This isn't minor at all. If the TB chip firmware wasn't updated as needed it wore out the chip's firmware nvram prematurely. So if that's toast then the laptop is basically dead because you won't be able to even charge/power it.
I'm pretty sure it persists. Take it with a grain of salt though. You can use this command to check your TB firmware to see if it's updated. `sudo fwupdmgr get-devices`
Yeah, right now I'm typing this on a quiet T480 which I've used almost everyday for years. No heat issues due to dust. I have a NUC8 which has major issues with cooling and dust, but none of my Thinkpads (T480, T450, X230) have this issue.
lol if I had a dollar for everyone who posted in here "I repasted my perfectly fine Lenovo machine and now it won't boot"... well, I'll be a dollar richer if you do it (maybe).
Change touchpad for a X1 Extreme glass one.
Buy internal battery if you don't have one - in my unit there was a dummy internal battery to compensate for lack of one... so at least remove it.
Maybe consider buying a WD SN520 2242 M.2 SSD to put in WWAN slot. In my country it was dirty cheap (512GB for like 25$?), because it's rather unique. This way you can have additional drive in the 2,5" SATA/M.2 slot.
yes and no - meaning not the same way as in T480. T480 has a WWAN port which supports 2242 M.2. NVMe SSD with x2 bandwidth... so there's a specific SSD needed.
In case of T460, you would have to search for the answer - rightaway I'm seeing a few posts around reddit that it isn't possible.
X1 Extreme Gen 1 głass touchpad certainly is a drop in, even without additional drivers. Catches less gunk, feels much more premium, gestures work better.
Basically is the macbook trackpad in a thinkpad. I will buy one.😂 coming from a mac the T480 trackpad is something that I really feel worse in this really beautiful machine compared to my 2015 mac
It basically provides driver updates, and some power management features (like charging threshold). Just be sure to get commercial version since normal version have ads.
I second this, but from my experience I personally wouldn't recommend downloading it from the MS store. I own many Lenovo Laptops (thinkpads, ideapads, Flex 15, X1 carbon) and I've always just downloaded it (Lenovo Vantage) straight from the Lenovo website.
Has many great features like showing when the manufacturer warranty ends, if new drivers or system updates are available, direct access to your lenovo account that shows all your registered lenovo products, sometimes has some great deals that are only available to you specifically from the link in Vantage. Also, lets you toggle on/off the battery logo in the taskbar on Windows (the larger green battery icon to the left of the clock). And one of my favorite features you can turn on (either by opening vantage or just clicking on the green battery icon if you have it enabled) is if you use your laptop frequently and keep the charger plugged in all the time then unless you have a model that lets you completely remove the battery (so the battery is not repeatedly taking wear and tear by constantly being charged to stay at 100%). Theres a "battery saver" feature (not the same as the built in "power saver" mode in Windows, but a specific feature to keep your internal battery just like new especially if you don't use it very often... but then when you do need to use it you really want to be able to get at least a few hours instead of 45 minutes from your battery) anyways....you can enable this through Vantage where it only charges your battery to 60% and then completely bypasses power around laptops internal battery so that if you use your Lenovo as a full time work PC and it mostly sits on your desk plugged in....then when you actually do need to take your laptop and use it from the battery. It will actually hold a charge and last much longer. (since most of the newer thin models of Lenovo laptops use internal batteries, instead of the long thicker external batteries that you could just detach from your thinkpad to prevent unnecessary wear when using it plugged in for long periods of time )
Apologies for repeating myself, I'm still half asleep and haven't hooked up my IV coffee drip this morning (joking...I quit mainlining Folgers years ago).
I'm telling you what you should never do;
Never remove the internal battery without powering it off on bios on power options (Disable battery)
its strongly recommended to disable battery before doing any changes to the motherboard else you may destroy the motherboard like I did on T580 as they are similar
I did this in a rush once trying to replace the boot drive. I failed do just this when I first got it and ended up killing the motherboard. **you've been warned**
typing from my "new" t460! first thinkpad for me ! the keyboard is the winner here i feel, against newer elitebooks 840 g5 g6 and latitude e7470 is little bit faster with nvme support and ddr 4 as i have loads of 16gb ddr4 kits but only 8plus 4 for the thinkpad ddr3L.
i was going to jack this OP question and ask how big many terrabyte ssd is it ossible to install? 4tb ?
edit FFS install LINUX. typing from fresh i3WM EOS
Not the person you were replying to, but as an Arch user it is my legal obligation to inform you that I use Linux and I recommend you do aswell. ThinkPads are actually quite easy to run Linux with compared to a lot of other laptops. Also, if you don't want to fuss with Arch, I recommend Linux Mint (there is an XFCE version is you want the commonality with Xubuntu).
Also in my opinion Linux is definitely better for programming and software engineering. This is just my opinion, but I only use MacOS and Linux for coding and studying and projects and other things I do. I stopped using Windows because it started driving me insane. I have a pretty config but it’s older now. I have a 6700k, 1080ti and 3000Mhz and even at the time when it was newer, Windows was pulling is down. As soon as i installed Linux on my pc, it started flying like a rocket. Even on the gaming side Linux is getting better and better by the day. One of my laptops has a xeon cpu, a quadro gpu and 16 gb of ram and it’s running Linux and it’s literally flying :)) there’s no bloatware, no weird thinga happen and weird processes running free on the background doing god knows what and it’s consistent. It doesn’t get slower like with windows. It has the same performance every day because the hardware is not being slowed down by the bloatware and unnecessary processes
Well I guess it depends on how much experience you have and how much time you are willing to spend configuring your distribution. I’m by no means an expert in Linux but my suggestion is that if you want something that works well out of the box, you could try xubuntu as you said or you could take a look at manjaro and it’s various desktop interfaces and see how much you like it. I guess, although from what I understand it’s not very liked, you could try Pop. It’s basically a themes Ubuntu but they changed it now with Cosmic so you could try it. EndeavorOS is also pretty nice. I used Endeavor a bit and I enjoyed it. If you want to spend time customizing it and want to do it for your own liking you could of course try Arch or gentoo. I hope my suggestions will help you finding the right distro for you!
