Laptops.....

[RichP]

I $#$#%#@@$#@)$%(#@&@& HATE fixing them, I was never any good at jigsaw puzzles either... At least I know now how to take a IBM T43 apart, as for putting it back together, we'll see in an hour or so... Thank god IBM/Lenove put the service manual on line or I'd really be hosed..

[redneckboarder]

/\ this is why i pay someone to work on my computer

[NWPhotog]

T43s are tanks. I just completed a rollout replacing T43s with HP laptops. The new ones are already startin g to fail. Job security!

[Sherman_thetank]

Just be happy you didnt buy a alienware :flamemad:

[Stihl029]

I am pretty happy w/ my XPS but tearing it down is a chore. Not near as bad as my Vaio which is about 9 years old now

[Ralph]

I feel your pain, bro. I have a couple of tips:

1) Keep the screws you remove with the assembly that they came on. That way you aren't trying to figure out which size screws go with which assembly.

2) A digital camera is your friend. Take pics of everything before and as you are disassembling it.

[RichP]

Got a loose power plug, figured what $5 for the dam part, Nooooope $29 + shipping,
http://www.laptopjacks.com/view_part/IBM-Laptop-DC-Power-Jack-IB201525.html :scared:
or
$40 + shipping http://powerjack.us/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=79&sort=20a&page=5 :flamemad:

Never mind, found them on ebay for $4.99 :D :D :D :D

[tbburg]

You know you're not supposed to fix those, right? You're supposed to throw it away and buy a new one. ;)

[Coastie]

I'm a IT, getting a kick out of these replies :)

[Stihl029]

naw whats great is how many laptops I have seen on ships with liquids spilled in them. I think the worst was beer. That fermented rotting skunk beer smell was the worst.

[.40CalPatriot]

T43s are tanks. I just completed a rollout replacing T43s with HP laptops. The new ones are already startin g to fail. Job security!

Got to love that job security. We are about to rollout new computers here in a month or so. It should be fun.

[JNickel101]

Just be happy you didnt buy a alienware :flamemad:

They used to be awesome, but now that Dell bought them out, they seem to have problems....IDK why, because Dell is one of 2 computers I'd actually buy if I wasn't gonna build my own.....

[JNickel101]

I'm a IT, getting a kick out of these replies :)

x2

And as for replacing anything with an HP, it usually works better the other way around....HP-Compaq makes some awesome doorstops/paperweights though.

[RichP]

For laptops thinkpads set the standard. Every T series I have ever seen or used has been a very good machine. Got on ebay yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff, including some docking stations for our T series. I'm also looking at a couple of T43's coming off lease and going thru factory refurb by lenovo in the $360 price range with 6 month full warranty and a 1 year extension for $50.

As far as alienware, they were a labor of love when the original people owned them, geeks who wanted to build high performance systems which they did for quite a while, guess they got tired of playing and decided to sell it and make some real money.
Falcon computers makes some killer systems now in both laptop and desk types, their desk systems are almost as fast as the ones I build, I don't do laptops. As for laptops with money being no object, tadpole hands down....

[.40CalPatriot]

x2

And as for replacing anything with an HP, it usually works better the other way around....HP-Compaq makes some awesome doorstops/paperweights though.

I have never had any problems with my HP's, but as far Compaqs go:puke: I am always :geek: on my girlfriends! O and Dell dont get me started on those POS's I hate them. Doesnt help that my work has a contract with them.

[JeepAddict85]

Dell's lattitude series of laptops is pretty dependable. Ive also been quite happy with HP's DC7700's (desktops), for business purposes these are 2 decent lines of computers, used with great success at my last job. More often than not, the problems we would come across were from older dell desktops. The GX260's were a nightmare.

[.40CalPatriot]

Dell's lattitude series of laptops is pretty dependable. Ive also been quite happy with HP's DC7700's (desktops), for business purposes these are 2 decent lines of computers, used with great success at my last job. More often than not, the problems we would come across were from older dell desktops. The GX260's were a nightmare.

We use the lattiudes here and they suck! I have had probably 30+ crash since November. And I totally agree about the GX260's! We have GX270's and GX260's for the regular folk here in the offices( IT has GX620's) and I hate working on them, they always seems to have profile issues as well as BIOS issues.

