r/thinkpad • • Aug 26 '26

META Rule clarification: "Sticker bombing" posts

274 Upvotes

In the future, we will remove any and all posts that just there to show off stickers. Such posts often attract rule breaking behavior that we do not want here, as the stickers are often used to display political leanings that have nothing to do with r/thinkpad.

This is a subreddit about ThinkPads. Not about stickers that you may have on your ThinkPad.


r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

Discussion / Information Am I allowed here?

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145 Upvotes

Thinkpad x1 carbon gen 9

I7 11gen 16gb ram

Running cachyos with niri as the WM


r/thinkpad • • 2h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Just joined the cult

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28 Upvotes

I purchased an E14 7th Generation.

TMI: I’m minoring in network security, and I’m preparing to apply to a CPS graduate program or a network security graduate program.


r/thinkpad • • 9h ago

Hardware Upgrade My little cousin destroyed my T480s screen, so I upgraded it

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79 Upvotes

My little cousin absolutely destroyed the screen on my T480s a few days ago. LCD cracked, vertical lines everywhere, completely cooked.

I was just going to buy another stock FHD panel, but finding an actual decent replacement here was way more annoying than I expected. A lot of sellers list a specific panel and then say they’ll send “an equivalent compatible model”, which I really didn’t want.

After way too much searching I found a used Innolux N140HCE-EN2 Rev.C4 for 1800 TRY. The original panel in my T480s was an N140HCA-EAB Rev.C1.

The EN2 is still 1080p, but it’s 300 nit and has much better colors than the stock panel. The old one looked fine to me before, but after turning this one on I realized how washed out it actually was lol.

The only annoying part was that the EN2 doesn’t have the same mounting tabs, so I had to use thin double-sided LCD tape and line it up manually. I was convinced I was going to screw up the fitment, but somehow it went in perfectly and the bezel closes fine.

Honestly pretty happy with how it turned out. Little cousin broke the screen, accidentally gave me an excuse to upgrade it.


r/thinkpad • • 14h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Do thinkpad yogas count?

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170 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

Thinkstagram Picture Had this one for a couple years

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21 Upvotes

Dropped it one time and the bottom doesn't secure in place anymore, y'know what they say; the cucumber always tastes better pickled


r/thinkpad • • 9h ago

Question / Problem Got these four ThinkPads (X220, T420/T520, E520/L520 + an L470 not in photo). Any fun project ideas or best uses for them in 2026?

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30 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’ve accumulated a small collection of ThinkPads, but I’m torn between finding fun projects/distros for them and putting some (or all) of them up for sale.

  • X220 (i5 2nd gen compact 12.5" with classic 7-row keyboard)
  • T420 (i5 2nd gen classic 14" workhorse)
  • E520 (I3 2nd gen 15" with dedicated numpad)
  • L470 (I5 7th gen Intel Core – not pictured)

r/thinkpad • • 17h ago

Review / Opinion “Found an old friend while cleaning… my IBM ThinkPad from 20 years ago”

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91 Upvotes

My first laptop was an IBM… hard to believe it’s been 20 years already.

Back then, I had five or six ThinkPads, from the T41 to various X-series models. Then I got married, and now I have three kids. These days, my wife uses a MacBook, while the kids and I use Samsung and Dell laptops.

But while cleaning today, I found this old friend. I’d kept it around for spare parts and completely forgotten about it. I guess it might finally be time to send it off for recycling…

After joining Reddit and browsing around, I came across this ThinkPad community. It brought back so many memories that I just had to join. I’d love to stop by now and then and see what everyone’s sharing.

Hope you all have a great day! :)


r/thinkpad • • 7h ago

Thinkstagram Picture My first refurbished product ever. T14 Gen 2 (i7)

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13 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 11h ago

Question / Problem Restoring one of the best thinkpads out there

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26 Upvotes

After looking for some time on a good vintage thinkpad i was settled on a x200-x220, but to my surprise a x61 appeared, and being so much different than my t480 and other thinkpads that i fixed really got me on it, low and behold i bought it, unfortunately the last owner wasn't so careful with it, its full of scratches, missing screws, but it is the T7500 version, one of the fastest ones available, after replacing the internal fan (the one beside the wwan card) i got it to boot, already did the bios upgrade, i will put Gentoo later when i get more time with it, but until then i will be looking for the missing components, talking about it the two things its missing that i really wanted but seem to be either more rare or expensive than the laptop itself, are the batteries (both the removable and the internal one), and the external antenna for the 3g card (i know, i know, but think about all the aura it carries), and the thinklight isn't working, if anyone know of a international seller that could have these components would be of much help, and please, any tips are more than welcome, even tho this is IMHO the best looking thinkpad, there is very little to it, specially compared to its younger brothers (x200-x220), ill update my progress later (hopefully still in this year lol)


r/thinkpad • • 1d ago

Thinkstagram Picture Slowly growing my collection!

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283 Upvotes

I recently picked up the E14 out of e-waste but they're all fully functional. I can't wait to find another. I do have another T410 which is bios locked but I haven't gotten around to fixing that yet.


r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

Question / Problem I can’t believe this took me so long to figure out.