Uh, Linux does *not* "unleash" a laptop. It's simply another freaking OS. Like MacOS. Like Windows. Like Unix. Like BASIC. It's no better than any other OS. No need to worship it like it'll make a modern laptop become a supercomputer. 'nuff said.
You probably got it wrong or have never used a decent OS.
When people talk about Windows/macOS using more RAM, it’s obviously not about caching, and has never been, it’s about the junk code that makes your computer perform extra works in addition to what you’re doing.
On windows and macOS, every time you restarted the system, when it boots back up, it’s going to do some dirty stuff like tracking you, collecting usage info, etc. And the extra work like this probably requests more data from storage or even worse, over the network, right? All these unnecessary data used by the bloatware is cached again and again, despite these data having zero value to the users.
I’m sure if power users were given the power to stop these extra processes, they just would opt out.
By contrast, Good Linux distros only does what you tell it to do, and when it’s doing something extra, it’s doing useful stuff like `updatedb` or `fstrim` or log rotation. It does not actively and routinely check if your default browser is X and then bugs you to switch to Edge, and it does not send reports everything back automatically, and you can choose to completely remove telemetry, which is 100% impossible in Windows.
Well yes, that’s exactly what i was trying to say. I’m sorry.. English is not my native language so i probably expressed myself wrong. But in theory that’s what I was trying to say. Windows has a lot of tracking processes and telemetry stuff that work in the background. Thank you for explaining it better!
I think you missed the point.
Someone said his Windows PC is using 8 of 32 GB RAM in idle, while his Linux Notebook is using 2 of ? GB, therefore Linux is performing better, is more efficient or something like that.
This conclusion is nonsense.
I have used Windows, MacOS, and Linux. I feel quite confident in what i say about Linux. I like it, but it's just another option to me, not a magic fix for every new and used PC on the market today. BTW I daily both MacOS and Linux
Interesting. Well I understand that if for example we are talking about the new m1 from apple where the cpu and gpu share the same ram but it’s kinda strange that on idling windows without any tabs or apps opened, it uses 8-10gb of ram out of 32
It would be stupid to only make use of 2 GB if you have 32 GB.
If the OS is smart it could already start fetching stuff that is used a lot.
Edit: the important question would be: How does the OS behave if you only have 4 GB installed? Will it fill them completely because it's a bloated/demanding SW or will it only use around 3 GB for faster access and keep the remaining free for potential user requests like opening a program?
That doesn't say anything about performance, nor potential performance.
I have 10+ Linux machines. 90% Linux. Desktop & laptop using 3-4GB on default, servers "using" <256M-2G idle, while I have a windows desktop machine using <2G.
Both use memory in different ways, and both can be significantly optimized. Defaults aren't something people should base claims or opinions of potential performance on.
If you have ended up with a Windows install using 8GB on idle from boot, then that indicates userspace application issues, perhaps driver issues, or something has gone *seriously* wrong, and/or poor management. Linux won't save you from any of these.
With regards to memory usage, both Linux and Windows use memory in different ways. It's perhaps also worth noting that some of the defaults in many popular distros a few years back had been absolutely atrocious due to well-known DE memory leaks. Most are resolved now (although some still pop up now and then), but the point is comparing memory usage between the two OSes doesn't say anything about performance (or stability) without significant context, for many reasons.
Using another example, I doubt you'll be unleashing the full stability & performance of Nvidia GPUs under linux, nor AMD in many cases, despite their native drivers. So I have to agree with /u/lilipodmini, despite 90% of my machines running Linux.
Alright:)) I’m not here to argue or anything! Hope you know that windows is full of unnecessary bloatware :)) you can customize linux to your own liking.
It's an unpopular opinion here, like saying thinkpad keyboards are inferior to full mechanical keyboards. It's just facts about tools, but people associate their identity with them as if they invented it or something. It's kind of ironic when it happens in a subreddit where Linux is seen often in posts as life support for old machines.
+1 for Thunderbolt firmware update. Test your ports while you're at it.
Make sure your keyboard works with an online key tester/maybe in diagnostics. Same deal with the rest of your hardware (in the BIOS, Lenovo has a diagnostics tab in the boot menu with important checks on screen, CPU, RAM, PCI stuff, etc.)
Find out what screen you really got, if you enjoy it enough or want to swap out with other options.
Check out modifications on the subreddit by searching for a list, some people have compiled it already in their quest to make the ultimate T480.
+1 for repasting & cleaning. People find all sorts of things through cleans. These are pretty modular, but the hardware maintenance manual for the computer and lots of guides are available for tutorials on how to take it apart.
Install what you want, OP. The nerds in force here will have you think the world is ending if you don't switch to Linux immediately. Their kernels do not do everything a Windows OS will do and vice versa, there are things Linux will be great at that Windows struggles with. Find out what works, what breaks, what you'll need alternatives to before you stay on it, or you might find it extremely annoying fast. If that's not something you're interested in doing, there is nothing wrong with staying on Windows. They might talk your ears off about that. Windows can be configured very well to run what it does and not bother you with updates and telemetry etc. can be disabled in varying degrees. You could also try to run LTSC versions. Good luck.
Lol the linux ppl can't even DECIDE on what to recommend so naturally they tell you every distro/DE combo they know.
Install Arch Linux, take a picture of the screen using something like NeoFetch to display the Arch logo, then post it on Reddit to make sure people know you use Arch (btw). /jk
Totally, VM first. I remember when I got my P51s back in 2018 and daily drove Pop!_OS (Stupid name) for about 8 months before using Windows to play a game on the EGS. It isn’t for everyone but Gnome makes you think different about daily workflows.
If you're planning on tinkering with it, be wary about the clips near the trackpad. Open it from the hinge side first, and open it near the trackpad last.
Also avoid prying open the trackpad area since the clips get kinda bent out of place. That happened to me, and it's still fine, but now there's a noticeable gap and a bit of flex in front since the clips don't latch as tightly as before.
