/tpg/ - ThinkPad General - Keion Edition

Previous thread: If you're looking for purchase advice, state your budget and requirements (e.g. size and performance).
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).

Libreboot-compatible models:
>T60, X60; X200, T/W400/500
Modern models:
>X220/X230 - 12", 768p, cheap and light
>T420/T430 - 14", 900p, widely available, socketed CPU, Ivy Bridge installable w/ Coreboot on T420; Old keyboard swap on *30 series
>T/W52/30 - 15", 1080p, DTR, 32GB RAM on quadcore models, USB 3
>T440p/540p; W540/1 - Last Thinkpads with socketed processors, easily replaceable trackpad (W541 doesn't need trackpad replacement)
>P-Series - 15'' + 17'', 4K display, 64gb of RAM, Xeon CPU option. Expensive. Bad stock cooling reported by multiple owners.

Why ThinkPad?
>Used machines are plentiful and cheap
>Excellent keyboards - tactile feel and quiet
>Great durability: 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 (most models), upgrade & maintain thanks to readily available service manuals for every model, spare parts easy & cheap to obtain
>The best TrackPoint, great for those who type a lot or hate swiping their fingers all over a touchpad
>Excellent GNU/Linux & *BSD support

>Hardware Maintenance Manuals (HMM's) and Windows drivers for legacy devices:
download.lenovo.com/eol
>Used laptop guides by xsauc:
dankpads.com
>ThinkWiki - Info on ThinkPads & running GNU/Linux on them:
thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki
>ThinkPad service guides w/ tutorial videos:
lenovoservicetraining.com/
>EPP discount for new ThinkPads:
pastebin.com/JVwVGVTW
>BIOS logo booru:
biosimage.booru.org/

Attached: ritsu t420.png (480x480, 226K)

Other urls found in this thread:

smallformfactor.net/reviews/thermal-paste-a-roundup#Results
frys.com/product/9394150?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

How is everyone doing?

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Good! Thank you for making this thread. Ritsu is super cute.

shit girl, shit anime, shit op, shit thread

Using my T410 to install Gentoo on my T60 and Porteus on an SD card for my X200.

going to replace my t430 cpu. Whats a good thermal paste brand to use?

Most name brand pastes perform similarly to each other.
smallformfactor.net/reviews/thermal-paste-a-roundup#Results
I've been using the same tube of CP7 for the past 2 years, worked fine on my T440p.

Repostan
I know you guys hate them, but I'm wondering if I can use an msata ssd in my elitebook 8470p. There's a slot and screwhole for it but is it meant for storage or a wwan card?
Here's a smug Cheney as thanks

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is that the "i hope you guys seriously don't do this" guy today?

man he looks really old these days

No user, that's the " I ruined all your collective lives for the next 5 decades" guy.

thanks, Ill go with that one then

X270 vs t470, how limited are my hub options with the x270?

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Repostan in new thread

Good, thank you.

I now possess an x220 Tablet.
>i5-2520m 2.5GHz
>4GB RAM
>320GB 7200RPM HDD
>Ultrabase 3 dock with 90W adapter
>$80
I swapped out the HDD with a Samsung 256GB 850 EVO, installed Mint with the Cinnamon DE and I'm currently using TLP to recalibrate the battery. Thinking about getting a drive caddy for the bay in the base so the 320GB HDD doesn't go to waste.

Attached: x220t.png (768x1024, 1.73M)

29++ - has no authentication chip, and can only be used in X220
44++ - comes standard with the authentication chip, and be used in X220 and X230

29++ can be used in X230 if you do a bios mod, though.

>>$80

what the fuck

Is there no other difference? Thanks.

While we're on the subject of batteries, my X220 used to report first use date and cycle count, but my (bios modded) X230 using the exact same battery and OS (I just swapped the SSD) doesn't - could that be because it's not a 44++?

$200 with some tape and glue residue on the lid
how did I do?

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I'm thinking of giving my T420 a SSD, what's the size that (usually) gives best bang for the buck speed wise? 256gb?

>1600x900
>i7 3520m
Very good T430, just missing an ssd. You could add an msata if you want to keep the dvd drive.

Woah you got the rare variant with the NVS 5400M with 2GB of VRAM (instead of 1), nice!
Very good deal but an SSD is certainly a must.

that eras' p model elitebooks couldn't do msata. my 2570p has the same limitation

and fuck "msata sux muh 6gb/s" guy it's free real estate

500 gb SSD and T420 keyboard are in the mail thanks guys

Enjoy your new ThinkPad user!

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Replace the keyboard too

Why does my x220t have this under the thinkpad logo?

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was probably a fleet laptop for a library or some other nerdass book organization and they etched their logo into the lid. then someone began grinding it off with a dremel for some dumb reason but gave up like 45sec in

Pretty good, ordered a BBB last night with the intention of using it to flash libreboot on my t400, but this morning decided against that so I can keep a windows partition on it. Don't feel like canceling the order though, so I'm thinking of buying again

lol upon closer inspection the grinding was to remove text (one of the words was "school") from the etching, probably for "privacy" reasons

Better keyboard than ThinkPad.

