I'm a proud T400 owner myself. I don't know how many people owned it before I got it in 2020, but of course it still works. I still use it every day for net browsing. I think these old Thinkpads are the best examples for sustainability and longevity.
I have some old laptops, including a couple of Toshiba Pentium MMX machines and two Vaios - one with a Northwood 2.8 P4/Radeon 345M and the other is a 3rd gen i7 with a 7650M. They run XP and 7, respectively.
I swear, the moment I saw the rehabilitated thinkpad I audibly gasped. It looks SO GORGEOUS. A before & after of the laptop could have been a nice touch
Frankenpads are the absolute best. I've got a dream about creating a Frankenpad with my spare P50, and the Frankenfifty will terrify laptop users for generations to come!
Banging Video. Thanks, im daily driving a Thinkpad T520, Thinkpad T430, Thinkpad X201 and Thinkpad T480, all running variations of Linux and yes i use all daily
T400 user here, not my first thinkpad, but I use it as a companion in my desk setup as a assistant machine ( i like my machine to focused on one particular task for each lol) for my x230 which was docked. my first thinkpad was x220 which i bought quite a while ago to tinker with linux (still fine and chugging along) I was really suprised at how still snappy these machines are despite the age at the time and become obsessed overtime and voila I snatched 7 more old used thinkpads along the way, because they were dirt cheap which was a godsend for a 3rd world broke collage student like me and looks like Iam not going to stop, never regret buying every one of them cuz they are useful for my needs and projects.
I have a similar story, back in 2014 I obtained a HP EliteBook 8440p with an i7 620m and Nvidia 3100m GPU, it was from a bank that was upgrading their laptops and they were just throwing these things away in mass. They offered to let me take a few and I ended up grabbing my laptop, after throwing in a hard drive, I started to use the laptop and play Minecraft on it, it was a pretty decent upgrade over my Core 2 Duo HP G60 I had at the time. And it's the laptop I learned Linux on and started programing on, a decade later and I still use it as my daily driver laptop, only with a few upgrades. The CPU was upgraded to an i7 740qm, and I gave it 8gb of ram and an SSD. She runs great and I will refuse to ever give her up.
have a very similar story. started out with a crappy hp that self destructed within 2 years (hp released a broken bios & wanted 600€ for a new mainboard). now I own 4 thinkpads
Thanks for sharing your story. The biggest hurdle in a journey is starting it, next is learning from it. As a thinkpad fan myself I also have my share of novice errors and disasters. A first experience in anything with no mistakes is improbable. I appreciate your candid openness about the highs and the lows. I like your introspection. Keep up the good work.
I have done over the years the same thing, changed os to Ubuntu, upgraded ram, changed battery etc. I now have at least ten macs of various flavors, and several upuntu and chromebook laptops. A leaning experience! Sorry, don't like stickers, used hot gun to remove!
Still have an old x200 I use as my 'bedroom laptop' running linux mint. Have also owned a bunch of other thinkpads and am thinking about getting myself a second hand carbon now that my Dell laptop (running pop os) is starting to get a little long in the tooth till I save up for a framework. Fully understand the thinkpad love, they aren't quite as great as they were before Lenovo bought them but they are still pretty good laptops. My first Thinkpad was a T60 with IPS screen, that thing changed how I thought about laptops as well.
Once you buy your first thinkpad there's no coming back. My first daily thinkpad was t60 and when i got into college i needed something faster so I bought x250 on auction for 50$ and it turned out that beside x250 with the dock they sent me t400 with 9 cell battery and 1440x900 screen in mint condition. Absolutely no cracks or anything. I've been rocking both machines since.
I did a Windows 7 install this year, on an old AMD A series HP laptop for a friend. She just wants to use it to play old games, which it will do quite nicely. I have an X6800 desktop CPU. It is fun to OC but not really a daily driver for me. I have a C2Q machine running 7 I use instead for some of my retro gaming though I am about to replace it with a 3rd gen i5 running Windows 10. It will get an optical drive so I can play the few late '00s games I have on disc, such as Crysis. But it will mostly be running games via online services and those are ending support for Windows 7. Interesting mod. I would have to say that, when we got our first PC, I had no idea I'd still be gaming in my 40s.
Bought refurbished W410 & L420 for me & the wifey years ago. The L420 is currently running Ubuntu & the W410 became a dedicated machine for remote access to work (got W10 running on that one). Still love these machines & can't bring myself to get rid of them. They're bulletproof for crying out loud!!
