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Nice solid machine. You could probably beat someone with this. 15" inch model though sadly not FlexView, 1.7 Ghz P|M, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB disk, and the Mobility Radeon 7500. That last one is causing me problems in Windows 7 though. Drivers to get the XDDM drivers working have incorrect instructions or apparently can't accelerate without getting crashy. The P|M in this is also quirky, being one of the ones that lie about not having PAE.
Huh. I didn't know they were still using Banias Pentium M's on the T42, but looking at the Thinkpad Wiki it appears that all models from the T40 (I bought one of those for my Mom back in 2003 when they were *brand spanking new*) through T42 were basically the same thing with minor part swaps. Honestly I sort of wondered what the deal with that was, learn something new every day.
Anyway, yeah, still useful machines (although I wouldn't hand one to someone expecting to use it with "zero compromise" on the modern web) other than that super-annoying missing PAE cpuflag. Luckily most Linux distributions have installer workarounds for that problem now. I still use a Dell D600, which has exactly the same guts, as a "jobber" machine for various hobby tasks. (It runs Debian.)
... actually, wait, you say the machine is a 1.7ghz model but doesn't identify as having PAE? That's sort of strange, as the Thinkpad Wiki claims the 1.7ghz models were Dothan-based, and Dothan is supposed to identify itself correctly. Does the CPU have one or two MB of secondary cache? If it is Banias then someone should correct the wiki. (It does say that T41s shipped with the Banias 1.7. The T40 I bought way back when was either 1.3 or 1.4ghz, I don't remember.)
Anyway, yeah, still useful machines (although I wouldn't hand one to someone expecting to use it with "zero compromise" on the modern web) other than that super-annoying missing PAE cpuflag. Luckily most Linux distributions have installer workarounds for that problem now. I still use a Dell D600, which has exactly the same guts, as a "jobber" machine for various hobby tasks. (It runs Debian.)
... actually, wait, you say the machine is a 1.7ghz model but doesn't identify as having PAE? That's sort of strange, as the Thinkpad Wiki claims the 1.7ghz models were Dothan-based, and Dothan is supposed to identify itself correctly. Does the CPU have one or two MB of secondary cache? If it is Banias then someone should correct the wiki. (It does say that T41s shipped with the Banias 1.7. The T40 I bought way back when was either 1.3 or 1.4ghz, I don't remember.)
Hah! Nice to know you can still download an OS/2 driver for the Mobility 7500 from Lenovo. Wonder if it comes bundled with a Warp-compatible version of Superfish.
Yeah, it's a lying Dothan. I did find a hacked up version of a driver that seems to work for simple HW accel. In Vista, you could apparently manually force it to use the built-in Mobility Radeon 9000 driver, but 7 purged out the pre-HD Mobile Radeons.
I don't trust ThinkWiki often, as most of it is written for the Linux user of 2006.
I don't trust ThinkWiki often, as most of it is written for the Linux user of 2006.
Huh, nice. Someone should inform Ubuntu that some Dothans are liars as well then.
Pentium M's of the Dothan family display the PAE flag correctly and support the latest Buntus without modifications. The same distinction (Banias versus Dothan) goes for the lower performing Celeron M processors.
I've got a T42p I really need to fix up. The FireGL T2 graphics are supported in WIndows 7, although mine "only" has 1.5 gigs of RAM, it also runs 7 well. Last time I had it out, World of Warcraft ran, but with the most recent updates to that game, I think that ship has thoroughly sailed, and it's used most often for viewing Office documents with the glorious 1600x1200 display.
8.1U1 would, of course, run a little bit better, but that whole PAE thing is sort of a bummer on that front.
8.1U1 would, of course, run a little bit better, but that whole PAE thing is sort of a bummer on that front.