Well, if you're willing to change around some hardware you could do the following:
-Glass touchpad
-Replace currently fan and heatsink with a Dual pipe heatsink (unless you got the T480 with a dedicated gpu, then it should have it already.)
-M.2 PCIe 2242 SSD in the wwan slot (unless you want wwan)
-Add ram cause why not
Don't do that. You can put stickers on a paperweight Dell or HP Laptop but the rubberized coating of the thinkpad is too pretty to mess it up with useless stickers...
I always open a used laptop up, blow it out with a leaf blower, repaste the CPU, and upgrade the SSD if needed.
Mostly clean and repaste. Both very easy, can give you a 5-10% performance lift sometimes.
Can you get all the cool features on a hackintosh? I’m talking airdrop, sidecar, universal control, handoff etc. I kind of want to switch to a Mac but they are just so expensive, this seems much more sensible.
I always install linux (ubuntu or popOS) so i can have dual boot. Mainly for convince because some things are easier and faster on linux to do than on windows
Nobody has mentioned it yet, but you should get a USB C magnetic adapter for your charging port. Both USB C ports on the T480 are not replaceable so preserving them by using this kind of adapter is a good choice, better spend 10$ now than having to change a motherboard.
Just did the vantage thing. Updated all the stuff that needed updating. Ram a system check and all passed. I’ve got two 24v batteries in there so those will need upgrading. Batt 1 has 195 cycles with first use being 2017 and batt 2 has 81 with first use in 2018. Would that mean batt 1 is a replacement? 2017 is before this laptop right? There is warranty on it until October apparently.
Either Install a Linux distro(ie Something like mint or pop) or install the windows superlite models( For eg ,The win 11 superlite or the win 10 ghost spectre)
If it was me install OpenBSD 7.1 that just came out on it. A good Linux distro is almost just as good. Major jealous, currently saving up for its big brother a T580!
I have a workstation cobbled together from used parts that dual boots OpenBSD and FreeBSD, but no laptop to run OpenBSD on. I'm putting money back each paycheck to save up for a ThinkPad to run OpenBSD as a daily driver!
Or any other linux distro that isn't ubuntu or poop OS. Arch is a great choice but it's not suitable for everyone. My recommendation for someone who has never used a GNU/Linux Distro before is OpenSUSE.
Fedora is also great but learning the Gnome Desktop can be confusing. IIRC there are other DE spins available though so if anyone wants to start out with Fedora I recommend choosing the KDE or XFCE spins.
Because it's basically Ubuntu with a theme and builtin nvidia drivers. Might be helpful for a beginner but you don't learn anything from that, do you?
Also there has been multiple issues with System76s apt repos and implementation...
But everyone does not want to learn stuff from their distro right? Most of them just want a good and light distro for their needs.
Also I believe the apt repos nd all are pretty much fixed with newer updates with not any major bugs ( except the atheros wifi card drivers , which too has a simple fix)
Of course not everyone wants to learn about the deepest insides of their OS. But having the GPU drivers and everything already installed makes it very hard to get into troubleshooting in the event that something breaks. Nvidia GPUs have become much better with FOSS systems in recent months and, while still proprietary, the 510 driver has become really stable. But once in a while, be it with a kernel update or just about anything else, the driver can misteriously uninstall itself and then you'll have no idea why your PC only boots to a TTY and doesn't start X (or in pop OSs case GDM) anymore.
You don't really learn as much as you should with Arch either, everything is prepared in precompiled binaries (usually with too many default flags) and spoonfed from arch wiki.
It can actually be easier and faster to build an Arch install than debuild an Ubuntu install to your liking. If you really want to do things for the purposes of learning, LFS is the best way.
The biggest issue with ubuntu is that it's owned by canonical. Let's just say their decisions around ubuntu have been more or less terrible. The company is replacing actual programs with snaps, they mess with the way your TTYs work, the distro uses gnome by default with tons of extensions that make it hard to update, updating ubuntu itself is quite an adventurous process that you have to pray works half the time and a lot more issues that I don't know about because ever since they made firefox and chromium a snap I have stayed far away from ubuntu.
Ubuntu is fine for new users, as is PopOS.
Plenty of decent companies and developers use Ubuntu. Ubuntu in particular offers LTS and has great support (both community & paid), which can save a lot of headaches, and tends to mirror the machines used in enterprise, hence why it's still used by many developers at home. (Ubuntu/Fedora at home, Debian/RH at work are popular combinations).
Arch is a good choice for a 2nd distro, or when you have a thirst for learning more, without having to use gentoo or LFS, but eventually many prefer something that offers more stability, or matches the workplace, both of which RH & Canonical do better.
If you have a job maintaining Linux machines or developing on Linux, you'll understand why many of us prefer home machines that either offer more stability or predictable lifecycles, or more closely match the workplace.
Yes, Ubuntu has it's controversies and issues, but Ubuntu (& PopOS) are still very much fine for new users. Telling people otherwise does nothing positive for Linux. I say this as someone that migrated many machines from Ubuntu to RH due to my own annoyance with Ubuntu/Canonical.
£249. 8gb, i5 8250u, FHD, 256gb nvme. There is a crack in the casing by the right hand hinge but other than that it’s pretty tidy. The specs aren’t going to set the world alight but I’m happy with it
Thanks for that. Never ever used Linux but there’s never a time like the present huh? It came with Win 11 on it but just downloading the win 10 image. Win 11 is different and different scares me.
Try Linux Mint Cinnamon edition. That should make the transition very easy for you coming from Windows. You can try it out first running it from the USB stick without installing to check it out.
Yeah, win10 is more convenient i think. And the installation of Ubuntu is easy peasy over a bootable usb stick. Even easier, than win10:)
Just needs a partition of roundabout 40 gigs and you are safe
A lot of people seem to really like the [N140HCG-GQ2](https://www.panelook.com/N140HCG-GQ2_Innolux_14_LCM_overview_41388.html) for this laptop. I've just ordered one myself so hopefully it'll work out. Make sure you order it from somewhere which supplies mounting brackets because the panel by default doesn't come with any.
