What are the ultimate upgrades for the X200? [2022]

[wviana]

Inspired by this Reddit post, I would like to know, what are current specs I can get to my machine. This post has a reply that got me into some questions.
There they say:

Install Libreboot. This is basically the reason the X200 is so popular.

How is the most recent way to flash Libreboot into X200? Still this libreboot guide?
Would I be able to flash with this esp01 adapter instead of a Raspberry PI? What about a Arduino?

Replace the 2.5 inch hard drive with aSamsung 850 Pro SSD for maximum speed.

Is there a best storage access speed I could get? Is there something special about this Samsung one? Would it perform better than myOCZ-VECTOR150?

The laptop takes DDR3 1066MHz RAM (PC3-8500). Technically 4GB modules of DDR3 at any speed works (inb4 DDR3-2133MHz), as long as they are 2Rx8 layout.

What are theseinb4 DDR3-2133MHz? Would it work? If so, would it work at 1066MHz instead of max frequency? What is2Rx8 layout.

Upgrade the wifi card ... it works with Libreboot.

What wifi card could I use without flashingLibreboot? WithLibreboot would it support more devices or less? What aboutCoreboot? Isn't it same as Libreboot without removing blobs, does it means more device support?

Also found a youtube video showing it running with an eGPU, would be possible to do it using [this adapter][6] with ExpressCard? Would Linux recent kernel support it?

Recently learn about USB-PD, would this "cable" work? What about one of these adapters? Would be any advantage of modern USB-PD bricks over original one? Something like clearer DC current, causing less damage in battery or hardware?

ExpressCard USB 3.0?

PS: Sorry for using this markdown like format. Will came back and edit it to use forum native formating after work.
Update: Fix formating.

[RealBlackStuff]

Go to our 51nb Subforum and read all about X210 and X2100, which are modernized X200/X201.

[axur-delmeria]

Dunno about Libreboot. The more I read about it, the more headaches I get. Do note that after flashing Libreboot, you'll be stuck with Linux until you flash back the original BIOS. I'm a Linux guy myself, but I prefer flexibility over ideology, in case Windows really needs to be installed.

Samsung SSDs are generally at the forefront, touting the best sustained read/write speeds and overall performance. The 850 is many years old, and has been succeeded by the 860 and 870.

Ignore the DDR4-2133 BS. The X200 only supports DDR3 up to 1066MHz, 4GB per slot. It can be quite picky with RAM sticks, from what I've heard, DDR3L generally doesn't work.

With the stock BIOS, the best card you'll get is the Intel 5300 (WiFi N). There's probably a whitelist-free X200 BIOS floating over the Internet somewhere, or hopefully one of the forum members has a local copy.

eGPU over Expresscard is doable, but IMO pointless because of the limited bandwith of PCIe v1.1 which is 250 megabytes/sec (theoretical maximum) per lane; in contrast, 1 lane of PCIe 3.0 is 985 megabytes/sec. Don't bother except for educational or non-gaming purposes.

USB-PD offers no advantage except charger commonality with other USB-C devices. Personally I don't like it because you'll be stuck with the laptop being fooled into thinking there's a 65w charger installed, even if your USB-PD charger supports 90w.

Expresscard USB 3.0 will work, though you'll be stuck with the bandwidth limitation of PCIe 1.1, which is still a lot better than USB 2.0.
The usual caveats of Expresscard USB 3.0:

• the card can get pulled out when removing devices/cables (blame Expresscard for not having a lock)
• limited amps on the USB port--2.5" external HDDs generally don't work unless you get a powered USB 3.0 port
• card can misbehave or act weird sometimes, driver issues, etc.

[wviana]

@axur-delmeria

Dunno about Libreboot. The more I read about it, the more[*] headaches I get. Do note that after flashing Libreboot, you'll be stuck with Linux until you flash back the original BIOS. I'm a Linux guy myself, but I prefer flexibility over ideology, in case Windows really needs to be installed.

Didn't know it. But I don't matter not being able to install windows on it.

With the stock BIOS, the best card you'll get is the Intel 5300 (WiFi N). There's probably a whitelist-free X200 BIOS floating over the Internet somewhere, or hopefully one of the forum members has a local copy.

Would Libreboot open it to more options? Maybe an WIFI AC one?

eGPU over Expresscard is doable, but IMO pointless because of the limited bandwith of PCIe v1.1 which is 250 megabytes/sec (theoretical maximum) per lane; in contrast, 1 lane of PCIe 3.0 is 985 megabytes/sec. Don't bother except for educational or non-gaming purposes.

