/tpg/ - ThinkPad General

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).

Why ThinkPad?
>Used machines are plentiful and cheap
>Excellent keyboards
>Great durability (excl L and E series)
>Utilitarian design
>Docking stations that easily turns your laptop into a desktop
>Most models are easy to repair, upgrade & maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model and spare parts are easy & cheap to obtain
>The best TrackPoint™, easier to use when typing
>Good for Hackintoshing

Libreboot-compatible models:
>T60 (check lcd), X60(s/t); X200(s/t. -s requires soldering), T400(s)/500; W500
Models before *40 series can be Corebooted

Modern models:
>X220/X230 - 12", 768p, cheap
>T420/T430 - 14", 900p, widely available for a good price, socketed CPU (Ivy Bridge CPU support on T420); Quad Core Compatible
>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)

Chink 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, miniDP
forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=forumdisplay&fid=117

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

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Other urls found in this thread:

amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T450-Bluetooth-Professional/dp/B07GCR5Q9J/ref=sr_1_19?keywords=lenovo+thinkpad&qid=1567881673&s=gateway&sr=8-19&th=1
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Does any of you have any experience with ArcaOS? How usable would that be in the year of our lord 2019?
Feels like it's more geared towards businesses still running os/2 to migrate to but I'm wondering how usable it would be for basic shitposting, word processing etc.
Seems like an interesting project overall.

Anyone know how to replace the ribbon cable in a thinkpad T420 keyboard?

You would be better off just buying a new keyboard. I'm pretty sure those cables are not meant to be replaced and fixing it by soldering would be pretty hard.
Are you sure the cable is fucked?

Good deal?

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no

yes

An ok deal in my opinion but these tend to be relatively expensive where I live.

maybe

Not worth it. Kust get a keyboard off of ebay

bruhs is this good my niggas?
amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T450-Bluetooth-Professional/dp/B07GCR5Q9J/ref=sr_1_19?keywords=lenovo+thinkpad&qid=1567881673&s=gateway&sr=8-19&th=1

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Is that a fucking directional stereo microphone?
Does it work with non-IBM hardware?

For yall lazy niggas

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Looks like a usb mic I don't see why it wouldn't work with non-ibm harware.

/tpg/ please tell me if I'm thinking this right:
If I get a normal t440p ($150-200); you know i5, 4gb ram, 320hdd;
then upgrade it to i7-4810, 16gb ram, ips screen and a couple SSDs, plus 170w AC and a 57++ battery ($500 or so for all of this)...
that could work well for me for the next 5 years or so, right? (just normal stuff) or is there a better option for $700? is my math wrong?
also would this be able to emulate ps2 and/or purple purse games or nah?

Anyone with a W530/T530 with dGPU, how do you deal with external monitors, considering that the nvidia gpu have to be on to output through the miniDP port? Windows seems to be just plug and play, but this looks difficult to manage on systemd/IBM/Linux distros

Part of the cable was severed when I got the machine

Time to get a new keyboard then.

Hi, everyone. I'm tired of having to buy a new laptop every 4-5 years. I've heard that Thinkpads are durable and, more importantly, can be repaired easily.
I would like to buy powerful laptop that I can repair myself when some part of it dies. Is it a pipe dream?

if it's 1080p screen I would say good deal, if you use it as is.

i don't know

Thinkpads have less and less replaceable parts nowadays. Even the ram is seems to be soldered in in recent models.
They do seem like decent machines when compared to other laptops on the market right now though.
My frustration is really more about the overall state of computers and hardware right now than thinkpads. All these thin-and-lite memes and such are just grinding my gears.

ive had an x220 for a while with win10 on it but it got slow as fuck so i clean boot installed ubuntu and that is also slow as fuck, is the hardware jsuta dieing cause its old? might try another clean isntall of win10 this time

Hi /tpg/

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How upgradable is the t480? How many of its parts are replaceable/not soldered in?

Windows 10 and Debian Testing both work fine on my X220
You are using an SSD, right?

Hi

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Just cpu soldered like every other laptop nowadays

I was thinking about getting an old thinkpad and then simply a desktop at home. The laptop market nowadays is fucking horrifying.