I was recently gifted a T400. It's in bad cosmetical condition, but it works reliably. I'm mainly experimenting with FreeBSD at themoment, on a mechanical HDD btw (I didn't buy an SSD for it yet)
Can you do this using a T60 parts? would love to take on this project as it has everything retro that I can't find in any other older Thinkpads. Status indicator lights, IBM logo lid and palm rest, no webcam with ThinkLight and of course the old school keyboard!
Lenovo killed all the best Thinkpad stuff when it took over from IBM, namely the IPS screens, the 4:3 aspect ratio, and later, the most distinctive Thinkpad feature, the Ultranav keyboard. They stubbornly hanged on to crappy screens for years (presumably to save a couple dozen bucks on $1,000+ laptops), but eventually they had to bring IPS back. They also stubbornly hanged on to the 16:9 aspect ratio for over a decade. They bizarrely put a 16:9 screen on a nearly-two-grand retro, 25-year commemorative edition Thinkpad. Now they're using 16:10 on their latest-model laptops. What's next, 3:2, like some Chromebooks? Hopefully. I reckon eventually they'll be forced to bring back the superior Ultranav keyboards as well. If they don't, I have no intention of ever buying a laptop without an Ultranav keyboard., soI'll stick to Frankenpads.
I already knew HP was terrible, one of my friends said "Help, the laptop is broken" with 1 attachment, it was the hinge. I also had terrible experience with an ASUS, the HDD failed in the middle of something. I am thinking of buying a used thinkpad or a new one.
I'm a proud T400 owner myself. I don't know how many people owned it before I got it in 2020, but of course it still works. I still use it every day for net browsing. I think these old Thinkpads are the best examples for sustainability and longevity.
I have some old laptops, including a couple of Toshiba Pentium MMX machines and two Vaios - one with a Northwood 2.8 P4/Radeon 345M and the other is a 3rd gen i7 with a 7650M. They run XP and 7, respectively.
I swear, the moment I saw the rehabilitated thinkpad I audibly gasped. It looks SO GORGEOUS.
A before & after of the laptop could have been a nice touch
Frankenpads are the absolute best. I've got a dream about creating a Frankenpad with my spare P50, and the Frankenfifty will terrify laptop users for generations to come!
Banging Video. Thanks, im daily driving a Thinkpad T520, Thinkpad T430, Thinkpad X201 and Thinkpad T480, all running variations of Linux and yes i use all daily
T400 user here, not my first thinkpad, but I use it as a companion in my desk setup as a assistant machine ( i like my machine to focused on one particular task for each lol) for my x230 which was docked. my first thinkpad was x220 which i bought quite a while ago to tinker with linux (still fine and chugging along) I was really suprised at how still snappy these machines are despite the age at the time and become obsessed overtime and voila I snatched 7 more old used thinkpads along the way, because they were dirt cheap which was a godsend for a 3rd world broke collage student like me and looks like Iam not going to stop, never regret buying every one of them cuz they are useful for my needs and projects.
I have a similar story, back in 2014 I obtained a HP EliteBook 8440p with an i7 620m and Nvidia 3100m GPU, it was from a bank that was upgrading their laptops and they were just throwing these things away in mass. They offered to let me take a few and I ended up grabbing my laptop, after throwing in a hard drive, I started to use the laptop and play Minecraft on it, it was a pretty decent upgrade over my Core 2 Duo HP G60 I had at the time. And it's the laptop I learned Linux on and started programing on, a decade later and I still use it as my daily driver laptop, only with a few upgrades. The CPU was upgraded to an i7 740qm, and I gave it 8gb of ram and an SSD. She runs great and I will refuse to ever give her up.
T480 with T25 keyboard is the cleanest and best pleasure
Without a hacked firmware, which no-one has yet pulled off, the extra keys won't all work.
have a very similar story. started out with a crappy hp that self destructed within 2 years (hp released a broken bios & wanted 600€ for a new mainboard). now I own 4 thinkpads
I like this video is 3hr old (at time of comment)
But it looks like it came out of 2000
Nice stuff
Great video, although I was confused by the title: it says X61 (while in the video you talk about a T61).
