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 While I'm happy that they have embraced the spirit of Thinkpad again, I'm really disappointed by the machine using outdated Zen3 processors.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.

So I'm looking for ThinkPad alternatives, so far I've see repairable laptops like the Framework laptop and the Tuxedo linux laptops. What other choices do I have if I want a tough, reliable, and utilitarian computer?

Will it respect the 2024 T-series upgradability choices? What will be the expected price range?

Lenovo is doing a reversal when it comes to the repairability of its ThinkPad T series: The new Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 5 features two SO-DIMMs and a user-replaceable internal battery. To prove its progress in modularity, the Chinese manufacturer had it reviewed by iFixit - the new ThinkPad laptop scored a near perfect 9.3/10.

Hi ThinkPad community, I just wanted to share this amazing amazing thing that brigthened my day. I hope this feel-good story also brightens your day too

I recently started a new job for a company that gives ThinkPads to all their employees. But since I started in Q4 last year I was given the "old" E14 gen4 model and the head of IT told me it was a shame I started before they got the new gen5 in stock so I had to stick with the old gen4 for at least 2 years before applying for a new laptop.

I told him it was alright, I really had no need for the newest hardware to do my job, but he told me that if they had some new spares by February he could put some strings and get me upgraded to a new one. I thanked him and told him not to worry about it.

Fast forward to this month and he let me know there were some brand new E14 gen5 in stock if I wanted to upgrade, I replied it wasn't really necessary but he insisted I "really really" wanted it. I decided to agree with him and submited a ticket requesting the new laptop.

Next day I got the new gen5 laptop and signed the paperwork for the handover of the old gen4.

"Now, since this is old stock it will be sent for recycling, however, since you were the last user you have first priority on buying it from the company

wink wink

How much would that be?

Well, after depreciation, tax deductions and (some finance gibberish I don't understand) ... about €200

I sent the request to the finance department as fast as I could and yesterday I got the confirmation that the amount would be deducted from my next paycheck.

edit: here are the specs

Intel i7-1255U / Iris Xe / 40 Gb RAM / 500 Gb SSD

The title says it all. The Tindie page says

Processor : i5 or lower -> 65W , i7 -> 90W

And I imagine the Intel Core 2 Duo L9400 (2) @ 1.867GHz my X200s has fit in that i5 or lower category but I just wanted to get a thumbs up before I pull the trigger on the 65w version.

If you are interested in USB C charging mods yourself by the way he has versions for different models.

We had some heavy rain yesterday and my bag (containing my T400) got soaked. I tried to turn it on just now, and it appeared to boot at first.

I entered my geli(8) password and FreeBSD began to load, then the screen and status LEDs began to flicker rapidly. I tried holding the power button, but for the first time it didn't do anything, so I removed the battery.

When I turned it back on again, it didn't even show the ThinkPad boot screen; it just sat there flickering.

I have opened the case up and looked inside. I hve checked the RAM, the CPU, the SSD: even the DVD drive; and everything seems fine, yet the problem still persists.

Does anyone have any idea what's wrong and how I can fix it? Or is my laptop now borked? Thanks!

https://www.printables.com/model/731469-t430-iohdd-cover https://www.printables.com/model/731478-t430-dvd-bay-cover https://www.printables.com/model/731487-t430-bottom-ram-bay-cover

Made some replacement parts for the T430 because I had a broken T430 that was missing these. None of them require screws so they should be ideal if you find a broken T430 on the side of the road or something.

I'm on the fence about buying a new 3rd-party battery for my Thinkpad T480 as the current external 61 battery is only yielding ~3 hours on normal use (90℅ capacity, so still good given I bought the laptop used) and there's no internal one on mine.

I'm a bit wary of Chinese-branded and other similar no-name batteries as I recall having read an Amazon comment of someone's Thinkpad catching fire because of such a battery, which is why I'm more looking at brands like Green Cell.

So far I found the 01AV424 61+ battery by Green Cell, and even though they only list the "T470, T570, A475, P51S, T25" models it should still work with the T480, right?

Anyone here got experience with their batteries? Or maybe I should look for another brand?

Thanks!

Anyone managed to make it work? If I assign a core to the Windows VM, it's constantly at 100% even when idle. Obviously I expected crappy performance but I was hoping that it would at least work. It did pretty well on bare metal.

Is this a skill issue or a hardware problem? I tried both qxl and virtio, both sucked. I think it's the old GPU because today I tried quickemu instead of virt-manager and quick-emu refused to start because the iGPU does not support OpenGL 3.

Bonus paragraph: Windows 10 (and 11) refused to finish the installation in Virt-manager in KVM mode so I had to install it using emulated x64 cpu and then boot the qcow image from regular KVM. (aimed at those having the same issue in the future)

Edit: I think the problem was Windows updates running in the background. I had a similar problem on my x230 but I fixed it by only enabling security updates. (https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil) The problem is that this tool is broken on the X200T so I'm going to have to transfer the .qcow image from the X230 to the X200T and then see how bad the performance is. In case you want to know how it went, message me in like a month or two. It's likely I will forget to edit this post after I get through this tinkering.

