Hello,
I just wanted to report in to the list on the upgrades performed to
a 2004-era ThinkPad T42 [MT: 2378-R4U; Specs: P M 730, 256MB, 30GB
HDD, 14.1" XGA (1024x768), 32MB ATI 7500, Intel 2200BG].
Previously, the T42 had been upgraded to 2GB of RAM, the 30GB HDD
replaced with a 160GB model, and the extended battery with one from
DealExtreme. The keyboard was also replaced with a new one as the
original was rather beat up (this was my brother's college PC).
Upgrade #1: palm rest with fingerprint reader
I like having a fingerprint reader for authentication, so when I
replaced the keyboard, I also replaced the palm rest with one
containing a fingerprint reader. It plugged right into the system
board without problem Cost was about $15 on eBay
Upgrade #2: Intel Pentium M 760 2.0 GHz
Replacing the 1.60GHz stock CPU with a 2.0GHZ model should give a
modest performance boost on processor intensive tasks. Cost was
about $10 on eBay, versus $55 for a P M 765 (2.1GHz), $20 for a
P M 770 (2.13GHz) or $40 for a P M 780 (2.27GHz). I did not feel
that the gains in performance one of those might add would be
marginal compared to the $10 CPU.
Upgrade #3: Broadcom BCM43222 802.11n MiniPCI Adapter
This is the same dual band (2.4GHz/5GHz) Wi-Fi card I installed
in my T43p. Details of that are in the mailing list archive at:
http://illuminati.stderr.org/pipermail/thinkpad/2012-October/037114.html
Cost was about around $10.
Upgrade #4: 60GB OWC Mercury Legacy Pro 2.5" PATA SSD
This was, by far, the most expensive upgrade to the T42 at around
$150, but it also gave the biggest boost in performance. There
are few PATA SSD manufacturers, and this particular model is the
fastest in its class. It also uses TRIM for garbage collection,
which apparently is rare for PATA SSDs.
Aside from the speed boost, installing a SSD will (I hope) also
reduce power consumption and thermal load on the system, as well
as being much more rugged. I had replaced the HDD three times
when my brother was using the T42.
This was also the most problematic upgrade. The initial SSD I
received from OWC was not assembled correctly: The SSD's logic
board was not properly aligned in its metal shroud/enclosure
and its pins would not line up properly with the PATA connector
inside the T42. I spent about an hour on this until trying to
install the SSD in a 2nd HDD Adapter Ultrabay, at which point
I realized there was an alignment issue.
Since the SSD was new and expensive, I did not want to violate
the warranty by fixing it myself, so I sent the drive back to
OWC for repair. They fixed the problem and quickly sent the
drive back to me.
Unfortunately, it arrived DOA.
They replaced it with a new unit, and that one worked fine.
Throughout the whole process, OWC tech support was patient
and got the second working replacement out to me quickly.
Upgrade #5: Windows 7 Ultimate x86 Edition
Installed on the T42 for the same reasons I installed it
on the T43p, as mentioned in the mailing list archive at:
http://illuminati.stderr.org/pipermail/thinkpad/2012-October/037114.html
Observations:
The one upgrade I have not done is to add Bluetooth. From
looking at the HMM, it appears I would need to take apart
the screen+lid in order to install the antenna, and that is
something I really do not want to do at this point.
The T42 runs Windows 7 well, booting up in about 25 seconds
(or maybe a little less). Not bad for a nine-year-old system.
The ATI 7500 GPU is completely unsupported under Windows 7,
and although there are various hacks reported to get older
drivers for Windows XP to work, I found them to be unreliable
and leading to crashes. I settled on the following options
for video:
Driver: Standard VGA Graphics Adapter driver
Theme: Windows Classic View
Services: Desktop Session Window Manager Session Manager (disabled)
Themes (disabled)
This gives a Windows XP-like graphic user interface, but
with all of Windows 7 behind it. The system is not really
usable for watching HD video or game play, but it is rather
good for casual web surfing and basic office productivity
tasks. It's also far better built than a netbook, being
more solid and reliable
URLs:
BCM43222: search eBay for "BCM43222"
Intel P M 760:
http://ark.intel.com/products/27595/Intel-Pentium-M-Processor-760-2M-Cache-2_00A-GHz-533-MHz-FSB
OWC SSD MLP060: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDMLP060/
T42 HMM: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-46464
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
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