/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

Thonk edition
Previous thread: Don't buy anything OTHER THAN IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T, X, and W/P Series if you want the Real Business Experience™
>Other business laptops are welcome in /tpg/ (Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).

Libreboot-compatible models:
>T60 (check lcd), X60(s/t); X200(s/t. -s requires soldering), T400(s)/500; W500.

Modern models:
>X220/X230 - 12", 768p, cheap and light
>T420/T430 - 14", 900p, widely available, socketed CPU, both Coreboot-compatible (Ivy Bridge CPU support on T420); Quad Core Compatible, Old keyboard swap on *30 series
>T520/530; W520/530 - 15", 1080p, DTR, 32GB RAM on quadcore models, USB 3.0
>T440s - best price/performance ultra portable
>T440p/540p; W540/1 - Last Thinkpads with socketed processors, easily replaceable trackpad (W541 doesn't need trackpad replacement)

Upgraded models:
>X210 - X200/X201, i5 8250u quadcore
>X62 - X61, i5 5250u
>T70 - T60, i7 7700 hq
IPS displays, USB 3.0, m.2 x4, mini dp, no
forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=117

Why ThinkPad?
>Used machines are plentiful and cheap
>Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet
>Great durability: magnesium rollcage for structural integrity, with high quality plastic body panels
>Utilitarian design: e.g. indicator LEDs, 7 row keyboard layout on older models
>Docking stations that easily turns your laptop into a desktop
>Easy to repair (most models), upgrade & maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model, spare parts easy & cheap to obtain
>The best TrackPoint™, great for those who type a lot or hate swiping their fingers all over a touchpad
>Excellent GNU/Linux & *BSD support

>ThinkWiki - Info on ThinkPads & running GNU/Linux on them:
thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki
>BIOS logo booru:
biosimage.booru.org

Attached: 9130_ThinkPad.png (800x600, 259K)

Other urls found in this thread:

amazon.com/Acer-Lightweight-i5-8265U-Back-lit-Keyboard/dp/B07JLBJZD4?tag=georiot-us-default-20&ascsubtag=laptopmag-5380987690645661262-20
biosimage.booru.org
truefla.me/free-stuff/used-thinkpad-buyers-guide
m.publicsurplus.com/sms/ucmerced,ca/auction/view?auc=2380279
rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/223600012405
pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=66664736
aliexpress.com/item/32988795457.html?storeId=1953130&spm=2114.12010612.8148356.36.226a631arqenCe
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

first for quadcore x230

I'm a college student looking for a new laptop and I'd like a thumbs up/down on this laptop. I don't do a lot of gaming so that's not a huge deal and I think this one has decent battery life and is very light.

amazon.com/Acer-Lightweight-i5-8265U-Back-lit-Keyboard/dp/B07JLBJZD4?tag=georiot-us-default-20&ascsubtag=laptopmag-5380987690645661262-20

Thoughts? My price range is ideally

m having a problem with my T580
>get random BSOD “Critical Process Error”

It fails Samsung’s and Lenovo diagnostics for the drive. Sometimes the drive is not detectable upon bootup. Reseating with the cabling & in the slot seems to fix it for a short time.

It intermittently with get the BSOD.

I can’t tell if it’s the Mobo or the drive or the cable to the drive.

I’m at my wits end. It’s a 15 month old laptop that’s basically useless. Fuck Lenovo.

What do I do?

>Acer
Holy shit don't do it

Use your warranty

alright i'll try to look for it, i don't have much hope for finding something like that though because i have no idea where to start looking.

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It’s out of warranty 3 months

Serious question,

What can you actually even do on older Thonkpads like T60 and shit?

Their hardware is so out of date performance wise.

Why

>BIOS logo booru:
biosimage.booru.org

Is it possible to select a few and have it be a random image from those select few at boot?

Get something from HP instead of Acer, and you will be fine in most cases.

Run TempleOS

They're the absolutely worst of the consumer grade stuff

hi, my x200s every so often gives difficulties turning on. it wont turn on and id have to remove battery press power on 10 times and put battery back in for it to switch back on.

what is the issue, how do i fix?

