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    IBM Thinkpad R50 Review

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Andrew Baxter, Nov 5, 2003.

  1. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    PCMag.com has posted a great review of the IBM Thinkpad R50

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1370432,00.asp
     
  2. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Frankly, I don't see how you could call that review great by any measure.

    The author neglects benchmarks, battery rundown tests, and even system specs in his "review"

    This review is by the same person who advocates 10-pound "laptops", and thinks that sites should not knock off points for heavy laptops....is it any surprise that he's a stranger to critical thinking?

    I am expecting my R50 to arrive within the next week - I'll give it a good rundown then and wouldn't mind posting my experience with it on this forum if anyone's interested...


    Cheers,
    V.
     
  3. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    hey V, I'd definitely be interested in hearing what you have to say about the R50. If you could provide a short review with some hard numbers on performance and battery life then it would certainly be appreciated.

    thx,

    /andrew
     
  4. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Hi everyone,

    sorry for the wait (trust me, it's been a long wait for me, too).

    Finally picked up my Thinkpad R-50 Centrino 1.4 GHz with 512MB Ram and 14.1" 1024x768 display from the warehouse today.

    Here are my first impressions:

    Physical:
    ========
    The R-50 is a very nicely proportioned laptop, and strikes an ideal balance for mainstream laptops. The lines on it are very smooth, with a nice blend of chiselled edges and contours. Of course, it's in the standard IBM matte black.

    It has the typical oversized "hood" on the outer edge of the lcd. Love it or hate it, the bevelling does serve a purpose to stiffen the cover. It does not provide any appreciable shading from glare, however. The latch on the lcd is a twin-hook arrangement, but it only needs a single sliding switch to unlock it, and it can be easily opened with one hand. The hinges are solid chunks of metal, and open with a smooth action.

    The surface of the R50 has a nice, rubberised feel that is quite easy to grip. The keyboard is full-size, and very tactile. It's missing a Windows button, and it's not for want of space. Credit it to typical IBM stubbornness. IBM list the weight as 2.5 kg, but it is actually lighter than my old Toshiba Satellite 3000, which was also supposed to be "2.5 kg". It is a comfortable weight, and not burdensome in the least.

    In short, one look at this laptop will tell you why NASA only flies with Thinkpads. The build quality is phenomenal.

    Shortcomings:
    ============
    First, let me talk about the only two failings I can think of with the R50.

    One: The screen. It's not bad. It's actually somewhat better than the screen on the old Toshiba, but it's not as nice as Sharp's Actius screens, or Sony's black lcds... The default settings are lacking in contrast and brightness, and it is easy to imagine the image would get washed out in glare. The vertical viewing angle is a bit small (about 20 degrees before colour and contrast reversal start to happen), but the horizontal viewing angles are fine (about 130 degrees). It was clear this was meant as a no-nonsense business laptop, and not a multimedia machine. Having said that, the display is crisp and sharp for text and CAD work.

    Two: No Firewire. OK, "some" models come with IEEE1394. Mine didn't. I'm getting a FiWi PC card tomorrow, so I won't dwell on it.

    Usage:
    =====

    The R50 is a joy to use. The keys are wonderfully tactile, and the Trackpoint with the new Soft Dome cap is very comfortable to navigate with. The buttons for the Trackpoint are likewise very well designed. The Trackpad does not fare quite as well. For some reason, it always feels a little too small, and the buttons are flush instead of raised, making them harder to click. The motion of the Trackpad is also not quite as satisfying as with the Trackpoint. However, the extra features of the Trackpad are quite convenient - scrolling areas for horizontal and vertical scrolling, and customisable hotspots - I ended up using the top left corner to simulate the Windows key ^_^.

    What amazed me most about the R50 in operation was the sheer *silence*. I could not hear the hard drive spinning against ambient noise in my home. Even more impressive, with the R50 on my lap, I could not feel the hard drive or the DVD-ROM spinning! While parked on my lap, the bottom surface of the R50 was never the slightest bit warm during normal usage. It did warm up a bit when running 100% cpu utilisation with consecutive SiSoft Sandra tests, but other than that, it was always comfortably cool to the touch.

    The speakers were also quite a bit nicer than I'd expected, especially for a business model. However, I haven't done any real testing with them other than with the wavs that came with Windows.

