My review and experiences w/ 760CD

[Kenneth Yee <Kenneth_Yee.LOTUS@crd.lotus.com>]

The following is a summary of my experiences w/ my 760CD
which I got just before X-mas ;-)

FEATURES
--------
1) MPEG2
Played with the MPEG2 HHR decoder.  This is a decoder that
supports Half Horizontal Resolution.  This allows MPEG2 streams
to be played from 4X CDROM drives (full MPEG2 streams require
5X drives).  The True Lies clip is as cool as people say it is.  There
still appears to be a bug w/ the driver because it leaves a one pixel
vertical line of garbage on the right.  The Thinkpad also comes
installed w/ 256 color drivers whereas the demo needs 64K color
drivers...no idea why IBM didn't install 64K color video drivers
as the default.
I still haven't been able to play the common Xing MPEGs that
are common nowadays; these MPEG's only contain I-frames.  The
media player doesn't show anything :-(
2) 12.1" Screen
This is finally a good size for laptops.  10.4" screens are just too
small and the 9.5 ones were worse :-)   One interesting thing to
note is that the manual for the thinkpad lists the specs on the
display as being able to show 16.7M colors.  Could it be that the
chipset VRAM is limiting the display capabilities?
3) Enhanced Video
S-video in/out is supported.  Playing games in 800x600 mode
(HVexp on :-) works relatively well.  The resolution on my
TV (a Panasonic GAOO 27") looks like it is slightly below
400 interlaced lines in resolution.  Win95 on the TV is
mostly unreadable (the text on the taskbar is unreadable)
in 800x600 mode.  Presentations should be done in 640x480
mode or large fonts should be used in 800x600 mode.
I haven't tried video capture as the manual indicates that
at least 12MB of memory is required.
4) Mwave
Under OS/2 Warp Connect loses characters according to the slip
program.  It can't write characters to the Mwave driver
(possibly because of the heavy swapping) at times.  The
modem doesn't like hooking to Hayes 28.8K modems at full speed
but a Microcom Deskporte EP I have does.  It hooks up to USR
28.8K modems with no problems.
The games mode doesn't allow me to use SBPRO mode with
Effects or Qsound.  It complains of insufficient resources.  
This happens in MSDOS mode under Win95.  Hong Kong MahJong
Pro can't see the DAC in SB emulation mode, so there is no
voice output :-(

IMPROVEMENTS
------------
1) PCMCIA Door
The doors are now spring-loaded and fold inward as you put
the PCMCIA cards in.  This is better than the old
75x series pull-off door.
2) LCD Fuel Gauge
This is useful extremely useful in telling you how much
charge the system has left.  The Fuel program doesn't have
to be run any more :-)
3) Lithium Ion Batteries
One battery generally lasts me 4 hours unless I am trying to
boot Warp Connect on 8MB RAM (where each boot sucks up 4% of the
battery)-:

PROBLEMS
--------
1) MPEG2 driver bug (minor, see feature description above)
2) When I put it into suspend by closing the cover w/ a battery
plugged in, I managed to get it into a hung mode where the power
switch didn't work.  I think I was looking at the memory expansion
area.  The fix was to pull the battery out, then plug it back in.
3) The memory expansion door bulges outward a little.  This can
be fixed by adding a front edge tab similiar to the ones on the 
sides of the door.
4) Be careful of the EM shielding fingers on the memory expansion
door.  They can be bent pretty easily.  They contact some copper
tape on the inside of the door; this tape looks like a last minute
hack.
5) My floppy drive couldn't write to most diskettes because it
complained everything was write-protected.  On the one disk it
formatted, it only formatted to about half capacity.  After a
call to IBM Easyserv, I got a replacement in a day.  I guess this is
the best reason for spending the extra $$$ for Thinkpads :-)
6) VGA non-compatibility bug caused difficult installs of
some operating systems.

