/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

So what do you guys think about the T460 for every day, shitpoating use? No gayming or rendering shit.

>waiting for the BIOS IC's to come in the mail

What wifi card should I throw in after I flash the bios?

Sounds a bit overkill. You'd be fine with a T430 or a T420.

T460 will run much cooler and will have much superior battery life, people should not recommend T420/T430 anymore desu

I fell into the /thinkpad/ meme.
>learned how to buy refurbished stuff
>learned how to open a laptop, clean it, apply thermal paste
>even learned how to use linux a little

Thank you for all your help Jow Forums. Now I have a jolly t420

IPS screen for T60?

Thats what I got

Anyone got a T440? I never see post about it, any good?

T440 is meh
T440s is great.
Needs a touchpad swap though

T60 IPS

T440p is the new future proof Thinkpad

No machine newer than xx30 should be recommended
machines newer than this are botnet
they are also unexpandable garbage. They dont even have expresscard slots, what a fuckin joke

if youre ok with abgn then any ath9k abgn card
if you need ac, then mediatek mt7612 from aliexpress
anything else is botnet

what should I install in the cardbus slot on my x61 tablet?

>buy X301
>really love it
>display stops working
>can't find a replacement

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should i get my Yoga laptop repaired or go for a refurbished laptop with higher specs?

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How do I get the motherboard and roll cage of this T520 out of the plastic shell? I'm fairly sure I've removed all visible screws and it still holding tight on the left side.

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Okay fags, anyone here got a fancy ass T480s? How's it?

Hmmm. So could I theoretically remove the bios chip and put in a socket so I can easily swap chips? I've been messing with the thought of trying to integrate more tools and such in a coreboot/libreboot rom but I have a feeling I'm going to be ruining a lot of chips. Also, where is the cheapest place to buy the soic? (My x200's all have the 8mb version/soic16 iirc)
I'll likely try it on my x200 tablets first. I have 5 x200t motherboards with no cases/screens etc. I was going to make a beowolf cluster out of them for (You)s but I'd rather ruin a couple of those figuring this out instead of killing one of my x200's. I'll probably also get a soic programmer also just to make it easy to clone the chips so I dont have to drag out the raspberry pi setup to power it.

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subscribed

why do you think youre going to ruin chips? I would have guessed you could always just flash it back to a working configuration

>How do know you're going to ruin something
Because it's me. I usually tinker till it's broke. There's been some talk on coreboot and libreboot channels about write-life, where a chip may fail after being written so many times. Not sure if they came to a conclusion, some people say it'll wear the chip out, others swear they'll live on just about forever. Obviously chips die, its just a question of how big an impact writing to has on the overall life of the chip Eitherway I need a way to quickly swap chips to test out different configs and for the early computer aesthetic of swapping rom chips. May even have someone 3d print me a palmrest with a clear section to show the chip, or a mini door so I can swap it without having to remove the palmrest.

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did you remove the vga posts, looks like they go through the case.

I just bought a refurbed t420 with 2gb (I have my own ram so this is fine) and an i5 for 50 dollars. Is this an okay deal or am I a retard?

tell us the resolution you faget

I don't know/give a crap about the resolution. The only thing remotely close to that that I know that the screen is 14"

so 240p, you got scammed retard

why are you even on Jow Forums ?

What are you even saying, there's absolutely no documentation on these putting out anything at that low of a resolution. And even if it did I could care less. I have a high end gpu that I use on a garbage 8:9 monitor from 2002. I could care less about appearance. I just want my stuff to work.

I don't need fancy resolution to code. If I can see my text fine I don't care. I just need something I can take with me that can easily/effectively run linux

great deal, don't listen to the resolution fags they don't even own phones

same fag

This cpu is going to be xtreme!

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Take this apart...

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Patch the new cpu in...

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Bam! 3.10ghz all in one laptop!

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nice man

naisu desu ne

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Yay. Basically my school got a company to refurbish all of their thinkpads and they now sell them for half off to all of the students. On the other hand if it wasn't half off, 100 would not have been worth it.

when i need one for my T400 i purchased one from newark. i don't know where the cheapest is though...probably amazon (if you are so inclined to provide them with business)?

