Refurbished Thinkpad x260 with dual-boot ArchLinux and OpenCore macOS 12 got me through Bc. CS classes, for masters I upgraded to my current daily driver, a refurbished Thinkpad P15v for 421€ with 32GB DDR5 in one slot, Intel i7 12800H and 4GB Nvidia T1200 running debloated Windows 11 with ArchLinux in WSL. Feel like I won the RAM lottery with this one. Currently playing around with 2B and 4B Ollama models in OpenCode for local agentic coding. Not sure what to do with the ol’ reliable x260 next. Any ideas?

BTW Love this sub for all your saucy Thinkpad pics. My DMs are open.

Hey everyone,

Buying a refurbished ThinkPad from a Canadian dealer for my kid's schoolwork and daily use. It will mostly stay at home, but will occasionally ride in a backpack for classes. I want something smooth and responsive that can also handle light casual gaming like Minecraft and Roblox.
Trying to decide between these options:

Main Contender — ThinkPad T14s Gen 3 (Grade A):
$600 CAD: Core i5-1245U (12th Gen) | 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD | 14" 1200p (16:10) | Iris Xe Graphics | 92% Battery Health
$675 CAD: Same specs, but upgraded to 512GB SSD
Other Grade A / A+ Options from the Dealer:
ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 (Grade A+) — $595 CAD
Specs: i5-12th Gen | 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD | 13.3" 1200p (16:10) | Iris Xe
ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 (Grade A) — $600 CAD
Specs: i5-12th Gen | 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD | 14" 1200p (16:10) | Iris Xe | Built-in Ethernet
ThinkPad T490 (Grade A) — $250 CAD
Specs: i5-8th Gen | 16GB RAM | 256GB SSD | 14" 1080p | UHD 620 Graphics

For school + Roblox/Minecraft, is it worth stepping up to the 12th-Gen Iris Xe models ($600–$675), or would the older $250 T490 be enough? And on the T14s, is paying $675 for 512GB worth it vs $600 for 256GB?

Thanks for the advice!

Which laptop would you recommend: the Lenovo ThinkPad L13 Gen 2 (Intel Core i5-1135G7, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Windows 11 Pro, FHD) or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5 (Intel Core i5-10310U, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, LTE, touchscreen with pen)?

I'm looking for a ThinkPad primarily for some small programming, running Linux, running ChatGPT Desktop App, networking tasks, and general IT work.

I don't plan to run any virtual machines locally, as I'll be using a separate server for virtualization.

Please compare both laptops in terms of CPU performance, Linux compatibility.

i really like the design of the Yoga Gen 5 specially the glossy Display.

Which one would be the better choice for my needs, and why?

I've bought quite a few thinkpads and was thinking about fixing them up for friends and family but ran into a bit of an issue, on multiple different ones I have an issue with the trackpad getting stuck when putting it fully back together with the clips, but when it's apart the trackpad clicks down fine. Is it an alignment issue? What is the best way to fix this

T14 gen 2i, will work fine until I clip back on the clips in front of the trackpad, the plastic does seem to be warped and there is a hairline crack in the center of the bottom part of the case

L14 gen 2a, no case warpage as far as I can tell have not taken this one apart yet

T15 gen2, some clips on the front are broken and case is slightly warped

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Hello everyone, i recently gotten my hands on a thinkpad t490 and its been great. the only problem i have with it is that my fans are extremely loud, at first i thought it was just my temps and i needed to replace my thermal paste, but ive already done that and dusted off my fan. im starting to think this might just be a heat sink issue or a software issue and im thinking is there anything i should try out before buying a new heat sink/fan?

Hey everyone! I'm about to pick up a used ThinkPad X220 Tablet (i5-2520M, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD + 500GB HDD, stylus, replacement battery) locally for around 600 PLN (~$150 USD). I plan to use it mainly for handwritten note-taking, distros/Linux learning, light GIMP, and retro gaming. Since I'm testing it in person, are there any specific hardware issues with the swivel hinge, screen glass, or digitizer I should look out for, and what Linux distro/desktop environment (X11 vs. Wayland) works best out of the box for Wacom touch and palm rejection with apps like Xournal++ or Rnote? Thanks for any advice!

