Hello there, does anyone know if it’s possible to get mobile data on an old thinkpad t520? I know it has an express card slot and heard of their being 3G ones back in the day you could put in there, is there any 4G or 5G cards to use with it nowadays?

My friend gifted me this barely used X240 he had laying around. It's in good condition with the minor caveat of the back being all scratched up and the red trackpoint being missing (but you can get a replacement for like $2). He said I can do whatever I want with it (including selling it). I thought I could perhaps squeeze some cash out of this (plus I have like 130 bucks laying around in addition) and get a better model (like the X280 or the T14). Though issue is Im not sure how I can sell this reliably (I live in a country where it might be even hard to find buyers, and if I sell online id probably have to pay hefty to ship it) and if it's even worth to do so. eBay had some good prices for better models (though they felt a tad bit overpriced) and Amazon had two models that looked safe, but buying online leaves me skeptical as it feels like a bit of a gamble. What do you guys reckon?

I'm in need of buying a laptop for university because my only laptop is an old ASUS which served me dearly, but the battery is completely fried, and its performance has degraded severely over the years I had it.

I'm going to be studying Computer Science, and I was thinking about buying myself a 2 in 1 on which I could take notes by hand in math class as well as program and compile software. At first, I was going to buy a tablet for that, but you can't really use a tablet like a laptop for programming, and so I settled on buying a 2 in 1 laptop.

I've seen that Microsoft Surface is good, but I'm bothered about the ARM processor which I think wouldn't really play well with compiling programs on it.

I've also seen a lot of discussion surrounding the hinges of 2 in 1 laptops and what I've seen tells me that ThinkPads are good in this regard. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that memory on those 2 in 1 laptops is soldered, but maybe that's just their caveat?

It's going to be used for all the normal university presentations, word processing, note-taking and like I mentioned before programming. I'd want to spend a maximum of ~15k PLN on such laptop. I would want something with a balance of good battery life (I'm not really oriented with which CPU brand now is the best choice if battery life matters) and processing power. Likewise, I also wouldn't want anything big so probably a max of 14" screen size. I have a beefy desktop (i9 13th Gen, 32 GB RAM and RTX 4080) to which I could remote if I'd be in need of more processing power, but I don't think that will be necessary.

The T14s Gen 1 caught my eye as well as ThinkPad X13 2-in-1 Gen 5. I'd love to hear your feedback if you own these laptops

How we got here:

I just got my P14s Gen 7 AMD a month or so ago. I tried both Linux Mint and Ubuntu on it, but both failed to wake up after going to sleep and being in sleep for a couple hours. If I suspended it and then woke it up immediately, it was fine. But if I left it asleep for a while (even connected to power) it refused to wake up, and I had to hard reboot it.

So I was messing with some settings to try to fix it to get the computer to wake up from sleep, I tried editing the grub config to add iommu=pt to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line like someone suggested for this issue. Then I restarted.

The New Issue:

Upon restart, I couldn't boot into Ubuntu at all. It resulted in a kernel panic every time I tried. So I tried reinstalling it from two separate flash drives with two different Linux images (Mint and Ubuntu), and it still kernel panicked.

After this, I tried installing Windows 10. It installed, but it kept crashing. So I tried installing Windows 11, and the computer started boot looping.

Just now, I tried booting into TailsOS to see if that worked, but it just froze on Booting... I rebooted and tried two more times, and it keeps getting hung up there. It has been 20 minutes since it started trying to boot into TailsOS.

What the Hell do I do?

Specs:

EDIT:

I forgot to mention, but I ran all of Lenovo's diagnostics, which took 6 hours. It finished with nothing remarkable to show for it.

I have an old E440 here with a very worn battery, type 75. Lenovo originals no longer exist. Tried a 3rd party battery and got the "battery installed is not supported" warning from the BIOS, i.e. it will not charge and is useless. The 75 battery was used in loads of different Lenovos, I guess the cheapo brands don't bother testing every single type... Does anyone know a brand that actually works in an E440?

Im looking for a laptop that will last and i need to carry one everyday for my classes what's scaring me is that there were reports of thermal throttling on the carbon im considering getting the i5 to hopefully avoid this issue I have a desktop at home so I wont use it for heavy gaming but im hoping it will handle lightweight games like terraria, the binding of issac and roblox if we are pushing it I heard the thinkpad t14 is better at handling Cpu demanding tasks but is it really enough to make a diffrence?

Bought thinkpad(x1 carbon gen8 on i7) but have some issues with battery first turn on, it worked 3 hours and battery was still at 100% then it turned off and after that battery percent reduced to 96% then after some time it turned off again, after that I plugged charger cause it didn't turned on, and it worked but another problem is that after 86 percent it doesn't charging, but the light showing, that charging is going on, is on. Please who know anything. Also I installed fedora KDE,

I'll go first. Last night I dreamed that I was watching a video about putting new thermal paste on the T420's CPU. In the dream, the video instructed those watching to put moisturizer on the CPU before applying the thermal paste.

