I have a 4 year old Fujitsu lifebook that has served me well. However
the power jack requires almost regular replacement every 6 months. I
am a road warrior, use my laptop almost always on my lap and the plug
seems to rub on my leg when I use the laptop.
I am just wondering if Lenovo's suffer the same problem (position of
the jack, quality of the jack).
I plan on upgrading to a Lenovo T61 in the coming months
Thanks

techman41973@yahoo.com wrote:

Never had such a problem, although occasionally, perhaps a dozen times,
the plug got loose to my moving around.

Now looking to buy a Linux-laptop, (been using OS/2 and Linux from their
beginnings and refuse to pay WinJunk tax). Maybe Dell, Apple(BSD?), or
wait for Thinkpad.

George wrote:
The Fujitsu's were winners in many respects
-- only touchpad I've ever liked.

Assuming that Lenovo has followed the
design/materials pattern established by IBM
you'll be OK.

Experience parallels that of George.

Back in the days of the TPad 500 and 760
machines, the power jack was a sore point.

When they changed over to the 10.4 volt
batteries and 16v power bricks they changed
the connector to a co-ax style.

The connector on the tip of the cord was made
the weak point and the jack the strong point.
(I think this is called 'engineering.')

I do dumb things like being barefoot in a
motel room, snagging the cord with my big
toe, and catapulting the notebook across the
room.

So far I've broken the connectors on two
bricks but the power jack has held up. Have
bought after market bricks from eBay and
spliced on the connector.

My experience and ownership is much like
George's -- 500, 760XL, 365, 600E (still
works), R31 & T42. All champs.

I just installed SuSe on the 600e -- bit slow
but it works well. It amazed me that I can
hot swap a memory stick and an optical mouse
(in the single USB port) and Linux would not
bitch!

--
pj

<techman41973@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1187230016.467243.258890@q3g2000prf.googlegro ups.com...
If you use it on your lap, I'd suggest using a good lapdesk. One should
never, *ever* use a laptop directly on the lap. If it doesn't kill the
power connector, it'll cause overheating by blocking ventilation.

Where's the Fujitsu's power connector? On my R51 series ThinkPad, it's on
the left end of the rear as you face the keyboard.

--
-- 73 DE Tom Rutherford, N8EUJ, Burton, MI
"She said it was either her or the ham radio. Over."
(Reply-To address may be anti-spammed.)

Tom Rutherford wrote:
Which is precisely why Thinkpads don't have _any_ ventilation openings on
the bottom!
--
James

Visit the Thinkpad Forums
http://forum.thinkpads.com

"JHEM" <James@ESAD.SPAMMERS.thinkpads.com> wrote in message
news:_NFxi.360$nB3.181@trndny02...
My Z60T does. Go to the link below and watch the video, about 80% in it
shows the bottom of the Z60T and you can clearly see the fan and the vent
openings in the upper right hand corner next to the docking station
connector.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...cid=MIGR-62134

Maynard G. Krebs wrote:
No it doesn't. The fan inlet AND exhaust are on the left side of the laptop,
_not_ the bottom.
--
James

Visit the Thinkpad Forums
http://forum.thinkpads.com

"JHEM" <James@ESAD.SPAMMERS.thinkpads.com> wrote in message
news:xaXxi.3527$pf3.2735@trndny06...
YES, it DOES! Although there is an exhaust vent on the left side of the
laptop there is ALSO a fan inlet vent on the BOTTOM left side. Leaving it
running on a flat surface causes some serious heat build-up on that very
same surface. Using it with the front slightly propped up greatly increases
the air flow and significantly reduces the heat build-up. Just check out
the video on the link I provided so see where the fan intake is located.

"Maynard G. Krebs" <Maynard@NoSpam.com> wrote in message
news:W6_xi.2264$LL7.173@nlpi069.nbdc.sbc.com...
Here, I found a single picture of the bottom of a Z60T:

http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/6948.jpg

Note where the intake fan vent is located in the upper right corner.

JHEM wrote:
Hmmm, I've been wrong for some time. Eyes
have deceived me!

Could have sworn that that grill work on the
left rear bottom surface of my home-notebook
(a black machine with IBM logo and 'R31'
model number) was an inlet to what looks like
a small fan. That object, resembling a fan,
if it were a fan, would be moving air through
what appear to be a bunch of aluminum fins.

If these were really a fan and a heat sink
the airflow would be exhausting through a
small grill in the left rear of the notebook.

Each time the power comes on, what looks like
a fan makes some noise and there's a small
gust of air out the back of the machine.

However, since there are *no* vent openings
on the bottom of ThinkPads, this must be
something else other than a fan.

(8-)

--
pj

"JHEM" <James@ESAD.SPAMMERS.thinkpads.com> wrote in message
news:_NFxi.360$nB3.181@trndny02...
Maybe, maybe not; depends on the ThinkPad. I'd have to look to see if mine
has actual openings. However, even in lieu of openings, the bottom surface
should be free to breathe. I notice when putting mine in its case after an
extended session on the kitchen table, the bottom is about blood warm, maybe
a few degrees warmer. If it had been sitting on cloth or something that
would keep it from
breathing, though the breathing space is admittedly slim, it could've been
much warmer.

--
-- 73 DE Tom Rutherford, N8EUJ, Burton, MI
"She said it was either her or the ham radio. Over."
(Reply-To address may be anti-spammed.)

