuntuforums.org. You have everything working? Sound? Wireless? Suspend + Suspend2disk? DVD burning?

Have you posted your experiences to ubuntuforums?

 

Yeah I read those threads beforehand to know what to expect. The problems are mostly related to Santa Rosa in general, as you will find people posting about the same problems with other Santa Rosa laptops. Intel did their best to provide a stable 965M driver beforehand, but of course there are usually quirks to iron out once the technology reaches the masses.

Problems with 965M driver:
* Applies some kind of scaling filter even at native resolution, causing a blurry picture. There is a patch to fix this linked to in the Ubuntu forums.
* 3d support is somewhat unstable (not a problem specific to the T61, the driver is just still a bit unstable), so I've turned off Desktop effects.

Sound doesn't work at all with stable intel-hda driver. Apparently the driver is fixed but hasn't been released yet.

Suspend doesn't work, the ibm-acpi driver in kernel probably needs a bit of time to adapt to the T61 and again the intel driver needs to mature.

DVD burning works fine for me out of the box

all in all I don't care about sound, have a patched video driver, and the system is 100% stable (without 3d desktop effects). This is always what you have to expect with new hardware + Linux. Linux support matures after technology hits the market, due to driver efforts being mostly volunteer.

That said, Santa Rosa is so popular that you can expect these components to be supported QUICKLY and long term. Ubuntu and Fedora have 6 month release cycles. Gutsy, Ubuntu's next release in October, will have ironed out the really annoying quirks. I don't have a problem waiting in the meantime.

I'm not sure whether I'll post to Ubuntu forums, as my problems are already really well documented.

 

Man, I'm really contemplating about buying the T61 after reading all the problems with them. I really don't mind the BSOD or Vista problems, but many are reporting that the plastic is cheap and not fit very well.

 

Believe it. Accept it. Embrace it.

Order it with low expectations, then you can only be pleasantly surprised. A $1500 BSOD generator isn't so bad if you were expecting a box of plastic shards like greenknight got.

I'm counting down to the moment of truth on friday reading all this crap. Box of packing material? Grab bag from a chinese dumpster? If I'm lucky!

 

If so, shouldn't there be a lot of similar complaints on other forums--Dell, HP,...?

 

I've owned R40 model for the past 5 years. Still use it frequently at work but I also needed more horsepower and Vista/Unix app integration so I ordered T61 to run it. Well built and reliable, meets my expectations.

 

I received my T61 today. It books fairly quickly, I'll have to time it. The screen has one stuck pixel in the upper right hand corner, so it isn't terribly noticeable. I haven't encountered any BSODs either. So far, I'm fairly satisfied. I have the Chicony keyboard, which is a bit clicky, but it isn't terrible. The fit and finish is great, as far as I can tell.

 

I just got my wife's in a few hours ago. Hers came with vista business and runs well. As well as you can expect Vista to run I suppose. The machine arrived undamaged and in excellent condition. I installed a 2GB Kingston DIMM in it so it currently has 2.5GB of memory. It seems to be running pretty well for the most part. I'll be able to give a better review tomorrow or Friday when mine arrives and I get Fedora running on it.

 

I've had mine for about a week now and i'm pretty happy with it.

The keyboard and track pointer i love - nothing else compares. I'm satisfied with the brightness and quality of the display, was really concerned about it as everyone was complaining about the brightness, etc.

Seems like a fairly solid and well built unit.

I am however getting mine replaced due to dead pixels, i'm expecting the replacement in a weeks time. Hopefully the new unit will be just as good as the current one i have bar the uncooperative pixels

 

Do they have a pretty liberal return policy?

I can't afford to have pixel problems with the graphic intensive work I do.

What is there policy for pixels?

If I order a T61 and it has a stuck pixel can I exchange it?

 

I actually think that lenovo/ibm has one of the highest dead pixel count for returns.

I had less than the 'official' required number of dead pixels (8) for it to be deemed faulty but i got my complaint escalated to customer care and they agreed that i could either return the machine or get a replacement.

It seems others in this forum have also had success in getting a replacement machine where the dead pixel critieria wasn't satisfied. I guess you can try your luck and push them if you happen to get some dead pixels but their policy is here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4U9P53

 

Thanks for the great info!

 

Retracted.

NOT satisfied.