    The much-hyped APS (Active Protection System) on the R50 and T41 models parks the heads of the hard drives when the notebook senses it is falling. I doubt I'll be testing how effective that is in an actual fall (note intentionally, anyway). In practice, I find the program is a little too sensitive, and I miss being able to set sensitivity settings in the software - you get a simple on/off, and another option for ignoring repetitive motions (eg trains, buses). Still, it doesn't cost me any trouble, and the day it saves my data might make it all worthwhile. In the meantime, I amaze and astound my friends with the 3d real-time position readout ^_^

    Battery life is another strong point of this laptop. I did not believe the 4 hr+ figures in reviews at first - however, after 3.5 hours of heavy disk usage (installing about 5 Gig of apps, and even a defrag!), the R50 still had 30% of battery life left. And all this with the standard 6-cell battery (there is a 9-cell optioon, and an extra battery that fits into the optical drive bay).

    Performance:
    ===========

    Well, I haven't really stressed it yet, but I did manage to run a few synthetic benchmarks (SiSoft Sandra 2003) with various power settings and in comparison with my desktop PC.

    Thinkpad R50 High Battery Performance - Battery
    Memory Bandwidth Int 1640 MB/s; FP 1790 MB/s
    CPU Arithmetic ALU 1971 MIPS; FPU 789 MFLOPS, SSE2 1167 MFLOPS
    CPU/Multimedia Int 3356 it/s; FP 3892 it/s

    Thinkpad R50 High System Performance - AC (Performance under high batt settings were identical on AC)
    Memory Bandwidth Int 2104 MB/s; FP 2110 MB/s
    CPU Arithmetic ALU 4388 MIPS; FPU 1847 MFLOPS, SSE2 2706 MFLOPS
    CPU/Multimedia Int 7859 it/s; FP 9118 it/s

    Athlon XP3200 424FSB Mem 2-2-3-7 (2.26 GHz), Radeon 9700Pro
    Memory Bandwidth Int 3231 MB/s; FP 3054 MB/s
    CPU Arithmetic ALU 8304 MIPS; FPU 3392 MFLOPS
    CPU/Multimedia Int 12203 it/s; FP 12869 it/s

    The Centrino 1.4 is no slouch, but it's not ready to go up against an overclocked Athlon. The memory performance is quite interesting, however, as it is just slightly over the theoretical performance of DDR266 (2100 MB/s), yet shy of the DDR333 that IBM use (2700). *** So it seems as if using 333 Ram instead of 266 Ram might have some minor benefit after all.

    Running Catia v5r10 P1 was a little sluggish in battery mode, but definitely acceptable on AC...being very close in responsiveness to the P4 2.0 GHz systems we have at school. However, I didn't have time to build any complex models, so it might chug at more complex files.

    Photoshop resizing and filters were likewise very fast - I credit this to the SSE and SSE2 optimisations that have been done with Photoshop. If it was any slower than the Athlon, I couldn't discern it in daily usage.

    Well, that about wraps up this installment. I'd like to do some video encoding comparisons with straight Divx and with AVS2.5 filters , but I'll wait until I have the time and am able to grab some new codecs.

    In conclusion, I am very happy with the R50 indeed. At the price I got it at (AUD$2133), it was an absolute steal. If you're looking for a no-nonsense notebook for study and/or work, the R50 is the one for you. If you want an all-in-one multimedia notebook to play movies on, try another manufacturer.

    Cheers,
    Vol.

    EDIT: Typos, typos, and more typos. I should not post at 2am EST...:
    ADDENDUM: *** The bus speed of the 855 is 400 MHz (100 MHz QDR), not 600 MHz as I incorrectly reported (the problem was SiSoft Sandra 2003 incorrectly reported my bus speeds). The theoretical maximum memory bandwidth of the chipset is 3200 MB/s using DDR400 RAM, but I am not sure if the current versions of the chipset support DDR400. However, there *is* a bandwidth improvement in using DDR333 instead of DDR266. The real-life performance advantage in doing so is likely to be small due to the huge L2 cache (1 MB) of the Pentium-M, though.
     
