InksEnd

I’m happy to say, I finally upgraded my laptop this year. I’d be happier to say my employer realized the thinkpad I carried was fast becoming a paperweight, but that wasn’t the case. Regardless of funding, it was time for a new Thinkpad.

Primary benefits:

• Sprint PPC-6700 works as a tethered internet connection with Vista
• 15.1 inch wide screen matches the Samsung BW226 monitor I run in the office so I no longer live with resizing screen and changing layout every time I move
• I can play World of Warcraft anywhere I want (including across my Sprint connection)

Technically speaking, my cell phone isn’t tethered to the thinkpad. I can connect to it using the built-in Bluetooth connection, but the effect is the same. I get over 200Kbps download rate and that’s enough to work from most locations even without local wifi. The other night, my son and I even tried it with WoW and it ran reasonably well. The resolution issue is more of a pet peeve for me, but I have to admit having 1680×1050 resolution at home and then going on the road with everything crammed into 1024×768 was starting to get me down.

The real benefit of the upgrade is that I can get out and about again. With the work I do today, I was really feeling tied to my office for too many activities. For my own sanity, productivity and growth I need to be out in front of people more often.

Wow, the HP Pavilion laptop I bought my wife is HOT! NO really I mean it. It’s a great laptop from all public perspectives, but it runs like lava is pumping across the motherboard. I’ve long noticed the fan noise but thought little of it. The public response from HP was that it was a “desktop replacement” machine and they have fans too, right?

I shared one of the Google Video links and she watched it on her PC (zd7260us). It ran fine but when she walked away and let the site feed videos at the laptop it got hotter and hotter (not in the way you might be thinking). Eventually the laptop shut itself down. Attempting to restart it resulted in a shutdown part of the way into the Windows boot cycle. It did boot after about 5 minutes of cool down. I spent 15 minutes in an online chat with technical support and found I should upgrade the BIOS to “cool things down.” That seemed plausible, perhaps the BIOS upgrade would improve “fan/cooling” management. So I hit the special (secret) ftp site, downloaded the updated BIOS and applied it. After rebooting I found no effect.

I put a digital cooking thermometer in the direct path of air expelled by the fan and found that if this laptop sits on a flat surface doing anything graphics intensive (watching MPEGs!?!?!), the temperature RACES up to and passed 135 F.

However, if I prop the laptop up on a stack of 3M notes and allow airflow, it stays at an even 105 degrees Fahrenheit. There’s something wrong with a computer that can’t run Windows Media Player without a stack of sticky notes, but I think that’s a conversation to be had with the Geek Squad at the local Best Buy.

Wow, that laptop is hot.