/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

xsauc buyers guide:
dankpads.com

EPP discount for new ThinkPads (USA & Canada only, usually 15%+ off):
pastebin.com/ULHCY5ch

Helpful links and resources (Wiki, lookup tools and wallpapers):
pastebin.com/DYjEnVq1

Other urls found in this thread:

banggood.com/Expresscard-Version-V8_0-EXP-GDC-Beast-Laptop-External-Independent-Video-Card-Dock-p-1009976.html
thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Advanced_Dock
tech.vectro.ca/prototype-x220-fhd-mod/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

1st for dock masterrace.

nth for pads n' gattos

Early Bois, would a exo gdc express card work with a dell latitude e6400 before I shell out the money for my x220

no dell questions

X60 or X200? And where would I look to buy one (used)? Preferably from a reliable place.

200 unless you really want 4:3

ebay

X200 it is. What would be some things to look out for when buying a used one? Anything specific?

locked bios
computrace

Those are two main ones.

is this good

How would I know if they have those or not?

I had an X60s for a while.

Kickass little system, and portable as hell (plus grorious 4:3 vertical space)... but the 3GB RAM limit makes it unusable as a daily driver.

Now I have a T400.

just cycled to 556, this is the original battery from 2011

original capacity 94Wh

my t420comes in tommorow, what kind of ram do i get for it? and are the anker 6 cell batteries good for it

pic related

check in BIOS (press Thinkvantage and then F1), you should be able to disable Computrace. that's all

Hypothetically if that didn't work, could you be able to flash the BIOS?

Ask the seller.

If you were dumb enough to have bought a Thinkpad that had Computrace enabled than you need to go tell Jamal to give you your money back.

I'm looking on eBay though. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't tell you it's got computrace.

apparently you can phone Computrace and social them into unlocking it for you

i've never experienced the issue though

I want to replace the thermal paste on the Nvidia GPU of my T420. It has a thermal pad underneath it. So far I've had a few suggestions:

- Reuse thermal pad
- Apply thermal paste on top of thermal pad
- Throw away thermal pad and just use thermal paste

This Thinkpad hasn't been repasted in 5 years so it's getting pretty warm idle temps. Thoughts?

Hm. Interesting. Well I'll keep all this info in mind when I get around to buying one.

x220 or x230? I purchased an x230 for college for $430. Did I fuck up guise

oh another option
- purchase new thermal pad

what do Sup Forums

I bought my x230 for $250.

240gb ssd
4gb ram (now 16GGB)

ok i've researched another option
- purchase copper shim as spacer

but it might move around over time... :S

How can i fix my x220t stylus /tpg? When I hover over the screen its somehow registering a constant left click, when I move cursor over text it highlights it etc. Windows 7

Remove the tip and see what happens
Also try other stylus like another ThinkPad one or one from a Galaxy Note to see if it's reproducible

i removed the tip and it didn't do anything, pen still worked with the same problem as before, im starting to question if its a genuine stylus or something

Atleast 100$ too expensive if in US unless everything is pimped to max and it's in mint condition.

If you don't sperge about the keyboard layout then X230 is superior in every way and even the layout is fixable if you're willing to tinker a bit.


It's not listed on the support list but they do have other E64xx models listed:
banggood.com/Expresscard-Version-V8_0-EXP-GDC-Beast-Laptop-External-Independent-Video-Card-Dock-p-1009976.html

As much as I love my T420 I want something more up to date. Are the chinkpads really that bad? I've got a t460 in mind, it seems pretty good so I guess the concern is build quality.

I'm probably going to buy X260 in a few years when they hit end of lease. TrackPoint, quality keyboard, Linux support, refurbished market and docking options will keep me in regardless of other downgrades.

Why not just upgrade to 8gb ram and ssd?

Hey guys my T430 has a slightly wobbly battery and although there is no chance of it falling it, it makes a clicking noise with the slightest movement. Well, after a month like this its fucking annoying and I can't take it anymore.

Would a new or different battery solve this, or is there something actually wrong with the area on the laptop itself where the connection takes place?

Is there a way to increase the max volume on linux, without opening the sound preferences and setting it to 150%? My T430 has considerably lower sound volume on linux than on win7.

I've got a thinkpad dock with a display port, VGA port and a DVI port and a t420

What I want to know, is what monitors can I connect?

Is there a total maximum resolution or can I connect two 1920x1080 monitors through the display port and the DVI port? Asking because google results come up with people that cant, and wizards that can
Or does it work like that my monitors must be able to 'fit' inside a 2560x1440 box?


I have integrated graphics on my t420

so i found an old thinkpad today, model R400.
It has a P8400 Dual core CPU, 4gig DDR3 ram and 160gig drive.

