I've been trying to find Thinkpad laptops with specifications equivalent to, or better than my old Ideapad with i5-8265U. So far, I've only been using Ebay. Unless explicitly mentioned, all prices are without shipping charges. This time, I've restricted myself to the following rules:

• Assume +100$ for all product (international shipping)
• Look for 8th, 9th and 10th gen Intel processors, and 1st, 2nd and 3rd gen AMD processors.
• 8 (assuming SODIMM is free for another 8GB)/16/32GB of RAM
• 256GB (if device is cheap, I can upgrade it myself)/512GB/1TB
• Pick devices with 8th gen Intel processors under 200$
• Pick devices with 9th gen Intel and 1st gen Ryzen processors under 250$
• Pick devices with 10th gen Intel and 2nd/3rd gen Ryzen processors under 300$
• Assume an extra 50-100$ for workstation dGPU
• Do not buy anything higher than 450$ (with shipping price included)

However, to my surprise, 8th gen devices are still being sold around 250-350$, 9th gen devices and almost every Ryzen-based devices are non-existent, and 10th gen devices are surprisingly the same or lower than 8th gen, but their prices get inflated after auction - perhaps by shill bidding bots.

I also can't figure out this - why are there no listings from Europe or Middle East? Shipping from America is too expensive (although way cheaper that the local listings here).

How can I get better for finding used/refurbished/renewed Thinkpad?

One of the used Thinkpad I was looking at has a MDM. Is it going to be an issue? If so, can I bypass it? I'm going to be using Linux anyway, so would it cause any issue?

Hello everyone. I just got a new battery for my T480 from my work supplier. It is a Greencell LGC 11 Model: 01AV424 and I get a BIOS message before my bootloader:

The battery installed is not supported by this system and will not charge. Please replace the battery with the correct Lenovo battery for this system. Press the ESC key to continue.

Once I plugged it in and booted up the battery had 74% charge, and I let it discharge until 6% without the AC adaptor plugged in as per the instructions, so that I could then fully charge it (and repeat the process 3-5 times). However, once it reached 6% and I plugged it in it wasn't charging and ended up dropping to 1% where it remains even now. Below I'll include outputs from some commands.

Everything I read online mentions flashing the EC chip to whitelist the battery, or changing the BIOS to something like coreboot. I'd like to avoid flashing any chips unless absolutely the only option, in case something goes wrong and I brick my motherboard. I've tried also resetting the EC chip by pushing the button in the pinhole at the bottom of the laptop with a paper clip, but with no effect.

$ upower -e          
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_AC
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT1
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_ucsi_source_psy_USBC000o001
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_ucsi_source_psy_USBC000o002
/org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/DisplayDevice

$ upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT1            
  native-path:          BAT1
  vendor:               LGC 11
  model:                01AV424
  serial:               14050
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Tue 11 Jun 2024 12:46:25 EEST (19 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               pending-charge
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              0.41 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         22.23 Wh
    energy-full-design:  22.23 Wh
    energy-rate:         0 W
    voltage:             10.296 V
    charge-cycles:       1
    percentage:          1%
    capacity:            100%
    technology:          lithium-ion
    icon-name:          'battery-caution-charging-symbolic'

As you can see the state it is stuck in is "pending-charge"

Any help would be appreciated. Also, if you need any additional info please let me know and I will provide it.

EDIT: Supplier will pick it up from my work in a couple days and try to solve the issue. Hopefully that works, otherwise I'll have to see about flashing the EC chip with the patched firmware to remove the whitelist.

I've been trying to find P1/X1 Extreme (Gen 1/2/3) and X1 Carbon laptops (Gen 7/8) that come in the configuration of Intel 8th/9th/10th gen (newer is better) in i7, or the AMD Ryzen equivalent of it, 16/32GB of RAM, 512GB/1TB of storage space, FHD display and preferably 2xSODIMM, if possible. No dedicated GPU, because I'm not going to be playing games. Also, no operating system, because I'll be using Linux. So far, this effort hasn't been going well. What will improve the success rate for finding a refurbished/renewed device?

The budget isn't finalized, but I've imagined it to be somewhere in the ₹30k-40k range. I'd prefer if it were in ₹20k-30k. Country is India, by the way, and I am open to getting them imported, as long as I can get it for cheap, and have it last for almost four years, and get parts readily available. I've tried looking in DesertCart and UBuy and they're expensive in both the sites. E-Bay does not have enough devices.

What I mean is-

• You probably have a dead, chonky Thinkpad
• You use a pre-built x86_64/Arm/RISC-V SBC, or design entirely new motherboard around the case
• Replace the ports with modern options
• Use modern Li-ion batteries
• Swap the display with newer matte IPS panels, or pOLED, etc

Any one who has worked on a project like this?

Battery is dead – otherwise fully functional.

I plan of having a maxed-out T420 for fun. Thinking that Firewire isn't particularly useful these days, but a second LAN port might. The Sub Card of T430 has a LAN port along with the USB and I was wpndering whether or not it's compatible with the T420.

I'm thinking of buying myself a ThinkPad to run Linux on it. I've never owned one, and never ran Linux on anything. What are the differences between these two besides the size and numpad? Should I know something?

It has similar spec to my current broken laptop. Instead of a i5, it comes with an i7 8550U, 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage. It is a renewed product, by the way. And it goes for around ₹24,000. Honestly, I feel like it is too expensive, considering how there are better spec laptops available.

I am looking to get a secondhand ThinkPad as my secondary laptop. Im currently undecided between X1 yoga g3, or x280.

