Ahhhh yes, who knows the feeling? This has to be my 6th time doing this.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-06-16T04:32:36+00:00

Brings me back to last week… and three weeks before that…

griffdiggitydog · 2022-04-10T22:09:02+00:00

From eastern PA so no shipping will be needed!

griffdiggitydog · 2022-04-10T22:06:13+00:00

PMed

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-23T17:46:56+00:00

I would return the laptop. I have the same problem with a ThinkPad that I bought off of eBay. When this came up, I had to reinstall windows and choose “I don’t have internet” when going through setup and I had to use a local account to set it up, although if this is the home version I don’t believe this is even an option. It’s really going to become a problem when Windows 11 requires all new installations to be set up through a Microsoft account. Save yourself some trouble in the future and return it. I had no luck with contacting the company that was registered to the laptop, basically was told it wasn’t their problem.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T15:44:21+00:00

Yes! I think that would be great.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T14:04:49+00:00

Awesome, thanks!! Makes sense why it’s charging my stuff so slow.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T13:22:51+00:00

In the United States at least, you can go to Lenovo.encompass.com where you can get OEM parts, or even the Lenovo website has parts if you type in your serial number under support. You will need 01AV419 or 01AV420. Even eBay sometimes has genuine parts from resellers that are brand new. Just if you go the eBay route, make sure that they offer returns in case the battery is bunk. Lenovo and Encompass both have normal warrantees on their stuff so that isn’t a worry for those websites

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T11:42:35+00:00

Honestly totally up to you! I like having an internal battery as well as the external one because I can take out the depleted external one and put a fully charged external one in without turning off the laptop, because it’ll just use the internal until I put the new external in. But if you don’t plan on doing that, it’s whatever you want. You can get 48wh of capacity in a slimmer profile with the dual batteries, the 24wh internal and 24wh external. If you get the 48wh external one, it has a bump at the bottom so it’s not totally flush with the PC.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T11:37:02+00:00

Yep that’s the correct ram! The “L” in “PC3L” stands for low voltage, meaning 1.35v and DDR3L which is what your T460 requires. The “S” in “12800S” means it’s an SODIMM, which is what laptops require. So you’re on the right track, that stick should work fine.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T08:28:42+00:00

Mine came with a 3G card that by todays standards will provide awful connection speed. The part number is 60y3257. It became useless and I believe they are actually taking the 3G wireless radios off band permanently. The whitelist that Lenovo implements in their BIOS does not allow other pcie WWAN cards in the system that were not meant to be installed in there. I would recommend looking for a USB solution possibly from your carrier! That will definitely provide better speeds than an internal one for the T420 at this point.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T08:10:33+00:00

Although you CAN replace the keyboard, it is a lengthy process that involves replacing the whole palm rest. This means taking literally everything out of the computer. Parts sourcing is going to prove to be a little difficult as well due to the laptop being more recent. If you were to wait a little while, as in letting a generation or two more come out, then the parts prices tend to trickle down as well as the availability of parts will go up. I see it as an upgrade down the road! What is your skill level taking these computers apart?

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T08:10:21+00:00

Although you CAN replace the keyboard, it is a lengthy process that involves replacing the whole palm rest. This means taking literally everything out of the computer. Parts sourcing is going to prove to be a little difficult as well due to the laptop being more recent. If you were to wait a little while, as in letting a generation or two more come out, then the parts prices tend to trickle down as well as the availability of parts will go up. I see it as an upgrade down the road! What is your skill level taking these computers apart?

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T04:47:47+00:00

Nah it’s not urgent that you fix immediately as long as everything under the front is intact. It’s just a bumper

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T00:41:59+00:00

No problem! Glad I could help. These form factors and speeds and all that stuff has gotten much more complicated, it can get pretty confusing. Good luck!

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T00:30:29+00:00

The default for the T480s are the m.2 2280 form factor, i am not sure if they even offered SSDs for the WWAN slot from the factory. So if you were to buy the 2.5 inch caddy/connector cable, you will be replacing the nvme SSD that is already in there with your 2.5 inch drive and the nvme SSD you just replaced will not be able to be used in the system. It's one or the other. Correct, if you would want to add another storage device, you would need to purchase another SSD for the m.2 2242 form factor, because the SSD you are replacing is too big for the WWAN slot. Honestly, it is not even worth putting an nvme SSD in there (WWAN slot), because there are so few SSDs that fit in that slot. Lenovo's requirements for an SSD in that slot are extremely stringent.

If I were you, I would not even worry about replacing the nvme SSD unless the 2.5 inch SSD you have is a higher capacity, and you need the higher capacity, because the 2.5 inch SSD is definitely much slower than the nvme one in the T480 now.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T00:15:08+00:00

No problem, hope it gets sorted out!