[JNickel101]

I have never had any problems with my HP's, but as far Compaqs go:puke: I am always :geek: on my girlfriends! O and Dell dont get me started on those POS's I hate them. Doesnt help that my work has a contract with them.

HP and Comcrap are the same company now....

As far as software issues....you can't blame the hardware for that! It's a best practice to ALWAYS wipe any factory OS load you get and start fresh with a clean load. I would NEVER use Dell/HP/Compaq/Gateway "optimized" operating systems. Load with a bare OS and build up from there, or load with YOUR customized OS load.

[.40CalPatriot]

HP and Comcrap are the same company now....
I know! But as far as quailty between the two, they are totally different!

[JeepAddict85]

We use the lattiudes here and they suck! I have had probably 30+ crash since November. And I totally agree about the GX260's! We have GX270's and GX260's for the regular folk here in the offices( IT has GX620's) and I hate working on them, they always seems to have profile issues as well as BIOS issues.


I have had good luck with the latitudes, I built an image for them, and everything worked out just fine.. Replacing a few screens and some random easy fixes were the most complicated repairs done on the newer (D620 and up) models. The GX260's...man, I hated those. They sure didnt like to be upgraded, especially dropping another stick of memory in it. 50/50 chance of it working or you just see the Blue Screen of Death.

[.40CalPatriot]

I have had good luck with the latitudes, I built an image for them, and everything worked out just fine.. Replacing a few screens and some random easy fixes were the most complicated repairs done on the newer (D620 and up) models. The GX260's...man, I hated those. They sure didnt like to be upgraded, especially dropping another stick of memory in it. 50/50 chance of it working or you just see the Blue Screen of Death.

Yeah we do the same here. We have our own image that puts all of the programs we use here.( Frankly I hate all of them). And I know what you mean with the new memory in the 260's, I havent had the blue screen when upgrading but always BIOS problems. Luckily we only have 2 of them left in the office, and only a handful across the country.

[OverTheHillsATTW]

I've had luck with Dell and horribly disappointed by HPs and compaqs.
Dell "built" my computer how I wanted and was at my door a week later.
They fix it if it breaks which it hasnt and it's been 3 years. I can send it out and get hardware updates and software help if needed. My HP was bought at a staples I believe died a year later after many failed attempts to fix. A friends compaq did the same. I don't know much but dell has given me great personal service. :)

[JNickel101]

I have had good luck with the latitudes, I built an image for them, and everything worked out just fine.. Replacing a few screens and some random easy fixes were the most complicated repairs done on the newer (D620 and up) models. The GX260's...man, I hated those. They sure didnt like to be upgraded, especially dropping another stick of memory in it. 50/50 chance of it working or you just see the Blue Screen of Death.

Pretty sure those use parity/ECC (not called that really, but same concept) - you can't just throw in a random stick of RAM.....I haven't had any problems with ANY Dells. Ever.

And as far as BIOS issues....you ever do PMI/PMUs? They put out BIOS updates for a reason....

As far as imaging/ghosting, I'm probably the biggest opponent of that - even though we are FORCED to do it, I laugh every time I see one of the imaged/ghosted servers crash, but my servers I built from scratch 4-5 years ago are still running and doing their job.

[.40CalPatriot]

Pretty sure those use parity/ECC (not called that really, but same concept) - you can't just throw in a random stick of RAM.....I haven't had any problems with ANY Dells. Ever.

And as far as BIOS issues....you ever do PMI/PMUs? They put out BIOS updates for a reason....

As far as imaging/ghosting, I'm probably the biggest opponent of that - even though we are FORCED to do it, I laugh every time I see one of the imaged/ghosted servers crash, but my servers I built from scratch 4-5 years ago are still running and doing their job.

As far as the BIOS goes all of of servers send out the updates. And unfortunatley being a government entity we are required to image/ghost all machines.

[JeepAddict85]

Pretty sure those use parity/ECC (not called that really, but same concept) - you can't just throw in a random stick of RAM.....I haven't had any problems with ANY Dells. Ever.

And as far as BIOS issues....you ever do PMI/PMUs? They put out BIOS updates for a reason....