Maynard G. Krebs wrote:
The cooling fan for your laptop is a heat-piped system that has both the
inlet and exhaust on the left side of the unit. The vent on the bottom of
the unit is to provide cooling air for the fan motor, not the laptop, and is
fed solely by convection.
--
James

Visit the Thinkpad Forums
http://forum.thinkpads.com

"JHEM" <James@ESAD.SPAMMERS.thinkpads.com> wrote in message
news:A4hyi.3915$z83.2814@trndny09...
Again, that's total nonsense. First, you claimed that there are no
"ventilation openings" on the bottom of ThinkPad's. Clearly, as I've
pointed out in pictures that there are indeed ventilation openings on the
bottom of at least some ThinkPad's. Also, I can easily feel the air being
sucked into the vents on the bottom fan. It's hardly "fed solely by
convection". It's absolutely silly to think that this opening directly over
the fan is simply fed by convection and not the fan itself. If the purpose
of the openings are the bottom are solely to provide cooling for the fan,
that's it's soley convection, then just what then is the purpose of the fan?
Why not simply remove the fan and the opening in the bottom that solely for
the cooling of that fan. Additionally, there's no dual inlet\exhaust vent
on the left side on my Z60T, it's ONLY exhaust. I can easily feel the air
being expelled on the side. In fact, it would be a poor design to have the
exhaust & input so close together because the intake would bring in that
heated air that was just expelled by the exhaust, which would be very
inefficient. Lastly, the question was about never using the laptop directly
on your lap because it would block the ventilation causing overheating.
Which again is absolutely true concerning at least some ThinkPad's. My Z60T
certainly gets quite a bit hotter if that bottom vents are blocked or
restricted in any way and allowing a clear space around greatly reduces the
temperature. Why don't you just admit you erred when you claimed that there
are no ventilation openings on the bottom of ThinkPad's.

Tom Rutherford wrote:
My T43 sucks air into the empty pcmcia card slot. To avoid dust
accumulation, to the interior, I have laid in that opening, behind the
flip-door, a fold of toilet tissue to act as a dust collector filter.
Pull it out with tweezers for exchage and slot usage.

Angelo Campane;;a

angelo Campanella wrote:
Heat is pleasant in winter (68F), but in summer (> 80F) ThinkPad heat
may become very uncomfortable on lap. Thus with any LAPtop, especially
if doing lots of I/O &/| cpu.

I saw complaint recently that Apple's run very hot - not sure what this
would do to testes.

Really high tech! ... Ben Myers

On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:12:15 GMT, angelo Campanella <a.campanella@att.net>
wrote:

"angelo Campanella" <a.campanella@att.net> wrote in message
news:z3jyi.45540$ax1.8010@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
What I'd be worried about is dust from the toilet paper. I'd be wanting to
use something lint free. As the paper ages, it's going to get more dusty.

--
-- 73 DE Tom Rutherford, N8EUJ, Burton, MI
"She said it was either her or the ham radio. Over."
(Reply-To address may be anti-spammed.)

"George" <GeorgeZweistein@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:jZjyi.37$Jt5.21@newsfe12.lga...
Oh, yeah. :-) Makes a nice handwarmer when the fan kicks on. :-)

I wouldn't worry about it. They're pretty well self regulating as far as
heat goes. :-)

--
-- 73 DE Tom Rutherford, N8EUJ, Burton, MI
"She said it was either her or the ham radio. Over."
(Reply-To address may be anti-spammed.)

Tom Rutherford wrote:
The amount of dust accumulated on the tissue from my environment
(household with occasional A/C) is many times the amount th might come
from the orignal tissue. It needs to be canges every few months.

On previous omputers, I have taped over such openings (tape drives,
etc) where I felt that dust would be a factor (as is for instance the CD
drive today).

The T-43 cooling air inlet has to be somewhere, and I just as soon use
an accessible "inlet" to create some filtered air.

The fan air circuit is not a carefully designed system (yet). It seems
to be an induced draft fan type (sucks air of the case, not controlling
where the air enters). This also placed the fan near the outlet where
the fan tone sound easily gets into the environment. I have been
hearing it all summer, as noted by others here.

The opposite would be a forced draft system, where cooling air is drawn
from a dedicated opening, through a filter, and then forced into the
case, to escape willy-nilly (as is the now the situation for the cooling
air "inlets"). The inlet should be either under the case, or if that is
vulnerable to closure by one's lap, this inlet could be along the back
side clustered with the hardware ports. The filter acts as one stage of
sound attenuation, and the position is furthest from the user's ears.

Angelo Campanella

"Angelo Campanella" <a.campanella@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:rIvJi.588594$p47.130906@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
Where the heck do you live, anyway? Tucson? That's one heck of a lot of
dust!

Wow.

Okay...

That must be awfully loud. The fan in my R51 series is quiet enough that if
I have a TV or something on in the next room, I can just barely hear it,
when it deigns to come on in the first place.

But, as to the dust filtration issue, I think I'd rather just pull off the
keyboard once a year or so and give it a good going over, if needed. I have
an old Dell Inspirion 3500 that I never opened up, and it still works as
well and as cool as it did when I got it in '02. And, it was 3 years old at
the time. The plastic of the case is getting brittle. I think that's
what's going to eventually kill it, not the dust.

--
-- 73 DE Tom Rutherford, N8EUJ, Burton, MI
"She said it was either her or the ham radio. Over."
(Reply-To address may be anti-spammed.)