  5. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Mini-update 1:

    1.1 CAD Performance
    ===================

    Loaded a 10 MB F-16 created with Generative Shape Design on the R50 on AC power - the manipulation and viewing of the model was very smooth, with CPU usage ranging from 20%-88%. So there is no worry that it will chug on more complex files.


    1.2 WinRAR Performance
    ======================

    Ran a shootout vs my desktop with RARing a 233 MB avi file with WinRAR3.0 (again on AC)

    Athlon XP 3200 (2.26 GHz) 1 Gig DDR424 RAM .... 6 min 13 s

    Thinkpad R50 Centrino 1.4 GHz 512 MB DDR333 ... 5 min 13 s

    Amazingly, the Centrino is significantly faster at RAR, even with a slower HDD (5400 vs 7200) - most probably attributed to the 1 MB L2 cache, and possibly microop fusion (WinRAR 3.0 is too old to have SSE2 optimisations).

    The Centrino is able to keep up with the big boys, and even show them up a time or two.

    Cheers,
    V.



     
  6. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Mini-update 2: Networking Performance
    ===================================

    After using the R50 for almost a week, here are my further impressions:

    2.1 Ethenet Performance
    ======================
    The LAN performance of the notebook is very good. I took it to a LAN and used an external USB2 hdd for file transfers. I was able to sustain 98-100% Network utilisation with 16-20% CPU (on AC) and multiple streams going at the one time. Note that running the USB2 drive would incur some CPU overhead, so actual figures using the internal IDE drive might be a bit lower.

    2.2 Wireless Performance
    =====================
    Wireless networking is likewise very good. I use an SMC Wireless Access Point/Broadband Router, and get sustained 48-50% network utilisation of the WLAN during file transfers (the theoretical maximum is 50% of 11Mbps, since the "total speed" is calculated by adding the upload and download bandwidths).

    The signal strength is 98-100% throughout my apartment (not a big apartment). Going outside my building, signal strength drops to 49% at ~30 metres (~100 ft), but that is through *3 brick walls*...still usable for Internet browsing, but not for heavy file transfers. Doubtless I would get better range and signal strength with clear line of sight/fewer obstructions.

    Cheers,
    V.
     
  7. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Mini Update 3 : Video *Encoding* Shootout
    ======================================

    Hi everyone, this will be my last performance update on the R50.

    These are the specs of the machines in the test:

    Thinkpad R50
    Centrino 1.4 GHz, 512 MB DDR333 RAM (CL2.5 according to IBM, no data on memory timings)
    Radeon 7500 Mobility w/32MB Ram
    5400 rpm 30 GB HDD
    AC Power

    Desktop
    AthlonXP @ 2.26 GHz (~3200 rating 1 GB DDR424 RAM (2-2-3-5)
    ABit NF-7 nForce2 mobo
    ATI RAdeon 9700Pro w/128 MB Ram
    7200 rpm 120 GB WD HDD w/8MB cache

    Test 1: Straight Recompress (no filters)
    2-pass straight recompress of a 24 minute 640x480 video clip at 23.976 fps using xvidBeta1.00
    Encoding done in VDubmod 1.4.13
    Average 2nd pass times are reported by dividing no. of frames by total time taken

    Thinkpad: 24.88 fps

    Desktop: 52.58 fps


    Test 2: IVTC in AVS2.5
    The second test was an IVTC using decomb.dll and Dup of a 24 minute 640x480 clip from 30 fps to 23.976 using xvidBeta1.00
    Encoding done in VDubmod 1.4.13 using AVS 2.5.2
    Again, 2nd pass times are reported.

    Thinkpad: 15.81 fps

    Desktop: 24.88 fps


    Conclusion:

    The 1.4 GHz Centrino R50 performs at about the level of my old AthlonXP2000 with 256 K cache. The performance is acceptable for occasional video encoding with light filtering, but it won't take the place of a good desktop for heavy usage. Be aware that encoding performance on Battery power will be much slower, as it will scale with both CPU speed and FSB (both of which drop on battery power). Also, it will probably chew through your battery life. Lastly, if you plan to transfer files from a digicam, make sure to get a model with a FiWi port, or buy a PCMCIA Firewire card.

