eBay buy: T400s with 'seized fan' and possible supervisor password

[bob_brisket]

Hello Thinkpad forum!

I've been meaning to sign up for a while, being a collector and user of ThinkPads for several years so far. I've read the forums a lot, but never needed to post.

Anyway, I just purchased a T400s from eBay -- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/332193657234? ... EBIDX%3AIT

It seemed like a good deal. I just wanted to see if I'm right in my assumptions before we go further. The T400s doesn't seem very popular and I can't find much information.
In this case, it is missing the hard drive, which I believe is a 1.8" drive. One concern is this; does the ultrabay SATA drive caddy from a T500 work with this? I might be able to get around buying an expensive 1.8" drive if it does (and can be booted from in the ultrabay).

Second, is the seized fan; I may end up buying a new one and before that I'll almost certainly have a go at fixing it, checking whether it is properly connected and/or cleaned -- are there any other things which may cause stuck fan behavior and/or Fan Error with a T400s?

Thirdly, the supervisor password. I'm not sure which type as the listing isn't completely clear about it. Am I correct in saying that this series i.e. earlier, non-UEFI ThinkPads, can have their EEPROM corrupted/reset with regards to supervisor passwords? Can it be done on this model? I'm fairly sure it can but any other information would be great. I completely understand if this is a verboten topic, but I'd hazard that this isn't a stolen machine given the seller and age -- just one of many that was sold off in bulk by some business refreshing their lines I'd imagine.

So there we have it -- it should be here tomorrow and I'll report back with what happens.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the Forum.

Instead of 1.8" HDD, see this: viewtopic.php?p=793689#p793689
If the fan has seized, you'll need to replace it.
Download the T400s Manual from the HMM link above to read about passwords, page 39 onwards.
Also check in BIOS/Security/Password section if Passphrase is enabled.

[TonyJZX]

[link removed]
not sure if the above site is banned here (it is!)

I like my T400s, its the only one I've ever seen and the only one I've ever seen for sale. Good luck with spares, some arent easy to find.

The HDD situation is trival, the fan is bearable to replace, the password? Hmmm.

[bob_brisket]

Thanks for your input guys.

For now I've got Linux Mint installed on a silly setup -- a 16GB mini PCI SSD in a 2.5" caddy in the Ultrabay drive caddy. It works -- and it was free since I had it sitting around!

I fixed the fan by dismantling it, removing the fan spindle itself, and reseating it. It seemed to have been jammed up onto the pin that the fan spins on, and was feeling very resistant before this.

I fixed the supervisor password by, ahem, magic... -- much easier than I thought it would be. Worked first time!

http://i.imgur.com/QYdI4N9.jpg

Now my final issue is this -- occasionally I get lines on the screen which seem to occur when the screen is moved and can be banished by pressing on the bottom edge of the screen/bezel. It seems to have been a common issue. I can probably live with it, but I'm wondering if it's worth replacing the screen -- how would I know if the replacement had the same issue or not? Seems to have been a poorly documented issue, as most people seem to have had them replaced by Lenovo when the warranties were current.

Runs really fast though for a Core 2. Also, very cool -- doesn't go over 70 degrees celsius even when decoding 4k video. Idles around 40-45 degrees.

[Hans Gruber]

It looks like we got a young Ian Fleming here. Were you trained by Mr. Bond or Q himself?

[RealBlackStuff]

Sounds more like a loose, worn or broken LCD-cable to me.

[bob_brisket]

I think that seemed the obvious problem, but it seems that this issue was extremely common with the T400s and possibly the T410(s?) -- either way, I don't think it's a cable issue. The issue does appear when you flex the LCD, or move it. Oddly it seems to only happen after the computer has 'warmed up' more or less -- say 15 minutes.

I took the LCD out when the laptop was running to try to diagnose exactly what movements would cause the screen corruption and it was quite hard to pin it to anything in particular. Just the flex on this particular screen, coupled with the fact that the screen is clearly highly sensitive to any kind of warping or twisting.

In the end I put it back together and observed where the corruption kept happening -- for this laptop it always started more or less in the middle of the screen, or slightly to the left of that. I wedged a small piece of card behind the bezel at this point thinking maybe keeping some amount of pressure on that area at all times might work. Lo and behold, it seems to have done the trick. I haven't used the laptop that much, but I did use it long enough to observe that even past the point where the issue would normally happen, it seems to go on as normal. I even applied a fair amount of twist to the LCD several times to see if I could induce it and nothing appeared. May be a permanent fix -- I suppose if anyone stumbled on this thread in future; it can't hurt to try!