/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/JVwVGVTW

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

Other urls found in this thread:

linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-configuration.html#chargethresholds
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

first!!!1

what do i do about the x220 wireless card?
browsing the web is kind of shitty but i dont know if it is chrome.

any wireless expresscards out there?

hi, I'd like to know whether I can replace the non-backlit keyboard on a Latitude E5250 with a backlit keyboard.
I don't have the E5250 yet so I can't check whether there is a port for the additional LED cable for the backlit keyboard.
Is it safe to assume that such port exists and just purchase the E5250?

Can you connect an eGPU to the T420s (slim)?

can I take the bluetooth from a t420 and move it to a x220t?

>Chrome

Should be a straight swap.

Anyone here using the thinkfan script on Ubuntu ?
I set up my fan to kick in at 60°C, but the fan is still running at 42.

It seems someone used my x220 and updated the battery firmware (the person using it said they just clicked "ok" on a prompt about battery)-and it must have failed-as now I have a nonfunctioning battery - it shows 100% in tray, but the lenovo settings shows it has 0 Wh capacity. Are there any ways to fix that-like a firmware revert?

Just pulled the trigger on my first Thinkpad. T420 with 1600x900 screen, 128 GB SSD, 8 GB of RAM and a second generation i5 (not too crazy about that, but it's fine).
I'm officially stoked. Can't wait for it to arrive.
I've never had a Linux system either, but I guess this is my opportunity to give one a shot. Mint or some Ubuntu variant (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu?) is probably the most approachable, right? Suggestions?

I'm using Mint on my T420 and the ride is great so far.

well i sure as fuck wont install firefox

Ubuntu MATE

I use Xubuntu on my laptop. Not a Thinkpad but eh.

Posting this here as well. From >I can choose a new laptop for work. I've been given a budget of €1500, excluding VAT.

>I don't really know what to choose, Sup Forums. I don't need a lot of computation power. It's literally just for on-the-go Office work, browsing, SSH, VNC monitor, and as a powerpoint presentation hub. I don't need dedicated graphics, or a quad core processor.
>I am pretty much OS agnostic. As long as it can dualboot/bootcamp into Ubuntu, and keep the standard OS for Office. About 45% of the time I use a desktop with Windows, and 45% of the time I use a different desktop with Ubuntu.

>I saw these three laptops which could possibly fit the bill. What are your thoughts, or do you have any other recommendations?

What does it say when you boot into a live CD of, say, Ubuntu?
If that is all correct, it's got to be a Windows problem. So in that case, just system restore.

It won't even boot off the battery.
I'll boot to ubuntu later after work and check it out,, thx user for common sense.

Just got an x230 and drivers are quite difficult to install, especially for the audio card even if it is just a realtek one, is it normal that if I install the driver from lenovo update the audio from the speakers double but at the next reboot it just stops working? Is it the Dolby manager?

I would recommend not to use Lenovo or Windows for drivers. Use sdi-tool.org instead. Saves a lot of hassle with using many different programs, services, utilities.
You might also want to turn off any Dolby things to startup on Windows boot (Task Manager Win8+, msconfig.exe Win7).

Good luck.
And maybe you can reflash that battery firmware, if all fails?

My X60s fan died a while back (among other things) and kept overheating on webpages with any decent amount of Javascript.

So I bought a X230 to replace it for 260AUD. How did I do?

Is there a tool to reflash the battery made by community, or just the lenovo one?

I honestly didn't even know you could update battery firmware. My X220 has been running Ubuntu for several years now.

I have a T430s and still a good battery on it (90% capacity)

I found this linrunner.de/en/tlp/docs/tlp-configuration.html#chargethresholds but i dont quite understand it

Basically, I'm plugged in all the time, and rarely unplug it to use the battery itself. How do I preserve my battery in the most efficient manner so that when I do need to unplug and travel, I can depend on it?