    EDIT: made title less ambiguous
     
  8. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Final Update: Usability Report
    ======================

    You know, it's the little things. It is the little touches that IBM have put in that truly separate the R50 from the rest of the pack. I have been using the R50 for two weeks now, and I have found more to like with every day. The little software touches are especially good. Of course, there are a few minor niggles as well...I'll get on to them in a second. Let's talk about my experiences with the R50 over the past fortnight.


    1. Presentation Manager (good)
    How many times have we struggled with cycling through Fn+Display Key settings to get the right combination of Internal and External displays working? And don't forget getting the wrong primary (embarrassing to have a black screen on the projector during movies) or different settings between home and work (refresh rate, resolution etc).

    Pressing Fn+F7 brings up an on-screen menu where you can select from a list of display options, as well as create your own. Need two settings for home and work? Done. Now I look at laptops that still use "cycling" and think..."how 1995" ;). Oh, and before I forget, you can also set up profiles to automatically disable screen-savers/monitor standby - nothing like wading through 10 minutes of presentation and then having your monitor blank out :)

    2. IBM Access Connections (very good)
    IBM access connections lets you set up different network configurations, so you can have different profiles for work, home, school etc. You can set different IPs, WEPs, File-sharing rights etc. *Soooo* much better than manually configuring everything through Windows (which is what I used to do before I learnt how to use this great utility). Even better, you can set IBM Access Connections to automatically detect and switch to the fastest available connection. I use a Wireless Router at home for networking. Say want to transfer large files, I simply plug an Ethernet cable into my R50. Access Connections automatically detects it, and switches over my R50 from wireless to Ethernet, turning off the Wireless lan in the process. It even keeps the same IP! I unplug the Ethernet, and it switches the WLAN back on and reconnects. Brilliant!

    3. Easy Eject Utility (useful)
    I can't count the nuber of times that Windows unhelpfully decides not to show the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the taskbar (this happens on both my laptop and desktop from time to time). Pressing Fn+F9 on the R50 brings up an onscreen menu letting me choose which device to disconnect.

    4. Battery Maximiser Utility (good)
    This is another utility with more comprehensive options than the standard Windows Power Management. It shows the battery status and time remaining on the taskbar, and you can also choose pre-set power profiles, or create and modify your own. Each profile has different settings for AC and battery, and you can set standby times, hdd and monitor shutdown, screen brightness and CPU speed (Very slow, Slow, Normal, Adaptive and Maximum). There's a wizard that lets you choose more options, like automatically reducing LCD brightness when the battery drops below 30%. There is also a battery information page that tells you the current status of the battery, including its specs, health and cycle count, as well as linking you to a help file with tips about battery care and maintenance. This utility is a good supplement to the standard Windows Power Management (but not a replacement).

    5. IBM Rapid Restore (so-so)
    May be a useful utility for the safety conscious, but I find that it takes up way to much hard disk space when it creates a backup. Is not pre-installed on arrival, but you can install the software from your Thinkpad hard drive. Unlike the professional version, I think that you can only have one image at a time. Note that there is already a factory pre-set image in a hidden partition of the hard drive that will restore everything to factory defaults (wiping your data in the proces) - this is in addition to the Rapid Restore, and you can choose between the two if you decide to do a restore operation.

    6. Startup Times (poor) and Resume Times (good)
    Windows startup is a little slow on the R50. It only takes 30 seconds to get to the logon screen, but once you log on, it takes another agonising minute before the hourglass cursor disappears. Hibernate times are very good, however, it takes 30 seconds to hibernate (on a 512 MB system), and only 15s to resume from hibernation. (It is a good idea to make sure your hibernate file is not fragmented to ensure fast hibernation, however).

    7. Battery Life (good)
    With regular usage (one or two 30-min divx episodes, Word, Excel, Matlab and IRC) with the WLAN on 60% of the time, I regularly get 4 hours' battery life on the dot. If I have the WLAN on 100% of the time, the battery life drops to 3hrs 40mins under the same conditions. My battery is the standard 6-cell 4400mAHr battery. Charge times with the computer on are 2hr30m from 0% to full (I haven't been able to accurately determine charge times with the computer off, since it's too easy to miss exactly when it's fully charged).

