/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).

>New to /tpg/ or looking for purchasing advice? (hint: use the advice request template, it makes life easier)
pastebin.com/nBqTEbHn

>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 HP Elitebook (2570p, 8770W, 2170p), Dell Latitude/Precision (E6430, E6440, E7440) and P, T, X, and W SERIES if you want the Real Business Experience™

>Recommended models and mod guide:
pastebin.com/jVSuE175

>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:

linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/Gluglug-The-Free-Software-ThinkPad
forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1789929&extra=page=1
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Do all T420s have bluetooth?

if i put a SIM card into my WWAN slot on my x230 could i use it to take phonecalls?
what software would be needed to?
i know its stupid but im just wondering if its possible

Just posting to remind everyone that there are only two acceptable Thinkpads to buy new today:

X62
T70

with X210 and possibly X302 arriving in the coming months.

All recent Lenovo units are trash, no exceptions.

I've heard you can put m14x screen in t420 but there are 30 pin and 40 pin models (as i understand). Which one is compatible?

Dumpster dived a T61, trying to boot it but it's stuck in a boot loop, how do I fix it? Flash the bios? It doesn't even post nor allow me to enter BIOS, I guess that's why the owner threw it out.

>X62
>T70
if only they were easier to get for westerners...

To make the touchscreen pen work, I needed to deactivate Wayland and go back to X. That could be the issue because unity has its own window server, depending on how much time ago you installed Ubuntu.

different user here. I bought an x200 recently, pic related. If I install Lubuntu on it, do you think the pen will work? It would be really cool if it did but if not, well no loss I suppose. I plan on using i3wm on it too.

Try xubuntu lts

Why Xubuntu?

It's been the most stable linux distor for me, specially for older machnes.

The T420 that I just bought's resolution is 1600x900 with the Intel HD 3000 driver installed. The corner of the lid shows evidence that it was opened, so I assume a new screen was put in. Does this just mean that the previous owner put a better screen in it? Is there a way to tell if it has an Nvidia card in in it or not?

Sure, it's a modern Linux distribution with X. Not sure if lxde has support though. I'm from the thread before and I just went for Fedora

what kind of evidence? chips on the bezel corners are very common and not an indicator that it was opened up

Oh I see. I know ubuntu has wacom drivers, which the pen is. I don't have the laptop yet so I can't test it. I might have to move around to different distros to find which one works. I'm mostly worried about the orientation flip and whether or not that will be recognized.

I considered going the Fedora route. I like the design suite that they have since I'm into a few art stuff. But now I find myself writing more. Mostly use Emacs to write my journal and moving towards terminal applications. I'm not sure if I can fully transition to Fedora from Ubuntu. I'll just have to relearn some commands if I do switch. Shouldn't be too hard.

The corner where the two halves would come apart is more apart as if it were opened and couldn't be put together tightly.. Is that just a common thing?

The orientation flip worked out of the box on my yoga (thinkpad yoga, not consumer yoga)

All you have to learn on Fedora when moving from Ubuntu is to type dnf instead of apt-get and download rpm instead of deb. Both are pre configured and stable "newbie"-friendly distributions

it's really not difficult. people on 51nb will help ship it to you. buying crap from taobao is much worse.

I have x201t with xubuntu 17.04 installed, the pen works just fine, it's also pressure sensitive.

dafuq is this and how do i fix it without buying a replacement screen?

Thats backlight bleed user, only fixable with a new screen :(

Is it? I always thought that light bleeding appears on the extremities of a bad or low-quality display. This looks as if a lamp or some shit decided to become visible right in the middle of the screen.
Anyway, I've heard that gently rubbing the area could help, I just don't want to make the matter worse.

That's what you get for buying chinknovo

They should just sell it in Ali, or eBay.

I'm sure they'd sell a lot more.

Hey guys

I've got a T420 and I've noticed that sometimes the colour gets super washed out at times when watching things. It usually happens when it goes from a dark scene to something light. Is this fixable or should I just get used to it?

So I got a X200 on ebay, including ultra base and everything else for a working computer (hdd, ram, etc) for $90! I've been in touch with the people at libreboot on their IRC, so I'm gonna get myself a freedom lappy!

I already have a X201 with miltiple mods, though… Still contemplating if I'll be navigating the hardware from that to this. I probably will, to make it my new main machine.

Oh, I also convinced my girlfriend to get a Thinkpad X220 Tablet for $135 on an ebay auction! She got really lucky at that price, the images weren't stock so I'm excited to see the condition of it beyond the pictures taken, because it looked great!

I live in middle of third world country, so I can't order parts online.
How much does SODIM DRR3 RAM and SSD should cost?