Edit 2: Nope the issue is the old GPU. It only supports OpenGL 2.0, so Windows isn't really doing anything but rendering itself. I made a last effort to solve this here:

https://lemmy.world/post/11367355

X200 librebooted, T60 15" 4:3 librebooted, T61 14" 4:3, T61 15", X230 corebooted, T400 librebooted, T410 corebooted, T430 corebooted

Hey everyone. A while ago I ordered a keyboard from ebay for my T480, but I failed to notice that the one I got was for the T480s, therefore not compatible with my laptop. In the process of checking it out I lifted one of the connecting tape thingys (idk what theyre called) and some of the black plastic covering on the back of the keyboard ripped a bit. Its completely unused and new otherwise, and just been sitting in its packaging since then.

A few weeks ago I came across a local shop that also has some thinkpad stock, and I'd like to see if they'll buy it off my hands. I want to repair it first though, and the obvious first thought for someone inexperienced like me is to use some kind of glue. I didn't do anything yet, so here I am asking for advice. Would using some kind of super glue cause any issues? If yes, what is a good way to repair it?

Found when browsing Market-Place. Looks like a serious sellers. Although no mentioning of low-ballers and tyre kickers.

I'm experiencing a beep code error on my ThinkPad T440p.

I have checked the code error here: https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Error_Codes_and_Beep_Codes

The code is 1 beep 3 beeps 3 beeps 1 beep. Suggested to be a RAM or RAM module issue.

The same RAM sticks work in my X220 no issue.

The issue started occurring after I attempted to update the CPU from an i5 to an i7. It is possible I forgot to remove the CMOS battery or Laptop battery when I did this. It was a few months ago, so I can't remember for sure. I have since put the i5 back into the laptop.

I tried following the suggestions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/bhy11i/lenovo_thinkpad_t440p_bios_beepsq

Unfortunately they did not work. I don't think the issue is a CMOS battery issue. I am thinking it may be a motherboard issue.

What happens when I try to boot it up, I get the 1-3-3-1 beep code. Nothing happens after that. The screen is blank and the power button is green.

Is it likely that the motherboard is dead? It's the only thing I can think of, at this stage. Is there any other things I can do to test it? If I am confident enough that it is a motherboard issue, I may decide to get another motherboard. But I don't want to spend the money when I am not absolutely certain, if that is the cause of the problem in this case.

Does anyone have a copy of the original Windows 7 recovery media for the X1 Carbon Gen 2? I can find gen 1, and most other later gens. But not this machine. Currently it's running it's factory install, but it's horrendously slow and I'm not fully sure why. And sadly the built in create recovery media option says there's nothing to be found.

Does anyone else have any experience with these machines? Were their SSDs always so horribly slow? 550mbps read is good, but 100mbps writes is bad even by 2013 standards. The touchbar takes what feels like ages to respond, and with age has discolored in a really gross way. Overall it seems like a pretty well built machine. But man, what was Lenovo thinking?

My webcam does not work. I’m sure it’s a hardware issue as it persists in windows and Linux. I already reseated the camera and it still happpens.

The other issue is that it seems the keyboard randomly ignores key presses. I’m not sure what the issue is, but it’s frustrating to type on as it happens randomly and a few times ever couple hundred characters.

Can someone give me some advice on how to self repair these problems? My goal is to sell the laptop once it’s repaired.

Other than those issues, it works really great. I just want something a bit thinner.

I have a BASE model T14 gen 1 (1366x768 screen, lowest end i5, base ssd etc) and I was wanting to eek out a bit more performance out of this machine. It's quite thermally constrained with longer loads despite being the base model, and it's fan seems to barely move any air at all.

I know along with other T series you can install the heatsink from the higher end models with dGPUs and get much better cooling. Has anyone here done the same and can report back on performance differences?

Part No 5H40W36701 is the heatsink I have. Part No 5H40W36700 appears to be the model for the dGPU macines. Lenovo lists it as $61.16 for this part, but ebay has them for a little over $30. So the next question is it enough of a difference to justify it?

Sorry for a dumb title. I'm considering two versions of Thinkpad Z13 - one with 3k OLED and another with FHD IPS panel. The first one has obviously a better display quality and gamut range but version with IPS will provide more battery life.

What do you think about panels like that on a 13" laptop? Are they noticeably more pleasant to interact with?

I like to have good battery life but if OLED is to blow me away maybe I should pick one.

I will be using Linux btw.

Edit: I know the only one to answer this question is me but I would like to hear your input and maybe learn about things to consider.

What is a good source/seller for the EU? The nipple included with my qwerty replacement board for a T480 won't last much longer... The original one from the qwertz board is lost in space. Any recomendation?

Edit: found 10 nipples for 3 bucks on ebay. Shipping from China. Probably lousy ones...

I currently have a 128 SSD on my computer, but I just bought a new 512GB SSD, and I've already installed a temp linux distro but my computer doesn't boot it, it send me to the screen that you see in the pictures. I don't know what's the problem, and I already explored the entirety of the BIOS to see what was going on.

I just bought a used "faulty" T430.

It doesn't turn on at all (no lights, no sounds, no fan spin) and when I tried to turn it on with only the critical components (motherboard, power adapter and speakers), I got the same result.

I've also examined the power area on the motherboard, and it seems like 20V is getting delivered to the motherboard just fine.

But I've looked at the motherboard thoroughly, and I couldn't find a single part of it that looked bad.

Is this definitely caused by the motherboard, or could it be an issue with another component like the CPU?