Try another drive

thinkpad T440s

i installed the driver for quadro k1000m on my w530 and the screen started flickering and when i disable the driver at device manager it stops flickering

what is the problem
is the Dgpu dead on this thinkpad that i just bought from someone?

Install Ubuntu GNU and install NVIDIA driver.

Is the L430 good? I dont live in the u.s so i don't have thinkpad cheaply available, but i got goos deal with i5 3320m 8gb ram, 256 gb ssd

Is it good laptop overall? Need some autist specialist in thinkpad to give insight

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plz someone make that hand more feminine and put an aheago face on the screen.

At which point did the keyboard get smaller in the 2xx series?

Also between all recent (x30+) 2xx/4xx models, which one has the best keyboard?

Attached: 05_Lenovo_Thinkpad_X230_35313302.jpg (830x467, 64K)

x200 has best design, build quality and keyboard. No need to go higher, but if you must x220 is the last good one.

also, you could get an x230 and swap in an x220 keyboard + palmrest, because afaik the keyboard is the only thing the x220 has over the x230

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Can I get an identification on this machine? No idea about the model number or anything.

Attached: file.png (768x1024, 1.06M)

shitty E-series, avoid.

looks like E550 or higher
refer to OP, more precisely
>Don't buy anything OTHER THAN IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T, X, and W/P Series if you want the Real Business Experience™

>found a stripped screw when trying to open up machine to reapply thermal paste

is this the end

Not with stock BIOS, might with coreboot.

Looks like an E560. Avoid it if you can

Dont get the L series, if at all possible the T/X series only has a small price premium especially at the age of the laptop you are looking at, and they are much better overall.

Just got a brand new T480 for £650 on Ebay. Honestly don't get the hate for the newer machines. Like the fact it has a quad core CPU and I was able to have it with 32gb of RAM, while not having to deal with a shit screen and poor battery life means I will probably be able to keep it for next five years, which isn't something I could say for my T420 or T440p.

The ribbon that lets you remove the drive from my X220 is missing and I can't get the HDD out. How else could I get it out without ruining everything?

poorfag here. been saving up my pennies. i want to get an i7. thinking x230 would be the way to go maybe.

i want to be able to run any os as needed. win7/10/*nix ect ect. is trolling ebay the best way? everywhere i look other than ebay (facebook/craigsl.ist is over the prices in this guide: truefla.me/free-stuff/used-thinkpad-buyers-guide

Remove keyboard and try push it that way?

can anyone ID this? it's available on normie books for $50

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Ya ebay is probably your best bet, but occasionally good deals pop up on more local sites. honestly the i7 isnt really worth the price premium over the i5 you are probably better served upgrading the storage or ram or if you are up for a bit of work the screen upgrade is worthwhile.

Could be a T430 not sure though. I say it is worth buying for $50 regardless of what it is though.

>new keyboard
>old stickers
Looks like T430, speaker area doesn't look enough wide to be T530

Attached: 1537065455630.jpg (4686x2735, 1.3M)

can someone tell me wtf happened to this poor x1

maybe had a bad cmos battery and admin lock then they started pulling out wires i didnt even know were in there

Attached: wtf.jpg (1200x1600, 248K)

>that display connector
I cannot express my disgust and disappointment in Lenovo

Those are display connectors? You have any idea what that orange cable is hooked into? My X220 brain can’t comprehend what niggadry was afoot here

>no 17 thinkpad

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another id.. found this one for $25 but i'll have to get it shipped to me.

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What thinkpad would be recommended that has an IPS panel and a disc drive? For an amateur photographer. Preferably one that doesn't need to be modded because budget is 250.
Would it be best to go with like an x230 and just get an external disc drive?

Think that's a T430i.

Steaming pile of shit

no definitely get the T430 over it, for the extra $25 dollars you are getting a machine that is leagues above that, as from my knowledge that was a small under powered netbook for the education sector.

nah I was talking about pic related
idk anything about newer thinkpads

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T440p would probably be your best bet, but I am not sure you can get T440p, but I am not sure they come with a ips screen stock but replacing the screen is super easy on that model.

be careful when modifying your bios chip on any thinkpad. I tried modifying my T440p with the advanced menu mod and it failed to write to the bios somehow. I can't turn off the write protection for some reason and its overall being a pain.