GRIPES
------
1) Can't install the floppy drive plate without removing the
battery.  This makes floppy/CDROM swaps on the road a pain.
The problem is the floppy drive gap filler.  Someone on the
thinkpad mailing list pointed out that you don't have this
installed to put the floppy drive in, but then you have dust
problems with the big hole around the floppy drive.
2) The wrist rest is not deep enough.  When I use the wrist rest
as I normally use my desktop wrist rest, my fingers end up on
the QWERTY row of keys instead of the normal home position for
a touch typist.  As someone else mentioned, my palms also seem to
cover the speakers when I'm typing.
3) Fit and finish are good but need a bit more work.  The memory 
expansion cover (see Problems section above) comes to mind.  The 
external power jack also seems to be too high because I can see 
the silver part of the internal connector inside the case.
4) There is no uninstall program for all the software they give
you and also no way to reinstall anything after you delete it.
IBM should send out uninstall REXX scripts and a CDROM which you
can use to reinstall the factory drive setup and separate programs.
The CDROM could have a copy of the gzipped tar image I made
and a full disk image of the C: drive.
At the very least, an electronic description of what is in each
directory would be helpful in deciding which directories to scrap.
5) I can overrun the key rollover buffer in the keyboard.  I
don't have a problem w/ my desktop's Northgate keyboard.
6) I'd still like some way of swapping the ctrl and capslock keys
as I can do with the Northgate.  Using my thumb to control the
ctrl key doesn't feel right.  On the thinkpad keyboard the
proximity of the ctrl/alt keys also causes me to hit the fn
key when I want the ctrl key.

INSTALLATION
------------
1) Backup
I backed up the entire drive (I can't believe they
formatted the 1.2 Gig drive as one huge FAT partition!) using
the OS/2 version of tar which preserves extended attributes.  The
result was a 187MB gzipped tar file.
2) Repartitioning
I repartitioned the drive using Partition Magic.  I made a D: 
partition that was 150MB for Warp Connect.
I shrunk the first partition down to 550MB.  The rest of it is
a partition for data and a 2MB partition at the end for Boot
Manager.
3) Windows 95
Installed this onto the C partition with no
real problems.  The display blanked out (probably because of
the VGA problem described below) during the install, but a
reboot caused it to continue.  It recognized the Trident chip
and installed 256 color drivers automatically.  
It also recognized the IBM Etherlink II card I borrowed from
a friend; Win95 picked up the IRQ/IO settings automatically which
neither Warp Connect nor NT did.
There is a conflict with the Win95 CDROM drivers and the 
DOS-based CDROM drivers; the CDROM is only visible if you are in Win95 
or Win95 restarted in MS-DOS mode, but not both.  This and the VGA 
problem are detailed in the Win95 install manual packed with the 
machine. You have to disable the DOS CDROM drivers for Win95's CDROM
support to work, but when you do this, you can't see the
CDROM drive when you shutdown into MSDOS mode to play games :-(
4) Warp Connect
This is not described in the manual that comes with the system.
I copied the \os2image files and modified the Disk 1 as described
in the manual.  However, Connect wants more because it didn't think
the stuff on E: was the CDROM.  I ended up labeling the partition
LANCLNT to match the CDROM.  I also copied everything in the root
directory of the CDROM to the partition and also the \grpware
directory.
After the initial install, I put the CDROM back in as suggested 
in the manual and the LCD screen turned black.  OS/2 wasn't hung
because hitting return still worked.  The IBM PC Co. Web site had
a VGA driver fix that solved the problem.  Installation was a little
tricky, but documented.  Someone on the thinkpad mailing list
mentioned that the .cmd script is buggy, so I copied the four
fix files by hand.
Installation of the network drivers failed because I hadn't copied
the \cid directory over; editing the \grpware\client\lanstart.ini
file to reference the CDROM drive allowed me to continue installing
the networking components.
Be sure to specify a "Non Listed IDE CDROM" when you do the
initial install or you won't be able to see the CDROM.
If you intend to use Warp Connect, be sure to get more than 8MB of
memory; Warp (unlike NT and Win95) doesn't understand that
network protocol drivers don't have to be loaded if there is
no ethernet card in the system.  Warp Connect with 8MB is like
watching icicles grow on a winter day.
Before you install the Mwave drivers, be sure to install the system 
management driver (aodbsmd.sys) or the Mwave stuff won't work.
Mwave also needs more memory or you will get these weird 15sec
delays between opening a window and having sound come up.
5) Windows NT
This was the trickiest of the installations.  Turn off the
OS/2 Boot Manager partition using fdisk first; otherwise, you
will boot into NT's boot loader first, then OS/2.  Place the CDROM
in the drive and boot to DOS.  Run winnt.exe with the /b and
/x switches to do a floppyless install.  This will copy all the
install files onto the hard drive.
Replace the CDROM drive with the floppy drive.  On the second reboot,
boot using a DOS diskette and copy the NT Trident lcd.sys driver
from IBM's Web site over the vga.sys in the \winnt\system32\drivers
directory.  If you do not do this, you'll be greated with the lovely
blank screen which is the symptom of the VGA problem.  Install NT
as usual, then copy the old vga.sys back in after you boot up.
At this point, set up the NT video drivers as usual.  Do not
ever go into emergency VGA mode in NT; this will use the buggy
NT vga.sys driver again.
I still haven't gotten NT to recognize the ATAPI CDROM drive.
6) Convert drives to HPFS
At this point, I converted my D: and E: drives from FAT to HPFS
using Partition Magic.  The reason I did this is that HPFS has a
lot less wasted space when you have a lot of files.  My development
environments are mainly OS/2 and NT with Win95 relegated to
games :-)
7) Tried installing a Xircom IIps ethernet card.  Oddly enough,
this works in NT, but the driver doesn't load in Win95.  In
Warp Connect, the whole system hangs hard (power cycle is
needed).
After talking to Xircom tech support, I found that the configuration
info was in the registry for Win95.  I deleted the key, reinstalled
the card, and Win95 even knows how to bring the network up if you
put in the card after you boot Win95.  This is definitely how
networking should be, unlike the horrible OS/2 network install
process which still doesn't work. :-(

