On Nov 30, 6:53 pm, "D.Duck" wrote:
wrote in message

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On Nov 30, 5:09 pm, "D.Duck" wrote:
wrote in message

...

On Nov 29, 5:09 pm, "D.Duck" wrote:
wrote in message

...

On Nov 29, 3:34 pm, wrote:
On Nov 29, 8:59 am, wrote:

On Nov 29, 8:55 am, HK wrote:

wrote:
On Nov 29, 8:44 am, HK wrote:
Well, I am taking the plunge.
I am updating my old IBM T23 laptop from Win2k to WINXP Pro.
It's a great little laptop, though technology long passed it
by,
and at
the moment it only has 384KB of memory. If the update
"takes,"
I'll
update the RAM to 512KB.

This is the machine I let household guests use.

Gosh, if it works out, I'll be as up to date OS-wise as the
great
computer gurus here.

Yeah, that's a problem. Someone changes a harddrive, or
installs
windows and they think they are a CNE.. We go in and clean up
their
messes, all the time

Hopefully, it won't be a problem. I repartioned the single hard
drive
and am reformatting it to get rid of all traces of the old OS.
There's
an active mailing list for the IBM (now Lenovo) portables, and
the
gurus
there said I should be able to do the OS upgrade with minimal
hassle.
The only worry I have is being able to find all the device
drivers,
but
I was assured that won't be a serious issue. We shall see. I
also
have a
master driver CD around somewhere...

Though I like the IBM portables, this is my last, since the new
owner
of
"Thinkpads" is now a mainland Chinese company.- Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

I always end up back with Toshiba, and I use mine in the shop!
Going
to XP you should have few driver problems. The only poblem we are
having is some of the drivers want to see "C" as the boot drive,
and
we have Vista there...- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Same here, I really like Toshiba laptops. I'm on my second one, the
first is still running just fine for my daughter.- Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

I have been loyal to them ever since I desk tested a few in the
woodshop about a decade ago.. They are unstopable...

They are not unstoppable. Just let dust get into the cooling system
and
they do stop. Taking them apart to clean them up is real joy. Been
there,
done that.

How do you keep the dust of the air ducts?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Take them apart I have a pretty cool shop, I can do almost anything
there... The last one had an epoxy plug that I fabricated to fit in
the power button hole, when the button disintegrated. I did have one
about 4 years ago that had a lot of recalls so I tried HP last time
around.. I was back at the electronics store begging after about two
months and three seperate shipping charges to send it out for service,
Best Buy (our favorite) finally agreed with me and just traded me for
a new toshiba... I will never stray again, although that Panasonic
work site model looks pretty cool...

What precautions do you take to keep dust, grit, etc out of the cooling
system?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Compressed air, and a screwdriver... I just take them apart when they
get dirty. This one has not been in the woodshop yet..

In other words you do nothing until it starts shutting down due to
overheating? If you use compressed air applied to the unassembled case,
assuming your assembly is like mine, I think all you'd do is blow crap into
the cooling assembly.

Look at the photo associated with Step 23. That's a pretty good view of the
cooling system on my Toshiba. On my unit, A75 it's a major disassembly
project to get at the cooling stuff.

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...5/satA75_3.htm

The first time I took mine apart, not a job I relish, it was really plugged.
Took more than compressed air to get it clean. Lots of picking and prodding
to loosen accumulated crud.

After the first disassembly/reassembly I ended up with a "very" sensitive Z
key, to the extent that if you just nudged the laptop the Z would activate
and keep repeating. I was very careful but still ended up with that
problem. Nothing that 50 bux and a new keyboard didn't fix.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

We really count on our systems here to earn a living. We take them
apart often, before they shut down. My SO's desktop is actually harder
than mine to clean as she is also a smoker. We also back up and
format, reload software on a regular basis, just as a precaution. Most
of our computers are dedicated to specific types of software/function
so only the play boxes get bogged down really, like this one.
(Satellite A-135)

wrote in message
...

