As promised I jumped from Thinkpad to Toshiba

I just got a cheap dual core Toshiba Satellite to substitute for my T43 until I get it fixed. Lenovo is doing a terrible job with customer support. I can't get my T43's keyboard removed because they used scrap metal screws that strip when you try and unscrew them. Only 2 out of 4 screws would release.

On top of the my previous hard drive problem continues and the lack of recovery CD's provided with a new T43 make things worse. I did make my own recovery CD's for my Thinkpad. That Bios 2040 error with my Segate hard drive just killed me. I had the approved hard drive and drivers installed but no go.

Needless to say I didn't get one but 2 recover CD's on the Toshiba. One Vista genuine installer CD and another Toshiba recovery CD.

I paid $550 at Bestbuy today and have no regrets.

Down with Lenovo and IBM, what a pity.

 

do you feel the difference in build quality of both machines

 

screw drivers are tough metals so when you force it too much, laptop screws gets messed up. also the more the screw driver size fits the screw the better, a bit smaller mess up the screw if you're doing it too fast. also make sure you hold the keyboard since when you putting pressure when trying to unscrew, your pushing the keyboard making it hard to unscrew.

if you wonder about toshiba vs thinkpad I can compare both my thinkpad t42 and toshiba m55 series, and thinkpad wins. toshiba keyboard can easily flex, bottom case of laptop is much cheaper plastic. thinkpad bottom case much harder metal-like, keyboard doesn't flex. palm rest in toshiba a bit cheaper plastic than thinkpad ones.

 

I should have changed the title to my post to "I'm leaving the Thinkpad brand for another brand."

I really wanted the HP 6000T but the price wasn't right or I didn't like mail in rebates. I did not think I would be buying a laptop from BestBuy or CircuitCity but their prices are excellent even with sales tax.

I almost bought a Compaq 6000T last week but they had to order directly from Compaq and it was an additional $50 for shipping. The Compaq would have cost the same as this Toshiba with 1GB of ram vs. 512MB and Vista Premium instead of Vista Basic. The Compaq looks almost identical to the HP but without a web cam.

The Toshiba has ATI 200M integrated grahics instead of the Intel 950 integrated graphics.

The Toshiba has the Core Duo rebadged as a Pentium Dual Core. I guess it has half the L2 Cache as a the Core Duo. It's 1.6Ghz.

I my T43 was like having a Westminster show dog that not only lost the competition but died. I love my T43. I should take a picture of the scrap metal screws. Half the screws under my T43 are not even real phillips head screws. I have over 100 tools to unscrew a screw. The factory overtightened 2 of 4 scrap metal screws making them impossible to loosen.

I needed to remove the keyboard to flash the bios. My T43 still said I had a 40GB hard drive instead of the 80GB Seagate. The Seagate had the correct firmware and drivers approved by Lenovo. I guess IBM ran out of screws, instead of waiting for the correct screws they used crap scrap metal screws. I know what a standard phillips screw looks like. Several of the screws on the bottom of my T43 are high quality.

My biggest mistake was buying an express model T43 because the warranty was only one year.

The Toshiba will be my backup until I repair the ThinkPad. The Toshiba is of suprisingly high quality. It's the Satellite A135-22something. It's on the forum deals page for this week. You can add 1GB of DDR2 for $75 with shipping from newegg.com. I got lucky and received a 512mb stick instead of 256mb X 2. I have 1.5gb right now.

Lenovo needs to clean up their image because they are ruining the IBM ThinkPad brand. HP and Toshiba are both making excellent laptops. Toshiba even offers the same fingerprint reader on the T43 and T60.

I do not play games on laptops, only desktop gaming for me.

 

From my experience, all the Toshiba electronics - particularly their TVs -had problems just after their 1 yr warranty mark. Their dvd trays pop out and never go back in, and if I shove it in, it pops back out.

I also had my eyes on a Toshiba satellites mainly because of their glossy screens but Lenovo T series is business-class and I feel that it targets an audience with higher standards. I don't quite understand how anyone can compare the two systems - the $550 configured system to the Thinkpads. It's like comparing a PS3 to a Wii. Both have its uses but Wii is not of the same class as PS3.

 

I was answering hotboy's question to compare of the two brands.

My friend just bought the toshiba a135 too and satisfied. I did recommend him toshiba than other brand too. You can't beat that price with a specifications like that of a a135.

I guess I'm not familiar with screws but I don't have any problems with toshiba screws

 

Geez I thought HP made the crappiest, heaviest, weirdest layout, Laptops. Taking apart them seems odd too but *shrug*. I dunno I think my Thinkpad is one of the studiest, quality laptops.

It is curious the screw situation. They do use, at least on my Z, threadlocker, but thats expected. It would only strip a screw with threadlocker if you're using an improper screwdriver for those types. I would like to see the screws they put it, why they would use strap screws seems weird.

 

I found threadlock on the fasteners securing the pointing device/wrist rest. After "breaking" the threadlock, everything went easy. BTW, I was impressed that the screws in the z62 did not strip when I was freeing the threadlock.

 

Oh yeah..I have a z61m

 

My purpose was not to compare Toshiba to IBM Thinkpads. I was upset because my hard drive failed and my T43 would create an error message when I installed a new Seagate hard drive. I even purchased a Lenovo approved Seagate with correct firmware. My Thinkpad still would not boot. I tried to take the keyboard off for the first time to flash the cmos.

My hard drive which failed after 15 months was a Toshiba drive. My Thinkpad was an express model with a 1 year warranty.

