/tpg/ - Thinkpad General

Previous thread: IRC: #/tpg/ on irc.rizon.net

Other business laptops are also welcome in /tpg/ (e.g. Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ZBook).
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If you're looking for purchase advice, READ THE BUYERS GUIDE FIRST. Then post, stating budget and requirements (e.g. size and performance).
Don't buy anything OTHER THAN T, X AND W/P SERIES if you want the Real ThinkPad Experience™

Recommended models:
T420 - 14", normal size
X220 - 12.5", ultraportable
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Why ThinkPad? (also applies to other business laptops)
>Used machines are plentiful and cheap.
>Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet.
>Great durability: chassis uses a 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, upgrade and maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model. Spare parts are easy and cheap to obtain.
>The best trackpoint (that red thing in the middle of the keyboard). Great for those who type a lot or hate swiping their fingers all over a touchpad.
>Excellent GNU/Linux & *BSD support.
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Used ThinkPad Buyers Guide:
ktgee.net/tpg

New guides by xsauc:
dankpads.com

EPP discount for new ThinkPads (USA & Canada only, usually 15%+ off):
pastebin.com/DujvzEzU

ThinkWiki - Info on ThinkPads and running GNU/Linux on them:
thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

ThinkPad service guides w/ tutorial videos:
lenovoservicetraining.com/

ThinkPad wallpaper collection:
imgur.com/a/NlepZ

Other urls found in this thread:

lmgtfy.com/?q=x220 vs t420 battery life
youtube.com/watch?v=ANZjUPUYE7s
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

First for X230

best actual 14' or 15' laptop for college?
I have $200

Reposting from last thread:

Tech illiterate here. Considering buying a T430 or X230 since both of them are in my price range (max 350-400€) and seem to be a direct upgrade to their predecessors in most regards. Screen and battery life is most important. Don't care about potatobility. Want to use it as learning experience.

Suggestions on which to buy?

Alrighty, I'll be sure to ask again, thanks

Guys, worth buying a t420 and replace screen to LED? So I have the perfect laptop?

What options do I have for the ultrabay? The location of the cdrom on the T420 is awful and I end up hitting the eject button every time I pick it up.

Or better yet is there a way to disable the physical eject button?

Threadly reminder.

Get a hdd caddy and use it as a drawer to hold your flash drives.

t420
x220 if you don't want to change the cpu
x220t if you don't mind a lower battery life, slightly bulkier than a x220 and want to draw futa

I just restored my X60t to working condition with Ubuntu, but the display is too dim. Is this common? I was hoping to get and X201t as an upgrade.

How is battery life on x220 compared to t420?

...

comparable
lmgtfy.com/?q=x220 vs t420 battery life

>Get the T460s, it won't throttle as much as the T460
Why; I thought the s stood for slim and therefore underpowered?

thanks but I hate LCD and x220 is only 12'

Yeah, I'm only into CRT laptops too.

Due to a seller error, I've been waiting for two weeks for my x220 to come in, but thankfully the shipping says it's set to arrive tomorrow.

Pretty bumped for a keyboard that isn't chiclet. It's coming with a 128 SSD, which I assume is in the M.2. or whatever part, so I guess at some point I'll throw in a large HDD just in case I actually manage to use up the SSD, but this is going to be a machine for schoolwork so...

Which is better to conserve battery life?

Charge from 40 to 80% always or charge every time you can up to 80%?

the x220 cant handle m.2 ssd

its most likely standard 2.5 drive if the seller didn't specify cuz they were/are still $5 cheaper than mSATA counterpart so you gotta buy yourself standard HDD and additional mSATA drive

I want a Thinkpad P-70.

17 inch is way easier to use for me, but I'm open for a 15 incher.

Questions:

1) For a BS in Mechanical Engineering, would a M600M be enough of a GPU, or should I upgrade it?

2) Would I be able to use an external GPU through the thunderbolt 3 ports?

3) Will I be able to buy it with a crap 500 GB HDD, and then install a M.2 SSD NVMe myself?

Any advice would be appreciated.

T430 with fingerprint reader and without are the same?

No. One has a fingerprint reader.

Thanks user.

but why?

bought a x230i on ebay. 320gb hdd, 4gb ram, i3. i know i can upgrade the first two, but can i upgrade the cpu? also was 215$ a good price?

...

Just bought a T420 i5 2.5Ghz, 4Gb RAM, 320Gb HDD, and HD+ display for $135. How did I do?

