Thread 106917950

>>106812069
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)

Why ThinkPad?
>Used machines are plentiful and cheap
>Excellent keyboards, tactile feel and quiet + the TrackPoint
>Great durability: magnesium roll cage 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
>Excellent Linux & *BSD support

ThinkWiki - General info about ThinkPads/specs
https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

Model generations:
>Classic IBM: T40, T41, T42
>IBM/Lenovo Transition: T43, T60, T61 (T42 - T43: significant difference in specs)
>"Classic" Lenovo: T400, T410, T420 (T61 - T400: 4:3 to 16:10)
>Transition to old modern: T430, T440, T450 (T420 - T430: membrane to chiclet)
>Old modern: T460, T470, T480 (T450 - T460: significantly less thick)
>New modern: T490, T14g1, T14g2 (T480 - T490: design change)
>New new modern: T14g3, T14g4, ... (T14g2 - T14g3: second design change)

BIOS replacement:
https://coreboot.org/downloads.html
https://libreboot.org/docs/install/
https://canoeboot.org/docs/install/

Additional resources:
https://dankpads.com/tpg/
https://biosimage.booru.org
https://1vyra.in

Patches:
https://github.com/digmorepaka/thinkpad-firmware-patches
https://github.com/hamishcoleman/thinkpad-ec

Chat:
##ibmthinkpad on libera
#/tpg/ on rizon

got my first ever thinkpad x230, gonna replace teh keyboard and libreboot soon

Hello anons, I recently found an old Thinkpad in my aunt's closet. It's an R50e and it looks pretty good on the outside. It's still able to boot up, but the battery doesn't last more than 15 minutes (as is to be expected from old devices).
I haven't had the time to open it up yet, but if everything's alright inside, I would like to give it at least 8GB's of RAM and a more modern processor so it could handle more modern workloads.

Auntie stopped using it when Windows XP stopped receiving security updates, it's been sitting in the closet since then.
Is this specific model considered good?

>>106918330
>I would like to give it at least 8GB's of RAM and a more modern processor so it could handle more modern workloads.
Too old. It only takes single-core and up to 2 GB.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FQVNY5K/
will this fit in my wwan slot without getting damaged or causing damage? see conflicting stuff about it online, saying it's double sided but works

>>106919733
At least the 512 GB version is single-sided, I haven't seen the 1 TB

How do I deal with the shitass battery in my T440? I'd like to avoid needing outlet access whenever I use it for more than a few hours.

I have a T480 sitting around might as well fuck around with an open source BIOS. What's better coreboot or libreboot? Are there still issues with them e.g. specific subsystems not working? Do I need to bring out the flash programmer and flash the BIOS chip directly?

>>106921112
alright I'll give it a shot thanks

>>106918330
>Is this specific model considered good?
lol no

Anyone else struggling with random linux freezes on classic lenovo thinkpads? Something about cpu c-states or whatnot.

>>106924734
Not enough information.

>>106918120
Very nice. I'm currently reading through the libreboot documentation myself. Make sure you update the BIOS and apply the EC patch, and store a backup of the stock BIOS in a secure place.

Don't hold it like that, you'll get white spots on the screen.

Btw, does anyone know what's up with this niggerlicious captcha?

I bought a t480 refurbished via Best Buy in late September. Due to family problems I delayed opening/booting it up till this evening, October 17th. It was supposed to be shipped with Windows 10 Pro, I bought it because its my last chance to purchase a laptop with Windows 10.

I had a hellish time getting into this thing it kept wanting me to make a MS account for setup. After it spending an hour updating shit before I could get anywhere, I finally get into the OS for it to say Windows 11 is installed 10.18.25. It makes no sense as it wasn't even the 18th yet when I turned it on.

I thought perhaps because it spent so long installing stuff before I could get to access the OS that it somehow upgraded itself from 10 to 11, but I realize when I first booted it up, the Windows logo was a flat blue square, and not angled like it is on Windows 10. This thing was shipped with the wrong OS, I'm fucking pissed.

No idea what to do now. No, I don't want Linux.

