/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Recommended AC WiFi Upgrades (Mini PCie):

Intel 7260AC
- you can find this everywhere
- iwlwifi
Intel 8260AC
- aliexpress.com/item/8260AC/32857170708.html
- aliexpress.com/item/8260AC/32853420688.html
- iwlwifi
Mediatek MT7612
- aliexpress.com/item/MT7612E/32817460933.html (its dangerous to crack wifi alone, use this!)
- mt76 - github.com/openwrt/mt76 - (nearly blobless, only calibration data (citation needed?!) in firmware)
AW-CB160H
- aliexpress.com/item/AW-CB160H/32530295597.html
- broadcom. so no no for opensource fags, else, enjoy running b43.
- 3x3 abgn+ac wifi.

Mini PCie to M.2 adapter (if you have the space for it e.g x200, x201, x220, x230)
- reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/8sq7se/small_diy_project_intel_9260ngw_to_x220/
- might need a new antenna or an ipex to ufl adapter something
- literally any card. 9260AC is the current topend 2x2 160MHz AC wifi.

Yep. Drilled out the lock, the port i just unsoldered off of the board and stuck the antenna through.

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>X230
School machine. I take it to classes. Good battery life, feels very solid, IPS screen is nice if a bit low res (768p).
>T430
Retired. Replaced by a Dell M4800 as the "sorta portable but don't usually move it" laptop. Reealllly bad TN screen even at 900p. It was docked to a monitor and keyboard and other peripherals. I'm giving it to my dad as his computer just died.
>X61t (XGA)
Dick around machine. It's currently running Arch and is basically a cloned drive of my X230. Krita is fun on it.
>X61t (SXGA+)
Idk it does something. More beat up than the other X61t and has the unfortunately common screen bubbles. It doesn't have a battery and the lid latch doesn't work as well but the higher res screen is very nice. I might switch out drives and start using it more.

Attached: X230.jpg (4190x2610, 1.45M)

Should I avoid buying a Bios Locked ThinkPad? It's only $20 and my local Salvation Army has 5 of them

According to plebbit you need a $100 tool to fix it so idk

If it's bios lock at boot (without pressing F1), then you cant get away with installing an OS from another PC and swap the drive.

There's a way to short them out... but I've had maybe 2/10 chances of that working.

This is becomming a mess. I might reroute everything again but I just finally got them to lay somewhat flat

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Just bought a x220 and 2 docks, what should I get next Jow Forums?

Do I really need to install Windows XP on my X200 to install the whitelist-removed custom BIOS..? Winphlash.exe doesn't work on Win10. And no, not trannyboot, just the stock BIOS with whitelist-removed... worked fine on W520 and X301 in one click but X200 has issues.

x200/x201 is a good platform for a router/wifi AP.
x200 has three mini pcie slots.
x200 has two.
you can remove the daughterboard and use the audio slots as antenna holes and add more holes for drilling.
on x200, you can have two wifi cards + 2 port ethernet.

you can use hirens boot cd and boot winxp from it. theres a trick to boot hirens it from usb.

if its a corebootable variant, then yes. simply coreboot it and problem resolved.

anyone else here have Windows 7 on a W540 or a similar machine? how long does it take to boot? It takes me probably a minute, and on top of that it stays on a blank log in screen for another like 30 seconds. Windows 10 on the other hand, booted up in less than 10 seconds, so it has nothing to do with the drive, and I've used this same Windows 7 ISO on other machines (even a C2D) and it booted much faster. any ideas?

shit negro, I might try this

x201 here uwu

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X200 a cute
X201 cute too but 200 is my fav

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what would yall recommend for a gaming laptop?

after looking at the guide i believe what should work is maybe a T470

you still have a half height mini pcie slot available. x200 has three of them. check near the keyboard connector.

Based gahnoo slash linecks sticker

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nice, T420/T430?

It's the T420.

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It says "SPI" on the motherboard near the chip, and ATMEL 25DF641 on the chip itself.

kek

And here I thought maybe the led was just dead. What kind of asshole rips out the thinklight?

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So with the right wifi card could I turn my ThonkPad into a wifi hotspot? I mean now that I think of that that might be kind of redundant but still interesting.

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Yeah, you wouldn't need a special wifi card, any should do. If you're on windows I'm not sure what you'd software you'd need.

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it is a bios chip, just not in soic 8 form factor.

belated thanks user, seems to be in good condition save for a couple tiny scratches so it sounds good

I want something light to carry around on a daily basis, mainly for coding, video and browsing. I've been looking into the x230 for the size, but the t450s with FHD seems nice too. How do they compare on battery life? Is there any other option I should consider?

anyone need any burned bios chips?