How do you like it? I yearn for something better cooled than the T420 I have now. Admittedly I haven't tried everything yet, but I've tried a lot, and I'm regretting getting it over a T5*0 or a W5*0.

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Enlightenment is snappier than ever, loading things are faster and overall feels great. If I get a T530 at any point, I can put the i7-3720QM in it that and get good performance out of that cpu too.

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What kind of thermals were you getting before the upgrade? I've got a i7-3632QM and it likes to get hard stuck at 80C and thermal throttles like a mofo.

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Anyone know what this cable goes to?

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I had to take out the screws from the back

Like 47°. After opening it up, I found out the thermal paste was dried out, so I added plenty more in to help the new cpu.

Is that under load or idle? 47C under load would be insanity for any laptop, let alone a Thinkpad.

finally got it working
I love the form factor of this thing, performance sucks and the battery is at 50% wear level

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well this cpu is matching that temp now on idle, so I guess the higher power draw is creating higher temps.

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>I don't need fancy resolution to code

thats literally the main thing you would want higher resolution. you seem incompetent

aliexpress.com/item/10-8v-4000mah-6CELL-X300-New-laptop-battery-FOR-ThinkPad-X300-X301-Series-43R9253-43R9255-43R1965/32845566124.html
is there a "good" supplier for batteries or do I just play chinese roulette?

stupid fuck

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Where do i find the best cpu for my x230?

wut do you mean

X230's CPUs are soldered to the MoBo.

thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X230

I saw a couple x230 for sale in Mexico with i5-3540M (not listed there) which have the performance of the i7, nonetheless I wouldn't think about changing the cpu, performance difference is not worth it imho.

thanks user

wtf is the poin of the whitelist?

I was a newb and had to buy 3 t420 to reach my ideal laptop (yeah I'm a retard first time ebaying) What I find out is that It is reall hit or miss. (I guess you can miss too huh)

-Check the outside, is it broken? cover/palmrest has not only scratches but parts etc missing?
-Resolution does matter, the 1366 x 768 is really bad and outddated 1600 x 900 is good if not great. Usually they don't even test that
-Does it have HDD?
-does it open/close properly?
-does it have the hard drive caddy?

If the cover is good (i.e. scratches and no parts falling off), the hard drive caddy is there, and your screen is 1600 x 900)than its a great deal. Just get a ssd and some ram and a new battery prferably. Open the cover and dust off - re thermal paste the cpu and you will be all set.

Getting fucked by inexperience tought me a lot. Do look into photos carefully. The 99$ t420 was shit with whitespot and cover falling off. The $65 thinkpad was in good condition with more HDD but the resolution was manlet level.
Interestingly I had also bought ''for parts only'' laptop for 55$. I cleaned inside, put the better fan from 99$ laptop, also put its wirelesss card since it was broken in the 55$. I rethermal pasted it, dusted off once more, got a 500 gb ssd and its working great.

I will keep unsing it until I fry it I guess. The lid doesnt close on left side and cover is bit off but resolution really matters. You really cant stand that fucked up 1366 res. You think you can but dont.

Also ubuntu gets installed pretty well while I had to do some extra work having windows 7 working (because muh 2000s games). To have it easy installing linux than windows... how times have changed.

Wonder how picky the system is. Wonder if I could use a cheap piece like this instead of ordering the same version in my system. I'm having a rough time finding those for under $15. May have to sacrifice a board to find out

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thinkpad newfag here can someone explain why the intel management engine is so hard to get rid of on new hardware?

Wait I'm fucking retarded. Found em cheap(er) now just to find a socket for them :)

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That's the plug for my speakers

walther p99 maybe

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x201 cutest thinkpad
I wouldn't call those first two learning unless you're sub 60 iq
uwu awesome

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The mobo swap is finished but I still have that gay little cable hanging around and I don't know what it goes to.

Does anybody have experience with the w540/541? I'm thinking about getting one but I heard one guy online say that they have cooling issues. Did that fellow just get a bad unit or is this an issue that affects all units?

