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Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

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Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#41

Post by lavela »

sb057 wrote: post #20
sudopluto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

You probably have a bad Thunderbolt chip. No way around it besides SPI flash (which is honestly pretty easy): https://gitlab.com/MobileAZN/lenovo-t480-thunderbolt-firmwar...

there's both the bad firmware issue and ports physically failing on a lot of t480s

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#42

Post by lavela »

sudopluto wrote: post #14
binsquare wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's incredibly repairable. I still use the t480 for modern workloads because I've been able to switch out the battery, the fan, the keyboard with fairly abundant aftermarket parts.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

On virtually all t480's I've seen having a broken USB-C port it was only the left one (some people don't even realize there are two!) so you can charge using the second one and since it has thunderbolt you could connect a dock and both charge and have e.g. a monitor on one port(obviously?).

On my current t480 I also succeeded in slightly bending the port shell tighter and using a USB-C cable with tighter tolerances to get the port to be usable for charging again, but it's a not guaranteed trial and error solution.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#43

Post by lavela »

jubilee33 wrote: post #32
sudopluto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

This happens often on old ones. Its kind of a consumable part unless you get a magnetic usb-c adaptor. the sub-board is replaceable but does need soldering....not god tier skills at all though, I think most people with some soldering experience could do it as it's just a few pins, but I guess it's not plug and play. It's really the one weakness in this model.

Pretty sure USB-C being on a sub-board only applies to t480s not t480.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#44

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

mypalmike wrote: post #12
daledavies wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, whoever can shrink this down to the size of something that would fit in your pocket would make a killing. Imagine not only being able to make phone calls, but use productivity software and even browse the internet.

I can imagine it! It should be called the Imagine Phone, or iPhone for short.

Yes, if those ran Free Software like a thinkpad they'd by amazing. Oh well.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#45

Post by sudopluto »

lavela wrote: post #42
sudopluto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

On virtually all t480's I've seen having a broken USB-C port it was only the left one (some people don't even realize there are two!) so you can charge using the second one and since it has thunderbolt you could connect a dock and both charge and have e.g. a monitor on one port(obviously?). On my current t480 I also succeeded in slightly bending the port shell tighter and using a USB-C cable with tighter tolerances t…

what a small world! i did the port bend thing after the issues first popped up, but eventually that stopped working as well.

interestingly, when i try to charge from right / thunderbolt port, it doesn't seem to work / the led doesn't turn on, and I saw another post with a thunderbolt flash guide that i might look into. thanks to you and everyone else who commented, i think i have a new sidequest to end the weekend with : )

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#46

Post by beAbU »

sudopluto wrote: post #45
lavela wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On virtually all t480's I've seen having a broken USB-C port it was only the left one (some people don't even realize there are two!) so you can charge using the second one and since it has thunderbolt you could connect a dock and both charge and have e.g. a monitor on one port(obviously?). On my current t480 I also succeeded in slightly bending the port shell tighter and using a USB-C cable with tighter tolerances t…

what a small world! i did the port bend thing after the issues first popped up, but eventually that stopped working as well. interestingly, when i try to charge from right / thunderbolt port, it doesn't seem to work / the led doesn't turn on, and I saw another post with a thunderbolt flash guide that i might look into. thanks to you and everyone else who commented, i think i have a new sidequest to end the weekend wi…

There was an old version of firmware that would brick the thunderbolt port. Something about every connect/disconnect cycle would write tons to the port's eeprom eventually bricking it.

I don't think there is a fix, it's more a case of if your T480 still works, get a newer firmware installed asap.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#47

Post by handedness »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #28
fsflover wrote: post #16

Alternatively you could use a GNU/Linux phone (Librem 5 or Pinephone), which allows to freely choose the OS and supports ordinary mobile use cases. It is small, but if you connect a screen and keyboard, you get the full PC.

Between a T480, Librem 5, or Pinephone, I wonder which is most powerful. I have a soft spot for my Pinephone, but fast it is not.

The T480 wins by a country mile.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#48

Post by fsflover »

daledavies wrote: post #8
Ambolia wrote: post #3

A setup like this but in phone size would be ideal. The free software mobile world has really been a dumpster fire from the beginning.

Yes, whoever can shrink this down to the size of something that would fit in your pocket would make a killing. Imagine not only being able to make phone calls, but use productivity software and even browse the internet.

Here you go: https://puri.sm/products/librem-5

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#49

Post by Markoff »

sudopluto wrote: post #14
binsquare wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's incredibly repairable. I still use the t480 for modern workloads because I've been able to switch out the battery, the fan, the keyboard with fairly abundant aftermarket parts.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

yeah, same thing happened to my daily driver T480s, so I took precautions and now I use magnetic adapter on TB port since if that's gone whole computer is gone

I despise these new USB-C ports, never had such thing happen on proprietary Thinkpad ports over decades

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