I saw a picture of the proper finger positioning for using the trackpoint once. Does anyone have it?

>can i upgrade the cpu?
>was 215$ a good price?
no (only the whole board) and no (too much)

Is there anyway to decrease finger stains on the lid? Or do I just have to live with it?

Eyeing a used Dell Latitude E7240 with i5-5300U, 16GB DDR3, 256GB SSD for around 629$ (converted from my country's currency). Should I go for it?

Pls 4 the love of memes, tell me that the X230T keyboard can be replaced with an X220 keyboard?

I don't think I can use this chiclet cancer any longer

Should i get a G40 or X41t?
Both are going for the same price

Both have no OS, but the x41t has a hard drive and my x61t pen should work with it.

I saw a T420 with Nvidia dedicated graphics for $120 on craigslist yesterday. I meet up with my friend so that we can take a look at it together.

The guy told us to meet at this home depot parking lot. We said sure there's a starbucks in that same parking lot where we can test the wifi and charger. He texts us back "I already told you the home depot parking lot. That's where I meet everyone." My friend, who is Russian and doesn't take shit from people, and I were pretty pissed at this point, and we were thinking it was some FOB who doesn't know any better.

We said okay we're here, and he comes 20 minutes later. He comes in a mini van that has been stripped out of the backseats and looks like a van where he puts all of his stolen shit in. It was some older white guy who looked like a casual heroin user with his thick blue sunglasses and runners hat. As he is pulling the laptop out he says "I have an AC converter in here in the back so you can test out the charging and there are numerous hotspots out here." My friend ignored it and we started up the laptop. The top and outside was in very nice condition, except for the bottom where the rubber seemed like it was ripped off of somewhere The trackpoint was missing from the laptop as well and when I pointed it out he said "oh it fell off I can go pick it up right from home." Didn't matter, we got to the desktop screen and we check the graphic properties. No Nvidia dedicated graphics.

We tell him this doesn't have the dedicated graphics. He said he ran out of laptops with those a while ago. Before I could call him out on his bullshit my friend says: "This is what we wanted and this is what you advertised." Casual heroin user responds "What does it matter to you?" My friend says "Because Im the buyer. It seems like you don't have the right laptop." We walked away and with all the red flags he obviously stole a bunch of thinkpads from a school or somewhere. He is still posting craigslist ads for thinkpads this morning too

The X230T keyboard can be replaced with an X220 keyboard.

I really wish I got his license plate number because I am certain he stole those from a school. Should I post a buyer beware ad on craigslist next to his ads? I want to believe that anyone looking for a thinkpad is smart enough to know they're stolen.

set up an ambush with 8 or 9 people and beat the shit out of him

Thank you. Does it matter if the X220 keyboard is sourced from a regular X220 or the X220T?

Just want to make sure

Are there different versions of the X220 keyboard? Would you recommend one over the other?

models within a family share a keyboard. you could pull one from a w520 and it would work.

Wash your hands more often. I'm also a greasy fuck, I feel your pain.

did not know that. Isn't there a form factor difference between the X and W series, even if it's the same generation of device though?

There's 3 manufacturers; ALPS, Chicony, and NMB. NMB is considered to have the best feel, with ALPS considered the worst

Not the keyboard.

Cover them with obnoxious stickers

I don't know, you just told me to tell you that it can be done.

But I do know that the X230's keyboard can be swapped out for an X220 keyboard, so I'd assume it's the same story for X230T since they appear to use the same keyboard.
I also know that you will have some trouble with keymapping that can probably be fixed through software.

>Are there different versions of the X220 keyboard? Would you recommend one over the other?
Not that I know of.

Not for the keyboard, there isn't.

>I also know that you will have some trouble with keymapping that can probably be fixed through software.
A custom EC rom flash does the trick

Use the Google

Thank you for spoonfeeding me. This is my first newer model. Been on an X200 and X200T forever
>Not the keyboard.
I see. I guess that I should have looked at a side by side picture before asking stupid questions

same keyboard m8.

>Should I post a buyer beware ad on craigslist next to his ads?
I don't see why not, it can't hurt. I feel bad for the poor schmuck that is going to end up buying one.

As a T520 owner, I will not use the google because this is not an issue I'm having.
Provided with the information that it won't work perfectly right off the bat, the guy can use the google himself to figure it out, though.

You forgot Lite-On.

Is there any way to reflash stock BIOS on newer models like the X230? (for the purpose of fixing a locked BIOS)

I've done hardware flashing before on older Thinkpads

Get one of those chip clip wire harnesses and an external flasher (rPI, USB based shit, etc). Pretty much follow the instructions for Libreboot.