How do I use the commands in the website and what what thresholds should they be set to? I'm also assuming it should be on BATT0, correct? Can someone explain to me as if I were a retard?

Running Ubuntu 16.04

Do i just need to disable it on boot? I was thinking about just uninstalling it, this thing is taking me days for general windows updates, drivers and general setup (even mail clients are giving me problems), but I know that once it works I'll use it forever without need to format, my last thinkpad with a good windows 7 installation on SSD lasted me more than a year of hard work and shitty programs with absolutely no slowdowns, the problem now is that I have too little time.
Also, I bought it with a good original lenovo battery (the thick one) in excellent state except for a broken dent, but what happens if I just want to change it? Any viable 3rd party brand that is not the general 20€ amazon one? Lenovo wants 150€ for a battery and that is crazy, I spotted Duracell direct which sells 2power batteries, I bought a Duracell one for my camera once and I was super happy with it but i don't know this 2power

That's the disadvantage of having x220 for some gamedev related work(if you are not screwing around with some kusoge and dealing with serious shit you'd probably agree), you need constantly to use windows-only tools (yes, those do exist)

Anyone?

where my t420 arch boys at

I don't know but in general you just need an interface to connect a PCI-e adapter, like thunderbolt on newer PCs, i think for older ones the comfier is expresscard, do you have it?

$ sudo tlp-stat
It may recommend things like acpi-call and tp-smapi or something. In those cases:
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
$ apt search acpi-call
$ sudo apt install $packagename1
$ apt search tp-smapi
$ sudo apt install $packagename2
$ reboot
It should automatically set battery charge thresholds. You can check again using tlp-stat.

Sheesh, I don't know what you should be doing. What I would do is install Windows 10 LTSB, then run sdi-tool and basically turn of all auto starting programs, if I had to use Windows.

That sounds incredibly painful. I feel for you.

I don't like windows 10, the win32 implementation is just a bit instable which is too instable for me since I use it for live events software and I can't afford a crash (and it happened with windows 10), but I'll give a look to this sdi-tool, thanks

Soon I'll join.
Can't decide between T420 (blaze it) and T430 tho.
T430 has soldered cpu?

I'm not the best person to ask but I chose a t420 due to it being cheaper (£100 for a stock model in A-grade like mine) and the ability to upgrade everything.

Plus three drives is just neat as fuck.

So it depends what you want a laptop for really. If you just want an anime and Sup Forums machine then go with the cheapest option (t420) in my opinion.

Bump for the battery question

Yeah, I wanted T420 for the same reasons, because its cheap, can have 3 drives and I can upgrade cpu, yesterday was sure that I'll get T420, but now I'm looking at T430 too, because it has better processor.
I think I'll go with T420 in the end, I can upgrade cpu if I'll need to and can spend the saved money on ssd or something.

It'll mainly be used to write html/css, watching chinese cartoons and taking notes at uni, so I guess I won't need better components than i5 2520m and 8gb of ram

Just got assigned a work laptop, 1080 screen, i7-4600, SSD, 8 gigs of ram

This thing is great, I love it

My budget is kinda tight, but I want to upgrade my T420 screen to 1600x900 right now so much. Is it worth it?

>buy w520 with Quadro novidia
>Have to set to max performance and spin the fans really loudly to play league of faggots without stuttering


Is it just because the card is to weak?

should have got a 1600 x 900 one in the first place

Is the current one 768p? I've been also searching this, and if yes, you'll also need an HD+ cable (nothing too serious, 15-30 minutes to replace). But if you upgrade the screen, you might as well go for a quality one. The screen from the alienware m14x, for instance, is a drop-in swap.

mfw I fell for the P50. Already ordered and on its way. Did I make a mistake? I got the FHD, 6700HQ , M2000M. Gonna put a 500gb samsung 850 and 16gb ram in. Maybe I should've waited for the 7th gen and new nvidia graphics card

What's the panel name? Wanna get it from aliexpress.
Got mine super cheap, price difference was worth it .

idk, my 2520M has 1190 points in singlethread cpu-z benchmark, 6700hq has 1600, isn't it a bit overpriced?