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Pretty good, nearly done configuring Openbox properly for the first time on my T420. I finally got around to switching over from Gnome now that I've got some time on Spring Break.

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>dedicated euro and dollar sign keys

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How did you do that with Mugi? It's amazing.

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and I've posted this before, but pic related is the back of the machine
Good edition, OP

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thats gbp, ya big silly willy

uk keyboard, iso best layout

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?

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It's just a .PNG file opened in borderless mode in nomacs, I just put it there for the screenshot. Apologies for the trickery.
However, I know that there is a guy named Ben that posts in the desktop threads (I think it's the one on /w/) that has experience with that sort of thing. He's got Mio from Nichijou integrated into various elements of his UI.

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Here's the PNG

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I see. Still very nice user.

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Only if I find the weeb edition KB.

not hard to get JP keyboards for 7-row

sorry my love. i thought you were talking about Shift+3

i love you

Due to some reasons I had to peel off the whole rubber surface of a T420's top cover. Are those cover skins any good or should I just buy another?

Don't want to plasti dip it.

you got a pic of that?

ah damn
I guess it's missing the controller?

ok fellers, got T420 and T520 just yesterday. Quick questions:
1. Should I update the bios? they are running something from 2011, and I'm not planning on installing coreboot.
2. fingerprint readers seem to be disabled on both, to the point where neither fprintd nor bios actually detect them (bios throws a device not found). I haven't seen anything suspicious when I was disassembling the T420, although I had no idea about the reader at the time so I might've missed something

1. dont bother
2. the reader is useless anyway, dont even bother

I bought a x220 a couple of days ago and I love it, but the bluetooth is either broken or disabled. The keyboard shortcut for it does nothing and when troubleshooting windows says that there it has no bluetooth capabilities.

Am I missing something? I've checked the bios and I couldn't come up with anything.

$75, excellent condition, light tape marks on the lid (how do I remove them btw?) How did I do?

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weeb edition KB feels so good

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Recently got a T430 with similar specs for the same price.

Only difference is that I got 16GB DDR3L-2133 RAM + 1GB NVS 5400M while you got 8GB RAM + 2GB NVS 5400M instead.

You did great. Enjoy your new laptop.

[spoiler]I prefer the 2GB GPU. I'm quite jealous now.[/spoiler]

w520 freezes whenever I move it slightly. 9 times out of 10 I end up not being able to get much further than grub.


I am nowhere in the position to buy something, but I have a t60 and t61

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the mio on my desktop music player and todolist is done by a script periodically editing my wallpaper with imagemagick; ive seen another poster on irc called gentsu I think using a cario instance as a scripted transparent image viewer to do similar things

With a posix wm you can definitely do the mugi effects for real like that I think

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rare x183

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Recently got a T430 as a gift from a friend of mine. The only issue with the laptop is that the motherboard is dead and I'll have to buy a new one and replace it. All other parts are fine as I have been able to test them on another T430.

I have been looking at the T430's FRU List to find the part number of the motherboard so I can more easily search for it on ebay or aliexpress but I'm finding some of the list's terminology confusing and I don't know what's the difference between all the listed motherboard models and which one should I get.

I want to get a motherboard with the 2GB 5400 GPU so I guess that the ones that say "SWG 2GB" are the ones I should be looking at but I don't know what "AMT", "TPM" and "AES" are. I guess that the the "Y-" and "N-" prefixes indicates if the motherboard has one of those things or not.

Anyone able to make some sense out of all of this?

Pic releated: Motherboard models and part numbers

Attached: t430 mobo fru.png (690x710, 220K)

I kind of want a weeb keyboard for my T420
Any wierdness when you use it for only English? Looks like everything is in the correct place-ish

Proud Soypad owner.

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Oh hey, I didn't know you posted in here. I love seeing your work. Interesting info, thank you.

From what I hear that tiny spacebar is a real pain in the ass.

My guesses:
AMT is the Intel Management Engine and related. The TPM is the Trusted Platform Module, for key management and trusted-GRUB, basically irrelevant. AES is whether it has crypto acceleration.

Good.

I'm building a custom/smaller W7 image to install on both of muh Chinkpads
> T420 & X61

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Acer keyboards are shit.
> t. guy who had Acer laptops at his job

How bad has forced obsoletion effected Thinkpads compared to MacBooks?

It's just another concern from a previous laptop, but heard both are decent for second hand use.

Whoever told you that is wrong

I bought an elitebook 8470p for $145
It has a locked BIOS though..
So far it doesn't seem like it preventing me from booting off a USB and installing linux, but I'm having an interesting issue here, and I don't know if it's because I'm running off a live USB or if visualization is disabled in the BIOS.
pic related, I can't get qemu to use KVM even though modprobe says it's there and lscpu detects the vt-x extension in the CPU.

