stuff

Lenovo: Thinkpad T400 Keyboard Replacement

I earlier talked about how the keyboard was flexy and noisy around the ASD keys on this Thinkpad. At long last I've finally had the problem fixed!

Unfortunately, I accidentally bought a T400 keyboard by mistake on eBay as well. So I had two keyboards, a T61 and an older T400. I decided to install the T61 anyways, it has a much more solid backplate than the T400 (not by much but I figure ever little bit helps).

The procedure itself is pretty straightforward. There are 4 screws in the back than undo the palm rest and then there's one near the middle that releases the keyboard. The palm rest is a little bit tricky to remove and install. When removing make sure that you unlatch thinks properly. Whatever you do, be gentle!

I was really stunned by the T400 keyboard that came with my laptop. No wonder it was incredibly flexy and noisy!. It's essentially a super thin metal and plastic combination. I assume it's either supposed to help with heat flow or with weight, but really it just hinders the experience. Bad Lenovo bad!

Installation of the new keyboard is a bit weird. Don't try to jam the palm rest back in until you have the keyboard completely flush with the top. Once you have that, keep it in place and screw it in. Now installation of the palm rest should be a little less painful.

The Verdict: A T61 keyboard will go a long way if your Thinkpad came with a keyboard like mine, with a lot less metal and a whole lot more plastic. It's a shit ton more sturdy. There's absolutely no flex in any of the keys and it's a lot quieter the last keyboard.

T400 - Switchable Graphics Issue

Since I got the laptop, I've been running on the ATI graphics card that came with the laptop. Not through switchable graphics, but by actually selecting it in the BIOs at startup.

I've been noticing some weird quirks with it though. For instance, it seems to take forever to get up from sleep and takes forever to go to sleep. It also seems to take a load of time to shut down. I'm not entirely sure if these are video issues, maybe more like memory issues.

But just from switching to the integrated video card things are a lot snappier. I think I'll be leaving it on integrated till I actually need to dedicated video card.

Edit:

I think I found the culprit. It may not have been the switchable graphics at all...I think it was my 5 in 1 card reader that I installed as a PCMCIA slot. First off, it doesn't work properly. Second off, when there's a card in there it appears as though the darned thing doesn't play nice with sleep.

 

T400 - Interior of the LCD Assembly

Cool, no?

Magnesium frame looks different from the marketing brochures...

Thinkpad T400 Screen Replacement

I bought a T400 thinking that I'd be able to live with 1280x800 resolution from a WXGA screen. I was a bit mistaken, so I decided to get an OEM WXGA+ 14.1 inch screen. Here's documentation of the process.

0. Unplug, remove battery, and ground yourself!

1. Remove screw covers. You'll find six of them on the front bezel. Two at the top and 4 at the bottom. Use an exacto-knife to take off the bottom ones (they turn out to be flat covers). The top two should be pretty easy to take out without damaging them.

2. Removing the front bezel. This is the first delicate part of the operation. Use your nails and work them between the front bezel and the rear bezel, in the seams. What you're trying to do is is unhook the claw captures near the seam. You'll hear a click when you've successfully undone one. Eventually you'll find a part that will come off. Use that as a starting point, and then continue to use your nails around the perimeter, separating the front bezel from the magnesium frame and the rear bezel. Take your time! The second challenge is the double sided tape Lenovo uses on the front bezel, if you're not careful you will crack it.

3. Remove the rear bezel. This is a lot simpler now that the front bezel is out. Like before, use your nails and work them between the rear bezel and the magnesium frame. Everything should pop right off.

4. Examine the LCD mounts. With the screen facing you, you'll notice two things. First, along the left edge you'll find an antenna (it's off color from the magnesium frame). The antenna prevents you from removing the screws on the mount. But that's fine! You can remove the whole left mount. Then look at the right edge...hm, looks like you can't just remove the mount. That's still okay too! Just remove the screws that slide into the LCD screen.