I have a Thinkpad L14 Gen 2 and I really like it. It is my first ever laptop and of course I would want to make it last a long time before having to buy a new one.

Unfortunately ever since I bought it, I have been hearing random cracking / creaking sounds from the laptop and at first I pretty much ignored it but now I realize that this may be a problem and I just want to ask for any advice onto why it may be happening and if my thinkpad needs repairing or smth.

It can happen randomly, and sometimes when I press down with light-moderate force there is also a creaking or cracking sound. I would really appreciate if anyone could tell me why this is happening, I don't want my laptop to break. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention I am taking good care of it, I don't drop it or open the lid in extreme ways. Thanks for reading!

Hey!

Thinking about buying mi first thinkpad, was wondering about the battery usage, my current laptop gives me about 4 hours which really isn't enough, but I love the thinkpad and honestly after much reading, I don't want to embrace MacOS just because it offers great battery life.

So I bought a second hand Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 3 laptop (model 21AK0001UK) this week and have installed Win 11 Pro on it etc - but the battery life seems to be very poor?

There is the Nvidia graphics card in it but the battery life seems to just drain, which is not something that I was either expecting or used to, from previous Lenovo thinkpads.

The battery is 100% (brand new and official) so that's not the issue - can I ask a few qns:

1. How long does optimisation take, to kick in, e.g. installing everything, indexing all my files?
2. What progrms do you recommend to measure battery life so I can accurately measure what the actual life is like?
3. Any tips/throttles I can use as most of the time I'm just in Windows doing admin style tasks
4. I am aware that hte graphics card uses a lot of power when running, so if i play games I would be plugged in to use it.
5. Anything I'm overlooking?
6. This has been cross posted with the Lenovo reddit group too.

Thanks so much fo reading this and taking the time to respond.

I was having issues with power input for a long time, and I decided to unscrew the back side of PC and there I found a missing screw. Here are the pictures of both the screw and the PC.

Help pls (((

As I added a tp-link wifi "receiver" (it's just the board) it's the 2 antennas near the corner, and the other 2 are the fibocom antennas (mobile data chip), it's a thinkpad t480, and, i personalize the back of the screen with the figure of Tux (Linux character)

got a used 2022 Thinkpad X13 Gen 3 AMD

crystal disk info is reporting SAMSUNG MZVL2512HCJQ-00BL7 which I think is the original drive it came with.

Health:98%
Total Read: 19685 GB
Total Write: 17081 GB
Power on hours: 2414 Hours
Power on count: 133788 count
Critical Warning: 0
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Number of Error Information Log Entries: 0

I have searched it up and some wrote it's due to the idling/power saving features of Windows making the power on count high. but I have not seen proper analysis of it yet. Is there anyone facing the similar power on count on their SSDs?

should I be worry about it or the drive itself is fine?

Is there any hidden ram in the thinkpad t460

Windows said there was 2 of the 4 slots used(before I switched to linux) but I only found 2 slots

What’s your oldest thinkpad? Rediscovered this, just sitting in my drawer. Thinkpad tablet gen 1 with z3795, 4gb ram and 128gb emmc.

Anyways I thought of testing the charging with my Anker 165w power bank with a screen on it,
Both charging ports charge at 0.1W according to the power bank. (I don’t have a female C to male C volt/current reader yet)
Do you think it’s the motherboard?
pinhole reset doesn’t work.
Battery only had less than 10 charge cycles prior to usage.
Laptop was 1 cycle when I got it.

00HW024, 00HW028, 01AV444, 01AV438, 01AV457 are OEM part numbers made by LGC or SMP, but genuine ones are scarce and/or expensive. What are some reliable replacements/vendors? Have read about mixed results with Kingsener on Aliexpress.