As far as imaging/ghosting, I'm probably the biggest opponent of that - even though we are FORCED to do it, I laugh every time I see one of the imaged/ghosted servers crash, but my servers I built from scratch 4-5 years ago are still running and doing their job.


I used to image all of the laptops and desktops. I am for it. Keeps everything standardized. Our servers were built from scratch. As for the older dell desktops, I ordered the same exact ram in there, and it should have accepted it. Otherwise why would there be extra slots? Sometimes it worked fine with more memory, sometimes it got all screwy. I used the same on each side/bank.

Another reason why imaging is good: i could take out the harddrive that went bad...plug it in to another desktop as a external drive, then create an image of the corrupted drive. Then using Ghost explorer, i could retrieve all the files needed.

[RichP]

As far as the BIOS goes all of of servers send out the updates. And unfortunatley being a government entity we are required to image/ghost all machines.

There is imaging/ghosting and imaging/ghosting. For the main OS drive I build the first one then use a hardware device to copy/image disc to disc, usually takes about 10-20 minutes, if I need to do it on a unix box I use DD even if duplicating a windows hard drive. For run of the mill work stations where I may be building 10 or more I build the prototype and ghost it to a ghost server, from there I boot either from a floppy or usb key, depends on the generation of system and whether it will boot off of a usb key. Even a one off custom box I ghost it after I get everything installed in the event the HD fails after burn in. I can't wait till the blueray burners come down in price, be nice to image to a blueray dvd.

[JeepAddict85]

It does come in handy. I think the most I ghosted at once was 12 hp machines. I had to go to each one with the USB key, but after that they all where going at once.

[.40CalPatriot]

There is imaging/ghosting and imaging/ghosting. For the main OS drive I build the first one then use a hardware device to copy/image disc to disc, usually takes about 10-20 minutes, if I need to do it on a unix box I use DD even if duplicating a windows hard drive. For run of the mill work stations where I may be building 10 or more I build the prototype and ghost it to a ghost server, from there I boot either from a floppy or usb key, depends on the generation of system and whether it will boot off of a usb key. Even a one off custom box I ghost it after I get everything installed in the event the HD fails after burn in. I can't wait till the blueray burners come down in price, be nice to image to a blueray dvd.

Blueray Image sounds fun! I am just thankful that we finally recieved a Image disc that will Image all of our computers from one disc. Before then we had a seperate disc for all 3 laprtops we run and also all 3 desktops plus one for our personal HD's for laptops. It was a PITA sometimes to find the right one.

[RichP]

It does come in handy. I think the most I ghosted at once was 12 hp machines. I had to go to each one with the USB key, but after that they all where going at once.

If your bios supports booting over the network you can plug in it's mac address to your image server and push a download across, sun and HP have been doing this for years on the unix side with jumpstart and ignite servers. There are all kinds of different ways.

[Coastie]

If your bios supports booting over the network you can plug in it's mac address to your image server and push a download across, sun and HP have been doing this for years on the unix side with jumpstart and ignite servers. There are all kinds of different ways.


That's how we do it in the Coast Guard. We have a main apps server at the unit level then we RIS workstations as needed.

When I was in school we were installing our image on 24 different workstations from one RIS server!

[RichP]

Totally sucks, got the whole laptop back together and up and running fine. ONLY issue is 6 left over screws and all the outside holes are full. $#$%$##$#@@@....

[ChiXJeff]

HP has Ignite/UX, Sun has Jump Start.

I'm building 2 new Ignite servers at work in the next couple of weeks. The guys at the D/R site we use customarily Ignite 30 HP-UX servers in parallel over a single gigabit connection. The whole process is done in 90-120 minutes.

During our D/R tests, I can only get about 6 Ignites running in parallel, then the first one is complete.

[RichP]

HP has Ignite/UX, Sun has Jump Start.

During our D/R tests, I can only get about 6 Ignites running in parallel, then the first one is complete.

