Like getting a brand new computer

Now that Sandy Bridge is out in force, I've been seriously thinking about buying a new notebook. I went backwards a bit earlier this year when I stopped using the MacBook and switched to an older ThinkPad X61 with Core 2 Duo, and when I play with friend's newer Core i notebooks, the Core 2 Duo just feels slow.

However, one of my most frequently used programs is VMware Player, which is far more dependent on RAM than on raw CPU power. I have a virtual network inside VMware that consists of a domain controller and multiple Windows client versions that I use to do my testing, and having only 4 GB of RAM sucks when I need to open more than two virtual machines. I decided I should either get a new notebook so I can get cheap DDR3 RAM, or hold out by getting expensive DDR2 RAM or getting an SSD.

So... while searching online for some RAM and SSD prices, I found to my dismay that to take advantage of SSD speeds, I needed a BIOS hack for the X61 to enable SATA II speeds. The same BIOS hack also has a function called Dual-IDA that forces IDA on both CPU cores. Intel Dynamic Acceleration is the precursor to Turbo Boost that Intel heavily advertises on the Core i5 and i7 CPU's. But back in the Core 2 Duo days, they've already had this technology. The basic idea is that if you're only using one CPU core, it automatically overclocks by one multiplier level (i.e., 200 MHz on my Core 2 Duo T7100 CPU). The BIOS hack forces this overclocking on both cores all the time. So my 1.8 GHz T7100 would constantly run a 2 GHz. The equivalent CPU would be the T7250.

The BIOS upgrade turned out to be really hard. The ThinkPad BIOS upgrade utility for older notebooks don't work in 64-bit Windows, so I had to burn a bootable CD. The bootable CD upgrade program didn't work with the original Lenovo DVD-ROM drive that came with X61, it just says no CD-ROM drive found. So I searched around for one of those WinPE rescue discs, which also didn't work since they don't seem to detect that I have a battery, and the BIOS flash utility doesn't work if it doesn't detect a battery.

Sigh. Finally I found an old hard drive lying around. I swapped the hard drive in the X61 and installed 32-bit Windows 7 just to do the BIOS upgrade. With the BIOS upgrade and IDA enabled. My Windows Experience Index for the CPU went from 4.9 to 5.0, and CPU-Z shows the CPU clocked at 2.0 GHz.

After flashing the Dual-IDA capable BIOS, I had to use ThrottleStop to actually enable it. ThrottleStop also allows adjusting the CPU core voltage to more manageable levels. Normally, the core voltage dynamically adjusts itself according to the CPU speed. But since the speed is now locked at 2 GHz, it would be always using maximum voltage. Eventhough the core voltage is still fixed, but I could adjust it down, and the image above shows that it's fixed at 1.05 V. Even though the CPU now runs hotter at idle, but when the CPU load is higher, the temperature is cooler since it's locked at 1.05 V.

In addition to using the Dual-IDA BIOS, I decided to go for the DDR2 RAM. The RAM was really really expensive, but it's still cheaper than having to buy a new notebook just to use the newer DDR3 RAM. VMware Player now screams with 8 GB of RAM, so I'm happy again. At least I can put off buying a new computer for at least a year, or until the X61 breaks down.

ThinkPad X100e screen contrast

I borrowed one of the new ThinkPad X100e's to check it out and compare it with the IdeaPad S10 I have. The X100e has a matte screen, but it's not completely matte unlike the S10. I don't have my ThinkPad T60 handy, but the S10 is more matte than the T60, and the X100e is somewhat shinier than the T60. The S10 is showing a lot of fingerprints!

Of course, nothing like my MacBook's shiny screen.

While playing with the X100e, I discovered that when it's running on battery power, the screen loses a lot of contrast. It's most obvious when running Excel 2007 since the cell grid lines become almost invisible. Once the adapter is plugged in, the grid lines become sharp and contrasty. I had to give back the X100e so I didn't get a chance to take a photograph, but it's pretty bad.

Red ThinkPad

I want one, even if it's in red, and doesn't have the traditional 7-row ThinkPad keyboard. Oh wait, I'm a Mac user now. Doh!

It's flooding ThinkPads

My (not so) new (any more) boss uses one of the really low end ThinkPad R61's. The reason being that the old boss didn't want to get a good notebook for the new boss, at the time when the old boss was still the big boss and the new boss was the new kid on the block. (The old boss uses an X61.) I've made plans to get the new boss an X200 or whatever the next year's equivalent is early next year.

But yesterday when I stopped by my ThinkPad dealer to see if they have any new things in stock. Instead, they showed me some clearance prices for the X301 which were close to 50% off from the original price. Wow! I immediately put in a proposal to my boss to replace his R61 with the much sleeker X301. He immediately approved my proposal, but not for one X301, but for two X301's, one for himself, and one for the vice boss.

They're clearance models so they're older models with the Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, and only 64 GB SSD. But that's plenty of speed and space for the bosses.