It depends from country to country.

Don't talk to me or my son ever again

my nigga
8470p reporting in

>X302
please tell me more, user.

Nice. Just got the smaller one today

What can I expect from the T450s? Need it for work and studying.
Comes with the FHD IPS display, 256GB SSD, 12GB RAM and i7-5600U. Will have to inquire about the battery since the seller only says "5h of battery life". Besides some slight wear the condition looks fine too.

Is it even worth buying a laptop now, considering that ryzen will be available on mobile at the end of the year ?

got a feeling that a ryzen laptop isn't going to revolutionize mobile computing to the point where we all throw out every laptop we've bought up to this point

>qwertz
>strg
what is wrong with germans?

What's the average?

Definitly not, but i'm talking about generally buying a new laptop.

remove keyboard stare at heatsink
also the screen has nothing to do with dgpu but whatevs

Sort of related... does anyone know a good place to get thinkcentre / thinkstation desktop cases in the U.K.? I just wanted to get some empty cases to build an aesthetic media box.

you can fall for the just wait meme

that said considering at least 95 percent of the market is intel (and that being generous) I wouldnt think amd would directly turn the tides for intel ULVs

Where should I look online for parts?
Need to get an SSD for X220.

pcpartpicker

What do guys?

Random-san sells his X60s, Core duo. Seems in pretty good shape, almost no marks, 100GB HDD, 2GB RAM.

For 30€ shipping included. Only drawback is the battery is dead so I'd have to buy another one.

newegg or ebay

I think both you of you did well
>random-san has no use for his old business grade lunchbox so he sells it off
>now you have a lightweight shitposting machine
now buy a x62 mobo

I haven't bought it yet. I wondered if 30€ was correct but apparently there's is no doubt.

What with the x62 mobo? Is it the next step into ThinkPad autism?

its a newer mobo made by some very helpful chinks that love IBM more than lelnovo

its essentially a spec bump for an old laptop its rather neat if youve got the cash to throw at it

Why won't my x200 enable its wireless capablities until its running a live OS?
The other day I installed Fedora on it but for some reason I needed to be wired to my router during the installation process
It was only afterward that I could connect wirelessly

What about X60 Gluglug, the ThinkPad that cares about your freedom?

linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/Gluglug-The-Free-Software-ThinkPad

Anyone know how I can flash the regular old Lenovo BIOS back onto my x60 Tablet? I've got all the hardware to do it, I just need to find a ROM. But Lenovo only offers an executable file for Windows and a Bootable CD image.

The BIOS software on my laptop's chip is completely missing due to trying to flash Libreboot while I had a BIOS supervisor password set and thus couldn't complete the flashing. I then removed the BIOS battery for a few minutes to try to reset it to the original BIOS but it seemed to wipe the chip clean.

I suppose I could try to flash Libreboot again now that the chip is wiped but the BIOS supervisor password also sneakily encrypted my hard drive I was using and I'm able to access it unless I boot from it with that specific Lenovo BIOS (prompts me for password when I put it in my x220 but doesn't recognize the correct password).

Anyone got any advice for me? I've got a years worth of research material on that drive which is irreplaceable.

it seems fun to just spout memery without actually thinking about what one says, isn't it?
Gluglug relinks to MOF since quite some time and they don't have x60 in stock since a long time.
Regarding your linked article:
>coreboot
wew, if that is what you call freedom
also, I doubt they use coreboot if they link to MOF, which is run by the maintainer of libreboot

>get a refurbrished T420 with win7 on it
>harddrive is obviously shit
>guess ill clone the content unto a larger, faster one.
>Clonezilla? lemme try that.
>The copy wont boot
>But, somehow, the original harddrive got corrupted, windows says shits fuck and it aint gonna boot.
>Fucking hell. So... order some recovery media from lenovo...? Nah
Guess its time to install gentoo.

>cloning a freshly installed OS
>cloning WIndows

>>cloning a freshly installed OS
why wouldnt i...
>>cloning WIndows
i remember it working using a cracked version of acronis trueimage.

I don't have any actual numbers, but I'd be willing to guess, depending on your hardware of course, that cloning a barebones OS probably takes around the same amount of time as installing one. Maybe not for Windows because it's full of bloat for the average user, but installing something like Ubuntu on decent hardware probably takes less than 10 minutes. And Ubuntu is extremely bloated too.

Well its because of the OEM license bullshit and that recovery partition, if reinstall i wouldnt be able to activate it.

if it's the correct version of windows and the sticker on the bottom is still intact you shouldn't have problems activating it

Anyone?

