Other Issues

Hard Drive Compatibility

I purchased a Seagate 100GB 5400RPM hard drive to use in the new T43 - which came with a 60GB drive standard.  Unfortunately, the T43 only supports drives that have had their firmware modified by IBM/Lenovo.   Anythng else will cause a boot/BIOS error 2010.  See "Problems with non-thinkpad option drives on T43 thinkpads" and "POST warning message 2010 after BIOS upgrade or hard drive installation" for further information.  Since I couldn't use the 100GB drive in the T43, it went into the R40 where it works quite well.

I have an IBM/Lenovo 80G 5400RPM drive in the T43 now.  By insisting on escalation from IBM/Lenovo tech support to the customer satisfaction department I finally got to the issue "owner" who gave me an IBM 80G drive (the largest available at the time) as compensation for the hassle and expense of buying the 100G drive that I couldn't use in the T43.  No, I can't give you his name.   That was part of the deal.  If you have experienced this problem, insist on escalation... and cross your fingers.  My major argument was that IBM listed the stock drive as "ATA-100 (Enhanced IDE)" without warning that it required proprietary drive firmware.