Thinking about getting a Thinkpad T400

[MikeCL]

I used to have a Thinkpad 760E loooong time ago I miss that rugged feeling which I never seen in any other laptop.. Anyways..

here is the deal, I was looking at a Asus X75A with a Intel Pentium B980 which I think is 2.4 Ghz

but then I was looking at the T400 yesterday and if I put in a CORE 2 DUO T9900 I would still be faster then the new laptop? I just need it for music work, the other laptop has only a single USB 3 port and only 3 ports total which is not a huge deal breaker.

Also for a laptop that is stuck on the Thinkpad boot screen is it almost always bent USB pins?

One thing I like is the T400 has an ultra bay so I don't need to run a external drive, I will do an SSD and a 750 GB 7200 drive.

[MikeCL]

The laptop supports up to 8GB of memory right?

[Cigarguy]

Yes 2x4 GB of DDR3 will work on a T400 which is good as DDR3 is significantly cheaper than DDR2.

[MikeCL]

Yes 2x4 GB of DDR3 will work on a T400 which is good as DDR3 is significantly cheaper than DDR2.

One more thing the T9900 cpu will work in here right?

[MikeCL]

I have some other questions Say the laptop does not power on and I have seen what most people here said to do and all but if pulling the CMOS battery and plugging it back in helps or the power button alone helps is the CMOS battery bad?

Also when sellers say no hard drive do they just mean no hard drive or no drive and no caddy? I would hate to buy extra stuff and then have nothing to put them in.

Given I would be using this laptop for music related stuff which requires USB if the ports are not messed up yet any type of things I can do to prevent it from happening to me? I'm very good with a soldering iron as I do electronic DIY on the side I just don't want to rush right in just yet.

Also the fingerprint scanner is it really useful? I've tried one before but not the swipe type but the press type and I ended up hating it because my fingers are too rough because of my job and it would change.. so long story short almost everyday I had to set it up again.

[MikeCL]

Well I'm a Thinkpad owner again so this stuff I will just have to find out on my own then. I ended up buying one stuck at the Thinkpad screen.. assuming it's the broken USB issue I will be changing out the USB port.

[MikeCL]

Aww man I don't know if the Thinkpad will be coming today or not.. with the post office you never know.. Says it's out for delivery but it's already after 5 PM and I got the Ultrabay in the mail

The good thing is I got the hard drive installed for the time being (250GB 5400) got it from ebay from ny-compu-tek seems pretty good, I'm not sure where people said they had movement with a drive in it but this is solid.

[emeraldgirl08]

I know that 'waiting for the mail feeling' all too well! Been through it many many times. Once my UPS package was delivered until after 7pm which surprised me!

Hope your T400 works out well for you

[MikeCL]

I know that 'waiting for the mail feeling' all too well! Been through it many many times. Once my UPS package was delivered until after 7pm which surprised me!

Hope your T400 works out well for you

I was hoping the seller was going to ship UPS because I work at UPS I could of just picked it up off the truck before they all left.

I hope all the issue is with the stuck Thinkpad screen is just bent USB pins.. seller finally told me he ran out of power adapters so I will have to order one this Friday and a 9 cell battery.



lol holy crap he just came to the door writing this post! Running to the door with socks on with a wood floor hah

[MikeCL]

Did I get a good deal? I got it for $125.98 the seller did not have a good shot of the USB port but I had to do a buy it now.. looks like my feelings were right broken USB port!

I just hope I have enough battery power to do a little testing.

[emeraldgirl08]

IIRC all you have to do is rebend the USB pin so it does not make contact with the chassis of the T400. Not 100% positive though.

Hope it is as simple as that for you.

The lid looks like it is in very good to excellent shape. If it came with a hard drive, DVD writer, 1400X900 screen, and a battery in the green zone then I would say you did quite well

[MikeCL]

IIRC all you have to do is rebend the USB pin so it does not make contact with the chassis of the T400. Not 100% positive though.

Hope it is as simple as that for you.

The lid looks like it is in very good to excellent shape. If it came with a hard drive, DVD writer, 1400X900 screen, and a battery in the green zone then I would say you did quite well

Well the battery is dead I guess he only had the charger on it long enough to just power it up..

Comes with the dvd rom drive, no hard drive no power adapter.

it's the 6474-DE4

I notice it has the sim card slot as well, I don't think this model came with bluetooth (not positive) but it does have the web cam.

I assume the bluetooth can still be added later on?

only a 1280x800 LCD

[emeraldgirl08]

You should be able to add BT later on. IIRC all you will need is a small BT module (look in the HMM for the correct part no. and/or FRU) and the led cover w/bluetooth symbol on it.

FWIW I installed a BT module in an R60 and it was very easy and straightforward. Nothing terribly complicated. Takes ~15-20 minutes tops- maybe less after your first disassembly. If you have not downloaded the Hardware Maintenance Manual for you T400 I suggest you go to 'Lenovo Support' and download it. It will be your reference for those times you become adventuresome and decide you need to access the innards for whatever reason. Sorry about the 1280X800. You can always upgrade that panel at some future point btw.

[MikeCL]

You should be able to add BT later on. IIRC all you will need is a small BT module (look in the HMM for the correct part no. and/or FRU) and the led cover w/bluetooth symbol on it.

FWIW I installed a BT module in an R60 and it was very easy and straightforward. Nothing terribly complicated. Takes ~15-20 minutes tops- maybe less after your first disassembly. If you have not downloaded the Hardware Maintenance Manual for you T400 I suggest you go to 'Lenovo Support' and download it. It will be your reference for those times you become adventuresome and decide you need to access the innards for whatever reason. Sorry about the 1280X800. You can always upgrade that panel at some future point btw.