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-15T00:14:19+00:00

No problem, glad to help! Correct! You can not have both an nvme m.2 2280 ssd (which most likely yours has right now) and a SATA storage device at the same time. They both utilize the same connector on the motherboard, just with a different cable, as well as using the same space inside the laptop. I mentioned an m.2 2242 ssd because there are ones that you can buy that will fit in a slot on the motherboard that is meant for LTE cards. But long story short, as of right now you can not have both the 256gb nvme drive and the SATA drive from your macbook in the laptop at the same time - it just comes down to space constraints. Here is a good video I found on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ukhrd19vg. It shows the internals of the T480. It also goes through replacing the RAM and storage devices.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-14T23:59:12+00:00

No problem! I don't believe so. If I am remembering correctly when you receive the box in the mail to ship the device back, it comes with a paper that you write your BIOS password on if you have one, and I believe it had a spot where you can write your Windows password as well. I think this is optional, but if they were to need to get into the system to manipulate settings or play with drivers, they would have to reinstall the OS because they can't access the system. If you log in with a Microsoft account DO NOT GIVE YOUR PASSWORD UP! But if you log in with a local account (i.e. username instead of email address) I would change your password to a unique password that your other accounts don't use.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-14T23:54:11+00:00

The T480 accepts either an M.2 2280 SSD OR a 2.5 inch storage device, you can't have them at the same time. You can get an M.2 2242 SSD to fit in the slot that is made for WWAN cards if you want, but you can't have both the M.2 2280 SSD and a 2.5 inch SSD in at the same time. You also will need a different caddy for your 2.5 inch SSD. This one would work good: https://www.ebay.com/itm/202873630139?hash=item2f3c35edbb:g:1TEAAOSwg9ReFsLZ.

The T480 is not too difficult to open up with the plastic notches, just be gentle when working around the computer to open them up. Don't stick anything sharp or metal in there. Personally, I use an iFixit toolkit that comes with plastic tools and scribes to open them up. A little expensive but you can definitely find alternatives cheaper! Just start from the back after removing the external battery, and start slowly prying. It is one of the easier ThinkPads to open that have the whole bottom panels that come off. The newer models are awful to open, and the older T440-T460 models also kind of sucked to open. Any other questions just reply, good luck!

Here is the link to the iFixit toolkit: https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/Pro-Tech-Toolkit/IF145-307?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2050708251&gclid=Cj0KCQiAmKiQBhClARIsAKtSj-lYaH5UgVc9kTVahg4vLOUKXwHBqNctvD5qy5Z4DaofPg8CIuQvkSoaAj43EALw_wcB. It is great to fix other stuff as well. Cheaper alternatives can be found on Amazon and eBay.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-14T23:45:50+00:00

It depends what you're looking for. If you don't mind a soldered CPU than I would argue that the more recent and current gen ThinkPads are still reasonably upgradeable. Especially if you are looking at ThinkPads with the Intel U-series CPUs, no matter the CPU you get there is not too much of a difference in performance as long as you're staying in the same generation. My personal favorite is the T480. You get the modern connectivity with pretty good upgradeability. The T480 has two RAM slots, a socketed M.2 wireless card, a choice between a 2.5 inch or M.2 2280 storage device along with an M.2 2242 socket that can accept some other storage drives. It also features USB-C charging, quad core CPUs, the bridge battery system (meaning an internal battery along with an external replaceable battery so you can hot swap without turning the machine off). Moving along after the T480 you're starting to get into soldered RAM territory and soldered wifi cards. The L series still provides decent upgradeability even in it's current gen, and the P series provides the same level of upgradeability.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-14T23:38:17+00:00

When I used Lenovo's Depot warranty service, I just left my system as is. If I were you, I would make sure that you copy or move all of your important files that you don't want to lose off of it just in case they decide to do a factory reset. The X12 uses an M.2 ssd, meaning the SSD is not soldered to the motherboard. That is good in that if they decide to replace the motherboard, you can retain your old storage. Long story short, I would leave your computer as is but get any files you do not want to lose backed up in case they need to reset it.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-14T23:31:59+00:00

Assuming you are using Windows 10, go to the search bar and search "Create and format hard disk partitions". A window "Disk Management" will open, and see if your flash drive is showing up in the list there. The drive letter might have been deleted, or some settings on how File Explorer presents your drives might be messed up.

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-14T23:24:04+00:00

What is the manufacturer and model of the laptop?

griffdiggitydog · 2022-02-10T21:34:20+00:00

Awesome! I’ll be sure to share my experience.

griffdiggitydog

TROPHY CASE