Fuuuuuck I'll have to wait a month for the new unit

So just get one with an i7-8650 and then I can upgrade ram, ssd and screen later on... thanks user

The difference between i5 and i7 is like 10%, not really even worth paying a lot of extra.

find me a cheap but functional t420

Online marketplaces have a search feature. Use it

i cant read

I love my x200 Tablet
Got it for $90 on eBay
Thanks Jow Forums

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rip

lol that's the weed number

What kind of battery life should I be getting with a 9-cell battery when I'm actively using the laptop? I bought a replacement battery for a refurb T430 I got a while ago and, regardless of whether it's the new battery or the one it came with, it seems like neither lasts long at all.

I've seen people comment about getting multiple hours out of theirs, but I probably couldn't get more than 90 minutes out of either battery if I'm actually doing things. (We're talking using Firefox and working on text documents, no resource-heavy shit.)

I get 8 hours of Web browsing on my 9 cell T530, 1080p panel at second lowest brightness, i7 3840QM with crucial SSD
Use debloated Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge, the original not the chromium fork.

honestly batterylife to me is a meme

if it goes up to 10-12 hrs then id care but anything below 6 is plug territory

based cmus user

I'm running Linux on this thing, might've made a backup of the W10 installation it came with but I nuked it right afterward if I did.

Would having two hard drives in the laptop drastically impact battery life? Main slot has an SSD and I swapped the CD drive with a second slot, in which sits a SATA.

I might just go the always-plug route, been doing that with my other laptop anyway. I'm only asking because I'd like to fix it if I can but, if that's not the case, I'm not gonna trash this laptop. I like it a lot otherwise.

do you have a proper battery and power supply?
ie if you use the x220 without battery and with the standard power supply it throttles

do you need a special power supply for the docking stations?

Should be the same connector.

Apparently Lenovo just straight up deleted the option to set a battery threshold with the Lenovo Vantage update. Is there any other way to set a battery threshold so I won't kill my battery when it's plugged in most of the time?

lenovo is losing their grip

ive bene using an upgraded battery + ssd + ram and standard pwoer supply

>1366x768
That's a big yikes from me dawg, throw it in the garbage.

Can someone explain to me the laptop and all the neat peripherals?
I can't tell which model or what shit they're using.

Into the trash it goes
4:3 or bust.
Can flexview t60s be librebooted?
I can't remember which displays work.

Power Hungry user from last thread here,

So I found a Lenovo ThinkPad W541 15.6” Intel i7-4810MQ 2.80GHz 16GB 500GB K1100M,1920x1080 for $340, sounds good? P52 are pretty pricey and tempting but even that was too much power for what I need now and made some compromises.

what do you think of the m6800?

I got one with more or less the same specs (750hdd), it was $270 with shipping and no charger.
Try to get at most $300, that seems the most common price.

Hey lads, need to buy a laptop
it needs
>win7 compatibility, no drivers being "exclusive" to win10
>an nvme slot for an ssd
>1080p screen, may be able to settle with 1600x900 if it's a better deal
>good enough specs to play 4K movies without ever needing to worry about dropping frames
I don't care about the brand and I'm buying it for my dad

Is it a bit of an overkill to get an Precision M6800 (or older M model) if my main use of the machine would be basic office work, browsing and a bit of gaming? What makes me interested in this model are is the sturdiness, screen size, performance and it seem to have good reviews and keeps on being recommended, but the weight of it is a bit unappealling and I'm thinking maybe a lighter model would be better (not gonna lug it around too much, but enough that it might become a hassle)
I could get one for 625euros from one place

>Anything from Skylake and older
>Haswell series and newer, remember to check if it uses 2242 or 2280 first.
>Anything since Sandy bridge

I know a girl named Barbosa should I marry her and take her last name and name my child albertk

what's a reasonable price to sell a librebooted x200?

Get a 4980 or a lower tier HQ CPU instead for the Iris Pro 520. Doubt you'll need a 170w AC adapter, will let you know when my CPU arrives.

holy fucking shit! that's a wall made out of thinkpads!

do you have all of these installed
tlp
thinkfan
thinkpad_acpi
tp-smapi
tpacpi-bat
powertop

I don't know how to on Linux, but you should be able to set the HDD to turn off when not in use as well. If it's spun up all the time then yeah that's sucking a significant chunk of power.

including docks, did any thinkpad ever come with two NICs?

T440p

tlp use thinkfan ?

I know jack shit about processor families or codenames cuz I don't follow hardware news at all
I'm considering dropping the choice to get nvme and instead just get a sata ssd since any ssd is already going to be a huge improvement, I just thought that since m.2 drives are smaller it would be the better choice for a laptop, not to mention being the same price as sata drives and being nvme
and once again I'm open to any suggestions that aren't a thinkpad as well
about how much should that cost?

