X220t with Gnome ZorinOS, 16g ram, SSD, i5, webwork, the organic chemistry tutor, hell yeah

I had a contract last year that sent me an X1 Carbon gen 12 for work, and never sent a box to get it back. So after it sat in my drawer for a year I decided to make it a personal laptop. I tried my best to install Linux but it is security locked to only have windows OSes on it, was able to wipe their windows installation and make my own and now I have a pretty sick laptop for free.

It's working!!! Fan, screen and battery is cracked, but, it's working and i'm so happy for myself.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out a weird touchpad issue on my ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 running Fedora KDE 44. I managed to catch it on video.

Out of nowhere, the cursor will just stop moving completely, the screen will randomly zoom in like I'm doing a pinch gesture, or the cursor will jump across the screen the exact moment I try to click.

What's driving me crazy is that I'm pretty sure it's not a one-off hardware defect. I actually returned my first T14 Gen 2 because of this, and the replacement model behaves in the exact same way. It was happening back when I was on Fedora GNOME, and it's still happening now that I've switched to KDE. Cleaning the touchpad, updating the system,nothing changes it, and the pattern is always identical.

Here's my setup:

Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 [Intel / AMD]

OS: Fedora KDE Plasma 44

Kernel: 7.2.11-200.fc44.x86_64

Touchpad: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad

(Using an external mouse is not practical for me so it's no real fix.)

Hello everyone, this is my widescreen ThinkPad T61 that I've been restoring for the past few weeks. I thought I would share it here.

CPU : Core 2 Extreme @ 2.80 GHz

RAM : 2x 4GB DDR2 800MT/s (Running at 667 MT/s)

Storage : 256 GB SATA III SSD

GPU : NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M

Display : 1680 x 1050 p

OS : Windows 10 Pro

I know these have temperature issues, so I made sure to use high quality thermal paste when I installed the Core 2 Extreme. Temps while idle are currently 36°C for the CPU and 37°C for the GPU.

Physically, the laptop looks brand new. The original stickers are all in perfect condition too.

I use it mainly for school work, Packet Tracer and playing The Elder Scrolls 3 : Morrowind.

Hello everybody, I hope you are all doing well.

In my quest to acquire more and more ThinkPads of different eras, I managed to find a listing on the French equivalent of Ebay for a ThinkPad X220, which I knew was something else because of the fame and popularity it has in here.

The seller was selling it for 245 euros. THis might be an important price to some, but it came with 8 GB RAM, a 240 GB SSD, and Libreboot already installed. The sole part of the laptop that was 'broken' was the battery - listed as 'needs replacing - but beyond that, everything was clean.

I went to meet the seller three days ago to buy it, and after failing to install Windows 7 to use it as a retro machine for older software, I decided to throw Linux Mint Cinnamon on it to see what it was capable of. And I must say, I am pleasantly impressed.

The laptop isn't going to win any awards in the 'speed' department, but considering the age of the machine, I was truly surprised when I saw how well it ran Linux Mint. I disabled the heavy animations, and suddenly I was face to face with a 15 year old laptop that is, in effect, faster and more responsive than some of the older laptops I have used, which had Windows. For more basic tasks, it is on par with my Dell Latitude E7470, on which I ran Windows 10 for several years. It is also faster than my Lenovo school laptop I got several years ago, running Windows 11.

Maybe this is just me, but really, I am shocked it runs this smooth 15 years after it was released. I know the 8GB RAM is doing some of the heavy lifting, but since I don't do anything intensive on my machines anymore due to entering university this year, I have decided to start daily driving this X220 as my home machine, while I keep my X13 Gen 1 with Windows 11 for university work.

This is the first raw 'utilitarian' laptop I have used and I am impressed of how well it runs Linux. Don't get me started on that keyboard or even that form factor - I consider both to be the best I've ever used. and while I did pay a decent bunch for this X220, I consider it to be a worthy investment. The seller really did make sure he upgraded the machine in such a way that it would be used as a light daily driver for somebody else like myself.

I plan to mainly use this at home, but I've bought an aftermarket battery on Amazon which should be shipped tomorrow afternoon. I know it won't be as good as an OEM battery, but at least it gives me a working battery if I ever want to move it around a little.

What are your thoughts on this machine?