We really count on our systems here to earn a living. We take them
apart often, before they shut down. My SO's desktop is actually harder
than mine to clean as she is also a smoker. We also back up and
format, reload software on a regular basis, just as a precaution. Most
of our computers are dedicated to specific types of software/function
so only the play boxes get bogged down really, like this one.
(Satellite A-135)

You guys motivated me to take this laptop apart and clean it.
It's a three year old HP Pavilion zd8000 that has performed flawlessly since
I got it.

Anyway, I shut it down, carefully turned it upside down and removed all the
accessible screws. No way would it come apart. After several attempts, the
"leave well enough alone" buzzer went off in my head. I removed a couple of
covers (the ram bay and the harddrive bay), hooked up a little computer
vacuum gizmo that came with a hand-held Oreck vacuum cleaner and carefully
vacuumed whatever dust I could get to with the little brush.

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...

We really count on our systems here to earn a living. We take them
apart often, before they shut down. My SO's desktop is actually harder
than mine to clean as she is also a smoker. We also back up and
format, reload software on a regular basis, just as a precaution. Most
of our computers are dedicated to specific types of software/function
so only the play boxes get bogged down really, like this one.
(Satellite A-135)

You guys motivated me to take this laptop apart and clean it.
It's a three year old HP Pavilion zd8000 that has performed flawlessly
since I got it.

Anyway, I shut it down, carefully turned it upside down and removed all
the accessible screws. No way would it come apart. After several
attempts, the "leave well enough alone" buzzer went off in my head. I
removed a couple of covers (the ram bay and the harddrive bay), hooked up
a little computer vacuum gizmo that came with a hand-held Oreck vacuum
cleaner and carefully vacuumed whatever dust I could get to with the
little brush.

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

Chicken. :)

"D.Duck" wrote in message
...

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...


Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

Chicken. :)


yup. I'll let it die of natural causes.

Eisboch

On Nov 30, 7:45 pm, "Eisboch" wrote:
wrote in message

...



We really count on our systems here to earn a living. We take them
apart often, before they shut down. My SO's desktop is actually harder
than mine to clean as she is also a smoker. We also back up and
format, reload software on a regular basis, just as a precaution. Most
of our computers are dedicated to specific types of software/function
so only the play boxes get bogged down really, like this one.
(Satellite A-135)

You guys motivated me to take this laptop apart and clean it.
It's a three year old HP Pavilion zd8000 that has performed flawlessly since
I got it.

Anyway, I shut it down, carefully turned it upside down and removed all the
accessible screws. No way would it come apart. After several attempts, the
"leave well enough alone" buzzer went off in my head. I removed a couple of
covers (the ram bay and the harddrive bay), hooked up a little computer
vacuum gizmo that came with a hand-held Oreck vacuum cleaner and carefully
vacuumed whatever dust I could get to with the little brush.

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

Personally, I say you probably made a good call. It is so easy to
break little tabs and such, especially if you don't know what you are
looking at. The biggest problem is deciding which screws really hold
that part you are digging at, although like I said, they are getting
easier as "convention" is established.

wrote:
On Nov 30, 7:45 pm, "Eisboch" wrote:
wrote in message

...



We really count on our systems here to earn a living. We take them
apart often, before they shut down. My SO's desktop is actually harder
than mine to clean as she is also a smoker. We also back up and
format, reload software on a regular basis, just as a precaution. Most
of our computers are dedicated to specific types of software/function
so only the play boxes get bogged down really, like this one.
(Satellite A-135)
You guys motivated me to take this laptop apart and clean it.
It's a three year old HP Pavilion zd8000 that has performed flawlessly since
I got it.

Anyway, I shut it down, carefully turned it upside down and removed all the
accessible screws. No way would it come apart. After several attempts, the
"leave well enough alone" buzzer went off in my head. I removed a couple of
covers (the ram bay and the harddrive bay), hooked up a little computer
vacuum gizmo that came with a hand-held Oreck vacuum cleaner and carefully
vacuumed whatever dust I could get to with the little brush.