...

Oh, so you can still flash OEM firmware via the hardware method on newer models? I thought they would have made it more difficult for some reason

Lite-On replaces NMB but only for the newer chiclet keyboards, I think, I'm talking about the original style

I'm pretty sure you can. I've not tried myself, though.

That's not how you fix a locked bios

You have to short some pins while you power on the machine which bypasses the password prompt, then you can go in and turn it off

Should be the same process as this

youtube.com/watch?v=ANZjUPUYE7s

>x220 if you don't want to change the cpu

Realistically, should the CPU of a laptop ever be changed?

I would probably get a W530 and replace it with an i5 dual core for power savings, since I only really want one for the GPU

I guess if there is coreboot support for those models I can't see why it would not be possible

not that I know what I'm doing but wouldn't reflashing be a cleaner solution than shorting pins?
I don't see why reflashing stock firmware wouldn't remove the password

Sure, if you want one it doesn't ship with.

Reflashing doesn't work, because the password isn't stored on the BIOS chip

Oh, shows what I know. Was the supervisor password ever stored on the SPI in previous models (out of curiosity)?

what's the difference between T430 and T430s?
Which is better?

Does x220 read microSDHC cards?

T430s doesn't have the battery options T430 has, so you're stuck at 6 cell max I think, or less

However, T430s is capable of a 1080p IPS screen mod with an adapter board (currently not being produced at this time) while the T430 is not

Is there a brand new ThinkPad (either T, X or W/P series) released in the last year, with Skylake Intel chips?

I also live in expensive Ireland, €200 for X200s on an Irish auction site, good price senpais?

The xx60 series all have Memelake.

>X260
>T460
>T460p
>T560
>P40 Yoga
>P50
>P70

All these use Memelake

There is an SD card slot, assuming you have an SD to microSD adapter or USB to SD/microSD adapter then yeah it should read it just fine

meh

Sup Forums's thoughts on the X1 Yoga?
Taking notes by hand is a pain, and typing has less retention. Is this the solution?

1366x768 looks bad on a 14-inch screen so go for the X230.

>when sellers blur out the model type in the ad.

Just got a T510 and there's this shit on the screen. Is this something that can be repaired or do I need a new monitor?

new monitor

Thanks bruh.

lol, idk dude, google is your friend

Thanks m8

Hey, my current laptop shit itself and I need a new one asap. I also don't want to get an awful computer but I have a $200-$250 budget in freedomdollars. I normally use it for general tomfuckery on the internet, school, Photoshop/Illustrator and also Ableton and DAW work every now and then with the occasional steam game. Any recommendations on a model to cop on eBay? Thanks guys, much love.

>tfw finding a really good deal a day after purchasing a Thinkpad

Fuck why does this always happen

It always happens chum. At least you got what you wanted right? Makes the purchase that little bit more valuable to you

I guess you're right
Still kind of a shame though

Try cleaning it with some 50/50 vinegar/water mix. It may be IN the screen, not on it, in which case you're boned.

In the UK and broken thinkpads can go for around $100

>order T400 from ebay with no charger for $50
>find T410 for $60 on ebay

kill me

Seriously I hate it when that happens
Happened to me last week

>buy basic X220 model with a meh battery: €150
>one day later
>X220, new battery and IPS panel: €175

And the seller was the same person

kek

Anyone have experience with HP elitebooks? Looking at a refurbished 6470B.

what's the best dell anons?

i don't know if this has been asked before, or even done before, has somebody painted their thinkpad with another color? i know about custom painted headphones but i doubt you do the same steps with a laptop.

>paint
looks like shit just vinyl wrap it.

Found this in the archive. It looks disgusting.

>but i doubt you do the same steps with a laptop
>complete teardown
>mask off parts of you don't want to paint
>paint parts
>????
>reassemble
Come to think of it, a white Thinkpad might be neat.

Should I get a Dell Inspiron 15 7000for 680 usd? I want to do a little gaming with a nice screen. If not please suggest me something

It would be sexy as fuck. I want to wrap my entire T420 but i dont know how much the vinyl would effect temps even if i cut out all the million and a half vent ports.

>i dont know how much the vinyl would effect temps even if i cut out all the million and a half vent ports
If you cut out the million and a half vent ports properly, it won't affect temps at all.

Nice. Might get a new shell and wrap that so i can paint the speaker grilles without ruining my 9/10 shell.