Thanks for letting me know, I fixed it.
never had one of these laptops before nice
Thanks for sharing your story. The biggest hurdle in a journey is starting it, next is learning from it. As a thinkpad fan myself I also have my share of novice errors and disasters. A first experience in anything with no mistakes is improbable. I appreciate your candid openness about the highs and the lows. I like your introspection. Keep up the good work.
I have done over the years the same thing, changed os to Ubuntu, upgraded ram, changed battery etc. I now have at least ten macs of various flavors, and several upuntu and chromebook laptops. A leaning experience! Sorry, don't like stickers, used hot gun to remove!
Still have an old x200 I use as my 'bedroom laptop' running linux mint. Have also owned a bunch of other thinkpads and am thinking about getting myself a second hand carbon now that my Dell laptop (running pop os) is starting to get a little long in the tooth till I save up for a framework. Fully understand the thinkpad love, they aren't quite as great as they were before Lenovo bought them but they are still pretty good laptops. My first Thinkpad was a T60 with IPS screen, that thing changed how I thought about laptops as well.
To be honest this is a really well made video and i kinda like it. Keep up the good work man and best of luck for your future with thinkpads. :)
This is a beautiful story. Everyone should learn about computers like this. Thank you for sharing!
Once you buy your first thinkpad there's no coming back. My first daily thinkpad was t60 and when i got into college i needed something faster so I bought x250 on auction for 50$ and it turned out that beside x250 with the dock they sent me t400 with 9 cell battery and 1440x900 screen in mint condition. Absolutely no cracks or anything. I've been rocking both machines since.
I did a Windows 7 install this year, on an old AMD A series HP laptop for a friend. She just wants to use it to play old games, which it will do quite nicely. I have an X6800 desktop CPU. It is fun to OC but not really a daily driver for me. I have a C2Q machine running 7 I use instead for some of my retro gaming though I am about to replace it with a 3rd gen i5 running Windows 10. It will get an optical drive so I can play the few late '00s games I have on disc, such as Crysis. But it will mostly be running games via online services and those are ending support for Windows 7.
Interesting mod.
I would have to say that, when we got our first PC, I had no idea I'd still be gaming in my 40s.
That was a nice story. I enjoyed that. And that T61 looks fucking sweet, bro.
Bought refurbished W410 & L420 for me & the wifey years ago. The L420 is currently running Ubuntu & the W410 became a dedicated machine for remote access to work (got W10 running on that one). Still love these machines & can't bring myself to get rid of them. They're bulletproof for crying out loud!!
i love watching videos like this
I had a t400 once, sadly i sold it when i was strapped for cash
What an amazing story man ,i watched till the end❤❤❤❤
filling your first thinkpad with a sticker is the real canonical event
Very great video!!!
I was recently gifted a T400. It's in bad cosmetical condition, but it works reliably. I'm mainly experimenting with FreeBSD at themoment, on a mechanical HDD btw (I didn't buy an SSD for it yet)
Oh I wanted that kind of machine tho
such a great video dude
Can you do this using a T60 parts? would love to take on this project as it has everything retro that I can't find in any other older Thinkpads. Status indicator lights, IBM logo lid and palm rest, no webcam with ThinkLight and of course the old school keyboard!
I'm not sure, but if it did it would probably require some modifications.
The laptop that changed my life - ThinkPad L450
Lenovo killed all the best Thinkpad stuff when it took over from IBM, namely the IPS screens, the 4:3 aspect ratio, and later, the most distinctive Thinkpad feature, the Ultranav keyboard. They stubbornly hanged on to crappy screens for years (presumably to save a couple dozen bucks on $1,000+ laptops), but eventually they had to bring IPS back. They also stubbornly hanged on to the 16:9 aspect ratio for over a decade. They bizarrely put a 16:9 screen on a nearly-two-grand retro, 25-year commemorative edition Thinkpad. Now they're using 16:10 on their latest-model laptops. What's next, 3:2, like some Chromebooks? Hopefully. I reckon eventually they'll be forced to bring back the superior Ultranav keyboards as well. If they don't, I have no intention of ever buying a laptop without an Ultranav keyboard., soI'll stick to Frankenpads.
I already knew HP was terrible, one of my friends said "Help, the laptop is broken" with 1 attachment, it was the hinge. I also had terrible experience with an ASUS, the HDD failed in the middle of something. I am thinking of buying a used thinkpad or a new one.
nice video! personally, I could do without all the talking webcam parts, or at least less of them. good backstory though :)
I have T61 the battery working only problem l have hinges are Broken