Take a look at our
ThinkPads.com HOME PAGE
For those who might want to contribute to the blog, start here: Editors Alley Topic
Then contact Bill with a Private Message

A one-of-a-kind X240s, thanks to RealBlackStuff

X230-X280, X390 Series
Post Reply
Message
Author
Edward Mendelson
**SENIOR** Member
**SENIOR** Member
Posts: 892
Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 10:11 am

A one-of-a-kind X240s, thanks to RealBlackStuff

#1 Post by Edward Mendelson » Mon May 03, 2021 7:58 am

This is the story of a one-of-a-kind ThinkPad that – thanks to the expertise and ingenuity of our own RealBlackStuff – survived many small disasters and overcame many limitations to become a unique, and uniquely excellent, ThinkPad X240s – a better machine than the ones that Lenovo originally sold.

The X240s was never sold outside Asia. I got intrigued by it because I’m a longtime fan of the X2xx series, and the X240s had some special advantages: smooth surface, light weight, and general coolness. Here’s one description by a former owner:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comme ... rom_japan/

A Mysterious Prototype?

About two years ago I bought a slightly mysterious touchscreen-equipped X240s on eBay. It was in excellent condition, despite a dead battery, but its BIOS and label said its machine type number was 1234567. I knew that was impossible, and asked about it in the forum. RealBlackStuff (henceforth RBS) suggested that I had a prototype machine, and pointed me to this translation of a Japanese review with detailed machine numbers:

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... X240s.html

And from that, I was able to figure out that I had something like the touchscreen-equipped model 20AJ0025EN, except that mine had a hard disk instead of an SSD.

I installed a few upgrades on my own: I replaced the battery, replaced the hard disk with an SATA SSD, doubled the RAM from 4GB to 8GB, and replaced the original WWAN card with an M.2 SSD. I installed 64-bit Windows 10 on the SATA SSD and 32-bit Windows 10 (which I use to run some ancient DOS software) on the M.2.

But I was unhappy with the old-style touchpad (RBS calls it a clunkpad), and the touchscreen suffered from severe ghosting. I also wanted a backlit keyboard instead of the non-backlit one that came with the machine. So I sent it off to RBS for surgery.

Declunking the touchpad

RBS performed miracles on this one. First he replaced the keyboard with a backlit model (a tricky task on this model, unlike more recent ones). Then, with the help of a dremel and a lot ingenuity, he replaced the clunkpad with an X250 touchpad. This was a major operation, and you can see the details and some photos here:

https://imgur.com/a/sjRWf

One further complication was that the X240s has a different keyboard bezel from the X240, as shown here:

https://imgur.com/a/JXxTs

The next problem was convincing Windows 10 to work with the proper touchpad, and this wasn’t easy at all. RBS first devised a method that used the Group Policy Editor to prevent Windows from updating the Synaptic driver to a newer version that wouldn’t work because the X240 series never came with this specific touchpad model. But then RBS came up with this much more elegant solution (using model numbers for the X240 instead of the T440 as in this post):

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=126967

One continuing frustration is that when Windows 10 updates itself twice a year, it doesn't obey the Group Policy that is supposed to prevent reinstallation of the clunkpad driver, so, every six months, I have to plug in a USB mouse and perform this procedure again. It's a minor annoyance.

Unghosting the touchscreen

It should have been easy to replace the ghosting touchscreen in this machine, but it ended up being a major military operation. Online vendors tend to treat different FRU numbers as equivalent when they aren’t. Lenovo’s first version of the touchscreen (the version in my machine) was known for its severe ghosting. The second version fixed the problem, but it turned out to be impossible to get exactly the right model that combined the right frame with the right touchsceen.

RBS solved this one by figuring out that it was possible to find the bezel for the X240s touchscreen on eBay and then attach that to a standard touchscreen screen. This turned out to be another major surgical operation. It wasn’t enough to attach the bezel. A metal strip had to be transferred from the original screen, as shown in the pictures here:

https://imgur.com/a/GFl2M

Upgrading the motherboard

RBS got more and more fascinated with this machine (he eventually bought another prototype for himself) and suggested a further improvement. Lenovo made motherboards for the X240 that were faster than the original one in my X240s. The X240 motherboard fits perfectly into the X240s – except that the X240 motherboards have a dock connector which isn’t on the X240s boards, and which won’t fit into the X240s case. So RBS proposed taking an X240 motherboard with an i7-4600u CPU and removing the dock connector so that it would fit inside the X240s case. He did the work – again using skills far beyond anything I could manage – and the result was an X240s better than anything Lenovo ever made.

Lower case variations

RBS didn’t stop there. Unlike the non-“s” models, the X240s (like the X230s) doesn’t have a snap-out/snap-in battery. To replace the second battery, you have to remove the bottom case, carefully move some wires, and then install a replacement. This is inconvenient when traveling, and it’s getting to be impossible, because replacement second-batteries for the X230s/X240s aren’t available any longer except (I think) from some shady outfits that I wouldn’t trust.

RBS came up with two solutions, and created two replacement lower cases for the X240s. One was a lower case from a standard X240, with the dock connector opening filled in with plastic. This basically converts the X240s into an X240, complete with an easily-replaceable battery. The downsides were slightly more weight and thickness, a rough-surfaced base instead of the “s”-series smooth base, and – the most serious problem – the fit wasn’t entirely right.

https://imgur.com/a/bScVj

RBS’s second solution used a smooth-surfaced X240s lower case, but with a battery opening cut out of it so that it can use standard X-series batteries. The battery is held in place with two metal clips. The advantage is that I can use one of the standard Lenovo external batteries that are still easily available; the disadvantage is that I still have to remove the lower case to change the battery, because the X240s base doesn’t have the thumb-release clips that you use to snap out a battery on the standard X240 series.

https://imgur.com/a/QSpmF

I’ve grown attached to this machine, not only because it’s one of a kind, but because, thanks to RBS, it works as well as it does.

Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “ThinkPad X230-X280 / X390 Series”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 101 guests