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10 Upvotes

After nearly two years of using this computer the thing that has always bugged me the most was whenever plugging or unplugging the computer the screen would go black and the power light would blink. I got this computer refurbished before the ram crisis at a good price and I didn’t expect much from it so I didn’t really care at first but the longer I used it the more it bugged the hell out of me. How I use this laptop is short stints of sitting at a desk or table and then moving around so I’m constantly plugging in and unplugging the computer and every time it would blink and freak out. Sometimes for upwards of like ten to fifteen seconds. I checked windows settings I checked bios setting nothing ever changed until I looked at a piece of software that I never installed. Seriously what is this garbage and why would I ever want to change the refresh rate of my screen on a 60hzs max panel?! Consequently now that I’ve finally figure out how to turn this stupid garbage off my battery life has improved by over an hour. I am beyond pissed and hope that this rant can maybe help someone else out


r/thinkpad • • 4h ago

Discussion / Information Broke my spacebar - X1 6th gen

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6 Upvotes

took it out for cleaning under, like i always do, and it snapped while cleaning. this time i put some pressure on it. permanent marker worked like charm to hide that crack!


r/thinkpad • • 2h ago

Review / Opinion Is the Thinkpad E14 G1 a good buy?

3 Upvotes

My 10 y/o netbook has a Celeron N3060, eMMC and 4GB RAM DDR3L 1366x768 TN.

I bought this ThinkPad online for $238 and in Argentina it is really hard to find good prices, even getting a ThinkPad outside the capital city is a luxury. In this subreddit a lot of people talk trash of this notebook compared to T series and newer generations so I want to know if is it really that bad for the price I paid?


r/thinkpad • • 4m ago

Buying Advice Downgrading laptop

• Upvotes

Any recommendations to buy a thinkpad that is portable/long battery life, and can game on low to medium at 1080p

My current laptop is to bulky, thats why im looking for a portable one that can be brought to the field, id budget it around 300-500$ but flexible

My current system is a gigabyte g7gd 16gb ram with 16 gbs and a 3050


r/thinkpad • • 16h ago

Thinkstagram Picture My Beloved X31

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44 Upvotes

X31 is one of the lesser known ibm-era thinkpads. Its build quality is really good. With really nicely-molded keys and a tight hinge. The device is surprisingly powerful, it has a Pentium M and Mobility Radeon but somehow is able to run HALO and GTA3. Albeit at 20-30fps. The cooling is robust. The worst thing about this is the inverter on the bottom of the display assembly for the florescent tube backlight . It makes the thing stupidly hot to the point I worry about the plastics so usually I turn the brightness down. The display panel though is almost as good as the t430, its disappointing how Lenovo didn't update its ppi in all those years (I think the viewing angle is actually better on the x31), though the e-series did have really nice displays. To answer the "why windows", I think XP is better for this era of devices than Linux honestly, especially for old software like autocad 2002 :)

It was so hard to find parts for this. I had 3d-printed a replacment HDD slot cover and I hand-soldered the old 18650 cells out of the battery and replaced new Sanyo cells. You can find a 3D-model for the slot cover in my previous posts.


r/thinkpad • • 29m ago

Buying Advice Good thinkpad for… everything?

• Upvotes

I want a thinkpad under 200$. Good for light/mid range gaming and some school work?
Current laptop is an thinkpad x61s. 2gb of ram. A celerono and 250gb ssd
I would really prefer if it isn’t a t480 as I want to put this on my list for Christmas and I don’t want be gifted like the worse t480 in existence. If possible (not required) maybe a removable battery?


r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

Question / Problem Single bright “K” on keyboard from backlight.

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7 Upvotes

On my E16 Gen 1 I notice that the K key is much brighter than compared to the other keys with the backlit keyboard regardless of the level. Anyone else experience? Pic might not illustrate it properly.


r/thinkpad • • 1d ago

Thinkstagram Picture X220

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196 Upvotes

Done a clean install and testing the ansible setup scripts with the X220.

It was my first ever laptop and thinkpad. I bought it first hand in 2013. Just got a replacement dock for $6. I broke one when I tried to open clean it.

The keyboard is a joy to use.


r/thinkpad • • 1d ago

Thinkstagram Picture It’s a really good reading light

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282 Upvotes

T420


r/thinkpad • • 5h ago

Question / Problem My thinkpad T450s won't start

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2 Upvotes

A month ago I was playing Fallout 4 on my ThinkPad (a game that (it demands a lot) and there came a point where the game froze and I couldn't do anything, I couldn't even return to Windows, so I pressed the power button for a few seconds to restart but When I did that, the ThinkPad wouldn't turn on again and just stays like you see in the video; the fan only turns on for a while and then it shuts off. If anyone knows a solution, please let me know, I already tried removing the external and internal batteries and only connecting it to the charger, and the problem persists.


r/thinkpad • • 10h ago

Question / Problem Prob Win 11 Issue

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6 Upvotes

Is there anyway to fix this. The thinkpad has no issues before,. The last thing windows related thing i did was updating it.I still need it to finish pre uni (Dont hate me for using win 11)


r/thinkpad • • 6h ago

Buying Advice Need a hard shell anti crush case recommendation 14 inch

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3 Upvotes

Had a t470 I abused for years I bought it around 2020 for $140 but the final nail in the coffin was I jammed it in my backpack full of stuff and the screen got crushed, lucked out and found a t490 with 16gb ram 500gb m2 ssd a week later for also $140 on marketplace last night. I need recommendations for a crush proof case that’s not too bulky so I don’t ruin this one, any budget around $20-$50


r/thinkpad • • 4h ago

Thinkstagram Picture PrisonPad

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2 Upvotes

r/thinkpad • • 11h ago

Buying Advice P14s Gen 1 (CPU : 4750U, 16Gb DDR4, 512 GB, battery 18 cycles, original charger) for 260€ : worth it ?

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5 Upvotes

It will be for light coding, light 3D (Tinkercad), SPICE simulation, Altium. The price here in France is €260 (around $290 USD I guess).

- No bios password, no autopilot from previous company, Absolute not activated in bios.

Thank you !