>about how much should that cost?
>ebay.com
>"t440p"
>filter by "for parts only"
>buy one with a locked BIOS but otherwise fine
>buy another with a busted screen or something, but a fine or upgraded mainboard
>buy charger and SSD
>spend $50 in parts and get a $250 machine after you swap the board

See
The list of upgrades are optional but serves well as a guide.

T440p uses a 2242 SSD and outside the overpriced RC100 there aren't many around.

The second number in a Thinkpad says the generation.
T420 is the 2nd core generation which is a I5-2500m aka, sandy bridge.
T430 is ivy bridge (3000)
T440 is Haswell (4000) Here is when M2 support was introduced.
T450 uses 2242 too IRC.
T460 uses 2280 which is your standard M2.
The W541 and P50 series use normal SSDs.

Why do you even need a NVMe SSD in first place?

dunno don't remember, I just remember having all of these noted down for when I was retarded and trying to do linux on thinkpad
but what do you know, they are built for and around windows thus windows tends to work best on them

>T440 is Haswell (4000) Here is when M2 support was introduced.
do you happen to know what size nvme the 540p supports?

2242mm.

He specified nvme slot for ssd, 2242 is still nvme. Nobody said anything about prices.

Just because i couldn't find this anywhere else outside a blog that used a image host that deleted all the images.
Here are the insides of a 65W fake thinkpad charger if anyone is interested and somehow is googling for it and finds this in the archives.

Chargers and their differences.

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Forgot to mention.
65W Charger died after 9 months(5-8 hours daily) of use in a T400 with a X9100.
90W is still alive after one year, overheats too much to the point it hurts to touch, same use than 65W.
Original 90W is still alive after 9 years of use.

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my logic for m.2 nvme was just that it's the same price as sata ssds and smaller so I thought it should be better for a laptop, but I guess it doesn't matter. I'll get a sata ssd for it instead
is T460 good? how much do they cost?
I don't want to spend more than $200

T460 will be more than $200

t. own a T460, paid more than $200 for it. It's a nice laptop and was pretty cheap otherwise but you're looking at north of $300 for one

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NVMe SSD are mostly for server, editing or "enterprise" use, not for OS/games/normal programs, there is literally 0 difference between them when it comes to OS and simple programs.
Just get a 2.5" 860 EVO, MX500 or SU800 in that order from best to worse.

>$200
Look for a T440p then.

>51nb.com
NIGGA IT'S ALL CHINESE
HOW DO I BUY AN X210

I see, thanks anons
last stupid question: what's the difference between T440p and T440s?
the laptop isn't going to leave the house let alone the table it sits on so portability is not a concern

One uses m CPUs (I5-4300m) that can be upgraded or replaced, the other is a bit smaller but uses a way weaker CPU (I5-4300U) that CAN'T be upgraded or replaced.

considering upgrading my t430 from a 3320m to one of the i7s. would it be worth moving up to a t440p for muh haswell if i'm going to upgrade it all the way?

souka, arigatou gozaimasu nanashi-san

Sculpting with zBrush on my x230 16Gbs RAM, which is great except now at random intervals my eGPU jumps to full power and everything freezes then crashes.
It was working great before, got my GTX 1660 operating on my x230 with 85% effectiveness up from about 70% with a lot of initial tweaking.

That thing screams "put me out of my misery!"

Nah just dump a 3840QM in there and call it a day

*VROOOOMMM at 98°C intensifies*

Not even close

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took t420 apart to replace power connector. now it wont boot and the power button stays solid green. no screen activity. any ideas.

RAM.

that's what i was planning on doing but i'm just wondering how much performance would i even gain moving to 4th gen?

Nah that A31p is pretty based. THIS screams "put me out of my misery."

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What do you install with TLP on a T420 ?

I'd be worried about overheating with anything over 4810 but what do I know? And I used the 170w for the budget just to be safe, I guess the 135w would be ok.

Get the dGPU HSF if you are worried about temp.
Neck to neck 3840M vs 4980HQ? Less than 10% differences.

I can pick up a T420 for very cheap, however the left mouse button has "snapped off". How hard would this be to fix? I've search and haven't found any info yet on replacing the mouse buttons

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Is it the ultranav button or the one on the rim of the machine?

Does buying a newer ThinkPad void the repairability perk?

I remember in the W520 days I could get just about any part I needed for under $100 and fix this n' that problems. Do the X1 Carbons / Extremes still have after market parts?

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