I have a old HD 4890 available. I think just having an dedicated GPU would improve overall performance as it would free CPU from display tasks. Also would be able to use DVI to HDMI cable. Using VGA port currently.

[axur-delmeria]

Didn't know it. But I don't matter not being able to install windows on it.

That's completely fine. It's your choice, and your machine. Still, there is one part of the flashing process that stands out as problematic (at least for me):

[*]The part where you use the external flashing device to read the BIOS chip 3 times, bitwise-compare them to each other, then if they all match, it means that the original BIOS has been successfully been read, and keep the image files as backup (in case you need to flash it back).

The danger here is the assumption that 3 consistent, identical flash chip reads = correct and valid BIOS image has been created.

That is not true, as there has been a case one user did this, kept the BIOS backup image, flashed libreboot, used it for a while, then realized it wasn't as good as others hyped it to be, tried to revert to the original BIOS by flashing the backup image, but it didn't boot afterwards. He realized, to his horror, that his BIOS backup image was corrupt-- the data had been incorrectly read from the flash chip, but in a consistent manner that it passed the "3 identical reads" check, but resulted in a bad BIOS image anyway. That's unacceptable for me.

1. Unless there's a programmatic or independent way of verifying the validity of the BIOS image you read from the flash chip, I won't even dare flash Coreboot/Libreboot.

2. People who hype up Coreboot/Libreboot as a miracle cure that will free users from the WiFi whitelist tend to omit the parts where it falls short, namely the missing platform support (thermal control related), incomplete ACPI implementation, losing the ability to upgrade the embedded controller firmware, etc.

So think long and hard before subjecting your Thinkpad to a procedure that has a non-trivial chance of bricking it.

Would Libreboot open it to more options?

Yes. Libreboot doesn't have a WiFi whitelist like the stock BIOS-- in other words, you'll be free to install whatever fits. WiFi AC has been added to older Thinkpads (T61 and X61).

Also would be able to use DVI to HDMI cable. Using VGA port currently.

You don't even need eGPU to do that. Get the X200 Ultrabase: it has a full-size Displayport, which supports HDMI output (up to 1920x1200@60Hz) via a passive Displayport to HDMI dongle.

[RealBlackStuff]

X200 and X200s use the same BIOS.
If you flash the BIOS, don't forget that there are TWO versions, depending on your BIOS-ID starting with either 6Dxxx or 7Xxxx.

[gru3wtser]

Hi, i wanted to post this in reddit, but it blocks my vpn ip address so i’ll post it here.

I managed to overclock my x200, installed libreboot + openBSD, upgraded my ram to 4gb, went from HDD to SSD and swapped the proprietary charger port to USB-C (so I can charge my x200 with a USB-C 21v charger). Missing upgrades are the screen, the wifi card and the 8gb of ram instead of 4, but that’s just a matter of buying the hardware.

Bellow I'll share how i overclocked the x200. As far as i know there are no English tutorials on how to do so. I based my findings on Chinese forums and translation. Read everything before even starting to unscrew your laptop. BACK UP YOUR DATA

What you need:
• a 10k resistor
• some wire (copper usually)
• steady hands
• a soldering iron or soldering pliers (the latter are more precise)
• light and a magnifying glass ‘cause those components are tiny (optional)

Useful links (specially if you can speak Mandarin):
• https://www.bilibili.com/video/av36194702/ - video of someone doing the overclocking procedure (in Mandarin i think).
• http://www.360doc.com/content/19/0306/2 ... 7418.shtml a tutorial for x200 and x200s – this link is actually a scraper from the forum where the tutorial was originally posted (also in Mandarin).
• https://archive.espec.ws/files/Lenovo_ ... a842757918 - Lenovo’s x200 schematics - page 15 is the important one for us.
• https://forum.51nb.com/thread-1516974-1-1.html the original forum thread which explained how to do it. Let me save you some time, forum is dead and thread wasn’t saved in the internet archive. This is where the pictures originally came from.
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -on-linux check your CPU cores speed

How to do it (text translated with google translate):



Basically:
1. remove resistor r626,
2. solder a wire on the white dot,
3. solder a 10k resistor to the end of the wire,
4. solder the 10k resistor to another white dot.