    8. Thinklight (useless?)
    The Thinklight does what it is meant to do. It illuminates the keyboard in dark settings. However, I can't honestly say I have ever had to use it. I can touch type (though not on a professional level), but anytime I need to find a key in the dark, the LCD screen has provided enough light for me to see by. Perhaps if I was using DOS or an Xconsole (black background), the Thinklight would then be more helpful, but I have yet to find a use for it.

    9. WiFi (very good)
    The wireless performance of the notebook is very good. I initially had some troubles with my router whereby large file transfers would sometimes cause a disconnect, but turning off DHCP on my router fixed that problem. I regularly stream divx episodes and movies from my Desktop to my R50 and output it to my TV in the lounge.

    10. Quiet Operation (very good)
    The R50 is, as I have said in my review very very quiet. You can't hear the CPU fan working, and, unless you put your ear over exactly where the hard drive is, you can't hear the hard disk spinning either. When you put the R50 on your lap, you can't even feel the hdd spinning.


    11. Speakers (good)
    The speakers are quite good for a business laptop. The sound is clear and detailed. It obviously does not have much bass range, but it is never tinny. I have a set of Koss headphones I use with the R50, and to be honest, as often as not, I use the R50 speakers instead of the Koss for the comfort and convenience.

    Conclusion:
    I hope I haven't overstayed my welcome or tried your patience. However, the R50 is an excellent machine for my purposes, and I am extremely happy with my purchase decision. I reiterate, this is not a gaming machine, or an SUV-equivalent (shudder) desktop replacement. My biggest gripe is the expensive DVD-R drive option (Dell were having a free DVD-R upgrade promotion at the time I bought the R50, but I opted for the better machine in my opinion), and the fact that it is not multi-format. When IBM releases a mutli-format DVD+/-R drive at an affordable price, I might snap one up.

    Cheers,
    V.
     
  9. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    Wow nice set of posts Voldenuit :) I'm thinking of getting the same model so that was great. I'm very glad that it's quiet and not too hot. Nothing worse than having the fan spin up loudly so I hope that's the case.

    I notice $AUD - where exactly did you buy it? The cheapest I can find is $2199.

    Cheers.

     
  10. neosynthesis

    neosynthesis Notebook Enthusiast

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    Voldenuit, your in-depth review of the R50 has been by far the most comprehensive notebook review I have come across in the past few months. Thank you so much, I definitely appreciate all the values you've added to the review like your usability review, which I've hardly ever seen on any reviews period.

    I just have one question for you: If you look at the bottom of your R50, where is your R50 manufacturered? This has been a very important deciding factor for me as well. In fact, I'm lurking through the forums trying to find out where each of the notebooks I"m interested in is made.

    Thank you so much!
     
  11. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by neosynthesis

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  12. neosynthesis

    neosynthesis Notebook Enthusiast

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    jmd, thanks for your recommendation and in answering my question regarding where the R50 is made. It is true that many things are made in China, but personally (there are more like me) that will not spend this kind of money to purchase something made in China. If on the inside it said made in Taiwan, the R50 motherboard may be manufactured in Taiwan which still suggest that IBM still does not trust China to fab as parts as reliably as Taiwan where I believe most labtops are still made.
    Besides the work ethics, well what work ethics? People are still dying from ingesting medication, vitaments, preserved food made from China because they just don't care what goes into what they manufacture. Not to mention the intentional cover up of SARS which lead to the global spread of it, killing many people that didn't need to die.
    Even if they make the best laptop that's reviewed here by Notebook review, I will not buy one. In fact, I'm boycotting anything made in China (as much as I can and I've been successful) because I don't want to be one of the supporters that help manufacuturing slip into their hands.

    Cheers! [|)]
     
  13. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    hey Voldenuit, hopefully you see this!

    Your review of the R50 really is awesome, we'd like to feature it as a review on the front of the site, I could do some editing and clean it up but really it's in a great state already and choc full of info and add some images (if you have any you could forward them too), I would just love for this to be more easily found and featured more prominently for others to find. Let me know by posting here or shooting me an email to abaxter@notebookreview.com

    thanks!
     
  14. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Hi Abaxter,

    I'm glad to see you enjoyed my R50 review, and am honoured that you would consider it good enough for a featured review on your site. I'd be happy to allow its publishing ou your site and for it to undergo any editing you fell neccessary.