How cheap is super cheap?

Someone in a reddit post claims it's an LG, model LP140WD2 (TL)(G1), so don't take my word 100% on it.

I could post the link, but I risk getting people sperging over
>reddit
And also the comparison photo might bring in Sup Forums like the plague

...

I have a use case for a laptop with egpu. I actually already have the 1050 ti for it. What's the cheapest business class laptop with a true quad core Sandy bridge or newer that can support that cheap chink shit egpu adapter?

i just truly dropped my thinkpad for the first time, this wasn't just a little bump

>falls screen first
>magnesium roll-cage absorbs impact
>body pushes screen down
>is totally flat
>pick it up
>continue using
>nothing different at all, no scratches (carpet)

i so wish that i had known about thinkpads years ago

Lol nice.

my thinkpad got some issue with the audio driver
got WinXP 64bit installed since its a pretty old model (R61) and i could install every driver except audio for some reason
what can i do ?

that you're still running it is a testament to the longevity of memepads, but that isn't even worth the time or effort anymore

or are you just screwing around with that for fun?

eurofag here. where can I buy an IPS screen for my x220? ebay is full of shitty 'compatible/replacement'

do you think a refurbished x220 is worth to get?
it has a i7 2640 and probably a new batery and 24 month warranty + Win7 64 Pro (still neds a upgrade SSD, RAM and so) want to replace my old ASUS K52D which is slowly dying or should i just get a used one and rebuild it?

whats the best out of these 3 ?

i was kinda screwing around to see what i could do
win7 installed all drivers fine, maybe the issue is a lack of drivers for WinXP 64bit
ill just install linux or something

T420/T520 + 2720qm

disassemble was way harder than i thought it's not techinal issue, because pysical issue

now i can figure out how to replace what i need

None of those. A bit too old and powerless.

Probably a bit too pricy. The warranty is not really necessary for a ThinkPad.

>It should automatically set battery charge thresholds. You can check again using tlp-stat

What are the thresholds it sets it to and how do you know? Is this a program or just something done in the terminal? What should be the thresholds in my case when it will be plugged in most of the time, and should I switch the thresholds when I'm on the move?

Sorry for the supernoob questions, and I really appreciate the help. I'll check this out when I get home from work

I'm gonna be using partitions on my laptop, windows and Linux.

I'm gonna be editing video using photoshop and making audio production, so I'm definitely gonna need a good CPU for
This.

I've got about $500-700 to spend which one is right for me?

Thanks senpai

I mean, look at this story:
You see the thresholds using "sudo tlp-stat". Depending on distro. Debian (and thus Ubuntu) like changing configurations, whereas Arch likes keeping everything as developers intend.

To desu or not desu, that is the question

>not GNU/Linux

>using DESU/Linux
no familia, I'm actually straight.

That T430 looks in great condition. Nice one user!

Noticed that too. Pretty damn solid.

Is T420 a good choice for something art related?
Like drawing and making illustrations.

OS on mSATA SSD?

yes. It's mounted in the 2,5" via sata to msata adapter.
Decided to use mSATA because of almost no generated heat, very low power consumption and increased airflow (t420 and t430 has inflow for the cpu fan in 2,5" bay)

The screen is pretty crap, there is a 1600x900 model but I wouldn't suggest it for art.

If you're down with using an external monitor, maybe. I would advice against doing art on the crappy stock screen.

>t420 and t430 has inflow for the cpu fan in 2,5" bay
I didn't know that.
I have mSATA SSD with Win7, and mount it in the mPCIE slot.
I usually use it when I want to use Windows only programs or when traveling.
The HDD have Manjaro.

Where did you get the adapter?
I'm looking for a solve it all solution to connect various SSDs/HDDs, and preferably something that uses the eSATA port.