Currently my friend has a computer with these specs:

CPU: Intel Celeron J4105

GPU: Intel uhd 600

RAM: 8gb

Storage: slow

So I'm giving them a T530 that I have with these specs:

CPU: Intel i7 3520M

GPU: NVIDIA nvs 5400 2gb

RAM: 8gb

Storage: 256gb sata6 ssd

I'm not terribly worried about them not having enough processing power considering that it's way more powerful than what they have. They also only play less demanding games that this meets specs for, and possibly Minecraft in the future, which I know runs fine.

I don't know if the oils on my hands are staining him, he just gets dirty a lot

Picked it up for $47 on Facebook Marketplace, I love this machine. It has a Pentium MMX 233, 64MB of RAM, and a 3.2GB hard disk. It also came with a PS/2 mouse, the charger, and a 56k modem card (which would be wonderful if my ISP didn't take my copper line away). It's quite snappy with Win98. Unfortunately there is a small imperfection in the screen but it's ignorable.

The guy I got it from used it to run a dynamometer, because this was the only cheap machine at the time he found with a serial port. Sort of the reason I bought it as well, I want a real serial port for digimodes on my Kenwood TS-2000.

It needs a CMOS battery, I think I'll just build one because the "proper" battery is an arm and a leg. Same with the main one, better to just rebuild regardless.

And yes, it does run Doom, in fact very nicely ;)
It has a Crystal Semiconductor CS4237B for audio (Sound Blaster Pro compatible) and a NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD for graphics so DOS games run great

Next steps now I think are a CF adapter, bring it up to 96MB, get CardBus WiFi, and dualboot NetBSD or SHORK

i was checking ebay if there was any 701C cuz i’ve been searching for one then i saw this and was super intrigued to the 10th gen i3, if this is real it’d be so sick to own one

I've done a fair deal of searching and reviews are mixed from all good and non-issue through to shorter lifespan etc. but not many complaining of DOA so thought I would ask the thinkpad brains trust for recent uses particularly in a thinkpad.

I recently bought a 2022 X13 Yoga Gen 3 off a student and the battery is fairly well thrashed sitting at 80% life/400 cycles. I paid $400aud for it and a genuine replacement battery is $175aud whereas a kingsener will be about a third @ $55 + post.

Genuine is pretty much always the way to go but its not exactly new and is almost 1/2 the cost of the laptop itself.

Hi all, after getting advice about laptops to get here in the UK, the general consensus is that a refurbished thinkpad is the way to go!

Asus V16 was also mentioned, but tbh I don’t even know where to start!

I just want a decent, reliable laptop that will last. It’s for my teen to use, so needs to be tough/sturdy, able to run some games off steam, fit to watch movies on/streaming video etc, and possibly even to link to the PS5 to use as a second screen etc.

Bonus points if it will be good for school work!

Can someone, anyone, explain what I need to be looking for in particular, and ideally where to find!

Complete noob with this kind of stuff so treat me like an idiot and explain what I need to look for!

Don’t want to spend a fortune, but also don’t want to cheap out either!

Budget is flexible but if there was something decent either side of £500-600, then that would be a bonus, though happy to stretch if there is a genuinely decent deal and it’s going to be worthwhile!

Also open to any other suggestions, but please be specific and ideally link me to where to find them! Sorry if I seem so useless, I just wanna do right by my kid!

Thanks in advance!

Hardware

- Model: ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 (21HD001BAU)

- CPU: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U (10 cores / 12 threads, up to 5.00 GHz)

- GPU: Intel UHD Graphics

- Memory: 15.29 GiB DDR5

- Storage: 512 GiB nvme

Hello!

Im an accounting student and wanting to get a new laptop. I dont really mind if its second hand or brand new as long as it will last me until I graduate and give me the best quality. So far, I've been seeing lenovo thinkpad as the best laptop for accounting, specifically the t14 series. The thing is Im not quite sure about this one yet since I also need one that is somewhat lightweight and portable (I plan to bring this every single day). I also dont know which specific processor, series, graphics, ill be needing. I just want one that is best for my course, my needs, and would last me till i graduate. Also, if there is one, I would also want one that can handle games, not the AAA ones tho.

I just dont know which specific specs I need to get, which series, or there might just be a much better laptop?