>>106926155
You can still download W10 from Microsoft
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d#id0ejd=windows_10

>>106926507
I'm pissed because I wanted to purchase a machine ready to go and not have to deal with the hassle of installing an OS. It takes me long enough to tweak things with an OS already installed.

Got my mom a referb t480 last year with Win10, had no problems - same thing, bought through Best Buy.

I wrote the sellers concerning this and they replied back quickly, they were told by Best Buy Marketplace to start shipping laptops with Windows 11, and that they had returns because people had gotten them with 10 when they wanted 11. I'm the opposite. And I'm pissed because don't sell me a Win 11 machine when its CLEARLY advertised in the ad that its coming with Windows 10 Pro. I don't care if Win10 support ended in less than a month, it was still "good" when I bought that laptop in September.

Who gives a shit about security updates anyway I'm writing this from a 2009 desktop running fucking Vista.

I bought this Thinkpad as a "good" referb and it has more marks than Id like. The laptop must have spend alot of time closed in a bag there is so much keyboard marks on the screen. Its like, why couldn't of Levono simply designed it better to avoid that? Alot of people travel with them closed, such cheap oversight.

I'll likely return it, I am overall not happy. Not the right OS, marked up screen when my laptops are usually always open so I'd rarely get that, it didn't come with a backlit keyboard and the non-backlit keyboard has a grainy texture, and one of the mouse buttons is making more nose than I think it should.

I've got a t420 with coreboot and an intel 3632qm installed. Added a random ssd I had, 16g ram, new wifi card and a 1440p screen.

Great laptop. makes me feel more productive than I am. Terrible battery life on a new 6 cell and it kinda sucks at playing youtube (even with h264ify), but I had like 30 firefox tabs open and was running R-Studio and it handled it like a champ.
This computer is one of my favorite recent bouts of autism

>>106921372
If you see yourself upgrading to a T470p when your T440 can't keep up, it could make sense to buy a genuine 72Wh battery that you can reuse later. They go for around $50 lightly used.

I bought a refurbished T14s and it came with windows 11. i want to install windows 10 IoT ltsc. do i need a product key to do a clean install or do i just follow the massgrave guide?

So I just bought an used M1 Pro to watch gay porn on, and... what the fuck are these C++ compile speeds? It's legit comparable to my desktop.
And the thing doesn't even turn on fans while doing it.
I thought these things were a meme.

Screw it

>>106927907
enjoy your dead ssd

>>106927916
Not him but how is that a thing? Windows 11 is basically the exact same as 10 but with extra spy shit and AI bloat. If windows 10 fucks up SSD’s then so should windows 11

>>106927916
Okay I just googled it and it seemed to have been a driver issue caused by a specific update that has been fixed.

>>106928257
It was semi-shitpost, but I actually got hit by this. The ssd just disappears, even from bios. There's some bizarre shit going on.

>>106928416
>The ThinkPad P16s is also equipped with a 4K OLED display with the same 60Hz
>60Hz
>two thousand U.S. dollars
>60Hz
who the fuck is buying these?

I was fine using windows 11 until it started bugging me about installing some new update that included that recall and copilot shit. I immediately did a clean install of 10 LTSC

>>106924775
Well if you've got an x61 or similar and after some time of use it randomly freezes so bad you need to reboot it, let me know. I want to know if I'm not alone in this. I'm not looking for a solution.

already found something i miss from Win11, not a fan of the Win10 volume OSD

>put after market battery in my laptop.
>cpu goes into limp mode.
I may have cleared the prewritten battery info by fully draining it, but wtf.

>>106924734
Edit /etc/default/grub and append cpuidle.off=1 to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line. Then run: sudo update-grub

>average temp browsing 4chan and youtube on Win11 was 65-70c
>on Win10 it's 45-55c

holy shit

>>106929167
What old piece of shit laptop are you using?