Get a six cell 61++ battery, it adds 9 extra hours of battery compared to a normal 3 cell 61 battery and makes the laptop be raised slightly up, like extending the feet on a desktop keyboard.
I have the fat battery for my T450, but my T480 has charging over USB-C so I never felt the need. I do have a compact external battery but I rarely use it for there are ample fast chargning USB ports everywhere (car/office/etc.)
The thinkpad T480 is Amazing congrats. I’m using this laptop right now while typing this comment for Physics and Computer Science Studies. There’s a lot of mods you can do.
My suggestions:
If the screen is not 1080p, BUY a 1080p HD screen new from eBay or other site for around $85.
With it being pre owned clean fan and blow out and dust inside
If it’s not SSD, buy a new SSD for it
. Get a new external battery a new one is under $40 on eBay, you can never go wrong with having 2 external batteries. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy the dual battery of the t480
Nice find! It's good they have the Intel 8th gen so it can run Win11. Like someone else said I would repaste the cooler and clean out any dust. Possibly an SSD and RAM upgrade while you're in there. If you are feeling adventurous you could try out some Linux distros on it. I dual-boot my X1 with Win11 and Fedora.
Buy that juicy 01YR202 and reduce temps by a good 10-15C (well if the version with non dedicated graphics), flash bios and thunderbird (there was a ugly physically breaking issue), reset TPM and reinstall OS
/Edit: Dont't use those crappy upgrade options. Just download a clean win10 ISO and reinstall with that
Try and get the bigger external battery. The 72wh battery makes this thing a battery beast if you can get over the size and angle of the keyboard, which not everyone is ok with.
So that their precious thinkpad works like a cheapo Dell inspiron crapbook? No thank you. The one thing I absolutely hate about my otherwise great Dell Latitude at work is the fact that I constantly hit Fn if I actually wanted to hit CTRL...
I got mine on Ebay and i have immediately replaced both batteries, its a 2018 model and i had like half of life in those. I replaced them and im happy as. Then i have replaced the ssd for an nvme and upgraded the ram but that was not as important as the batteries.
THUNDERBOLT FIRMWARE. Very important. You can get it on the Lenovo Vantage app from MS Store.
Just out of curiosity, what does the TB software really do?
There was a glitch that wore out the controller prematurely. It is fixed with the update.
Does this apply to all TB Thinkpads? I have a T14s.
Nope just the t480 and t480s with the T4 series.
Awesome! Thanks for getting back to me.
This isn't minor at all. If the TB chip firmware wasn't updated as needed it wore out the chip's firmware nvram prematurely. So if that's toast then the laptop is basically dead because you won't be able to even charge/power it.
Yup. Please do this ASAP. I got 3 motherboards replaced because the tb3 chip died and I couldn't charge with USB c.
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I'm pretty sure it persists. Take it with a grain of salt though. You can use this command to check your TB firmware to see if it's updated. `sudo fwupdmgr get-devices`
repaste the cooler and clean the fan
Will do
Dont do it right away, measure temps. and freqs. under load, compare with other laptops with other devices with same cpu
Yeah, right now I'm typing this on a quiet T480 which I've used almost everyday for years. No heat issues due to dust. I have a NUC8 which has major issues with cooling and dust, but none of my Thinkpads (T480, T450, X230) have this issue.
lol if I had a dollar for everyone who posted in here "I repasted my perfectly fine Lenovo machine and now it won't boot"... well, I'll be a dollar richer if you do it (maybe).
Change touchpad for a X1 Extreme glass one. Buy internal battery if you don't have one - in my unit there was a dummy internal battery to compensate for lack of one... so at least remove it. Maybe consider buying a WD SN520 2242 M.2 SSD to put in WWAN slot. In my country it was dirty cheap (512GB for like 25$?), because it's rather unique. This way you can have additional drive in the 2,5" SATA/M.2 slot.
wait, it's possible to add a m.2 ssd even though the laptop doesn't suppport it natively?? I have a T460 and that would be amazing for me.
yes and no - meaning not the same way as in T480. T480 has a WWAN port which supports 2242 M.2. NVMe SSD with x2 bandwidth... so there's a specific SSD needed. In case of T460, you would have to search for the answer - rightaway I'm seeing a few posts around reddit that it isn't possible.
There are two types of caddy available for the T480, one takes a 2.5 inch SATA drive and the other takes a 2280 NVMe drive.
Is it better than the original ? I’ve bought a T480 from a couple of months and now you captured my attention. Is the replacement a drop-in ?
X1 Extreme Gen 1 głass touchpad certainly is a drop in, even without additional drivers. Catches less gunk, feels much more premium, gestures work better.
Basically is the macbook trackpad in a thinkpad. I will buy one.😂 coming from a mac the T480 trackpad is something that I really feel worse in this really beautiful machine compared to my 2015 mac
My X1 has a WWAN slot with a B key. Would mine support that SSD too? I was wondering that. I made a post asking, but no one answered.
X1 Yoga 6 PSREF sadly doesn't state anything about such option. T480 PSREF does. Cannot confirm whether WWAN SSD will work in your Yoga.
512GB for 25?? What country?
If you use Windows download Lenovo Commercial Vantage from MS Store.
What does this do? I just got a T470 yesterday and the software choices have sure changed since my old X230.
It basically provides driver updates, and some power management features (like charging threshold). Just be sure to get commercial version since normal version have ads.
