Tangent: My Laptop

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My laptop is a ThinkPad x201. The x201 is a compact 12" laptop released by Lenovo in 2010. It runs a highly customized install of Linux in order to keep up with modern programs, which it does fine. I think the x201 is the perfect balance of older features and design cues and hardware capable of running modern software. It has a beautiful rugged look, with all the ports you could want, a keyboard which will put ANY modern laptop keyboard to shame, blinking indicator lights on both sides of the lid, a physical radio (wifi/bluetooth) on/off switch, and a latching lid. I bought it from ebay for about $60 including taxes and shipping (nowadays it's difficult to get a good condition specimen for under $100 before taxes or shipping), and it is in incredibly good condition. It definitely had signs of a long life and lots of use, but whoever owned it before me took really good care of it. It was all going very good, until one day in the middle of class the screen's backlight suddenly went out.

This was very inconvenient, as the LCD panel is basically useless without the backlight. My confidence was high, though, as ThinkPads are notoriously repairable. In fact, Lenovo still provides a great service manual which very concisely details exactly how to take the entire thing apart on their website. I did some research, and discovered that the backlight fuse on the motherboard burning out is a relatively common problem. I found the part number and ordered some replacements. Now that I think about it, I don't even know if I tested the old fuse with a multimeter before I decided to replace it. I must have, right? It doesn't matter anyways. I got the fuses, and used my (at the time) very poor soldering skills to replace it. And it did the trick.

For a couple of days, and then the backlight went out again! To this day I don't know why replacing the fuse worked while it did, because it wasn't the fuse at all. The LCD panel was simply broken. I looked into getting a replacement panel, but for whatever reason it was cheaper to get an full working x201 than to get a replacement LCD. So that's exactly what I did. I picked out another x201 which was in significantly worse cosmetic condition, but still worked and had a working LCD. This one also cost just about $60 including taxes and shipping. When it arrived, I tore it apart (figuratively) to get to the LCD panel, and installed it in my original laptop. And it did the trick.

There was only one minor problem, that being that the ThinkLight didn't work. If you don't already know, the ThinkLight was Lenovo's solution to keyboard visibility in low light before we had backlit keyboards. It is a little LED at the top of the screen that shines down onto the keyboard, which can be toggled on and off with a keybind. It is not only useful, but a really cool and fun relic of the past. The x201 was one of the last generations of ThinkPads to have it, and I wanted mine to work. The light is on the display ribbon cable, so I decided to order a replacement. When I got it, I disassembled the entire screen assembly just to realize that I ordered the wrong one. So I had to order another one. Both of these cables had to be shipped from China, so the wait time was a little rediculous. But when I finally got it, it worked. I have my beloved ThinkLight.

The donor ThinkPad didn't go to waste, though; it now runs headless as the very server you are reading this off of =)

Now that I'm thinking about it, at some point I also took the motherboard out in order to replace the thermal pad with a new one.