SUGGESTIONS TO IBM
------------------
1) Increase the depth of the wrist wrest by half an inch.  The
13.3" model next year will need a larger case anyways, and this
would be a good time to do it.
2) Include an external floppy drive cable w/ the 760CD.  This would
have made the installs a lot easier.  Anyone buying the system
should probably get the external floppy cable.
3) Switch to using ultrabay cartridges that can be hot swapped.
The CDROM and floppy are difficult to swap because the battery
has to be removed each time.  The holder for the hard drive
for the ultrabay will then no longer be necessary; the
holders for the hard drive should also be available for no extra
charge if the current Ultrabay design is kept (though not shipped
unless needed because most people don't use two hard drives).
4) Provide some sort of hardened case for the floppy and CDROM.
They are both very fragile if the warning labels are correct, so
they can't really be carried around.
5) Upgrade the 760CD memory to 16MB to compete w/ the Toshiba
Tecra CT.  The system preload of Win3.1 and OS/2 feels sluggish
with the normal 8MB.  The system is useless when running Warp
Connect w/ 8MB :-(
6) Add PCI and Cardbus support and a PCI dock.  I almost could
do without my desktop if I didn't want a 3D accelerator PCI
card.  This should happen later this year...anyone want to buy
a 9month old 760CD this Fall when the new Thinkpads come
out? ;-)
7) Add dual processor support.  Have a desktop/dock with a
Pentium and when the thinkpad is docked, you have a dual
processor with twice as much processing power and FAST Wide
SCSI drives...uh..maybe I'm dreaming too much ;-}

FINAL COMMENTS
--------------
The 760CD is a nice system.  The disk size and display size
are very usable for development.  Base memory is lacking at
only 8MB.  If you don't need the extra features, consider the
760C instead; there are less features, but less IRQ's, ports,
etc. are used, so you have less chances for conflicts with
PCMCIA cards.  If you are using it for development, get the
1.2GB hard drive; I used half of it for tools and operating
systems already and I may consider using 2nd hard drives
for each client's tools.  The 760CD is not quite perfect, but
it is probably the closest of the laptops available with solid
support from IBM if anything goes wrong.


 Ken
 KEY Enterprise Solutions
 Windows, OS/2, Notes, networking development and integration