Ahhh, too much time sitting in a chair, you need to run down the line faster and turn corners quicker to get to the next row to hit those power buttons... :D :D :D :D
Daily I used to have to walk with a large shopping cart down what we called the 'Freight trains' service guard servers on both ends with 20 cabinets full of the old nike 20 drive arrays, pulling yellow lighted ones out and sticking new drives in and letting them rebuild. HP shipped us two pallets, every week for 6 months, of drives already in carriers to just slide in. Then a second pass with an empty cart to grab the bad ones I stuck on top of the cabinets. The server room was 300 x 150 feet. Those HP boxes took up half of it, Suns took up the other half.

[ChiXJeff]

Man, you're behind the times...... with a console connection, I don't even have to walk into the data center to power up a machine.

I had a *VERY* bad experience with a Nike20. Short story is that SP-A panic'ed and corrupted the entire configuration.

[RichP]

Man, you're behind the times...... with a console connection, I don't even have to walk into the data center to power up a machine.

I had a *VERY* bad experience with a Nike20. Short story is that SP-A panic'ed and corrupted the entire configuration.

I remember an HP guy said that you don't even have to do that, if you put all the macs in the ignite server config file you can get the server to wolan and push, just don't make any typos or you might find one paved over. I don't like pushing that stuff over the main network.

Thats why we always had two SP's, one to each service guard box, we had them all on expansion blocks to cu into them and build the arrays, do em on fridays, they took about 12-18 hours to build from scratch. Clarion, or whoever owns it now, must still be making a fortune on that software.

At any rate, back to taking the Tpad apart and trying to find the empty holes to put the dam screws in.

[Jeepm@n]

As far as laptops I'm not a fan. Although my work did buy us all ITRONIX GOBOOK III's Seem a bit slow and extremely heavy. Although a tough computer. I've beat the hell out of it between dropping, freezing,(-20) and running for 12 days straight downloading digital 4D ultrasound and MRI software's.

[ChiXJeff]

I remember an HP guy said that you don't even have to do that, if you put all the macs in the ignite server config file you can get the server to wolan and push, just don't make any typos or you might find one paved over. I don't like pushing that stuff over the main network.

Thats why we always had two SP's, one to each service guard box, we had them all on expansion blocks to cu into them and build the arrays, do em on fridays, they took about 12-18 hours to build from scratch. Clarion, or whoever owns it now, must still be making a fortune on that software.

At any rate, back to taking the Tpad apart and trying to find the empty holes to put the dam screws in.
To the best of my knowledge, HP-UX servers don't do Wake-On-LAN. That is worth looking into, though.

As a side note, I fubar'ed a server yesterday, and cloned the image from another running machine. Start to finish, less than 30 minutes. The bulk load of the root volume group took under 6 minutes.

[RichP]

To the best of my knowledge, HP-UX servers don't do Wake-On-LAN. That is worth looking into, though.

As a side note, I fubar'ed a server yesterday, and cloned the image from another running machine. Start to finish, less than 30 minutes. The bulk load of the root volume group took under 6 minutes.
The xeon, opteron and itanium will. none of which I have ever had, never tried it on risc either, just something that was mentioned in passing. Well, back to cleaning out the tapes in the library, not gotten a good 40 tape weekend livestate back up in a month, just going to expire them all and at least start with them on the same schedule.

[ChiXJeff]

I'll have to call support on this one. I'm not finding any docs that the NICs we use support WOLAN.

And I may have found a bug in 11iV3 APA, will know more in an hour after I finish upgrading firmware and loading the image on another set of hardware.

[RichP]

I'll have to call support on this one. I'm not finding any docs that the NICs we use support WOLAN.

And I may have found a bug in 11iV3 APA, will know more in an hour after I finish upgrading firmware and loading the image on another set of hardware.

Rule of thumb, if the unit is powered down and the power is connected, the lans show a yellow or green light it *should* support wake on lan. I had some solar software I was trying out at home, had to enable it on the boards, by default it was turned off on Intel, Asus, IBM, Compaq and HP boards, even my 4+ year old IBM T30 laptop supports it. MIB's might also be involved here, not sure.

[ChiXJeff]

I'll have to check this afternoon, I've got some hardware that I should be able to do a quick check for a link light. If it's limited to the system ports, it'll definitely not work for us, most of those run too slow for production use.

So far, I'm definitely having one of those days, I'm on the 4th O/S reload, having bricked it 3 times now.