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I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

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Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#421
post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The easiest way to tell the difference between a real and fake is by the white "recycle" sticker https://preview.redd.it/83f0fqegasa11.jpg?width=1263&format=... fake batteries have a poorly printed, "fat" looking battery on the recycle sticker and the real ones have a slender properly printed one. For context in the image the bottom one is fake.

I've stared at the image for 3 minutes and still can't figure out the difference. Where exactly is the "fat looking battery" you refer to?

It looks like it is inside the white circular recycling symbol - not the other triangular recycling symbol.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#422
post #421
post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've stared at the image for 3 minutes and still can't figure out the difference. Where exactly is the "fat looking battery" you refer to?

It looks like it is inside the white circular recycling symbol - not the other triangular recycling symbol.

Aha, that cleared up my confusion! Thanks.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#423
post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might just be the current supply chain woes but I have a relatively recent X1 Yoga (Gen 1) and the fan went out. Had to buy a Chinese one on ebay to replace it since Lenovo did not have the part anymore. I kind of expected it to be easy to acquire an official part but they told me to look on ebay. The Chinese one works fine though.

nothing wrong w/ the off-shore ones (with regard to fans), they are likely the OEM anyways. Although I'd think you had replaced the entire cooling solution, heatpipes and all.

That is correct, the fan is welded to the heatpipe.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might just be the current supply chain woes but I have a relatively recent X1 Yoga (Gen 1) and the fan went out. Had to buy a Chinese one on ebay to replace it since Lenovo did not have the part anymore. I kind of expected it to be easy to acquire an official part but they told me to look on ebay. The Chinese one works fine though.

That's nuts. Is that the official policy? Here in Norway, a laptop would have a 5 year "reklamasjon" (not 100% sure what that translates to in English). Perhaps "forced warranty" would be my best translation. It basically means that the product is expected to last for at least 5 years, and if it doesn't - the seller has to fix it, or give you your money back. Some products have a 2 year "reklamasjon" while others hav…

I think this laptop is likely over 5 years old, though I'd expect to be able to order 10 year old parts on thinkpads, but perhaps that is not cost effective since most companies would replace machines before that. In the US I believe it came with 1 or 2 years warranty against defect. I had purchased an additional 2 year warranty for a total of 4 years. I had the battery and cover replaced when it cracked but in the end I decided it was a waste if I could get my hands on the parts since these are easy enough to repair.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#425
post #15

> The CPU innovation stagnation between 2012-2017 has resulted in 4 cores still being an acceptable low-end CPU in early 2022 I recently got M1 Max MacBook, and I was expecting a huge jump from my 2010 Mac Pro, but on my day-to-day work. It is barely noticeable, despite the raving reviews of M1. Perhaps for me it is not about things getting obsolete, but more of that my own needs on CPU/GPU performance were pretty mu…

Agree for laptops, but assembling proper desktop gave me a noticeable bump in "smoothness" on pretty much everything, from mouse movements, code navigation, windows resizing, browsing, to, obviously, graphics. Seems like thermal constraints slow down laptops pretty noticeably.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#426
post #192

Laptops in the early 2010s kind of reached a level of being adequate enough for most use-cases that it's hard to really justify an upgrade. I feel, as I write this on my late 2013 MacBook Pro, that it's powerful enough for most normal activities, read, browse, video calls, work on not too large data sets, etc. Anything that needs to run longer than I keep the laptop open can run on a different device, many programs a…

>I feel, as I write this on my late 2013 MacBook Pro, that it's powerful enough for most normal activities, read, browse, video calls, work on not too large data sets, etc.

Same with my 2012 MacBook Pro, the last unibody non-Retina version. Would I like a higher-resolution screen? Yes. But otherwise, with a SSD, it's really hard to justify spending thousands for a new Apple Silicon computer (as nice as that would be).

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#427
post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdote: I use Manjaro on my home server and on a laptop and it's rock-solid. Not sure why people look down on Arch, I only had good experiences and I'm very far from a seasoned sysadmin.

People look down on Arch because the stability story is catastrophic, and Arch users deny that because they have low standards: Parent was surprised that "Somehow the upgrade didn't completely hose everything" after only 2 years of no updates. It "just" took them "an hour of babysitting it" through cyclic dependency headaches. Child comments proudly proclaim "only seen a handful of actual breakages" (since 2016) and…

fwiw I've gotten a debian install to the point where I'd rather wipe and reinstall than fix thanks to a combination of pinning, bad pip hygeine (why oh why is global install default), and not being sure where to go to learn how to untangle the mess I'd created. Sure I was a lot less experienced but there's something to be said for arch giving me enough tools and information that I actually feel like I can fix whatever comes up.

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#428
post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it a Xeon processor :)?

Ha - it actually is!!!! This is too funny - I was about to reply to you, and then decided to check my files. Lo and behold, I found that when I bought the components in March 2012, I bought an Intel E5-2609 (which is indeed a Xeon!) for $299. Had I not looked, I never would have guessed. Thinking about it now (and I might be wrong), the machine has 32GB of RAM, so I might have bought the Xeon to go above 16GB. Can an…

Second hand PC dealers in my country (Turkey) used to put together affordable gaming rigs using old Xeon processors a couple of years back. That's why my first guess was that if it was a Xeon.

I think Xeon processors also have special motherboards, so you can put TWO processors on some of them. That was a huge selling point for computer nerds like me.

Wikipedia says "Because of a hardware limitation not fixed until Ivy Bridge-E in 2013, most older Intel CPUs only support up to 4 gibibit chips for 8 GiB DIMMs". The E5-2609 is at the generation of sandy bridge. So you probably bought the Xeon to support 32GB :).

Re: I went back to using a ThinkPad from 2012

#430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible to make the more tricky upgrades (CPU, display, fan) on similar models but from the X-series ? X201, X210, X220? I would love to do it on mine.

At least for the x220, there are display and fan upgrades (mine uses a x230 fan), you can max ram at 16Gb (the manual says 8Gb, but 16Gb works just fine), but the CPU is soldered, so no upgrades on that.

Reportedly there have been people who have managed to upgrade the CPU on the X230, it just requires a lot of time and effort to do it properly, BGA-s are a pain to solder and requires specialized equipment to do it reliably.
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