Nifty Improvements
Recently, I noticed that the xD card reader now shows up with a beautiful icon in Windows Explorer.
Today, I downloaded and installed a new version of the BIOS, which promises to reduce startup time.
After suffering through Dell, I must say that these continued improvements are fantastic.
The Not-Quite Extended Warranty
Unfortunately, no one replied to the e-mail that I sent to the Lenovo salesman who originally contacted me after I placed my order for the extended warranty.
I am now working with the credit card company to resolve the problem.
Death of ThinkVantage System Update
It appears that Lenovo has abruptly disabled System Update with no advance notice. I have to wonder what Lenovo is dreaming because it was one of the most-liked programs in the comments on Lenovo’s blog.
The program’s removal turns a dead-simple process into one fraught with unknowns as customers must now hunt through Lenovo’s website until May, when I’m sure we will receive more unpleasant surprises.
Collected
Lenovo finally collected their money. Alas, it does not extend my warranty at all. My warranty still expires on October 15, 2009. Apparently, a one year warranty only lasts seven months.
I will have to think about what to do about it.
Docking
A few weeks ago, I figured out how to consistently dock the laptop without reaching under the dock.
How to Dock a ThinkPad T400
The Laptop That Wanted To Be Entertained
My ThinkPad continues to spontaneously beg for a DVD and I discovered that with significant force from above or slight force on the side, the drive would pop open. I’ve made a diagram of it:
Self-Ejecting ThinkPad CD Drive
Fortunately, the Lenovo forums were quite helpful and I will call Lenovo to get a new drive soon.
I still haven’t received the warranty upgrade. Fortunately, I also haven’t been billed for it. This is beginning to be funny in a very odd way because so far, the GPS has held up quite well so I haven’t fretted much about the failure of Lenovo to collect their money.
On the Train
The GPS worked wonderfully and clocked the Amtrak 582 going between 70 to 80 MPH in Carlsbad.
The Active Protection System also worked perfectly and compensated quite well for the rather bumpy ride.
Unfortunately, the laptop had a Blue Screen of Death inside my backpack. I pressed the power button as the train pulled into the Solana Beach train station to put the laptop into hibernation. Then, according to WinDbg, the Virtual Machine Network Services Driver from Microsoft crashed with a DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. Unfortunately, it’s part of Virtual PC 2007, which I often use.
More on Graphics
Last night, when I docked the laptop, I had the same problem switching from the Intel graphics to the ATI graphics. I think the switchable graphics do not work with the dock.
I got a phone call from IBM. Unfortunately, he called in the midst of unrelated fretting that caused me to avoid my cellphone for several days. He wants to know if the laptop is working OK.
So far, it is, but I haven’t tried taking it on a train trip yet to see the GPS work over a long distance in less-than-ideal circumstances.
I sent him an e-mail stating this and will call him on Monday to let him know how the trip went.
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