>>106929174
T14s gen 3 with i5 lol

>>106929167
I have 10 firefox tabs open

>>106929180
Crazy because some people put w11 on xx20 machines

>>106929167
>average temp on linux is 65-70c
>with the occasional 90c spike
I really need to figure out a way to get rid of that stripped screw and clean the fan and replace the thermal paste...
When I get back home I'll try gluing the screwdriver to the screw.

>>106917950 (OP)
quick question, can i install windows 11 to my T480? if not ant work around? i need to play around with 11 before i decide to go all in.

>>106929422
If you have an 8th gen processor, yes. It'd work straight away.
If you have a 7th gen then it might complain and say your hardware isn't supported. Rufus can bypass that.
Rufus doesn't work on linux (natively, at least), so I don't know how you'd patch win11 isos on penguin.

>>106927712
>follow the massgrave guide
What?
Also maybe ask in a Windows thread.

I know it's sacrilege, but are there any used gaming laptops that have the value and quality of thinkpads?

>>106919368
>>106923478
Fuck, I wanted to put Arch on it and use it for document processing and some light browsing. I love the keyboard it has, that's why I was hoping I could give it some new components.
Oh well... Even if it's only 2 gigabytes, it's at least a bit better than megabytes. Don't know if I should bother with finding a stronger single-core processor, all I need on it is libreoffice, a file manager, a browser and a text editor. Nothing too fancy.

>>106929458
>Rufus doesn't work on linux (natively, at least), so I don't know how you'd patch win11 isos on penguin.
don't need to, just use ventoy and LTSC IoT 11 image

my t60 running linux would be 100% perfect except right after resuming from hibernate it freezes.
at least suspend works fine.
-- posted from my t60

>>106931000
>libreoffice
No idea how well that'd run, but since you already have it in hands, why not give it a try? Maybe test it on a live Endeavour session.
>a file manager
Are you fine with very light GUI ones or just using the terminal?
>a browser
Easily the biggest problem you'll have, by far. You could get a very light browser but you can't make modern websites any lighter. You could try blocking all javascript and other performance stuff (I still don't think it'd run very well) or use a text-based browser, which will probably work, but then it's text only.
>text editor
Vim, neovim or emacs.

libreoffice? no thanks, i prefer running windows 3.11 + office 4.3 inside dosbox-x.

>>106931979
posting from Win XP using my T60
Supermium is super slow for some fucking reason
mypal works fine, but the captcha doesn't load

>>106933256
I've been using a desktop with Vista since late 2023 and MyPal was great until Cloudflare fucked a ton of websites / old browsers over where either the page doesn't load at all or like here on 4chan, the captcha won't load.
I started using Supermium near the start of this year, it has it's good and bad points, never have been much a fan of Chrome based web browsers. If Supermium goes tits up I'm fucked - I don't know what else to use to browse the internet on an old Windows OS where things still work/load.

>>106926685
Update, contacted referb seller through Best Buy website. Explained I am not happy, it was advertised as Win10 Pro, it has far too many marks on the screen due to keyboard pressing on it, it did not state it had no backlit keyboard, and overall the listing was misleading. I have 30 days to return it.
Instead of just agreeing and accepting the return, he just hinges on the fact they can't install Windows 10 cause its too old and out of date. Not my problem, your listing SAID it came with 10. He's also saying the referb condition was "good" which allows for marks and such (I'm fine with some on the outer casing) but he also said it was "Grade A" which would imply excellent, as a good rating I assume would be a "Grade B". Also while I haven't tested it, the battery is from fucking 2019. I know referb places are generally accepting if the battery has 80% charge its ok for their recell standards, but this battery is old as fuck, no clue how many cycles it has been through.
I'm worried this ESL fuck is going to fight me on this return, and I avoided local classified just this once not to get scammed and now feel increasing helpless. I don't know, do I bitch at Best Buy that one of their sellers is being stubborn?

>>106917950 (OP)
When will boomers abandon their ChinkPads since October 14 scared them?

>>106934804
Thinkpad T480 is barely new enough that Microsoft would automically updoot it to W11
Too bad

>>106934817
Hopefully some of the boomers don't know that.

>>106931979
I've literally never used hibernate.

