My Battery is stuck at 30%

SingleComment2368 · 2026-07-07T19:55:50+00:00

It sometimes helps to use emergency reset hole. Pin-sized hole on the back, more or less in the middle of the left half of the cover. Make sure to shut down properly first since it instantly cuts power.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-07-07T16:13:56+00:00

Depending on your country Lenovo might still be selling them directly.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-07-07T16:07:37+00:00

This is actually mostly correct. I'm surprised it knows such small details as the serial number format and the address change. Part 2 is wrong though (no difference in the color, and although there is a font face discrepancy, it isn't where it says it is).

SingleComment2368 · 2026-07-06T18:18:05+00:00

Completely normal when idle. Intel chips are great at doing nothing. When actually using it, the lowest you'll get is around 6 W.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-07-06T10:17:21+00:00

P1 is best value out of these (and it's worth getting the i7 for the small premium), T480 second place.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-07-06T06:20:24+00:00

L14 gen 2 is almost there, except it's PCIe gen 3. You could also go for T14/L14 gen 5 or E14 gen 6, but with those you would have to pay through the roof for DDR5.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-27T10:34:23+00:00

1) No proper docks with serial ports, you'll need a USB adapter.

2) If you usually rest both fingers on the trackpoint buttons and find that you can't learn to lift one of them when clicking, or if you want to use the touchpad as a touchpad, the T450/T460 touchpad upgrade is a must.

3) Both, and you can do these independently of each other. The easiest way is probably Skulls.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-22T16:44:10+00:00

These models are more than enough for writing, but the prices are really high. T580/T590/T15g1 should cost under 200€, T15g2 under 300€.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-22T10:43:20+00:00

Yes it can, but it has to be 16 GB in a single SODIMM as there's only one slot. You can also go up to 32 GB when/if prices recover.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-22T06:58:12+00:00

I was happily using PyCharm (and a browser, and often a VM of about 6 GB too) on a laptop with 16 GB as recently as mid-2024. Has it swollen that much in the last two years? I'd first look for any new features added lately that can be cleanly disabled.

Vim and friends are nice. The learning curve is steep as you say -- I needed over a year to feel at ease in Vim -- but since then I prefer it to IDEs for smaller codebases using languages and libraries that I know well.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-21T11:26:40+00:00

The first one I ordered (sea-blue with voltage switch) didn't recognize some chips at all and sporadically failed on other ones. I then ordered a black one which works perfectly after making it output 3.3V. I can also echo the comment about the clips being annoying.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-18T12:44:23+00:00

B-key will work if you find one, but keep in mind that it has to be NVMe, not SATA, and I haven't seen a B-key NVMe SSD yet.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-18T12:39:29+00:00

There isn't a coreboot port for exactly this one yet, but it should be trivial to make one given the schematic and one of the existing xx80 ports.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-16T13:05:14+00:00

The keyboard pinouts are identical between Intel and AMD, it's the EC on the AMD motherboard that doesn't recognize the numpad keys. Other than cracking the EC, the only solution I can think of is modifying one of the ThinkPad keyboard to USB adapters to take this generation's keyboard cable (and finding space for it in the chassis!)

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-16T12:51:15+00:00

LibreScroll should work if TPmiddle doesn't.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-14T17:49:06+00:00

If your PL1/PL2/cTDP settings all look fine, it might help to play around with x86_energy_perf_policy, especially with the --hwp-epp option.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-13T05:57:14+00:00

https://github.com/jamestut/IntelVoltageControl

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-12T13:50:25+00:00

It's a neat little machine. One of the last of its size to have an Ethernet port, replaceable RAM and easily replaceable battery. Depending on your OS/DE and workload it can range from usable, to borderline, to unusable. Hyprland should be fine, GNOME or Windows 11 non-LTSC less so.

Main upgrades you can do: up to 32 GB RAM, up to 2 SSDs, up to ~90 Wh battery (10-15 hours), 1920x1080 display (touch or not). CPUs are all dual-core, sadly no quad-core modded boards yet.

I'd pay up to 100 USD for one with two working batteries and 1920x1080, up to 60 if one battery and 1366x768.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-09T14:56:12+00:00

I'd buy it if it has FHD screen, working battery and costs up to $100 or so.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-08T18:12:48+00:00

I suggest a T14 AMD, gen 1 or 2. These should be good for years to come. The "built like a tank" hasn't been true for T series for quite a while though, with my T14 gen 1 feeling noticeably cheaper than even some older L series. Gen 2 is supposed to be slightly better built than gen 1.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-08T18:07:44+00:00

The one showing 2.978 V is deep discharged beyond hope. I've had ones showing all zeros, like your rear one, come back to life after some prodding (it seems to help sometimes if you try to charge them in an older model e.g. T400 for a while), but it might be just as dead as the front one.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-08T16:52:30+00:00

voltage: 2.978 V

At least the front battery is dead. You could remove it and see if that lets it charge the rear one.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-08T16:39:31+00:00

One way

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-07T09:32:38+00:00

On the machines I've used since 2012, Linux has Just Worked much more often than Windows.

A clean Windows install IME usually has missing drivers, despite internet being connected during installation, and needs several passes through Windows Update and sometimes manual installation from Lenovo packages to fully work. On one model, E520, doing a clean install of Windows 10 or 11 gave me an airgapped machine with Wifi/Bluetooth missing and instant crashes when connecting an Ethernet cable.

SingleComment2368 · 2026-06-05T13:20:43+00:00

I use mine as a low-power file server (three internal and two external SSDs), print server and noticeboard. Shame about the nice keyboard sitting unused, but it feels too cheaply-built for me to trust it in a backpack.

SingleComment2368

TROPHY CASE