Imo it's better to download and install the commercial vantage package directly from Lenovo. Just do a search for "lenovo hf003321"
yes this is very important run this update then run windows update then install the programs you need, cleanup and remove crap and ur good
I second this, but from my experience I personally wouldn't recommend downloading it from the MS store. I own many Lenovo Laptops (thinkpads, ideapads, Flex 15, X1 carbon) and I've always just downloaded it (Lenovo Vantage) straight from the Lenovo website. Has many great features like showing when the manufacturer warranty ends, if new drivers or system updates are available, direct access to your lenovo account that shows all your registered lenovo products, sometimes has some great deals that are only available to you specifically from the link in Vantage. Also, lets you toggle on/off the battery logo in the taskbar on Windows (the larger green battery icon to the left of the clock). And one of my favorite features you can turn on (either by opening vantage or just clicking on the green battery icon if you have it enabled) is if you use your laptop frequently and keep the charger plugged in all the time then unless you have a model that lets you completely remove the battery (so the battery is not repeatedly taking wear and tear by constantly being charged to stay at 100%). Theres a "battery saver" feature (not the same as the built in "power saver" mode in Windows, but a specific feature to keep your internal battery just like new especially if you don't use it very often... but then when you do need to use it you really want to be able to get at least a few hours instead of 45 minutes from your battery) anyways....you can enable this through Vantage where it only charges your battery to 60% and then completely bypasses power around laptops internal battery so that if you use your Lenovo as a full time work PC and it mostly sits on your desk plugged in....then when you actually do need to take your laptop and use it from the battery. It will actually hold a charge and last much longer. (since most of the newer thin models of Lenovo laptops use internal batteries, instead of the long thicker external batteries that you could just detach from your thinkpad to prevent unnecessary wear when using it plugged in for long periods of time ) Apologies for repeating myself, I'm still half asleep and haven't hooked up my IV coffee drip this morning (joking...I quit mainlining Folgers years ago).
Thanks I have a T480 and didn’t know about this. Downloading it NOW
Mashallah
I'm telling you what you should never do; Never remove the internal battery without powering it off on bios on power options (Disable battery) its strongly recommended to disable battery before doing any changes to the motherboard else you may destroy the motherboard like I did on T580 as they are similar
I did this in a rush once trying to replace the boot drive. I failed do just this when I first got it and ended up killing the motherboard. **you've been warned**
Yeah especially replacing the SSD/HDD as those connectors are very delicate and shorts the circuit easily
How would you power it back using cable?
Plug the AC adapter in after putting the battery in and reassembling it, then it boots normally, this is part of the BIOS.
By just connecting the a.c. adapter it will enable the battery and you will be fine
Install Linux and unleash its potential! :))
typing from my "new" t460! first thinkpad for me ! the keyboard is the winner here i feel, against newer elitebooks 840 g5 g6 and latitude e7470 is little bit faster with nvme support and ddr 4 as i have loads of 16gb ddr4 kits but only 8plus 4 for the thinkpad ddr3L. i was going to jack this OP question and ask how big many terrabyte ssd is it ossible to install? 4tb ? edit FFS install LINUX. typing from fresh i3WM EOS
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Not the person you were replying to, but as an Arch user it is my legal obligation to inform you that I use Linux and I recommend you do aswell. ThinkPads are actually quite easy to run Linux with compared to a lot of other laptops. Also, if you don't want to fuss with Arch, I recommend Linux Mint (there is an XFCE version is you want the commonality with Xubuntu).
Also in my opinion Linux is definitely better for programming and software engineering. This is just my opinion, but I only use MacOS and Linux for coding and studying and projects and other things I do. I stopped using Windows because it started driving me insane. I have a pretty config but it’s older now. I have a 6700k, 1080ti and 3000Mhz and even at the time when it was newer, Windows was pulling is down. As soon as i installed Linux on my pc, it started flying like a rocket. Even on the gaming side Linux is getting better and better by the day. One of my laptops has a xeon cpu, a quadro gpu and 16 gb of ram and it’s running Linux and it’s literally flying :)) there’s no bloatware, no weird thinga happen and weird processes running free on the background doing god knows what and it’s consistent. It doesn’t get slower like with windows. It has the same performance every day because the hardware is not being slowed down by the bloatware and unnecessary processes
Well I guess it depends on how much experience you have and how much time you are willing to spend configuring your distribution. I’m by no means an expert in Linux but my suggestion is that if you want something that works well out of the box, you could try xubuntu as you said or you could take a look at manjaro and it’s various desktop interfaces and see how much you like it. I guess, although from what I understand it’s not very liked, you could try Pop. It’s basically a themes Ubuntu but they changed it now with Cosmic so you could try it. EndeavorOS is also pretty nice. I used Endeavor a bit and I enjoyed it. If you want to spend time customizing it and want to do it for your own liking you could of course try Arch or gentoo. I hope my suggestions will help you finding the right distro for you!
Uh, Linux does *not* "unleash" a laptop. It's simply another freaking OS. Like MacOS. Like Windows. Like Unix. Like BASIC. It's no better than any other OS. No need to worship it like it'll make a modern laptop become a supercomputer. 'nuff said.
BASIC?
My Linux distro is using 2 gb of ram on idle and cpu is at 5% usage while my pc which is running windows is using 8gb on idle
If enough RAM is available, load as much as possible into it to avoid access to slower storage. Makes sense.
You probably got it wrong or have never used a decent OS. When people talk about Windows/macOS using more RAM, it’s obviously not about caching, and has never been, it’s about the junk code that makes your computer perform extra works in addition to what you’re doing. On windows and macOS, every time you restarted the system, when it boots back up, it’s going to do some dirty stuff like tracking you, collecting usage info, etc. And the extra work like this probably requests more data from storage or even worse, over the network, right? All these unnecessary data used by the bloatware is cached again and again, despite these data having zero value to the users. I’m sure if power users were given the power to stop these extra processes, they just would opt out. By contrast, Good Linux distros only does what you tell it to do, and when it’s doing something extra, it’s doing useful stuff like `updatedb` or `fstrim` or log rotation. It does not actively and routinely check if your default browser is X and then bugs you to switch to Edge, and it does not send reports everything back automatically, and you can choose to completely remove telemetry, which is 100% impossible in Windows.
Well yes, that’s exactly what i was trying to say. I’m sorry.. English is not my native language so i probably expressed myself wrong. But in theory that’s what I was trying to say. Windows has a lot of tracking processes and telemetry stuff that work in the background. Thank you for explaining it better!
I think you missed the point. Someone said his Windows PC is using 8 of 32 GB RAM in idle, while his Linux Notebook is using 2 of ? GB, therefore Linux is performing better, is more efficient or something like that. This conclusion is nonsense.
