ThinkPad T41: hard drive protection sucks!

[team_sheepshead]

Just purchased a ThinkPad T41. The active hard drive protection looked cool. You've seen the TV commercials: ThinkPad falls off the counter and the sudden movement pulls the arm off the hard drive, thus saving it from damage.

Well...set up my new T41 and every time I moved it more than 2 inches the hard drive protection kicked in. Called IBM and the level 1 tech told me I could disable it or send back the ThinkPad. Talked to a supervisor and he told me the system "learns" over a week or two and will get accustomed to what is "normal" and what is not.

Well, after five days the problem is worse!! Yesterday tried typing in my lap and it kicked in. Have called two friends of mine in IBM public relations and they are looking into it.

Any thoughts out there? TIA.

[bassman]

Welcome team_sheepshead to ,
Sound like you have already found your answer. You should give it the week or two that the supervisor recommended.
That is really new techknowlogy and I don't know if anyone here has experience with it yet. What exactly happens when it kicks in? Does all functionality stop until rebooted?

[team_sheepshead]

When it kicks it, it freezes the system until it detects that movement has stopped. Then it returns to functioning normally. No reboot required, thankfully!

Yes, this is new technology and I am not too happy paying $1700 to be an IBM beta tester. I am fine waiting one or two weeks, but after nearly a week the problem is not getting better--it is getting worse.

I am not a technician, but I used to write for a magazine called Mobile Enterprise, which covers mobile technology for business users--so that is where I am coming from. Can you imagine a salesman bringing a new T41 into a presentation, moving it across a desk and having it lock up in front of a client?

[bassman]

Does sound a bit over sensitive in your case. I wonder, do they slide the "two week" learning process into the sales pitch? If people knew this up front, then they could plan accordingly.
Maybe you need for Chipset to respond to see if he/she had a similar problem.

Good luck
Frank

[team_sheepshead]

I think there is a definite disconnect b/t the marketing people and the tech people. No surprise! When I told the Level 1 tech about my problem, he told me I had 30 days to return the ThinkPad if I didn't like it. The Level II tech told me this was brand-new technology and he offered an educated guess that the movement sensor is self-learning.

You're not going to see that in any TV commercials. Another case of the hype not living up to the reality, I'm afraid.

[pave_spectre]

Originally posted by team_sheepshead
he offered an educated guess that the movement sensor is self-learning.

Educated Guess = he doesnt actually know that its self-learning but is just making stuff up to try and keep people happy.

Personally if it didnt start getting better I would return it.

[jabarnutcase]

Been searching around a little. One of the first links I found was HERE
The section on the Hard Drive and it's "Protection" is interesting.

I have mine set to maximum sensitivity and notice the hard drive is "paused" very often, yet has no noticeable effect of performance. The application also has a nifty "Real Time Status" indicator that shows a 3D model of the T41 that moves as the T41 moves. (Kind of useless... yet very neat!) I've put a few screenshots of the application in the gallery: here, here, here and here.

Was just curious if you've played around at all with the sensitivity settings etc. (As shown in his Screen Shots)...In particular, the Shot below:
http://www.aaltonen.us/gallery/beta/ibm_aps_1

I'll look around a little more, as I find this technology "interesting" (Keeping in mind of course that it appears to be "irritating" as well).

(Edit) Well, some more Google searching shows that you are not alone...I didn't want to post a bunch of links...(Some were rather lengthy Forum discussions), but while it appears some are happy with the protection, others are certainly not).

Disabling the protection seemed to please some, but it sure wouldn't me if I were paying extra for that particular feature.

[team_sheepshead]

How do I access the Active Protection system properties??

I did find a screen that gave me options to let the system know I was traveling in a car or train--apparently that lowers the sensitivity. I checked that. It did not help.

But I have yet to find the detailed sys properties box shown in the above screen grabs. TIA!

[team_sheepshead]

jabar,

can you tell me the google search terms you used? i would like to see some of these posts. as i wrote earlier, i have been in touch with public relations people at ibm, and i'd like to let them know i am not the only one with this problem.

tia!

[jabarnutcase]

Excellent question team_sheepshead.

Having no experience whatsoever with that particular Laptop, (or this technology), the only thing I would suggest is looking through the Help Menu, your owners Manual, their Web site, or (perish the thought) Tech Support again.

I wonder also if it depends on the OS you're using...Although I assume both you and the reviewer are using XP.

Good luck where ever your searching brings you!

(Edit) Hang on...Just saw your post- I'll be back...(After I see what the heck my wife wants!)

[team_sheepshead]

your priorities are in order. 1. wife 2. pc guide ;-)

[jabarnutcase]

Hehe....Not so sure about the order of priorities, but it seems I have to hop in the car and take off for a while.

Anyway, I used some pretty "off the wall" basic search terms (without quotes) which give a lot of "hits"..(some relevant, some not)

Such as:
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ction+problems

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...n+&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ad+T41+Reviews

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...q=+T41+Reviews

I'm sorry, I can't seem to find the exact forum where people were complaining about the active protection at the moment, but you get the idea. If I find that particular link, I'll post back later on...You're likely to find it or something similar in the four I posted though.

Again, I would check into finding that Protection Setup Properties Page (if it exists on your Machine) and experiment a bit.....Possibly by using some of the sources I mentioned in the post above this one.

Good luck----> (I may need it more than you at this point. )

[team_sheepshead]

If you can tell me how to get to those advanced sys properties windows for the active protection system, let me know.

All I can find is a more simplistic window that allows me to
1. Enable the system
2. Temporarily ignore reptitive shocks when riding in a vehicle
3. Allow registered admins to enable/disable the system

I can't find the more complex sys properties window as shown in the post above--the window with the sliding scale.