>>106934817
luckily the far superior t470 is not affected by this

>>106936144
>T490
>modern build quality
yes, everyone wants an even thinner lid even mode prone to rubbing the screen against the keyboard
>modern performance
Skylake+++
>modern battery life
I'm so excited to have half as much runtime

thinkbimp

In need of advice. I recently got a new external battery for my t450. Unfortunately, 2-3 months in, it doesn't seem to work anymore. It shows up in tlp and in the system info, but when the internal one depletes, the laptop shuts off immediately, not using the external batt. Same happens when I run tlp recalibrate on the ext - instant poweroff.
I am convinced the problem is with the battery itself as it is not original - do you guys have recommendations on quality third party external batteries for t450, as I am not sure if lenovo ones are even available new at this point

My x270 is showing it's age I and wanna upgrade to something that isn't a dual core, but I can't decide between getting a t480 or a intel t14s gen 1/2. I've gotten used to the battery life I get on my x270 (about 12 hours with the extended battery), I don't really need that much battery but I don't really want something that'll only last a few hours as well.
Would the T480 be better for me since I can just buy another extended battery for it or do the early intel t14s get decent battery life with light usage?

>>106932044
I'm completely fine with the terminal. I already use Vim on my main machine and Ranger would be a good, familiar option for a light file manager.
For the browser I've been thinking about librewolf (it's what I usually use), but a friend of mine told me that qute browser might be a better choice for a machine with very little RAM.
I'm a college student, so as long as I can still download the documents that our professors send us it will be fine.

My other machine is an 2019 Acer laptop and the keyboard is really shallow. My fingers and forearms hurt from typing a lot, which is often neccessary (I type out 10.000 characters or more most days). The Thinkpad keyboard is deeper, closer to an actual mechanical one, so that's why I desire the Thinkpad to work. My hands won't survive another 2 years of this.

is it possible to remove intel management engine?

>>106937750
me_cleaner

Just bought a L490 and the seller has installed windows 11 pro. should i leave it as is or install something else on it?

I will mainly be using it to record tiktok streams using IDM

>>106937419
unironically depends if you are using it for work
for comfy neetposting t480 + keeping the old x270 as a backup will suffice

>>106938459
any /g/ autist would never trust an OS he didn't install

i specifically remember owning and using a T480, the keyboard fucked up so i bought a T14s to replace it.
I just went to look for it but can't find it anywhere, i found my old T450 but not the T480.
I checked my ebay account and there is no trace of any T480.

I enjoy the thicker look of the old ThinkPads but I would assume tearing them down and replacing the internals to modernize would be the play? Anyone done that here or do you just use it as it was?
What would you guys recommend for something to put Linux on and do general things like writing, light web browsing etc?
I have briefly tried running Linux before but it just never stuck.
Thanks lads.

>>106937419
all generations of t14/t14s have much better battery life than the t480 even if the t480 has the max battery (which are rare and tough to get genuine ones these days). the t480 has abysmal battery life, it's much worse than the t470.
>>106939487
virtually impossible unless you're willing to waste a ton of money on it (if you do this you're inevitably going to brick some test boards.)
>>106937366
just get a new laptop at this point
>>106930550
i'm not aware of any gaming laptop that has a trackpoint+three buttons
>value
>quality
neither of the above are things you'll find in thinkpads. if you want those get a different brand, only reason to get thinkpad is trackpoint

>>106939777
>all generations of t14/t14s have much better battery life than the t480 even if the t480 has the max battery
I have both a T14G1a (48 Wh) and a T480 (80 Wh) and the T480 easily gets twice the runtime of the T14 when browsing or watching videos

>>106939487
If you like thick just get a P52/P53/P15 or if you're poor T540p/W541/P50. All of them still usable today.