Libreboot or Coreboot x200?

This T60 i bought used doesn't have the "lenovo" brand printed on the botton of the screen like unevery other T60 i've ever seen. It's the shittiest version there is, 14" 1024x768. Otherwise the machine is in mint condition.

Is it a aftermarket screen / fake?

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>
unlike*

Might be ex-government, or a very early one.

Where did you find this picture of me?

Early model

Is this good or bad? Anything special about the early models hardware-wise?

IF my x220 is having trouble charging (I have to adjust the charger into the port to get it to charge) is it more than likely it's the charger and not the port on the laptop?

Hello tpg! My Thinkpads are all fixed and back together after sealing up all the cracks! Only place you can notice I did anything is in the top left corner of the display on my W500, where I put a bunch extra to make certain it won't crack anymore.

What exactly is worth putting in spare PCIE slots? I only have one filled in each of my machines for libre driver compatible wireless cards. I know there are internal SSDs and stuff, but I don't really need that. Anything specific and useful that isn't proprietary?

I don't think there's any real difference besides the lack of Lenovo branding (A good thing). The hardware is older so perhaps it's more used but that's grasping for straws.

Try another charger and see. If it is indeed the port, they're not difficult to replace. You can get one for a few bucks off ebay and easily unplug and replace the original.

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Comfy cold saturday with ran-shama and T420!

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Soon my brother

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I bought a new battery for my x230 on amazon, and some of the reviews were hit and miss about the battery, but if there was something wrong the sellers were very responsive and quick to fix the problem.

My question is if there is software I can use to test the health of the battery and anything else I need to check.

If you bought a non-OEM battery then you can expect it to die very quickly. They don't use quality cells, and they've likely been sitting around for years already. You either pay out the ass for batteries for older Thinkpads, or you settle for half the performance of a OEM and a quick death. I think "tlp-stat" is the utility you'd want to look at for checking battery performance over time.

wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/TLP

Hey anons, I just picked up a t420 and I'm planning on putting debian on it. I'm somewhat new to Linux so is there anything I should worry about (driver wise and shit like that). By the bye, I don't want to use arch because I want a stable machine. My plan is to spend one week setting up and ricing and then never doing it ever again.

My new battery looks just like the one that came with it, same part number, and what not, I mean what can I check to see if its genuine? Whose to say that the batter that came with my thinkpad isnt fake either.

If it has a Lenovo logo on it then it's likely genuine. If it doesn't, 100% it's not genuine.
I'm also pretty certain the x230 won't allow non-genuine cells, unless you mod the BIOS or install coreboot. So if you're running the stock BIOS, and it boots up fine, it's genuine.

Install a modded BIOS (Or Coreboot) and get yourself an Ath9k compatible wireless card. Save yourself driver headaches with that built-in proprietary Intel one.

wiki.debian.org/ath9k

yeah it booted up just fine last night when I was checking some stuff. I will also try tlp-stat you mentioned before, too.

x201 cutest thinkpad :3

nice think im gonna do this to one of my thinkpads when i have funds
wew that sucks desu
what did you fill the cracks with and can you post some close ups plox
comf desu

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I posted one in the last thread. I used JB-Weld plastic in black. Here's a closeup of the repair area and where the crack was on my W500 palmrest. Fortunately Thinkpads usually have a lot of extra space internally, so it was just a matter of dabbing it all over the area and letting it harden.

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oh nice that looks great desu

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>mfw notified my Dell Precision M4800 and new 9 cell has shipped
Cannot wait. I'll probably end up installing Windows 10 on it unfortunately. Need it for dem programs

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hopefully the offset keyboard doesn't annoy you to much desu, make sure you go with ltsb or ltsc

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The offset keyboard won't be a big deal to me. And I already have OEM pro on my main desktop. I was able to disable Cortana and auto reboot easily enough, so I might just go pro on my nee laptop too. What is so special about ltsb?

>What is so special about ltsb?
You only get mandatory security updates and none of the other, mostly unnecessary, updates that might end up breaking your stuff. It also allows local accounts and your system is not filled with unnecessary bloatware and advertisements after installation.
LTSB is an older build (1607) and LTSC is a newer build (1809).

Interesting. But what do you mean "local accounts"? I'm not using a Microsoft account on my main PC.

Dubs decides

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are you fucking autistic? oh wait, this is /tpg/. We're all autistic.

Option 1 it is. Autism overdrive.

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Lads, is an E485 worth buying? I am technologically retarded but hear good things about Ryzen 2500U. Just need something that will reliably run Linux for Python/R programming and is also cheap af

is it a good idea to buy a battery for the x220 from ebay or do i get one from a battery site from my country

Just snagged a pretty cool UMPC, anyone here like UMPCs?