I want a lightweight laptop to replace my old t440. I like yoga because it's a convertible and this may be useful to watch movies in tent mode or use it as a tablet to browse internet. My main concern is the power button which I hear is easy to break and impossible to fix.

X280 is more lightweight and compact, but the screen resolution is lower than x1.

Both have soldered ram, so not upgradeable. I would be getting an 8GB laptop as 16gb is hard to find around here. Does cpu make a big difference? I will be installing Fedora on it.

I recently purchased a 2nd hand Thinkpad X1 Carbon with i7-7600U, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD and a 1440p screen. I installed EndeavorOS on it and I noticed, in plasma 6, that the scroll in Firefox is a bit sluggish; after I installed hyprland and, with a lot of effect active like blur, it does feel sluggish too. Is that normal for this type of hardware? Is there some settings I could tweak to improve the performances?

I recently bought a Lenovo L440 Thinkpad. Keyboard backlit and touch pointer arent working. Have installed Linux Mint. Can anyone help?

Intel Core Ultra processors up to Core Ultra 9 185H

Up to 64GB LPCAMM2 LPDDR5x 7467MT/s

2 x PCIe 4×4 M.2 2280 SSD

Integrated Intel Arc

NVIDIA RTX 1000/2000/3000 Ada Generation GPU

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060/4070 GPU

16-inch 16:10, 91.7% STB ratio FHD+ IPS, 400nit, 100% sRGB, Low Blue Light

QHD+ IPS, 500nit, 165Hz, 100% sRGB, Low Blue Light

UHD+ OLED Touch, 400nit, 100% DCI-P3, Low Blue Light, HDR400, Dolby Vision

@thinkpad :vinyl: rip for my funkwhale 🎵

Installed a sticker on my ThinkPad X1 nano.

Debian stable install, everything working pretty well.

Not sure if it matters but I have Libreboot installed. It's the slot located next to the drive slot.

Also any other upgrade recommendations while I'm at it? I have maxed out the RAM and have an SSD. I am wondering if I should upgrade the WiFi card. I don't know if there are any limitations there.

Tried using Google Search for exact keyword match, and so far, it only points out to the page in India. There's still no review available online, which is a bummer. What's funny is that their price is almost the same as the previous generation E14 Gen 5 and E16 Gen 1 laptops, I would argue that they're even more cheaper, considering how they're already cheap on arrival.

Posting link below for comparison:

• ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (USA) vs ThinkPad E14 Gen 6 (India)

• ThinkPad E16 Gen 1 (USA) vs ThinkPad E16 Gen 2 (India)

Summary:

• Still stuck on the faux-7000 series, moved up from Barcelo-R to Rembrant-R
• RAM upgraded from onboard + SODIMM, DDR4 3200MHz- cap at 24GB, to all-SODIMM, DDR5, 4800MHz - cap at 64GB
• Single USB-A slot upgraded to 3.2 Gen 2, HDMI 1.4b upgraded to HDMI 2.1, rest of them are almost the same.
• Wireless upgraded from Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 to Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3
• Rapid charge support in 2024 refresh

I'm waiting to buy the AMD Phoenix/HawkPoint variant of Thinkpad E14 G6 and E16 G2.

Because Thinkpads will be sold without any OS by default at least in my country, and also because Lenovo is introducing some degree of modularity in the newer generations again, it becomes a preferable choice as a Linux laptop for me.

But I've read somewhere that the build quality of E is bad, and that I should look into P/L series. Opinions on this? I am especially worried about the hinge - that went down so fast in my ideapad.

I'm pretty new to using linux as a desktop solution (I use it for servers but have been working on switching over for desktop). I recently installed NixOS on my P14S Gen 2 and have found that while my backlight works inside the OS, I have no backlight in UEFI and GRUB.

I did complete a microsolder repair on the eDP connector on the motherboard due to liquid damage, however all SMDs and downstream chips have been thoroughly verified, and as detailed below, issues doesn't persist in windows.

Boot sequence goes as follows:

1. System powers on (No backlight)

2. Smartbeep diagnostics screams it's head off (No backlight)

3. BIOS/UEFI beep (still no backlight)

4. Diagnostic Grub beep (You guessed it, no backlight)

5. OS splash - Backlight is now on

I am unsure if there is a way to resolve this, but any advice would be greatly appreciated as I can't seem to find anyone else with this specific presentation of a "no backlight" issue.

Troubleshooting already tried:

• Update firmware using fwupdtool, fwupdmgr, and vantage in windows - no change

• Reinstall windows - behavior stops

• Dual boot windows - behavior stops if windows was the last OS booted

• New display cable - no change (tried before realizing this is OS related)

• Install a different distro - Ubuntu, Debian both have same behavior and I'd like to stay on NixOS if I can

• Increase GRUB compatibility delay - no change

• Increase UEFI boot delay - no change

• Change graphics adapter in UEFI - no change

• Disable quick boot, secure boot, TPM, set sleep mode to Linux, etc. - no change

• Probably more that is at this point, forgotten

Edit: fixed formatting, added troubleshooting completed so far and more detail that was initially neglected

"A bigger change than the upgrade of the memory type is the fact that the memory is no longer partially soldered: E14 G6 and E16 G1 have two SO-DIMM slots now for up to 64 GB of completely upgradeable memory."

The L series will still be using the Ryzen 7030 series of processors, just like the last year. While I'm happy that they have embraced the spirit of Thinkpad again, I'm really disappointed by the machine using outdated Zen3 processors.

Managed to get hold of an E14 for £250 about this time last year and it has quickly become a favourite of mine for lugging about and twiddling with.

I'm not very well off financially but still thought it was worth asking about ways to make it a little better other than the additional ssd and ram I already added.