At the Lenovo site it's showing me having bluetooth for my model, I have to ask something.. what's so bad about the 1280x800 display? From what I hear it's LED backlit while the higher res screen is CCFL? Besides the higher screen resolution what other stuff does the other screen offer?

I see I have 2GB of ram installed, can't be much to get the motherboard out to replace the USB ports.

[ajkula66]

I have to ask something.. what's so bad about the 1280x800 display? From what I hear it's LED backlit while the higher res screen is CCFL? Besides the higher screen resolution what other stuff does the other screen offer?

It's not LED. Not all of the WXGA panels on T400 were LED-lit, in fact the vast majority was CCFL. No bluetooth on it either:

ThinkPad T400 (6474-DE4)
P8600(2.4GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB 5400rpm HD, 14.1in 1280x800 LCD, Intel 4500MHD, DVD, Intel 802.11agn wireless, WWAN upgradeable, Modem, 1GB Ethernet, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, Camera, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

I see I have 2GB of ram installed, can't be much to get the motherboard out to replace the USB ports.

HMM is your friend:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product ... MIGR-72739

Very pretty machine IMO, regardless of low-end specs. Just fix it and use it, don't go crazy with upgrading it.

[MikeCL]

I downloaded the HMM 2 days ago and I was looking at some of the stuff but I was not totally 100% sure

As for the hardware specs, the support site had me a little confused because, at least where I was it had a link to click on more info or something of that nature, maybe it was a total list of all the options.

[ajkula66]

I downloaded the HMM 2 days ago and I was looking at some of the stuff but I was not totally 100% sure

As for the hardware specs, the support site had me a little confused because, at least where I was it had a link to click on more info or something of that nature, maybe it was a total list of all the options.

What options are you interested in?

BT will likely require a different LCD cable although I'm not 100% on that.

You have an empty WWAN slot if that's something you'd like to utilize.

Throw in 2GB more and a SSD and enjoy...

[MikeCL]

Yeah but a WWAN that's for internet cell service right? This one has the sim card thing installed behind the battery so maybe it's taken?

[ajkula66]

Well, that might just be a placeholder. Check and see, since the specs say "WWAN upgradeable"...

[MikeCL]

It looks just like this

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/IBM-SIM-Card-Slo ... !~~_35.JPG

Looking at stuff in the bios now, so the pin it was!

The hard drive caddy should be here tomorrow, this one did come with it but it's missing the rails and cover.

[MikeCL]

Got the windows 7 installed on the 60GB SSD, Now I need to do some updates I have to check on the bios update again but it's old I remember that.

[JohnD.]

Hi Mike,

What SSD do you have installed? I got a T400 yesterday and it needs some love, so I need some parts, but more on that later.

Thank you,
John

[MikeCL]

Hi Mike,

What SSD do you have installed? I got a T400 yesterday and it needs some love, so I need some parts, but more on that later.

Thank you,
John

Using a basic muskin chronos 60GB SSD as you can see in this picture it's pretty basic It feels slower then on my SATA III system I had it in before but it's still faster then a normal hard drive.. I will do some testing on it a little later to see how it is, I'm thinking about upgrading to the Samsung 120GB next, I have about 46GB free after installing Win 7 on it.

[MikeCL]

You should be able to add BT later on. IIRC all you will need is a small BT module (look in the HMM for the correct part no. and/or FRU) and the led cover w/bluetooth symbol on it.

FWIW I installed a BT module in an R60 and it was very easy and straightforward. Nothing terribly complicated. Takes ~15-20 minutes tops- maybe less after your first disassembly. If you have not downloaded the Hardware Maintenance Manual for you T400 I suggest you go to 'Lenovo Support' and download it. It will be your reference for those times you become adventuresome and decide you need to access the innards for whatever reason. Sorry about the 1280X800. You can always upgrade that panel at some future point btw.

So I was thinking.. I was looking on ebay and all and I saw the bluetooth module, so this requires changing out the whole screen? It's a little confusing on all the FRU's listed in the HMM, Now switching out the screen with bluetooth, say I wanted to use a Logitech bluetooth mouse wont I still need to use the usb dongle?


*edit

Took off the bezel and yep I do have the bluetooth spot and I see the LED for the blueooth (LED1) so all that I would need is the bluetooth card and a indicator strip?

[JohnD.]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the response. Which Samsung SSD were you thinking about using? I am new to using SSDs in general, so please forgive my ignorance. Thanks for the picture of the SSD and Ultrabay drive.

Thank you,
John

[MikeCL]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the response. Which Samsung SSD were you thinking about using? I am new to using SSDs in general, so please forgive my ignorance. Thanks for the picture of the SSD and Ultrabay drive.

Thank you,
John

This one right here

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-12 ... 4YBMFA3W7N

Samsung 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW

[MikeCL]

[MikeCL]

Mom saw my Thinkpad and now she wants one! she likes the feel of the keys, I might get her the X61 tablet.. I don't know I really feel she should just get a small tablet then a full laptop since I know her computer habits, it's really much of nothing, email, websites & facebook.

[emeraldgirl08]

Hi Mike. Yes you do have the connector for the BT module. They are ridiculously cheap on fleabay if you are looking. Make sure you get the LED plate that has the BT symbol on it as well

[MikeCL]

Hi Mike. Yes you do have the connector for the BT module. They are ridiculously cheap on fleabay if you are looking. Make sure you get the LED plate that has the BT symbol on it as well

yep got those two in the cart now, just killing time looking for some other stuff, any thoughts on a USB express card? I gather most are all pretty much the same?