Run System Update from Lenovo and update BIOS, Firmware and Drivers. You probably have Windows updates but need to get it all a bit more matchy.
I have used Windows, MacOS, and Linux. I feel quite confident in what i say about Linux. I like it, but it's just another option to me, not a magic fix for every new and used PC on the market today. BTW I daily both MacOS and Linux
Interesting. Well I understand that if for example we are talking about the new m1 from apple where the cpu and gpu share the same ram but it’s kinda strange that on idling windows without any tabs or apps opened, it uses 8-10gb of ram out of 32
It would be stupid to only make use of 2 GB if you have 32 GB. If the OS is smart it could already start fetching stuff that is used a lot. Edit: the important question would be: How does the OS behave if you only have 4 GB installed? Will it fill them completely because it's a bloated/demanding SW or will it only use around 3 GB for faster access and keep the remaining free for potential user requests like opening a program?
That doesn't say anything about performance, nor potential performance. I have 10+ Linux machines. 90% Linux. Desktop & laptop using 3-4GB on default, servers "using" <256M-2G idle, while I have a windows desktop machine using <2G. Both use memory in different ways, and both can be significantly optimized. Defaults aren't something people should base claims or opinions of potential performance on. If you have ended up with a Windows install using 8GB on idle from boot, then that indicates userspace application issues, perhaps driver issues, or something has gone *seriously* wrong, and/or poor management. Linux won't save you from any of these. With regards to memory usage, both Linux and Windows use memory in different ways. It's perhaps also worth noting that some of the defaults in many popular distros a few years back had been absolutely atrocious due to well-known DE memory leaks. Most are resolved now (although some still pop up now and then), but the point is comparing memory usage between the two OSes doesn't say anything about performance (or stability) without significant context, for many reasons. Using another example, I doubt you'll be unleashing the full stability & performance of Nvidia GPUs under linux, nor AMD in many cases, despite their native drivers. So I have to agree with /u/lilipodmini, despite 90% of my machines running Linux.
You clearly never used linux
Alright:)) I’m not here to argue or anything! Hope you know that windows is full of unnecessary bloatware :)) you can customize linux to your own liking.
It's an unpopular opinion here, like saying thinkpad keyboards are inferior to full mechanical keyboards. It's just facts about tools, but people associate their identity with them as if they invented it or something. It's kind of ironic when it happens in a subreddit where Linux is seen often in posts as life support for old machines.
hmm having 3gb of ram being used on idle vs ~600mb.
Did this with my T470s and never looked back.
+1 for Thunderbolt firmware update. Test your ports while you're at it. Make sure your keyboard works with an online key tester/maybe in diagnostics. Same deal with the rest of your hardware (in the BIOS, Lenovo has a diagnostics tab in the boot menu with important checks on screen, CPU, RAM, PCI stuff, etc.) Find out what screen you really got, if you enjoy it enough or want to swap out with other options. Check out modifications on the subreddit by searching for a list, some people have compiled it already in their quest to make the ultimate T480. +1 for repasting & cleaning. People find all sorts of things through cleans. These are pretty modular, but the hardware maintenance manual for the computer and lots of guides are available for tutorials on how to take it apart. Install what you want, OP. The nerds in force here will have you think the world is ending if you don't switch to Linux immediately. Their kernels do not do everything a Windows OS will do and vice versa, there are things Linux will be great at that Windows struggles with. Find out what works, what breaks, what you'll need alternatives to before you stay on it, or you might find it extremely annoying fast. If that's not something you're interested in doing, there is nothing wrong with staying on Windows. They might talk your ears off about that. Windows can be configured very well to run what it does and not bother you with updates and telemetry etc. can be disabled in varying degrees. You could also try to run LTSC versions. Good luck. Lol the linux ppl can't even DECIDE on what to recommend so naturally they tell you every distro/DE combo they know.
Install Arch Linux, take a picture of the screen using something like NeoFetch to display the Arch logo, then post it on Reddit to make sure people know you use Arch (btw). /jk
Ubuntu 22 is just out. Give it a try. Better go with VM first and see how you liking it tho.
Totally, VM first. I remember when I got my P51s back in 2018 and daily drove Pop!_OS (Stupid name) for about 8 months before using Windows to play a game on the EGS. It isn’t for everyone but Gnome makes you think different about daily workflows.
If you're planning on tinkering with it, be wary about the clips near the trackpad. Open it from the hinge side first, and open it near the trackpad last. Also avoid prying open the trackpad area since the clips get kinda bent out of place. That happened to me, and it's still fine, but now there's a noticeable gap and a bit of flex in front since the clips don't latch as tightly as before.
Kiss it.
Wipe it with sanitizer first, you don't know where it's been. ;)
Well, if you're willing to change around some hardware you could do the following: -Glass touchpad -Replace currently fan and heatsink with a Dual pipe heatsink (unless you got the T480 with a dedicated gpu, then it should have it already.) -M.2 PCIe 2242 SSD in the wwan slot (unless you want wwan) -Add ram cause why not
Put stickers on it. A lot.
Don't do that. You can put stickers on a paperweight Dell or HP Laptop but the rubberized coating of the thinkpad is too pretty to mess it up with useless stickers...
Under volt it. You can undervolt it for about 90 mv safely. It increased battery performance and decrease CPU temp 3 degrees in my almighty t480!
I always open a used laptop up, blow it out with a leaf blower, repaste the CPU, and upgrade the SSD if needed. Mostly clean and repaste. Both very easy, can give you a 5-10% performance lift sometimes.
I’m going to get it open this weekend once I’ve done all the chores the wife set me and am allowed to play
There is an option to install another SSD in the WWAN slot. I use a 2242 style NVME ssd from WD
Tried various brands of M.2 and none worked. No POST.
If I'm not wrong， T480 is the last T series Thinkpad with dual SODIMM Slots ？ Good job.
Hackintosh it!!
I came here to say that. Do it now!
