I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad

Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by herbst on Thursday April 03, 2025 @04:50AM (#43566782)

I have a T420. A few years ago I switched to a slightly used T480, keyboard was a huge downgrade and the whole series can get really stupid USBC issues. After half a year or so it didn't dock anymore and I got an X1, basically the same laptop glad I found it without touch and the 'bright screen' because the screen is barely good enough, keyboard is the same and USBc already started to get finicky.

Meanwhile my T420 still runs like on day one (which was already 5 years old when I got it, and travelled 1+ years with me in a backpack), the screen works in direct sunlight and it's not even the best of its series, hardware still perfect. Fat SSD + 32GB Ram and you can barely tell how old it is.

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by notpushkin on Thursday April 03, 2025 @07:52AM (#43568291)

I also have a T420, though not using it regularly nowadays. It would be really nice to get proper USB-C there – using one cable to plug in monitor and Ethernet and charge is really nice.

I’ve wanted to get a T480 for a while now (mainly to do a T25 frankenpad [1] – seems like a nice project), but if it really has those issues with the USB-C ports, I think I’ll pass :-(

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by herbst on Thursday April 03, 2025 @09:17AM (#43569169)

If you'd go that far for fancy laptop soldering a new usbc slot every few years might be non issue for you :)

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by organsnyder on Thursday April 03, 2025 @10:18AM (#43570085)

Yup, my T480 got upgraded to a Framework 13 after the T480's Thunderbolt port broke (known firmware issue that basically fried the chip). I loaned my T480 to someone about a year ago, and haven't bothered asking for it back.

Meanwhile, my T410 works great as a workbench computer.

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by axiologist on Friday April 04, 2025 @12:58PM (#43585080)

While not for the faint of heart, there is a fix for T480's broken Thunderbolt:

http://web.archive.org/web/20200318130144/https://posts.nadi...

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by prmoustache on Thursday April 03, 2025 @10:52AM (#43570620)

I've solved the USB-C aging issue by using those magnetic cable adapters on all laptops and smartphones.

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by smiley1437 on Thursday April 03, 2025 @01:56PM (#43573172)

Be careful - those magnetic adapters can fry your port

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2307079/dont-buy-these-dange...

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Re:I maintain a 17 year old ThinkPad by prmoustache on Friday April 04, 2025 @08:02AM (#43581014)

The only real difference is that magsafe ports are recessed really. I tend to check regularly that my magnetic ports aren't dusty.

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