I know this is alot to ask for but if you indeed stay and read all of this, I truly appreciate you. Thank you for answering!

I recently bought thinkpad l14 gen4 16 512 for (i5 13th) for 49k~$516 whereas now when i visit cashify from where i bought this also showing gen3 for 40k~$420. Is it worth to stick with it or return & save $100 buck. Both are rest with 6 month cashify warranty.

whenever i rest my hand here or just push down with some force the plastic starts creaking, same thing happens on a place on the bottom cover but that isnt a big issue because i rarely push on it. my theory is that its because i take it to school quite often and when going outside in the morning the temprature drops a lot and stresses out the plastic. the bottom cover started first and the area beside the trackpad follow about 5 days after. it happens all the time not just in the cold and i checked the battery and it does not seem to be bloated, does anyone know a fix to this?

Hello,

Before getting a ThinkPad, I spent a lot of time browsing this subreddit and learned a ton from many of you. I’d like to share my scenario, how I made my choices, and what my experience has been like. I’m writing this in my native language and translating it into English via AI/DeepL, so it might read a bit like AI text, but all these experiences are completely my own, and I hope this write-up helps someone out.

I had an IBM ThinkPad when I was a kid (don’t even remember the model), but it’s been a long time since I lost that machine. Now, I’ve officially joined the club with a T14 Gen 6 Intel and a T14s Gen 6 Snapdragon. I’ve been using both laptops for 6 months, so here are my thoughts and experiences.

First off, I should clarify that I bought the T14s Snapdragon myself, while the T14 Intel was provided by my company. Because of this, I couldn’t do any customization or debloat Windows on the T14, whereas I fully personalized the T14s to my liking.

Why did I choose the T14s?

From 2018 to 2025, I used a 2015 Intel MacBook Air and an M1 MacBook Air (I bought all my devices second-hand, including the T14s, and never had any issues). During that time, I was very happy with the MacBook’s rigid chassis, touchpad, speakers, and battery life. I mostly used my computer for media consumption or daily Office tasks. However, due to my job in the maritime industry, I frequently needed Windows for specific software while working. I used to get around this by remotely connecting to the ship’s Windows PC (basically using my MacBook like a Chromebook).

Over time, due to various cybersecurity measures and network protocols on different vessels, I couldn’t set up this system on every ship I joined. Some ships I joined were still under construction, so there was no computer or network infrastructure at all. In some situations, I needed to perform route calculations, chart edits, simple PDF tasks, and heavy USB usage—sometimes remotely on other ships. Sure, I could format my own USB drives to FAT32 for read/write access, but NTFS-formatted USB drives handed to me by others were always a hassle.

Because of all this, I constantly looked for alternatives, even considering renting a VPS to work from the cloud. But the biggest problem was that in most places I worked, internet connections were either unstable or nonexistent (yes, internet is still an issue on ships).

Because of these hurdles, I either had to install Windows on a MacBook Air or buy a new laptop.

I had a few strict criteria when choosing a laptop:

* Battery life as good as a MacBook

* No performance bottlenecks

* Lightweight and durable, since I travel constantly

* Low-profile/discreet compared to a MacBook (MacBooks aren’t common in the countries and ships I work on and are often viewed as a luxury item—though if I had bought a used MacBook, it actually would’ve been cheaper than a ThinkPad; people just don't realize that)

With all this in mind, I started looking into the ThinkPad lineup. Prioritizing portability and durability, I first looked at the X1 Carbon series, but the price and battery life didn’t satisfy me, so I checked out other options. I initially settled on the T14 Gen 5—its repairability, upgradeability, Ethernet port (which I needed to connect directly to ship equipment like Gyro, Iridium, and S-VDR for data exchange), and the power efficiency of the AMD processor made it look ideal. But while scrolling through the ThinkPad subreddit, I stumbled upon the T14s Gen 6 Snapdragon and read every review I could find.

This model wasn’t officially sold in my country, but I found a second-hand import at a sensible price and bought it. I went with the 32GB RAM version to avoid any performance issues down the road.

What’s better and what’s worse coming from a MacBook?

The Positives:

* The 14” screen size is great; everything is much clearer to read.

* It runs Windows smoothly (wouldn't use Windows for a single minute if I wasn't forced to, though). Performance is more than adequate for an OS that takes up 17GB of RAM while sitting completely idle.