End result should look like this:



Here is how you do it:

On page 15 of the schematics you can see BSEL2 (up left, CPU_BSEL2) and the resistor R626:



So the first step is to remove that resistor, but where is it located on your board?



Here (the right one).

There are two ways to de-solder it, either with soldering pliers, they allow you to pinch out the resistor:



or with a common soldering iron, by melting a lot of tin on the tip of the iron, applying it on the resistor until it’s completely covered, and then pulling the resistor. This is “riskier” as you might pull other things (like the resistor on it’s left), but I did it and it worked.

Technically you can use that same removed resistor for later, but mine wasn't in a good shape so I used a new one.

Next you solder your wire to this white dot here, right above the removed resistor:



then solder the 10k resistor to the other end of your wire.

And finally solder the resistor to the top of this resistor here (it is situated a few centimeters to the right):



“schematics” are like this, you can use a voltmeter to double-check where is the positive pole of your resistor:



so you are connecting your 10k resistor to the positive pole of this other resistor.

Proof that it worked (on x200, CPU is supposed to be limited to 2260MHz, here it’s almost 3k):



To check the CPUs core speed run on linux: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -on-linux

Conclusions:
i wished i could upload the pictures here without having to use a third party hoster
spend more time reading the "doc" over and over rather than soldering (for the best)
battery is fine, still last about 3 hours, have been using it for the last 6months


Happy soldering.

[BillMorrow]

i can't host large pix without going commercial, i.e. charging for membership on this forum..
if you want to pay a fee then fine, i'll rent may many TB of storage space and make $$ rather than leave it free..
OH!, what is your location town..? in france or israel..?

[gru3wtser]

indeed if you need to go commercial i understand why pics can't be stored.
ip location changes everyday based on my vpn, my location is in israel.

[kfzhu1229]

One year old post I know. But I did also use info from those Chinese threads and I got it working (though a much messier job than what I usually craft)
This is on my ThinkPad X200 Tablet (which is almost identical to an X200s, with an SL9400 and the same schematics)
[800 x 4xx pics in this post]
I lifted the keyboard and palmrest plate, and located the clock generator by the left speaker:

Then I tried to remove R396 with a temporary soldering iron, but ended up removing R680 as well and losing both resistors...
Fortunately the schematics says exactly what those resistors were, I had to rip resistors off a dead SSD, and end up replacing R680's 22Ohm resistor with a 10Ohm one and then the R396's 2KOhm stuff with a 4.7KOhm one soldered directly to the AMT 1.05V capacitor's side, and this janky looking jumper wire since the resistors are bigger than the originals.

The system turns on fine with a 2.33Ghz clock detected in BIOS

The problem now however, is that while i got two 4GB DDR3L sticks it would work with individually after this overclock, they would not work fully stably together! Nor would any of my RAM config work with both slots populated!
In fact, one of the slots would also always give a 1-3-3-1 beep if populated alone after this overclock!
I am inclined to go to the unfortunate conclusion that the GS45 chipset on my X200T board is NOT running dual channel memory stable with this overclock, rather than the RAM sticks themselves not running stably!
The problem now is, what should I use for SPD modding DDR3? SPD modding on the X200/s/t is an absolute no go (SPD info does not even show up on CPU-Z or hwinfo64), and I can't get SPDTool to like smbus on my Arrandale and Sandy Bridge Acer and HP's

[TPFanatic]

Rather than bother with RAM, I would consider populating the two extra MPCIE slots (originally intended for WWAN and Turbomemory) with NVME SSDs. I in fact did this same thing on my X200 Tablet when I owned one. You can then designate them as SWAP space which Windows would treat as RAM anyway, I don't know how Linux ticks.

NVME in MPCIE is a little faster than SATA1, probably slower than SATA2 which is what X200's main bay uses anyway.

I recall I actually put a half-height WLAN card in the Turbomem slot, so I had the pair of full-height MPCIE slots (originally intended for WWAN and WLAN) to put a pair of NVME SSDs in. I told Windows to mirror them and attempted to use them for NAS.

This still leaves the Expresscard open for expanding with USB 3.0 or anything else.

sidenote, i noticed X200 Tablet has very loud audio. it is not the speakers themselves as the speakers behave the same plugged into X200 Tablet or X230 (i tried swapping them), must be the Conexant in the X200 is intentionally amped.