>>106937419
>x270
>dual core
What? The t430 has support for a quad core. Did it took them over four generation to add that to the x series? Damn.
>>106937554
You already got it, so might as well try that. On keyboard department you're golden, that still uses the best keyboard they made, possibly the best laptop keyboard ever.
Also report back on how that goes, I'm curious.
>>106939487
I remember seeing a while ago some chink company making custom boards for x220-x230 laptops with upgraded CPUs. This isn't common and soldering those things isn't easy and requires special equipment. If this was a viable business strategy (as in, people gave a shit about keeping old units out of the landfill) I'd be willing to invest into this and make some myself, but this isn't the good ending route.

/g/, are all brand new thinkpad models truly trash? I was looking for a T580 but they are very rare in where I live. T480 is too small for my usecase and it doesn't have a numpad.

>>106941265
T590 and T15 are full of contempt for the user but the current T16, especially since gen 3, isn't terrible. Not a true T580 successor but at least it has a reasonably sized battery and replaceable RAM. Keyboard is meh. If you don't regularly type on older 'pads you can probably get used to it and forget it was ever better.

>>106939777
lenovo themselves say the the t480 has more battery life than the t14/s gen 1/2, what the fuck are you on about.

>>106941758
To be fair to the T480 deranged poster, the advertised battery lives are always lies and IME it's a somewhat bigger lie for the T480 than for some others from the era
t. obsessive hoarder with seven nupads from 2017-2019

i have decided to chudmaxx

Remember to clean your ThinkPad well

>>106926155
>No idea what to do now.
Bro its the easiest thing in the world to fix.
>download windows 10 ltsc 2021 iso from archive.org
>create bootable usb drive with iso using rufus
>boot drive onto your stinkpad making sure during setup to wipe all the drive partitions to kill windows 11 and all its pieces
>make sure when setting up windows 10 TO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET so that windows 10 is forced to allow you to create a local account
>once in windows 10 go online and download massgrave and use it to activate windows
>go online again to lenovo and download windows 10 drivers for your model of thinkpad and install. Special emphasis on video, audio, and chipset drivers
>ignore all prompts from windows to create a microsoft account
>enjoy
>OPTIONAL: edit your registry to lock in your current edition of windows and block windows 11 auto install in the future. Google "prevent windows 11 install" or something.

When I buy thinkpads I specifically buy the "NO HDD, NO OS" listings because they are cheaper and I'm just going to install my own hacked bloat free windows 7 or 10 OS anyways. Refurbishers need not waste my time with their prebuilts.

>>106944629
>>106926155
you are both retarded. you can make a bootable USB with Rufus that automatically creates a local account, shuts off telemetry, etc. All of this is done in the Rufus GUI without even needing to edit config files. this information is a simple google search away and yet here you are on /g/ thrashing about like a downie

Looking for a thinkpad to install arch on and use almost solely for note taking. What’s the best model/s to look for? Not fussed with secondhand and I’ve got a budget of around A$400-A$500

>>106941758
lenovo also said the x220 had 24 hour battery life. you can disregard everything they say about battery life
>>106944904
T14g1-2. g3+ fucked up the keyboard

>>106943673
I'm looking at getting a thinkpad for that exact reason. I don't want to "upgrade" to W11 but I don't want to cold-turkey swap my daily driver over without at least trying a few distros out, and I don't have a spare device to dick around with (no I don't want to do my experimentation in VMs).

So now I'm sitting here cross-referencing the wiki, ebay, youtube, and search engines to find out which models I should be considering and at what price.

>>106944993
Isn't it easier and cheaper to just buy another SSD and dual boot from it instead? Then later on when you find a good thinkpad you buy it without storage and save some money.

>>106945005
Probably.

>>106944658
Or you just tell windows that you don't have wifi during setup, retard.

>>106939487
There was a chinaman making replacement boards for the X2xx and X6x (to name a few), but he got disappeared by the CCP a while back. No one's heard from him since.

There's another project focusing on some early iteration of the X200, that has a CPU with that AI bullshit baked into it.

Makes you wonder why burgers don't don't do cool shit like this. There's open source firmware at least.

>>106945454
>Makes you wonder why burgers don't don't do cool shit like this
China is the one making everything nowadays. For a burger to make it he'd need a hook in chinaland to buy the boards and ideally assemble everything there in order for it to be economically viable.