Hmm, people like to stack their notebooks and take photos. I should do that too.

Meet the Man behind ThinkPad

I'm meeting Matt Kohut of Inside the Box blog next Monday. I should probably leave my MacBook at home.

T400 WXGA+ LED

I ordered a new ThinkPad T400 at work for my programmer. It comes with the 1440x900 WXGA+ with LED backlight. Eventhough the Lenovo website doesn't seem to have WXGA+ LED as an available option, but I did a parts lookup and it indeed is WXGA+ LED. Oh, and the WXGA+ screen is coupled with the Intel 4500 integrated graphics and not the ATI discrete graphics.

Putting it next to my T60 SXGA+ (1400x1050) completely puts it to shame. The T60 SXGA+ screen does handle documents better though since it's much taller. The T400's screen almost makes me want to go back to using ThinkPads.

T60 (XP/IE8) on the left. T400 (Windows 7/IE8) on the right.

Swapping parts

I opened up my new MacBook to replace the hard drive. Unfortunately none of my TORX screwdrivers fit the screws on the MacBook's drive caddy. Must go buy new screwdriver.


I did swap out the RAM though. My ThinkPad T60 had 4 GB of DDR2 RAM installed eventhough the T60 series only supported up to 3 GB of RAM. So I swapped the 4 GB with the MacBook's included 2 GB. So now I get to use the full 4 GB of RAM on the MacBook, and the ThinkPad gets only 1 GB less than before.

The 320 GB drive in the picture was originally intended to be used with my T60 too, but I've already got a 320 GB drive and a 250 GB drive in the ThinkPad, so I was lazy to swap out the 250 for the 320, and so the 320 had been gathering dust for months...

Strangely enough, the RAM modules, the hard drive, and the hard drive caddy all had silicon grease on them. Too much heatsink paste?

No more system update

I've always disliked software auto-update, especially at work. I'm sure the people that wrote auto-update into their programs have infinite bandwidths at their disposal, but this is not the case in real life. I've had clients complaining that their Internet speeds are really slow, and when I went in to check things out, I found that every single computer was downloading updates from the net simultaneously, over a 1 Mbps link shared by the entire company.

However, I've always liked Lenovo (and previously IBM)'s System Update for the ThinkPad and ThinkCentre systems, collectively called ThinkVantage technology. This is because System Update can automatically figure out the hardware configuration and download the appropriate drivers. Not long ago, my company bought five or so ThinkPads, all with different hardware specifications and with different versions of Windows. I started up System Update on all of them and went home, and the next morning, everything was configured and ready to go.

Good things never last.

Update (June 1, 2009): After many customer requests, Lenovo decides to bring back System Update. Go Lenovo!

Lenovo IdeaPad S9 Linux

My company asked me to go out and buy a netbook for a customer for Christmas. For the allotted budget they gave me, I could only get either the lowest end Acer Aspire One or the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, so I decided to get the Dell since it's the only netbook that I didn't have any hands-on experience with.

But when I arrived at the shops, they happened to be putting the new Lenovo IdeaPad S9 with Linux on display, and it happens to be within the allotted budget as well.

When I looked at the specs, I was surprised to find that even though it's the lower priced Linux version and cost the same as either the Acer or Dell, it has the exact same hardware specs (besides the screen, of course) as the IdeaPad S10 Windows XP version that I got earlier. i.e., 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, etc. It even has Bluetooth! So I bought one immediately.

The picture above shows some of the specs as found by the pre-installed Linpus Linux Lite.

I can't wait for the customer who will be receiving this to call back and say, "I can't run NFS on this thing! And where's the DVD writer?!"

Black notebooks

I bought a black notebook to go with my black notebook.

I'm a late-comer to the Moleskine fad. I've been searching for the perfect PDA for many years, before they were even called PDA's. Here's what I've used, or attempted to use, since 1991 or so: ZEOS Pocket PC (unreadable screen), Sharp Wizard OZ-9600 (way too little memory), OZ-9600II (bigger memory, but resolution too low), Apple Newton (poor handwriting recognition, body too large), HP OmniGo 100 (resolution too low), HP200LX (poor software integration, not really a PDA), Psion 3c (broken in less than four months), Sony CLIÉ N710C (thumbwheel broke), O2 Xphone (constant crashing), Nokia N-Gage QD (poor networking capability), Nokia 6600 (no Wi-Fi), and currenty, the Nokia E65 (very poor Wi-Fi signal).

Back to the Moleskine. The one I got is the very first one on the Moleskine diaries page: the 18-month weekly notebook with soft black cover, in large size. I decided to go with the 18-month version since it's exactly the same price as the 12-month one, plus there are still two more months to go in 2008.