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Socket is easy, programming that chip is hard. what are you gonna burn it with

i just got whatever was cheapest on ebay for my x300. will report when it shows up

Anyone do music production on their thinkpad?

I wanna try using ableton on my x230 but i wanna know if oters have had a good experience with it.

slav here
is X201tablet with IPS and Core i7-L620 good deal for $208?

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You know if any soic16 to soic16 socket will do or is there a certain kind I need? Thought about getting a stand alone programmer, that way I dont have to carry my raspberry pi setup around with me if I want to work on it away from home. If you have any experience/recommendations I'm all ears. I've librebooted 2 systems but never flashed a chip outside the board.
After I put it in the socket wouldn't I just have to flash it like any other chip or is there firmware (microcode whatever) on there that flashrom needs to recognize?
I'm excited though, if I get it working it's going to be a fun project, and cheap too. Found a 50 pack of those chips for like $15.

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if youre doing this with an x200, just use an soic8 chip. there are pads for soic8 on it.

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is this good
lenovo.com/sg/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-series/ThinkPad-T480/p/20L5CTO1WWENSG0?ev_chn=shop&s_kwcid=AL!4689!3!318353822802!!!g!586955784133!&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs7Sp-OeN4QIVUw4rCh13lwbSEAQYBSABEgJii_D_BwE

then get a clamshell soic8 socket.

Yeah but the 16 has double the memory right? Ima need as much space as possible.

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theres also clamshell sockets for soic16.

as for what you said, it depends.
there are now 16MB flashchips (128Mb) on soic8 and 32MB (256Mb) on soic16...

but heres the thing, there are now 25Q512 and they are soic8 only. they are used in routers mostly.

I dont know what you want, but 64MB is more than enough to host a tiny linux environment on it, even x86. goodluck and share us what you did!

btw see 25Q512 on aliexpress. also, looks like theres 25Q256 on soic8 package.

>Tiny linux environment
That's the plan! That or some bsd varient.
So if I'm understanding correctly, the size of the memory isn't important as long as the pinout is the same? (Soic 8 or soic 16?). So i could replace my soic 16 with a larger memory soic 8 and be alright?

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just wire the pins correctly. and as I told you, x200 has pads for soic8.

basically yes.

for a stand alone programmer, ch341a or XTW100.

XTW100 is better for larger chips. tho, I dont think its supported in flashrom. some larger chips arent supported by ch341a

Thats preety averege, i guess it may be worth it if you dont have to pay shipping.

Thanks! I'll likely try to find a larger 8soic chip to replace my 16pin one then.
Thank you! I'll look into those programmer. And by
>tho I don't think it's supported by flashrom
You mean larger chips right? If so, that's fine as long as I can use a programmer like one you pointed out to me. Like I said earlier, I'll be trying to have a small system on there so likely won't be trying to use flashrom on it anyway (though it would still be nice to use an ssd as another system to flash hmmmm)

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I'm trying to revive an old 380ED. I'm going to put Tiny Core Linux on it. It doesn't have a built in network adapter, but it does have a PCMCIA card slot. Do you think an Ethernet PCMCIA card will work with Tiny Core Linux?

well, if the programmer for larger chips isnt supported by ch341a, then you cant read it by flashrom.
XTW100 comes with its own proprietary programmer which people can update its firmware and add support to newer chips. this is where ch341a fucked up, cannot be updated.

Bumping with thinkpad porn. Sorry for the potato camera

That manual brightness slider gives me a boner

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I think I'm just going to buy both programmers considering how cheap they are. I'm sure I can use them in another project down the line anyhow. I'm going to start looking for chips now that I'm home. I'll buy some chips that I know will work (same model as the ones I find on the board) and some different size larger ones to mess around with.
>Tiny core
Man I haven't heard that name in ages

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That's the lightest weight distro I could find. Is there something else you'd use instead? I was going to use Damn Small Linux but it looks like Tiny Core is the modern fork of that. My options are pretty limited here, it's a 166MHz Pentium with 32MB of RAM.

>look at that sexy brick

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