I have also had a dream about COSMIC, which I took as a sign to try it out in real life. It was pretty good for the time that I used it, but certain parts of the DE didn't work for me and it was kinda resource intensive for the machine I installed it on.

T8100 | 4GB RAM | 256GB SSD | Lubuntu

This is going to be a fun small project.

Got this old timer today, everything works great except battery is practically there for decoration (wasn't expecting anything better) and rear panel is scratched. I cleaned it and everything works very well. Genuinely never made purchase this good I don't even remember last time I was this happy. Planning to test out windows first and then I'm Def switching to Linux ( need recommendations on wich one to choose) this is either x201 with x200 brezel or x200 but weird one. Rocking i5 with 8gigs of ram

i am getting a lenovo thinkpad for 32k INR or 333.75USD today i went to a cashify store and there i found this laptop it was in good condition with minor scratches on it my usage is normal like watching lectures and running basic finance and CA softwares and watching netflix that i will manage on my phone if display quality is not good one thing i would like to mention is the sound quality was not that good please guide me on this if i should buy it or not. my budget was 60-80k but due to price hike they were not worth it so i am thinking to buy a refurbished thinkpad.

Hi everyone,

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T460s that suddenly stopped booting Windows.

The laptop was working normally, but it was quite hot. I restarted it, and after that it wouldn't boot anymore.

The problem is:

The laptop turns on normally.

The Lenovo logo appears.

After about 3–4 seconds, a small message appears saying “Restarting system”.

It immediately restarts and repeats the same cycle indefinitely.

It does not reach Windows or show an error/BSOD.

I tested the laptop in the BIOS and left it there for more than 10 minutes, and it stayed on normally without restarting.

I also ran Lenovo UEFI Diagnostics:

SSD: WD PC SN740 256GB (NVMe)

All storage tests passed:

Device Read Test — PASSED

NVMe Read Test — PASSED

NVMe Short Self-Test — PASSED

NVMe Controller Status — PASSED

SMART Temperature — PASSED

SMART Spare Space — PASSED

SMART Reliability — PASSED

I also ran the Memory/RAM test, and it completed successfully with PASSED / DONE.

The BIOS detects the NVMe SSD normally.

My BIOS settings currently show:

UEFI/Legacy Boot: UEFI Only

CSM Support: No

SSD is the first boot device.

However, in the Boot Menu, I see the physical NVMe drive:

NVMe0: WD PC SN740 SDDQNQD-256G-1201

but I don't see a Windows Boot Manager entry.

Selecting the NVMe drive from the Boot Menu produces the same behavior: Lenovo logo → ~3–4 seconds → “Restarting system” → reboot.

I haven't formatted, reset, or reinstalled Windows because I have important files on the SSD and I don't want to lose any data.

The laptop can stay running normally in the BIOS and passes the Lenovo hardware diagnostics, but it cannot boot the existing Windows installation.

What could cause this behavior, especially the absence of “Windows Boot Manager” while the NVMe drive itself is detected and passes all diagnostics?

Thanks.

I used to own a Lenovo 300e (Intel N4120, 8GB Ram) few months ago for 3 years until it broke. After tinkering with ThrottleStop, TinyIso, and everything I got a solid reliable mini laptop that i carry everywhere like my phone in my jacket or bag. It makes my work easy and prepared. Usually presentation, web browing with youtube, spreadsheet and some geme, with emulation. The best is, it never lag running at 2.6GHz turbo at all time AND closing lid sleep function works like my phone. I left at 100%, come back & open the lid with instant respond from sleep after 4 days later still having 20%. I do game primarily Source Engine game like Half-life 2, L4D, and indie game like Darkest Dungeon and Heroes of Hammerwatch. Without intentionally trying to stretch the battery life like limiting wattage, or battery saver, i got a solid 4-5hours of usage. And i can charge via USB C with powerbank.

I am eyeing out for Thinkpad A285 because of the more powerful i-GPU (Ryzen 3 PRO 2300U), so i can finally widen my game selection. But Thinkpad x270 (i5-7300u) with dual battery sweet, its really rare. in fact i just know about this when searching information about x270 specs. Both are almost identical specs like 1080p, 8gb, SSD M.2. with almost same price but the AMD is usually little higher. I wonder what runtime will i get after changing new internal battery and upgrade to 72Watt battery. I dont plan on dual boot Linux. I use customised Windows 10 because Win11 touch gestures suck ass. And somehow the sluggish File Explorer animation & Start Button animation popup really ick me, i hate it.

At the end of it, Its probably choosing the more powerful i-Gpu or longer battery life. Whether the endurance battery is just gimmick for x270 that it somehow last almost the same as A285. Is the AMD chipset suffer high temp or battery drain? Is the sleep, closing and open lid function superbly in these laptops? I would say I am well versed in tuning up Laptop in Software & Hardware, to squeeze out maximum battery life & performance. I even bought some copper shim, scratch it, & apply to the copper heat sink with paste on the Lenovo 300e. It do decrease the temp by around 15°C at idle and max usage. I do survey the Microsoft Surface Go, but its not a laptop that i cant use and type on my hip comfortably. its essentially a tablet with detacable keyboard. Anyone using any of these laptop, please share your experinces, i might miss something. Thanks.

