this is the intel card, the 2100 and 2200 are b/g cards. The IBM is an a/b/g card. Not that having the A band is key, but more that the IBM card works better and has greater range and less drop out problems that are an issue with the INTEL b/g card.

You should be able to get the IBM card on ebay, or from ibm. But, if you/she is getting good throughput with the existing card then upgrading is not really going to improve speed much. Even an older B card is faster than any broadband connection, with a throughput of about 6-8mps in real world experience.

The G band would be nice, if one is going to do within network file transfers and such.

Click on the Battery Maximiser Gauge so it brings up a pop-up list, click "battery information', then click 'battery health', then click 'improve battery health', and you're there. Don't recondition unless your battery health is anything other than 'green' (for 'healthy'). BTW, i'm using version 1.38 of Battery Maximiser, so if you're using one that's older, YMMV with respect to where the above items are located (or even if they're available at all).

I also have T-42 and I really don't like it to carry around.
I'd rather much have X series for its light weight.
Also, sometimes I carry both TP and iBookG4, which can
really be terrible.

I have a T42 and an igo charger - works great for me. It's lightweight, has every feature I would ever want, and cranks through programs.

The only issue is a problem I am encountering with the sound stuttering and the computer slowing down whenever sounds play...

I did almost this exact upgrade about 1 year ago (only difference was 768MB RAM on T30). You should definitely dotheupgrade. To address your specific points:
1. Clock speed isslower but performance is better (not double the speed though)
2. T42 is slight large from a lengthXwideth standpoint, but is much thinner and lighter.
3. Battery life is easily double T30

I have a two-year old T40 which has been pretty good to me. But it's getting beat up so I'm going to get the new X41. This looks like a killer box. Super power and 802.11 A/B/G and fingerprint scanner, etc and only 2 pounds. I'm getting a USB CD-RW and DVDROM for the rare occassions I need such a thing.

Nice! Did you get the 8-cell battery as well? I ended up getting a cheap external CD-RW from Creative with my X40. I've burned maybe two CDs with it and used it maybe 10 times in total to install software that comes on CD media. I do, use, however, quite a few external harddrives for backups and storage, etc.: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=14156

2 pounds? X41s are in the 2.8-3.2 range, depending on battery. Great machines in any event.

The T42 is a great lap top. Mine has the IBM wireless card with 802.11b/g - so easy to use and great speed. Absolutley no problems - is so well designed and built. I think we are two years from dual core processors / 64bit laptops so I would go for the upgrade now. I have the bigger battery. I do use the CD ROM burner occasionally.

I hope that Lenovo can somehow work a miracle and keep up the thorough quality and terrific design that is built into IBM PCs, particularly the laptops. But at this point you are still buying a terrific IBM laptop.

I just received a a/b/g card from IBM via Hong Kong. Amazingly it was on sale for about $40. Thanks.

MisterNice

X40, the battery has degraded the same way as yours.

Just be careful with the IBM card if you need to connect to a Cisco based network using LEAP as I've seen a number of problems with getting the IBM card to work in that scenario (whereas the Intel card works like a champ).

I have a new X41 laptop with an Intel A/B/G SD "internal" card. It is working fine so far, but I haven't tried 802.1x yet. I'm pretty sure I'll never use LEAP though as it is vulnerable to dictionary attacks.

Have both a T41 and T42; other than major HDD issues (the T41 had a bad controller; MB replaced, problem over), they've been great. Both have SXGA, both the intel 2200 chipset, 1.6 ghz and 1.7 ghz respectively. Bought backup 6 cell bats for both, handy on UA transcons when the empower is mysteriously "covered" and AA is flying ex-TWA metal that hasn't been "modernized". Go for the U/G for sure IMHO.

Last year we were all given the choice of either a T41 or an X31, I went for the X31 because I prefer the smaller size, but that big T41 screen sure is nice.

People seemed really polarized towards the T41 or the X31 - I couldn't imagine lugging the bigger T41 around while the majority of the company choise the T41, a few even swapped out their new X31 for the T41.

The machines seem identical inside, I even swapped the hard drive from my X31 to the T41 to try it for a few days and didn't need to change any drivers or anything.

In any case, I've tried a lot of laptop brands and I really think the IBM ones are the best. Sony looks sexy but their quirky, Dell isn't bad, the rest (Toshiba, Compaq, HP, etc) are crap. Quirky, limited support, not so durable, etc.

We went through a big thing here when we went out and bought about 300 new laptops and a bean counter said we could save "tons" of money by chosing Dell over IBM. We brought them in and had them reviewed by senior management and field folks and I was willing to go either way to control costs, but they all liked the IBM models better, even at a cost increase. Dodged the bullet that time.

The only dislike I have for the X31 and the T41 is the port-replicator thing, they really suck compared to Dell's, for example. The Ultrabay isn't bad, but aligning the pins or whatever on their dock is awful and everyone here complains about it.