[T440] Nice machine, nicer after upgrades

[WarMachine]

Hello everyone,

New machine in my collection, my friend gave it to me 2 weeks ago. And you have guessed what it is. Yes! A T440.

Not a machine I was looking for, because of the clunkpad, because of the keyboard, because of the way it is assembled, because of the only RAM slot, because of the soldered CPU, because... A lot of things it seems! But we don't look a gift horse in the mouth, do we? And it's a Thinkpad after all !

So, I was somewhat excited to put my hands on it. It's a 20B7S11001, with an i5-4300U, 4 GB of RAM, an horrible TN HD panel, a card reader, a 500 GB HDD and a non-backlit keyboard.
My friend gave it to me with an SSD (a 60 GB Samsung 830) and 8 GB of RAM. The machine is like new, litterally!

First thing first, get rid of the clunkpad : I bought a T450 Synaptics touchpad and did the driver installation described in the topic on this page. The laptop is already a lot nicer! But... But I broke the trackpoint connector on the motherboard (under the keyboard). The First time I break something on a Thinkpad. Needless to say I was absolutely p**ed off!

I told my friend and he said he was going to buy me another motherboard (yes, I have the nicest friend of all!).

I wanted to do the Full HD mod so, I bought a new display. It was hard to find someone who sells exactly what he advertises : often, it's said it's possible to receive a slightly different model. I wanted a cheap Full HD IPS mate screen. And I found one, one of the cheapest available, an AUO B140HAN02.4. The adhesive bezel is a pain in the a** to take off but otherwise, it's plug n'play.

A veeeeeeeery nice upgrade too.

Yesterday, I received the motherboard! I was a little anxious to change it, even if I've done that for 25 years, because of what happened before with the trackpoint connector. But I didn't have the choice : it must be done.
After a good night, I woke up very early this morning (4 A.M.) and I sat down at the table to install the new motherboard.

And, very nice surprise : it went very well, very easy. I took my time, it was a 30 mn job. It could have been quicker if it was not slower, really. The hardest thing to do was to apply the paste, well, the paste, not really paste as it's some ThermalGrizzly Conductonaut. Nice product, but difficult to apply. But everything went fine (not my first time with it).

Now, I type this message on the laptop, I move my cursor with the trackpoint (I've been an absolute fan of this system for 20 years, it's very hard for me to use the trackpad, except with the Macbooks).

I've bought an internal battery (a new and original one, it should be here next monday), it will be nice, with the two 6-cells batteries I already have (one almost new, the other with 40 % wear).
I must also buy a backlit keyboard, but it will be later.

All in all, a nice experience (I hope not to break another thing, I was really stressed with that!).

Have a good day !

W.