    I'll see what I can do about pictures of the laptop, and will email an such to you at the above address.

    Regards,
    Vol.
     
  15. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    excellent! thanks V, we'll get your name in lights with this review this week.
     
  16. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by abaxter

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  17. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    After about 10 days of use I have noticed a problem with my R50. Voldenuit, perhaps you can tell me if you have this problem.

    When the fan is off, the laptop is silent. When the fan comes on after some use, the noise itself is reasonable. Just the usual push of air out the side. But every 4.5-5 seconds, there is a small but noticeable 'surge' in the speed of the fan, as if it is having a slightly higher voltage put through it, just for a second. This repeats consistently every 5 seconds.

    I know it doesn't sound like much, but to me it's as annoying as a mosquito buzzing past your ear. I was at the library yesterday and couldn't hear it, what with the air conditioning and voices. But in a quieter environment it is easily audible.

    Trouble is - it's not just the R50. If you go to the forums at thinkpads.com, you will find a couple of long threads with T40 & T41 owners having the same '5 second pop' as someone called it. Some of those users have even swapped out their fan assemblies (EDIT: with varying results. Some solved the problem, others say no change, others say quieter but still there).

    I have called IBM support about it and can send it in, but I have a feeling that they'll return it to me with exactly the same problem.

    This is a really annoying problem for an otherwise perfect laptop. It's these kind of small problems that never surface in most reviews.
     
  18. Voldenuit

    Voldenuit Notebook Consultant

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    Hi jmd,

    sorry to hear about your problems with the R50. I have not encountered this problem prior to your mentioning it. It does sound rather annoying - does this happen all the time, or only during CPU intensive tasks?

    I have tried to replicate a heavy load by running Sandra continuously, (100% system load). After a while, the bottom started to get warm, and the fan came on, but it did not start and stop as in your case.

    Under normal workload, the fan is inaudible.

    There have been a couple of times where the fan comes on in a spurt, but usually only once - it never repeats as it does in your case. This is usually when I load up an intensive program.

    I can't say for certain what is the cause of your condition. If it is related to the temperature control, it might lie in the BIOS. My BIOS is version 2.06 dated 9/16/2003 - I wasn't keen on updating the BIOS without a good reason to. If it's a hardware problem, then the fault could lie almost anywhere.

    Regards,
    V.
     
  19. Publius

    Publius Newbie

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    When working in Internet Explorer, where the field is "white", do you notice any graying out in the right hand portion of the screen in the R50 -- or any pinkish hue in the left hand portion?

    Also, what port replicator setup do you recommend for this unit?
     
  20. pwdman

    pwdman Newbie

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    I’ve recently purchased an R50 with an SXGA+ screen (1400 x 1500). This is my second unit. I returned the first unit because it had a display problem that was visible immediately. When I placed a black background on the screen, the left edge of the screen bled white, as if the lcd screen was being pinched or something. I had to turn the brightness /way/ down for it to go away.

    I am frustrated that it looks like I will have to return this second unit as well. After about a week of use, it now exhibits a significant shadow on the right edge of the screen (when using black text on a white background, as I am now). The only way to cause this to go away is to turn the laptop to the left (it’s as if the viewing angle has changed), but I obviously can’t type on it that way. It’s very annoying.

    As you can imagine, I’m frustrated to the max. I really want a Thinkpad, and the R50 fits the bill in EVERY other way. It’s an amazing machine in all other aspects, but I am beginning to wonder if IBM’s SXGA screens aren’t ready for prime-time. I am going to try one more before I give up. It appears to me that the poster before me is noticing something similar. Has anyone else had a similar experience? It’s an 1836-3SU model.
     
  21. Publius

    Publius Newbie

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    Like you, I've tried two R50s -- each with the SXGA display. Each had some issue with a greyish zone on the right side of the screen. The second example had a pinkish cast to the left side of the screen -- both casts evident when viewing a white field, such as in Internet Explorer.

    To help solve the problem, I ordered an R50P with a UXGA display 1600 x 1200. The graphics card is supposed to be an improvement over the R50 model as well. I'll let you know the results in 2 weeks time.
     