[kfzhu1229]

Rather than bother with RAM, I would consider populating the two extra MPCIE slots (originally intended for WWAN and Turbomemory) with NVME SSDs. I in fact did this same thing on my X200 Tablet when I owned one. You can then designate them as SWAP space which Windows would treat as RAM anyway, I don't know how Linux ticks.

NVME in MPCIE is a little faster than SATA1, probably slower than SATA2 which is what X200's main bay uses anyway.

I recall I actually put a half-height WLAN card in the Turbomem slot, so I had the pair of full-height MPCIE slots (originally intended for WWAN and WLAN) to put a pair of NVME SSDs in. I told Windows to mirror them and attempted to use them for NAS.

I ended up ordering an exact same Hynix DDR3L stick as the stick that worked fine alone, see if I can get dual channel working with two identical sticks that each should work fine alone. If not, honestly since I'm in China still I can just swap this mobo/heatsink out with a X201t mobo if I'm not mistaken.
I ended up keeping the original Intel 5300 AGN Wifi, since its 802.11n 5Ghz speed is plenty for me, and the original bluetooth module works perfectly fine. But since there is so much dead space between the palmrest and the wifi card, I ended up slapping in a chipset aluminium heatsink just to make extra sure that card does not overheat

sidenote, i noticed X200 Tablet has very loud audio. it is not the speakers themselves as the speakers behave the same plugged into X200 Tablet or X230 (i tried swapping them), must be the Conexant in the X200 is intentionally amped.

I noticed that too when I was trying a battery drain test (before I did the overclocking) next to my Elitebook 2760p with both looping two movies on VLC player. The X200t output is a lot louder than the 2760p, but also it lacked significant amount of bass compared to the 2760p

Also, I did end up figuring out the software to get SPD to mod DDR3, it's RW everything. Turns out SPDTool was simply not even designed with DDR3 in mind, because the SPD dump for DDR3 is very significantly different than that for DDR2. Annoyingly, there is no header that specify exactly what speeds are available for use, it's analysed directly through the JEDEC table on the BIOS itself, making SPD mods much more difficult that honestly I might just give up on that.

[kfzhu1229]

Well fast forward a few days, I ended up fitting a X201t mobo onto my X200t after getting fed up with the L9400's performance. And I also additionally got a dead X200 with a dead mobo (with P8400) with dead integrated graphics/northbridge (1 long 2 short) that seems to have a layer of poor quality thermal paste laid on top of the original rubber thermal pad.
I ended up swapping both the X200t and X200 with X201t and X201 mobos. To be surprise, I got a X201t mobo with an i5-560M despite seller advertising it with i5-520UM; and the X201 mobo has i5-540M.
To facilitate the replacement, both got their respective heatsink replacements that shipped with their respective mobos and both got Centrino 6300 Wifi cards. That's all that's needed to swap X201/s/t mobos into X200/s/t machines.

Turns out, it is actually technically possible to fit a X200T mobo into an X200. Most holes and cutouts align, the LCD cable actually works fine too after removing the metal bracket - except that it's missing the left hand side USB port and the heatsink is further towards the centre on the X200T and I was able to get the X200t mobo to sit on an X200 after cutting out some magnesium pieces interfering with the X200T's heatsink. BUT it will be very unpretty, with a misaligned heatsink and a missing USB port, and in addition I'd still be stuck with a slowly clocked L9400, and an X200 mobo with P8400 is too cheap to justify this frankenstein.

With an X201t mobo, speed is definitely not an issue anymore, the i5-560M is probably still faster than the L9400 with one core disabled.
Heat however, is a whole new frontier... This chassis is designed for LV CPU's and so is the heatsink, the heatsink that came with this mobo (60Y5452) simply could not cope with the i5-560M even with turbo boost disabled - Cinebench R23 gets it up to 85C at 2.66Ghz base speed before BIOS triggers thermal throttling down to 1.2Ghz and 75C before resuming again.
I don't think there's any other heatsink that could significantly change these dreaded thermals is there?
I'm guessing Lenovo slapped i5-560M versions onto X201T in the last minute in order to compete with the Elitebook 2740p, which has standard voltage CPU's across the board (but only 1.8" HDDs)!

[axur-delmeria]

i5-560M in a Tablet chassis!? If you're running Windows, you'll be forced to reduce the Max Processor State to 80% or maybe even lower.

Put PTM7950 instead of thermal paste.