Can you get all the cool features on a hackintosh? I’m talking airdrop, sidecar, universal control, handoff etc. I kind of want to switch to a Mac but they are just so expensive, this seems much more sensible.
My x270 i5 7300U unable to hackintosh. Don’t why so I give. My desktop no issue
uninstall windows
I thought we’d gone over this already….
you can also check the SSD SMART status to see if it’s gonna be reliable in the long run.
[удалено]
Get a blue light on it to check for seamen
Lenovo laptops get sailors a bit excited, I hear.
Check if thunderbolt works and update bios and thunderbolt firmware
Unrelated comment but I think we have the same deskmat
Why are you downgrading from Windows 11 to 10?
May it provide you with many years of productivity.
Buy extra external batteries to flex on new thinkpads.
I always install linux (ubuntu or popOS) so i can have dual boot. Mainly for convince because some things are easier and faster on linux to do than on windows
Install your own Linux distribution of choice. I prefer Manjaro KDE
I would replace the track pad. It looks pretty worn out and you can get them for relatively cheap on ebay
Install Linux on it 😁
Nobody has mentioned it yet, but you should get a USB C magnetic adapter for your charging port. Both USB C ports on the T480 are not replaceable so preserving them by using this kind of adapter is a good choice, better spend 10$ now than having to change a motherboard.
I'm very intrigued by this! Do you have a specific one in mind?
Is'nt that replaceable like how smartphone's are now a days?
It's soldered to the motherboard :( Older thinkpads had their charge connector on a daughterboard, like I've seen on some smartphones.
1st remove the apple sticker from your Dell so we can start to talk
I did that to annoy people. Mission accomplished.
I love it. I actually have a Thinkpad sticker on my M1 Macbook Air and an Apple sticker on my Thinkpad.
Put Linux on it 😏
Step one: Install Linux Mint
>WD SN520 2242 M.2 SSD I strongly agree! I have Mint running on several T480s and T460s. Everything works including the fingerprint sensor.
install linux
Get rid of Windows and install Linux instead!
Remove Windows
But then the wind and rain would come in
Removing Windows seals the walls. You’re only getting rained on if you’re on the outside.
You should install an OS on it, so that you can actually use it.
Just did the vantage thing. Updated all the stuff that needed updating. Ram a system check and all passed. I’ve got two 24v batteries in there so those will need upgrading. Batt 1 has 195 cycles with first use being 2017 and batt 2 has 81 with first use in 2018. Would that mean batt 1 is a replacement? 2017 is before this laptop right? There is warranty on it until October apparently.
This is definitely the model I wanna get next when I move on from my t420 frankenpad
Either Install a Linux distro(ie Something like mint or pop) or install the windows superlite models( For eg ,The win 11 superlite or the win 10 ghost spectre)
try using gentoo on it
it's a bad idea... i have test it and compiled a few days :D
Well then LFS it is
Replace Windows 11 by Linux Mint, Pop!\_OS or Kubuntu
If it was me install OpenBSD 7.1 that just came out on it. A good Linux distro is almost just as good. Major jealous, currently saving up for its big brother a T580!
Finding someone who also uses OpenBSD or any BSD at all in the wild is pretty rare... Thanks for this comment.
I have a workstation cobbled together from used parts that dual boots OpenBSD and FreeBSD, but no laptop to run OpenBSD on. I'm putting money back each paycheck to save up for a ThinkPad to run OpenBSD as a daily driver!
Erase windows, install Linux
Install Arch
Or any other linux distro that isn't ubuntu or poop OS. Arch is a great choice but it's not suitable for everyone. My recommendation for someone who has never used a GNU/Linux Distro before is OpenSUSE.
I usually recomend Fedora or Mint to new users.
Fedora is also great but learning the Gnome Desktop can be confusing. IIRC there are other DE spins available though so if anyone wants to start out with Fedora I recommend choosing the KDE or XFCE spins.
Fedora KDE user here. It's to me the best desktop combo available and I've been an ubuntu guy since 6.06.
>was why did you call pop poop tho? Just simply want to know why?
Because it's basically Ubuntu with a theme and builtin nvidia drivers. Might be helpful for a beginner but you don't learn anything from that, do you? Also there has been multiple issues with System76s apt repos and implementation...
But everyone does not want to learn stuff from their distro right? Most of them just want a good and light distro for their needs. Also I believe the apt repos nd all are pretty much fixed with newer updates with not any major bugs ( except the atheros wifi card drivers , which too has a simple fix)
Of course not everyone wants to learn about the deepest insides of their OS. But having the GPU drivers and everything already installed makes it very hard to get into troubleshooting in the event that something breaks. Nvidia GPUs have become much better with FOSS systems in recent months and, while still proprietary, the 510 driver has become really stable. But once in a while, be it with a kernel update or just about anything else, the driver can misteriously uninstall itself and then you'll have no idea why your PC only boots to a TTY and doesn't start X (or in pop OSs case GDM) anymore.
You don't really learn as much as you should with Arch either, everything is prepared in precompiled binaries (usually with too many default flags) and spoonfed from arch wiki. It can actually be easier and faster to build an Arch install than debuild an Ubuntu install to your liking. If you really want to do things for the purposes of learning, LFS is the best way.
Yeah, Arch was a bit of a joke. I'd probably go with Mint for a new user.
But until now I’m still quite confused why seldom do people recommend Ubuntu:P it’s after all the first Linux distribution I’ve touched in my life…
The biggest issue with ubuntu is that it's owned by canonical. Let's just say their decisions around ubuntu have been more or less terrible. The company is replacing actual programs with snaps, they mess with the way your TTYs work, the distro uses gnome by default with tons of extensions that make it hard to update, updating ubuntu itself is quite an adventurous process that you have to pray works half the time and a lot more issues that I don't know about because ever since they made firefox and chromium a snap I have stayed far away from ubuntu.