Unfortunately, and in hindsight, I should have gotten the original hard cover version. You would think that the soft cover, being "new", should be the better one, but only after two weeks of use, the edges of the covers are curled up, and the pages are getting uneven. (See photo above.) And if I put too much stuff in the inside pocket, the rubber band leaves an impression on the cover. I did a search for hard vs. soft cover Moleskine and came across this thread. I hope mine doesn't suffer the same fate.

Happy Halloween!

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 in black

This is one of those rare times that we got a new product ahead of many parts of the world. This S10 is bought in the stores, it's not a demo, review, or pre-production unit.

The black S10 and the included leather slipcase.

The back of the screen is a smooth matte. Fingerprints are not very visible unlike the other color variations. (Fingerprints were not wiped clean prior to taking these photographs.)

Size comparison with the ASUS EEE PC 701 and an old ThinkOutside Stowaway Keyboard. I feel the S10's keyboard is very similar to the Stowaway, both in size and feeling. I also feel it's superior to the ASUS EEE PC 1000 series. I have no problem touch typing on the S10, and I'm a very fast typist.

The blue light is the power light. The orange light is the multi-purpose wireless indicator. It blinks blue for Wi-Fi activity, orange (as shown) for Bluetooth, or purple if both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are active.

The SD card sticks out even when fully inserted, so you can't just leave an SD card inside. But this is not a problem since the S10 has a large hard drive. The SD card shown is an A-DATA 16 GB Turbo SDHC card that I normally leave inside my EEE PC 701.

The S10 has a very bright and colorful screen. Shown here the T60 is at maximum brightness, running on battery power (screen auto dimming enabled). The S10 is at half brightness.

A comparison of text size. The T60 (1400x1050 SXGA+) is running Firefox sized at 1024x1024. The S10 is running Firefox maximized. The S10's text size is slightly larger.

The only problem I have with my S10 is that the LAN port is extremely tight. But it's probably just my unit. Even if it's a problem with every unit it won't be an issue for most people anyway since most people will only use the wireless connectivity.

I've only had the S10 for a day and I get about 2.5 hours of usage in my limited testing. This is with the wireless enabled, browsing the web, and just doing random stuff. The S10 is very energy efficient since if it's left idle for a moment, the battery indicator will show that it has 3+ hours of battery life left. The battery remaining indicator changes dynamically as the usage pattern changes.

There is a shortcut key (Fn-ESC) to toggle the webcam, but no shotcut key to mute the speakers. The shortcut keys for screen brightness and volume are placed with the cursor keys. They should've been put elsewhere and the cursor keys should have been combined with Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me.

Update: Continued in day 2.

ThinkPad Serial / Parallel Port Bay Adapter

Most modern notebooks (or even desktops) don't have serial or parallel ports, making configuring management routers and switches and industrial machines like PLC's or HMI panels extremely difficult or impossible. Sometimes USB converters work, but they are problematic, especially if you need to use older programs that are written to talk directly to the hardware.

This is where the ThinkPad Serial / Parallel Port Bay Adapter comes in. It's an Ultrabay Slim device that works on the T60, T61, and R60. The adapter does not work on the R61, any of the Z series, or anything older than the 6x series. Some of the older ThinkPads have a parallel port, and you will have to use the docking station to get a serial port.

When the adapter is inserted into the Ultrabay, the serial and parallel ports will show up in the device manager and in the BIOS. They are true hardware ports.

The adapter and my T60.


The adapter uses the middle connector in the Ultrabay.


Inserted into my T60.


Connected to a router board.


Showing up in Device Manager.


True hardware ports.


Update 12/23/2008: I finally got to see a ThinkPad T400 in person. And unfortunately, the T400 does not appear to have the middle connector in the Ultrabay necessary for the serial / parallel adapter.

Looks like my next ThinkPad will be the X200 for portability.

ThinkPad Ultrabay Hard Drive Adapters

One of the things I like most about my ThinkPad is the Ultrabay. The Ultrabay is by default occupied by the optical drive, but the optical drive can be removed and replaced with a hard drive adapter, a battery, or a serial/parallel port adapter.

I have both the IDE and the SATA Hard Drive Adapters for my ThinkPad. I used the IDE adapter with an 80 GB drive for years with my older ThinkPads. When I upgraded to a T60 last year I upgraded to a SATA adapter with a 250 GB drive.

There has always been questions about whether a drive caddy is needed to use the Hard Drive Adapter. It's actually not required, but the drive will be held more securely if you do have the caddy. If you don't use a caddy, the drive will not be fixed inside the adapter. So if you subject the adapter to a lot of movement, especially if you use it with an R series ThinkPad that has a larger Ultrabay, the drive connector can easily get damaged. The picture shows the drive hanging by the SATA connector alone when the adapter is turned upside down. A drive caddy (or Scotch tape) is highly recommended. (Warning: Don't cover the drive breathing hole if you use Scotch tape!)

Click on the image to see the larger version, the hard drives pictured at the top are SATA with caddy, SATA without caddy, IDE with caddy, and IDE without caddy.