[kfzhu1229]

i5-560M in a Tablet chassis!? If you're running Windows, you'll be forced to reduce the Max Processor State to 80% or maybe even lower.

Put PTM7950 instead of thermal paste.

Right now I'm running 99% max processor state (i.e. disabling turbo boost), basically knocking it down to an i5-520M with turbo boost active.
I suppose there is more than enough room to knock the performance down further, since the i5-560M is THAT much faster than the poor L9400 it replaced anyway
And also battery discharge figures are insane too. Under idle it's not so bad with 10W or below discharge rate. BUT, once the load picks up (with turbo boost disabled), it could suddenly see as much as about 35W of discharge rate or 2.58A measured on this ThinkPad 12++ battery.
This screenshot I posted on 51nb shows the discharge stressing solely my 103450 cells under a Cinebench R23 run: https://www.ibmnb.com/data/attachment/f ... pm4azx.png
Even though the ThinkPad 12++ battery is 8 cell, it does not behave like an 8 cell - NO cells are connected in parallel! Instead, the 4 18650 cells and the 4 103450 cells behave like combining a main 4 cell battery and an Ultrabay battery - discharge one first then the other!

Hence, at some point, all cells will each individually sustain 2.58A of current by itself - but the Sanyo UF103450P that were originally there is only rated for 1C=1.88A!
In fact, it also slightly exceeds the 1C=2.35A rating for my replacement Panasonic NCA103450, which are the newest state of the art 103450 prismatic cells! It's a miracle the BMS doesn't just shut the machine down for overcurrent protection!

[axur-delmeria]

Notebookcheck.net's CPU comparison can give an idea how fast the i5-560M is compared to the L9400: https://www.notebookcheck.net/SL9400-vs ... 596.0.html

Single-threaded performance is around 50% higher, multi-threaded performance is almost double. You'd need a Core 2 Quad Q9100 to beat it.

That kind of power consumption would probably shorten the life of those batteries.

[kfzhu1229]

Notebookcheck.net's CPU comparison can give an idea how fast the i5-560M is compared to the L9400: https://www.notebookcheck.net/SL9400-vs ... 596.0.html

Single-threaded performance is around 50% higher, multi-threaded performance is almost double. You'd need a Core 2 Quad Q9100 to beat it.

That kind of power consumption would probably shorten the life of those batteries.

Well I imagine usually these two are not pinned against each other in comparison, but well in this case of X200t to X201t motherboard upgrade, it really is that difference, since not like a T9600 or even P8800 version of X200t motherboard exists anyway
Even the most usual tasks like opening the web browser or opening a website, it feels much more like my Elitebook 2760p's i5-2520M after this upgrade whereas before it felt like a T7500 equipped T61 for example.
Though, now with Arrandale, the Sandy bridge CPU's pull so much more ahead in battery power conservation that this X201t with the rebuilt 12++ 66Wh battery doesn't last much longer than that HP with a 6 cell 44Wh 103450 battery anymore, whereas before I could actually get 40% longer runtime on the ThinkPad with L9400...
Nonetheless this X201t is now much more joyous to use, since mine is also in such good condition that the lid doesnt even have a scratch on it and the rubberised coating feels like the day it came out of the factory!
So, TLDR is, X201 motherboards are indeed so much faster than X200 motherboards, especially so in the case of X201t vs X200t if you don't mind the heat. So with me buying the motherboards directly in China, it was a well worth upgrade!

[TPFanatic]

i was very fond of X201 when i had them. they were snappy, the LED screens were pleasant, i enjoyed its compact format better than in X220/X230. lid latch was very welcome, miss that on X230.

[kfzhu1229]

i was very fond of X201 when i had them. they were snappy, the LED screens were pleasant, i enjoyed its compact format better than in X220/X230. lid latch was very welcome, miss that on X230.

Funny thing, as a result of changing my plain X200 with its dead P8400 based mobo into an X201, the X201 has the i5-540M living with otherwise very base specs, i.e. the 1280x800 panel turned out to be a CCFL one, and it has NO webcam, I didn't even notice a CCFL option existed until I popped the LCD bezel open to pop in a spare bluetooth module! Thankfully it works perfectly fine.
That CCFL screen is pretty uninspiring looking, but far from terrible. Definitely not anywhere near the IPS quality of my X200T/X201T though.
I'd say the X200/X201 bezel design looked like a waste of space to me compared to the X61, where the 4:3 screen on the X61 is fitted under exactly the same height as the X200/X201 chassis. But the X200/X201 does feature a much more full size keyboard and 6 cell battery as opposed to the 4 cell stuff. The X61 keyboard's shift and enter keys are pretty annoying to use whenever it's not fitted with an US keyboard.
The LCD bezels on the X201T can be forgiven for all the electronics that has to go inside, but at the same time annoyingly my non-glass but multitouch screen is pretty significantly off centre just like a T400 screen

