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Lenovo Offers to Replace Low-Functioning Batteries

Andy Salisbury — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:44:28 -0500

If you’ve got a Lenovo laptop with a battery that’s providing sub-par performance, you just might be eligible for a free replacement.

The batteries in question don’t present any fire or safety hazard, so there’s no reason to worry about your health – the folks at Lenovo are simply looking to make nice. “Irreparable damage” and “battery cannot be charged” error messages from the Power Manager or Message Center are the main indicators that you have a bad battery.

If you’re not sure, but you have a ThinkPad R60, R61, T60 or T61 with battery FRU part numbers 42T4546, 42T4566 or 92P1141, and/or a model X60 or X61, with battery part numbers 42T4550, 42T4567, 42T4568, 92P1169, 92P1173, 93P5028 or 93P5030, it’s suggested that you should run the Battery Diagnostic Tool (available here), to find out if you need to swap it out

Image Credit: Lenovo

Dell Adamo's Achilles Heel: Battery Not User Replaceable

Andy Salisbury — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:00:44 -0500

Dell’s Adamo is one sexy notebook, featuring an impressively thin form factor that allows its users to bring it with them just about where they want. But, along with all that good news we’ve got some bad to report – the battery isn’t replaceable by the user.

Following in the footsteps left by Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro, the un-removable battery can only be replaced if sent to Dell. There’s no word yet on just how much this procedure will cost as of yet.

Unfortunate news, to be true, but we can’t say that it completely surprises us. You don’t get a notebook this thin without losing some of the usual advantages.

Image Credit: Dell/Maximum PC

Nvidia Tells Partners, "Our Old Mobile GPUs Bad, Buy Our New GPUs Instead"

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:08:37 -0600

As we reported earlier this year, Nvidia GeForce 8M series mobile GPUs have seen an abnormally high failure rate . VR-Zone and The Inquirer report that Nvidia has a solution for its OEM laptop partners: buy their new mobile GPUs instead.

The old GPU is known as the NB8E-SE, and is used, according to VR-Zone, in notebooks running the GeForce 8700M GT, 8800M GS, and GeForce 9650M GS. The new GPU, the NB8E-SET (aka the G84-751) uses Hitachi underfill packaging for more reliability.

If you're in the market for a new Nvidia-powered notebook computer, it's worth finding out from the laptop maker if they've switched to the new GPU already. However, what should you do if your new (or not-so-new) notebook has one of the old-design GPUs onboard?

Both Dell and HP have produced BIOS updates for affected models; the update provides improved cooling to help delay GPU failure. Unfortunately, some new laptops, including some examples of Apple's new unibody MacBook Pro with the 15-inch screen, continue to use problem GPUs.

If you have lockups or crashes when gaming or performing other graphics-intensive games on your Nvidia-equipped laptop, you may have an affected unit. Contact your vendor for help - and try to get a replacement GPU that uses Hitachi underfill material if you can.

Image courtesy Nvidia.

Etymotic Research ety8 Bluetooth Earbuds

Michael Brown — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 13:38:44 -0600

Thanks to Apple’s ubiquitous advertising, you can walk around town with wires hanging out of your ears without getting strange looks from passersby. Etymotic Research’s ety8 Bluetooth earphones shorten the wires, but these anything-but-discreet earbuds are guaranteed to draw a few sets of eyeballs your way.

If you don’t mind the attention, you’ll get to enjoy a great set of noise-isolating earphones that don’t need to be tethered to your iPod. The ety8s aren’t entirely wireless—a shoelace-like cord links the left and right modules—but they use Bluetooth technology for wireless two-way communication via a small transceiver plugged into the iPod’s docking port. The lanyard is just long enough to allow you to turn your head without tugging either module, and when you’re not listening to music, you can drape the ety8s over your neck.

Five tiny buttons on the right module control the iPod’s volume up/down, track selection, play/pause, and previous/next track functions. As small as the buttons are, it took us just moments to blindly locate them and memorize the function of each one—the all-important pause button was the easiest to master. And each button press updates the iPod’s display. The more we used the ety8s, the more we appreciated the convenience of going wireless, whether we were bundling up for a cold-weather outdoor excursion, working out indoors on an exercise bike, or just sitting at our desks.

Only one aspect of the system gave us pause: The transceiver you plug into the iPod is small (1 inch high by 1.5 inches wide) and sturdy, but friction is the only force that keeps it mated to your iPod. We’re just unsure of how well it and the iPod’s docking port will stand up to repeated jostling and knocking around inside a jacket pocket.

The ety8s come with a wide selection of ear tips and do a fabulous job of blocking out background noise; more importantly, they sounded marvelous with everything from Mozart symphonies to Paul Thorn’s wry, whiskey-soaked blues. Yeah, they’re a little geeky, but they’re definitely worth suffering a few stares for.

Month Reviewed: February 2007
Verdict: 8
URL: www.etymotic.com