I'm tired of explaining myself, some people didn't bother to read my original post. Some have jumped to incorrect conclusions. Until your thinkpad breaks and you have to fix it yourself and you can't due to poor materials, you then will know how I feel.

 

Your HDD failed and it was a Toshiba brand. That also tells me Toshiba is not making quality products.

How many notebooks have you owned that had a HDD failure? I can tell you that I previously owned an HP notebook that also had a HDD failure after just 8 months, had it replaced, it failed again after 6 months. It happens. Luckily, it was a notebook that my school sold to all the students and I did not have to pay anything out of my own pocket.

You directly compare your Toshiba satellite to your Thinkpad. You argue that your Toshiba notebook came with a recovery disc and Vista cd, claiming that it is much more convenient. Yes, you are comparing the two.

You also say Lenovo customer support is mediocre and you summarize your thoughts on the last line, "Down with Lenovo and IBM, what a pity."

I can understand if this new $550 system meets your requirements and for what you paid for, it's satisfactory. It gives you a bigger bang for the buck. However, I'm guessing this is a pretty new system and you seem to imply that Toshiba's product is better. HDD compatibility issues may arise even for this new notebook, among other problems.

On another note, until I found a screwdriver of the right size, I had an awful hard time getting the screws out of my T60. One tip would be to use the screw driver that looks like \ instead X because it doesn't destroy the form of your screw.

 

It looks like the situation has changed with new models. I did not have any problems when I had to clean my R40 (Coca cola spill). All screws were standard and all of them were standard quality.
I liked the IBM's construction more, then for example Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E.
I heard the Toshiba Tecra line is also very good, but I would not be so sure about Satellite-s.

Why you had to remove the keyboard to flash the BIOS?

 

My 40GB Toshiba drive crashed and I replaced it with an 80GB Seagate with Lenovo approved drive and drivers. The bios in my T43 still gave me the Error 2040 or whatever the non compatible hard drive message is. By flashing the CMOS, the bios would not retain my old 40gb drive info. I'm not saying that it would fix my problem but it was my last effort before exchanging 4 letter words with Lenovo.

I know hard drives fail and by no means was I asking Lenovo to send me a new drive after my warranty expired. However, the T43 as well as a few other Thinkpads don't work without specific Lenovo approved drives at 3x the price of newegg.com and other online retailers. I wanted a Seagate drive for the 5 year warranty.

The screw problem came up when 2 of four screws stripped because they are made of scrap metal and were tightened too much by IBM who built my T43. Instead of using standard screws they must have run out and found some crap screws which they over tightened.

The Toshiba is a stand in for my broken T43. IBM Thinkpad's used to be like an Armani suit. Now with Lenovo running the show everything has turned from quality or perceived quality to junk.

The Toshiba notebook has all high quality screws. Some of the comments I have received are just stupid. Some of these guys jump to conclusions and say that I think Toshiba makes better laptops than Thinkpads. I didn't say that but Lenovo certainly tarnished the IBM name, I think my thinkpad was built after Lenovo bought out the thinkpad brand.

The hard drive issue is well known around the web. Apparently IBM used an SATA controller that is not backwards compatable with ATA hard drive controllers. They had to make special software to make the drives work with the bad controller, all to save a few bucks instead of doing it right.

The scrap screw issue was just icing on the cake for my hard drive issue. This new toshiba sells for $750 but I got if for $550. It has a 1.6ghz Core Duo chip.

 

Karl, you keep comparing your new Toshiba to the T43, in terms of quality of screws, in terms of quality of service, and overall value.

Yes, you are saying that Toshiba makes better laptops than Lenovo.

Everything you say about Lenovo is negative and you're praising the Toshiba product you just recently bought.

 

In NO WAY has Lenovo screwed up the ThinkPad line. I recently got a T60p, and I had a toshiba before. There's no camparison. TP wins hands down.

 

Lenovo has turned the Thinpad brand into garbage. Thinkpad was like an Armani suite. Now Lenovo has turned Thinpad into a Men's Wharehouse suit or a Sears Suit, you choose. Either way the consumer loses and the consumer suffers.

 

^ explain why and how - what do you base that upon?

 

Let's just hope this post is still on the web in 2 years time. By that time lenovo will have completely butchered the Thinkpad brand name.

If it's an consolation, I wanted an HP 6000t but they were not on sale and I was sick of using a 7 year old Dell laptop as my backup to my T43.

I need my laptop to play online poker and the Dell just wasn't doing it for me.

So I'm not saying Toshiba is the greatest. I'm saying I needed a cheap replacement and I got one on sale with a Core Duo processor. It's only a 32 bit processor. If you want 64 bit you have to get the Turion or Core2Duo.

 

You buy a new laptop just to play online poker???

 

It is true lenovo did bring the thinkpad quality down a bit, but not too much. The x40 is one example, as to compare to the older x31, it isn't any much better. I can't complain much on the x40 because I will have a trouble choosing between the x31 and x40. The toshiba hard drive is a bit on a downside as well. They used to use hitachi travelstar hds.

Thinkpads aren't exactly same as when it was owned by IBM in the past. But looking at the T60 and X60, I don't care what HD they really have in it I'm still gonna buy it.

Oh and I have a x31, upgraded with a 100 gb fujitsu hd in there and it works, oh well. Another weird story is I installed vista in a fujitsu laptop, took the hard drive and but it in the thinkpad, and it works wonderfully, put the hard drive back into fujitsu laptop and it doesn't load into windows anymore. I gotta love IBM!

 

what do you think my thinpad was for, online poker while watching TV.