5. Okay, before you completely remove the LCD screen, you need to unlatch the light at the top of your screen. If you have a camera, I don't really know what to say, but it goes without saying that you'll need to remove that too. The light seems to be sitting in a little slot that you can gently pull out.

6. Now you can remove the LCD. Set it down on your keyboard. You'll need to remove the inverter cable and the main video cable. Remember the orientation of both!

7. Okay, well now just unscrew that left mount and put it on your new LCD. Plug everything back in and remount. I think from here on it's pretty straightforward. You system will automatically detect the new LCD panel and adjust accordingly. Make sure it all works before redoing the bezels as that's the most painful part.

This post was inspired by: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=78857 and specifically ljwobker

Thinkpad T400 Unboxing - thoughts and pictures

Specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8ghz, 6MB L2 Cache
4GB DDR3 RAM
160GB 7200 RPM HD
ATI Mobility 3470, 256mb
Vista 64, Business
Bluetooth
14 inch WXGA (1280x800)

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I plan to do some light gaming and a lot of programming work on this computer, hence the upgraded CPU, memory, and discrete graphics. Total, just about $900 before tax.

Shipping
A lot of people in the forums seemed to have had problems with shipping from Lenovo. Understadably of course, as Lenovo ships its laptops straight from its factories in China. The build process seemed to take 3-4 days and it took another few days to clear customs. But since I'm on the West Coast, it was a quick sprint from L.A. to San Francisco.

Estimate Delivery: October 15, 2009
Actual Delivery: October 14, 2009

Not bad, no?

Out of the Box
In any case, it took awhile to get the laptop up to snuff. I'm coming from a Macbook Pro that I've been using for the last two years. It's a 4 year old model, but it was still pretty solid. Without a doubt OS X is a lot slicker and a lot more polished. Everything works out of the box without too much tweaking besides the usual bloatware.

Vista 64, however, took a little bit of time to go through the regular barrage of software and driver updates. I'd say it took about 2 or 3 restarts for everything to settle down.

Battery Tweaking
I also got the T400 with the extended 9 cell battery and the 3 cell ultra bay battery for an estimated 12+ hour battery life. I was so excited that day I stayed on the computer all day just to drain it. Check out this screen:

It's been about two weeks and the battery's still holding strong. Bother batteries come with a standard 1 year warranty, one which I plan to fully use/abuse.

On regular use I get about 9 or 10 hours on full charge. Not bad, it's good to finally be mobile. My Macbook used to get a good 40 minutes of battery life before pooping out.

Build Quality
Generally, I'm happy. But I do have some nitpicky issues.

Ask anyone who knows anything about laptops and they'll tell you that Apple has the best build quality. Regardless of operating system and other non issues, Macbook Pros just have the look and the feel down. It's great engineering really. Nothing is broken or doesn't fit. Everything works just as its supposed to, in harmony and perfection.

Judging from this Thinkpad, Lenovo has a long way to go before bringing the Thinkpad name back to its former glory. The T400 I has a LCD assembly that was slightly bowed. Bowed meaning that towards the middle the screen begins to arch ever so slightly. Ultimately destroying any clean lines that it might have had were the assembly properly fabricated. I suspect it to be more of an issue with the front and rear bezels as opposed to the magnesium frame everything's sitting on. It's still an annoyange though, and still a hit against Lenovo.

Typing on the Thinkpad, though, is a lot nicer than the Macbook. I'm not sure if it's the key spacing or the amount of effort to key in things, but the Thinkpad has it just right, making it a breeze to type long winded reviews.

However! My Thinkpad does appear to have some nagging issues with rigidity. I'm finding, especially as I type this, that the right side of the keyboard is super flexy. So much so that there's a slight echo whenever I hit any of the keys on the lefts side. I suspect that I might have gotten a defective keyboard, and I think Lenovo will replace it. It is, however, another annoyance.

Speaking of flexy, the ultrabay area and the express card slots both appear to exhibit a good deal of flex. Not terribly much, but still a noticeable amount.

Final say
It's a great machine, plenty powerful. I think the only thing I can think of is to replace the keyboard and to replace the LCD screen.