Is it worth it to upgrade it to 120gig ssd? What about more ram/maybe a new cpu?

it has only the gma4 onboard graphics so not something for gaming. It runs runescape so its fine.

any tipps?

Would the x240 be a good replacement for the Surface Pro 2?
I have an old x220T, but the motherboard ate shit. I'd rather not have to go back to using its low res after using my SP2 for about a year.

Why don't you put a bit of tape or similar between the battery and the case to make it j-jam in more securely?

If you're using PulseAudio you should check that you also have your PCM volume at 100% in alsamixer.

I already did, it is.

Hey /tpg/, I got a T400 for free, has 4gigs of RAM, the super fucking bright 1280x800 screen, although it doesn't have a hard drive. Thinking of picking up an SSD for cheap and then using it as a general shitposting machine to complement my T530. The question I'm trying to figure out is whether or not I should install some Linux distro or if I should try restoring Windows (I have an unused Win 7 upgrade CD and the computer seems to have a valid Vista key). Is there any advantage to using Windows with these machines? Does Linux play well with SSDs?

Linux has no problems with SSDs and distros generally detect it automatically to set up SSD optimized configs. Windows vs. Linux is up to you but Linux generally works better on older computers such as T400. Windows 10 will not support T400 as it has too old graphics card. IMO you lose most of the benefits of Windows on old computers as most of the desirable software that isn't available on Linux requires more up to date computer.

You and might want to check out the Advanced Dock wich supports adding eGPU:
thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Advanced_Dock

SSD is always worth it if you're planning on using it for anything. You could add up to 8GB ram too but I'm not sure whether you can switch the CPU.

Not sure if affect T400 or R400 but it seems having only 65W charger throttles the performance on older models. Pic from earlier thread.

Hey guys,
i need some help with my T410, i replace the motherboard and need to change the UUID or somthing like that.
I got the HMD (1.83) but i can find a proper instruction to make it happen.

What should I know about the Panasonic Toughbook CF-29?

Local police surplus auction has two of them up for bid at $5 starting bid, no reserve. Laptop only, no charger or hard drive.

My helix has a weird display issue and I can't find any mention of it online.
There's something like a grid or scale pattern of slightly brighter and darker pixel groups, almost unnoticeable at some angles, but very annoying at others.
On lagom.nl supposedly 1- or 2-pixel chessboard patterns show up as having weird tiles about 3x6 pixels each.
I have scaling at 100% (disabled)
The fuck is this and should I be worried?

Any way to downgrade the battery firmware?

After i updated my 9 cell the thing reports capacity as if it was a 6 cell but gets stuck for a long time at 40%.

pls advise

They're pretty cool things but if you're not working in a place where that type of quality and toughness is required you'll look like a fedoratipper.

Worth it for a Linux machine

Which of these temps are actually important? Setting up a panel graph, and I'd like to at least attempt to not have things overly cluttered.

T430

phys ID 0.

Just replace the thermal paste on the CPU.
Temps for my T420 are hot as heck w/ the dGPU option. Replacing the pad does not make two much of a difference.
I can hit 90-95 degrees with on full load and i guess this is okay for this laptop.

I just bought a used X230 for $200. It works fine so far, but I want to give it a clean factory reset. There's a Windows 7 sticker on the palm rest. If I just do a normal factory reset will I boot back with Windows 7? I'm a total pleb, please help.

How long do you gather a T420 will last me before I need to upgrade?

Search for a file called System32 and delete it. System32 is a 32-bit encrypted user log. Deleting it removes all traces of the user and restores the computer to factory settings.

Don't be an asshole.

If the recovery partition is present, yes, you should get it back to win7. Also, check for the license sticker inside the battery compartment.

Why not just reformat and reinstall?

hello, are thinkpads good for cs it students? I'm searching for a good laptop and saw some thinkpads too

Confirmed on the license sticker. How do I make sure there's a recovery partition?

What are the benefits of that versus a complete factory reset? Sorry, I'm a retard.

You don't have to worry about this issue if you just nuke everything and reinstall.

I can't argue with those quints. Can I rip Windows from the hard drive to reinstall after I glass the bitch?

I'm mulling over the T420, T430 and T440

Has anyone had experience jumping between any of these? Did the difference in price seem warranted?

I'm thinking of going with the T440 to serve me for about 4 years as my primary machine for college. Programming, watching videos and some light gaming.

Does anyone else install all the drivers so all the hotkeys work?

Based X220 keyboard.

Are sellers underclocking? I am use the wiki and sellers have same CPU but lower clock.