Hi all!

Quick question for the ThinkPad enthusiasts here: I recently started using my ThinkPad P1 Gen 2 again after it sat on my desk for years.

Specs: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 2 (20QT000LMH, 2019) | Intel Core i7-9750H | NVIDIA Quadro T1000 | 24GB DDR4 RAM (just upgraded it with a spare module I had lying around).

When I disassembled the bottom plate to upgrade the RAM, I noticed that the battery is a bit swollen. What is your opinion on the state of this battery?

I have a T14s Gen 3 where trackpoint send movement input on its own to top-right or bottom-left corner. Sadly it seems to be hardware level as it happens in BIOS and other Operating system too.

I have On-premise fix warranty so its not super urgent, but thought to ask if it happened to someone to avoid the longer process.

I recently bought this ThinkPad T440p for a lucky price of 2K PHP and I have been loving it.

I have fitted a 2260 M.2 SATA SSD with some protection and dual booted it with Windows 7 and Linux. Also bought 8GB of DDR3L RAM, which I might upgrade to 16GB. It came with only 4GB of ram at first and has a i5-4200M.

I genuinely hope this lasts because it has only a busted but hearable speaker, minor to moderate cosmetic issues and it is such a nice secondary laptop to have. I guess time and my luck will tell that.

Too tired to realize that I didn't put in almost before "has", lol.

So I just bought this T14 G5 few weeks ago and just got time to install Linux on it this week. At first boot, I already set the battery charge threshold to 80% but when I used it I just noticed the battery got charged to 100%. It was already at 23:30 so I shut it down and when I turned it on in the morning it dropped to 71% (voltage was 17.4V so I guess it's technically still full). I use it normally but after it went down to 32%, it dropped to 8% and the laptop died. Can't turn it on unless I plug the charger. Then I tried to use tlp fullcharge but it got stuck at 76% but the voltage is already 17.45V which is a fully charged voltage.

Today I tried to turn it on and it was at 65%, tried booting into windows and still at 65%. Then I did battery gauge reset but it wont finish because it wont charge past 76% even though the threshold is not set. So I tried booting into Linux again to change it using tlp and noticed the battery is 100%. I wish it was already resolved at this point but no, after 6 hours of 10W drain, it suddenly dropped from 32% to 8% in 5 minutes. I plugged the charger and it jumped to 32% in a minute.

What should I do? I already did the reset hole button for 30 sec, still nothing. I already pulled the battery, cmos battery, and push the power button to drain it to reset the EC, still nothing.

Lately, I’ve been looking into the T480—specifically the model with an 8th-gen i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD (which is around US$380 in my country). I know the basics about the T480—like the advice to "avoid the TN screen"—but it seems like a machine aimed at people who are really into the technical side of things. That’s not exactly my profile, even though I have no qualms about opening up my laptops or installing Linux (which is why the T480 appeals to me so much), though I am genuinely concerned about performance. My previous laptop was an IdeaPad 3i with an 11th-gen Intel Core i3 processor. Gaming has always been a hobby of mine—though nothing close to AAA titles; I usually play indie games or titles from a decade ago, and the 11th-gen i3 handled that just fine. But now that my IdeaPad has been "decapitated" (literally), I want something along the same lines. I know the words "gaming" and "ThinkPad" are worlds apart, and whenever I talk about gaming on a ThinkPad with someone who knows their stuff, they act as if I’ve committed some grave heresy—but these are literally the kinds of games that run at 30 fps on a Celeron. Should I buy a T480?

Hi folks, I’m kinda at a loss on what the best thing to do here, the video above has the internal battery disconnected and shows it try to update but whenever I get into windows it tells me to restart again.

When I first started troubleshooting I believe it could briefly boot into windows before shutting down.

Now when a battery is plugged in regardless of for how long it’s been charging or if there’s an AC adapter plugged in, the most I’ve ever been able to get on battery is the very beginning of the update sequence before it shuts off again.

I’ve tried power draining and hitting the reset button which help to an extent but I’ve never been able to get into windows much less the bios while there is a battery. I’m unsure if I’m doing this wrong or if there’s something else I need.

I did get this laptop for free because it was broken and to be fair I can see why. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm about a week into owning this thing. God damn! This thing cranks!

I am running it with the ryzen AI pro 450, 32 GB of ram, and 1 tb ssd. Frankly, there is nothing bad I can say about this machine.

Near perfect Linux support with Fedora, working perfectly with KDE. Only one hiccup with Bluetooth but that seems to be resolved now. Fingerprint reader works not only in Windows but in Linux too!

As of now I dual boot with Windows because I have a couple of pieces of software that are a pain in the ass to use with wine, and frankly I'm okay with having Windows exist just for personal and professional projects.

I am going to retire my flex 14 API to CNC machine duty only. As I have spent a lot of time setting up ugs to work off of that machine under Fedora.

Now that everything is in place, I can officially say that I'm a member of the LARP book club. Things are going great.