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hmm I could've sworn other versions required you to have a microsoft account. Haven't really touched any other w10 versions in 3 years (and LTSB only on a VM) so I'm probably wrong on that.

>E
No. Anything with an AMD processor and the Lenovo brand on it are going to be dogshit-tier quality. Like, "stare at it too long and it'll explode" quality. Don't even think about servicing it, either. I can't recommend another brand, but I'd advise you to look elsewhere.

If it says "OEM" or "genuine" alongside "new" in the listing, it's likely an OK buy. If it ends up being fake, file a dispute and get your money back.

Whatcha got? I use a Fuse+ with Rockbox in my car, but the shitty touchpad ruins it... It works fine so I don't want to spend a lot of money replacing it.

Meh. I can't give you too much intel (pun intended) on that Ryzen other than the horror stories I've heard about temps and battery life, but what I can tell you is that the E series didn't remotely fulfill T series standards when it was introduced and from there it's gotten even shittier in terms of overall quality. It's a hump of plastic. Like those gas station toys poor parents buy their kids for their birthdays. You'd be so much better off with a somewhat older T series.

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saved photo for trolling future threads

extra ethernet, extra sata controller (need option rom to boot from, doable in coreboot), extra wifi card, fpga?, video accelearator (crystal hd), etc etc. you can also add real usb 3.0 internally.

One of these.
Pretty cheap too, desu.
Just over 35NZD
Apparently it has no HDD, and fan issues.
Will be fixing it up real good.
Unsure if I will reinstall XP Tablet Edition on the thing, will see when it arrives.

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gis and some gayming

i got myself a p52 as a graduation present because i am a homosexual

also i have converted to vertical laptop stand masterrace

aliexpress.com/item/usb_3/32831005411.html
aliexpress.com/item/2_port_ethernet/32788949595.html
aliexpress.com/item/sinle_eth/32344140395.html
aliexpress.com/item/crystalhd/32336664144.html
aliexpress.com/item/mpcie_to_sata/32862630444.html
aliexpress.com/item/poor_mans_egpu_adapter/32836054816.html

Make sure the date on the battery isn't like 2012 stock.

Run a battery reset, either with TLP in Linux or Lenovo Vantage in Windows. This will give you an accurate reading on the battery and life to expect from it.

hi /tpg/. i am trying to flash coreboot on my T420. I have a CH341A and a SOIC-8 clip. However, using the software I don't think anything is getting read because it's still all FFs. any ideas?

Mmm, most of my gripes are with them requiring non-free drivers. The "Crystal HD" one specifically is interesting, but unfortunately non-free. Otherwise, the PCIE to EGPU riser is pretty neat. If I had a setup like that I'd probably route the cable to one of my existing USB ports and solder it in for a seamless experience. Thanks for the info!

Oh whoops, I mistook "UMPC" for an audio player. Still, if a coreboot port came to something tiny like this I would totally give it a try. Looks fun to carry around.

I would try #flashrom or #coreboot on Freenode. My advice from what you've typed is to make sure you have a proper connection, or a proper amount of current going to the chip.

post that image from your grub payload. thanks.

I also ordered an x200 mobo for a blobless coreboot build.
I already have an x220 corebooted. I do want the extra mini pcie slots heh.

>The "Crystal HD" one specifically is interesting, but unfortunately non-free.
Wikipedia claims otherwise but I can't find the source code to prove it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcom_Crystal_HD#cite_note-Crystal_HD_device_driver-5
I wonder how hard it'd be to make one of these for AV1. It'd be worth sacrificing the msata SSD to get a hardware decoder for it.

you cant use the msata slot on x220/230 T420/30 T520/30 W520/30. they dont have pcie wired. they are usb + sata 2

you can use the wifi slot tho, then just use usb wifi dongle heh.

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I forgot about that, but you're right. Still would be nice to have a hardware decoder for future video codecs that the GPU wouldn't support, regardless of what generation thinkpad we're talking about.

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Should I bother maxing out my T450 or should I sell it and get a newer T470?

x200 and x201 can do it. also their T and W counterparts. I'm also interested in a mini pcie crystalhd like thing for av1 hevc and any other future codecs.

Upgrade to a T410.

Sorry I'm not a neetcoder

>SXGA+ X61t
Everything, daily carry laptop.
>FHD i7 T520
Nothing, lacks a drive right now but it used to be my Debian shitposting machine.
>FHD i7 T440p
Router.

Got a purple pixel line just appeared from top to bottom of screen on T430. Persisting through power cycles. Time for a replacement panel? It's the 1600 x900 original TN (crappy angles).