If this is because the BIOS is locked, is there a way to reset it or should I return it? If the former is true I can get a partial refund off the seller right? How much should I ask for in that case?
sorry for the autism

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Macbooks are overpriced shit. You can buy a Macbook w/ a Core 2 Duo or buy a Thinkpad with a Core i5 for the same (or less) price.

Also you can turn your Thinkpad into a Hackintosh, if you like OSX.

It hasn't affected them at all because they were designed to last, not get updated after an annual conference. These computers are literally space-travel-tier technology, seeing how they constitute the absolute majority of computers used in ISS. Keep in mind that this design philosophy was dropped on chinkpads

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That was my purpose for a MacBook. Experience in the OS, that's it.

But still want to know what optioms for thinkpads upgrading to IPS? That's when I question support. Ram, SSD, all the other components are readily available for the T430 that I've been eyeballing.

People with big spacebars are just compensating for something...

Go grab the manual from thinkwiki.org and have a look-see. It's a little stub of a daughterboard with a single screw holding it down underneath the right side of the palm rest. I'm forearms-deep in my x220t right now after replacing the thermal paste.

Looks like a great deal; mirin' that i7 and the dGPU.

IPS screens are available for the T430, and you can slap an Alienware screen on a T420, but they are pretty rare...

are there any x301 fans here?
>1440x900 display
>lightweight
>1.4 Ghz cpu
>original retail $3200 (!!!!!!)
I'm wondering if they run like dogshit on the modern web tho.

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What CPU does it have?

Also I'll elaborate on why I bought it, since this thread is mainly thinkpad focused (my main machine is a T520)
>hackintoshes pretty much ootb from what I've read
>has expresscard for eGPU but also a massive cooling block so the CPU wont throttle, especially if you put a quadcore in
>needed a 14in to lug around

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They only came with a core2 duo U series or something. It looks like an x200 would kick its ass. I was curious as to why they sell for as much as an x220/30 these days.. They seem to be lenovo's competitor to the macbook air of 2008

>become obsessed with the x1c6 despite my refurbished elitebook still fulfilling my use case.
halp

Maybe they sell "high" because they are rare/not as common as an X200+.

The CPU seems a little shitty (I have an X61 w/a C2D @2.20GHz and woks pretty well)

If Best Buy was selling refurbished T420's with an i5 2520, 8gb ram, 180 gb SSD and windows 10 for 280 dollars online only with no images showing the current condition would you buy it?

What's the most popular Thinkpad around here?

>Alienware
Wow. Neat. Kinda sad it was Dell that I was leaving. The laptop still kicking ass in a relatives ownership.

Thanks for that, now I just have to find an opportunity without FOBO.

If anyone remembers where i asked about thermal pads in the x220 a few threads ago, im back and i have an answer.

I took it all apart again and i can confirm that the thermal pad on the x220 southbridge IS a gapfiller pad and using paste in lieu is NOT suitable, there was hardly any spread on the paste when i took the heastsink back off. If you just pasted it too, you should take it apart and redo it with a pad. Luckily i already had some high conductivity pad spare.

I've taken apart laptops and found little squares of copper stacked where those crappy pads used to be.

Most of them have nasty 1366x768 displays. The price sounds a tad high

Do you have a link, or it's a supposition?

Supposition.

Then, No.

If that were real, I'd go, max, for $200.

IVe done that once or twice, dont have thin copper sheet around to cut up
though.

Pad is fine for a southbridge, they hardly even do anything important these days anyway.

I need to psych myself up and install an mSata drive in my x220.
I found most of those copper squares installed in housefire HP's where the pads were probably incinerated.

I should have just given the link. I thought it'd get sold right away if I did:

frys.com/product/9394150?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

These guys sell old/used laptops as "refurbished". They just add more ram and the SSD. It's a scam.

I was very lucky to buy an "used" X61, but it was in brand-new conditions. Only has missing the HDD caddy, but the keyboard was intact. Still smells like new.

> feelsgoodman.jpg

And the battery it's at 100% of life/health.

You can pick up a T420 for 100 US, 8GB of RAM for 40, and whatever SSD. Use the rest to find a better display?

So i read that getting the SSD in 2.5" driver bay format and not the msata is preferable, because the msata slot is only sata 2 and the drive bay is sata 3 (twice as fast), because of the sandy bridge chipset. Sata 2 will severely hobble an SSD.

Oh, dude. Check my dubs!

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Sata II are fine.
I have/use a 256 MSATA for the OS(es)

Interesting. I still use spinning rust in most machines. I bought a cheap mSata drive for a project that failed and needs a home.

If you are afraid of SATA II speeds, you still can buy an adapter to turn that MSATA into a normal 2.5 Sata SSD.

I'm considering getting a T430, but I really like the feel of the T420 keyboard. How hard/costly is a keyboard swap?