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

Personally, I say you probably made a good call. It is so easy to
break little tabs and such, especially if you don't know what you are
looking at. The biggest problem is deciding which screws really hold
that part you are digging at, although like I said, they are getting
easier as "convention" is established.



My old thinkpad's manual has complete directions for a full fieldstrip.
Never done it, though.

wrote:
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:13:38 -0500, HK wrote:

My old thinkpad's manual has complete directions for a full fieldstrip.
Never done it, though.

That is a good idea. I worked with 14 CEs (IBM computer techs) and we
all had Thinkpads. Only the guys who really specialized in laptops
would screw with them and they hated it. Worse than a laptop is the
"cop terminals" IBM developed with Motorola. Those things are packed
in the case tigher than a Thinkpad.
I bought a real 1-800-IBMSERV M/A on my personal thinkpad while it was
still available. I could have had onsite service if I wanted it but I
figured out the Fed Ex "send it away" service was faster. If you saved
the service shipping box it would turn around in 48 hours. The
repair depot was in the FedEx Memphis hub. Once after some well
placed griping I actually got it back the next day. This was different
than the regular M/A that you called the number with all the sevens in
it.

These guys just gave you a problem number and asked if you had a box.
The FedEx guy would come pick it up if you called early enough in the
day or you could dorp it at any Fed Ex pack and ship.
No hokey pokey with a script monkey in Bombay.
Small stuff like bad PCMCIA cards, chargers and cables were just sent,
no questions asked, just return the bad one.
It was $300 a year but I seemed to have at least one call a year and
some were system boards, displays and keyboards. My wife used it and
it took a beating.
Personally I don't want a laptop, I like a wireless keyboard and a big
display. The system unit can be anywhere then. I am not a road
warrior.


I usually take my laptop with me if I am going to be out of town for
more than a couple of days, or if I am out of town for a client, because
there always is something that needs to be written or rewritten. But
mostly these days my old laptop serves as a houseguest computer. If I
ever buy another one, it might well be one of the more inexpensive
Apples. I like their ergonomics. Haven't checked out their country of
origin, though. If China, no.

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:45:51 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


wrote in message
...

We really count on our systems here to earn a living. We take them
apart often, before they shut down. My SO's desktop is actually harder
than mine to clean as she is also a smoker. We also back up and
format, reload software on a regular basis, just as a precaution. Most
of our computers are dedicated to specific types of software/function
so only the play boxes get bogged down really, like this one.
(Satellite A-135)

You guys motivated me to take this laptop apart and clean it.
It's a three year old HP Pavilion zd8000 that has performed flawlessly since
I got it.

Anyway, I shut it down, carefully turned it upside down and removed all the
accessible screws. No way would it come apart. After several attempts, the
"leave well enough alone" buzzer went off in my head. I removed a couple of
covers (the ram bay and the harddrive bay), hooked up a little computer
vacuum gizmo that came with a hand-held Oreck vacuum cleaner and carefully
vacuumed whatever dust I could get to with the little brush.

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00291986.pdf

Let's see if you can resist it.

--Vic

"Vic Smith" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:45:51 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00291986.pdf

Let's see if you can resist it.

--Vic



Thanks a bunch.

I'll give it a shot someday when I have extra patience.

It's hard to believe that 30 something years ago I could take a Mod 28
Teletype machine completely apart, down to each individual part and then put
it back together and it would work.

Of course back then I could actually *see* what I was doing.

Eisboch

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:29:05 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


"Vic Smith" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:45:51 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:

Put the screws back in and decided to forget about it.

Eisboch

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00291986.pdf

Let's see if you can resist it.

Thanks a bunch.

I'll give it a shot someday when I have extra patience.

It's hard to believe that 30 something years ago I could take a Mod 28
Teletype machine completely apart, down to each individual part and then put
it back together and it would work.

Of course back then I could actually *see* what I was doing.

I was just going to say that.

Close work is not something I can do much of anymore without an
"assist".