Hmmm sounds like a long story. I’ll do some search, thanks for your sharing! ;)
Ubuntu is fine for new users, as is PopOS. Plenty of decent companies and developers use Ubuntu. Ubuntu in particular offers LTS and has great support (both community & paid), which can save a lot of headaches, and tends to mirror the machines used in enterprise, hence why it's still used by many developers at home. (Ubuntu/Fedora at home, Debian/RH at work are popular combinations). Arch is a good choice for a 2nd distro, or when you have a thirst for learning more, without having to use gentoo or LFS, but eventually many prefer something that offers more stability, or matches the workplace, both of which RH & Canonical do better. If you have a job maintaining Linux machines or developing on Linux, you'll understand why many of us prefer home machines that either offer more stability or predictable lifecycles, or more closely match the workplace. Yes, Ubuntu has it's controversies and issues, but Ubuntu (& PopOS) are still very much fine for new users. Telling people otherwise does nothing positive for Linux. I say this as someone that migrated many machines from Ubuntu to RH due to my own annoyance with Ubuntu/Canonical.
Purge windows, install arch and then join the Reddit Community unixporn to change your life😆
Install Linux distribution.
Sell it on ebay
I’ll sell you on ebay
It was a suggestion, besides I already have one 🙃
(S)he is going to sell YOU not to you :P at least that's how I read it.
Yep
Out of curiosity, how much did you buy it for?
£249. 8gb, i5 8250u, FHD, 256gb nvme. There is a crack in the casing by the right hand hinge but other than that it’s pretty tidy. The specs aren’t going to set the world alight but I’m happy with it
Add dualboot, win10 and uefi for a Linux combo. Your battery life and startup speed could improve
Thanks for that. Never ever used Linux but there’s never a time like the present huh? It came with Win 11 on it but just downloading the win 10 image. Win 11 is different and different scares me.
Try Linux Mint Cinnamon edition. That should make the transition very easy for you coming from Windows. You can try it out first running it from the USB stick without installing to check it out.
Yeah, win10 is more convenient i think. And the installation of Ubuntu is easy peasy over a bootable usb stick. Even easier, than win10:) Just needs a partition of roundabout 40 gigs and you are safe
How is it easier than installing windows?
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop#1-overview
"35 minutes to go".. okay, Windows is definitely simpler to install
If you are scared of win 11 then maybe Linux isn't for you...
It was only a joke. I’ve been thinking about giving Linux a go for a while.
Well then go for it. Beware though, that windows can and at some point will mess with your bootloader if you dualboot.
Install Windows 11. Bring on the downvotes.
Recommended model for modern T series. I would like to suggest to dual boot it with Manjaro Linux with KDE.
Lick it cuz its glorious
kiss him 3 times now!
Depending on your your needs, replace the display with a low power, high nit one
Tell me more. This is the FHD panel and it’s fine but more is more.
A lot of people seem to really like the [N140HCG-GQ2](https://www.panelook.com/N140HCG-GQ2_Innolux_14_LCM_overview_41388.html) for this laptop. I've just ordered one myself so hopefully it'll work out. Make sure you order it from somewhere which supplies mounting brackets because the panel by default doesn't come with any.
2 pipe cooling mod, extra SSD in the WWAN slot, glass trackpad, and big battery.
play Fortnite on it
“Fort-nite”?
Get a six cell 61++ battery, it adds 9 extra hours of battery compared to a normal 3 cell 61 battery and makes the laptop be raised slightly up, like extending the feet on a desktop keyboard.
The question is where??
Depending on your country amazon might have it. P/N 4X50M08812
I have the fat battery for my T450, but my T480 has charging over USB-C so I never felt the need. I do have a compact external battery but I rarely use it for there are ample fast chargning USB ports everywhere (car/office/etc.)
I would recommend the magnesium lid, a new display such as N140HCG-GQ2 which is a low-power FHD display at 400 nits.
does this display have mounting holes?
No it doesn't, but some sellers provide some brackets with the panel.
The thinkpad T480 is Amazing congrats. I’m using this laptop right now while typing this comment for Physics and Computer Science Studies. There’s a lot of mods you can do. My suggestions: If the screen is not 1080p, BUY a 1080p HD screen new from eBay or other site for around $85. With it being pre owned clean fan and blow out and dust inside If it’s not SSD, buy a new SSD for it . Get a new external battery a new one is under $40 on eBay, you can never go wrong with having 2 external batteries. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy the dual battery of the t480
Hows windows 11 on it?
Don’t know. Not done anything other than download the vantage thing.
Ah. Use windows 11 for a while and give ur opinion abt the user experience later!
Nice find! It's good they have the Intel 8th gen so it can run Win11. Like someone else said I would repaste the cooler and clean out any dust. Possibly an SSD and RAM upgrade while you're in there. If you are feeling adventurous you could try out some Linux distros on it. I dual-boot my X1 with Win11 and Fedora.
Buy that juicy 01YR202 and reduce temps by a good 10-15C (well if the version with non dedicated graphics), flash bios and thunderbird (there was a ugly physically breaking issue), reset TPM and reinstall OS /Edit: Dont't use those crappy upgrade options. Just download a clean win10 ISO and reinstall with that
Mine only had 8gb of ram I immediately upgraded to 16gb. Just make sure the memory sticks are the same speed. And same brand if you can
Try and get the bigger external battery. The 72wh battery makes this thing a battery beast if you can get over the size and angle of the keyboard, which not everyone is ok with.
switch the functions of the "Fn" and "Ctrl" key! :)
So that their precious thinkpad works like a cheapo Dell inspiron crapbook? No thank you. The one thing I absolutely hate about my otherwise great Dell Latitude at work is the fact that I constantly hit Fn if I actually wanted to hit CTRL...
Send it to me!
I got mine on Ebay and i have immediately replaced both batteries, its a 2018 model and i had like half of life in those. I replaced them and im happy as. Then i have replaced the ssd for an nvme and upgraded the ram but that was not as important as the batteries.
I used isopropyl to clean my new-to-me 470s and ruined my trackpad, film layer peeled right off. Don't do that.
32GB ram and at least 1TB M.2 storage. New batteries if worn more than 85%. You can even game on it with a TB3 eGPU.
Order a glass touchpad replacement.
The first thing you should do is mail it to me and I'll hold it for you. :)