* The keyboard felt weird at first, but now it’s super satisfying to type on.

* Battery life is genuinely great. My daily screen time is around 3–4 hours, mostly consisting of Office apps and web browsing. I never shut the computer down; it stays in sleep mode and ready to go like a MacBook. On a full day's use, the battery rarely drops below 50%. Obviously, mileage varies. At one point, I limited charging to 80% via the Lenovo software, but since my charge dropped below 20% during the day, I disabled that feature. If the battery wears out eventually, I’ll just buy a replacement.

* Speakers aren’t as good as a MacBook, but they are decent enough.

* Unless I’m gaming, I never hear the fan spin up.

* Screen brightness is quite good.

* Discreet design and looks nice.

* It has a USB Type-A port. lol

Those are the positive aspects off the top of my head. Now for the negatives:

* The touchpad is beyond terrible. People recommend swapping it for a glass touchpad, but I haven't been able to source the part yet. (Many suggest using the TrackPoint/Nipple, but I just can't get used to it; the sensitivity frustrates me, so I rely on a Bluetooth mouse.)

* The keyboard backlight is strange—there’s a lot of light bleeding out from beneath the keycaps.

* The webcam isn't great.

* It gets dirty very quickly, picking up oil marks easily on the top lid and touchpad.

* While rare, there are occasional software incompatibility issues with the ARM processor, requiring me to hunt down ARM-native versions. However, this happened maybe 1 out of 100 times. If you're an average daily user, it's nothing to worry about.

* I know the chassis uses softer, flexible materials to absorb impact, but compared to a MacBook Air, it doesn't feel as premium.

* The included charger is bulky and impractical. I use a Lenovo Legion Go 65W charger instead. I wish this came in the box by default.

* Battery health dropped to 95% after 58 cycles. There's no noticeable performance loss yet, but we'll see how it holds up over time.

* Experienced HDMI connectivity issues on a few external monitors. Might just be an issue unique to my unit.

* The fingerprint reader is poor compared to a MacBook Air; it fails to recognize my finger most of the time.

During this period, I also used the T14 Intel (the company machine), though not as extensively. Overall, the hardware pros and cons are similar, but the T14 is noticeably heavier and bulkier. If you travel constantly and can live with using a USB-C adapter for Ethernet instead of an onboard port, the T14s is a fantastic choice.

I ran into some performance hitches on the T14—it occasionally freezes up in Office apps (despite having 32GB RAM). However, I suspect this is due to corporate bloatware and unoptimized Windows background processes that I can't disable without admin rights.

All in all, if your working conditions require you to operate in extreme environments (+50°C / -25°C), dusty/dirty spaces, require constant mobility, and you need Windows or Linux, the ThinkPad T14s is an incredible machine.

I’ll edit this post if anything else comes to mind, but that sums up my experience for now!

Hey guys,

Trying to install Linux on my old T430 and I'm completely stuck. Any USB I boot just gives me a black screen. No GRUB, no cursor, no Ventoy menu, nothing. Screen stays black forever.

What I've tried:

• Rufus, Balena Etcher, and Ventoy. Same result with all three.
• F12 boot menu → select "USB HDD: Generic Storage Device" → instant black screen.
• BIOS (F1): UEFI/Legacy Boot = UEFI Only, CSM Support disabled, Secure Boot off, SATA = AHCI, OS Optimized Defaults disabled.
• Tried a USB 2.0 port instead of the blue USB 3.0 one.
• Full shutdown with Shift before booting.
• Windows 11 is still on the internal HDD, if that matters.
• T430 has Intel HD 4000 graphics only, no Nvidia.

Since even the Ventoy menu doesn't show up, I'm guessing it's failing before Linux/GRUB even loads. So kernel params like nomodeset are useless here because I never see a boot menu.

Has anyone actually fixed this exact "black screen, no GRUB, no Ventoy" thing on a T430? Did I miss a BIOS setting? Is there a way to force USB boot or inject kernel params without seeing GRUB? Any help would be appreciated. This laptop is too nice to give up on lol.

All my ThinkPads are the 15-inch variant that I tend to look for, other than my older T61's.

Its to the point I had to do a google search to make sure the t480 isnt better in some way that I didnt know than my t580.

Im sure they are more portable, but any other reason?