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Specifically the T440p? Are the T440 and T440s decent options. I read some posts saying as long as they're 1600x900 it should be able to be modded but couldn't find anything backing that up.
Couldn't find any on eBay with an IPS screen already installed but it looks like B140HAN01.3 1080p panel is recommended and the process seems really easy.

try normiebook? see

I just recommended the T440p because the CPU is socketed so you can easily upgrade it a quad core CPU down the road if you want to. Also they are built like tanks from my experience. People bitch about the trackpad on them though but honestly I kinda like, even though I did upgrade it to the T450 one eventually. Also I don't really know about the T440/s as I have never owned either ot them, but I say they are similar enough in quality but just more limited in upgradeabilty.

i found a t430s for $140 vs t440 $160.

still searching for a t440p

picked up a x220 for $88 (swivel tablet one) kinda want an x230 swivl/tablet with i7 processor but it's a pain to find at a decent price. kinda might give up on the x230. i was thinking i might be able to gut the x220 for parts to fix up a beat up x230 (i mainge some parts are transferrable but not the body/mlb.)

m.publicsurplus.com/sms/ucmerced,ca/auction/view?auc=2380279

Is this worth bidding on? I don't know shit about computers pls help

Ah didn't consider the CPU upgrades later down the line. Very helpful, going to go with that.

Honestly its not the best machine and isn't considered a real thinkpad, but still if you could for like $50 it wouldnt be a bad idea. Also it is not a very powerful device at all so dont expect to do anything more demanding then web browsing and text editing with it.

in the hirearchy (sp) how would you rank the series

txx
t4xx
t5xx
x2xx
w
x1

my T440p is idling at about 50c, should I try checking the thermal compound/heat sink or do these things just run hot?
it's refurbished and seems in great condition otherwise

Attached: temp.png (915x619, 42K)

is the clip on properly? they can be really hit and miss at touching all the legs of the bios chip

Attached: shitpad.jpg (3480x4640, 2.68M)

>Laptop for college

Chances are you need a platform to write papers or use web apps from. If you don't care about touch screen, just go get an older laptop (half the time you can get them for free) anything 2012 or newer is fine. Just throw an SSD in there and pirate windows. Also, get an after market battery. They're like $20 and usually double the capacity.

I have no idea why people spend $800 on new laptops just to do basic shit on them. I'm entering my senior project for Info Sys and I just Frankensteined an old Sandy Bridge craptop simply because all I need is a laptop that has a full size keyboard that can run visual studio. If my dumpster salvage chinktop can do that, I doubt you need a brand new laptop to do whatever the fuck you're doing.

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can the t440p have ti's cpu upgraded? are all the P varaiants cpu socketed?

>I have no idea why people spend $800
its so they can sit there and play vidya isntead of listening to the lecturer

What's a good T420/T450 laptop stand?

Is it not even worth possibly upgrading? At the very least I'd want to be able to run music notation software and possible a DAW. I'm just a mega poorfag and that's so much cheaper than anything I was looking at on Amazon

>find good deal on easy repairs for 2 classic series laptops
>set timer so i can place bet at last minute
>20 seconds, place bet
>you've been logged out

I want to murder a fucking child right now

Where is the best place to buy a laptop, Walmart, Target, or Staples? I have had a fucking Toshiba a505 for 5 years and it's pretty clear I need an update. I've got a $700 budget and I like vidya, don't really care about touchscreen. Seems like there's a lot of refurbished t430s but the computer working is hit or miss.

on the internet you dingus.

you can prolly get a used gaymen laptop on CL with an integrated GTX 1060/i5 or i7 for $700 pretty easy

Had my t420 for a couple years now, tired of using prehistoric technology. What do I buy?

if it's 50c and fanless it's fine, if it's 50c and fan is spinning then it's no good

I have been trying unsuccessfully for a couple of days now. is there a better clip that can make better contact with the chip so I can at least guarantee it will be properly positioned?

found someone selling a 390E for like 10 bucks, only issue with it is it's missing 3 keys and the red cap, also no power adapter. Should I go for it? Never used a Thinkpad before but would I like to start.