  22. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    @Voldenuit

    Ok, good to know it's not a problem on yours. It's not that the fan goes on and off (all laptops turn their fan on/off of course), but that every 5 sec there is a noticeable increase in fan speed & noise, like a small surge. Quite annoying in quiet surrounds.

    I got my laptop back today from IBM (I sent it to get looked at), and they told me they 'could not replicate the fault'. I included a note to describe the problem, and it was evident as soon as the fan came on today. Still there. Perhaps they 'could not recognise it as something they are going to fix'.

    For my trouble and days of waiting, I did get a bonus - a nice set of scratches on the lower half of the LCD. I'm pretty annoyed about it. I hope I can remove the scratches. They don't seem to be visible when the LCD is lit, but obviously they shouldn't be there.


    @publis, pwdman

    The display on mine (other than the scratches some dumbass has put on it during 'repair') is perfect. Very nice and evenly lit. I have the 14-inch 1024x768 display, though.
     
  23. Publius

    Publius Newbie

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by jmd@publis, pwdman
    The display on mine (other than the scratches some dumbass has put on it during 'repair') is perfect. Very nice and evenly lit. I have the 14-inch 1024x768 display, though.<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

    ...If they scratched your display in service, why not take it up with the manager of that dept and request a new display?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  24. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Publius
    ...If they scratched your display in service, why not take it up with the manager of that dept and request a new display?
    <hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

    Yep, I did that today. I have asked for a replacement, due to repair not solving my fan issue, and the scratched screen bonus they gave me. The rep I spoke to didn't know what to do though, so a 'customer care' person is going to call me back. Fingers crossed.

    An update on my fan issue, in case someone has the same problem:

    http://tot.kik-server.de/images/marisforumpics/r50p/index.htm

    This guy has replaced his R50 fan with a T41p fan, which is much quieter. You can listen to the MP3s he's recorded, and in the first MP3 you can hear EXACTLY what I'm talking about! I'm not crazy! (I got a friend to listen to mine, and he thought I was being overly sensitive :).

    It's nice that the R50 and the T40 have the same motherboard. ie the layout is exactly the same on the inside and all you are paying for in the T is it's nicer, thinner case (and possibly higher-spec LAN/WLAN/etc chips). So luckily the 'long' fan in the T41p is interchangable with the 'short' fan in the T40/R50.

    Anyway, if I don't get a replacement unit I will order the fan (part #13N5347). I took off the keyboard and front bezel today; easy, takes a few minutes. Shouldn't be hard to install the new HSF. On the other hand if I do get a replacement, I hope it will be as quiet as Voldenuit's is.

    Annoying situation but there is progress...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  25. pwdman

    pwdman Newbie

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    Following up on the R50 display problem...

    The 3rd laptop came last night. I opened it and turned it on, and it had the same problem as the first one, only /worse/. With a black background, it looks like the moon is rising on the left side of the screen. I will be returning it tomorrow. I am so bummed and disappointed. I really wanted an R50.
     
  26. Publius

    Publius Newbie

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by pwdman

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  27. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    pwdman, Publius I admire your persistence ;-)

    An update about the fan noise in case anyone has the same trouble. The problem is pretty much taken care of by swapping the fan for the T41p type. I got the fan today and the results are pretty good. Did a brief write-up for reference here:

    http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~jmd000/r50/

    So finally I can be happy with it. Good luck!
     
  28. Publius

    Publius Newbie

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by jmd

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  29. jmd

    jmd Notebook Enthusiast

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Publius
    How often were you hearing the fan cycle on like that?
    <hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

    Whenever the fan was on. It isn't a cycle, just a small variation in the fan noise/speed while it spins. The link a few posts up has a recording of the sound.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  30. Publius

    Publius Newbie

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by jmd

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  31. pikkili

    pikkili Newbie

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    hey
    i lost all the hibernation file when i partioned my lappi..
    i want those files urgently.......please someone send it to me to
    pkkl_hemanth@yahoo.co.in
    please ...i will be very much thankful to u!!!!
     
  32. glentium

    glentium Notebook Evangelist

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    Did you mean the "hiberfil.sys"? Just enable Hibernation in you Power Configuration.
     
  33. Smith2688

    Smith2688 Notebook Evangelist

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    Talk about old.

    You'd be better off making a new thread, pikkili.