Still, I consume mongolian hand-drawing art from T420 screen, pretty good.

X60s MASTER RACE reporting in

The screen isn't important that much, since most of the work is probably webcomic/ digital art.
Would the CPU be good enough? and should 4 GB of RAM be sufficient?

picked up a barely used X230 from ebay for £110, fairly sure the seller didn't know what it was worth 'cause I've seen them go for minimum £180

now I have two thinkpads, and fuck I love the size of the X series.

Total Linux newbie here, so I need help. I'm planning on installing Mint on my T420 to ease myself into the life without Windows, I've heard that Mint is very approachable to the Windows crowd.
Do I want Cinnamon or MATE?

do you think the X60 in is good price?
i sent a message to the seller asking for the CPU model

Too much money.......none are in good working order.

Way too much money......

>Cinnamon or MATE
Both are decent choices.
I'd go with cinnamon personally.

Too much hassle........the fan in it is wrecked. Mine x60s is in good shape. I paid £60 for mine.

I also got a iBook G4 for £70 on Ebay as well, it is in VERY GOOD condition.

Keep looking on Ebay.......you will find a good deal on there eventually.

I have used Cinnamon and it worked great. With Mint......make sure you get a Long term release.....

Once a version of Mint isn't supported you can't install any software on it.

Another good thing is not just the active protection that kicks in once shit happens. It's also the passive protection where you can be much more careless carrying it around because you know if something happens you're okay.

I personally preffer MATE but just because im used to the old Ubuntu look

Only Computers I will use are IBM/Lenovo and Apple. They make the best Computers.

>sudo tlp-stat
I just run that and there was no line regarding that.
It suggested to install a kernel module for advance battery settings.

Just went through some shit and found my Thinkpad from years back, it works fine and I'll find something to do with it, but its got a faster and bigger SSD in there than my desktop.

Do I swap that shit around? Don't want to defile the Thinkpad but goddamn 60GB is not enough for a C: drive.

The command is wrong. It should only be# tlp stat

ebay.
I didn't have much choice, because I need the WWAN module.
Also this is how my previous setup looked like. 2x2TB HDDs and mSATA SSD. I don't recommend it tho, unless someone needs a mobile server functionality or something.

Is your background image is this?
Also how much for that dock station?
and what do you use for keyboard?

The previous owner of my T430 apparently ripped the battery out forcefully at one point or something - the pieces of plastic on the laptop side that keep the latches on the battery in place have broken off, meaning I can't secure the battery in place when it's in the laptop. Had already planned on upgrading the battery, but since the broken part is basically the frame of the laptop itself... How do I go about fixing this? I could 3D print small replacement bits of black plastic at just the right dimensions and superglue those in place or something, but somehow that feels less than ideal, too.

Ordered a T430s as a gift and got a T430u in the package. Should I just hang onto it? Is there any reason why one is better than the other?

Assume they both have 8GB RAM, a 128GB DVD and i5 processors. (I know the 430u processor isn't as powerful as the 430s).

post pics

Decent price, where'd you get it?

Picture for clarification.

And since this is part of the main lower frame, I would basically need to find a total loss T430 somewhere in order to get a replacement part, which would nearly be the size of the whole laptop and probably not be good to have shipped... And finding them locally is nigh impossible.

I got the dock with 2 keys for ~$10
Pic rel

There's no problem that duct tape isn't the solution. Get the non-residue kind for obvious reasons.

Reducing the max cpu state in windows power options to 90% can be felt, but i want to reduce the temps and fan noise a little bit. Would I feel slowness disabling turbo boost too ?

So, there is this T450s for sale in my neighbourhood for less than 400 euro's.... Seems way too good to be true, it's sold by a used electronics company.

It comes without a charger. Is this thing easy and cheap to fix if anything is wrong? Seems like a steal. Will my X230 charger work on it?

t430u is trash
return it