Just got a t60 with ati graphics what to do now bois.

t430

that's a cute Rin

All I could focus on today was how durable my Thinkpad is. I’ve spent hours daydreaming about walking into the kitchen, dropping my Thinkpad on the tile floor, picking it up, and showing everyone around me that it still works. God, don’t get me started on my fantasy of tripping the waiter at a restaurant so that water spills all over my keyboard. I would stand up, show everyone that it survived... imagine. It could be my party trick, the thing that makes ME special and unique, ya know? For once I could have my own sense of identity. Once I do that, I could explain to everyone why I use such an old ThinkPad. My dick is getting harder just thinking about it, the thought of explaining, educating them all about how the tactical feel and layout of the keyboard is superior, how I can pull the battery out whenever I want, how the 4:3 screen is so much more useful than a garbage modern 16:9 display, how I bought this machine for only 300 dollars on eBay… the list is infinite. Why is it so hard to educate others? How do they not see what I see? Why do they not understand?

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What manufacturer for a T430 RAM upgrade do you recommend? Does 8GB single stick vs two 4GB do anything other than price?

Shitpost, some programming. Use to try new rices.

>
rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/223600012405

Good deal?

Hey Jow Forums. /sci/ here. I'm trying to run some math code in parallel, and as a simple test am checking for Mersenne primes up to 2^3000-1. Sure enough it runs faster in parallel than not, but the improvements after the second core are minuscule. Timings are:
1 core - 12848ms
2 cores - 6950ms
3 cores - 6652ms
4 cores - 6506ms

Is this normal or have I likely done something wrong? This is just a test of concept on my laptop which is a thinkpad X250. Perhaps cores 3 and 4 are known to be significantly weaker than cores 1 and 2? Hoping to clear this up today as I'd like to run some stuff on 128 cores eventually. Thanks in advance.

Crucial and yes run 4gbx2 for dual channel

Did you manage to remove it?

>£650
That's reason enough to hate it.
The new thinkpads are very good, but they're less open and upgradeable, more expensive (of course) and aren't really much better for everyday use. The love for older thinkpads comes from the low prices.

I'm very close to getting into college in CS (by a national program for seniors over 23 yo, ended up in the top10, so entry is almost guaranteed), is an i5 x230 enough for it? It's my current shitpost machine that I plan to repurpose for the 3 years it lasts.

needs a port replicator on the left and a usb-c on the right

I got a hard drive caddy and 4TB drive to into my T420's ultrabay. The drive is a little too high for the slot but I still jammed it in and now I can't get it out. The bottom has a slight curvature now. I haven't turned it on yet to see if the drive is working jammed in as it is. Are there any emergency measures to getting at the ultrabay, like removing the keyboard?

Attached: IMG_20190725_012103.jpg (3894x1361, 1.1M)

yes

Thanks. I suppose instead of just adding an additional 4GB stick to the default one, I should get new 2x 4GBs?

ive got some super cheap clip hooked up to a pi zero, not really sure
pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=66664736

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Anything cool/unusual I could do to my X230t? Already did the keyboard mod, upgraded RAM, upgraded SSD etc. I want to tinker with it more.

Where can i find a t450 touchpad for my t440p for fucks sake. i dont wanna pay 45$ on amazon plus shipping. fuck this hellhole of a country why didnt u guys tell me thinkpads are cheam only in burgerland ree. im roumanian btw

aliexpress.com/item/32988795457.html?storeId=1953130&spm=2114.12010612.8148356.36.226a631arqenCe

Good stuff.

>can the t440p have ti's cpu upgraded?
Yes. Look it up. You can buy a cheap i5-4300M one and then upgrade it later with 4702MQ (35W), 4700MQ etc. from ebay or whatever

>are all the P varaiants cpu socketed?
No idea about Tx50p / Tx60p, but the T540p/T440p definitely are socketed, yes.

Put it on the toilet and use it exclusively there. Or as a table holder.

>390E
Are you going to start a collection or do you actually want to use the laptops you get? Because it's a laptop from 1999, my friend. Are you sure you know what you're doing?

that's art.

X250 is a dual-core processor. The other two threads are hyperthreads (if you even have them enabled.)

I guess when I replace the mobo, I'll try it again.

Where to buy ThinkPad x230 9 cell battery?

Are the ch8nk aftermarket batteries from Aliexpress that bad?

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