[TriLUG] Advice Please

Fri Feb 21 15:31:38 EST 2025

As to the advice on what to replace with, I have had generally good luck
with Thinkpads over the years.  This is the first Lemon in the bunch.   I
had a x60 years ago that had a premature death, but it was getting carried
around a lot so that could have had something to do with that one.  This
P14s has only been out of the house once since I have owned it, and as
mentioned before, it looks brand new.

I am a little skittish about Dells.   The first Dell that SUSE provided me
as a work machine was quite nice until the battery started to swell.  I
still have that system around and it is on its 3rd battery now, and that
one needs to be replaced too.  The swelling is so bad the touch pad has
popped out and the keyboard is not functionable.    When it has had a less
than 6 month old battery in it, the system can be quite nice.

I am really currently loving the HP Dragonfly I bought at Costco about 15
Months ago.  I have not tried Linux on a Dragonfly, so I am unsure how that
will go.  This system is Win 11 and lives on the corner of my Kitchen
table.  Browsing and email are its main job.   The Dragonfly is the only
system that I have seen recently that competes with an X1 Carbon.

The LG Gram systems look attractive.  But I have had zero experience with
those.

I may see if I can find a deal on another Dragonfly and give that a go.

Dwain

On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 12:00 PM Dwain Sims <dsims at bayleafnc.org> wrote:

> Good idea.  I will take a look.
>
> Dwain
>
> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 11:53 AM John Mitchell <john280z at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The reddit  group r/thinkpad is always posting about mods and swaps.
>> johnm
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 11:51 AM Dwain Sims <dsims at bayleafnc.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I had thought about that too.  A really good idea.
>>>
>>> Dwain
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 11:34 AM John Mitchell <john280z at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dwain,
>>>>
>>>> If it was me, I'd look into a used one of your model with a cracked
>>>> screen on ebay.
>>>> john mitchell
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 11:16 AM Dwain Sims via TriLUG <
>>>> trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Generally have I had good luck with Thinkpads over the years.  Reading
>>>>> more, this particular model with an AMD processor, which probably has
>>>>> nothing to do with this failure, has been prone to GPU death and when
>>>>> it
>>>>> does it takes the entire MB with it.  There appears to be no repair.
>>>>> It is
>>>>> a very clean system with no real signs of wear.  It looks like it just
>>>>> came
>>>>> out of the shipping box.  I hate to see it dead.  A new MB is probably
>>>>> 250-300 which makes it borderline unrepairable.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for all of the tips!
>>>>>
>>>>> Dwain
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 10:21 AM Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at trilug.org>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > On Thu, 20 Feb 2025, Dwain Sims via TriLUG wrote:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > > I left it on over night and I am recharging it today.  Still
>>>>> nothing.
>>>>> > Just
>>>>> > > a paper weight.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Sorry to hear it.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I guess you're now amenable to advice on what to replace it with.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > o I had Thinkpads for 20 years and liked them a lot. I understand
>>>>> that
>>>>> > when they went full Lenovo the quality dropped. This may be what's
>>>>> > happened to you.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > o I have a Dell laptop now. It's OK, but I dont need a wide screen
>>>>> (1440
>>>>> > pixels) on a laptop and I'd rather have the smaller format of the
>>>>> Thinkpad
>>>>> > (1024*768) and the smaller size of the laptop. As well the large
>>>>> built-in
>>>>> > Dell mousepad, in the center of the keyboard area, is under my hands
>>>>> when
>>>>> > I type and I have to manually turn it off (which I can only do after
>>>>> > bootup) and use an external mouse, which negates the point of having
>>>>> a
>>>>> > built-in mousepad. The only way you can type with the Dell mousepad
>>>>> on, is
>>>>> > to hold your hands in the air. The Thinkpads had a small nubbin in
>>>>> the
>>>>> > middle of the keyboard, for the mouse, which didn't get activated
>>>>> when you
>>>>> > typed.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Joe
>>>>> > --
>>>>> > Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
>>>>> > Don't upgrade a working machine - it won't work any
>>>>> > better - it could work worse; it may not work at all.
>>>>> > Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> --
>>>>> This message was sent to: john mitchell <john280z at gmail.com>
>>>>> To unsubscribe, send a blank message to trilug-leave at trilug.org from
>>>>> that address.
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>>>>> Welcome to TriLUG: https://trilug.org/welcome
>>>>
>>>>