First T61 laptop! Questions

Got my old man's T61 in on Tuesday and I've set it up for him. This is our first laptop ever and have a few minor questions:

1. This is driving me batty since I don't know what it is...next to what I assume is the PC Express Card slot (on the left-hand side of the lappie) are 2 gray rubbery things...one has an X on it, the other has an O on it. You can pull each rubbery thing out separately (if you pull them out, it will protrude about a half inch or so). What the heck is this?

2. I got him the widescreen WSXGA 15.4 screen. It looks fine but has anyone done any tweaking with calibration software to get the optimum settings? Hate to do that sort of thing by eye. Although I have, of course, changed the color depth to 32 bit as that wasn't the default.

3. The default screen refresh rate is set at 50. Most LCDs (for desktops) I'm familiar with are at 60. Can I safely change this to 60? Or is 50 supposed to be better for laptops?

4. I've accepted the default battery power management setup except, of course, for changing my wireless/ethernet to NOT ever turn off with inactivity. Are there any other changes to make? I guess I'm most concerned with items like allowing the hard drive to go to sleep (which is the default). In desktops, that's usually a no-no. But, again, I'm just not familiar with laptop protocols.

Appreciate any thoughts!

 

1. Don't know.

2. Don't know. But I am curious which brand LCD you got. Samsung or LG? Also, when was it ordered? You can find out how to check which brand it is in other threads; just do a search.

3. Slower refresh rate might save battery life.

4. Turning the drive off saves battery life. It is frowned upon for desktops because of wear and tear, but if you keep your laptop backed up (as you definitely should), the difference is considerable. Hard drives are a major power drag, and if they are always spinning your battery will not last as long.

 

Did a search on Lenovo. Those gray things are actually eject buttons for the Express Card. Sheesh. Who knew? Never saw a configuration like that before!

Zero, I believe I got the Samsung panel. The FRU doesn't match what's on the FAQ exactly, but it starts with a 42T, which I *think* denotes a Samsung panel.

I ordered 6/10 and received it 6/26. It has been running very well, absolutely no BSODs (although I have XP Pro not Vista), and I've been just thrilled with the wireless reception, which I had been concerned about. Get excellent internet reception even with the router downstairs at the other end of the house.

 

Are you happy with the screen? I called Lenovo today and they said there is absolutely no way to specifiy which you want and that it is a matter of chance. I am ordering mine today and I just hope that it isn't a dealbreaker for me when I get it.

 

Yes, I'm fine with the screen. I think maybe too much analysis goes on and too much hand wringing about which screen is best, which keyboard is best, etc. Maybe if you had the two screens side by side, one would have a definite preference, but only having this Samsung in front of me, it's fine and dandy and I don't have any problems with it at all. As I mentioned, I think any and every display--laptop and desktop--could use a little tweaking of display properties, but that is not a reflection on Samsung or LP.

Edit: Zero, I'm not really sure what panel I have, now that I search again. My FRU is 42T0417. The sticky FAQ only lists FRU numbers for the T60; they have 42T numbers denoting the Samsung panel. However, when I did a search on this forum, someone else listed the 42T0417 as being an LP panel. So, honestly, I just don't know.

 

The buttons with the X and O are for ejecting the PCMCIA / Express cards in case you use any.

 

I changed my refresh rate too. At 50 Hz, my eyes could tell it was flickering.

 

Not really answering any of your questions but since this is my first laptop and first thinkpad I have quite a few questions that lenovo technical support wasn't very helpful on. I created a backup recovery dvd using the create recovery tool. I was under the impression that this would take up a few dvd's. Mine only created 1 dvd and it used about 580 MB on that dvd. Does this sound right?

Also, how do you go about deleting the recovery partition. The tech support rep told me I have to download 3rd party software to delete it, I'm not really sure on how to do this. I'd appreciate it if you could point me in a general direction.

My last question is about the base software administrator. I have about 87 processes running right now and I'd really like to lower that number. What is a reasonable amount to get it down to? In XP I had my desktop running like 30 processes but with a laptop and vista I know I should expect more processes to be running. I tried controlling this by deselecting some of the stuff that starts up automatically with your computer but there is so much stuff that I don't know 90% of them are. Again, if you could point me in a general direction I'd really appreciate it.

 

jd1010, hopefully you can get some expert answers to your questions as I've found the folks on this forum are really helpful. If your note/questions should get lost in the midst of my note, I'd encourage you to start a new note and maybe others would see it more readily.

As for the backup recovery, I used cds myself. I think I read somewhere on this forum, though, that one dvd was all that was needed. A dvd can hold so much more. But, again, I don't have first-hand knowledge of this and perhaps someone could be more definitive.

Numnum/neocryte: Thanks for the information. The eject buttons are just so strange looking; never would have guessed their function.