Heyo. I’ve got a T480 I bought refurbished off of Amazon, and it seemed okay, and has done okay, outside of the battery draining rapidly. I got a battery report and checked Lenovo vantage, both seem to think the battery is completely a-okay, despite the fact it’s telling me that my battery life estimate is at most 3 hours per charge. I’m really confused, and can’t figure out what to do to help fix the issue, or where to even look.

I thought it could be the extremely outdated drivers, but updating all of them only served to extend the battery life by about 30 minutes. I have warranty on it, but I legitimately don’t even know if it is damaged. This would be tolerable if the charge speed wasn't abhorrent- it takes about 3 hours from 30% to charge to 100%.

I have been using my X395 for a few months and plan on upgrading to a T14.

My Options are

T14 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel I5 10310 for 220 Euros

T14 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD, AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650U for 300 Euros

T14 32GB RAM, 256GB SSD, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750U for 300 Euros

I will probably haggle about 30 Euros off the price

Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-8550U

GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 & NVIDIA GeForce MX150

RAM: 16GB Ramaxel DDR4-3200 SODIMM (Dual Rank, 2Rx8)

Display: 4K UHD 3840x2160 IPS, 300 nits

Storage: Dell WDC PC SN530 256GB SSD
(M.2 2230 NVMe, PCIe Gen3 x4)

Firmware: Libreboot

Keyboard: LED-Backlight

Batteries:
External battery: 61++ 72Wh
Internal battery: WLTree 32Wh
Combined: 104Wh

Mods:
Glass trackpad from an X1 Extreme
Intel AX210 Wi-Fi card
Very cool Wallpapers
Arch btw

Hi everyone,

I woke up today to my ThinkPad X13 Gen 2 displaying this strange interlaced / duplicated artifact on the built-in screen (photos attached).

Here is the context and what I've tested so far:

- What happened: The night before, I accidentally stacked a heavy workstation laptop (~2.5 kg / 5.5 lbs) on top of the closed X13 lid.

- External display test: Plugged into an external monitor, everything renders flawlessly with zero artifacts, so the iGPU/motherboard seems completely fine.

- Boot screen / BIOS: The distortion appears right at the Lenovo boot logo and BIOS splash screen, confirming it is a hardware-level issue rather than a driver/OS glitch.

Has anyone encountered this specific failure mode before? Could this be a slightly unseated/damaged eDP display cable behind the panel or motherboard hinge, or is the LCD panel itself internally damaged (e.g., fractured internal traces or damaged COF / driver IC) from the localized pressure?

Any insights or repair advice before I order a replacement panel would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey all, so I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible- I had an E15 Gen 2 that I really liked, but it stopped charging and in my research I learned that this specific model has an issue regarding one of the MOSFET’s, which requires soldering to fix which is outside of my scope. So basically I’m looking to replace it, but obviously with a different model. I’m just curious what model, or even just which series, I should be looking at. I’m hoping to keep the price under $300 (will be looking at used/refurbished)

Things I liked about it:
-size
-open ram slot (2 would be better, but just one is good enough)
-dual NVMe drives

I also wouldn’t mind a backlit keyboard, but it’s not totally necessary.

And… I guess that’s it! Thanks in advance to any and all suggestions!

Feel like a kid in a candy store!

Hey y'all. I've had a problem with my Thinkpad t470s recently where it started to get stuck on boot up, then progressively got worse until it started throwing 2100 errors (disk not found or something). I did a lot to try and fix it. Eventually, formatting the drive (only had one 250gb og, I specifically used the original) and reinstalling windows 11 from windows 10 fixed it. Idk if it was the formatting and reinstalling of operating system, or windows 11 specifically. But it's working now. Anyone else have the problem, maybe this'll work for you too, though you'll seemingly have to format the drive.

Edit: things I've tried: replacing SSD with multiple others. Hard power cycling. Bios update. Multiple different bios versions. Booting into a different os.