[TPFanatic]

with x200/x201 they were compromised by

I. TV screens;
II. laptops getting thinner, so structural rigidity was enforced by spreading out X-Y rather than Z;
III. cramming in broadband antennas, because for some reason Lenovo wanted those in everything by 2010.

I actually think there's merits to the thick bezels, I think they help isolate the LCD screen from the background, helps lock-in. I like my P71 with its big bezels, and my classics with their 3-dimensional overhang. I have a modified bezel-less "X330" with practically no bezels and there's just something unpleasant about using it, and I have the same issue with X61. Whereas X200/201 never did that to me, nor my Yoga 260, bless its memory.

I remember at its conception, ThinkPad is a Designer's Product, a work of art where form follows function.

See: https://www.artworkabode.com/blog/the-a ... to-frames/

The ThinkPad has lost the way.

[kfzhu1229]

with x200/x201 they were compromised by

I. TV screens;
II. laptops getting thinner, so structural rigidity was enforced by spreading out X-Y rather than Z;
III. cramming in broadband antennas, because for some reason Lenovo wanted those in everything by 2010.

I actually think there's merits to the thick bezels, I think they help isolate the LCD screen from the background, helps lock-in. I like my P71 with its big bezels, and my classics with their 3-dimensional overhang. I have a modified bezel-less "X330" with practically no bezels and there's just something unpleasant about using it, and I have the same issue with X61. Whereas X200/201 never did that to me, nor my Yoga 260, bless its memory.

I remember at its conception, ThinkPad is a Designer's Product, a work of art where form follows function.

See: https://www.artworkabode.com/blog/the-a ... to-frames/

The ThinkPad has lost the way.

Well, to be fair, the X200/X201 and X220/X230 lid are probably indeed stronger than the lids on X6x, where despite the magnesium construction, X6x lids just seems to do pretty poorly when it comes to torque/twist, and the LCD that go inside more frequently develop vertical lines, and two of my X6x lids have developed hairlines at the antenna spots.
And yes, the inclusion of broadband antennae and also the webcam in fact enlargens the bezel on the top and bottom, as seen on the widescreen HP Compaqs/Elitebooks too.
That said, I really do still admire the sheer amount of engineering that went into the X6x lid designs (though an utter pain to service). And I still can't help but think why the X200/X201 bezels are still bigger than the tablet screens on the HP Elitebook 2740p/2760p, for the same size and same resolution, despite the HP tablets having more electronics.
One other thing I feel like is that the T/X 4x/6x lid designs feel more like pizza boxes with protrusion on 3 sides pressing directly on the edges of the palmrest, while the T/X xx0 series lids are shaped like a bow that transfers the stress explicitly to the front edge of the laptop, excluding tablet convertibles obviously.

[TPFanatic]

Not until my p71 with a soft edge around the entire lid have i seen a ThinkPad effective at keeping dust out of the closed lid. T42 and T60 are good. T61 onward including my T500 are almost as good. From T510 onward lenovo gave up.

[kfzhu1229]

Not until my p71 with a soft edge around the entire lid have i seen a ThinkPad effective at keeping dust out of the closed lid. T42 and T60 are good. T61 onward including my T500 are almost as good. From T510 onward lenovo gave up.

I'd say it was still a pretty interesting way to keep the lid closed shut without relying on rubber bumpers that can either go missing or disintegrate, at the cost of making the lid look thicker than it actually was
It was still possible however for the trackpoint to imprint on your laptop screen permanently when the lid is subjected to immense pressure. HP's way of dealing with that (and still is today) is putting those rectangular thick rubber bumpers right in front of the keyboard bed so those bumpers press into the screen rather than anything that can scratch/damage the LCD.
Dell and HP also tried the rubber seal around the entire LCD to keep the dust out of the closed lid. It was effective indeed - but those rubber are infamous for disintegrating and turn into a sticky mess.
Also I found it funny how the X2xx Tablets do not have ThinkLight, but the Elitebook tablets do and do the job pretty well