I am trying to flash a bios to use X220/T420 keyboard on my X230. I've got the ISO image and a blank USB stick.

However, the ISO-image seems to have nothing inside, but its size is 32MB. Rufus doesn't support the ISO so I can't flash it on the flash drive.
I could make a blank MS-DOS or FreeDOS drive out of my flash drive and then put the contents of the ISO image on it, but I can't see a damn thing on the ISO image. What the fuck am I supposed to do?

You guys have any idea where I can get those little stickers that sit on top of the monitor screws? It came off and got lost

Is 300 dollars a decent price for a T430 with a NVS-5400M, 1600x900 dr, and 3320M?

so someone on leddit made an FHD mod for the x220.

here's their blogpost. i'm supposedly first on the list to buy it, so if i get it i'll definitely try to install it and post my results here when that time comes

tech.vectro.ca/prototype-x220-fhd-mod/

what do you guys think?

PLS advise

Looking for light, stable distro for my x220. Been using mint for some time.

Chakra

Those gummy things at the corners?
I always get little parts like that for free whenever I ask from repair shops!

KEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWL!
Can't wait to install that on my X230.

Are the new chinknovo thinkpads really that bad?

I've typed on some in the store the keyboards still seemed better than any other brand of laptops I've tried though it does look less ergonomic than the old thinkpad keyboards.

It's just that I want a modern laptop with a good screen, RAM and CPU and I can't really be bothered with upgrading used old thinkpads because I have no HW knowhow.

>chinknovo thinkpad
>not lenovo chinkpad

ok

Elite book 8460p 500gb HD, 4gb ram for 200 or
X230 with 268ssd and 8bg ram for 350?

thinkpad has better specs for the money

I wasn't really planning to use Windows 10 anyways since the free upgrade period has expired, and the highest version of Windows I have is Win 7. I am also told that this version works best on the T400. Just about the only advantage I can think of for Linux is its resistance to getting botnetted by sketchy port sites.

I think the thing that passes a lot of people off is not necessarily that Thinkpads are worse than other laptops on the market, it's that they are more cheaply built than older Thinkpads. The bar is being lowered across all ranges of laptops.

I have. The AV installations I'm making in Max/ableton are destroying the cpu and need a beefier gpu though.

Screen real estate is also a massive issue with more complex max patches like pic related

Just bought a Thinkpad t420 with the i5 2520m, Nvidia Optimus 4200m, and 8GB ram for $170. Did I fuck up? I'll be using it mainly for schoolwork, however how well will it run dark souls 1 and oblivion?

Jesus kid. You got fleeced. Where did you buy it and why did it seem like a good idea?

I looked on the buyer's guide and it said that $170 was a good price for a t420. I got it on eBay.

He's fucking with you. That price is fine.

anyone having an issue with t420s model getting fire hot?

just booting windows the thing gets blazing hot. my t420 stays cool as kuecumber.

it's on a hard surface with no obstructions.

can't believe I wasted money on a thin model. Can't even get my money back.

help me

clean&repaste

Distro recommendations?

Was thinking Debian desu

Any tips for a comfy install?

How exactly do you define comfy?

Mint desu

Well right now I'm pressing the BIOS key and it keeps trying to install Win 10

>comfy
windows
linux isn't at all comfy

nah, mint and ubuntu are comfy af for user migrating from windows

Well I still fail to understand what would be 'comfy' about a linux install, or any OS install for that matter.

But Debian on thinkpads is definitely doable, no problem. Based on the pictures you posted your thinkpad isn't the newest, so on the driver front you probably won't have to do anything to get your hardware working on a clean debian install.

I need to run Kali Linux for work (getting job sponsored infosec training) but I also want Trisquel because paranoid of systemd and need it for dark web browsing. Can I use the Ultrabay on a t400 (libreboot) as the primary drive to swap between a drive with each OS?

>Also I know this is off topic but can you remove systemd off Linux Kali?

No download an ISO from the internet.
Make sure it is the pro edition, and use the key on the bottom of the notebook.
Then install drivers and windows updates through an internet connection, sometimes the onboard wireless will not work so you need to use a USB wifi card or Ethernet cable.
This is the cleanest way and the most recommended way imho.

pls give guide on installing debian with usb

have not set up win10 yet but its booting to the setup

max sure looks fancy nowadays

>download debian iso
>google "bootable usb maker windows"
>use that to make bootable usb
>put usb in and reboot

just got my t420 today, its awsome. I just dont know if i should keep win 7 or install ubuntu, i already have ssd but i need more ram and battery, are the anker batteries on amazon decent?

thanks.

gave my 64gig zip disquette to a friend and have to use this shitter 4gb one instead.