Found an old R500 that was out in the rain last night. Its drying off under a fan right now - anything else to do before I try and power it up? Thinking that after a day or two it should be alright.

You cant get an installation media for windows 7 OA... for whatever reason.

I live third world too, central america and we use american dollars.

>SSD around 80 bucks for 120gb
>RAM 4GB DDR3 $25 used of course. 8GB kits are around $100.

OA part doesn't matter, it just needs to be Home or Pro or whatever the license is for

>>SSD around 80 bucks for 120gb
Just got my kingdian msata 120gb for like 50$.
Its great.

Just pulled the trigger on my first Thinkpad, did I do okay?

www.ebay.com/itm/12-5-ThinkPad-X220-Tablet-Core-i7-2620M-2-70GHz-NO-HDD-4GB-RAM-Wi-Fi-/292174383042

no

>SSD around 80 bucks for 120gb
What brand?
In ME WD SSD 120GB is around 60$
>Buying used RAM
Is this a good idea?
>8GB kits are around $100
For 8GB X 2?

Is the x220 worth the intel backdoor?

Not a fan of the tablet version but ya. Could've probably found it for cheaper though. I got my non-tablet i7-2640M for $120.
>tfw you bought 16GB of 1866MHz DDR3L later for the same price

Intel backdoor? You mean AMT? You can disable that from the BIOS. Also,
>not flashing Coreboot

is 200 bucks a good deal for a x230 with an i5-3320M, 5g ram, 500g storage?

Oh sweet, thanks.
Wasn't going to flash coreboot (at least at first) because a friend has issues with his when he did it.

not really, you can find better deals if you keep searching

and you'll want to get an ssd and another 4gb stick of ram probably

I guess those cheap kingston drives will be enough and around that price.

RAM is not know to fail that much, specially if you test it before buying it.

>For 8GB X 2?

No, 4GB x2.

So 200 is an average deal for one with 8g and a ssd?

followup question: is 140 bucks good for an x220?

Is it possible to disable dgpu in t430 such that the dgpu isn't fed any electricity at all(to increase battery life)? Are there any side effects for doing this?

That is fantastic news! I'm considering going using 16.04 LTS though. Is it worth using the non LTS versions?

It's Steuerung because it's needed to steuern other Tasten you Schwuchtel

I'm wanting to get a thinkpad for playing DooM on, needs an Nvidia card (opengl).

I also like the tablet like ability of the thinkpad, can try amateur artistry.

Anybody have any personal experience dooming on a thinkpad?

My budget is about £700

Oh yes, was wondering too how Doom goes on Windows 10

Get an X1 Yoga

>buy a x62 mobo
Don't do this.

Maybe one day M8
Way outside my price range

is the x220 a meme?
where can I find one in the UK?

Coreboot/Libreboot question.
Any user ever tried installing on a non supported laptop with similar specs as a supported laptop?

what do you think about the E470?
it looks pretty nice & the price is good
(and I don't want to go for anything used)

the point of these threads and thinkpads is buying premium laptops secondhand, because it's a good deal and a good value

if you're in the market for something new then
>Sup Forums is NOT your personal tech support team or personal consumer review site.

Me again, I found two good listings on ebay, now its just between..
>x220 i5-2520M for £115
? OR ?
>x230 i5-3320M for £125

I don't live in the US, so it's really hard to find secondhand thinkpads around here.
people sell used x220 with cracks (& no IPS) for over 300USD

I can buy used thinkpads from ebay, but I don't know where to start
and I'm looking for something that has low fan noise (I believe 2nd & 3rd gen core cpus aren't likely to be cool and quiet)

X230.
Personally, I'd also look up for 2570p as it is better than x230, imo.
3rd gen CPUs are okay, being cool and quiet at the same time.

I never had a thinkpad, and want to buy at least one. Few questions for that hooefully some kind user would answer.
>What's the oldest/cheapest thinkpad with 1080p+ display
>How many hours to expect with a battery, are there modern compatable batterues with longer life
>Some on ebay are bios locked will libreboot bypass these
>Is it better to buy a parts only, and upgrade (I don't mind putting time in to it)
>Pricing (not important as this is probably easy to research on my own)

X61T is pretty comfy laptop for basic browsing. Have it fitted with a SSD and 4gb ram. A shame that the battery sucks.

Well, what's your budget and your needs?

How's KDE on the x220 these days?

ebay

>how's KDE?
*crashes*

They're about to take preorders and will begin production if they get at least 100 orders.

4999 of the people's currency for the board+HSF. i7-7500u.

forum.51nb.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1789929&extra=page=1

old laptop broke, not really comfortable buying a new one in my country.

Any suggestions for a decent school computer?